| For other uses, see Magatsuhi. |
Magatsuhi (禍つ霊, マガツヒ*)? in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and Shin Megami Tensei V / V: Vengeance is a very important substance in both the Vortex World and Da'at.
Overview[]
Magatsuhi is visualized as flowing red strands of energy, or a shining red liquid if allowed to pool. It affects the summoning, strength, and sustenance of demons, serving as a power medium.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne[]
A large amount of Magatsuhi is necessary to summon a Demonic Sponsor to support a Reason.
Magatsuhi is born from the flow of strong emotions and humans have an abundance of it, especially when they are in a panicked or fearful state. Manikins, counterfeit humans born from the emotions of multiple spirits, are also a source of Magatsuhi. It's implied almost every human being outside of the Shinjuku Hygienic Hospital at the moment of the Conception was reduced to Magatsuhi and drawn into the Vortex World, the remainder reduced to empty spirits. Pooled Magatsuhi can also settle in the earth to create Manikins.
Thor was seen violently draining Isamu Nitta of his Magatsuhi in the Mantra Army HQ, indicating this was the routine way of extracting the substance from living entities, similar to the torture the Manikins underwent when imprisoned in Kabukicho Prison.
The majority of the facilities in the Vortex World are powered by Magatsuhi. In fact, the Amala Network itself transmits matter between Amala Drum Terminals (in a two-way manner between large to large drums or a one-way manner from small to large drums) by merging solid states along Magatsuhi flow lines and moving them to the specified destination terminal in an instant.
The concentration of Magatsuhi is far from uniform, and a number of locations have immense deposits of it, either naturally or artificially stored. Hikawa created several devices for focused absorption of Magatsuhi, such as the True Core Unit in the Assembly of Nihilo's Shiodome base, the Obelisk and the Nightmare System.
Shin Megami Tensei V / Vengeance[]
Da'at can passively generate Magatsuhi, which can be crystallized into Magatsuhi Crystals, allowing the Nahobino to use them to heal his party's health (green), replenish spent MP (yellow), and fill the Magatsuhi Gauge (red).
The Magatsuhi Gauge is a mechanic that allows usage of special skills called Magatsuhi Skills once the Gauge is maxed out. Offensive Magatsuhi Skills cannot miss along with being severe tier skills with damage based on levels rather than Strength or Magic of the caster, while Support Magatsuhi Skills have more esoteric effects that vary from skill to skill.
A well of Magatsuhi can form in Da'at, which takes in the form of unique obstacles called Abscesses. Abscesses are nests filled with demons that attack anyone close enough to them, with a group of demons inside the Abscess acting as the controller of the Abscess, and killing all demons in turn kills the Abscess, which will then dissolve into motes of Magatsuhi. While the general reason for the Nahobino to take on Abscesses is to unlock more Miracles in the World of Shadows, in Shin Megami Tensei V only, Abscesses obstruct the maps the Nahobino possesses, forcing him to seek them out to see where he needs to go.
Among all bosses in the Shin Megami Tensei V games, Ishtar, a boss from the Canon of Creation storyline, is unique in that she uses external devices that pour Magatsuhi into her as a way to augment her abilities in a fight. It is then suggested to the Nahobino by a Decarabia to shut off the 8 generators to best Ishtar, though he doesn't have any actual confidence he would win against Ishtar and will be rather shocked if the Nahobino succeeds. How many of the devices the Nahobino finds and shuts down, which weakens Ishtar the more they are shut down until she is returned to her actual power level, before fighting Ishtar is up for the player to decide.
Unique to the Shin Megami Tensei V games is interactive deaths of demons. When demons are fatally struck by an offensive skill, their Magatsuhi vanishes into the same element that killed them, though this is only something for gameplay. In cutscenes, be it animated or in-game, they all die a uniform death animation.
- Physical Skills: Default animation. The demon dissolves into red motes of Magatsuhi that disperse in a spiral formation.
- Fire Skills: The demon catches alight and dissolves into flames, leaving nothing behind.
- Ice Skills: The demon freezes into solid ice, then swiftly explodes into pieces, which then dissolve. Being killed by ice skills also prevents a demon from making their death scream voice lines.
- Electricity Skills: Akin to Fire skills, but the demon is turned into static electricity that fritzes out.
- Force Skills: The demon transforms into wind and green motes of Magatsuhi that behave more like dead leaves caught in a gust of wind.
- Light Skills: The demon is turn into pure light and dissolves away into meaningless sigils as it does, with the sound of the process having a tendency to overwhelm softer demon death cries. The insta-kill ailment skill Evil Melody uses this kill animation.
- Dark Skills: The demon turns black and dissolves into a pile of dark ash. The insta-kill ailment skill Chaotic Will uses this kill animation.
- Almighty Skills: The demon melts into bright violet slime, akin to radioactive runoff.
Trivia[]
- In Persona 4, Magatsu-Izanagi is the palette swap of the original Izanagi (with different animations). The Magatsu counterpart is tinted red, same as the color of Magatsuhi in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
- Magatsuhi's purpose in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and Shin Megami Tensei V is similar to that of the Magnetite from various Megaten games, where they are both a naturally occurring, supernaturally inclined substance found in the bodies of humans and used to summon demons.