Alignment

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Alignment is a recurring mechanic in the Megami Tensei franchise and a representation of an individual's moral or idealistic attitude. It is predominately featured in the Shin Megami Tensei series as a significant gameplay and story mechanic, but is also featured in Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon as well.

Alignments are measured on an axis scale between Law, Neutral, and Chaos (occasionally abbreviated together as LNC). These three Alignments represent an individual's position relative to their core beliefs and way of life, with the Law-aligned favoring peace maintained by strict order and discipline; Chaos-aligned preferring freedom and self-serving individuality; and Neutral-aligned striking a balance between the two extremes. Additionally, there is also another scale vertical to the LNC scale that is used for Demons: Light, Neutral, and Dark. These position spiritual affinity. Together, these six Alignments intersect to specify a Demon's complete Alignment. Altogether there are nine possible Alignments.

Alignments are predominately used to categorize Demons, mainly in determining which Demons the protagonist can or cannot recruit. Alignments are also notably a staple mechanic of story progression in the Shin Megami Tensei series, where certain actions taken throughout a game will shift the protagonist's own Alignment between Law, Neutral, and Chaos. This will either determine the ending route taken or reward the protagonist for choosing a route that aligns with their Alignment score.

Outside of determining Demon recruitment and some small mechanics, Shin Megami Tensei if... and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne do not have an Alignment system tied to their story progression; Nocturne instead has Reasons as an equivalent. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse does not use the LNC scale in its story progression, but rather uses a Light-Dark scale.

Mechanics

Alignments are positioned on a spectrum between two scales: Law-Neutral-Chaos and Light-Neutral-Dark. From these, there are nine possible Alignments.

Alignments

Light-Law	Light-Neutral	Light-Chaos
Neutral-Law	Neutral-Neutral	Neutral-Chaos
Dark-Law	Dark-Neutral	Dark-Chaos

Each Demon Race is associated with a particular Alignment, wherein all members of that Race share that Alignment. This mainly determines which Demons can or cannot be recruited, with Dark-aligned Demons unable to be recruited through Negotiation and must instead be fused. In some Shin Megami Tensei games, this limitation extends more widely, where Demons in general cannot be recruited or even fused if the protagonist's Law-Chaos Alignment is in opposition to their own. Neutral Alignment does not have this restriction for most Demons. Some games may also restrict equipment based on Alignment as well.

The protagonist typically starts out as Neutral-aligned. Certain actions taken throughout the game will shift the protagonist's Alignment score towards either Law or Chaos, usually from making key decisions or siding with certain characters of a particular Alignment. Maintaining a balance between the two extremes puts the protagonist in Neutral. In most Shin Megami Tensei games, the protagonist's Alignment affects which ending route is taken past the game's penultimate point, which leads to different story events and bosses, and ultimately determines which ending is received. In Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and Shin Megami Tensei V, however, the protagonist is allowed to choose an ending route regardless of their final Alignment score, but will incur a penalty for choosing a route that does not match. The protagonist's Alignment cannot be changed once they have passed the penultimate point, effectively locking them in the Alignment they have chosen.

Mechanics by Game

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Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (Famicom)

Alignment in Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei primarily exists as a way of classifying demons and has only one axis ranging between GOOD and EVIL, with NEUTRAL being in the middle.

GOOD-aligned demons are mainly demons created through fusion. All GOOD-aligned demons possess some form of magic and generally have higher stats than that of NEUTRAL demons, most notably having a higher HP pool.

NEUTRAL-aligned demons mostly consist of races that the player can encounter in dungeons and recruit via the TALK command. NEUTRAL demons generally do not possess magic and have relatively lower stats compared to GOOD demons.

EVIL-aligned demons can also be encountered in dungeons but cannot be recruited or fused and serve a purely antagonistic role. Defeating EVIL and NEUTRAL demons in combat will yield not only experience points, but also a specific type of reward depending on the demon's alignment - a Bead for NEUTRAL encounters and a set amount of Magnetite depending on the demon fought for EVIL encounters.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

The protagonist starts the game as a Neutral-aligned character. Periodically throughout the game dialogue options will be presented that will influence the protagonist's Alignment towards Law or Chaos, with their proper alignment being changed if the bias towards a particular Alignment is great enough.

Upon initiating negotation the opinion of the demon being negotiated with is influenced by the Alignment of both it and the protagonist. A Law-aligned demon will start off with a favorable opinion of a Law-aligned protagonist and an unfavorable opinion of a Chaos-aligned protagonist. Conversely, a Chaos-aligned demon will start off with a higher opinion of the protagonist if he is Chaos-aligned and a lower opinion if he is Law-aligned. If either the demon or the protagonist is Neutral-aligned, no change in opinion will happen before the negotiation takes place.

A mechanic unique to Strange Journey that interacts with Alignment is the Demon co-op mechanic. If a member of the protagonist's party strikes a weakness of the opposing party while there are other members that share their Alignment, a demon co-op attack will be initiated. A demon co-op attack deals Almighty-element damage to all enemies that were hit by the attack that triggered it. The damage of a demon co-op attack scales with the amount of party members that participate in it, from a minimum of one to a maximum of three.

Certain extra missions are available only to the protagonist if he is of a certain Alignment.

Towards the end of the game, after entering Sector Horologium and speaking with Commander Gore, the protagonist's Alignment will become locked. If the protagonist's Alignment is within a certain range around the Neutral alignment, he will have to answer certain questions to lock his Alignment to either Neutral, Law or Chaos. If the protagonist's Alignment is too far on the side of either Law or Chaos at this time, he will not be asked any questions and will be locked into his current Alignment for the rest of the game. This Alignment lock will determine the upcoming major bosses that the protagonist will face:

Endgame bosses by Alignment

Law	Neutral	Chaos
Commander Gore	Zelenin (Judge)	Commander Gore
Jimenez (Soil)	Jimenez (Awake)	Mastema
Mem Aleph	Mem Aleph	Zelenin (Pillar)