SMT V: Vengeance [CoV] - Shakan Battles (Low Level, No Fusion/Demon Modification, Hard)

Current abscess completion: 17/18

Rules:
1. Hard difficulty, New Game
2. No fusion or using essences to alter the skillsets of demons
3. The Nahobino may only acquire skills from Proto-fiend essences, and essences used for his resistances may only be Proto-fiend essences, purchasable from the Cadaver's Hollow, or be from recruitable demons at or below the Nahobino's level
4. EXP gain is limited to forced battles, Main Quest completion, and abscesses, minimized when possible, and abscess completion will be delayed as long as possible
5. No Balms, Incenses, Sutras, Gospels, Grimoires, use of petrified demon statues, Omagatoki: Luck, or stat-boosting Miracles
6. The Demon Haunt may not be used for stat boosts or items
7. No use of the Skill Manifestation miracle
8. Guest party members or demons may not be used when their level exceeds that of the Nahobino
9. No Dampeners, Block skills, Tetrakarn, Makarakarn, Attack Mirrors, Magic Mirrors, or Luminescent Mirage
10. No Taunt/Fierce Roar
11. No Knowledge of Tools

Although it won’t be quite as apparent for a bit, the post-Qadištu half of Vengeance in this playthrough is quite different from before. Tao and Yoko leave the party for good as human guest characters and leave the Nahobino as the sole item user, while he takes on a new form with Tsukuyomi, which provides access to new skills from three Tsukuyomi essences that are unavailable in the Creation route and a new Magatsuhi skill. As of now, the first of those essences isn’t too helpful, but the Magatsuhi skill, Omnipotent Succession, is extremely valuable in many battles, especially with the lack of availability of other Magatsuhi skills in this playthrough. Omnipotent Succession will see a great amount of use between now and the end of the game, but isn't required yet.

These two battles both take place in Shakan and aren’t difficult, but provide enough EXP to be notable.

0:00 Powers and Dominions

Despite being encountered about 15 levels later, the two Powers here have the same stats and skills as the ones encountered in the first part of Shinjuku, so this battle isn’t much to worry about. The Dominions use Dark Block nearly every turn and may also attack with Shockbound, but both the Powers and Dominions are also weak to Force, so Dark Block doesn’t actually help them out that much. The Nahobino’s party only needs to survive a few turns to wipe out the enemies with Force attacks.


3:38 Cherubim

Unlike the angels faced earlier, the two Cherubim are actually quite powerful, but are easily defeated due to their uninspired attack pattern. When both are present, they follow a three-turn cycle with both using Concentrate on turn 1 (or a basic attack if Concentrate is already in effect), then one using Matarukaja and the second gathering Magatsuhi on turn 2, then both using Wind Breath on turn 3. After one has been defeated, then the other will simply use Judgement Light every turn. Judgement Light is significantly stronger and also pierces, so the easiest way to approach this battle is to defeat both Cherubim at the same time, so they never get a chance to use it. I allowed one to survive for an extra turn just to show how strong Judgement Light can be, but I had to defeat the Cherub on the left first. If the one on the right is defeated first, then the one on the left would still have Concentrate in effect since it wouldn’t have had a chance to use Wind Breath if the other had been nulled. This grants Judgement Light ridiculous power, enough to one-shot just about anything even with buffs and debuffs, but it’s very simple to avoid that. While the Cherubim have a sizable amount of HP, it shouldn’t take long to defeat them with the Nahobino and a few other Dark attackers.

At the end of this battle, I had intended to swap out my Force-immune demons so other demons could take the full EXP, only for Muu Shuwuu and Kumbhanda to both activate the counters from their innate skills. I hadn’t been thinking of Vinyl Bomb or Honey Trap at all, so I was incredibly amused when they both activated and finished off the second Cherub. Undoubtedly, this was one of the funniest ends to a battle that I’ve ever experienced.