Death Battle Predictions: John Constantine VS Raidou Kuzunoha XIV

 

John Constantine, The Hellblazing Sleuth and Con-artist from DC Comics. 

Raidou Kuzunoha, The Devil Summoning Detective of Shin Megami Tensei.

These two detectives aren’t the usual run of the mill suspects you may see in Sherlock Holmes. They be analyzing the paranormal, and fucking with the very Demons they command, with all kinds of magical trickery up their sleeves. They’ll have all the quick wits, and fun cheese to take down any threat to their worlds, with whatever supernatural methods suit their needs.

And today, we’ll see who can crack the case and live to solve another paranormal mystery in their rather strange and bizarre worlds. Now, who’s ready to Boogie Woogie and take a walk through the supernatural side of things, and analyze who in the Hellblazing Fuck would actually win between these two?

In Case You’re Wondering...

-Expect a lot of adult content featured in the scans and the text of the blog. This includes references to sex, violence, drug use, and language. This is John Constantine we are talking about after all.

-We'll be focusing primarily on John's original Vertigo run, and his New52 counterpart. There are some differences in his backstories, but they're similar enough to be composited.

-We will be counting Raidou’s appearance as a recruitable party member in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, and his appearance as a boss in the Soul Hackers remake. Some argue their canonicity, but these appearances aren’t like how Nocturne originally featured Dante from the Devil May Cry series (™). Raidou is part of the same series and multiverse as Nocturne and Soul Hackers, has a narrative explanation for his presence in these games (the Akarana Corridor), is referenced by other NPCs prior to his recruitment in Nocturne, and he even has an epilogue scene if recruited.

And regardless of their inclusion, Raidou was able to defeat and recruit Lucifer in his own game, who is the ultimate final boss of Nocturne. Meaning Raidou’s accomplishments in his own media would let him scale to everything done in Nocturne and Soul Hackers, regardless of whether or not his appearances in them are canon.

Background

John Constantine

"I'm a nasty piece of work, chief. Ask anybody."

The Constantine family and its relation to the supernatural dates all the way back to the Arthurian Era of the 1st century A.D. And like his ancestors before him, John Constantine became enamoured with magic from an early age. 

Though his path to becoming one of DC's most feared magicians was far from pleasant. John’s mother, Mary Anne, died giving birth to him, leaving John and his sister, Chery, with a single, alcoholic, and abusive father (never a good combination). To deal with being a 'bad kid with a bad father', John, in one of the first of many magical acts, locked away his childhood memories and vulnerabilities in a box. Something that would... Come back to bite him in the future, but hey, he got better.

After running away from his home multiple times as a teen, he finally settled in London with his friend, Chas. There, he established an occult punk band 'Mucous Membrane', and got into all sorts of trouble. After one particular summoning ritual went awry, John had his first run-in with his long-time enemy and former Babylonian god, Nergal. 

Who, as payment for his summoning, took the soul of an innocent abuse victim, Astra. The trauma from the experience landed John in a sanitarium that he’d struggle to leave. Stricken with guilt over Astra's fate, John continued pursuing Nergal, while confronting all sorts of supernatural threats, such as: The Brujeria cult, The Damnation Army, and DC's literal Satan, The First of the Fallen.

But soon, a threat would emerge that not even Constantine was prepared to face: Cancer. Turned out all of John's smoking was starting to catch up to him. And because he had promised his soul to the First of the Fallen, he wasn't in for a pleasant afterlife. But rather than accept his fate, he instead sold his soul to all 3 of the lords of Hell, The First of the Fallen included.

This made it so all 3 lords were forced to keep him alive, as if any of them tried to take his soul or bring him to the afterlife, all 3 would be forced to go to war to make their claim on said soul, sending their domains into an anarchy even Hell wasn't ready for.

Having escaped death and outwitted the devil himself, John continued his occult ventures, getting wrapped up in numerous supernatural threats, and eventually managed to free Astra after tricking Nergal, as he has so many other demons.

Once he began approaching 60 years of age, John received a message from the Three Fates saying he would die in 5 days. But to the surprise of absolutely nobody, John managed to, somehow, fake his own death once again. But no longer wishing to rope his friends and loved ones into his affairs, he decided it would be best if he disappeared from their lives. Despite a lot of mistakes, and a lot of people suffering because of him, John could say he lived a life no one else has.

And that’s where John’s story ends… In his original continuity. 

Much of his story remains the same in New52, though this time, his childhood was disrupted when he experimented with magic, and attempted to cast a spell that would make him into a powerful magician. A spell that unfortunately required a sacrifice, and backfired, burning his home, and killing his mother and father in the process.

Despite the harrowing experience, John wasn’t deterred, and continued to learn as much magic as he could. This occult fascination eventually became more, and he began a relationship with a police officer named Margaret Ames. The two bonded by going on amateur magical adventures together until Constantine decided she deserved a normal life and left her without an explanation.

Finding himself cursed from ever returning to London again by a demon he had crossed, Constantine instead returned to one of the places he had first learned magic - New York City. There, John Constantine would make a name for himself as one of the most powerful magicians to ever exist, taking on demons, dark organisations and even god-like beings when his assistance was required.

Constantine would ultimately find himself as a founding member of the Justice League Dark, fighting alongside beings of godly power, such as Etrigan, Deadman, Swamp Thing, The Spectre, and his ex, Zatanna. He never abandoned his skills as a conman though, and was able to steal the powers of Shazam for himself and even worked as a Yellow Lantern for a time. This all assisted him in taking down the Cult of the Cold Flame. He’d also find himself helping out the OG Justice League and Doctor Fate from time to time.

John would eventually find himself living a comfortable life in New York, taking on cases as a freelance exorcist and paranormal investigator. And demons, magicians and everything in between came to know the name of the Hellblazer, John Constantine.

Raidou Kuzunoha XIV

“I swear on my name, Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, that I will defend this capital!”

The Kuzunoha are a clan of Summoners who have acted as defenders of Japan’s Capital since the Heian Era under the guidance of the Herald of Yatagarasu. Within the Kuzunoha family are four titles taken up by each head of the clan.

The 14th successor to the title of ‘Raidou’ - real name Jōhei - was raised to be a Devil Summoner from an early age, undergoing grueling training and a series of trials. Shortly after inheriting the title, he went to work at the Narumi Detective Agency, in order to take ‘odd’ cases and protect Japan’s capital. All while still attending high school.

One particular series of cases led Raidou into conflict with the Soulless God Oumagatsu. Who was, in fact, one of Raidou’s successors, Raidou Kuzunoha XL from the year 20XX. Knowing of a Great Cataclysm that occurred in the future that would put the world in havoc, Raidou XL sent his soul back to Raidou XIV’s time, possessed a high school girl, manipulated a god-possessed military general into making an army of zombie super soldiers, and built a radio tower that manifested the negative emotions of humans in the form of demons called, Hirukos. 

Why did he do all of this? To fuse the Hirukos, himself, and an imperial warship into a giant, transforming, zombie-piloted battle mech, of course! Why did he do that? Because Raidou XL thought if he destroyed Japan’s capital in the 1930s, it would, somehow, prevent a Great Cataclysm that occurs in the future. But Raidou XIV didn’t like that idea of The Capital he’s tasked with protecting getting destroyed. So he put the axe-er-sword to XL’s convoluted plan.

With nowhere to go, Raidou XL escaped into the Akarana Corridor, a place that transcends time and space, in hopes of attacking the capital from a different time period. Raidou XIV also didn’t like that idea, and chased him into the Akarana Corridor before finishing off the Soulless God for good, exorcising Raidou XL’s soul from the girl he possessed, and banishing him to aimlessly wander the Akarana Corridor for the rest of eternity.

Pretty bum deal for Raidou XL, but depending on how you interpret Shin Megami Tensei’s incredibly convoluted canon, their actions may have indirectly led to the creation of the timelines with the Devil Summoner and Persona games. Where the Great Cataclysm (presumably?) doesn’t happen. So, in a way Raidou XL might have succeeded? Mind you, this part is pure speculation.

Several months later, Raidou XIV returned to The Capital to take on a new case. Bad luck and misfortune had begun spreading across The Capital. The people were losing hope, and in the midst of it all, mysterious bugs began appearing. Through a series of leads, Raidou discovered all the misfortune stemmed from ‘Luck Locusts’. These Luck Locusts were being utilized by several rogue assassins from a group called the Tsukigata clan. Led by Dahn, the son of the clan’s chief, these assassins were quite literally stealing the ‘luck’ of The Capital’s populace.

For what reason? Long story short, the Tsukigata clan was reliant on a race of deformed mutant bug people called the Tento Lords to supply them with Luck Locusts. Because of their mutations, the Tento Lords could not reproduce among themselves, and needed a human ‘host’. Thus, the Tsukigata clan and Tento lords reached a mutual agreement: The Tento Lords supply the Tsukigata clan with Luck Locusts, and the Tsukigata clan sacrifices one of their women every generation to ‘repopulate’ the Tento Lords… The results of which… Leads to death. Dahn’s sister, Akane, was chosen to be that sacrifice in the newest ‘Marriage Ritual’. Understandably not wanting his sister be sacrificed in a creepy bug-sex ritual, Dahn crafted a plan.

He would steal his clan’s Luck Locusts, and amass all of The Capital’s luck into a large nest of pure fortune called the ‘Pojitrawn’. Why did he do this? Well, a certain blonde stranger, who is definitely not Lucifer, said it would open a path to a place called The Abysmal Realm. Once this path was opened, Dahn would rule over the ‘Destroyer Insects’ that were unleashed by it, gaining the most Shonen-sounding title ever of King Abaddon. With the new control over the destroyer insects, his clan could sever their ties with the Tento Lords, and refuse the Marriage Ritual while still having access to Luck Locusts.

The first part of what Lucifer told him was true. The Abysmal Realm was indeed opened. Everything else… Didn’t quite work out as Dahn planned. 

Realizing the apocalyptic mess Dahn had just unleashed, Raidou got himself a sword to combat the Destroyer Insects, and with the help of the demon, Tao Tie, pulled the Abysmal Realm’s gateway to a Pojitrawn nest. This act reunited the embodiment of The Capital’s fortune and misfortune, and opened a pathway to the ‘Infinite Abyss’.

As if the story couldn’t get any more convoluted, throughout it all Raidou was plagued by dreams of the Tsukigata’s god, Shinado, the real being to take the title of King Abaddon. Seeing the despair The Capital had fallen into due to their misfortune, Shinado, in typical RPG god fashion, decided the only way mankind could attain salvation was to pull everyone into the Infinite Abyss.

Depending on Raidou’s choices, certain characters live or die, but the core ending remains the same: Raidou heads into the Abysmal Realm, shatters his cohorts’ feelings of despair, confronts Shinado within the Sphere of God, and ultimately triumphs over King Abaddon. Convinced that Raidou presents hope for humanity’s future, Shinado accepted defeat and left, though not before saying he may return should the people lose hope again.

Raidou’s adventures would continue in Raidou Kuzunoha VS. The Lone Marebito, where he faced off against a group of ‘Onmyoji’ (old mystics). These Onmyoji, disgruntled that they had no place in a rapidly industrializing world, were manipulated by an eldritch alien god called Clarion to start corrupting people into demons. Accumulating power from this, Clarion revived himself and attempted to absorb all of planet Earth. He did this in order to, once again, bring humanity ‘salvation’. Which Raidou, once again, stopped using a sword bestowed to him by the princess Kushinada. Prior to all of this, Raidou also gets wrapped in the events of a prequel story, Raidou Kuzunoha VS. The Messenger of Death.

And in the middle of it all, he has taken all sorts of side cases, went time and dimension hopping through the Akarana Corridor, and on occasion, battled it out with the Prince of Darkness himself.

Equipment

John

Trench Coat

John Constantine’s trench coat isn’t just a snazzy outfit. John has enhanced it with some demonic powers that makes it sentient. The trench coat obeys every command John gives to it. It can move on its own and strangle people. The trench coat is also capable of acting as a lightning rod, absorbing stray magic around John. It’s very hard to permanently damage as it will transfer any damage sustained to other people. Lastly, the trench coat can mind control people.

Moonblade

According to John Constantine himself, the Moonblade is a unique weapon where its shape changes depending on the current phase of the moon. At a full moon, the weapon is a long-sword. At a new moon, the weapon is a dagger. The Moonblade is capable of storing concepts, thoughts, dreams, and strange energies. The weapon can steal the souls of others, including gods.

Enhanced Knife

John keeps an enchanted knife hidden within his trench coat and can pull it out at any time. The knife is powerful enough to burn through demons and humans with ease.

Ace of Winchester

Bounded with ivory of saints and crafted from halo-steel and Hades-gems by an occultist and mystic, the Ace of Winchester is a mystical rifle designed to kill demons with a single shot.

Twin Blade

The Twin Blade is a 3 to 4 feet longsword with two protruding blades created from the remains of the omnipotent Second of the Fallen and Third of the Fallen. The weapon is powerful enough to even kill Satan. The Twin Blade deals massive damage to anyone it wounds and can pierce through a demon's hide, which is known to be stronger than steel and armor, and can create damages to the victim's souls. Because it was created from the remains of two omnipotent beings, a wound from it can cause instant death to anyone, even omnipotent and omnipresent beings. The weapon was used to kill the First of the Fallen.

Gun

John also packs some heat by carrying firearms on him. While he’s not keen on using them, he’s adept and is a capable marksman. His preferred gun is a Scott Webley revolver that was later retconned into being a .357 Magnum pistol. John’s gun can create a fairly sizable dent in walls and can obliterate a person’s knee.

Grimorium

John Constantine owns a copy of the Grimorium, a book that contains knowledge on demonology and the supernatural. However, his copy also contains special notes about demons.

Skeleton Key

John Constantine also keeps a skeleton key in the band of his watch to unlock any lock.

Magic Wishing Matches

Lastly, John Constantine carries a box of matches that grants him any wish he wants. To make a wish, John needs to strike a match and blow it out. He once used these matches to turn Swamp Thing into a human.

Raidou

Muramasa 

Raidou’s sword in the Messenger of the Dead prequel novel. It’s stated to be able to ‘sever ill luck and curses’, and is capable of preventing demonic entities, such as Gashadokuro, from reviving themselves.

Mal Fortuna Kuzunoha

Raidou’s sword in the Lone Marebito manga. It’s designed to kill demonic entities, and banish evil spirits. This power was potent enough to purge the Sword God, Futsunushi, of the hundreds of souls he had taken over the years. Unlike Raidou’s swords in the main games, it can manifest the power and form of demons that have been fused with it. Raidou specifically fused the lingering Magnetite and emotions of Futsunushi and Yoshitsune into the sword. It has also been used to counteract beings such as the snake god, Ouhanshin, which derived its power from malice, killing intent, and grudges. Making it theoretically impossible to kill, as any violent action carried out against it would simply make it stronger.

