As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
Digital Devil Saga
- Beelzebub and his guards are sealed behind a red wall in the first game, so why didn't those guards die of starvation by the time Serph and co reach them? Some of the Mooks outside claim that a seemingly infinite number of rookies seem to spawn from the base, and more appear no matter how many they devour. Given that the whole Junkyard is a computer program, there might just be a spawn area.
- Both Harley and Mick the Slug are both cowards, but why did Mick manage to stay calm when Harley completely lost his head? Judging by the ex-Vanguard who says that Beelzebub had guards before the Red Wall sealed them off, and the fact that that wall will be there on the first visit, the Embryon visited the Vanguards shortly after Beelzebub went berserk. Harley's had a really bad day before the Embryon even showed up on his doorstep; the other monsters who ate his men are just the icing on the cake after one of his own men ate his subordinates.
- Gale takes the longest of the Embryon to awaken to his emotions. This is because Gale's original self was also The Stoic, while the rest of the Embryon were much more emotional in life so they awoke quickly. This meant that there wasn't anywhere near as much of a jarring contrast between the Junkyard Gale pre-Virus and the post-Virus Gale to force those emotions to the surface as easily.
- Someone on the Something Awful Forums said
: "I think it makes perfect sense for the bosses in the final area to be...pushovers. Remember who's sending them after the party at the moment? Sera. Yeah. Someone who doesn't want to kill them, just stop them. Unfortunately, nothing short of death can stop them at this point." - Regarding the Demi-Fiend: he's immune to all attack types, except for gun, earth, and almighty. Almighty can't be blocked by anything, anyway, but gun and earth can be explained if you remember that in Nocturne, the strongest Magatama shields you from all attack types... but gun and earth attacks aren't available in that game.
- Fridge Logic kinda kicks in from a canonical perspective when the Demi-Fiend could potentially nullify Dante's gunshots in Nocturne. Though it could just be because the developers didn't think to create a separate type of attack in that game, if you're looking at it from the gameplay mechanics.
- In DMC canon it's stated that Dante makes his bullets via magic so there's some justification.
- Why does the Demi-Fiend kick your ass so hard? Because he's the protagonist of one of the most punishing games in the series. Makes sense that having him beat up a variety of ragequit-inducing bosses makes him one of the most devastating fighters in the entire series.
- The battle themed used for his fight is the standard Nocturne battle theme. He's treating the Embryon as simply another random encounter.
- But in a twist of Fridge Brilliance, if you beat him, you're basically like any given late game encounter in Nocturne anyway. In other words, the Embryon is a squad of playable Demonic Spiders.
- Another twist of Fridge Brilliance, thanks to The Other Wiki: the one game where you are the demons (haha) rather than the demons being Mons, so the one game where you look like Random Encounters, and also the only game.
- Another reason he uses Gaea Rage if you have Immunities, Repels, or Drains of any kind? What would you do in Nocturne upon meeting a random encounter with random resistances (or full resistances) and no vulnerabilities around the board, and possibly suffering Checkpoint Starvation on top of that. You'd probably go "Fuck I haven't saved in an hour drop the most powerful spells I have those are minibosses. And the reason he doesn't go full throttle if you don't have those? Well, you wouldn't either if you didn't see the point.
- Fridge Logic kinda kicks in from a canonical perspective when the Demi-Fiend could potentially nullify Dante's gunshots in Nocturne. Though it could just be because the developers didn't think to create a separate type of attack in that game, if you're looking at it from the gameplay mechanics.
- Argilla makes for one of the best healers in the game because her real self was a nurse.
- Similarly, Heat O'Brien, the Guest-Star Party Member has more healing skills than any other type of skill, despite being the real self of the Embryon's muscle note . From a Doylist perspective, it's because he has to carry Serph though the fight, but from a Watsonian perspective, it's because he was a doctor.
- Cells are so valuable in the first game for the Temple because they are Karma technology intended to study the Junkyard's data.
Digital Devil Saga 2
- For some it can be seen as weird how Embryon, Sera, and Angel are reincarnated as younger versions of themselves with more normal hair colours. Remember that data can also be recycled as well as deleted!
- When you fight the Angels, Uriel and Michael lament on why God is not answering them. Then you realize that the game is based on Hindu mythology and that the god that they were trying to talk to is not the god that they think it is.
- Serph from Junkyard is nothing like the real Serph. Data Serph's lack of personality reflects Sera's lack of understanding of who Serph really was.
- Why do so many Optional Bosses from the second game reference Shin Megami Tensei II? Both games have you defeat that world's Top God as the Final Boss.
- While it does make sense that a beach is a part of Sera's virtual paradise to begin with, it makes even more sense when you know that Cielo was her friend. Cielo is from Jamaica, which is known for its beaches.
- Why do Hunt skills ignore immunities, repels, drains, and resistances? Everything in the game can be eaten! If it's not edible, you can't gain AP.
- Gale's Atma is named Twister. Angel's is named Maelstrom. Both are vortexes in the air and water respectively, hinting at their link as former lovers.
- Cielo is weak to ailments. It's implied that the original Cielo went insane and died before experimentation. He's weak to poison because he was drugged, mind ailments because he went insane, etc.
- The Demon Virus doesn't really act like The Virus; the victims of the carriers aren't infected. That's because it's not a biological virus. It's a computer virus; Roland and the unnamed Lokapala member were infected by being exposed to a computer.
- Why is Heat immune to ice attacks and able to cast ice abilities in his second boss fight? He and Serph both fell into the E.G.G. together.
- If the Junkyard was pitched as an urban warfare simulator to sell to the military, why was it still running five years after the black sun made war obsolete? The Karma Society was using it to fight the Lokapala. They might not have gotten to the microchip stage yet, but it's still a good tactics simulator.
- The fight with Real Varna and Fake Varna with each one referencing the evil and good sides of Serph Sheffield (from Sera's perspective) makes a lot of sense when you remember that Sera was a child and so would've have been able to reconcile Serph Sheffield's kindness to her with his true personality in an example of splitting. The two are even rendered black and white respectively just to drive the point home.
- Furthermore, the player's Serph has a mostly grey colour scheme and his Varna is also grey, taking elements from both Fake and Real Varnas. This symbolizes that the Serph we see in the first game is a cohesive whole, seen in shades of grey rather than black or white and a sign of Sera's growth in the way she views the world.
Digital Devil Saga
- Once you learn that the Junkyard was Sera's virtual paradise, a lot of things (such as the ship that you blow up) from the first game are really dark when you go back and play it again.
- The Embryon eats every random encounter. Including things like Slimes.
Digital Devil Saga 2
- In the second game, the Karma Society soldiers have sealed away Indrajit/Meganada in a sort of stasis. It turns out to be one of the first people to have the Atma Virus tested upon. When were they sealed, what's to say they're not unconscious, and how hungry must they be?!
- Considering that the faction leaders from the first game and Meganada's Solar Data was sent to the Sun but not any of the other bosses, it's likely that they were Killed Off for Real. Or at the very least have already been broken down without enough coherence for you to encounter them.
- During the fight with Brahman, it's likely that the player noticed that the prayer wheel on its head resembles the Amala Drums from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. It's actually a good thing that Brahman never tries to summon versions of the Demifiend otherwise the fight would've ended very differently.
