The Shin Megami Tensei II Experience

[@MarshSMT]

Shin Megami Tensei II is an incredible game that feels like it has unlimited depth. I got really into this one, as you can probably tell by the length. Before making this video, SMT II was the mainline game I knew the least about, so in a sense, this was my personal sendoff for mainline - anything untouched lies in the future. Check out the description for credits and timestamps, and use this video how you see fit. Hopefully the three hour runtime doesn't come off as pretentious or anything - I decided to explore plot events and alignment choices in much further depth this time. Thanks for watching this, and be sure to check out the game yourself if you haven't yet.

[@cbergeron4137]

Thank you mushman, though I am not gonna watch the video entirely as I wish to play SMT 2 and currently on SMT. Your SMT 1 video inspired me to play the more classic megaten games and I use it when I am stuck in SMT 1. Thanks!!!

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

No worries man, your style explores the full game in a specific way, nothing pretentious about it; the longer it is, the more game has to offer, secrets, alt routes and what have you, it's the nature of the beast when games get more complex and have actual branching paths.

[@theshellderinslowbrostail5422]

Thanks for your work Documenting the least known games.

[@bake-io1cf]

knew you were gonna deliver. Was looking forward to SMT II finally getting covered in your channel

[@lilliput_steps]

hell YES. I’m unsurprised you enjoyed delving into this entry so deeply considering you already appreciated the mysterious semi-cyberpunk atmosphere of SMT1. SMT2 takes that to a whole new level and it’s joy to even just think about.

[@EdwardoFE]

The concept of someone being named Zayin but everyone deciding that Rupert is a sensible nickname for him is really amusing to me.

[@eat00002]

Zayin? that reminds me, I should google some words, thanks m8

[@shaggyrogers8869]

@@eat00002 LOBOTOMY CORPORATION?!

[@noloxjexting8266]

@@shaggyrogers8869 I'll never see these words the same ever again.

[@Marlyjade]

Zayin means weapon too. I find it very funny that the "weapon" means rupert

[@j.2512]

Japanese speakers be like "Rupert-o very mysterious western name, very cool probable means something deep"

[@UltimateTrainer]

Guy who only ever read Dune: This is giving me major Dune vibes...

[@onetruesavior69]

Both are anti-religious, so yeah.

[@thomasnguyen5037]

Unexpected Setsu!

[@stonecold-i7c]

Anti-religious is an absurd reduction​@@onetruesavior69

[@Toeknee994L]

Holy shit. The SMT II Marsh video. This is a monumental shift in time.

[@HylianSevenDota]

I just finished watching, fantastic video. I played SMTII for the first time last year, and I agree, it's definitely pretty high up there. I think some things put it probably A or high B tier for me, such as the bugs, balance, annoying dungeons (the slip n slide bullshit ones come to mind), and big backtracking quests (pillars and Masakado pieces). I have always wondered if the PlayStation version addresses the bugs at all. I'd love to play it if it ever gets a translation patch some day. I'll also have to give that video of the visions from the GBA version a watch, that sounds really interesting. This is a small criticism, I wish they had something like the overworld map in Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei I that shows how all the dungeons are connected to each other, but for Tokyo Millennium. The shots you see of it in the title loop, artwork from the manual, and some other points are cool, but it does get hard to feel a sense of place here sometimes. The Center is obviously the enclosed pyramid, with the big tower in the middle going up to the tip of the pyramid that blasts off and becomes Eden, but the other ones I've always wondered about. The opening makes it look like the four districts are just clustered around the Center below it a bit, but then there's this art from the manual that suggests they're kind of close together in front of the Center: static.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/2/2b/Smt2tokyomillenniummanual.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20130527034550 Then that makes me ask other questions like "Does Arcadia have it's entire own dome?" When you get to the "real" part of it after you deal with Gimmel, it seems kind of small. I guess based on the picture from the manual, you could assume the tiniest dome there is Arcadia. You can kind of infer based on which exit you take from the Center, which direction each district is relative to the Center, but then that instruction manual art is still inconsistent with that. The explanation for that could be that the art in the manual was just drawn earlier in development or something. I know this rant was about some dumb small detail, but it would have been cool to see. After my playthrough, I felt it was weird that two districts had the names "Arcadia" and "Valhalla", both being pretty obvious why they had those names, while the other two had generic boring-sounding names of "Factory" and "Holytown". Holytown especially I had looked up and saw that there's a town in Scotland named Holytown. The real life Holytown has zero parallels with SMTII's Holytown though. I asked some friends about it and there was an interview somewhere that supposedly stated that the Scottish town and SMTII district names were a coincidence, but the SMTII district was given that name because it was supposed to be boring and this was the district made just so people could go to church. Factory I think was justified with that name, but I also found it weird when it was really 50% factory and 50% farm at the end of the day. I personally ended up consulting a guide on some of the things like the pillars or dungeons with the slip n slide bullshit. I actually did enjoy the one-way wall gimmick though, I kind of wish we would see that in the franchise again some day. I also used save states pretty liberally, not necessarily to "save scum", but really just in case I got cursed by a bug somewhere. I had the issue with my stats going too high and being reduced to nothing on Satan happen (I went Chaos) and it was just a bullshit technicality it felt bad to lose on, so I reloaded a save state. I had made a save state shortly before encountering Alice. I summoned some demons and then her sprite was Naragiri when I got out of that menu. It always said "Alice did x" the entire fight, but then after I beat her it said "Naragiri lost", so I loaded up the save state and did it with no demons summoned so everything would be normal. Like I mentioned in my other comment, I'd really love to see a picture of that paper insert warning of bugs in the game. I have always heard about that thing but never seen it. A lot of the previous champions in the museum before the colosseum actually had some cute reference in their name. For instance Thomas Tank was a reference to Thomas the Tank Engine. Yes, they actually put a reference to Thomas the Tank Engine in a MegaTen game of all things. To me, the Hiroko reveal just came as an absolute shock. By the time that hit, I had forgotten about the baby Hiroko was originally looking for and didn't think anything of that. Even back when she said that she was looking for that baby, I assumed she was just doing so for someone else. You see this game discussed some in MegaTen circles, and usually you see the most common things as far as spoilers go: big yellow boi is the final boss, you go to the Expanse (or Abyss as they called it in this patch), etc. But I NEVER saw Hiroko being Aleph's surrogate mother discussed and it hit me that much harder as a result. I had not really read up or watched on what the Law or Neutral endings were in this game, as my playthrough was Chaos. I had assumed Law would be kind of shitty and just staying on Eden rather than heading back to Earth, but I was wrong about that. I sort of ended up Chaos by accident, as I thought I had to accept Lucifer's mission and did, but I didn't really regret it. I liked the Chaos ending in this game. To finish out this George R.R. Martin book (except actually published) of a comment, I just wanted to say I really appreciate you doing these videos. Whether it's a game I have played before or one I have no interest in playing (Majin Tensei), it's always interesting to see your videos about them, as much as you have to suffer games like Majin Tensei.

