SMT IV - Gabriel and Michael (Low Level, Master Difficulty, No Fusion)

This is actually footage from two separate battles spliced together. Like Uriel and Raphael, Gabriel and Michael are fought in succession, but Michael just really isn't possible at level 60 due to a single move that he uses, Fallen Grace. I wanted to show that Gabriel could still be defeated at level 60, but I had to level Flynn up significantly to recruit new demons in order to take on Michael. I used more or less the same strategy to defeat Gabriel at level 72, but it was a little easier with Flynn's increased magic and Concentrate.

Challenge run rules broken:
None for Gabriel.
Grinded from level 60 to level 72 for Michael.

Gabriel: I would definitely consider this to be the most annoying battle of the archangels. Her unique move is Lamentation, which is basically Ancient Curse with an additional branding effect. This means that Flynn has to equip a null sick accessory, and the other three demons are often completely incapacitated because of how few demons null ailments in this game. Hailstorm of God and Luster Candy are her other two moves early in the fight, so I brought two demons with repel ice and reserved the final demon slot for Fog Breath users. Flynn spends his turns hitting her with Zio, healing, and buffing to max, which is important for the second half of the fight.

Once Gabriel drops below about half HP and triggers her dialogue, she starts using a brutal Concentrate + Megidolaon combo, which demons rarely survive, even at +3/-3. At this point, Flynn pretty much needs to take out the remainder of her HP alone. I got a lot of smirks in a row in this attempt, but Flynn can also survive by alternating Zio and a Bead to take her down slowly. She usually won't do enough damage to take Flynn down, but things will go south if she uses Luster Candy too many times. Flynn also needs more than 400 HP left at the end of this fight to stand a chance against Michael because he uses Inferno of God on his first turn, and there's no opportunity to heal before that.

Michael: This is definitely one of my favorite strategies for all the optional bosses I've done. Flynn starts the battle with no demons and ends the battle with no demons, and that may well be the best strategy possible with these restrictions. Flynn is the only one capable of surviving Gabriel's Concentrate + Megidolaon assault on Master difficulty, so Bad Company is essentially required to get the team set up, the first time I've ever had to use it. After deleting Masakado from the stock, my three highest-leveled demons were the ones I wanted to use for this fight.

Michael has one move that completely destroys a low-leveled team: Fallen Grace. It's an almighty move that always does 666 damage, but it also has a chance to critical and give him an extra turn and a smirk. The problem with fighting him at level 60 is that Grendel and Catoblepas are the only demons that can have greater than 666 HP at that point, and there aren't any good demons that repel fire at that level. The best demon that repels fire would be Nekomata...at level 37, which wouldn't work with Bad Company, so I'd die on the first turn. However, at level 72, several new tools are available, such as Mediarahan, Cerberus, and Rangda. As it turns out, Mediarahan was completely unnecessary, so I definitely could have done this at level 68 after recruiting Rangda and substituting Abaddon for Cerberus to repel fire. It may have also been possible to win at level 64 as well, but it's not worth my time to try again.

Michael's other moves are Inferno of God, Charge, Archangel's Law, Javelin Rain, Carol Hit, and Silent Prayer. Charge and Archangel's Law both essentially serve the same purpose of making his next attack stronger, and he'll usually follow them up with either Javelin Rain or Carol Hit. However, with the Nibelengun armor (which I also wore in the Gabriel fight) and Rangda, Javelin Rain becomes a welcome sight. Carol Hit has a high chance of inflicting Lost, but he doesn't use it much. He only uses Silent Prayer when buffs cross +3 or -3, so it's not an issue.

As always, Flynn's magic is strong enough to nuke Michael into the ground. I think I probably could have won with Flynn's damage output at level 60 considering how many press turns I had left at the end. Nothing beats that feeling of withdrawing all my demons and going in for the kill in this game.

Note that I also did have to fuse Rangda, but she was recruitable back when Lucifer's Palace was still available. I could have gotten this exact same setup by reloading a previous save file and grinding to level 68 to recruit her before defeating Lucifer, but that would have been a waste of my time so I just fused her.