Awesome / Shin Megami Tensei IV

"Congratulations on completing the quest!"

—Burroughs

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• First, the way the your death is handled in this game in contrast to past mainline SMT games: Instead of a Game Over where your demons simply ditch you for being a weak master, they will keep fighting until they win, bail the entire party out of battle, or die trying. ("The rest of the party is trying their best...") Not only is it a useful Anti-Frustration Feature, it reflects just how much your demons respect you in this game; one interpretation of this feature is your demons going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against whoever just killed you.
• Minotaur, your first real bossfight, is definitely one. Everything from his design to Battle B2 playing in the background to his battle dialogue to the fight itself is amazing, and the game makes you feel like a badass for beating him.
  Minotaur: Now come, Samurai. Put on a good show!
• Kaga and a dozen Ring of Gaea members get one during the fight with Xi Wangmu. After she shows herself to be practically invulnerable, several fighters, including Kaga, swarm her and get devoured. However, they continue to fight from inside Xi Wangmu's innards, weakening her to the point where your party can kill her. Sadly, they still perish, but it's still incredibly impressive.
• Going the Law path at least once is worth it because you can fight Mastema again. Then again, this version of him is far from the Jerkass he was in Strange Journey, so...
• Walter has an Offscreen Moment of Awesome if you choose to go with Jonathan in the initial split. After slaying Lilith, Flynn and Jonathan go to Camp Ichigaya, where they find that Walter had torn through the four National Defense Divinities and went One-Man Army on the Ashura-Kai.
• The Neutral path has Burroughs giving White Issachar an incredibly satisfying Shut Up, Hannibal! speech. In the Law and Chaos paths, it's Jonathan and Walter who call him out on his ludicrous posturing and tell him to shove it, calling him and by extension the White as a group cowards who do nothing more than spout excuses.
  Burroughs: Scanning... *Scans White Issachar* Excuses, unjustified resentment, self-justification, a rash desire to negate oneself...I don't see any good reason to join their cause.
  Jonathan: A pretty speech, but it sounds to my ears like so much unjustified resentment and self-righteousness. We who fight for the people shall never join you in your cause!
  Walter: I'm sorry, but I still hear nothing but excuses from your lips. We're out to strike down the old order of things! How could we find common cause with cowards like you?
• Getting on Neutral is an awesome moment in and of itself due to how unnecessarily difficult it is to achieve without a guide.
• Tearing the Ancient of Days apart, crushing Sanat beneath your heel... and realize life is returning to Blasted and Infernal Tokyo after all.
  • The fight against the Ancient of Days particularly stands out. Not only is he incredibly difficult to beat, but defeating him means that you've destroyed an avatar of God.
• Completing For the Past... For the Future. You restore the rampaging Masakado and ensure history is put on track as the Firmament forms, earning the game's best demon, many thanks from Masakado himself, Stephen and Burroughs, and saving, quite literally, everything and everyone.
• The neutral path ending. There's just something breathtaking about watching a layer of bedrock covering all of Tokyo slowly be lifted away.
• Even if it's brief and conditional on picking the right answer to his taunt, it feels wonderful to hear Merkabah, Knight Templar though he may be, acknowledge you as the Light for the Unclean Ones in opposition to the Light of the Lord. Same goes for when Lucifer, even if just as briefly, recognizes you have what it takes to be the Light of Hope for Tokyo if you answer him correctly. Hell; every time you get the right answer to a boss' taunt and throw back their words at them, or empower yourself with the sheer might of your beliefs, it is indeed a Moment of Awesome.
  • While the Law Ending is more (rather twisted) Heartwarming moment as you see a Mikado that your actions ensured an eternity of peace for, the Chaos Ending is an (arguably just as twisted) Awesome moment as you and Lucifer stand atop the castle walls watching Mikado burn and demons swarming over the city. Lucifer laments that without a worthy ruler to help them, they'll destroy themselves. For a moment you think that he's talking about himself, and that he's about to stab you in the back and take the world for his own, but...
  Lucifer: What they secretly dream of is a new king...will you rise to rule them?
• The DLC Archangel Battles. Yeah, you do fight Merkabah and all, but payback against the self-righteous bastards themselves is so sweet after the pants-wetting they gave you and your friends at the Cocoon. Not to mention they have one of the best boss themes in the game, between the remix of SMT I and II's LAW themes and the "HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!"
• Finding a Fiend. David, the Infernal Ikebukuro Horsemen quartet and Mother Harlot don't count. It doesn't matter if you beat them; just finding one of them is an accomplishment in and of itself.
  • On the same note, the Infernal Ikebukuro Horsemen quartet. No other Megaten game to date has you fight all four Horsemen AT ONCE.
  • Beating one is a very awesome moment for the player. Think about it: you are fighting a very powerful enemy that always gets the first move, has at least five Press Turns to use, possesses skills that can easily tear through your defenses, goes into Almighty spam mode if you put up any immunities, is capable of using tactics to find the best way to wipe out your entire party, and more health than the Final Boss of any route. The deck is very much stacked against you...and you won anyways.
• Killing the Black Samurai / Yuriko / Lilith, because as Burroughs points out, it completes two quests at the same time. Enjoy the massive dump of EXP.
• The Terminal Guardian gets a couple awesome moments as well. For one, it's his sheer determination in not letting you access to the terminals. But specifically the last two fights with him. The fight of which he summons Mara, that while infamous for it's design is still an extremely powerful end-game demon, and the last one which looks like at first a bit of an anticlimax boss being two demons that are not that difficult but he then fuses them to create Shiva, one of the highest level demons in the game.
• It's very hard to achieve, but if you can get your entire party to Smirk at the same time, everyone in it gets a full party heal.
• On the Neutral route, Fujiwara gets an Offscreen Moment of Awesome only revealed in dialogue with NPCs: with Tayama dead, he commands the Ashura-kai to shut down all its illegal operations, but keep the shops they run open for the benefit of the people. They comply. It's implied rather strongly that Tayama was afraid of Fujiwara, and the only reason Fujiwara didn't immediately take him down is that he was waiting for Tayama to throw the first punch.
• In Pluto Castle, you, Jonathan, and Walter confront Pluto, who does...something described as some sort of intense pressure in an attempt to intimidate the three of you. Jonathan and Walter are unfazed by this and threaten to tear it a new one.
  • Partway through the fight, Pluto demands that the trio repair it, but Walter and Jonathan simply respond with one-liners. Jonathan's in particular can either be interpreted as Sincerity Mode or deadpan humor.
    Walter: "Sorry, I'm afraid not."
    Jonathan: "We are not very knowledgable about mechanics, after all."
• Also on Neutral, that katana that Skins has been unable to unsheathe for 25 years? You get a cutscene of Flynn pulling the damn thing out. Skins and Fujiwara are left in awe, and for good reason.
• Chemtrail's existence. It's a Fiend based on modern conspiracy theories (specifically in its case, the theory that jet engine smoke trails contain malicious chemicals).
• If you go with Jonathan after the party splits up, Walter goes to Camp Ichigaya by himself and slays a good chunk of the Ashura-kai, including Tayama. Too bad you only get to see the dead bodies and not the attack in action.