Sword Types

Raidou has access to a myriad of swords with differing buffs and powers, all of which can be made by fusing his weapons with different demons and materials. These buffs typically consist of things like: Immunity to death curses, boosted elemental affinity, passive healing, a once per-battle revival, immunity or resistance to mind attacks, ETC. Raidou can also channel his magnetite into each weapon to form energy constructs to use in attacks. Of his many swords, there is a particularly useful one Raidou forges.

Youmetsutou

A sword forged from the Shukukon-Seki, a stone made of compressed souls. This sword was designed to fight the Apollyons: Monstrous bug creatures from the Abysmal Realm, whose cellular differentiation allowed them to heal themselves faster than Raidou could damage them. Essentially, it’s a sword that nullifies healing factors. The surge of power it induces into its foe should presumably be able to cancel out any healing factor that functions on a cellular (potentially greater) level.

The full list of the weapons and their buffs can be found here, but all fall into one of 3 archetypes.

Sword-Type

Swords that can form an energy construct of… Well, a sword. Raidou can use these constructs to extend his range, increase the power of his attacks, and create a flurry of slashes.

Spear-type

Swords that form a construct of a spear. These constructs can be used for a rapid flurry of jabs.

Axe-Type

Swords that form a construct of an axe. This construct is unique in that it is charged and swung down on the opponent in a powerful, single attack that produces a shockwave.

Revolver

A 6-shot revolver Raidou carries at all times. In the prequel novel, Raidou’s gun is described as a custom made Colt Lightning Revolver: A double-action handgun that can fire bullets in rapid succession. It was popular in his era due to its unlikeliness to jam. It’s unknown if this is the same firearm he uses in his games, but accompanying the gun are various pieces of enchanted ammo...

Aurora Clip: A magical clip of ammo that grants Raidou an endless supply of standard bullets. Though he still needs to manually reload said ammo.

Heavy & Fatal Bullets: Ammunition that is stronger than Raidou’s standard bullets.

Elemental Clips: Bullets that have the affinity and power of various elemental spells. Specifically: Fire, Ice, Wind, and Lightning.

Death Clip: Bullets that have the affinity found in Dark/Mudo spells. Specifically, that of a death or insta-kill curse.

Stone Clip: Bullets capable of petrifying foes into stone.

Mind Manipulation Clips: Bullets capable of inflicting mental effects on the opponent, in this case, ‘Charm’, which causes infatuation, and ‘Panic’, which induces effects similar to that of the ‘Confused’ status ailment.

Mute Clip: Bullets capable of sealing away, or ‘silencing’ an opponent’s magic.

Summoning Tubes

Enchanted steel tubes that hold demons Raidou can call upon. The max number of tubes Raidou is known to carry is 20. Raidou can use them to capture and confine demons, though he seems to prefer negotiating with demons first and foremost. 

It’s worth noting the act of summoning demons in Raidou Kuzunoha VS. The Soulless Army can be done even when Raidou is silenced. This is presumably because the act of summoning them does not actually utilize magic, just opening the seal on the tube, and using Raidou’s magnetite. This is consistent with other summoners in SMT, like Aleph, who can summon demons even with the 'Close' status effect (I.E sealed magic). Though confining a demon within the tube does require magic, and can’t be done when silenced.

Mystic Eye

A mirror that reveals the abilities and weaknesses of hostile enemies Raidou encounters.

Amatsu Kanagi

A sacred relic powered by people’s emotions that can create rifts through space and time to different dimensions. Raidou uses this relic both to get back to his own reality after being caught in a parallel world, and to create a gateway to the Akarana Corridor. The Akarana Corridor transcends time and space, and has been used to move to different points in time by other characters, so Raidou should be able to time travel with the relic as well. He technically has in his Soul Hackers appearance. Raidou does return the item to Yatagarasu after the events of his first game, but he gets it back for a side quest in the second game, and keeps it.

Lockpick

Magic bullets, dimension-traversing relics, and tubes that can hold Satan are nice and all. But every now and then, a detective needs a good ol’ fashioned lockpick to do proper sleuthing, and Raidou has one.

You just gotta get it in there and...god fucking dammit

Abilities

John

Physiology (Tainted Blood)

After receiving blood transfusion from the demon Nergal, John Constantine’s blood became tainted with demon blood and it would be further tainted after he had sex with a succubus. Despite John having demon blood running in his veins, he did receive some upsides to it. His blood now possesses healing properties and has even slowed down his aging. In addition, John’s tainted blood can act as a defense mechanism, as it’s corrosive enough to burn the King of Vampire’s jaw off. However, because John’s blood is tainted with demon blood, it’ll boil whenever he steps foot inside a church.

Extraordinary Senses

John Constantine has special senses that allow him to see and sense things that regular humans can’t. For instance, John is capable of perceiving Dreamtime, which connects all points of time and space to each other in the constantly moving universe. He can also sense the presence of magic, even possessing an ESP of whether someone can use magic or not. John can also see through illusions and things that are supposed to be invisible. He can also sense what goes on in London, and see souls and ghosts. Finally, he can sense auras and evil.

Hand to Hand 

 

John’s skills in hand to hand often varies with him either portrayed as a poor physical fighter or a competent one but one thing that is almost always consistent is his knack for fighting dirty (I mean what would you expect from him) traditionally with his legendary move the “Constantine Kick” which is a good ol’ fashioned kick to the balls...or bollocks or whatever the hell Bri’ish people call them.

Aside from traditional close quarters combat John is also quite skilled in using stealth to take down his opponents though sometimes it's with the help of...

Magic

John Constantine is considered to be one of, if not the, most notorious magicians in the DC universe. He’s usually feared by many and is trusted by only a few. In the School of Magic Blood, John is one of the most powerful wielders. He’s been practicing magic since he was a teenager and has quickly mastered all the magic that Europe had to offer before traveling to America to be trained under the notable magician Nick Necro. John is able to understand quantum magic and can recognize memory magic to the point of being able to reverse a memory wipe. He can also freeze anyone in place.

John is also capable of performing curses involving black magic. One example is linking his father’s life force to the corpse of a cat, causing him to waste away while the cat’s corpse decayed. Another example is John putting a curse on a prison gang that placed them into catatonic insanity. He can cast various curses on a single person and use a spell that traps someone between the gaps of time. John’s curses are even strong enough to affect demons.

Teleportation 

John is able to teleport himself, others and even objects to various locations or even across dimensions (More on that in a bit) he can teleport a short range or use it to swap items. 

Synchronicity Wave Travel 

The Synchronicity Wave is an ability that allows John to effectively manipulate probability to his favor and be at the right place at the right time. As shown above time, movement, and distance “beg for him”, and he can utilize the wave to cause others to be right where Constantine needs to be. He can utilize it in combat, such as causing a pistol to jam, and even carry multiple people on it, such as when he took a plane full of passengers on to the wave.

Dimensional Travel

John Constantine can use his magic to travel between different dimensions, universes, and afterlifes. He can easily open portals between Earth and the afterlife, especially to Heaven, and can travel to Hell with ease. John can even create a portal to the Between, a place that exists between realities. With enough time, he can teleport a large group with him when traveling between realities. He also traveled between Earth 2 and Earth Prime and took a large group with him. Using an unprecedented level of skill, John can use his dimensional travel to escape from an astral trap. He can teleport objects to pocket dimensions before they can hit him. Lastly, John can open portals to such places like Gemworld and the Green.

Divination

John Constantine can perform divination magic, allowing him to gain prior knowledge or an understanding of what will happen in the future. Examples are him being able to sense who used a bed last, look into the past, and having a premonition about a “rising storm” all the way in Louisiana. He uses objects to locate people or magical disturbances, such as when John located his kidnapped niece by using a trinket that belonged to her or when he located a magical disturbance in reality by using a pendulum and a map. Instead of using objects, John can also cast a tracking spell.

Exorcism

John Constantine is able to forcibly remove possessing entities, such as demonic spirits, from the body they are possessing. He was able to exorcise and banish the Hindu goddess Kali. John got a ghost to leave by telling it to “piss off”. John can create a sigil that sends the dead to either Heaven or Hell. He can also use spells to destroy demons. John can also use the right kind of spell that can destroy gods or seal them away.

Illusion Casting

John Constantine is able to create illusions to fool people. He does so by making people think he is someone or something else and by changing another person's image. John’s illusion casting is so powerful, he can bend time and space as a distraction to escape. He can make it seem as if a cat is talking. John had used his illusion casting to make gangsters see dead people. He made another guy look like him. He casted a spell that swapped the light coming out of one window with that of another. John can make an illusion of himself being dead. In fact, the illusion of his corpse is so accurate, a person can actually even smell it. He can make the yellow pages look like a rare book, create an illusion of Hell, and cast an illusion of himself winning roulette. John also used his illusion casting to force a demon to reveal himself and made a guy think he shot John. Finally, John once tricked Darkseid into thinking he is dead by casting a universe wide illusion convincing Darkseid that this is a dead dimension he has already consumed.

Invisibility

John Constantine is capable of turning himself invisible, whether with magic or sigils, and can also do the same for any item he chooses.

Mystical Barriers

John Constantine can call upon mystical barriers and magic circles to protect him. They’re a form of protection magic that he uses for defense against both supernatural and physical attacks. His magic circles are capable of draining Superman if he tries to cross them, and advanced forms of this protection magic can hold up against Swamp Thing. In addition to protecting himself, John can create these barriers to stop demons from escaping, even if temporarily.

Hypnosis

John Constantine can bend the will of others with hypnotism, whether by magic or by leaving hypnotic messages in letters. His hypnotism can force people to do what he asks, such as receiving money by hypnotizing bank managers. Other times, John can use hypnosis for any convenience such as getting through airport security. He can use hypnosis to get people to recall events that happened to them, forget pieces of information, describe events in intimate details, and obey and not to remember him. Finally, John can perform hypnotism by using subliminal hypnotic suggestions in his words.

Mind Control

John Constantine is able to use magic to control the minds of others, whether they’re human or a supernatural being, allowing him to influence the thoughts and decisions of others. He can even mind control animals. John can also mind control multiple people at once, having mind controlled a whole penitentiary of inmates to madly riot and bring him a cigarette. He can mind control a person to only selectively hear a conversation. However, John’s mind control abilities also have various other effects.

He can also erase people’s minds and use his magic to block memories as well. John can also suppress people’s memories and switch them to other bodies. His mind control can also reduce the minds of grown adults into an infantile state. Lastly, John can create a psychic deadzone around himself and allies of his choosing.

Telepathy

John Constantine can easily tap into people's minds and read them. This allows him to easily obtain information about people or events that took place in the past. He can also read the minds of non-humans, such as a djinn. John can pull a name out of a guy’s head and can tap into a person’s memories despite them already being a skeleton. He can mend minds with fellow magic users. Lastly, John can pick up “vibes” from people.

Mental Resistances

John Constantine has a strong mental resistance that is beyond ordinary. In fact, John’s mental resistance is so strong, he has the will to resist the Presence. If you don’t know who the Presence is, he’s the Christian God of the DC Universe. John is also the only person who has ever resisted Spellbinder. He was able to resist the influences of the Books of Magic long enough to warn Madame Xanadu. Even ghosts like Deadman are unable to possess John Constantine, and mystical artifacts like Pandora’s Box can’t corrupt him. John also knows a spell that can prevent possession.

Necromancy

John Constantine is a skilled necromancer, having the magical skill to communicate with the dead and raise them from their graves. He can raise multiple undead as his personal army or as a golem. John can also summon a soulstorm of ghosts to attack his enemies.

Astral Projection

John Constantine is able to create astral projections of himself. He can project himself anywhere he wants. John even claims that he can project himself inside a computer. When he had his body controlled by Swamp Thing, John entered the Astral plane. However, he can enter the Astral plane physically. With prep time, John can enter the Dreamtime.

Energy Manipulation 

John Constantine can blast bolts and beams of energy and enhance them with magic. He was able to hurt Blight with an energy blast. Larger energy blasts from Constantine can create holes in walls. From a distance, John can cause a lightbulb to blow up in a person’s face.

Telekinesis

John Constantine is able to telekinetically freeze and restrain people. With his telekinesis, John was able to restrain Andrew Bennett. He was able to prevent a gun from being shot at him. John also used his telekinesis to open up a lock.

Binding

John Constantine can use telekinesis to bind people against objects. He once binded a reality warping ghost to a tree. John can bind a powerful demon and did so inside one of his friends. He can also forcibly remove a demon from one person and bind it inside another. John has also binded Shade the Changing Man so his meta vest isn’t as violent. He can cast a holding spell capable of restraining a Watcher Giant. John has also binded a demon somewhere between life and death. Lastly, he trapped Blackbriar Thorn in the body of a medium and then forced him out.

Pyrokinesis

John Constatine is capable of using magic to create and manipulate fire or hellfires. He can engulf his hands in flames as well as turn the small flame from his lighter into a flamethrower.

Chlorokinesis

Apparently after a good ol’ night of card sharping and drink spiking with a druid, Constantine gained the ability to control plants, trees, and other biotic factors.

Electrokinesis

John Constantine can shoot bolts of electricity in a single blast, which he used against the Nightmare Witch.

Sleeping Spell

John Constantine can perform a spell capable of sending people to sleep. He can easily do so on people and even successfully used the spell on Swamp Thing with a simple touch.

Transmutation 

John Constantine is capable of transforming objects into another form, such as turning a piece of cloth into a feather.

Resurrection

John Constantine can revive himself from the dead. He can do so by either casually putting his spirit back into himself or by simply leaving the afterlife by winning a game of cards.

Spirit Ward Creation

John Constantine knows how to create protection circles where he can’t be harmed once he enters them. He has sigils written on his body that protects him from magical attacks and possessions and can write more on his body to prevent any demons from physically touching him. John can also use these protection circles to hide himself, preventing Archdukes of Hell like Nergal from locating him. He can also create these protection circles to hide other beings, such as keeping a succubus and her consort hidden from any being of Hell. John can even carve a masking sigil into a being’s soul, which he did to prevent the First of the Fallen or Triskele from finding a succubus. He even used these sigils to hide himself from Satan.

Summoning

Constantine has summoned various demons with varying degrees of significance to his side before, with varying results. Sometimes it’s to trap or trick them, sometimes it’s to get help, but that often takes a lot of coaxing. Though he’s definitely experienced enough with the process to understand it inside out.

The Demon Constantine

One of the only demons Constantine has a relatively positive track record of getting to aid him in fights, The Demon Constantine started as a golem made by the real John in order for him to enter Hell and save a kidnapped child. He poured all the worst aspects of his own soul into it, like his alcoholism, his yearning for his ex-girlfriend Kit Ryan, and all of his basest urges. He topped up this caustic cocktail by adding his demon blood and the soul of Aleister Crowley. 

This demonic version of Constantine was even more emotionally stunted than the real thing, and required some help learning basic human decency. But ever since, he’s been his own man with his own agenda, which sometimes has put him and John at a crossroads. However, more often than not, the Demon Constantine is willing to help John out, since he carries the same love of John’s friends and hatred for his enemies. Especially since unless John summons him, he is unable to leave hell for more than short periods of time. 

