Walter

Walter is a character from Shin Megami Tensei IV.

Appearances

 * Shin Megami Tensei IV: Major character, guest party member
 * Shin Megami Tensei IV DEMONIC GENE: Protagonist
 * Shin Megami Tensei IV -Prayers-: Minor Character

Personality
Walter is a rash young man that speaks bluntly, but despite his demeanor he does have a caring heart and believes in doing what's best. He concludes that the nature of Samurai's duty is a perfect match with his personality.

Since he comes from the family of Casualries like Flynn, he feels sympathy towards those who are looked down on by the noble Luxurors.

Due to his boisterous nature, he gets into some friction with fellow rookie Jonathan. Though limited to minor scuffles at first, events will turn this simple conflict into a climactic clash of beliefs.

Shin Megami Tensei IV
Walter is a newly recruited samurai who exterminates demons. His main motivation for becoming a samurai is for the adventure, as well as to escape life of being a mere fisherman. Walter immediately warms up to Flynn over supposedly meeting him in a dream he had not too long ago, as well as the fact that they are both Casularies in an order largely made up of Luxurors.

He dislikes Navarre and gets worked up when he looks down on him. Leading him to take part in the challenge Navarre makes about who can complete the three Challenge Quests first. After Flynn wins, Walter is informed by a samurai that Navarre had gone missing, and went to help him. However, he was ambushed by the Hooded man and was injured as a result. He meets up with the others after they defeat the Horde summoned by the Hooded man and is angered when he learns what is really going on from Jonathan, wanting to pay back Navarre for what he did and accompanies Flynn. After witnessing Navarre's breakdown once he's saved from Alraune, Walter decides not to verbally insult him for his actions. Jonathan implores him to not to consider Navarre to be representative of all Luxurors; Walter concedes that he can see that Navarre is a "special" case.

The next day on their ticket of leave, he decides to take up Jonathan's offer to go to a well-known bakery after learning what Jonathan's real motives are, and expresses annoyance that Isabeau declined to join them. He is shown to be not interested in the Baker's love of Literature that began circulating among the Casualries, instead impatiently asking him to hurry their order. At Lake Mikado, he offers Flynn's friend Issachar a chance to join their picnic, but he declined and returns home. Walter decides to take a nap there after eating breakfast, and the three go their separate ways.

Later that night he decides to spy on Isabeau and wakes up Flynn and Jonathan to join him. He wants to see what she's up to and make her embarrassed get her "prim iron mask" to drop. Not being quiet enough, she got the jump on them instead. Isabeau explains she went to the roof to get better lighting to read the manga she came across, and expresses her earnest fascination with its story. During the conversation, she notices the western sky had a red glow. Seeing the fire, Walter realizes it is from Kiccigiorgi are and the four of them leave the rooftop.

At Kiccigiorgi Forest, they encounter Issachar who transforms into a demon and attacks. If Flynn elects to mercy kill him, Walter reassures that he did the right thing. Thereafter they find the Black Samurai, a mysterious woman clad in ebon armor. Walter informs her they will be taking her into custody, but she summons the Lilim Horde and escapes. The demon girls release a bewitching aura that renders Walter, Jonathan, and Flynn unconscious, leaving Isabeau to fend them off alone.

When the Monastery tasks the Samurai with pursuing the Black Samuraik into the land of the Unclean Ones, Isabeau shares a rumor she heard from the monks: that Abbot Hugo is using the Black Samurai's escape as an excuse to have Samurai collect more mystic relics from the underworld, to which Walter expresses disgust. After going to the floor below the Hall of the Minotaur, Walter asks if they can rest as his demons are bugging him about being healed. Upon finding a curious mystic relic in the excavation chambers that Burroughs identifies as a "gun," he suggests they take them along to be used.

