#cielo>argilla>gale>serph>>>>>>>>>>>>>>heat

[parasitoidism]

Serph drives some kind of sensible hatchback Heat drives a 70's station wagon and NOT a nice one argilla drives a little 2 door sedan cielo has a fancy minivan and gale drives a tesla

[qandywrappr]

[guttersblessing]

its storming out again. on my mind: them

[eastern-kingdom-of-smt]

I spent way too much time on this

[bazahabinga]

[vinnigami]

embryon cats + jinana

[nv4dll]

my ddsat stuff from the past few days

[hoyobiglove]

digital devil saga avatar tuner

This is an old picture, but I like it a lot.

I think it's about 3 years old...

[goatwithaplan]

sorry for making this the laziest way posible.

2 mimir, buenas noches

[detective-prince-enthusiast]

i don’t really have anything else specific to say right now a la dds but here’s a short list of unrelated thoughts rn

-argilla jinana callback. my post has come full circle.

-serph and heat. whatever they have going on is crazy.

-mick is down, cielo unlocked, and im currently at the ship ruins planting bombs

-GALE GALE LETS ALL CHEER FOR GALE !!!!

-and also i love the weird plot happening right now. what is going on. i don’t fully know yet! and i love it.

[parasitoidism]

Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner Anthology Comic

Back & Inside flap illustrations- UZU

[demifiendcruithne]

today on digital devil saga 2 is criminally under-researched (aka crui is a nerd about a 20 year old game)

so i finally got the impulse/opportunity to test out something i've been suspecting for a while but have never seen any documentation on: dds2 has some form of STAB* mechanic with elemental spells for playable characters, based on their associated element (the one they resist + the one their unique gun combos use)

*for non-pokemon folk: STAB == same-type attack bonus. so for example, a chimecho (psychic type pokemon) using extrasensory (psychic type move) will deal more damage than a non-psychic-type pokemon with the same special attack against the same target

i have more tests i intend to make when i have spoons (i'm just grinding mantras for the superboss and noticed it while fighting wild narasimha because that hecker disables my berserker ring), but so far i've tested with my three active characters fulfilling the following:

are fighting the exact same narasimha who has no elemental weakness/resistance/etc (savestates were used and run multiple times; the rng is not fixed until a move is actually used, so i could get multiple data points quickly by making a new savestate every time i loaded it to advance the rng)

have 99 magic

are level 99

have no elemental boost or amp skills equipped

have no rings equipped that may affect damage, outside of boosting magic stat to 99 for consistency

use two different dynes; one of their associated element, and one not. the former consistently did more, and with repeated runs i cannot write it off as damage range.

under cut: many images; by virtue of being in endgame, these will have some spoilers for endgame in plain sight. if you're reading this and haven't gotten to the final dungeon, i highly recommend you go do that and come back later. once you've reached the final dungeon, you're safe to check it out.

(but seriously - i can't stop you, but i highly recommend actually. playing this game first. it's great)

if you're reading this, you've either gotten to the final dungeon or don't care about spoilers; in case of the latter, i'll do a quick explanation of our last party member momentarily. i have been a little misleading because they are. very much a BIG spoiler. but first - gale resists force, and does more damage with zandyne than bufudyne; likewise argilla with earth/teradyne/ziodyne.

(bufudyne was a random pick for gale because i had only five for omoikane reasons, but in hindsight it was a good one...)

now - for those unaware, this last party member's name is seraph. they're a fusion of two other party members both of said party members were associated with/resisted ice, and i'm near-certain that they also got the boost to bufu spells (i can check this at some point, i have a backup save right before endgame) the same way gale and argilla do.

but what's seraph's elemental affinities? no weaknesses, no resistances. so what does this mean here?

extra screenshots because the first agidyne was a high roll - literally the highest i've seen on a non-stab unboosted dyne against a narasimha. yet it's still clearly estranged from gale's zandyne and argilla's teradyne.

the other part? seraph's bufudyne does the same as gale's, and the same as argilla's ziodyne and their own agidyne, the same as expected without stab.

i'm not sure what else to say about this thus far besides putting a list of further tests to do eventually / get proper data for:

