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Megaten Speedruns Resources

Shin Megami Tensei V

Shin Megami Tensei V is the latest entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series, released worldwide on November 11, 2021, as the first entry to be completely set in a semi-open world which encourages to player to explore. It was later re-released as Shin Megami Tensei: Vengeance on all platforms. This version of Shin Megami Tensei V remains exclusive to the switch and is only available on cartridge, as this version was unlisted from the Nintendo e-shop. Shin Megami Tensei V Cover
Leaderboards See all the submitted runs on Speedrun.com

About

Section titled “About”

Shin Megami Tensei V was the first mainline console megaten since Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and was received quite well by the community. Unfortunately, being constrained to the Switch and being plagued with performance issues led to a slow uptake of runners and now, with its re-relase being available on all platforms, it might remain one of the nichest mainline speedruns.

The main difference between the main difficulties, Hard and Normal, are that on Hard the player receives more damage, has a lower chance of escaping and a higher chance of missing attacks. Casual difficulty has not received a lot of attention from the community. Safety difficulty, which can be unlocked as free DLC, has the player do 10x and receive a tenth of the normal damage, which is why the runs are much faster.

The run consist of mostly finding ways around the very evident level scaling. Level scaling denotes a sharp increase in damage taken and inflicted on an enemy if there is a wide gap between the levels of the player and enemy. Even on safety, level scaling is quite prominent and has the player complete a side-quest in each area that gives the player a free demon with a higher than expected level.

On Normal and Hard, the routes take advantage of Omagatoki: Luck, a Magatsuhi skills that greatly increases the earned EXP and Macca at the end of a fight. By using it at the end of a boss fight, the player can climb levels fast enough to not require grinding sections.

The NG+ run keeps all levels and demons from previous iterations and is done on Safety difficulty, so it’s a more streamlined version of the Safety speedrun.

Finally, the Demifiend% run ends on beating Demifiend, a DLC fight included in the Fiend DLC. This run requires a very specific setup that has the player reach level 94 and use a specific array of demons to take full advantage of Omagatoki: Adversity and defeat Demifiend.

Speedrun History

Section titled “Speedrun History”
Hard
  1. The first completed run was done on 2021/12/31 by romulostx with a time of 12:40:45. This time would be improved to a time of 9:53:27
  2. On 2022/05/28, Shaggy3311 improved the record to a time of 9:29:02 and brought it down to a time of 8:24:14
  3. On 2022/11/25, asapaska improved the world record to a time of 8:10:56
  4. On 2023/01/02, Shaggy3311 improved the world record with a time of 7:25:44
  5. Following the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 on 2025/06/05, on 2025/06/07, asapaska improved the world record with a time of 7:10:48
Normal
  1. The first completed run was done on 2021/12/04 by ChampionBeef with a time of [13:06:25]. ChampionBeef kept improving the run until reaching the 10h mark with a [10:35:20].
  2. The first to achieve the sub 10h time was inunyako with his time of [9:33:55] that he later improved to a [8:13:40].
  3. On 2022/03/05, Peaked achieved a new world record with a time of [7:18:14].
  4. On 2023/06/18, shaggy3311 applied some of the route improvements done to the Hard difficulty of TNE and achieved a time of [6:22:33]. He soon improved it to a [6:05:48].
  5. Jonperi23 claimed the record then in August with a 1 minute PB of [6:04:45].
  6. Freedom_Pulse improved the record again by two minute with a time of [6:02:13].
  7. Jonperi23 reclaimed the record two weeks later with the first sub 6h time of [5:53:35].
  8. Freedom_Pulse recovered the record a month later, with the second sub 6h time of [5:52:55].
  9. The current world record is held by shaggy with a time of 5:46:32.
Safety
  1. The first completed run was done on 2021/12/03 by Nerdy_Amico with a time of [5:29:07].
  2. A month later, Engiki improved the world record with a time of [3:58:46].
  3. On 2022/03/11, sioneus claimed the world record with a time of [3:34:15].
  4. 2 days later, inunyako achieved a new world record of [3:28:25], which he later improved to [3:21:25].
  5. On 2022/09/21, asapaska achieved a new world record with a time of [3:10:12].
  6. With the release of the Switch 2, ToxicTT improved the world record to a time close to the sub 3h mark of 3:02:47

Categories

Section titled “Categories”

True Neutral Ending

Any%

All Bosses

Demifiend%

Glitches & Tricks

Section titled “Glitches & Tricks”

Notes

Section titled “Notes”

Resources

Section titled “Resources”