[@MarshSMT]

I appreciate it! This was a great comment to read through. Can't believe I didn't make the Thomas the Tank Engine connection, he's pretty big in Japan for some reason too. A funny story about the PSX release that I regrettably forgot to include is that it was actually very buggy on release. They printed an updated version, so technically there are two releases. I would think most people would be emulating it if they play today, and from what I've seen at least, the fixed version is more prevalent online

[@HylianSevenDota]

@@MarshSMT wild that they actually released the game riddled with bugs AGAIN on PSX. Now it makes me wonder about the GBA version.

[@Donnerjack2001]

WHOA that's a load of content! Great stuff. As someone who only has dabbed in Persona games starting with 4, i find every "old" SMT review on this channel extremely interesting. It would be amazing to see you get thu everything over time

[@Uselesssecondvowel]

This is legit my most anticipated movie in a while, thank you for your hard work, Marsh

[@KirbyIsCute]

1:51:31 The scene that says the MC dances furiously across the dance floor during the dance contest just made me think, "He's a maniac, a maniac on the floor! And dances like he's never done before!"

[@SamTheFoolishMan]

(Sorry for the long comment) Absolutely love the chaos ending of the game- Although I didn’t know about the translation for it, kinda a shame. Louis Cyphre is my fav megaten character, the writers just really nailed it. It’s so fucking interesting that Abyss residents aren’t like just demons- even the demons have shops and live in communities which give a lot of humanity to their lives in the Abyss- but like real people(?) mixed in it makes Lucifer’s job as their ruler significantly more than just “ruling over demons to oppose God’s rule” like in something like the SMTIV universe and more a ruler of lost people banished to the underworld and demons that need an amount of protections (organizing currency which demons seem to use because they ask for it and the shops use it) and **some hard not survival of the fittest rules** because of some bad apples (like Lucifer’s rules against Crowley are directly against a “no control” philosophy) Having Lucifer’s chaos *not* be “letting demons rule wild” but help real Abyss residents, demons, and Mutants exist well puts a lot of weight on his actions and has a subtlety that is just completely gone from future versions of Lucifer that are either way too “hands off” (strange journey) or just an evil guy (SMTIV).

[@Scout-Fanfiction]

Great video! I got really invested into the story during the video too :). There were some cool, unexpected callbacks in the game, definitely helped it to feel connected overall.

[@Slenderquil]

I really do love the mental image of shooting a car and putting it to sleep. Rpgs are magical.

[@MaxwellTornado]

50:00 Monasteries make a shitton of alcohol, but they don't usually drink it, it's just for revenue, and to actually be doing something productive with their hands. Having a bar is odd.

[@NecromancyForKids]

They made wine for sacrament

[@MaxwellTornado]

@@NecromancyForKids They also made unholy amounts of beer.

[@elyanatsu4524]

Love the series. Another banger of a video. Thanks a lot.

[@vtmarik]

1:04:05 "Chris, can I introduce you to my friend Mad Taxi from Fourside?"

[@Ryan91487]

1:40:23 Can't be a SMT game without Rag.

[@thesaltyscrooge633]

Marsh you lovable bastard I really wanted this to come out but not before I beat the game

[@berserkerf0x574]

This Game was nuts. I remember having sex with a zombie girl , and letting an Arcangel díe , try to talk to another with a Dead one in My party , just to my party show the Dead body of the Arcangel. After that, I had no choice but to Leave it... Dead on the floor. Also , I kinda cheated using the Casino and getting good weapons , almost not using any demons through the Game. It was a good run.

[@andrewbaltes]

So good that I think I'll watch it a second time.

[@jonnyleonard6448]

Our boy cooked and cooked and finally delivered on this most glorious of days!

[@kingedgelord4726]

Fun fact, In smt 4 apocalypse there's a dlc where you fight alongside the protagonists from the first four smt games, the first protagonist is only called the hero and has a physical moveset including a move called light speed slash where it creates a weakness in reference to when he has the spell that helped him escape the nuke casted on him making him faster than light for a brief second, Aleph only has gun skills and his gun has a skill that allows him to create a new weakness, Demi fiend has a mixed set with no magic, except for magma axis which is a physical skill, and all his terrifying moves from his appearance in DDS, and Flynn has a mostly magic set since he was the first mainline smt protagonist where magic was not only good but usable. Their move sets are based on what was broken/meta in their game but also serve as references for their own games.

[@MarshSMT]

I never thought about Aleph's gun skills in 4A that's really funny. They knew it was busted

[@kichiroumitsurugi4363]

In IVA, Gaea Rage is a magic move, as is Freikugel.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 I would bet it still runs off Demi's Strength stat because all physical skills in 4/4A only cost MP, not HP. Or at least melee skills, Gun uses Dex.

[@kichiroumitsurugi4363]

@@UltimaKeyMaster Demi-Fiend's magic stat is also higher than his Strength btw. Gaea Rage was also not St-based in IV

[@erikvaldes4293]

Cant wait to play that, shit sounds sick

[@whoarethepatriots307]

Another interesting point about Satan, iirc in the Japanese script when Zayin is frozen in stone he explains that he saw a vision or revelation from an even higher power than God or YHVH, that YHVH itself has also corrupted the very essence of what its supposed to be or something, implying that YHVH has been abandoned by what we can now assume was the Greater Will for what he's done, so not only was Satan's judgement on YHVH premeditated, it was an order from even farther on high than YHVH. Also, I believe the implication of Aleph being made and then having a soul being given by God is that you, the player, are also an instrument of the Greater Will, or perhaps implying that you the player are seeing the game from the perspective a God would. Idk, there's a lot of ways to read into things, especially with this translation being kinda biased and the original game being so high-concept in religious themes

[@Adoochi]

Basically, yeah. He comes to the realization that the God that the Messians worship isn't actually YHVH but instead The Great Will. And The Great Will is *everything*, and everything is The Great Will. YHVH is just a "face" of The Great Will, and isn't the one true God he arrogantly claims to be.