The Demon Constantine has general demonic abilities in line with the rest of the Vertigo continuity, like teleportation and conjuring fire, but also the unique power to create objects out of thin air. Whenever he’s killed he returns to hell, from where John can summon him again. He’s had a few different designs, but his later appearances show him as almost identical to John, but with the wrong eye-color and a scar on the wrong cheek, which could surely cause confusion to their advantage.

Fire Lady

In the animated movie Constantine: City of Demons, John summons this winged giantess by holding out his hands and repeating the same phrase thrice. She erected a magical barrier of fire, keeping away a horde of demon dogs.

 Shade the Changing Man 

One of John’s allies in Justice League Dark, Shade can be forcibly summoned by Constantine in order to aid him and the two have worked together on various occasions. Rac Shade was a poet that was sent to Earth in order to stop the madness in America but was later murdered and had himself fused with the Madness Vest as well as be forced to live inside the body of a serial killer. He would have many many adventures including partnering with John Constantione and Justice League Dark. 

In terms of his abilities, the Madness Vest grants reality warping powers on a mass scale to the point that the M-Vest can change atoms on a molecular level and turn even thoughts into solid objects. He can change the atoms of higher tier beings like Angels. He can also completely just erase beings from existence as well as potentially erase himself from existence if he so wants. He can warp the environment to fit his needs and create constructs out of literally nothing that is only limited by his own imagination - like seriously this guy can become anything and everything. His scariest ability is his Madness manipulation - he can trap people in an endless cycle of madness as well create madness constructs. He has many other abilities such as Teleportation,Time Travel, Merging,Creating Pocket Dimensions, Transformation, Growing Huge, Phasing, Mental Projections, Possession, Telekinesis, Mind Reading, etc. So yeah, he is if you took Maxwell from Scribblenauts and gave him a personality more akin to Crowley of Good Omens. While Shade’s morality may be dubious at best, he’s willing to help John out in times of need. (Here is a respect thread with more info)

Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing is a plant elemental with the memories and personality of the scientist Alec Holland. He has a connection to all plant matter through The Green, an ethereal realm, which also grants him great power. Having been a member of many versions of the Justice League Dark alongside John Constantine, they have a long and complicated history together. During one of these adventures, John made Swamp Thing accept an invitation to the House of Mystery. Doing so means that Constantine can summon him back there at any time with a simple conjuring spell, even against his will. And considering his silver tongue and magical trickery, John should be able to convince (or blackmail) Swamp Thing into assisting him in combat. Especially taking into account the time he took away Swamp Thing’s connection to the Green, giving him plenty of leverage.  

The big green lug is quite powerful after all. He was able to reform after having his astral form (his soul) devoured, and the Anti-Monitor was once unable to finish him off. He can clone himself, use the plant matter within humans to incapacitate them or even turn them into trees, and can change his size from subatomic to large enough to encompass Tokyo. He has tangoed with heavyweights like Etrigan and Captain Atom. Once, while Constantine was passed out, he even formed an exoskeleton around him to make him walk away. (Here’s a respect thread with more info on him) 

Time Travel

John Constantine is capable of time travel. He can do so by performing a time-portal spell, which he once used to travel back in time to 1979.

House of Mystery

A mystical house that John won in a poker game with Father Time and Doctor Occult. Existing outside of time and space, the House can be used by Constantine as a method of containment for various entities. Those within the House can become lost and lose their minds, to the point where it even affected beings such as the Phantom Stranger. The House can be used as a form of protection, being able to survive Pralaya’s consumption of all of creation. In the event the House is damaged, it can always repair itself. 

Power Null/Removal

John Constantine has the ability to remove a person’s power or cut them off from their power source. The biggest example was him cutting off Swamp Thing’s connection to the Green. John can also trap people like Zauriel and a demon in a cage. He was even able to trap Dr. Fate within his heart and even used a mimicry of the Heart of Anubis spell to kill him. John is capable of shutting down magic, even for a while. He once broke Zatanna’s protection spell. Lastly, John was able to summon the Phantom Stranger against his will.

Blackmare Curse

Like John himself says, “a spell so complex…and so bloody dangerous…that no magician in his right mind would ever attempt it.” So naturally, he cast it. It takes a moment to do and requires extreme concentration as well as baring your soul and your body completely to the world, but pulling it off allows you to drill down into the deepest pits of your soul and let out all the darkness contained there. This leaves your consciousness caged in the back of your mind, and personifies all your sins as a demonic force that takes control and turns you into a powerful yet rabid and animalistic monster. Constantine and Nightmare Nurse both used the Blackmare Curse to transform and attack Blight, and were able to knock over and bite into him, before Asa briefly regained enough of her mental faculties to knock them both into the water so Constantine wouldn’t end up killing Blight’s host. 

Raidou

Magnetite Manipulation

Magnetite is an energy source in the Shin Megami Tensei series. It’s a naturally occurring substance found in all living things, particularly in humans, that ‘reacts to will and desire’. It’s also what manifests demons. While much less potent, demons can also produce magnetite to manifest other supernatural creatures. For example, in Shin Megami Tensei II, the Archangel’s belief in God and the plan he had for humanity was so great and twisted, they actually manifested a fake (but still very powerful) YHVH.

It should be noted that Magnetite and Magic are not the same thing, though the former is sometimes the fuel source for the later. The demons Raidou summons are typically fueled by his Magnetite, and use that Magnetite to form their own magic spells.

Raidou can manipulate this magnetite for…

Demon Summoning

Being a Devil Summoner, Raidou’s bread and butter is in summoning and commanding demons. Raidou normally has one or two demons summoned at a given moment, but should the situation call, he can summon more. His alternate reality self summons 3 in his Soul Hackers boss fight, Raidou summons 9 at once during the Lone Marebito finale, and is implied to be able to summon 8 at once in both of the openings to his games. 

Magnetite Absorption

Raidou is capable of absorbing the Magnetite of enemies he harms. Usually this is done after hitting the opponent with an attack they’re weak against, but he can also absorb Magnetite from foes who have been killed, or just significantly harmed.

Combination Attacks

Raidou can perform various combination attacks with his demons, including...

Elemental Weapon Imbuement: Raidou can use a demon to imbue his sword or gun with the affinity of any traditional element like Fire, Ice, Electricity, or Wind. 

Magic Projectiles: Raidou can use demons to harness these same elements into extra powerful magical projectiles such as fireballs, thunderbolts, and hurricanes.

Magic AOE Attacks: Raidou can use demons to manifest a powerful elemental AOE attack, typically large enough to span most of the in-game battlefield.

Barriers: If Raidou doesn’t already have a resistance or immunity to a specific element, he can defend against it by using a demon to create a barrier around him. These barriers can negate everything from mind attacks to elemental damage.

Astral Burst: A powerful AOE attack that utilizes the Almighty element to deal damage to enemies, and bypass barriers and special defenses.

Expert Swordsman

Raidou is a naturally skilled swordsman, talented enough to go toe to toe with Futsunushi, the literal God of Swords, and regularly best his peers at his school. He utilizes several sword techniques. Such as…

Mal Fortuna Kuzunoha: a finishing move named after Raidou’s own sword, meant to purge and exorcize demons and evil spirits.

Tekisatsu: A lunging stab that, strangely, bypasses conventional defenses and inflicts Almighty damage with a chance of an insta-kill.

Hurricane Sword: A spinning slash Raidou uses in the Lone Marebito manga.

Hassou Tobi: A move Raidou learned from Yoshitsune’s memories. A powerful sword attack that strikes in rapid succession.

Energy Swords: While not given a name, after fusing his sword with Futsunushi, Raidou gained the ability to fire energy constructs of swords as projectiles. They’re essentially Vergil’s Summon Swords.

Void Slash: A move that merges Futsunushi and Yoshitsune’s spirits into a single shockwave attack. Capable of defeating the deity, Arahabaki.

Expert Marksman

Raidou is a crack shot with his revolver, capable of shooting down a winged beast holding a hostage by shooting through the hostage’s clothes, to avoid harming the hostage herself. His expertise in firearms also gives him access to one his deadliest moves of all, Boogie Woogie where he… Takes out his gun… And shoots you.

Demon Sealing & Magical Confinement

Raidou can perform a magical incantation to capture and seal supernatural creatures in tubes, typically after hitting them with their weakness. Though if the demon is too powerful for him (I.E, a higher level), they can resist being captured.

Spiritual Awareness

Demons in the Devil Summoner world are invisible to ordinary folk. Being a Devil Summoner, this isn’t an issue for Raidou, who can ‘see what cannot be seen’. He can use this power to both perceive demons, and commune with the dead for investigative purposes.

Spiritual & Intangible Interaction

Raidou can interact with and cut apart intangible beings. 

Raidou The Aeon

Also called Raidou The Eternal. A passive ability that multiplies Raidou’s attack power, and makes his physical attacks bypass any resistance, nullification, or absorption of physical damage that demons have, save for Repel.

Ailment Resistance & Nullification

Throughout his appearances Raidou has shown resistance, oftentimes immunity, to mind manipulating status ailments such as Charm, Panic, ETC. Likewise, he cannot be poisoned, magically bound, silenced, or petrified into Stone in Nocturne, or transmuted into a bomb in Soul Hackers.

Illusion Resistance

Similar to other Shin Megami Tensei protagonists, Raidou has a pretty high resistance to illusions. The Strange Journey protagonist managed to dispel an illusion cast by Maya, the literal goddess of illusions, whose power and illusions were strong enough to completely distort the entirety of Sector Grus. Which, like the other Sectors of the Schwarzwelt, is its own parallel universe.

Other protagonists such as Aleph can overcome illusions cast by Belphegor, something that does show up in-game, and requires a high enough 'INT' stat to bypass, and entities the likes of Lucifer should have magic and illusory abilities even stronger than this. For Raidou himself, in the Lone Marebito manga he quite literally shattered an illusory mirror world created by Alice, a demon even more powerful than Maya and Belphegor.

Curse Resistance & Nullification

In Episode 7 of the Soulless Army, Raidou intentionally let a curse that had been inflicted on a Navy Admiral be transferred to himself so he could track the demon that created said curse. Despite the curse completely immobilizing the Navy Admiral, Raidou was able to continue moving while under its effects. Then tracked down, and defeated the entity that made said curse. That entity being Hitokoto-Nusi, the God of Words.

Raidou is also unaffected by Death Curses such as Mudoon and Expel spells such as Mahama, which ordinarily insta-kill anything they’re casted upon, regardless of their durability.

Elemental Magic Resistance

In Nocturne, Raidou is resistant to all forms of elemental magic, including: Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Wind.

Dimension Traversal

While working the Soulless Army case, Raidou had multiple run-ins with one, Grigori Rasputin... Who was actually an android terminator from the future… It’s a long story. During one of these run-ins, Rasputin banished Raidou to a ‘rift between space and time’ that he was meant to be trapped in for all of eternity. However, Raidou somehow managed to escape by ‘concentrating on his memories of the real world’, allowing him to exit the rift.

This did not bring him back to his true reality, but a world parallel to his own. He would return to his own world later with the Amatsu Kanagi. Nonetheless, this ability alongside the Amatsu Kanagi shows Raidou has means of traversing dimensions.

Hand To Hand

Even without any weapons or demons (or clothes), Raidou is able to handily dispatch a couple Yakuza thugs.

General Demon Abilities

 

While many of Raidou’s demons have powers unique to them, there are a lot of common spells and passive abilities that every demon does, or can learn with the right set-up and inheritance.

Elemental Magic: All demons are capable of learning the elemental spells already covered: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Darkness, Light, ETC. It’s also worth noting the strongest ice spells in other SMT games have been referred to as absolute zero attacks.

Magical Buffs: Demons can buff the Strength of themselves and their allies with Tarukajoan, Magic with Makakajoan, and Defense with Rakukajoan.

Magical Debuffs: They can lower the same stats of opponents.

Magical Buff & Debuff Negation: They can negate amps given to opponents with Dekaja, and negate debuffs inflicted on themselves with Dekunda.

Physical and Magic Barriers: Special barriers that can be placed around the user or allies for a time that deflect either Physical or Magical attacks. This is normally done with the Tetrakarn and Makarakarn spells.

Mind Manipulation: Demons are capable of inflicting targets with infatuation, confusion, and other mind manipulative elements via various spells.

Transmutation: Demons can petrify enemies to stone with Petra.

Healing Magic: All demons can learn or inherit magic, which extends to healing magic such as Diarahan, and passive healing sigils such as Dia Aura.

Resurrection: All demons can learn or inherit resurrection spells such as Recarm and Samrecarm. These spells don’t just revive someone from being knocked out. They’re proper resurrections from the dead.

Death Curses: The aforementioned deadly (and reeeaaally annoying) insta-kill curses. Typically, these spells are casted in the form of a sigil on the floor beneath the victim. So it should in-theory be dodgeable, though that’s often easier said than done.

Almighty Magic: The parameters to Almighty magic are vague, but generally they are attacks of pure power and energy that bypass traditional defenses and shields. This extends even to characters who are capable of reflecting, nulling, or absorbing every and any other magic, energy, or physical attack. In short, it forces the opponent to tank the damage with their raw durability.

Energy Absorption: All demons are able to learn and inherit Soul and Life drain, which absorb spiritual essence, and vitality respectively. Additionally, one of the most common negotiating acts in Shin Megami Tensei is to let a demon absorb part of your energy or Magnetite. This negotiation option is available even for demons that specialize in physical skills.

Spiritual Invisibility: Most demons in Raidou’s games are invisible to the human eye, requiring spiritual awareness in order to perceive them.

Dimensional Rift Creation: Even relatively weak, common faire demons are capable of pulling people into the Dark Realm.

Intangibility: Even demons that aren’t ethereal in nature can become intangible when summoned by Raidou in order to avoid damage.

Disguise and Appearance Manipulation

It is common for demons to take up disguises, as humans or otherwise, in order to blend in with and trick normal folk. Victor’s demon assistant Ippon-Datara for example enjoys disguising himself as a maid.

Size Manipulation

Many demons such as Oumitsunu, have shown the ability to alter their size. This is presumably how demons such as Mada, who is stated to be able to grow large enough to devour the universe, and Sandalphon, whose true form is stated to become larger than a star, are able to take on smaller appearances.

Illusions and Illusion Resistance

Like Raidou, many of his demons have broken free of illusions and mind control, or utilized illusions themselves. Both Scathach and Cu Chulainn for example overcame the Kimon Tonkou Divination (basically an illusory spell) in the Lone Marebito manga.

Conceptual Existence

To some extent, every demon in Shin Megami Tensei is brought about through the power of Observation. To greatly simplify the concept, it’s power within human belief that gives ‘structure to the formless’. This is incredibly useful as it means it’s very difficult for demons to truly ‘die’. They can, of course, still be killed, or at least temporarily put down, but most will simply be reincarnated through Shin Megami Tensei’s all powerful being, The Axiom, in some form. This also lets demons be reborn through demon fusion. And for many of the top tier entities such as YHVH, it lets them exist and continue to exist across different realities so long as humans continue to hold belief in them, and what they represent.

