David is likely based off of an old French superstition that's focused on in the tone poem Danse Macabre (Camille Saint-Saens), which tells about how Death summons the dead from their graves every midnight on Halloween, to dance "their dance of death" for him while he played the violin. They dance until the cock crows at dawn, Death leaves and the dead return to their graves.
Kaneko's design and choice of pose for David both draw inspiration from an illustration in the Dictionnaire Infernal, while the colours are inspired by a colorized version seen on the cover of the 1975 Swedish book Sällsamheter i Bohuslän och Dalsland by Edvard Matz, seen here. His name is a reference to the Davidoff Stradivarius, a famous violin created by Antonio Stradivari, which is left behind by David after his defeat in Shin Megami Tensei.[1]
Profile[]
Shin Megami Tensei[]
"Origin: ? A skeletal violinist. He plays crazed melodies on his enchanted violin. This music drives the listeners to dance the dance of death."
—Shin Megami Tensei A-Mode DDS dictionary
David is one of three rare and difficult bosses that can be found hidden in the game. If defeated, he has a slim chance of dropping the Stradivari, the most powerful Neutral-aligned weapon in the game.
Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE[]
David was introduced during the 2014 Halloween event where he was a rare boss in the Hacked Chip Kappa instance. As a reference to the rarity of fiend encounters in the original Shin Megami Tensei game, the event site stated "He has a higher than 1/256 chance to appear!" There, he spawned with a large number of Matadors who needed to be defeated in order to deal damage to him. Players were able to obtain him through an event quest where Pyro Jack wanted to recruit him for his band. He could be fused in a triple fusion of Matador, Turdak and Chatterskull.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey[]
"A violinist of inhuman power who appears as a skeleton. He travels around Europe with the gypsies and plays his enchanting violin that causes people to dance the dance of death."
—Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey compendium
David first appears in the EX Mission "Escape Plan," harassing members of the Strike Team who participated in the feint operation made for the protagonist to confront Master Mitra, and are now trapped due to being hemmed in by a multitude of demons. After killing the team's leader, David proceeded to stalk them through the sector, the music from his violin allowing the remaining strike team members to discern his location, but also unnerving them at the same time. When the protagonist helps the team find their way out, they find David stationed at the door they need to take to return to the Red Sprite, waiting for them. After defeating David, he becomes available for summoning using the Demonica's Demon Summoning Program with the Fiend Converter sub-app.
David's dialogue and the ending of the EX Mission changes depending on the number of wrong doors the protagonist chooses. Behind every wrong door are demons that will ambush the team, which results in the death of one of the strike team members. If the protagonist manages to guide the team correctly, the entire team survives after David is defeated. If there were any casualties earlier due to the protagonist's wrong choices, after David is defeated, a pack of demons will ambush Dawson and Keema, who were the first two to rush out of the door leading back to the Red Sprite. The pair will then sacrifice themselves, pulling a grenade to take the high level demons into death with them.
Shin Megami Tensei IV[]
"A violinist of inhuman power who appears as a skeleton. He travels around Europe with the Romani and plays his enchanting violin that causes people to dance the dance of death."
— Shin Megami Tensei IV compendium
David appears in the Challenge Quest, "Dance of the Dead," where the curse emanating as a result of him having hordes of spirits dance has affected a nearby village, resulting in the curse's victims dying and leaving pitch black corpses behind. Flynn is sent to the 3rd Stratum of Naraku to slay the five Calamity Hordes believed to be the source of the curse. After defeating the last horde, David will ambush Flynn without warning, which might catch unsuspecting players by suprise as nowhere is it stated in the quest description that any powerful foes might show up. He expresses surprise that Flynn was able to easily defeat his hordes. He states that the fear of death will appear before humans time and again while shifting its form before attacking. After being defeated, David congratulates Flynn on evading his curse, however, he states that it is not so easy to overcome the fear of death and that he will appear before Flynn again in another form.
David, along with all the other Fiends, is encountered in Twisted Tokyo. The first Fiend faced, David is encountered on B2F and drops the Stradavari (Gun, 660 power, single hit/single target) from the second cycle onwards. He is fought at level 910 on cycle 9.
David's biggest problem-causers are his Dormina and his Haunting Rhapsody, which have a high chance of causing Sleep and Panic respectively, forcing Nanashi to lose turns in an already tight time limit per session. Haunting Rhapsody also reduces the entire party's battle stats, so immunity to Panic will not necessarily cause him to lose turns. Still, bringing demons immune to both Sleep and Panic, or with Null Mind, will make the battle a fair bit easier, as he would start to resort to his less effective Agidyne and Bufudyne attacks which also don't pierce any resistance unlike future Fiends. Bringing Chironnupu and using Warding Shout to block David's status ailment skills is also viable, although Chironnupu is weak to Agidyne. Fully debuffing him will cause him to use Dekunda.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner[]
One of the four new bosses included in the PSP Version of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, David can only be fought after beating the game once. Its design is based on the Latter Human Type 2 form of Zeed in Soul Hackers.
+15% chance to inflict status ailments, +15% to EV.
Innate
Deadly Melody
Auto
When an enemy is inflicted with a status ailment: Increases two of the following by 20%: ATK, DEF or EV/AC of all party members. (1 turn) Reduces two of the following by 20%: ATK, DEF or EV/AC of all enemies. (1 turn)
Innate
Bemusing Rhapsody
6 MP
50% chance to inflict Charm on all enemies and 80% chance to Curse all enemies after removing Barriers from all enemies.
Innate
Mind Blast
7 MP
Inflicts Almighty (Magic) damage on a single enemy with 100 power and reduces MP by 4.
Aragami (Awaken)
Ailment Survivor
Auto
+15% chance to inflict status ailments, and HP stops at 1 HP upon receiving the first killing blow.
Aragami (Gacha)
Mahamakajam
6 MP
30% chance to inflict Mute on All Enemies.
Protector (Awaken)
Epitome of Swiftness
Auto
Increases this demon's effect on Battle Speed by 25%, +10% to Phys EV.