[@j.2512]

basic gnosticism.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

What an animal, dropping this BEHEMOTH of a video the moment Summer Games Fest ended for the day.

[@feren9984]

Not like theres much going on that anyway 😂😂😂

[@FanAuthor1]

This is the true Summer Game Fest experience. Love this game.

[@theshellderinslowbrostail5422]

The real and more entertaining Summer Fest

[@zanychelly]

Destroyed the entire “festival” 😂

[@sebastianbarrios7288]

There was a huge whiplash for me when this guy who was supposed to be THE rival, whose first act was to murder who was essentially the protagonist's wife, almost immediatly turns into Team Rocket type of villain, currently appearing and becoming more pathetic and then comedic with each appareance. My blood was supposed to boil at the mention of his name! Not awkwardly look at him as his stumbles to an exit going "ill get you next time, you hear?!" after yet another defeat and then all tension just dissapears forever when he reacts to Hiroko in love with him as a child scared that a girl might give him cooties. What a weird loser who somehow almost killed us that one time.

[@MarshSMT]

I like to imagine him as extremely unlucky, like we never really got to see him at full strength. If only the sap incident never happened

[@BlackfangDragon]

It honestly says how tragic his existence is. Groomed for this sole purpose of believing he was meant to save everyone from a false messiah by puppet masters who raised him wrong on purpose.

[@doublezeta2025]

I loved that he was bumbling comic relief.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

He didn't even kill her on purpose. The man was born to be a failure, and he succeeded beyond with flying colors

[@Colddirector]

I feel like the devs originally had big plans for Daleth, but either the plot changed or they didnt like how his arc was turning out so they did this to get rid of him.

[@birdofterror6628]

Ever since Hinokagetsuchi died in that tragic car accident the very fabric of the universe went off the rails.

[@LJCG777]

2:47:20

[@birdofterror6628]

@@LJCG777 Lmao exactly

[@welvinnerr9435]

Certified Chiaotsu moment

[@stickinittotheman1]

Truly a powerful event 🤘

[@MysteryEzekude]

Holy shit. Hi-no-Kagutsuchi suffered permadeath via Kamikaze? =(

[@osirisblade8145]

Now that I’m back from the video, I can confidently say this is one of the best you’ve ever produced. Even ignoring the fact that this behemoth is 3 hours long, you went into such great detail on the meaning of the routes and messages of the game. Like that section with the SMT1 hero’s tears for example. And that elevator joke payed off exactly how I hoped it would lmao Amazing video Marsh, and good work holy shit. I cannot imagine how many hours you sank into this

[@MarshSMT]

appreciate it - glad you liked the elevator bit, I really wanted to drag that part out and show how long it was

[@smtmonke]

SMT II truly understands the manly desire to have a tradwife with an M16 who will shoot anything that dares to even think of hurting you.

[@nathan7031]

And said wife also happens to be your surrogate mother

[@cyberninjazero5659]

​@@nathan7031We are all Char now

[@Colddirector]

bro that’s your mom 💀

[@Neroevelocity]

@@nathan7031 I think he's referring to Beth.

[@kloa4219]

​@@Colddirectorit's Beth

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

"You want to talk about an Artificial Dream In Arcadia." ....................................... *THAT FUCKING TITLE IS ONE BIG SMT 2 REFERENCE???*

[@jouheikisaragi6075]

I mean, IIRC, you go to Kether Palace in Mystic Square.

[@jariu9612]

The whole game is "I REALLY LIKE SMT I AND II AND Y'ALL GOTTA GET IN THIS" on top of the Touhou (which is amusingly appropriate) for absolute purified fan game essence.

[@jouheikisaragi6075]

@@jariu9612 and tbh, classic Megaten is verh Sumicore anyway

[@jariu9612]

@@jouheikisaragi6075 It really just works, it got even funnier with the latest CoLA.

[@gabrielkaddis2851]

It even foreshadows the ending of that game, if you think about it: People stuck in an addictive dream world, slowly withering away...

[@IzanagiFaust]

Aleph is like the Rock Lee of the mainline messiahs in this game, no magic all hands, and bro's got the best fit of them all to match just how great he is.

[@KaitoThwBruiser]

Agreed, Hijiri in 3 is one of Aleph's reincarnations and no one can change my mind

[@abeeocta2599]

he need magic for his crazy dance moves

[@franciscocataldo9238]

@@abeeocta2599 in my head, the magic stat in aleph is just his shoes burning

[@tomo8940]

SMT II the only game that mom-zones you at the very end of the game.

[@Isuream6331]

The neutral route dialogue makes me concerned that someone might pull the “surrogate means they technically aren’t related” card

[@CarlosMW]

OH BOY SMT II BROS, WE WON

[@mohamedhamsterdan9330]

WE DID YEAAAAAAAH

[@johhnywtf5827]

Un saludo desde el grupo Shin Megami Tensei Latinoamérica

[@j.2512]

don't call this a comeback!

[@jko8888]

🤟

[@gen1exe]

@@j.2512 Marsh has been here for years.

[@KujouCh]

Clearly Zayin was so caught off guard by catching belphegor on the jon that he was defeated in that moment and definitely didn't want to admit to the MC that he got beat by a demon busy taking a shit.

[@scottrauch1261]

Sane people: who wants a 3 hour smtII video? Me: OH BOY! A 3 hour smtII video from Marsh!

[@TevorTheThird]

Sanity is overrated.

[@erikvaldes4293]

Nah bro, the insane people actually PLAY these games, Marsh videos are just how sane people get the story without going crazy in the dungeons

[@decoysheep4148]

We're here waiting on the 16 hour set 3 vid.

[@ProfessionalNamielleLewder69]

Marsh is built different.

[@MissusAnon]

@@erikvaldes4293 Touche, I did in fact play 'SMT If...' after he posted his video on it... bro he was not kidding about wandering around for several full moon cycles to progress the game 💀 But actually it's more fucky than that, I didn't know you have to interact with the NPCs after each full cycle and I ended up having to do this about three times as long because I couldn't figure out what the problem was. I should have just stopped playing the game and I didn't LOL

[@Doneycats]

Watching Frankie actually survive any attack after any later point makes me smile. Even if the video cuts and there’s a mysterious empty slot…

[@Mr_SU]

So fun fact about 1:18:38- Jailbreak Nadja is not required for this section of the game, I never found her, fought Janus (who I had a really tough time with) and brought Hiroko to her senses by forcing her out of her cell and dragging her out.