Or to use Lucifer’s own words…

“Everything has a back and a front. This is true for all matters. You may have thought that you killed YHVH, but on a larger scale, that is just for an instant, a mere blink of an eye. Don't get me wrong, you definitely did kill him, but one could also say that it's impossible to kill him as well. This is the flow of time, the front and the back.

 

Using YHVH as an example, existences like my own...in a way I always exist, and YHVH also exists everywhere. The end result for this time around...well, let's just say I remain inside you. It feels kind of good here. I think I'll stay here, just for a little bit. Oh, don't worry, I won't be here forever. It'll be just an instant, a mere blink of an eye.

Soon the next main player will appear. And so will I...”

Order Abilities

There are 11 ‘Orders’ or groups of demons in Raidou’s games, some of which have special abilities. Most of these abilities are for investigative purposes, but they do have combat uses as well.

Ignite: A Pyro Order ability that utilizes fire to manipulate the emotions of the target by ‘igniting their soul’. Essentially, it makes them more passionate and motivated. It can also be used to destroy ice blockades and shield Raidou from cold environments.

Cool Down: A Frost Order ability that utilizes ice for the opposite effect of ‘Ignite’, making the target more calm and docile. It can also destroy molten barriers, freeze rivers, and shield Raidou from fiery environments.

Inspect: A Volt Order ability that creates an omnidirectional pulse of electricity to detect hidden objects.

Light Up: A Volt Order ability that brings light to areas shrouded in darkness.

Scout: A Wind Order ability in which the demon surveys an area for hidden objects and treasure.

Kamikaze: A Wind Order ability that lets the user ride designated ‘wind paths’ to move from area to area.

Use Force: A Fury Order ability in which the demon destroys blockades, or moves large objects.

Read Mind: A Pagan Order ability that lets the user read the thoughts of the target.

Transform: A Skill Order ability in which the demon can transform Raidou into any human or animal, provided he has the DNA (usually a strand of hair) of the life form in question.

Summons

In total, Raidou has access to over 140 demons. We will be focusing on demons Raidou fights as bosses (and become fusible), demons he gains the ability to fuse via side quests, demons with unique abilities, and demons Raidou is shown to use in spinoff material. But theoretically, any of these demons and the abilities they have should be available to him. The full list of demons he can use can be found here and here. 

Poltergeist

Mischievous spirits known mostly for haunting houses. While weak relative to other demons, Raidou will use them for reconnaissance work. Though much like unpaid interns, they are known to get a bit drunk on the job.

Dormarth

A canine from Celtic mythology that acts as a guard to the gateway to the afterlife. While commonly portrayed as an actual canine, this is Shin Megami Tensei we’re talking about. So instead, Dormarth takes the form of an anthropomorphic, furry, dog waifu. Raidou summons her in the prequel novel. Along with being a skilled tracker, Dormarth’s howl is capable of stunning and binding enemies that hear it.

Orthrus 

A two-headed guard dog from Greek myth, who Hercules encountered during his 12 labors. Raidou utilizes the creature in the Lone Marebito manga, usually as a steed. The creature consistently specializes in fire magic across the SMT games.

Gozuki & Mezuki

Two animal-headed demons from Chinese & Buddhist myth, who act as gatekeepers to the afterlife. Raidou often summons these two as a duo to act as muscle in fights. While physically quite strong, they’re also pretty dumb when Raidou isn’t providing them guidance.

Alraune

A cursed spirit from Norse mythology who takes the form of a naked woman covered in vines (kinky). This spirit can feed off the blood of enemies, mess with their minds with charm, and create an entanglement of vines strong enough to stop a speeding train.

Ippon-Datara

One-legged, one-eyed monsters of the forge, said to live in the mountains of Kumano Japan. It’s theorized they are the degraded form of the Blacksmith god, Ame no Me-Hitotsu no Kami. When not disguising himself as a maid, this demon can use his hammer for physical attacks, and spells to buff allies. 

Though his most noteworthy ability is creating and removing enchanted barriers. These barriers typically need to be hit with a specific elemental attack in order to be destroyed. Some will keep regenerating. Others just straight up won’t let you pass them unless you meet the specific qualifications, such as being a demon. Yet Ippon-Datara can just… Disregard all that, and create and remove the barriers.

Jack Frost

The frost fairy and Atlus’ 4th wall breaking Hee-Homeboy mascot. Capable of using frost magic. While hee is typically a low-level demon ho, Jack Frost and Pyro Jack have both technically defeated Alice, one of the most powerful demons in the series. 

Pyro Jack

The fire parallel to Jack Frost, based on the fabled Jack O’ Lantern. This little devil can fly, shoot and absorb fire, and in Raidou’s prequel novel, had a special ability known as Searching Flame, which lets Raidou track anyone ‘marked’ by his fire. It is unknown if other Pyro Order demons can use this ability, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to say they can.

Mokoi

A spirit from Murngin Mythology, born from the shadow of a deceased’s soul, and known for kidnapping and eating children. Pretty dark background for a demon who looks like a rolled up wad of sushi, and talks like an old geezer. He can attack from afar with a boomerang, put people to sleep with Dream Fist, and inflict panic.

Tsuchigumo

An ‘Earth Spider’ from Japanese folklore. Capable of lightning magic, pulling people into the Dark Realm, and in Nocturne, can summon Almighty magic. Raidou encounters one of these creatures early on in his first game, but defeats and later summons it.

Nue

A creature from Japanese Mythology with the head of a monkey, arms and legs of a tiger, the body of a raccoon, and the tail of a snake. He’s typically oriented towards physical attacks.

Moh Shuvuu

A Siberian Demoness that takes the form of a humanoid bird. Capable of flight, healing magic, creating cyclones, and negating any debuffs inflicted on allies.

Oumitsunu

A demi-god and grandson of Susano from Japanese Mythology. Said to be capable of moving  large chunks of land and reshaping the geography of Japan itself.  He is also able to use lightning magic, and manipulate his own size. He typically fights in this small form in the games, but in the Lone Marebito manga, Oumitsunu’s larger form is shown off. In his larger form, he should be at least 13 meters tall and weigh over 560 short tonnes.

Cu Chulainn

The hero of Irish Myth. Stated to be capable of single handedly defeating an entire army. He carries the spear Gae Bolg, which he can control telekinetically.

Scathach

The famed warrior woman from Irish Myth, and teacher to Cu Chulainn. She’s skilled in wind magic, as well as stat buffs, and needle-based attacks.

High Pixie

A high ranking pixie tasked with protecting entrances to the world of the Faerie. The one Raidou fuses is a High Pixie once used by a fellow summoner, Nagi. This pixie can use powerful lightning and fire magic, and teleport foes across long distances.

Arachne

The famed spinstress from Greek myth who the goddess Athena turned into a spider. In Shin Megami Tensei, she can invade minds and possess individuals.

Susano-o

The God of Storms in Japanese Mythology. Capable of lightning and wind magic, weather manipulation, binding attacks, and powerful physical strikes.

Kohryu

The giant golden dragon of Chinese lore. Capable of Almighty Magic, and resurrection via Samrecarm. The dragon acts as Raidou’s transportation method later on in his 2nd game.

Mada

The Hindu deity of ‘intoxication’ (read: Drunkenness). He can ‘Intoxicate’ foes, and is said to be able to grow so large he can consume the Earth, the heavens, and all the Hindu gods in a single bite.

Decarabia

The 69th (nice!) spirit of the Ars Goetia, an occult book that Shin Megami Tensei takes a lot of design inspirations from. While typically appearing as a star (in SMT’s case, a starfish), the creature can change its form should it be commanded to.

Hitokotonushi

The aforementioned God of Words, who is,

“Said to proclaim good and bad in a single word. All words uttered by him come true.”

Alongside Wind magic, this demon can inflict death and immobilizing curses on foes, and is said to be able to make the words it utters come true. It can also alter its appearance to take on the form and abilities of other demons.

Mishaguji

If the very questionable design didn’t give it away, this is the Shinto God of Sex, normally associated with stone pillars, and the white Japanese rat snake. In the first Raidou game he stood as the final opposition at the top of the radio tower, Waden One. Beyond ordinary demon powers, this god can also teleport foes, mess with their minds with Cursed Bolt, and bind them with… Uh, ‘Cursed Emissions’ (*Shudder*).

Atavaka

Originally a child-eating demon, who would eventually become the Buddhist God of Warfare. This demon can nullify physical damage, and inflict death curses.

Futsunushi

The Shinto God of Swords. He can wield, levitate, and fire dozens upon hundreds of swords at once, and absorb the souls of enemies he has defeated.

Yoshitsune

A historical military general from the Heian Era, noted for becoming popular after his death due to the tragic circumstances of his story. In Raidou’s game, he guards one of the floors to the training tower. As a summonable demon, he can utilize a variety of sword techniques, revive himself from death once per-battle with his Vengeance Seal ability, and has armor that reflects Gun damage and nulls Light and Dark curses.

Tao Tie

Referred to as one of the Four Ancient Evils of Chinese Mythology. This gluttonous sheep-man was sealed by a former Geirin Kuzunoha. Despite this, he was surprisingly chill when Raidou and the present day Geirin Kuzunoha needed him to move the gate to the Abysmal Realm. So much so that he created a huge whirlwind that sucked the Abysmal Realm all the way to the Pojitrawn, Kirby-style.

According to Gouto, this demon did this feat by eating the space between the Pojitrawn and the Abysmal Realm. It’s possible he’s simply referring to the air that was sucked up when Tao Tie created his giant whirlwind. However, if we take this to mean he was literally eating the space, he would also have spacial hax.

Raiho

A Jack Frost who became a huge Raidou fanboy, and decided to cosplay as him. It’s his goal to one day become the one and only ‘Raiho the 15th’. He has the regular Jack Frost’s ice magic, but can also summon forth the (REALLY annoying) Samurai Frost: A giant Jack Frost automaton in samurai armor that charges to attack enemies. And while he’s never done so as a summonable ally, being a Devil Summoner in training, Raiho can technically summon other demons to assist him. That’s right, one of Raidou’s demon summons can also summon demons.

Mara

The embodiment of evil and great tempter in Buddhist Myth… And because ‘Mara’ is apparently slang in Japanese for ‘dick’, he’s also a giant penis chariot… Questionable design choices aside, Mara is undoubtedly one of the hardest (huehuehue) bosses in the series, and one of the best summonable demons. The demon’s gender will also vary from game to game. In the Devil Summoner titles Mara is referred to as ‘he’.

Alongside Charm and Healing spells, Mara has several… ‘Unique’ abilities such as the powerful physical attack… ‘Hell Thrust’, and the binding… ‘Cursed Emission’.

Mara’s power is so great, his mere presence will often distort time and space. For example, in the 2nd Raidou game, Raidou’s alternate universe self, ‘Raido Kuzunoha’ fought Mara before being pulled into Raidou’s reality due to Mara’s space distorting abilities.

Asura

The Great Sun God of Buddhist lore. In the original Shin Megami Tensei, he is described to be, “The universe himself and exists within the smallest of things”. In the 2nd Raidou game, he’s stated to be the one who ‘holds up the universe’. To the extent that when Asura decided to travel back to the past, the Herald of Yatagarasu feared the impact it would have on the balance of their own universe, and thus sent Raidou to stop him. 

Asura is normally one of the physically strongest demons in a given Shin Megami Tensei game, but can also use Almighty Magic, and has a special stat buff known as Agni’s Blessing.

Nebiros

The Black Baron, General of Hell, and 24th demon of the Ars Goetia. He’s immune to almost all forms of physical damage, something reflected in his ability to block any physical damage (and his own statements). He’s also a master of death curses, knowledgeable about ores, plants, and animals, and is said to be the most skilled soul manipulator in Hell. Beyond simply being able to remove the souls of people from their body, Nebiros can utilize the Staff of Death, a weapon capable of taking and containing someone’s soul. This is how he was able to contain Alice’s soul after Raidou defeated her (though she did break out of it). In the original Shin Megami Tensei, Nebiros’ soul manipulation was potent enough to revive and reanimate a town’s worth of corpses in order to create a localized paradise.

To top it off, Nebiros possesses a powerful Almighty attack known as Calamity Cycle, which also inflicts a random status ailment.

Belial

The Red Count, companion to Nebiros, and 68th demon of the Ars Goetia. Alongside Nebiros, he helped create the undead district of Roppongi in the original Shin Megami Tensei. With Will of Flame he can grant himself and allies a fire affinity that ignores conventional resistances, and with Fire of Lethargy he can inflict an incredible amount of fire damage while also debuffing his opponents. He also has a passive Curse ability, which will randomly send any damage inflicted on him back at his opponent.

Alice

Implied to be either the spirit of the Alice from the Alice in Wonderland story, or the spirit of a little girl who communed with demons, gained said demons’ favor, but was driven mad by the magic they gave her. It’s possible both are true, as she was revived by her ‘uncles’ Nebiros and Belial, who saw themselves as her caretaker.

Regardless, Alice is one of the most powerful demons in the series. Her side story in the 2nd Raidou game revolves around Nebiros and Belial chasing her across reality because even they had difficulty tracking her, and are implied to actually be weaker than Alice, despite being her caretakers.

Among her unique abilities are her many death curses such as insta-kill Hell’s Eyes, and her trademark Die For Me!, a darkness-based attack that, if it doesn’t insta-kill, will still severely damage most opponents. In addition, she can absorb energy, heal allies, petrify foes with Petra, throw cards as energy projectiles, summon card-themed knights, teleport, move through mirrors, duplicate herself, and trap foes in iron maidens.

Astaroth

The hedonistic 29th Demon of the Ars Goetia, and one of the 4 Dukes of Hell. In SMT lore, he was originally the goddess Ishtar and god Ashtar, who were forcibly fused together by a certain dickish, floating head, becoming the naked, snake-riding Hell Duke that is Astaroth. Aside from simply being one of the big-wigs of Lucifer’s alignment, Astaroth also possesses the ability to freely travel through time.

Sandalphon

Brother of Metatron and one of the great angels of Judeo-Christian lore. It’s stated his true form is so large, a human would need 500 years to walk the length of his body.

Beelzebub

Lucifer’s second in command, and one of the most powerful demons in the Shin Megami Tensei series, often taking the role of the ‘super boss’ for whatever game he is in.

Being one of the top dogs of Hell, he’s naturally capable of powerful curses, and magic. He can poison foes, transmute them into flies with the Curse of Bael, Reduce all foes’ HP to 1 with Demonic Sigil, induce Ultra Death Damage through Skeptic Crush, and use Death Flies to create an eruption of deathly insects that inflict immense Almighty damage and insta-kill anything that doesn’t have immunity to death curses. If we go off of the (really annoying) cursed space that permeates Hell’s Hall, Beelzebub can extend all of these attacks much further than what is shown in battle.

Metatron

The Right-Hand Man and voice of God. Regularly acting as one of the toughest, sometimes the toughest, boss in a given game. Being aligned with the Capital G God, he has incredibly powerful Light and Almighty magic. He can hit enemies with devastating almighty magic using Fire of Sinai, and instantly kill most foes with the Light curse, Holy Wrath.

