Acquiring SMT if...

Follow this link to acquire SMT if.... It is pre-patched.

Useful Links

• Walkthrough of Reiko's route
• Re-Miel's FAQ
• Dungeon maps
• List of Items
• List of Guardians
• List of Skills

Tips and Tricks

• If you are able to read Japanese or use a guide, play the PS/iOS version, seriously. Not only does it have better UI and new content, it has most of the annoying events from the original version fixed.
• Before you start If... (PSX), create SMT1 and SMT2 save files on your Memory Card to get some extra bonuses in World of Sloth to make your life easier (I don't think you're required to beat SMT1&2, you just need the save files; there's more info on the wiki).
• Pick up Reiko as your partner for the first playthrough. Not only does her storyline reveal the reason behind Hazama's shenanigans, you are going to (almost) fully experience what the other two main routes have to offer. Yumi's route is probably the worst when it comes to unique content - it's literally the same as Reiko's route, minus the ultimate form of the final boss and explanation of why Hazama became the Majinou. Charlie's route is also pretty bad - his route has unique World of Wrath, but other than that, there's not that much interesting to look at (the unique dungeon tiles, music and cool-looking boss is neat, but not worth it imo). After you beat the game once, you can pick up Akira as your partner for the second playthrough (his route is very different and has lots of unique content).
• Choose the male protagonist (Nobu) for Reiko's (or Yumi's) route. After you defeat the boss of World of Gluttony, new weapons and armor will be available at its Casino, and these items are male-only. You can select the female protagonist (Tamaki) for Akira's (or Charlie's) route, if you want to. (If you choose Tamaki, and your partner is also female, the best Sword you're going to have for mid-game (after you complete World of Sloth) is the Triple Dagger - it has Charm effect, but it's very weak.)
• Mindset of thinking that you're playing SMT2 all over again will fuck you over - despite of using the same engine and having lots of reused assets, If... has a couple of new annoying gameplay mechanics added and some demons have new strengths and weaknesses they didn't had in SMT2. If you don't get used to it, you will experience a world of pain. Thinking that I can cheese through the whole game, just like I did in SMT1&2 was my biggest mistake when I played If... for the first time. It's still possible to easily break the game, but you need to pay more attention and know about some semi-hidden events.
• Since your demons from the back row can't use physical attacks, put your physical attackers (preferably someone with Physical resistance, like Morrigan or Hathor) in the front row, and put your Gunner with Randi Shots together with support demons in the back row.
• Always buy LOTS of Randi Shots (800 bullets / 8 magazines is enough).
• ALWAYS watch out for enemy's Mudo.
• Having more than 20 Speed and Tetraja for your partner is very important, and debuffs on late game bosses is a must (Lilith, Ultimate Chefei, Warped Mind Hazama and Druj can fuck you up real hard). If... is not Nocturne or DDSaga where you can prepare Magatama or Shield Skills before the boss fights. There is also no Press Turn system in this game, so if you're slow as shit and can't outspeed the boss to cast Tetraja before he casts Mudo - you're fucked.
• After you get the COMP from Yawata-sensei in the very beginning of the game, enter a single room on the Western side of 3F in the School to get free Jack Frost. Later on, you can find Alice in this room on Full Moon and New Moon if you want to kill yourself or your partner when you find that your or your partner's Guardian Meter is full (PS version only).
• When you run into Pixie for the first time in the School, Talk to her and select these options: 1. "Where are we?" (ここわどこ), 2. "Ootsuki-sensei (大月先生)", 3. "Jakyou no Yakata"　(邪教の館). After that, ask her "Who am I?" (私は誰), then say "Yes" - she will join your party.