[@valletas]

I wondered why people kept making art of aleph and nadja only to realize that i entirely skipped that portion of the game

[@Old_Harry7]

Okamoto, Hawks/Aleph's, trainer and gladiator patron, is actually an Akita no Joe (Rocky Joe in the west) reference being basically a 1:1 rendition of the same homonymous character present in the manga/anime: a black bald man wearing an eye patch. The same Easter egg involving Okamoto's character was also present in Pokemon's early builds but was later removed in the final release. As always Marsh spectacular job on this one, you are a precious gem for the Megaten community.

[@Vanity0666]

I figured Okamoto was meant to be a reference to Taro Okamoto

[@ianleather5699]

It's funny because I recognized Joe's mentor through Megalobox and definitely thought Okamoto resembled Joe's mentor

[@yokoelfvganime8112]

Ashita no Joe references are a rabbit hole you enter and never leave. I was waching Digimon these days and there was an Ashita no Joe reference on it (it was a dream scene with a guy with eyepatch managing a boxer rendered on old anime style)

[@chibify5861]

Gotta appreciate the game throwing the stomach dungeon and Daedalus tower at you right at the end, just when you think you’re safe. Marsh really can’t escape.

[@MysteryEzekude]

Such is the life of Marsh Mello, slayer of Minotaurs and arch-nemesis of Rag.

[@koharuyuuki3162]

Zayin is probably the most badass being in the entire Megami Tensei franchise. He could bully Akemi Nakajima and Akemi Nakajima would say sorry to him.

[@MarshSMT]

absolutely agree

[@appelofdoom8211]

If him and the last bible protagonist teamed up they could probably bully the great will without any resistance

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

@@MarshSMT but the real question is who wins, Zayin or Akira Miyamoto? I mean two half demon badasses who end up partially ruling over a giant tower/monolith, and both can kick major demon Janus, so who would win

[@valletas]

Honestly despite going for chaos or neutral in all games i played i found zayin to be my favorite aligment rep in the entire franchise Also the law ending in smt 2 is probably my favorite ending after neutral in smt 4 Well its kinda unfair since this game doesnt really have chaos or neutral representatives but i honestly kinda wished more smt games did that because they built zayin so freaking well

[@fafaaf61]

As someone who finished SMT 2 last Christmas, my biggest complaint was weirdly: the magnetite. It felt like I was always short on the stuff and that I could never keep my demons around. I eventually found a workaround: there was this place in the Factory that tended to spawn Bodyocians (I think it was called?) which drop a truly absurd amount of magnetite and is accessible extremely early in the game. That said, even after discovering this exploit, the fact that I lose magnetite so quick meant that sometimes I would just have to drop everything and go to the factory to get magnetite which could take a while with bad RNG. What's bizarre is that I basically never had this problem with SMT 1 probably because I could negotiate for Magnetite in that game and the encounter rate was so high.

[@newironside]

You would think a game called Last Christmas would be more generous

[@StrangeDew]

This killed me

[@howdoilogin]

Fun fact, you can get to the Yesod bar through the portal you opened with the statues and Lucifer will tell you he's impressed but you effectively used a backdoor and he wants you to enter the Abyss with your own power. Which is weird, there's no real difference between four statues and a circle on the wall vs. six pillars and a gigantic hexagram.

[@The_Second]

Marsh is back with a 3 hour classic and I love it. Thanks again for the vod.

[@hindelsoft4650]

Some fun extra context about the names: Zayin's name is interesting and humorous for several reasons. The interesting part is that he is the 7th letter even though all other characters are named sequentially from the 1st to 4th letter. The reason behind this is that saying god's name is a sin in Judaism, and the 5th and 6th letters are slipped for being a part of it (5th being H, 6th being V). The funny part is that Zayin is both a letter and the word for d*ck. Considering Satan, I can't help but think this was somewhat intentional.

[@chibify5861]

Gotta love Rupert, he’s really undervalued. Gotta love the weirdness of Marsh constantly having to mention that Zayin is also Rupert to avoid the video seeming really weird where it mentions his name.

[@Vmac1394]

It threw me off doubly since if you say his name out loud it sounds like it should be spelled "Zion."

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

@@Vmac1394it’s not Ziyan like he pronounced it either tho, it’s ZAY-in lmao

[@demetrius1126]

I am 100% sure Marsh dropped this high quality feature length video for me specifically.

[@MarshSMT]

i did

[@afterglow6245]

he did lets goo

[@fernandodamas8533]

The bit about Aleph's name is a plot point in Strange Journey too. With Mem Aleph being the head honcho of the Schwarzwelt.

[@The_Ragman]

3 hours? Well, it's not like I intended to work the rest of this shift anyway. Leggo

[@smtmonke]

Jokes on you, I just finished the whole first hour while working

[@KaitoThwBruiser]

I think I'm gonna skip movie night today, lol

[@rubemevangelista3868]

​@@smtmonkeme too, just did it today

[@X_Blake]

What a series. Michael Jackson cameo. Hiriuko being ur mom. An for the first and still latest time. The law side is based. So based that Satan judges his master for going WAY too far and have a furious dance against him like no other (and I'm not talking about actually dancin.) Well done Marsh for covering this. Very much worth the wait.

[@MysteryEzekude]

Mr. Thriller being covered in this walkthrough feels like a punch in the gut for those who loved his namesake and his timeless music. =‘(

[@valletas]

If you want to actually furiously dance against god i recommend doing the chaos route in devil survivor while investing into magic

[@k9_hyp4h45]

I audibly gasped at this notif

[@honestjoe9417]

Saaaaame

[@909crime]

same !! omg

[@KaitoThwBruiser]

Same here

[@vodkaffee4856]

That's the mark of a true nerd 🤓

[@jko8888]

Same! This game stayed with me all these years.

[@KaitoThwBruiser]

As a wise knuclehead once said "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS" Great video Marsh, I really hope this game gets remade someday because it's one of the most unique direct sequels to a game I've ever played.

