Magatama

Magatama (マガタマ, Magatama) are a parasite entity appearing in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, which function as a combination of armor, weapon and spellbook.

Profile
After the Conception, a young blond child whom the protagonist encountered earlier in the Shinjuku Hospital placed a Magatama into his eye, resulting in a parasitic fusion that partially altered his body. According to the old nurse alongside the child, Magatama is the very essence of a demon, and as such it is capable of turning a normal human into a demon. The transformation was necessary to allow him to survive in the now demon-ridden Vortex World.

The protagonist awakens in the morgue, and is now known as Hito-Shura, an individual that possesses the appearance of a demon but retains his human heart. A horn that grew on his nape serves a symbol of his being one with the Magatama.

At first, Hito-Shura merely develops the strength to fight with demons on equal terms, as well as communicating with a variety of races for possible purposes of negotiation, recruitment, and collecting information. As he grows stronger, the Magatama grants him new abilities ranging from regular attacks to special powers that no demon has ever seen nor used.

There are times that the Magatama within Hito-Shura's body will act up, and the effects of letting it do so can be either beneficial or detrimental to him. He can either be healed (on his own or all of his demon comrades), receive a permanent statistic increase, become inflicted by a status ailment or a powerful curse (different from the regular "curse" status ailment.)

The actual nature of the Magatama themselves are not heavily explored. Though they move on their own, it is mentioned that they are not actually living things. They are also described as "spirit(s) of misfortune", hence the occasional curses they place on the protagonist.

When Magatama are mastered (that is, when all of their potential moves have either been learned or forgotten), they will give "alignment points". In Nocturne, the Magatama alignment points change Hito-Shura's race. This is cosmetic and has no effect on the rest of the game, aside from a few doors in the Amala Labyrinth which only open for certain alignments.

List of Magatama
Throughout the game, the protagonist can collect a total of 25 Magatama, all sorted by three elements, Dark, Neutral and Light. Most of them can be found in Junk Shops, but others can only be gained by defeating bosses or completing special tasks.

Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
Magatama is the strongest Ammo available in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner. It's contained in a chest in the Muladhara Waterways which is only accessible after defeating Beelzebub. In the sequel, Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2, it can only be obtained by defeating the optional boss Jack Frost in the third layer of the Sun.

Persona 3: FES
As a cameo in Persona 3: FES, the Magatama appear as rewards for completing Elizabeth's request. A total of 4 Magatamas can be collected, where each of them represents the strongest elemental spell upon used, namely Flame Magatama, Ice Magatama, Shock Magatama, and Gale Magatama.

Persona 4
The Magatamas return in Persona 4, they now do a set 150 damage of one element. They are called Hell Magatama, Cyclone Magatama, Arc Magatama and Frost Magatama. These four items replicate the effect of the unique elemental spells learned by Surt, Odin, Thor and Loki respectively.

Trivia
In Japanese, Magatama is usually written as "勾玉" which literally translates to "curved jade". But in Nocturne, it is written as "禍魂" meaning "malevolent spirit". In DDS, it's seen as "禍弾" or "evil bullet".