100s of attempts so it can be statistically analysed better. easy to code the data collection into seraph (my helper program, named after this seraph because. yeah), possibly more difficult to analyse but my partner got me into this game he can deal with the consequences (being asked to do data stuff) :v

including cielo and heat as well, probably after i beat satan and grind them up as a victory lap (in the mantras sense not the internment facility sense)

earlier save reloads for data for serph, sera, and roland - i doubt they'd be any different, but regardless

other elemental spells - both the basic and -la levels, the ma-s, the maxed out mantra ones, and the dances. is the boost approximately consistent?

does it affect combos? i believe it doesn't, same as amp skills and the like (and because i feel like i would have noticed by now), but will get data for both participants initiating

does it affect items? i feel like that's unlikely, but worth trying

is there a 'reverse-stab' for someone's weakness? i don't think so, but i'll get the data for free and if there's a trend i just got to test the ailment damagers for cielo

likewise, is the elemental boost innate like the gun combo elements? almost certainly. but it would be funny if equipping x resist made your x do more damage. and also not really that helpful?

does seraph get a boost on almighty? my first instinct would be yes, purely because of seraph's gun combo doing almighty damage; it's near-useless if you got reincarnate but still worth checking. and if so, does ragnarok behave differently from megido+/last word?

on that note, does seraph resist almighty? i... wouldn't be surprised - status only says no weakness, not no resistance, but almighty resistance tends to be invisible anyway (looking at you, devil survivor 2 that shows everything else) (you're fine just using as an example)

that would be a lot harder to test but if i get a party of seraph / someone with dragon ring / someone else with all maxed stats and just find something with megido+

anything else i might have forgotten

if you hack pyriphlegethon onto heat does it do more damage. i don't think i can test this one but i would. honestly be curious

but yeah. this is pretty cool, maybe i'll check for it in dds1 as well. if anyone else checks any of this out and makes a writeup or anything please ping me i have autistic hyperfocused on jrpg mechanics for over two decades :v

[the-real-cirsium-zorba]

DDS AU bigpost because I'm insane

big spoilers for the digital devil saga duology and metaphor re: fantazio

hhh ok so this is a ramblepost to get all my thoughts out before I forget the AU is like half formed in my mind so feel free to add extra shit to it and go absolutely crazy

So I've got the basic story(?) with some dynamics down but it gets uber messy because the characters don't translate as well

We got

Will -> Serph and Prince -> Sera This one's pretty basic for now, protag swap. Will is the idealised version of the prince that he made in his head to cope with being a glorified supercomputer, and their relationship is less direct compared to Serph and Sera. Esp since in the original paradise the prince doesn't interact with the AI that he creates, which is due to his self loathing. It also makes their interactions in this AU feel a lot sweeter esp once they become "Seraph" it has a whole "self love" and "healing your inner child" vibe that I feel like they need

Hulkenberg -> Argilla/Heat ? I guess? Ok this is mostly in the yuri context. Hulkenberg is a bit more harsh in this AU since in nirvana her relationship with the prince is far more strained due to circumstances (STROHL AND MORE) so she is kind of mean in the junkyard. I do think her fierce loyalty to the prince and consequently Will is something that stays the same.

Strohl -> Heat/Serph? Kind of? Strohl is still nice tho I couldn't do that to him. Like he kind of serves the same narrative significance as Heat but technically Strohl is a Serph equivalent? like the prince had a crush on strohl in nirvana and so made AI strohl with that in mind. Of course this means that the real Strohl is Evil. He's Sheffield in this AU and has his whole fake kindness spiel, not really sure if I should change his motives. He's the one that isolates the prince from Hulkenberg and manipulates him into thinking she doesn't care about him.