[@NeoKad99]

1:25:52 I love Zain for this scene alone too! One of the rare examples of a scenario like this playing out is in Trails to Azure, where the game's major antagonist (I will not mention them for spoiler reasons) naturally starts explaining tjeir plan and reasining for all the questionable deeds they did. But after that, once Lloyd (the main protagonist of the game) explains his point of view and details his argument as to why they shouldn't go through with their plan, the antagonist... agrees and gives up, letting Lloyd go without a fight! It's really cool1 But it shows just how cool Shin Megami Tensei II was for doing a similar scenario more than a decade earlier

[@No_Bark]

The quote: "Head to you I give. Thank you" is officially goated

[@MarioTGP]

marsh appearing out of nowhere and dropping a 3 hour video is in fact, a marsh moment

[@charbomber110]

1:13:55 I'm sorry but all I could imagine with this scene was when the Statue of Liberty cries in every single one of those satirical political comics made by that guy at The Onion.

[@MysteryEzekude]

To be fair, tear-stained statues are often a recurring aesthetic.

[@rxincandy_V]

something absolutely genius about frankenstein's monster randomly showing up: in the original book it starts with a group of sailors finding frankenstein in like antartica talking about being chased by his monster and taking it there to push it away from civilisation and the rest of the book is his retelling of the story to said sailors. his monster showing up in a frozen over city is actually a really smart callback

[@RunescapeRunescape-l3x]

Betelgeuse in the game is the version of Beetlejuice at the end who presents himself as a snake like creature. They have the same face and body.

[@yujiandou4658]

“That’s a huge Janus” Marsh 2024

[@lukesoup27]

I played SMT2 in anticipation of this video, since I discovered this channel through the video on SMT1, and wanted to play this game without relying on this. And I'm really glad I did. I went through every route, got the Hinokagutsuchi (which you can get regardless of alignment, but it's kinda hell) and was thrilled and shocked by every crazy plot twist. My jaw dropped at multiple moments. And despite having such a valuable experience by myself, I still learned a lot from this video, with quite a few things I didn't know or consider. Amazing work as usual!

[@wanolox9975]

Same here, I played SMT 2 to prepare for the video, but only played the Neutral route and at midgame the buff dmg bug kinda killed the mood. The story is amazing however.

[@doublezeta2025]

The fact this has never officially been released in English is a tragedy. Such a good game with amazing atmosphere. My route ended up as Chaos and fighting alongside Lucifer was awesome.

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

Ok, let's get this thing on the road, this is a blind spot beyond like half the story. So let's go. It's very fascinating to see how the old team chose to approach the gameplay and the mechanics of the game, now wonder it took them so long between SMT2 and 3 afterwards; SMT2 seems and feels like the apex of everything that Atlus had learned up to that point, mechanics-wise, with all the returning mechanics receiving major updates and some new ones being things the enemy could do but not the player, like "human"-demon fusion, opening up the doors for many possibilities. And as a weird coincidence, Breath of Fire 2 seems to have used a similar system with the Shaman Fusion, both SMT2 and BoF2 coming out barely months apart. I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom at the time did see that and hastily threw the Shaman system at the last minute together however but I doubt it due to how well implemented it was, still, a fun coincidence. And then you got the guns, a staple of imbalance in early SMTs and the source of many old memes. Nice. The story and narrative seem to be on maximum turbo output this time, as if this is the proper first game that "broke away" from classic MT completely and found its own identity in the mainline, a rebelious expression by the old Atlus studio. And it only leas to more interesting avenues of storytelling and worldbuilding. Almost to a proto immersive sim kind of way, more similar to the Wizardry games did it, which is pretty huge for a SNES game from Japan. The story's pretty well told as well, really good stuff. I certainly didn't see some of the twists that happened, even if I vaguely knew some stuff, like Aleph's vague origins. For GU-L to be inspired by SMT2, that must have been quite something. As for the entire Law route, it's one of the few amicable ones indeed, so much that Strange Journey Redux basically almost copied for the new endings. It's also somewhat more poetic in a sense, as if the game takes "yeah, take that Old Testament" approach, slightly implying that Alep is basically not just any Saviour but Cyberpunk Jesus himself, and the new leader of humanity in a paradise-like society as seen in the New Testament etc etc. Which is a very interesting way to approach a Law ending. The way the post game is presented is also interesting, as if to say that SMT2 is the end of a really long journey and that it's the end of a Saga, starting from MT2. And no wonder, given the direction SMT3 takes and how much more in common it has with the side games of DDS and Raidou(and more accurately the attitude of the Devil Summoner games) instead of other mainline games, which could possibly imply that Atlus saw this as the "end" of old Atlus and the beginning of the then-new Atlus, the transitionary period that game us Devil Summoner series, the more urban setting, the more wild and rebelious main characters with amazingly gaudy yet endearing fashion sense and bizarre plots that veered beyond the battle of good and evil. Shame that Atlus went back to that with SMT4 and beyond. Said it before but it needs repeating, the , MTII and SMT1 osts and their various arrangements are just so cool and their 8-bit / 16-bit original sounds are just so cozy for this type of dungeon crawling. Always nice to hear them in the background. I like how your humour has naturally morphed to be more SMT-like over the many videos, dunno if you put it conciously in your scripts or not but the kind of amicably corny jokes and observations remind me of those old forum days. Nice. From the puns, to the worldplay and finally to the many Mara jokes. Oh and remember, Mara's female. As always, great video Marsh, really enjoyable and nice coverage, especially of a game that's still somewhat niche. Ps : Neutral all the way, btw.

