SMT V Take Her Hand Choice: Unlocking Vengeance Superboss and Godborn
When you boot up the new Shin Megami Tensei game, you’ll find yourself before a girl with the two choices of taking her hand or not. The Take Her Hand sequence is crucial to SMT V because it will dictate the entire storyline. If you haven’t played the previous version of the game, you might be left wondering what the correct choice is. However, players should know that there is no right or wrong choice; instead, your decision decides what path you will tread in the game.
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Take Her Hand Quest
The Take Her Hand sequence occurs at the very beginning of the game, and it’s the most critical decision you will make because of its overall impact on your gameplay. Your decision in Take Her Hand will decide whether you will go through the Canon of Creation storyline or the Canon of Vengeance.
Canon of Creation is the exact same story as the original game, while Canon of Vengeance features the new storyline added to SMT V: Vengeance. Here are the choices for Take Her Hand and which path it will lead you to:
- Take Her Hand > Canon of Vengeance
- Don’t Take Her Hand > Canon of Creation
Canon of Creation Vs. Canon of Vengeance
The Canon of Creation Path features four endings connected to the original game. If you’ve played SMT V before Vengeance, you won’t be interested in redoing this storyline. The Canon of Vengeance features two new endings from the newer version. Veterans will probably go for the latter option because it’s where all the new content is at. However, if you’re a newer player, choose the CoC path first to give yourself more context about the game.
Unlock Superboss and Godborn
CoC and CoV will feature new content, with Creation showing a new side quest with a True Neutral playthrough and Vengeance containing a super boss fight. However, the requirements for unlocking them could be more precise. Based on many experiences, you must first beat the Canon of Creation path to unlock the final boss in Canon of Vengeance. Completionists may want to defeat this foe to gain all achievements. Defeating the Superboss is also a requirement to unlock Godborn.
Alternatively, the True Neutral path with a Quest Superboss in CoC requires you to complete the CoV. Defeating the True Neutral quest will initially unlock the Superboss fight in Vengeance. Here are the alleged paths to take:
- Play CoV first > Unlock and Complete True Neutral path in CoC (including the new quest boss) > CoV Superboss Fight
- Play CoC first (True Neutral path) > CoV Superboss fight > Go back to CoC and finish the new hidden quest boss
You only need to do one of the two paths. In essence, you only need three runs to complete the game. It might be better to run CoV first, so Taking Her Hand would be the best option. However, people have found a way to unlock the Satan fight without doing any reruns.
How to Unlock CoV Superboss in One Run
According to a Redditor, you can fight the ultimate final boss in the Vengeance storyline without finishing the True Neutral ending in the Creation line.
Here is what you need to do to unlock the ultimate super boss:
- Complete the Canon of Vengeance storyline
- Reload to save points before the last boss fight, which will unlock the subquest for the Superboss
- Now, you can fight the Superboss before fighting the game’s final boss again.
After this method, you will unlock the Godborn mode and the secret quest in the True Neutral ending in CoC. However, we caution you that doing this means you might have a more challenging time fighting the Superboss. While you can unlock the fight much earlier than others, you will also be significantly undergeared. If you find it hard to defeat this elite foe, you might have to do several NG+ to farm materials and power up.
