Shin Megami Tensei finally received an English translation after being released 22 years ago. Now that players can finally experience this classic, they may have a hard time beating the game effectively.
Shin Megami Tensei games have always been known for their difficulty, so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Still, it can be extremely frustrating to have to fight a boss over and over again with no chance of winning in sight.
So let’s go over a simple method to beat almost every boss in the game. I have called this method the “electrocute method” because of the nature of how it is done.
First, to perform this method you must have a party member who can use any spell in the Zio spell line. So this can be Zio, Mazio, Zionga, etc. It’s probably best to have a human party member with this spell, but it can also be done on a demon if you’re willing to work a little harder.
The reason for this is because with a human group member, that member can level up steadily. This is huge in allowing you to keep up with the growing boss power throughout the game. Demons don’t level up, so their stats are static from the moment you get them. Because of this, you may eventually find yourself unable to perform the electrocute method as the bosses get stronger. You can fix this by getting stronger demons, either through fusion or negotiation, but you will have to make sure they still have a Zio spell, which is not always easy to do.
Now for the method itself. It really is simple. The key stat you are looking for in your party member is their agility. It should be as high as possible. Control the order of turns during battle, so whoever has the greatest agility will act first. So just go into a battle and cast your Zio spell. Since that member must act first, or at least before the boss, the boss will get hit with the Zio spell and then get electrocuted as well.
This makes the boss unable to act during that turn, and then all you have to do is keep repeating this step until you beat the boss. In many cases, you may end up not even being touched by the boss.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind with this strategy. First, and probably most important, this method will not work on bosses that nullify lightning damage. That is the biggest weakness of this method. In such cases, you may need to find another way to beat those particular bosses. Fortunately, there are very few bosses that override the lightning bolt, so you can generally be sure it will work.
The following thing is that it is necessary to be careful with the failures. If you fail with the Zio spell, obviously the boss won’t get electrocuted. In this case, they will be able to act normally and potentially cause harm to their party. Sukukaja can be of great help in this case as it increases the precision of your attacks.
The last thing to consider is your MP. If you use up all your MP, you won’t be able to cast the Zio spell, and this method becomes useless. For this reason, try to ensure that the member of your group who is running this method has as high a maximum number of MPs as possible. This will help in situations where you may not be able to rest before a fight.
That’s. With this method, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with most bosses. For bosses that nullify the beam, they could try a variation of this strategy, which instead of using a Zio spell, could use a Bufu spell. Instead of being electrocuted, the boss would freeze, which would have the same effect.
However, this workaround has not been tested and can be difficult to execute as you would then need two different party members capable of using the different spells, as having both on one member is extremely unlikely. There is also a chance for the boss to nullify both lightning and ice attacks, in which case you would be back where you started.
