A novel adaptation, Giten Megami Tensei: Distant Flow ~EXILE~, was released in a December 1995 issue of TRPG's Logout.
This work shows examples of:
- Absurdly High Level Cap: The level cap is 99, as usual. However, the Final Boss is only level 52, and the highest-leveled demon you can recruit is Kalki at level 70. You'll probably be somewhere between those two when you beat the game.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: Entering Kishimojin Temple during a Full Moon will allow you to meet Hariti, who gives you a bell. Using this bell during a later boss fight with her son, Priyankara will end it early.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Subverted. While most bosses are immune to Light and Dark, it's not uncommon for them to merely resist most status effects. The resistance is usually high enough to make inflicting a status effect unlikely, but it's usually not impossible.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: One type of healing item you can find is a brownie that can inflict High when consumed.
- Dual Boss: Presumably due to hardware limitations, boss fights against larger groups consist of many of these in sequence.
- Fantastic Caste System: People living in the shelters are assigned "citizen levels", which determine their social standing, as well as what they're given when the shelters' limited resources are distributed.
- Full-Frontal Assault: A not-insignificant number of demons in this game resemble human women in varying stages of undress.
- Game-Breaking Bug:
- If an NPC gives you items as part of a dialogue sequence and your inventory is full, you'll be trapped, since the "discard items to make room" routine never properly terminates.
- If you re-equip your melee weapon after being disarmed by an enemy, a blank space will appear in your inventory. This isn't an item, but it does take up space like one.
- Hotter and Sexier: By far, one of the only games in the SMT franchise to flat-out have explicit sexual content, due to it being published exclusively on the PC rather than console.
- Intoxication Ensues: "Tipsy", "Drunk", and "High" exist as status ailments in this game, and can be inflicted by certain skills, weapons, or items.
- Melee Disarming: Present in the form of the "Disarm" skill. It's a Sword skill that deals no damage on its own, but removes the target's melee weapon if it hits. You can simply re-equip it afterwards, but enemies have no such luck.
- Modular Epilogue: After defeating the Final Boss, there are multiple ending cutscenes. Which cutscenes play vary depending on Ayato's alignment, which Love Interest you chose, and whether or not you answered "yes" to any of the dialogue prompts after the fight.
- Oddball in the Series:
- Turns are handled via an ATB-esque cooldown system.
- Your alignment can be shifted along both the Law-Chaos and Light-Dark axes. It's also not the main factor in determining which ending you get, although some of them do require a specific one.
- While there are physical and magical skills, no elements are inherently physical or magical.
- The Almighty element is absent. The Megido- line of spells are still present, but they're assigned to the Sword element instead.
- Demons can level up and learn skills, but it's handled very differently from later games — each demon has a list of skills they can learn which consists of up to three different sub-categories, resulting in a much larger number of skills to learn. They can also equip weapons and armor like human party members.
- Player Personality Quiz: You take a personality test at the start of the game. The results you get determine Ayato's starting stats and what types of skills he can learn.
- Pre-existing Encounters:
- Random encounters in dungeons work this way. Demons appear throughout a given floor, and will either fight you or talk to you if they notice you. You can also select the "Fight" option in the menu to challenge all nearby demons, or select a demon to talk to by pressing "Talk".
- There are also certain spots in dungeons where enemies will appear and immediately start a fight.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Yoyogi Olympic Pool. When you first enter, you can only travel along the walls, since a group of Jack Frosts froze it. If you clear them out, it thaws, allowing you to move freely.
- Useless Useful Spell: Expel skills are usually a liability, since the few demons that aren't immune to them are either still heavily resistant to them or weak to a ton of other elements.
- Virtual Training Simulation: The Devil Busters of Hatsudai Shelter have one. In addition to regular training, it's also used as part of the entrance exam for new recruits. Civilians can use it too, but they're restricted to the lowest setting for safety reasons.