Masakado

Another real-life historical figure from Feudal Japan. He declared himself the country’s emperor and fell in battle, but was later enshrined and deified as a Protector God. He is also one of the most prevalent and powerful demons in SMT, typically being found after defeating the Four Heavenly Kings. 

In the Shin Megami Tensei IV universe, Masakado defended Tokyo from the ICBM missiles that started the Great Cataclysm by erecting a large stone barrier around the city. A barrier that, for context, none of the other demons in SMT IV could remove. In Raidou’s games, all the crazy shenanigans going on in The Capital caused Masakados’ anger-side to go a bit haywire. Raidou naturally knocks some sense back into him, returning Masakado to his normal self.

When he’s not shrugging off ICBM nukes, Masakado can cast powerful elemental magic, drain a target’s Magnetite with Grudge Sword, create shadow doppelgangers, fire an ailment inflicting homing blast called Flying Head, reflect back any damage taken by Raidou with Capital’s Fury, and manipulate fate and luck itself. The effects of this fate and luck manipulation can extend to anything from reflecting all damage (save for Almighty) back at the opponent, reducing all of an opponent’s stats to 1, nullifying all forms of damage (save for Almighty), and just flat-out killing all ally demons.

Lucifer

The Fallen Angel and Demon King himself. He takes many forms, from an old man, to a little girl, to a blonde foreigner, to a demonic six-winged angel. Regardless of his form, whenever he gets involved, things get serious. He’s perpetually at war with the forces of Law, often showing himself to be as big of, potentially a greater threat than even YHVH.

He can use the most powerful form of all elemental magics, warp reality, cast curses, distort time, resurrect souls, and basically do anything you’d expect the devil to be capable of. Among his unique moves are High King, the most damaging Almighty move in Nocturne, Root of Evil which removes all buffs from foes and inflicts a random ailment, and a passive buff known as Demon’s Blessing. He is also one of the few demons capable of resisting all forms of attacks, including Almighty.

Other

Gouto-Douji

Raidou’s partner and mentor. He is actually the original Raidou Kuzunoha who violated the clan’s law. The specific law he broke is unknown, but as punishment he is now forced to guide all future Kuzunohas, and ultimately see them pass on while he continues to exist.

While not used in combat, Gouto is helpful to Raidou’s investigations, being able to track and detect demonic traces. In addition, typically only Raidou is capable of hearing his voice. Though other characters who can perceive and commune with demons are capable of speaking with Gouto.

Luck Locusts

Special insects capable of eating the luck of opponents, while bolstering the owner’s luck merely by carrying them. Raidou can carry up to 14. Along with increasing Raidou’s luck stat, when sacrificed, these insects are capable of undoing the negative effects caused by the fate and luck manipulation of other demons, which takes the in-game form of the ‘Luck Roulette’. Even powerful entities such as Lucifer and Shinado will see their effects undone.

Early on in Raidou’s 2nd game, one of the villains, Tatsumi, was able to siphon an entire district’s luck away with just one Luck Locust, and effectively become untouchable. Anyone who would pursue him would be met with misfortune, while he would keep getting lucky.

Feats

John

Overall

• Founding member of the Justice League Dark

• Once snorted Santa Claus’ bone dust

• Was once a Yellow Lantern

• Worked with Dream of the Endless (Sandman is 100% canon with John’s story)

• Captured the Trinity of Sin over the course of 12 hours

• Killed Sea King - an evil version of Aquaman

• Killed Mr E - an extremely powerful sorcerer who can manipulate time

• Proclaimed by the First of the Fallen (DC Satan) to be his most dangerous adversary

• Cut off Swamp Thing’s connection to The Green (He later gave it back)

• Outsmarted countless demons, Darkseid, the Spectre and the Presence

• Tricks the three most powerful Hell Lords of Triumvirate into curing his cancer and granting him a form of immortality, costing him nothing.

• When drunk, tricked the First of the Fallen into drinking Holy Water

• Stole the powers of Shazam

• Abducted and trapped the Phantom Stranger (who exists outside of the physical laws of the universe)

• Phantom Stranger was able to counter a blast from Impulse when he was amped to the point that he could beat Mxyzptlk 

• He also countered death

• Skeletor thinks of Constantine in awe

Power

• Ripped Nergal’s spine out of his body

• With the Blackmare Curse, was able to bring Blight to his knees. Blight was able to defeat Zauriel easily and had cracked creation wide with his power.

• Blasted away members of the JLD

• Created a miniature sun

• Claimed to have a sigil that could “kill a god”

• Can draw upon magic from the Other Place, a realm cosmologically on par with the Sphere of the Gods (which exists above the Bleed).

• Doctor Fate claimed their powers could wipe out Darkseid’s armies

• Doctor Fate was unable to escape his spells

• Base form Doctor Fate makes up one fifth of the Cinque of Cosmic Power, and he has just as much power as the other members, including the likes of Darkseid and Orion

• Nabu considers Constantine a worthy host

• Fate survived the Spectre throwing him through infinite dimensions and the end of time.

• John’s connection with the House of Mystery is so strong that it nearly killed Zatanna to get back to him.

• Zatanna (possessed by Nightmare Nurse) can burn Swamp Thing with her magic.

• She does this.

• Zatanna can use magic to ascend to higher planes of reality.

Speed

• Dodged bullets (Shown above)

• Has also reacted to gunfire via teleportation

• Catches up to a car

• Teleported a blade into a pocket dimension before it hit him

• Outpaced Zauriel long enough to get to the House of Mystery

• Out-reacts the First of the Fallen

• Scales to Zatanna, who has kept up with Simon Baz on multiple occasions. Baseline feats for Green Lanterns like him include crossing the universe in about 10 hours (87.6 Quadrillion Times Faster Than Light)

Durability

• Survived a fall from space 

• Survived repeated firings of Project Thathum, a giant energy weapon designed to kill the Anti-Monitor.

• Taked a blast from a full powered Nightmare Nurse-possessed Zatanna. Zatanna is one of the most powerful members of the Justice League. 

• Resisted the will of the Spectre

• Protection Magic is strong enough to tank attacks from Swamp Thing in one of his strongest forms

• Tanks a shockwave from the Spectre’s fist

• The only person in all of DC to have ever resisted Spellbinder’s powers

• Created a magic circle that protects him and others from Enchantress' magic. For reference, that same magic wrecked Superman, Cyborg and Wonder Woman.

Raidou

Overall

• Prior to his first case, Raidou underwent ‘gruelling training’ to become worthy of the title of Raidou Kuzunoha.

• Defeated his future successor, Raidou Kuzunoha XL, despite said successor coming from a more technologically advanced future, and fusing with a giant demonic battleship mech to become the Soulless God Oumagatsu.

• Gouto-Douji has stated that of all the Raidous he has guided, Raidou XIV is the most skilled and accomplished.

• Defeated fellow summoner Geirin Kuzunoha, despite Geirin being much older and more experienced. Geirin later goes on to fight and defeat the ‘shades’ of 14 of his 17 predecessors, with Raidou defeating the remaining 3.

• Defeated Futsunushi, the God of Swordsmanship, and a being who no one else was able to land a strike on in centuries, even amidst the hundreds of battles Futsunushi took part in, and the hundreds of souls he claimed.

• While trapped in a dimension of Alice’s creation, had enough deductive skill to win Alice’s ‘game’ and discover where she was hiding.

• Defeated the god, Shinado.

• Slayed the eldrich alien god, Clarion, after being bestowed the sword Ame No Ohabari (note: This was with a one-time power up).

• Matched Lucifer, and was stated by Lucifer to be the only one who could change the future determined by God.

Power

• Using his magnetite as a fuel source, Raidou and Tao Tie pulled the gateway to the Abysmal Realm, and a storm that covered The Capital all the way to the San’in region (29.29 Teratons of TNT).

• Even relatively weak demons can create winds strong enough to cut through iron.

• Is more powerful than the Soulless God Oumagatsu, who created earthquakes across all of The Capital.

• Stopped a city-busting meteor while his Magnetite was almost completely depleted.

• Raidou and all mid-tier summons are comparable or superior to King Frost, who froze all of Holy Town (33.02 Kilotons of TNT).

• King Frost is also capable of freezing all of Earth (2.378 Zettatons).

• Raidou and all mid-tier summons are superior to Huoiao, who shot down 9 suns according to Chinese myth (1 to 9 FOE).

• Raidou and top tier demons are superior to Mada, who can swallow all of the Hindu gods and the entirety of space itself (6.752e+82 Tons of TNT).

• Alongside Demi-Fiend, defeated Kagutsuchi, the overseer of the Amala Network, the source of energy to the Vortex Worlds, and the being that is constantly overseeing the destruction of millions upon billions of universes through the cycle of rebirth. (at least 1.3504e92 tons of TNT)

• Superior to Shekinah, who was formed from the 3 Wise Men combining their power with a Cosmic Egg. The Cosmic Eggs are relics capable of birthing universes, and the power of 5 Cosmic Eggs was capable of destroying the Schwarzwelt, a place comprised of multiple universes.

• Being stated to be the only person from his time who could defy God's will, and being comparable to Lucifer, Raidou should scale to YHVH. The creator of the multiverse, who exists above even the infinite Amala Network, multiple other universes outside the Amalaverse, and multiple realms on higher dimensions that transcend time and space. Such as: The Expanse, the Diamond Realm, the Akarana Corridor, and YHVH’s own ‘Branes’. All of which are ‘more vague and infinite’ than any area below them.

• The Messiahs who are comparable to Raidou also managed to hold their own against Stephen while he was using his full power. Stephen is a transcendental being, who managed to reach out to, understand, and defy The Axiom: The cosmic force from which all of SMT exists, that not even YHVH is as powerful as.

Speed

• Early on in his detective career, Raidou could dodge sound waves (Raidou Kuzunoha VS. The Messenger of the Dead, Ch. 1).

• Intercepted and parried multiple sword strikes as they were centimeters away from stabbing fellow summoner, Nagi.

• Far superior to demons who can evade lightning blasts from Zio spells.

• Comparable to Lucifer, who can fly to the moon in seconds. (0.237c)

• Can consistently keep up with Messiahs such as Demi-Fiend and the ‘Hero’ from the original Shin Megami Tensei. Who has a move stated to be lightspeed.

• Said Messiahs are far faster than Maitreya, a being who can throw 5,670,000,000 punches in under a second. (30.56 Times Faster Than Light)

• Can consistently match the speed of beings faster than the 3 Wise Men. Who outsped the Red Sprite as it was exiting the Schwarzwelt’s Quantum Tunnel. (12 to 28 Quadrillion Times Faster Than Light)

• Is comparable to beings who have matched YHVH’s speed, the literal omnipresent Judeo Christian God, who can ‘interpret all things through the eyes of humanity’, exists above the traditional confines of time and space, and whose heads are literally the number of stars that exist across the multiverse (Immeasurable or Irrelevant).

All calc’s for Raidou are here

Durability

• Withstood a point-blank Agidyne spell from High Pixie at the end of Devil Summoner 2.

• Survived impalement from Futsunushi’s swords.

• Narrowly survived a large explosion of magnetite thanks to Futsunushi’s protection.

• At his peak, should be comparable to Masakado, who shielded all of Tokyo from an ICBM missile barrage.

• Can survive the destruction of the Amala Network, an infinite multiverse that, upon the death of Kagutsuchi, was completely destroyed, leading to the end of time and space as we know it.

Weaknesses

John

As powerful as Constantine is, he’s far from perfect. A fair few of his spells require preparation time to set up, and though he can do so mid-battle, it’s still something he has to go out his way to do. Additionally, most of John’s most impressive durability feats lie on the magical side of things. While he can still take a punch pretty damn well, he’s not throwing hands with characters like Superman without magical defences in place first. Plus, the demon blood in John sustains a lot of his abilities including longevity. While he can use and perform magic without it, removing said demon blood could cause his body to break down due to his overuse of cigarettes during his life.

He also owes his soul to a lot of demons, doesn’t know how to ride a bicycle, and he despises the word “moist” to the point where he’ll jump through verbal hoops to avoid saying it. Plus, he’s a heavy smoker who ended up contracting lung cancer, though he did get the Hell Lords of Triumvirate to remove it. Long story short; don’t smoke, kids. It’s bad for you.

Raidou

Despite the immense power and unique abilities Raidou and his demons can use, they are not invincible. His summoning is limited by how much Magnetite he has, which can be depleted with overuse. If he has no magnetite, he can’t call forth any demons. And while his demon allies are all very loyal, they also have… Differing degrees of competence, with some like Mezuki and Gozuki having trouble doing just about anything without Raidou’s commands.

In addition, Raidou needs to have his summoning tubes on-hand in order to call forth his demons. Should said tubes be taken away, he’ll be out of luck, and have to rely on his own abilities. Though it is worth noting he always keeps one spare tube hidden beneath his pant-legs in case all of the ones he keeps on his vest are taken.

Summary

John Constantine

“My name is John Constantine. I am the one who steps from the shadows, all trench coat and arrogance. I'll drive your demons away, kick 'em in the bollocks, and spit on them when they're down, leaving only a nod and a wink and a wisecrack. I walk my path alone because, let's be honest... who would be crazy enough to walk it with me?”

Advantages:

• Smarter

• More experienced

• Has a wider array of abilities than Raidou himself

• Has several counters to Raidou’s hax and abilities 

• Riding the Synchronicity Wave is a very powerful ability

• Swamp Thing and Shade the Changing Man stomp most of Raidou’s summons 

• Has the balls to flip off God

• He fucked a shark (there was contention between members on if this was an advantage or disadvantage)

• Has met several of his writers including Alan Moore in real life. I am serious

Disadvantages:

• Far less skilled in combat

• Far weaker physically

• Slower

• Some of Raidou’s summons can match and surpass John’s in power

• Does not have Jack Frost

• His show was canned (ironically he has become more popular since his show getting canned) 

Raidou Kuzunoha XIV

"A war between God and the Devil... We really did get in way over our heads. But, to ensure the future of The Capital, we'll give you every last ounce of power the Yatagarasu has to offer."

Advantages:

• Much stronger physically and more durable

• Faster

• Far more skilled in combat

• Can counter many of Constantine’s abilities

• Raidou the Aeon’s magical pierce is particularly effective

• Anti-demon equipment like his purifying and curse-severing swords would be effective against John’s demon blood and Blackmare Curse

• Luck Locusts and luck manipulation from higher tier demons can match, and arguably hard counter the Synchronicity Wave.

• Top-tier demons like Lucifer, Alice, and Masakado match and in some areas surpass Swamp Thing and Shade 

• Has Jack Frost

• Straight up better than Dante in Nocturne 

Disadvantages:

• Less intelligent

• Not as experienced

• Less versatile on his own

• John’s best summons stomp most of Raidou’s

• Will forever be recognized as that one dude from that Persona spin-off 

Verdicts

The Black Shulk

(The demons told me to Mickey)

Alright so this fight is quite the interesting journey. Given the amount of nonsense both have up their sleeve the question of the day becomes “Who can out bullshit the other.” The Wally Sonic type of question if you will.