• When you run into demons near the School entrance and the Gym, get yourself and your partner killed to get your first Guardians. After that, try not to die until your or your partner's Guardian Meter is full. Sometimes, you might want your partner to die before his/her Guardian Meter is full, though - some Guardians have more useful skills than the others. See the Guardians wiki page for more info.
• You want to focus on boosting Vit and Str for your character and Mag, Int and Vit for your partner. Speed is also very important in the second half of the game; make sure you have at least 20 of it for both characters when you get to World of Jealousy.
• There should be a Floppy Disk lying at the Eastern end of the corridor on 2F in the School (in the SFC version, you also have to face North to find it). Pick it up and give it to the student in the Computer Room. Soon after when you come back, you have an option to fight Cerberus (choose "No" when asked if you will let him pass), and if you win, he will join your party. You want to get him before entering the World of Sloth. Make sure you bring some demons with buffs who aren't weak to Fire (I had Unicorn, Gagyson and Cait Sith), and you have some free Memory in your COMP. If you got King Frost armor set and swords after revisiting the Casino in World of Gluttony, you shouldn't have any problem at all.
• In World of Arrogance, there are 4 tiles in the dungeon with a woman saying something about the moon phase - when you step on these tiles at 3/8 Moon, a man will appear who will give you some free female-only armor and a sword.
• Buy two Gonz Pistols and a few full Normal Round magazines.
• If you can afford it, buy about 40-60 Scrying Balls from the Junk Shop, so you don't have to worry about keeping a demon with Mappara.
• Just like in SMT1, Randi Shots which inflict Charm on enemies are your best friends. Just make sure you have a nice fat supply of them (about 800 bullets/8 magazines is good), and you don't end up with an empty magazine during Auto-Battle (if your character starts using Defend, you can cancel Auto-Battle and manually re-load the magazine).
• There is a Casino in World of Gluttony. I recommend trying to win lots of coins at Keno and grab the items you need from the Cashier (you can get some armor with good resistance).
• After you defeat the boss of World of Gluttony, go back to the Casino - LOTS of new items will be available, including full King Frost set and some great male-only swords. You also want to get about 50 Luster Candies (for late game boss fights), 20 React Sheets (could be useful for summoning more than one demon, if you don't have anyone with Sabbatma in your active party) and Fuuma Bells (in case you want to safely get to the Save Point or simply don't want to run into random encounters).
• In World of Sloth, to advance ONE TILE on B3F map, you need to walk around ON THIS FLOOR for ONE FULL MOON CYCLE. In the PS version, you can tell when the students have finished digging through one tile when instead of the TALK? dialog, the masked woman with a whip appears in your way.
• At B3F, you can dig through a tunnel to get to APPRAISE room. If you get to it, you will recieve some bonuses, depending on what Atlus games save files you have on your PSX Memory Cards. If you have SMT1 save file, you're going to get +2 to all stats for your characters.
• You might want to fuse a demon with Estoma, like Unicorn (lv 19) or Tsuchigumo (lv 27) for this dungeon. An easy way to fuse them is out of random triple fusion from Tenshi (Holy Ghost, Angel, etc), Datenshi (Ukobach, Gagyson, etc) and Fairy (Gremlin, Elf, etc). Or you can use those Fuuma Bells you got from the Casino.