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

On to more specialised commentary : 00:05:47 - Ah, our good old pal, Cyber Danpei- I mean Janitor Okamoto- I mean regular, future Tokyo Milenium Okamoto; nice to meet him again and see he hasn't changed his goal to make Yabuki Joe- I mean, Akira Miyamoto- I mean, Hawk, into a boxer. Some things never change. 00:05:058 - "Let's just say Okamoto's not the best with money" you're telling me buddy, poor guy had to code Black Tiger, a flight action game on some dinky pc and had to help on coding SF2 while being underpaid by Capcom, before being able to make his dream game of Final Fight at the time. What? Oh sorry, you meant this Okamoto, not Yoshiki Okamoto, my bad. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 00:23:44 - Shoulda went for the Bible names for the memes Marshal ( ͡• ͜ʖ ͡• ) 00:24:45 - Nice. 00:38:20 - Hey now Marsh, it might not seem like much but a japanese game having a buttler named "Alfred" is a huge innovation; it is almost mandated by law that every buttler EVER, is to be named "Sebastian" or "Sebas". Atlus were true trailblazers back in the day. 01:04:16 - Yup, now starts the awesomeness, with the urban myths, tv horror and horrori-fication of big action stars and symbols, still have a blast when looking at these goobers in artbooks. 01:12:00 - Marsh, come on, stop being suspicious of big method actor Robert DeNero, practicing his biggest role yet for the premier of the 1987 film Angel Heart. Just have a drink with the fine fellow, what could possible go wrong? (¬‿¬ ) 01:14:25 - The silent tears can mean something else, which may be on the nose given the early games still had themes of re-incarnation before SMT3 tried to curb it and then went back to them in DDS and SMT4; The Hero is the re-incarnation of Adam, the firstborn, so he's sad to see that his children still fight and are dogmatic and what's worse, that his creator and the angel that used to hang around the big guy, still bicker with each other and use the poor humans as toys for their petty conflict. It doesn't help that Aleph in a way, is a modern cyberpunk messiah, an artificial human, not one from dirt and mud but from a lab tank this time, and he has to repeat all the shit the Hero went through to keep the peace a little longer. It's as if the spirit of Adam, through the first SMT Hero is now going into Aleph(and the player), since Aleph wasn't a reincarnation but a creation, thus he's the Hero's spiritual successor, as the new "Adam" of a new age and a new humanity in a new millenium. Since the Hero never gives into despair but still feels sadness for others due to his empathy(insert something about the Hero being so empathic and this is why he saved the Law Hero and the Charlie Hero in his dreams. Yes, I know what I wrote). And it may be a coincidence but Cerberus saying at 01:28:33 "Hey it's me. Remember me? your old friend, Cerberus." reads less likely as a dog being playful but Cerberus now seeing you as the Hero, his previous owner, while he was still Pascal. 01:36:50 - Canon Ending of Neutral Allignment, the Hero ends up with a Pixie, just as Kaneko and Okada always intended. Amazing, no wonder this kind of masterpiece of a thematic story was repeated with SMT3 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 01:51:25 - The dance scene will be available as a QTE minigame in Shin Megami Ga Gotoku II, where Aleph will disco dance so hard, he'll actively learn the Essence of Demons and proceed to win the entire game, coming in 2034 by Sega. 01:56:47 - I want to make clear the irony of naming the place "Arcadia" as if to namedrop the greek kingdom but at the same time, a very famous magazine called "Arcadia" was going around, about Arcades and Fighting games in Japan, with artists that already dabbled or would later dabble in these kinds of dystopian societies. And the whole Arcadia here is almost set up like the dingy arcades in downtown Tokyo. 90s alternative scene Japan was quite the trip, I swear. 02:07:10 - Based Parasyte / Kiseiju enjoyer. Also a product of the 90s, I swear, something was going on in downtown Tokyo. 02:12:45 - Funny you say that because two games almost kinda had the kind of fate you describe for their themes a bit earlier and were closer to the Dungeon Crawling genre than the Doom games of the 90s; I'm refering to Ultima 8 Pagan and Ultima Underworld I and II, despite the games having you face the equivalents of Satan and you being basically a crusader of Protestan Christianity. Pagan in question was the target of many angry mobs. 02:32:32 - Insert DMC3 reference due to Kaneko, but it's actually a SMT2 reference, but it's actually a Bio Senshi Dan reference but it's actually a Contra reference. Yes, I went there. 02:43:55 - Could be but I think it goes like this : [Wisdom = Knowledge + Time(age, memories)] so it's not that they'll take away their memories, the people will lose their ability to think critically and be reduced to dumb, pacified "sheeple", only existing for food, sunlight and maybe the ocassional procreation. Basically, what they are doing is wanting to go back to how things were when Adam and Eve were around, as ignorant and blissful existences, with the minds of simpletons. In this case, [Knowledge] is one of the crucial parts of humanity in the series, the "evil" in human's soul that balances the "good/law", to reach a perfect balance. Since YHVH and the Archangels want an Eden, well...humans must be "cleansed of evil" thus Knowledge, since it was gained thanks to Lucifer's help and due to breaking the Law of their creator. In short, nowhere near as bad as what the Elders did, for sure, but not that great either. Also insert some part of social commentary about lazyness and confort and how it corrupts people to simpletons etc etc, yada yada, japanese 90s social issues, and something about Schools getting more lax and ineffective etc. and somehow lead to Persona etc. etc. 02:49:03 - I don't know the original JP script but if it is what I think it is, the way it's worded here; Lucifer probably means that "wiping the Earth clean" = "Restore the Planet to a clean and technology-free world once more" rather than human genocide, basiclaly the whole planet Earth will be Eden and how was Eden? Dumb naked people running around happy and frolicking with other animals, free under the Angels and God's watchful eye. The "inventions" of manking come from "knowledge", therefore they are "evil" like Lucifer, so they must be wiped. I think that's what they mean and it's probably re-inforced by the endings as well. 02:51:46 - Yup, called it. 02:53:44 - Wow, thanks Satan! Guess SMTIV Apocalypse was more SMT than people ever gave it credit for. Or it was one of the laziest rehashes of previous SMT plots to prop up the new stuff that would handle future Atlus from that point on. You be the judge. (¬‿¬ ) 02:55:26 - Thank you for bringing this up, I value as much authenticity as possible in translations so that's a something to have in the back of my mind, as I'm sadly not as good with japanese, yet. Also, that makes it even similar to SMTIV A than I realised, damn. SMTIV A being a pseudo neutral version of SMT2 while SMTV being "look we're SMT3" just starts to make me wonder if SMT4 would have been SMT1 all over again had it not for quite a few of Kaneko's original script notes making it in the script to at least attempt to alter the obviously SMT1-lifted plot threads and points. 03:17:18 - THANK YOU!

[@MarshSMT]

Really appreciate these comments, they're always a lot of fun to read through

[@mokonarose01]

Imagine if atlus decides to remake all these old smt games. Man that would be amazing😆

[@MysteryEzekude]

So far, the SMT4 series on the Nintendo 3DS was the closest we had to SMT 1&2 being remade.

[@jko8888]

I was obsessed with this game as a pre-teen/teenager. I'm delighted and surprised that it garnered so much attention outside of Asia/Japan. I still listen to the soundtrack and even use a song for my alarm ringtone.