Now I assume you have actually read the blog and didn’t just skim down to see who wins so no I will not be doing a long ass essay of who scales to what and the stats of the characters. If you actually read the above it’s fair to say Raidou has the general lead in stats given the big bois he can contend with in SMT. That might not fully matter tho given that John has so much bullshit correct? Well that’s where this fancy little tool I created called the “Hax Chart” comes into play. 

As you have noticed Raidou has pretty much every counter for practically everything that John can throw at him, whereas John mostly has counters for what Raidou can throw at him. The big things to take note of are the Magic Resistance bypass with Almighty Attacks+Raidou the Aeon, the magic nullification bullets, and Luck Lotus absorbing luck. I know the chart mentions the trenchcoat being a counter but I was admittedly being somewhat generous since bullets in SMT are treated as being still “physical” despite having magical properties. Even then Raidou can just shoot him literally anywhere but the coat. 

As for the Luck Lotuses, while you could argue the Sync.Wave is too big to effect, I don’t think Raidou necessarily needs to effect the wave itself since John isn’t channeling it or whatever. He “rides” it if you will so all Raidou has to do is take the luck that he is utilizing at that point via the wave. Even if he couldn’t use it to yank his luck the Lotuses basically do anything the wave does.

But let’s say he does counter everything in Raidou’s kit. Well congrats he now has to deal with the nonsense that SMT has with the stats. The best chance John would have against Raidou is calling forth Swamp Thing, which not only do the top tier summons that Raidou has would be enough to best Swamp Thing but John can only call forth Swamp Thing in the House. Reasonably Raidou would just leave the House if he got sucked in.

But even if we gave them equal stats you’ve prolly realized that John isn’t exactly known for throwing hands like other magic folk in DC. Above all else his skills are in his intellect and deception which is nice and all but that ain’t saving him from having to engage with combat in which Raidou is a skilled warrior with much more proper training. It’s like giving two people a set of guns but one person is a soldier in the military and the other is just a scientist.

All in all I see Raidou screwing John over more than CW/NBC screwed his show over.  

Hershel Lousyton

First off, I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who helped make this blog possible. Seriously, this has been one of my most wanted fights for a while, and going over everything these two have has been quite the undertaking to say the least.

This match is by far one of the most 'out there' ones I've seriously analyzed. With all the stuff both characters can throw out, there are a million different things they could try against each other. So, I'll start with what I think most people will agree on: John Constantine is the smarter and overall more strategic of the two. Raidou, while certainly smart in his own right, doesn't have quite as many clever triumphs as Constantine, in particular, him out-witting the 3 lords of Hell and getting them to cure his cancer. 

Conversely, Raidou is superior in terms of pure hand to hand combat skill, due to better formal training and his victory over Futsunushi. But John should be crafty and skilled enough to at least keep up for the most part.

In terms of speed, you could make an argument for John scaling to faster quantifiable feats. DC speed feats naturally get pretty crazy. The Red Sprite feat is nothing to sniff at, and Raidou would upscale from it considerably, but it still 'only' reaches double digit quadrillion times lightspeed.

Having said that, there are quite a few arguments for Shin Megami Tensei top tiers reaching immeasurable levels of speed. Lucifer is by all accounts omnipresent, has repeatedly fought beyond the confines of time and space, and his arch nemesis is a guy whose heads are literally the number of stars in the multiverse. And Raidou could match him in combat. For John, distance doesn't matter in most cases simply because 'LOL, Synchronicity Wave'. Both characters and the entities they summon are at a point in power and abilities that speed effectively becomes irrelevant. So, for the purposes of this fight, speed is kind of that: Irrelevant.

What this match is really going to come down to is who can resist whose haxes and abilities. So let's look at them side by side!

Abilities both of them have...

-Spiritual Awareness.

-Pyrokinesis, Electrokinesis, & General Elemental Magic in various forms (Magic spells, summons, enchanted ammo, combination attacks, ETC).

-Teleportation (via magic for John. Virtually all of Raidou's top tier demons have this in some form or another, and they can just teleport Raidou with them.)

-Time Travel (via magic for John, and via Astaroth or the Akarana Corridor for Raidou.)

John's Haxes and Abilities and Raidou’s counters...

Invisibility: Raidou has multiple demons who can detect and track hidden entities (Searching Flame, Detect, ETC). He also improvised a plan on the fly to defeat an invisible enemy early on in the Devil Summoner manga.

Sleep Spells: Raidou is immune to the Sleep status ailment.

Various Mind Manipulation Methods: Raidou has immunity to this in Nocturne, and can create barriers that prevent this in Devil Summoner.

The House of Mystery: Raidou can resist the mind manipulative aspects of the house (see above). Both the Akarana Corridor and the House exist beyond the traditional confines of space and time, so Raidou or one of his top tier demons should be capable of creating a way out if John tried trapping him there.

If John tried escaping to the House of Mystery to prepare or attack Raidou at a different point, Raidou could by all means do the same with the Akarana Corridor.

Binding Spells and Immobilization: Raidou is immune to magic binds in Nocturne, and in Devil Summoner could still move and fight even when inflicted with a curse that completely bound and incapacitated a navy admiral.

Transmutation: Raidou's demons can make barriers that stop this in the Devil Summoner games. He is also immune to petrification in Nocturne, and can't be transmuted into a bomb in Soul Hackers.

Magic Barriers: Almighty magic bypasses magic barriers, and Ippon Datara can remove them.

The Moon Blade: Raidou's demons should have at least some resistance to sealing and containment, as they can resist being confined in summoning tubes if Raidou is not strong enough. Luck Locusts can also free demons who have been sealed by reality/luck warping from beings like Shinado, and Alice has broken free from the Staff of Death Nebiros used to store her soul in the past (albeit, likely over time).

Raidou and his demons have abilities that can absorb most of what the Moon Blade can steal too. Souls? Nebiros and top tier demons can take those. Energy? Soul Steal and Life Drain can take that, and Raidou and Masakado can further drain energy by taking Magnetite from foes.

And even assuming the Moon Blade would work in spite of these resistances, it would still require the sword connecting with Raidou's demons or him. Which, given Raidou is definitely the more skilled swordsman, prooobably isn't happening without considerable effort.

Resurrection and Astral Form: Raidou's sword has stopped beings from resurrecting in the past, and can cut apart astral beings. There still may be a few instances where John's resurrection could come in handy (I'll get to that later), but it wouldn't make him unkillable.

Raidou can do a somewhat similar revival too thanks to one of his swords being capable of reviving him upon death (albeit, only once per-battle), and his demon's own resurrection spells. Granted, because his demons are reliant on his Magnetite, if Raidou dies for good, his demons wouldn't be able to use said spells to resurrect him. Meaning much like in the actual games, Recarm and Samrecarm would only be useful in reviving his demons.

BFR and Dimensional Banishment: Raidou can create a rift out of any dimension he might be trapped in using the Amatsu Kanagi, or just 'focus his thoughts' to get out like he did when Rasputin banished him to a rift between space and time. Most top tier demons like Lucifer and Alice are capable of travelling across dimensions and through the Akarana Corridor as well.

Damage Transference & Magic Absorbing trenchcoat: Masakado can more or less do damage transference too with the move Capital's Fury, and other demons can do similar damage deflection with physical and magic barriers. Almighty magic and moves with the Almighty trait, such as Raidou's Tekisatsu, would also bypass these defenses.

The Universe-spanning illusion: Raidou should be able to break out of this. The Strange Journey protagonist, who Raidou should scale to, broke through an illusion cast by the literal goddess of illusions, who had distorted all of Sector Grus. It’s corroborated by Raidou managing to break free of an illusory mirror world crafted by Alice.

While we don't have an exact size for the illusory 'mirror world' that Alice created, given she claims to have put a lot of magic into the illusion, had shaped the entire dimension she fought Raidou in, and should be far more powerful than even Maya, I can't imagine her illusory world being 'small'. It should by all accounts be comparable, potentially greater in scale, to the illusion John casted that tricked Darkseid.

John's illusion wouldn't stop Raidou's best demons either. Said demons have created illusions of their own, have broken free of illusions, and should have INT/Magic comparable to Raidou.

Power Null or 'taking away' Raidou's Magic: Raidou is immune to getting his magic silenced in Nocturne. And even if this variant of it did work on Raidou, it ironically wouldn't shut down the bulk of his abilities.

Raidou can't actually perform any of the traditional magic spells used by his demons (Agi, Bufu, ETC). In their place, he uses enchanted ammunition, attacks fueled by his Magnetite, combination attacks, or magic casted by the demons he summons.

And in the original Devil Summoner, he's still capable of summoning said demons, even when 'Silenced'. Probably because he just needs to open the summoning tube to do it. The only thing having no magic would prevent Raidou from performing is the incantation to capture demons in summoning tubes. Which is negligible to his overall victory.

In other words, even if John managed to cut Raidou off from his magic, he'd still have to contend with Raidou's summoning, and anything he can do with Magnetite (see: Combination attacks, pretty much all of his sword moves, ETC).

John could always try taking away the magic of Raidou's demons, but most of them are also immune to the silence status ailment, and there wouldn't be anything stopping Raidou from curing said silencing, or just swapping in another demon who hasn't had their magic taken until it wears off. John can shut down magic, but it isn't permanent.

In addition, Raidou’s demons can undo any debuffs he's been inflicted with via Dekunda, and by sacrificing Luck Locusts, Raidou can undo literally having all his stats reduced to 1. Making it doubtful that having his power lowered or nulled would work.

Magnetite as a concept is also too different from something like Magic, or DC's The Green for John to feasibly have a way to depower Raidou of it. Granted, he could almost certainly find a way to cut Raidou off from his Magnetite with enough prep time, but in a spontaneous fight, that prep wouldn't be available.

Wish Granting Cigarettes: I'm a bit skeptical about these being standard equipment, since as far as I know, John has only used them once to depower Swamp Thing. But assuming they're fair game, and that he could depower Raidou in a similar manner, Raidou should be able to undo the depowerment with the aforementioned Luck Locusts.

Swamp Thing Shrinking Foes: Most of Raidou's demons have control over the form they take, and can just re-size themselves. Any Skill Order demon could also undo Raidou being shrunk with the Transform ability.

The Synchronicity Wave: Any benefits John can get from the Synchronicity Wave, Raidou should be able to get from the Luck Locusts he carries. One Luck Locust alone made an early Devil Summoner 2 villains virtually untouchable due to his luck. Raidou has 14 locusts on him by the end of his second game.

In fact, the luck locusts have a pretty solid chance of hard countering the Synchronicity Wave, on account of their ability to take away the luck of their opponent. It would effectively make John a battery for Raidou. Kind of like Flash VS. Archie Sonic, except with luck instead of speed.

There is a slight catch that it's unknown if Raidou can use the Luck Locusts to steal others' luck. Devil Summoner 2 has some off-hand dialogue stating the Tsukigata clan need to use special tattoos that mask themselves with the 'scent of death' to command Luck Locusts. Otherwise, the Locusts turn on the user and take their luck.

However, the aforementioned early villain, Tatsumi, was able to steal an entire district's worth of luck with just one Luck Locust, and he certainly didn't have the Death Mark tattoo that the Tsukigata bear. So, it might just be a plot hole or inconsistency?

But assuming Raidou can't take John's luck with the Luck Locusts, would Raidou have some other means of affecting his luck? Yes. Stronger summons of Raidou's, like Lucifer and Masakado, can inflict ill-fortune on people too, up to and including making all of someone's attacks miss, making all non-Almighty attacks null, ETC. Even weaker summons like Binbou-gami and Yakubyou-gami are the literal demonic embodiments of misfortune, with the former being able to nullify the luck of Tatsumi early on in the second Devil Summoner.

Raidou's Haxes and Abilities and John’s counters

Various Mind Manipulation Bullets & Spells: John can resist all of these without question. His mental resistances are pretty consistent throughout the series.

Petrification & Transmutation: John could presumably just transmutate himself back if he was hit by one of these bullets or spells. His coat could also probably absorb the magic spells.

Mudo/Hama Death Spells: I've seen nothing implying John could resist these, but he could probably resurrect from them. Raidou's death curses inflict... Well, death, but demons that are affected by the spells can still be revived with Recarm and Samrecarm spells. So, while they would work, they wouldn't permanently take John down, who could either resurrect, or fight in his astral form.

Nebiros and Soul Stealing: Apparently, John has prevented demons from stealing souls by 'stripping the souls of their properties'. All things being equal, he should be able to do this to his own soul to keep Nebiros from taking it.

Absolute Zero Ice: It's questionable if John could resist the overall temperature change if Raidou were to perform a big AOE ice blast, but given the benefit of the doubt, his coat can absorb magic, and could probably absorb an ice spell.

Muramasa & Mal Fortuna Kuzunoha: They're not insta-wins by any stretch of the imagination, but given they're specifically designed to harm demonic entities and 'sever curses', and have been used to fight with beings of Hell like Lucifer and Nebiros, Raidou's swords would be a big benefit, particularly against John’s Blackmare Curse, that could definitely tip things in Raidou's favor.

Tekisatsu & Almighty Magic: So far as I know, John has no work around to this, as almighty magic ignores magical barriers, negation, absorption, and repulsion.

Luck Absorption & the 'Bad Luck Wheel': So far as I know, John doesn't have any work around to this sort of thing. You could argue he could just keep using the probability manipulation of the Synchronicity Wave, but his luck isn't infinite, and even if Raidou couldn't siphon away his luck via the locusts, Lucifer or Masakado could definitely inflict him with bad luck. Perhaps not enough to remove all of John's options, but it could definitely benefit Raidou.

Silencing Bullets: Surprisingly, I don't think John has a work around for this. While he can take away and 'turn off' others' magic, so far as I know, John has never shown resistance to, or a way of preventing, his own magic from being silenced. Now, it has been mentioned that his coat absorbs magic. So naturally it would absorb a silencing spell too, right? Well... This is getting into interpreting gameplay mechanics, but here's the thing: Even though the ammunition Raidou uses carry the effects of magic spells, they still are considered physical or 'gun' attacks.

There are several special barriers throughout Raidou's first game called 'Shiki No Kages', which nullify any physical and magical attacks that aren't their elemental weakness. Gouto specifically mentions that elemental bullets don't work in this scenario, because 'Gun attacks only work if it's weak against your gun'.

Meaning even though the bullets replicate the effects of elemental and status-inducing spells, they're still… Physical bullets. This is fairly consistent with other SMT games that have 'Gun Skills' that can induce status effects like Silence, Charm, Poison, ETC, while still being 'Gun Attacks'. Meaning magic absorption wouldn’t stop them. With Raidou The Aeon, his physical attacks, which would extend to gun-based damage, ignore absorption and nullification anyway.

You could also argue that even if the coat could stop the silencing bullets, Raidou could just adapt and start targeting John where the coat isn't covering him. He's shown enough firearm precision in the past to do so.