• Another option is to recruit and fuse some demons (I fused Ogre and Tsuchigumo, and put them in the front row together with Cerberus, while Tamaki and Reiko provided Gun support with Randi Shots; if you play as Nobu, you can put him in the front row and rip every demon you encounter to shreds with pretty much any sword you can get from the Casino), talk to the Dark Old Man in the beginning of the dungeon, and walk around B3F killing off Dark demons, waiting for those clowns to dig through another tile until the next Moon cycle. It might take a couple of hours to complete the dungeon, however: 1. you're going to max out your Magnetite so you won't have to worry about running low on it, 2. you get a whole lot of Macca, and you're going to need it, 3. you will gain quite a few level ups to boost that Speed stat, 4. you're probably going to max out your Guardian Meter a couple of times, and if you plan on beating the true final boss of Reiko's route, you really want to level up your character's Guardian to get the Hinokagutsuchi.
• At this point, demons with Mudo will start to show up. Do not EVER underestimate the power of Hama and Mudo. ALWAYS watch out for Mudo - 95% of my deaths were thanks to this fucking skill, so you want to be extra careful when you encounter Furiae, Dominion or Legion. To make matters worse, some demons with Mudo are immune to Charm and Gun attacks (Cailleach Bheare, Nyx), so if you can, recruit these demons and when you encounter them again, use Talk option (or Escape, if it's Full Moon). Learn which demons use Mudo or Hama, and always have one speedy active party member with Tetraja to make sure you and your demons won't die in an unfair way.
• In World of Jealousy, there is a special single room in the Town which can only be accessed from the Darkness/Fog tiles. DO NOT ENTER THIS ROOM UNTIL YOU BEAT THE BOSS OF THIS DUNGEON!!! Apparently, you can get a free Masamune sword from the Makai inhabitant in that room, but there is a condition that you must have your partner with you, which means you have to clear the dungeon and beat the boss first.
• Buy SPAS12 (hits ALL) and a restock on Randi Shots. Remember, you don't want to deal extra damage with Randi Shots, you simply want to keep the enemies Charmed.
• Buy 30-90 Megidola Stones from the Junk Shop - these might come in handy for some random encounters and endgame boss fights.
• For the boss fight, you want to bring a speedy demon with Tetraja (Lv.41 Omoikane is really good) and at least one demon with Sukunda (Lv.7 Hanako and (especially) Lv.31 Yaka are great for late game boss fights, as they know every -nda skill).
• When you get to the Town in World of Greed, buy the Golden Gun (you have to go back to World of Jealousy to restock on Randi Shots, if you need to). Put Reiko in the back row and make her Charm enemies with Gun attacks, while Nobu/Tamaki deals heavy sword damage.
• Buy 30-50 (or more) Scapegoat Beads from the Junk Shop to counter cheap Mudo deaths - these will revive your characters with little amount of HP when they are killed; very useful for Ultimate Chefei and True Final Boss fights.
• It seems that you can recruit demons higher your level. I was at level 43, and managed to recruit Dakini (Lv.45) in World of Greed.
• If you want to fight Chefei's Ultimate form, make sure you've emptied all 15 treasure chests on the way to her boss room. If you've opened the chest, but your inventory is full, you have to sell or Drop something, and pick up the item from the chest again.
• Probably the easiest way to kill Chefei's Ultimate form is to use Luster Candy 4 times, debuff her, and after that have your characters Use Megidola Rock.
• To get Hinokagutsuchi in World of Jealousy, you need your character's Guardian to be one of the top three Guardians from the character's Guardian list (e.g. Rahab, Masakado or Kalki for STR-Nobu; Garuda, Susanoo or Kali for SPD-Tamaki, etc).
• When you get Hinokagutsuchi, be careful - some enemies can Block, Absorb, or even Reflect its attacks, so you might want to run away from Jinn, Nyarlathotep, Hecate, etc.
• For the true final boss, you want to bring demons with debuffs. I used Hanako to cast 4 times Tarunda, Sukunda and Rakunda (Yaka is a better option, though), had Tamaki and Reiko use 2 Luster Candies whenever he used Dekaja, and kept hitting him with Hinokagutsuchi, Megidola Stone and physical attacks (Durga and Hecate did their job).