Arriving in Tokyo, the Samurai express awe at the strange sight of the underground city beneath Naraku, with Walter likening the skyscrapers to giant coffins. At the Government Office Building in Shinjuku, if Flynn elects to kill Kuebiko, Walter expresses disapproval, questioning if that was the right thing to do. Once the Black Samurai is captured in Ikebukuro, Walter becomes angered by Hugo taking credit for the task, a sentiment that Hope shares with him. He is further dismayed when they are forced to stand in the crowd at the Black Samurai's execution.

During the VIP rescue mission in Shinjuku on behalf of Sister Gabby, Walter carries the second masked man out of Kagome Tower and to Mikado Castle, briefly leaving the party. After the three are rescued, he asks Gabby who the three are and finds her knowledge on Tokyo to be suspicious. Even with Gabby's response that they are "vital to the kingdom's future," he asks what she means as he doesn't understand, only for her to ignore his question. He questions the new order to kill the Black Samurai who has apparently risen from the dead, as they are now tasked with assassinating a woman that was already killed once, and is shocked when the Ashura-kai's leader Tayama requests a meeting with Flynn.

Later on, they discover the Black Samurai is actually the leader of the Ring of Gaea, Yuriko, and she reveals she is the demon Lilith. Walter is swayed by her words, intrigued by a world in which the "strong can shape the world as they see fit," and stops Jonathan's attempt to strike her down. He heeds her words and decides to investigate the "face of true evil" beneath Roppongi, and asks his friends not to kill her until he returns. He is seen conversing with Hikaru in Ginza, and goes to the Florida Cafe to meet Fujiwara in order to learn how to get to the place Yuriko mentioned. However, the guard refused to let him enter until Flynn and the others arrived with the proof of membership (courtesy of Hikaru). He rejoins the group after Jonathan convinces him the demons will be too tough to handle alone.

After learning what Red Pills are made of in Reverse Hills, he is influenced by Yaso-Magatsuhi's gas, and declares he must make a confession: he is from a family of fishermen, but is scared of fish. He then excitedly declares that he "must tell everyone" and runs off, with the rest of the party succumbing to the effects of the gas. They awaken in the Hills building, and Walter confronts Tayama over his "utopia", revealing that Yuriko is a demon in the process.

After meeting the Four Heralds, he decides to defect from the ranks of the Samurai, viewing the new order in Mikado as no different than Tayama's control over Tokyo. Walter will ask Flynn to go with him meet Lilith, meet at the barracks. He will give his piece on how he doesn't wish to be bound to another man's rules and that following another person's rules won't necessarily makes ones own life better. He confesses he knows that what Lilith is doing may cause harm, but he sees no option other than to change the world from its current state. Agreeing to join him will cancel out Tayama and Gabby's main quests to kill Yuriko/Lilith, and in turn will unlock Lilith to be available for demon fusion.

With the knowledge that the true paradise lies in a world ruled by the strong, Walter plans to open the Yamato Perpetual Reactor situated in Camp Ichigaya, but is met with opposition by Tayama and his National Defense Divinities. He will be surprised at Koga Saburo's revival when the two fight him. After Omoikanes defeat in Camp Ichigaya he questions how it feels to be so strong, but still under Tayama's control. The lesson he takes from Michizane's words is that when the incompetent are given power, it leads to the people's suffering, thanking Michizane for teaching him such a valuable lesson. He will refuse to heed Tayama's words because of him harvesting people for Red Pills. During the battle against Yamato Takeru he will state to him that harmony is nothing but a sweet sounding word and that it is mere indulgence on the part of the weak that turns people into cowards. He would rather not lick each others wounds, preferring to get even stronger by defeating him. With Yamato Takeru's defeat he gets Tayama to hand over the remote, giving it to Flynn so he can decide whether to press the button.