So, while Raidou doesn't have as many haxes and John, he can resist pretty much all of John's and has a couple haxes of his own John likely cannot work around.

How about their summons?

Raidou's team most likely has better chemistry overall. John, Swamp Thing, and Changing Man are willing to team up when their interests align, or they’re strong armed, but John usually goes at things alone. Raidou's demons comparatively are all loyal enough to willingly sacrifice themselves via demon and weapon fusion, obey his every command, and are more used to fighting side by side with him.

Some of his lower tier summons are admittedly dim, but Raidou wouldn't be dumb enough to approach this fight with anything other than his demonic A-listers. All of whom are fairly wise and experienced in their own right, with Alice almost tricking Raidou once.

What's more, Raidou just has... More summons on the whole, and is less constrained in what he needs to do to summon them. In a spontaneous fight, John would probably have to bring the battle to the House of Mystery in order to get Swamp Thing in on the action. And summoning the Changing Man required him precariously drawing out markings using a pen.

I'm not necessarily saying he wouldn't be able to pull off either of these summons in a fight, just that it's a bit of a hassle compared to Raidou, who just needs to... Unseal a tube to bring forth a demon.

Speaking of, there is always a possibility that John could swipe Raidou’s tubes. But while he is quite crafty, he’d still have to get past several defenses (barriers, demons, Raidou’s own hand to hand skill, ETC) before that happens. Yes, Alice managed to take Raidou’s tubes in the Devil Summoner manga, but this was while Raidou was off guard. He had no reason to think Alice was an immediate threat since she healed his wounds moments prior. It was the equivalent to Batman swiping Hal Jordan’s Lantern Ring. Yeah, it happened, but it’s a lot less likely to happen in the middle of a fight, against someone you’re prepared to kill. Raidou isn’t going to just let a foe casually saunter up to him and rest their head within his cloak.

John also wouldn’t know the tubes have any significance until Raidou has summoned forth some demons. By which point, Raidou would probably have summoned a more than viable team anyway. Raidou might not be able to summon all 20 of his demons at once, and quite a few might be fodder. But he is going to lean towards his best demons in a fight to the death, and even a combination of, say, Lucifer, Masakado, and Alice or Beelzebub would be enough to cover almost all of his bases. Plus, he does keep a spare tube in his pant-leg if he still really needs the versatility of a backup summon.

But let’s assume John does manage to take away all of Raidou’s summoning tubes, and Raidou can’t get them back, AND he has no demons summoned at the time. Is Raidou out of options? Not really. He can still bypass pretty much all of John’s defenses with the Tekisatsu, Mal Fortuna and Muramasa’s anti-demonic properties would still be available to him, as would his silencing rounds, and Luck Locusts.

Having said all that, Swamp Thing and The Changing Man are leaps and bounds above most of Raidou's summons in terms of powers and abilities. However, I think there's a reasonable argument to be made that the best of his summons - those best ones being everyone from Mara and onwards - can either contend or surpass these two.

Which brings us to the cincher. Attack Potency and cosmology! I.E, whose infinity is a bigger infinity!? Oh boy... This is going to get into higher dimensional crap, but here goes nothing...

So, it's established that DC contains an infinite multiverse. But not just any infinite multiverse, one with multi-dimensional layers such as the The Bleed, The Speed Force, The Green, ETC (AKA, this fucking thing). Some evidence even places it as infinitely dimensional.

Shin Megami Tensei, comparatively does not have an exact outline to its cosmology, but there are a few things we know for certain from the games and interviews...

-The creators have stated that Shin Megami Tensei has infinite parallel worlds.

-The Amalaverse in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne contains an infinite set of universes. As backed up in numerous statements, and Lucifer’s monologue.

-SMT I/II, and IV/Apocalypse’s universes are not part of the Amala Network, considering Kagutsuchi is supposed to be the overseer of it all, but has no presence in any other games other than Nocturne, and is suppose to be a fragment of The Axiom/Great Will, similar to YHVH in the other mainline games.

-There exist realms and dimensions that are on higher planes of existence than the Amala Network and other universes in SMT. Such as the Expanse, the Akarana Corridor, and the Diamond Realm. All of which transcend time and space, and have been used to move to different parts of SMT’s multiverse.

-The human world is actually part of the Expanse in SMT II, being the lowest branch (referred to as ‘Malkuth’). This is worth noting, as there are various higher ‘branches’ modelled after the Sefirot, each of which would presumably be their own planes of existence.

-Existing above all of this is YHVH’s Universe, a place ‘More vague and more infinite’ than any place you’ve ever been.’ Note: This includes places that transcend time, like The Expanse, which is visited in SMT IV Apocalypse.

-Within YHVH’s universe are 4 ‘branes’ or dimensional spaces, all of which exist infinitely above one another, with YHVH’s throne room existing infinitely above the branes of his universe in non-euclidean space.

-And the kicker to it all, various lore pieces involving the Axiom and statements from the Digital Devil Saga novel suggest there are spaces beyond the concept of dimensions within the SMT series (yes, really).

There's room for interpretation on just how big this means the SMT world is, but needless to say it's big. This is important because The Axiom is the all powerful being in SMT, who exists outside of and above... All of this. Stephen was able to make contact with and directly defy The Axiom, and should have power on par with it. The Messiahs held their own against Stephen while he was using his full power. And Raidou has consistently matched Messiahs like Demi-Fiend, and beings comparable to Demi-Fiend like Lucifer. Ergo, the chain would go Axiom = Stephen >= Messiahs = Raidou.

I'll grant, the Messiahs likely don't scale entirely to Stephen. Stephen does say he was fighting using his full power, but he's clearly not all that exhausted after the fight and was doing it more so as a test. However, the Messiahs just holding him back for as long as they did is still impressive.

Swamp Thing, the Changing Man, and John, are all incredibly powerful and capable of some higher dimensional shenanigans in their own right. But there's more than enough leeway through just YHVH's dimensional shenanigans to put Raidou and his summons on-par, if not beyond them in most interpretations.

This is all setting aside that Raidou should physically scale to his top tier demons without any magic or gear. His magnetite is what powers these beings, he's repeatedly fought with them enough to scale through regular means, and if recruited in Nocturne can even survive the complete destruction of the Amala Network.

John's magic is incredibly powerful, and gives him some tricks and abilities that would absolutely keep Raidou on his toes. But when that magic can be resisted, and bypassed in multiple ways, it can only do so much.

TLDR: Raidou can resist all of John's relevent haxes, has several haxes of his own that John can't work around, and is packing all the demons, skills, and 'what the fuck?' cosmology scaling to work through The Hellblazer's magic. It won't be easy, and it won't be pretty, but the devil's in the details, and the details say the Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha XIV takes the win.

CSK

(I’m just happy to be here)

It’s been quite a rollercoaster to get here, but I’m so happy to be a part of finally getting down and dirty with my most wanted matchup ever! I can’t even remember how I was first made aware of this idea, but it immediately caught my attention to such a degree that I commissioned XIVth Hellblazer, which seems to have had a hand in catapulting this matchups popularity to the point where it might actually be possible in the near future (Though expect me to keep attempting to jinx myself and not get overconfident lol). Especially since it’s still been quite back and forth, like how this matchup almost didn’t get a blog but then last minute raced ahead in votes. So anyway, it felt fitting that my entrance into the G1 blog scene would be with my favorite matchup period, especially since it’s taken some effort to get it here.

Now let’s get to it!

Part of this matchup’s appeal to me is just how much goes into it. We’re talking about Vertigo’s flagship character who also has an incredibly long history within DC Comics, which is still going strong, and a central character to the storied Shin Megami Tensei franchise, whose cosmology means that every single thing in this long ass series is relevant to consider. But it does seem like we’ve finally gotten all our ducks in a row.

Constantine as a character is infamous for his sleight of hand and silver tongue, which carries with it an air that says “this guy always has another trick up his sleeve no matter what you throw at him”, and the arsenal and abilities he’s gathered during his long history certainly reflect that.

You’d think that Raidou would be a different story. He’s only truly present in two entries of a spin-off series to SMT, as well as a cameo here and there. But that’s the magic of long-running JRPGs. Raidou has novels and manga to his name, as well as a few aspects of SMT writing that tie the whole thing together, which I’ll get into in a bit. The important thing is, his arsenal of abilities compares to Constantine, in width at least.

I’ll assume you’ve read the blog itself and keep this relatively brief and without any links, since you already have access to all the important ones in the blog itself. 

To make a long story short, these two match each other in many, many, ways. High levels of illusion magic and other mental abilities, elemental spells, sensory abilities, summoning, the works. When it comes down to it, John does seem to be a lot more versatile than Raidou, but there are caveats to this. First of all, I mean offensively, and I mean in comparison to Raidou on his own. When you tally up their resistances, there are very few things for either that stand out as not directly countered by the other. You can refer to Shulk’s chart and Lousy’s verdict for more details if you don’t believe me or just want more context, but I’ll settle for just touching on a few big ones: The Synchronicity Wave, John’s Power Null, Magic Barriers, and Moonblade, The House of Mystery, Raidou the Aeon, and the specifics regarding Raidou’s guns. 

John has shown the ability to ride the Synchronicity Wave to great effect, causing time, distance, probability, and even fate itself to bend itself to please him purely on its own, which essentially translates to ridiculously powerful luck at any given time. However, John is never actually seen conjuring the entire wave or in other ways directly controlling it. The keyword here is riding the wave. The currents around him shape themselves to his benefit, and allow him to occasionally pull greater stunts with great active effort, like when he sent that plane on the Wave. 

With this in mind, as well as the general descriptions of what effects the Wave have directly caused, the Luck Locusts should be able to directly counter its effects. It’s inconsistent whether a Death Mark is needed to actively and directly steal the luck of an opponent with a luck locust, but even if you argue Raidou can’t do so, the locusts still passively manipulate the luck and fate of anyone nearby. Look at what Tatsumi could do with a single locust in Raidou’s second game, he was basically untouchable and had basically all the same things the Wave gives happen to him purely off this effect. 

And for the record, at the end of his second game, Raidou has a whopping fourteen locusts on his person. 

Should you for some reason decide to disregard the locusts completely, many top tier demons are able to even more directly perform feats of luck/fate manipulation, usually visualized via a “Bad Luck Wheel” of sorts. Demons like Lucifer and Masakado can hit even harder on this front in various ways. Likely not enough to completely shut down John, but more than enough to effectively counter the Wave’s effects. It’s more debatable whether those demons and the locusts together can counter John potentially being immeasurably fast via the Wave, but that’s also only at his best, and given the passive part of the locusts as well as everything laid out regarding the Wave itself and the fact that Constantine is merely riding it, I’m erring on the side of yes. But as you’ll see later on, I don’t think that makes a difference regarding the final result.

John has to great effect cut people off from their source of power on multiple occasions, directly taking away people’s abilities to use magic, making protection circles that sap Superman of his solar energy, and more. His most impressive showing is likely taking away Swamp Thing’s connection to The Green. However, this isn’t a reliable way to take down Raidou either. Raidou only really needs magic to seal demons in his tubes, the rest of his abilities are either powered by magnetite, (which all things taken into account is not similar enough to something like solar energy or a connection to an astral realm to really be affected), or purely a result of Raidou’s gear or his own physical mastery. Even beyond that, Raidou is immune to being silenced in Nocturne, and can summon demons even when silenced in Devil Summoner. Also, this should be well in the realm of things that Raidou can undo by sacrificing a Luck Locust. Most of Raidou’s stronger summons are just as immune to silencing as Raidou himself, and for those that aren’t, Raidou can simply swap them around with other demons.

Constantine has shown the ability to draw up magic barriers and protection circles that are extremely powerful, even beyond what his stats usually account to, such as the aforementioned draining of Supes, to the point of taking attacks from a souped-up Black Lantern version of Swamp Thing no problem. However, Almighty magic bypasses magic barriers and resistances (Raidou even has a physical sword technique called Tekisatsu with the properties of Almighty magic), the demon Ippon-Datara is shown to freely remove magic barriers that otherwise required specific magic for anyone to cross or dispel, and Raidou the Aeon makes all of his physical attacks bypass magic barriers and resistances, including nullification and absorption regardless.

The Moon Blade is powerful, no doubt about it, but there is some level of counterargument here too. Demons can resist Raidou sealing them away, Alice broke out of Nebiros’ soul-stealing staff (admittedly with an unclear timeframe), and the god Shinado’s reality warping sealing was also countered by sacrificing a Locust. Raidou also has ways of stealing every single thing the Moon Blade can steal and hold. Also, besides all this, John would still need to hit one of Raidou’s demons or Raidou himself for the sword to work. Constantine is definitely the smarter, more experienced, and craftier of the two, but Raidou is neither stupid nor a greenhorn, and he is by far the more skilled close quarters combatant, so that isn’t exactly the safest option either.

The House of Mystery is so ridiculously durable as seen by its encounter with Pralaya, that it would take considerable effort for Raidou to deal any lasting damage to it. It has powerful mental abilities combined with its internal shapeshifting, and is independently sentient as well as perhaps the only summonable ally John has that is wholly loyal. However, the nature of its existence as well as where in DC cosmology it generally hangs out outside of space and time makes it level with the Akarana Corridor, and Raidou has not only willed himself out of a similar area he was trapped in before, but also possesses the Amatsu Kanagi, which lets him return to the Akarana Corridor from anywhere, and enter any part of space and time from there. So should Constantine wish to take the fight to the House of Mystery, whether as an escape or in order to use its bindings to summon Swamp Thing (more on him later), Raidou has no problem following him in and out of the house. 

As mentioned before, Raidou the Aeon allows all of Raidou’s physical attacks to bypass any resistances and barriers other than repelling damage. You can argue that Constantine’s trench coat counts on that front, with its ability to transfer damage. However, that’s not the strongest argument, since it is mainly done via absorbing magic and then copying an effect onto a nearby target, not by repelling it outright. Not to mention Raidou’s skill with the blade cannot be undersold, and with his great speed and training, it’s not far-fetched that he could get around the coat and go for the ankles or something, should it ever get that far.

Also, Raidou’s gun is an odd case. While its bullets obviously have effects that replicate various avenues of magic Raidou and his demons can use, they aren’t actually magic themselves. The elemental bullets were explicitly called out as ineffective against the Shiki no Kages by Gouto-Douji (who is a good kitty but also a smart kitty that used to be Raidou I and has trained II to XIV), and those were completely immune to any element except one specific weakness. This checks out with the rest of SMT, in which gun skills exist that cause various effects and ailments but remain purely physical gun skills, and in turn it is worth mentioning that said gun skills fall under Raidou the Aeon, and thus would bypass regardless. As the cherry on top, Raidou is easily enough of a crack shot to hit Constantine regardless of what his coat tries to do, as seen especially in his novel. All of this together means that Constantine doesn’t actually have a solid counterargument to Raidou’s gun.