[@ianleather5699]

What did you love most about it? I played it when I was a teen as well

[@jko8888]

​@@ianleather5699So many things... The idea of demon fusions, the fact that the demons were based on historical or mythical figures, summoning demons from a wrist computer, the ability to befriend demons rather than just kill them... If I had to narrow it down it would be the overall theme (god, Satan, Lucifer, Law, Chaos, Neutral), and the music. I still listen to the soundtrack (and other SMT game tracks) regularly.

[@PixyEm]

It's Disco right? It's gotta be Disco

[@clericoflight476]

I love this story about Aleph, Hiroko, Beth, Gimmel, Daleth, and Rupert

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

And Rupert still gets me, for my current play it’s reversed, everyone but Zayin has a weird name, Aleph is Alfred, Beth is Dr. Pepper, Daleth is Danny, and so on, I literally revaluations persona’d it for fun 😂😂

[@AshleyParkreiner]

Genuinely wild jump in audio quality for this vid. No idea what you did different but it sounds great.

[@blunttongs]

This game kicks ass. The Law path ending with God himself not being exempt from Judgement for his actions is just such a raw concept, I love it. Sidenote I love whenever Marsh says "check it out," it always makes me sit up in my seat and ready to hear some cool shit.

[@WindHashira]

It's a great day when Marsh uploads. We appreciate all your hard work. 🙏

[@Ars3nLup1n]

I've only read the story of SMT II in an anthology book going from Megami Tensei to SMT IV Apocalypse and damn SMT II is some serious worldbuilding piece of work and I think my favorite story in the whole series. Once again thanks for the video, Marsh.

[@chibify5861]

After many years of waiting Marsh has dropped the video we’ve all been waiting for, praise Nakajima!

[@MysteryEzekude]

Praise Nakajima, the True God Reborn!

[@enzito_sdf6978]

i played smt2 many years ago when i was first getting into jrpgs, and there was NO ONE talking about this game, it's insane. i got lost a lot lmfao. but man is it worth it, smt 2 is my favourite mainline. such a different game than the others.. i love that it lets you explore tokyo millenium and slowly uncover the massive conspiracy behind it, the parts of the game in makai/abyss, also the way this game handles allignments, and this whole spin on law which REALLY makes you doubt you made the right choices (it's ending route on this game is absolutely insane). just an amazing RPG, and i think a real step up in quality from atlus, smt1 was great but this game is on another level. i really hope atlus releases a remastered collection of the snes SMT games, but mostly because of this one. i feel that with some minor quality of life additions a lot of people could experience this amazing game

[@MarbleCellar]

you're the only person i'm subbed to that causes me to audibly gasp when a new video appears

[@scar3crow_art]

This is one of your best videos so far. Next to Last Bible Special, this is one of my favorites. I really like you went the extra mile with your analysis. This is probably minor to some, but I liked the inclusion of The Hero’s statue crying. Growing up in a Southern Pentecostal family, I was always hearing about the strange “signs and wonders” that supposedly proceeded the Second Coming, such as weeping or bleeding religious statues. That instance called to mind my own experiences and emotions with The End Times. This game does not pull the punches on it’s atmosphere, or it’s themes or ideas. Once Vengeance is done and dusted and the time comes for SMT VI, I hope we see a return to this style of oppressive atmosphere and borderline horror. Playing as a half demon or a Demi God is fun, but I feel it’s time for a return to the poor soul caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, caught up in a ideological war with only a Comp, demon summoning program and a resolve to survive.

[@MarshSMT]

Thanks for this comment! The southern pentecostal perspective is great to hear, I was not aware of the crying statues being a sign of the second coming

[@scar3crow_art]

@@MarshSMT well, not officially. To the Pentecostal denomination, everything is a sign of the Second Coming. I remember a rare earthquake struck not far from my house and my preacher uncle about had a religious fit over it. Sorry if I worded my OP in a way that sounded like crying statues was an officially recognized sign.

[@MarshSMT]

No worries! Interesting regardless

[@Jaimethepanda]

Stalker: “Give me Macca.” Aleph: “Give me head.” Stalker: “You didn’t just say that?”

[@SeanTheShinigami]

"Uh... can ya suck it???"

[@ltb1345]

3:05:55 Lol, I remember this guy being a New Game+ superboss in Devil Survivor.

[@brimple]

My favorite Hebrew letter, Rupert

[@PikaEmblemofGensokyo]

The artificial dream in Arcadia joke was perfection. Great video!

[@criminalsen2441]

It's so funny when a creator thanks the audience for watching the video. Like bro.. my guy.. you made this whole amazing thing, YOU put in the work.. im just. I'm just friggin.. sittin here No but for real, great video as always. I've come away from it with even more appreciation for SMT and an intense desire to draw a fanart of um. (already forgot its name) a certain phallic shaped demon;)

[@lovingfool2060]

Zayin really feels special as a character even compared to the more modern games. You expect full on lawful zealot but ends up being really three dimensional. Lucifer also being cool in this game too

[@shpladau]

Shin Megami Tensei Experience was posted right before SMTV, and now we get SMTII before SMTVV. Truly an era has concluded.

[@Kupomasters57]

Honestly, while it is completely wrong, how daleth was taken care of..i personally think its a fitting end for him. He killed your wife and as such now is forced to be a husband.

[@shinji2898]

I honestly feel I’ll always appreciate your SMT1 and SMT2 video for showing how unique mainline is, because it kinda shows me as to why these games were seen as being so great in the first place. It makes me want to give more of atlus games outside of persona a shot, lol

[@vroomy2136]

Marsh you fucking legend, out here with the 3 hour video drop after the 6 hour long outdoor catering shift, THANK you

[@baddragonite]

The stats rolling over when buffed/debuffed is likely caused by a memory overflow, the same thing happens in the old generations of Pokemon Due to the limited memory of the hardware the stat values could only go so hi or low so if it went over or under the limit it would often roll back around. It can also cause a bunch of other glitches in games as well Technically I think it still is possible in Pokemon it's just much harder to do because the limit is much higher.

[@TheHollowTiger]

SMT2 handles and executes P5’s themes way better than P5/Royal.

[@Hastur_Carcosa]

I was just rewatching the GU-L video and thinking it had been a bit since you uploaded, only for you to drop a feature length video on one of my favorite mainline games. Awesome, can't wait to binge it instead of sleeping tonight.