Eupha -> Cielo Because they're my favourites which is why I will be torturing her immensely by giving her the QDS version of Cielo

Basilio -> Gale Ok hear me out on this one. Their character arcs are similar enough that I feel like this could work even though their personalities aren't similar. Like both of them are behind their peers and spend a significant amount of their arcs learning and understanding how to cope with a situation that initially had them mentally crippled. Not necessarily having them "overcome" this obstacle (Gale still doesn't express his emotions like other characters, and Basilio is still trusting of others and takes things at face value) but they've adapted to this new thing (emotions and not having del around)

also it makes Fidelio being Lupa and Vinca being Fred a lot more reasonable

Junah -> Jinana I'm giving her the QDS jinana arc I can't pull a DDS with her it would make me sad

Louis -> Varin Omega He could've been Jenna but I don't want him to be Wills mom. Jenna could be Louis but Louis could never be her. He's Varin tho which still makes sense especially since both he and Will would be aware of the truth of the junkyard and the knowledge would make him crazy. Also I like a man in tactical gear

More -> Jenna Jenna has that depressed old man vibe that More could replicate. Also it makes sense since that's Will's dad. Also he would literally be inviting them to Utopia(Nirvana) at the start of the game it makes so much sense guys it makes so much sense

Heismay -> Roland Sad alcoholic who lost everything and spiraled into despair forgetting what he initially fought for only to have that spark be reawakened along with newfound hope and he risks everything in order to create a world where the ones he takes care of can smile again. Ok, it makes sense I love heismay I love roland they're both such good characters and I want to do them justice

Uhhh minor characters that I don't have enough time or space to elaborate on

Zorba -> Bat , Glodell -> Mick , Queen Elda -> Margot , Edeni -> Harley

[cake-apostate]

I was messing around in the character creator in Baldur's Gate III to see which SMT characters I could plausibly make.

A lot of these are half elves because those faces suit these designs better. Colors are a bit off because I can't do screenshots; this was taken on phone.

Hallelujah, with and without moustache! I'm playing him as a Storm Sorcerer.

It kind of looks like Flynn.

Aleph without his goggles/shades. I didn't intend to make him; I didn't think it was possible, given how much of his head is taken up by headgear, but I was messing with Flynn's model and clicked on the hair by accident, and BAM. Aleph.

I wasn't like, "Yes, that's Argilla!", but she has the hair and the scar.

More like a Githyanki cosplaying Infernal Akira but I'm impressed there was a tattoo option that looks like his markings. You can't see it, but there's a bit of red around his eyes.

I have made a blue-eyed woman with a mass of blonde hair, who could be taken for an older Ann.

If you told me this was the actress playing Sera, I'd believe you.

Heat's hair is asymmetrical, so I took this at an angle. But it's also the red that does it for me; I might not be the same with O'Brien.

90% of the time, it's the hair that does it, I think.

I wanted to play as V-kun the Paladin (or failing that, Aogami), but I couldn't find the right hair, so I settled on Storm Sorcerer Hallelujah. I also tried the Hero and Heroine of SMT1; couldn't manage the Hero, but the Heroine wound up looking generic. Demi-Fiend's Demi-Fiendness is stored in the tattoos. The character creator had a shaven haircut, a cheek scar, and green tattoos, but it didn't quite look like Nanashi.

You'd think the cast of Digital Devil Saga would be easy, with their bright hair and eye colors, but Serph and Cielo have very specific haircuts, and I don't think you can really capture Roland without his glasses or Gale without his hood.

[queered-into-oblivion]

okay so

serph - feraligatr (the reference) or weavile. the latter because varna gives me weavile vibes (also the shiny is pink), ice-type, and it being smaller fits with people being like 'you don't look like an intimidating tribe leader' or whatever

argilla - nidoqueen. this one took a while and i still want to give her something that can whip arm but you get the vibes and ground-type doesn't hurt. i was thinking hatterene for a while because power whip but it's also biased by that i'm trying to have emotion part of brain emulate argilla so i can actually communicate better and hatterene very fits there :v

gale - shiftry. i like shiftry and the vibes fit. this is the first one i just Knew outside of serph/feraligatr which is a special case

heat - magmortar for contrast with roland's electivire, but it also fits on its own - i was also thinking darmanitan, and zen mode could do some interesting stuff with if-you-know-you-know in dds2

cielo - emolga. i wanted something electric with some form of flight; zapdos/thundurus/etc are out due to being legendary and i don't want just one party member to have a legendary out of nowhere. rotom elektross and kilowattrel were also considerations, but while rotom fits cielo's vibe it doesn't really. work with the whole form changing thing?

