Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance - Return Of The True Demon Quest Walkthrough (2024)

Originally a DLC quest for the vanilla release, 'Return of the True Demon' is back in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance. Much like other previously-DLC content, it's available by default. As a result, you can unlock rather early on - though you certainly can't finish it for some time to come.

With our guide, we've mapped out every boss encounter in this gauntlet of fights, including our lineup, our tactics, and the ways in which we endured some pretty tough adversaries on our way to obtaining the ultimate power: Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne's very own Demi-Fiend himself.

How To Begin 'The Return Of The True Demon'

In Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, you'll automatically begin 'The Return of the True Demon' after a certain point. Namely, after you've returned to 'real' Tokyo for the first time following the events in Minato.

The first time you return to the World of Shadows, Sophia will hand you an all-important key item: Menorah of Knowledge. This is precisely what we'll need to take all subsequent steps in this epic questline.

How To Beat Matador

Matador is, frankly, pretty darn tough for how early you can take him on. He's level 24, which is fairly likely to be several levels higher than you if you attempt the fight as soon as possible.

We'd suggest waiting until your party's around the same level, but it's doable beforehand. The biggest problem with the Matador fight is that he'll raise his evasion sharply. Every time he dodges, you're losing Press Turns, too.

It's just one of those things we're going to have to deal with, preferably through brute force. He's resistant to force, light, and dark, but weak to electric-type attacks.

Take multiple demons with Zio, Shockbound, and similar fare if possible. Use debuffs liberally, especially anything that reduces Matador's accuracy and evasion. Bring Phys Dampeners to soften the blow from Andalucia, and avoid using demons weak to force.

How To Beat Daisoujou

Daisoujou is completely immune to both light and dark attacks, while weak to fire. Daisoujou uses both Mamudo and Mahama, both of which have +4 modifiers to make them more threatening propositions.

Arguably the toughest part of this fight is dealing with Preach, which can cause charm, confusion, and/or sleep to all party members with a certain chance of success.

Having Amritas and Amrita Showers is highly recommended; Patra and Me Patra abilities are equally handy. Daisoujou's HP and especially vitality are relatively low, so slice through him quickly.

How To Beat Hell Biker

We love Hell Biker. He's one of our recommendations for the best mid-game demons to have with you. We love him less when we're fighting him.

Here's a rare suggestion: try to bring party members with higher Agility stats than your foe, whose stat is 34. Hell Biker's innate ability, Speed Star, elevates critical hit chance against enemies with agility lower than his.

Hell Biker has a whopping three unique skills:

• Hell Spin is a heavy physical attack to all foes;
• Hell Exhaust is a medium force attack to all foes that also removes all buffs;
• Hell Burner, which he'll use after Magatsuhi charges, deals heavy fire damage to all foes.

To make matters worse, Hell Biker has two resistances and two immunities: light and dark resistance, and fire and force immunity. He has a single weakness: ice.

How best to handle all this? We brought Forneus, whose Ice Breath attack works wonders on Hell Biker, but who crucially lacks a serious issue with many other ice-users: Forneus isn't weak to fire.

Since we were playing on Canon of Vengeance, we also brought Tao, as we did not yet have access to the Knowledge of Tools miracle that allows demons to use items. Thus, we had two item-wielders.

How To Beat White Rider

Beginning The Four Horseman Battles

Starting with White Rider, things change somewhat from previous fights. You must meet the Four Horsem*n before this quartet's fights unlock, and the meeting location varies between story routes.

If you're playing Canon of Creation, you'll meet the Four Horseman after the fight with Surt in Chiyoda. For Canon of Vengeance players, a cutscene will trigger as you explore the new Shinjuku region.

White Rider is weak to electric, but resistant to light and dark, and most troublingly, he reflects fire. It uses God's Bow and Ragnarok frequently; the former is a light attack to one target, while the latter is two to five medium fire attacks.

After Magatsuhi charges, it will commonly cast Mahamaon with a strong +7 affinity. Absolutely avoid using demons weak to light, and bring Light Dampeners to preempt the move on the turn he's charging when you can.

But the hardest thing about this fight is that it begins the Four Horsem*n trend of summoning two powerful allies, whose defeat will result in further summoning.

Our goal is to eliminate the Dominions in one to two turns every time, as this will cause White Rider to waste Press Turn actions re-summoning them.

Use multitarget dark spells - yes, White Rider will resist them, but it's not like he's nulling, absorbing, or reflecting them! Alice is excellent here, with Die for Me and a sky-high magic stat.

By constantly culling White Rider's allies, you can chip away at its health inch by inch, launching powerful attacks like Freikugal EX (available with Alice, among many others) whenever you can.

More To Come

We've still got several more battles to cover in our guide, so we'll hardly blame you for looking at other sites if you need to! That said, we hope our coverage of each fight we have conquered is in-depth enough to be valuable in the meantime.