Tips for Akira Route

• Start upping Akira's Strength and Intelligence first. If you want to recruit Sobek and Thoth, you're going to need at least 12 of either those stats. When you get to that, focus on upping his Speed (20-25 should be good for Druj boss fight) and Vitality.
• Land of Nomos is divided into 6 parts: Nomos Earth (basement), 1st Nomos, 2nd Nomos, 3rd Nomos, 4th Nomos and Nomos Heaven (top).
• In Nomos Earth, there are three vast large rooms behind closed bars on B6F, B4F and B2F. In these rooms you can find three powerful demons who might join your party, if certain conditions are met. When you encounter them, there will be three options: "Fight", "Negotiate" and "Leave".
  • To recruit Hathor (B4F), you must Negotiate with her on New Moon.
  • To recruit Sobek (B6F), you need to level up Akira's Strength or Intelligence to 12. When you release Sobek from the jar, select "Negotiate", then select "Fight" - if everything is correct, Sobek will join your party.
  • To recruit Thoth (B2F), you need to have both Hathor and Sobek summoned in your active party while Negotiating with him.
• In the second Town, after you defeat Bushyasta, you can talk to the elder in the Southern part of 6F who will give you some items. It doesn't matter much though, since you can get OP armor and weapons from the Casino.
• Win about 500000 coins in Casino (Keno is the fastest way, imo) and exchange them for two Kyuuki armor sets, one Sword of Light (for Nobu/Tamaki; most useful for boss fights) and one Smelting Sword (for Akira; for random encounters), two Reaper Colts and some Luster Candies, React Sheets and Fuuma Bells (the more the better). After that restock on Randi Shots and Megidola Stones, if you can afford it.
• In 2nd Nomos, there are dark rooms with women inside. Try to avoid going through these rooms, because there's a chance that at least one of your party members will be transformed into a Fly. After you pass through such a room once, the woman will disappear, however, making it safe to pass. I'd suggest look for ways around.
• If you will be turned into a Fly, use Estoma or Fuuma Bell and go to the nearest Kaifuku to heal it, just to be safe. I don't know if you can fuck up your stats if you level up when your character has Fly status in this game, but it was the case in the Mega CD version of SMT1.
• In 2nd Nomos, there are dark rooms with women inside. Try to avoid going through these rooms, because there's a chance that at least one of your party members will be transformed into a Fly. After you pass through such a room once, the woman will disappear, however, making it safe to pass. I'd suggest look for ways around.
• When you will find the Weapons shop in 2nd Nomos, buy SPAS-12 and restock on Randi Shots.
• Druj is not a very hard boss, but she has Mamudoon, which makes this boss battle rage-inducing, resulting in cheap RNG-based deaths of your MC. To null Mamudoon, you need to either have Akira with high Agility stat cast Tetraja or make Nobu/Tamaki use Final Guard. Having at least one Scapegoat Bead will increase your chances of defeating her, but good luck finding one of those in Akira's route. What you want to do is debuff and outspeed her, so you can cast Tetraja before she could use Mamudoon. If you want to make your life easier, do not repeat my mistakes and buy some Final Guards, boost your characters' Agility and bring a demon with Sukunda to lower the odds of dying to Mamudoon in advance. It's still possible to beat her without any of this; sometimes she doesn't cast Mamudoon at all during the fight. If you're still having trouble, here's my strategy:
• I had Hathor, Ubelluris, Selket and Nalagiri in my party. My characters were both at Level 42. My formation was like this: Nobu, Ubelluris and Hathor in the front row, Akira, Selket and Nalagiri in the back row.
• Right away, I start buffing my party with 4 Luster Candies and lowering her defense with 4 Rakundas for the first two turns. Whenever she uses Dekaja, I start using 4 Luster Candies again. Since I didn't have any Final Guards (and I couldn't cast Tetraja before she would use Mamudoon), my only option was to pray that she won't use Mamudoon, and if she does, RNG won't kill Nobu and Akira. I got lucky - she ended up only killing off my demons, whom I had to revive with Akira's Recarm (after you revive your demons, having your partner use React Sheet or Sabbatma is very handy to summon back two demons in one turn).
• Other than that, I used the same attacks throughout the fight: Nobu - regular Sword attack, Ubelluris - Hell Fist (first Extra attack), Hathor - regular Attack, Akira - use Megidola Stone, Selket - Stun Needle (Extra), Nalagiri - Suck (second Extra attack).
• Mammon isn't hard at all, but he can drain all of your demons' MP. Also, not only he has Dekaja, he has Dekunda as well. What you want to do is use a couple of Luster Candies in one turn and hit him with physical attacks. He also takes full damage from Gun attacks, so you might want to buy two M134 with some Plutonium Shells just for this fight (there is a Weapons shop on 22F, which can be accessed from the South-Western corner of 24F). There's also a Code Breaker on 23F. You can win some Chakra Pots (2nd best prize).
• To get Hinokagutsuchi in the 3rd Nomos, you need to defeat Mammon and boost either Nobu or Akira's Strength and Vitality to 25 first. After you've defeated Mammon, you can find Hinokagutsuchi in the South-Western part of 19F. To get there, you need to fall through a hole in the South-Eastern corner of 24F (4th Nomos) - you will find yourself on 19F with a small room with a Special Warp to the South-East. Walk around until it's FULL MOON and enter the Warp. You will be teleported to the South-Western part of 19F. After all that, you can find Hinokagutsuchi in the South-Western room.
• Final boss is a joke. topkek

Additional Links

• IPS English Patch
• Hazama Chapter Script
• Dev Comments
• (Untranslated) If... Hazama Chapter script
• (Untranslated) If... Hazama Chapter Hazama's diary
• (Untranslated) SMT If... PSX script
• Manual Scans
• SMT if... Manga
• Demon Sprite Showcase
  • Playstation gallery (Demons)
  • Playstation gallery (Guardians)