sera - mew, at least in dds1 so it doesn't conflict the above. mew doesn't resemble an embryo as much as it used to but still. and it is highly sought after, and also the whole. mew glitch in gen 1 thing is fun

angel - i'm torn between mewtwo, deoxys, and hoopa-unbound. mewtwo for relation to sera's mew, although it's the wrong way around; deoxys is a virus and i like deoxys; hoopa-unbound has the most visual resemblance to hari-hara

roland - electivire because he totally has thunder punch. it's canon. i hear thunder punch my first thought is electivire.

i will say it's biased towards earlier gen mons, just because it's easier for me to instinctively think of them. definitely curious about what you'd give them too

These are excellent quite frankly, and several are similar to our own thougths on the matter though we do have different opinions for DDS and QDS options. Serph - Swampert

Feraligatr is of course an excellent reference though I further enjoy the Wevile choice. Personally we always enjoyed the option of Swampert especially for Quantum, a similar reason to why Feraligatr works however I find the personality/face of the Pokemon - imposing yet still understated/hunched aspect and more muted colours to feel fitting.

Argilla - Nidoqueen

We both thought exactly the same option amusingly, Nidoqueen with the personality/idendity, ground typing and colouration being close enough to pink seems far too fitting. Though Nidoqueen is bulkier than Argilla and Prithivi, I cannot see anything else.

Heat - Darmanitan

Darmanitan, Magmortar, Emboar and Heat-ran could all work but I believe the concept you mentioned with Darmanitan to be the most interesting quite frankly.

Gale - It starts to heavily diverge here based on Digital and Qunatum.

Digital - Shiftry

Shiftry or Sceptile; similar reasons to yourself they are visually fitting. However for aesthetic purposes I agree with Shiftry.

Quantum - Zygarde

Zygarde it took consideration between aesthetics/personality (which would lead to Serperior) and his functionality as the Bishop but between how he functions in Quantum as a super-computer with the ability to make clones of himself and exist simialrly to a Technoshaman of the Junkyard, it felt fitting for him to have a legendary as Sera and Angel will alongside one so distincly built around digital concepts/clones/cells and data transfer. It also does still fit aesthetically.

Cielo - Chatot.

I do not think I need to say much else, though an honourable mention to Swoobat {high focus on status conditions, matching colours} and Togekiss {aeroplane}

Sera - Mew

There is no real way to disagree with that I believe, it is too obvious and far too fitting. From the embryo imagery to the genetic element.

Roland - Electivire

Another we fully agree on, Electivire is simply far too fitting with the wiring and thunder punch as mentioned. It also appears quite hulking aesthetically which matches Indra.

Jenna Angel - Deoxys

Hoopa or Deoxys both work as you stated, with the addition of Giratina to emphasise her loose role of a Chaos representitive. With how disconnected she is from Sera I would likely not choose Mewtwo for Jenna specifically. Out of the two I admit for Jenna I prefer Deoxys, as visually you could possibly pick out Rayquaza for Gale which would create a pleasant contrast there.

Angel - Mewtwo

Classifying them as seperate characters entirely as they may as well be.

Mewtwo, undoubtably. Possibly also Giratina far moreso for them than Jenna due to events within the fifth novel specifically however given the story of Mewtwo and how it would fit with Sera and their character arc - I will not delve into this due to spoilers for book three and above of course - I cannot fathom anything else.

[mirror-imaged]

love the way all the main dds cast have like element symbolism in their names - cielo being sky, argilla being clay, gale being wind, obviously, heat being fire, duh, serph being. surf like water. and you could write this off as sera being like 5 or something but in real life everybody has these normal ass names like cielo is still cielo but that like sounds kinda name adjacent and gale is david and argilla is not explained but anabella is a normal name and serph is a fucking stupid name but it's seraph without the a for incomplete angel etc. and heat is just still heat. the concept relating to temperature. what. has anybody else in the world ever been named heat