[@GIGATONHAMMER-]

marsh dropping banger after banger video game analysis. classic marsh. your videos inspire me to try out smt1 and 2 and ive been putting those aside for a while but you do a great job on selling them to me to make me start them now

[@jasemalvis2140]

MARSHALL, YOU'RE BACK!!!! We missed you bro! Love your vids lol

[@Colddirector]

"Calm down Aleph, we're your friends" "Shut up God, I'll kill you"

[@LainKaplan]

Note: Aleph is usually indicative of the sound /a/, and Beth is just a differently spelled letter B. It isn’t short for Elizabeth. Classical Hebrew also uses letters for numbers, so Aleph is 1, Beth is 2, and Gimel, the third Hebrew letter, is 3.

[@nana-rt6zt]

these are the kind of games that i can't stand playing but i find absolutely intoxicating to engage with, and your content is perfect for that good videos man 👍

[@pureevil9496]

What a cool story! I love the way it goes over so many ideas and blends them together.

[@Giffsen]

Peak SMT in my humblest opinion

[@picolocity366]

Dude Marsh you dont even know how long ive been waiting for this You got me into SMT and I always love these videos; some of the best on youtube.

[@ofekabel3773]

Native Hebrew speaker here While alpeh could be silent it could also be pronounced usually if it's at the start of a word. Oh well maybe it makes sense because he is talking in the smt 4 apocalypse dlc but I don't think they planned that when smt 2 came out lol Great video!

[@ianleather5699]

Zayin being called the "strong one" totally made him seem like he'd just be some boss later on that you fight while Daleth or Gimmel played a much bigger role, but no, Zayin was absolutely one of the coolest characters even when I did play on neutral route. I honestly got shivers from the "Punish god for the sin of genocide" line too, it's just so raw and I still got the impression Satan was planning on punishing god some time. After all, with Noah's flood and the flood of smt 1, this isn't even God's first genocide.

[@WamBamJewel]

I noticed that in the Hall of Fame in the Colosseum at the start of the game, one of the past champions shown is named 'Akira Otomo'. The iconic manga 'Akira' - whose own Neo Tokyo, apocalyptic events and cyberpunk feel certainly inspired parts of SMT - was created by Katsuhiro Otomo. Neat reference to someone who the developers clearly look up to, who is also a titan of the genre!

[@MarshSMT]

I bet all of the others are references too - another commenter told me "Thomas Tank" was a reference to thomas the tank engine and I couldn't believe I didn't realize it

[@WamBamJewel]

@@MarshSMT I imagine they all would be definitely, that’s incredible hahaha (I absolutely adore your content btw - thank you so much for continuing to produce such high quality videos)

[@andrewmanchiraju8005]

If you ever want a unique marathon of SMT, play SMT I, Nine, then II. I honestly feel that Nine’s story becomes so much cooler when you realize that part of it was setting up the events of SMT II.

[@MysteryEzekude]

Indeed. Since NINE is a midquel between the original two Shin Megami Tensei games, this chronological order feels easily digestible (no pun intended).

[@NEETKitten]

I guess Imagine isn't worth playing. I mean, I get it, but damn that kinda hurts...

[@maryjohnson813]

Feather Adonis (gladiator) was seen at the Arena in NINE, which I think is neat

[@soulreaperx7x]

Man what a watch. What a fucking game. I hope to get to play this myself sometime soon. They just don't make games like this anymore.

[@CandidaRosa889]

leaving my child at daycare to smoke cigarettes and watch this in peace for 3 hours, cheers!

[@sammysamlovescats]

Oh hey, I actually have a lot I can say about the letter Aleph So to start, it is essentially silent, yes. Hebrew traditionally doesn't have any vowels written, but semitic languages often have roots of three letters. So often Aleph is a way for there to be a root with only 2 consonant sounds. But that's just the start of stuff with Aleph Aleph is the first letter and Bet is the second, as in "AlephBet" like Alphabet Also Aleph is used in set theory to denote infinity (Specifically Aleph0, since Aleph1 is another type of infinity, but that's another rant) Aleph in Gematria is also 1, unless it's for a year, then it's 1,000 (Aka a Millennium) But that's not all, because Rabbis love overthinking things Aleph is considered to represent the name of the divine because they see it as being made of parts of the letters making the tetragrammaton It is also associate with the word Emet, meaning truth, which is the word written on golems to bring them to life But Rabbis also loved to anthropomorphize letters, so they portray Aleph as being humble, not demanding to be the first letter of the Torah, and thus it is rewarded by being the first letter of the ten commandments BONUS: There's a story (Called a Midrash) that when writing the Torah, Moses requested to not be given too prominent a role, and the answer he was given was basically "No, but since you asked this paragraph will start with an Aleph" (Which long story short, essentially elevates his role) and so Moses relents, but writes the Aleph as small as he can. So even now that specific part of Torah scrolls is usually written with an Aleph smaller than the rest of the letters

[@bartholomew3436]

It’s finally here!! Unironically one of my favourite games of all time, so I’ve been super hyped ever since you announced this video!! It iterated so insanely well on SMT1; the story, gameplay, dungeons, and so much more really feel like the perfect continuation to the world set up in the first game, I love it so much. Can’t wait to watch this whole thing and maybe even learn about stuff I missed considering how deep and complex this game can be! I’m looking forward to seeing what route and decisions you got. I ended up neutral my first time through, but I can really see the benefits to law and chaos in this game, so it really is one of the best iterations of the alignment system (plus you don’t even really miss out on majour sections of the game depending on route, which automatically makes it more satisfying than a lot of others in the series lol) Edit: Jesus, man. You really called Zayin “Rupert”? Lol way to screw over my boy

[@2tehnik]

I think ‘knowledge’ is supposed to refer to knowledge of good and evil. I mean, they forsake knowledge to enter Eden, the opposite of the Genesis 3 story. So I think the contrast the game is creating is the world of neutral and chaos where humans keep their knowledge of the ways they can act in self-interest at the expense of others, and the world of Law where that is forsaken for the sake of perpetual peace. This also clarifies why Law feels the need to destroy the rest of the world in IV, but especially here in II. People with knowledge are just a source of corruption for the world’s end.

[@Nobody-my7kj]

Bro didn't just put a 3 hour video about an ancient smt game. Classic marsh move we love you marsh 🙏🙏