How Character Customization Works In Shin Megami Tensei IV

Flynn is the main protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei IV. He’s silent, like most protagonists in the series, and I must admit that when I wrote this I hadn’t played enough to be able to say he has a real “personality” yet. Demon negotiations aren’t a great way to judge, since they make you do some pretty crazy things, and choices are few and far between at this point in time. He seems to have a really good rapport with his fellow Samurai and a great friendship with Issachar.

What I can say for sure, though, is that he does seem to really enjoy himself some battles with all that Smirking.

Flynn’s starting equipment, though rather weak, looks pretty cool. It’s the blue and white coat he wears on the cover of the game. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how much you like that coat, Flynn’s appearance changes with his equipment. This includes upper body armor, lower body armor, head armor, and weapons. The benefits of each different armor seem rather subtle at this point in time, so I think Macca management will be a key aspect of the game.

(You can also purchase accessories, but they don’t seem to affect appearance.)

One point of interest, though, is that there is no defense stat in this game. Instead, the armors increase Flynn’s HP. Additionally, with each level Flynn grows, you’re given a number of points to distribute among his stats as you like. These include Strength, Dexterity, Magic, Agility, and Luck. You unfortunately can’t directly affect HP and MP through these points, but they increase a fair amount each level.

In addition to these points, your AI Burroughs gains points, too. I started out with gaining 10 per level. These points can be used purchase Apps from a list of Burroughs’ available installations, and there are quite a few to choose from. Here’s just a short list of some of the possible Apps she can give you:

• Increasing the number of skills you can use
• Increasing the number of skill your demons can keep at a time
• Recovering HP or MP when you walk
• Increasing the number of demons you can carry at a time
• Changing the amount of stats your demon gains when they level up
• Unlocking or enhancing Demon negotiation options,
• Ability to fuse demons during battle
• Changing the level cap for fusions (so you can fuse demons one level higher than you)
• Decreasing the cost of the compendium summons

These Apps can range anywhere from 5 to 30 points, so gaining some Apps really takes some saving, and choosing Apps is really a point of preference. At the start of the game, Flynn only has 4 skill slots, although that number can increase with the Apps you purchase.

In addition to stats and Apps, you can also have full control over what skills Flynn learns. He learns these whenever your demons reach the point where they learn all their skills. At this point, Demon Whisper will activate and they will teach you whichever skills you want, however many you want. The only exceptions thus far seem to be the passive skills such as Resist Fire or Life Bonus (shame, those would’ve really been useful).

If you already have a skill they know, then the skill you already have automatically levels up. This makes it more powerful and decreases its MP cost a bit.

This unfortunately only happens once per a demon. It may be possible to keep a skill throughout fusions and then leveling the demons up so you can continue to level up the skill. You can also probably register a demon right before they learn their last skill in the Compendium and keep summoning them to level the skill up. This will prove very costly, though.