He awakens alongside Flynn and Jonathan in Blasted Tokyo, with him and Jonathan arguing before Flynn awoke. He questions why they are at the Counter-Demon Force Base after they awaken and remembers going to meet Lilith with Flynn, contradicting Jonathan's own take on the events. He is shocked to see a desert once outside and wonders what became of Lilith and Tokyo. He finds the landscape unsettling, being filled with holes. Upon defeating Pluto the Tormenter, Walter comments on how the air feels fresher. Once Akira gives them the remote control to the Yamato Reactor, they activate it again. Next, the three awaken in Infernal Tokyo where they help this world's Akira usurp power from King Kenji, who controls Camp Ichigaya (and their only means home). Walter encourages the demonoid Akira to be more forceful and assertive, despite the latter being lacking power. Once Kenji is defeated, the Yamato Reactor is activated again, sending them the realm of the White.

In the Chaos path he will meet up with Flynn in the Monochrome Forest, telling of how he said he would destroy the order of things to the White. He is surprised when Hikaru reveals her true identity and questions why she's there. After learning how to escape the forest, he decides to hunt down the White to escape. He calls White Issachar a coward during the battle and after the battle realizes they held no hostility despite being enemies, understanding that different ideals will result in each side fighting until the end.

Walter will eventually offer himself as a sacrifice to give Lucifer a stable physical form, preferring to die when his life is at its peak rather than become old and turning into someone like Jonathan, Kenji, or Kiyoharu. If Flynn is Chaos aligned, Walter will express sadness over losing his life, but feels no regret with all the experiences he had as a samurai and his ideal world coming into being under Flynn's lead, believing that Flynn is someone who can lead the strong in the new world, unlike himself. In the Chaos route ending, it is implied that Lucifer inherited all of Walter's memories, who recalls the view from the rooftop of Mikado Castle.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Demonic Gene
Walter is the protagonist of the spinoff manga, which apparently takes place in an alternate universe. He is the childhood friend of Gina and taught himself how to fight before becoming a Samurai, leaving him with a strong but unskilled fighting style; he is one of the best amongst the prentices. Both him and Gina become trapped in a domain set up by Amaymon, who bites Walter after Walter defeats him. Amaymon warns him that he will hunger for the power of demons due to the infection, with Walter yelling back that he will never give in. He has dreams of Flynn, who he has never met.

Shortly after the battle with Amaymon, Walter is sent to an abandoned mansion to investigate rumors of a Sabbath taking place there. He finds most of the cultists have been transformed into demons, and attacks them in a daze, having a vision of the Black Samurai. After this, he finds a bloodstained book. Curious, he attempts to take it, but Gina takes it off him and delivers it to the Monastery. Still interested in the book, Walter sneaks into the room holding it and has Burroughs use a translation app to have it read to him, as he is illiterate. This has the effect of showing him another vision, the Black Samurai beckoning him to Tokyo.

Unfortunately, that moment is when a group of Black Samurai followers choose to attack and partly burn down the Monastery. As he can't explain his presence in the Monastery, he is assumed guilty by Hugo. Amaymon then makes him hallucinate of its mouth and arm growing under Hugo's robes, and Walter attacks. The stunned Hugo condemns Walter to "exile" and removes his Samurai status. He is thrown in jail with another former Samurai named Stan, who also knows of Tokyo.

Before the sentence can be carried out, a group of Casualries assaults Mikado Castle, and Walter uses demonic power to smash open his cell, free Stan, and sneak into Naraku under cover of the Casualry attack. Upon reaching the Hall of the Minotaur, Amaymon again seizes control of Walter to kill and devour the Minotaur, opening a path to Tokyo.

After being infected by Amaymon, Walter begins to develop demonic powers he has no real control over. Amongst these are a regenerating healing power, superhuman strength, and the ability to grow Amaymon hands, mouths, and tentacles from his body. Another side effect is seeing illusions of Amaymon that cause him to attack others in order to kill the demon.

Skills
As a guest teammate in battle, he uses mostly normal attacks and Critical Wave, occasionally mixed with the Agi line of skills.

Trivia

 * Much like Jonathan and Flynn, Walter's name may be a reference to Chaos Hero who was nicknamed Waruo (translated as "bad guy") in the Kaneko Works.
 * This reference is further reinforced by Akira in the Infernal Tokyo who carelessly calls Walter a "bad boy" (悪い子面, warui-kodura) which upsets the latter.