So yeah, all of the most notable outliers do fall in favor of Raidou (As stated, everything not mentioned here for Constantine or Raidou is either canceled out by the other or also in favor of Raidou). With general abilities done, this still leaves us with two major areas that are necessary to highlight: Their summons themselves, and stats.

Most of Constantine’s summons do not add anything major to the discussion, at least nothing he couldn’t already do himself. However, Shade the Changing Man and Swamp Thing are a completely different story. By painstakingly drawing out the right symbols, John can summon Shade to his side forcibly, and when within the House of Mystery he can simply ask the House to bring ST there and keep him there. Given Constantine’s gift of speech, it’s not a big stretch that he’d be able to convince (read: blackmail) them to help him in the fight, even when leaving the House itself. 

There’s no doubt that Shade and Swamp Thing stomp the majority of Raidou’s demons, but while Shade’s reality warping and existence erasure sounds fearsome, it isn’t actually of a level that would likely do much to Raidou himself or to greater demonic powers like Lucifer, Alice, and Masakado, who together essentially cover all of Raidou’s bases. Not to mention, Shade hasn’t actually showed much in the way of stats with his feats and scaling, so he might not even be that big of a difference maker from the get-go, especially since he is so unstable he makes Constantine look well-adjusted, and flip-flops on morality at the drop of a hat.

There’s no way around the awesome strength of the big green lug that used to be Alec Holland. But the truth is, a lot of Swamp Thing’s most infamous stats showings aren’t all that standard. His list of hax is as long as Constantine’s own, but Raidou and his demons do still manage to get ahead of the most important stuff, like Raidou resisting transmutation, and all the demons being immune to being shrunk. It’s up in the air whether Raidou’s swords can take Swamp Thing down for good, with their ability to sever ill luck and curses, purify souls, prevent resurrection, and ability to hit souls, since his regeneration is that good, but Raidou and Lucifer-tier demons have the stats and the aoe to keep him out of the way long enough for a decisive blow.

All of this would mean nothing if the stats didn’t paint a similar picture. So as to not keep you here forever, I’ll keep it brief: they do. 

SMT cosmology genuinely surpasses DC cosmology in size. It feels ridiculous to say considering how many wins DC has gotten on that backbone, but it’s the truth. Not to mention, you can solidly scale Raidou’s physical stats to the highest layer, while the same cannot be said for Constantine. His magic power gets fairly high into DC’s many layers, especially since the Blackmare Curse was able to overwhelm Blight. However, the statement from Swamp Thing that Blight cracked creation wide open is to a certain degree flowery language (no pun intended), as there’s nothing direct to pin it on, Raidou has equipment specifically intended to counter curses, and like I mentioned you can solidly place SMT cosmology as even bigger than DC’s regardless. Therefore it isn’t a solid answer either.

Raidou has a solid enough scaling chain to downscale slightly from Stephen overriding the will of The Axiom, the absolute highest authority in all of SMT. Sure there’s some contention regarding the fight between the Messiahs and Stephen, but when the whole point of a Messiah is that they are The Axiom’s will made manifest, I really don’t see the problem. Not to mention Raidou has very solid scaling to planes just below The Axiom via YHVH and the like that are also enough to outstat, but I want to mention the full arguments just to give you an idea of the scope we’re talking about. The Power of Observation is a central aspect of SMT, which essentially boils down to humanity’s belief in the supernatural being what gives it form, being the explanation behind separate versions of the same mythological figure being their own demons, for example. This means that all the mythological creatures, stories, and worlds referenced in SMT games are real within their canonicity, which is also why we can take lore feats from demons literally. By the way, you heard me right. Stories and worlds too. Everything from the Cthulhu Mythos to Hinduism cosmology falls under The Axiom. It genuinely is that fuckin large. 

So yeah, Raidou and his top tier demons have at minimum a decent power and durability advantage, to potentially a very very very large one. As for speed, considering that John simply doesn’t really have any abilities that significantly affect Raidou, arguing both as immeasurable simply won’t change anything, even though I lean on the Wave being countered hard enough to leave John at herald level. Plus if you really want to get hairy, you might be able to argue Stephen scaling as irrelevant speed, so while immeasurable is a somewhat debatable high-end for Constantine, it’s a more solid middle end for Raidou.

*Phew*

Okay, now that we’ve all caught our breath, it shouldn’t be too hard to see the bigger picture. John is smarter, more experienced, and 1v1 more versatile than Raidou, but that’s about it. Add in details like the fact that Raidou’s moves only require minimal movement in comparison, and Raidou should be more than able to pull off any of the moves that can net him the win. He has more than enough counters and resistances to do so in time regardless of whether you have them at equal speed or quads vs irrelevant. 

Simply put, Raidou has every other advantage, and all the abilities and stats he needs to solidly take the win. 

It took an intensei fight, but poor John went down in a blaze of glory. Case closed.

Mal

(What i was listening to while writing this verdict)

I am back yet again for another prediction. John Constantine is one of my favourite DC Characters ever and I have a pretty decent interest in the SMT franchise (I am going to pick up SMT5) when it launches. While personally I prefer John Constantine vs The Doctor from Doctor Who - I will admit that this is a very very very thematic matchup that I would love to see happen as a DEATH BATTLE someday. Now let’s get to this matchup.

I will admit that I likely won’t be talking much about Stats too much as it should be obvious who takes that. The best that John Constantine has is scaling to DC Herald Magic Users such as Zatanna (which he does scale to). Raidou scales to/has done much higher feats then most of the DC Heralds so naturally he takes Destructive Capability,Speed and Durability. That’s not really much of a question looking at the feats section.

So then this is a stomp then? No actually - despite Raidou having the clear advantage in stats - Raidou and John Constantine’s magical abilities and hax match each other blow to blow - the point that this fight turns from a stomp when just considering stats to an extremely close fight when considering everything that Raidou and John Constatine have. John Constantine no joke is one of the most haxest characters in DC Comics not counting the Gods and the really Top Tiers and a lot of his abilities count Raidou. 

First of all there’s the Synchronicity Wave Travel, which is an ability for only those who have the title of the "The Laughing Magician". It allows John to be able to reshape the concept of luck to his own wim and reshape any conflict he finds himself into his own design.Think Nagito Komaeda's Luck in Super Danganronpa 2 but only on steroids. This is an EXTREMELY useful ability to have whilst fighting any opponent and John can definitely use it whilst fighting Raidou who is a more skilled individual at hand to hand combat. For example, John could use SWT to make Raidou’s bullets miss their marks or make Raidou’s magical attacks miss just by manipulating the luke in his favour. Meaning even if Raidou overwhelming has the speed advantage - he could simply manipulate his luck to make sure that Raidou doesn’t hit him though it does have his limitations. Still this will give John a heavy advantage going into this fight. HOWEVER, Raidou sorta does have a counter for the Synchronicity Wave Travel in the form of the Luck Loctus which can steal the luck of someone else. Granted in my opinion - Raidou stealing the luck of John would require a bit of assumptions - such as Raidou finding out specifically how Synchronicity Wave Travel works and how to use his Luck Lotus to capitalize on it but i will freely admit that it is possible (i just don’t think it’s that likely and would require a lot of assumptions) 

It should be noted that John being the extremely smart cookie he is, has several magical barriers and resistances that allow him to protect himself from some of the biggest heavy hitters in the DC Universe like Zatanna and Brightest Day Swamp Thing. Meaning most of Raidou’s magical attacks won’t be able to injure Constantine significantly. John also has magical absorption allowing him to absorb any magic Raidou throws at him. 

But that’s not to say Raidou has his own counters for John as shown by Black Shulk’s graph. Raidou also has magical null as well as attacks that bypass magical barriers such as Physical Spells and Almighty spells (which don’t count as magic). 

Both have the ability to manipulate the souls of others but both have counters to soul manipulation so it pretty much comes to a stalemate when it comes to their soul manipulation. 

Two of John Constantine’s summons are better than the vast majority of Raidou’s summons. In particular - Shade the Changing Man who is capable of having reality warping powers on a mass scale to the point that the M-Vest can change atoms on a molecular level and turn even thoughts into solid objects. He can change the atoms of higher tier beings like Angels. He can also completely just erase beings from existence as well as potentially erase himself from existence if he so wants. He can warp the environment to fit his needs and create constructs out of literally nothing that is only limited by his own imagination - like seriously this guy can become anything and everything. His scariest ability is his Madness manipulation - he can trap people in an endless cycle of madness as well create madness constructs. John Constantine/Shade could simply just erase most of Raidou's demons out of existence - not all of them mind you and there are a few demons where mass scale reality warping simply would not work on - mostly the infamous Dick Chariot - Mara and Lucifer. Raidou himself also has resistance to reality warping meaning i don’t think Shade is as powerful as he would - could simply blink Raidou out of existence and end the fight right there and then. 

Swamp Thing is probably closer to Raidou’s most powerful summons considering how much soul resistance Swamp Thing has - having his astral form (his soul) devoured and being fine. As well as being durable enough that the Anti-Monitor was once unable to kill him. This is the same Anti-Monitor that is a threat to the multiverse that was more than capable of destroying the DC Multiverse with the Anti-Matter wave. Swamp Thing is also capable of fighting with some of the strongest DC Heralds like Captain Atom and Etrigan. Swamp Thing can also resist any soul hax done to him. However, while I do think Swamp Thing is more than comparable to Lucifer - I do think Lucifer has the advantage in DC considering that he is comparable to YHVH who is higher than multiverse level.

So overall in terms of summons - Swamp Thing/Shade can deal with most of them but struggle with the high tiers which gives Raidou the advantage. 

And before you ask - why wouldn’t Swamp Thing/Shade be given to John they are separate characters? Well not only do we know that John can summon both but also in the context of Raidou and SMT Demons - they are also beings with entirely separate personalities that work together with their Summoner to aid in combat. I don’t see why you wouldn’t give John the same lee way with Shade and Swamp.

Anyway in terms of versatility, I would definitely give this to John. While Demon Summoning does give Raidou a much wider arsenal then he has without them, the amount of different hax and abilities that John has is frankly kinda startling and while not all of them are combat focused but are still very useful at fighting any number of supernatural creatures. Really John’s powers are so vast that he can do pretty much anything magical with them though some of his more elaborate spells require a bit more preparation time in order to pull for them. Compared to Raidou who is a bit more limited and mostly relies on his summons in combat (though he is definitely not helpless without him). 

It should also be noted that John is extremely smart and tactical (to the point where he easily ranks up to be one of the smartest characters in the DC Universe). John during a fight is always trying to find out and exploit an enemy’s weaknesses on the battlefield and there’s no doubt in my mind that John could figure out how Raidou summons the demons and use some magic to disrupt Raidou’s demon summoning or destroy him - making him significantly less versatile and limiting. Alice was able to do this in the Raidou Manga so it wouldn’t surprise me if someone like John could easily figure how Raidou was summoning his demons and neutralise it as a factor. This would give a huge advantage of John as Raidou while having the stats edge by a significant gap - would still be far less versatile and have hax without his demons by his side (though he has a fair amount of hax on his own). 

If John is able to neutralise Raidou’s demon summoning then i honestly think John would take it due to his versatility,hax and intelligence but if Raidou can get off his higher tier summons then i think Raidou would take due to the sheer amount of versatility that the Demons give Raidou as well as their hax that neutralize some of John’s most dangerous hax. 

Overall in terms who i think is more likely to win - i am going to lean John but i think this fight is EXTREMELY close and think arguments on both sides are equally valid. Overall I think John’s versatility,hax,intelligence and ways of removing Raidou’s Demon Summons from play give him the slight win despite Raidou’s stats edge (though not to the point it becomes a massive stomp). However with a fight as close as this (it’s like 52% to 48%) either character could win but personally based on my thoughts and opinions - John is the superior combatant in this hellblazing fight

VampyreNVRmore

(This could be one helluva fun fight)

Didn’t expect me to be here did ya, mate? Well, I actually am quite a fan of John Constantine. Mostly because I watched him on the CW’s DC TV shows. Anyway, I first heard of this match-up when someone commissioned a soundtrack from Brandon Yates which sounded pretty cool. Anyway, let’s start the verdict on who would win in a fight between John Constantine and Raidou Kuzunoha XIV (Wow, that’s hard to pronounce).

Anyway, both are known for their magical haxes and summons, so let’s focus on those first. Interestingly enough, Raidou has a lot of resistance to different forms of magic. Ailments, illusions, curses, elemental magic. Some of these are magic that Constantine can perform. The best resistance Constantine has is against mental attacks, though his trenchcoat does also protect him by transferring damage to other people. Of course, Constantine still has a bunch of magical abilities he can rely on. He has mystical barriers, mind control and hypnosis, invisibility, time travel, resurrection, binding, summoning, sleep spell, transmutation, teleportation, dimension travel, power null, and a few others.

However, Raidou also has his own magical abilities that he can use to combat John’s. He has magical confinement, combination attacks, magnetite manipulation and absorption. However, his demons possess abilities that can support Raidou, specifically when it comes to stats and status effects. After all, he’s kind of an RPG character. It should be noted that Raidou has a lot of summons when compared to John. Despite having very few summons, his heaviest hitters are Shade the Changing Man and Swamp Thing. However, Raidou’s best summons are enough to put them down.

John’s Synchronicity Wave Traveling allows him to basically manipulate luck and probably to his advantage. However Raidou does have a counter with the luck locusts. Also, it turns out that he also has counters for the House of Mystery, Constantine’s power null/removal, and the Blackmare Curse. Basically, while Constantine can counter most of Raidou’s hax abilities, Raidou can counter all of Constantine’s.

Lastly, Raidou has the edge in stats, so he’ll be able to use his magical abilities first and overpower Constantine. It’s sad, since I really like John as a character. Who knows though. This hasn’t become an official Death Battle yet. Something new can happen in the comics that can help Constantine in the future. But for right now, Raidou Kuzunoha XIV will win this bloody hell of a fight.

AzureBlizzard氷

Hey hey hey what's up.

About time I contributed to one of these blogs again...in my own way at least.

I couldn't not do smth for it considering it's one of my most wanted match-ups in general, featuring one of my favorite characters from my favorite franchise period, that being Megaten, and another character I really like from DC Comics, who we all know, and even though I am not one to talk much during convos I have found the debate leading up to this blog quite interesting, and like that, here is my extremely unprofessional input on the MU, because it's the least I can do.

In terms of abilities, woah is this an interesting dynamic.

Both have so many different types of magic and just outright hax that it's really not worth it to mention them all again because, uh, yeah, it would just be a copypaste of what you can see scrolling up.The vibe of this MU seems to be "oh I can do this, can you counter it?" and it's honestly fascinating just how many answers these two characters have against the other.

In terms of the main ones:

Raidou has physical and elemental attacks that would physically overwhelm John but the latter's ingenuity with magic is definitely capable of dealing with that disadvantage.

John's power nullification would be resisted or outright countered by Raidou's ability to negate silence status (a status that he can inflict himself too)

The Synchronicity Wave allows Constantine to have time space and even luck on his side, letting him go wherever he wants to go, however he wants, but Raidou's own options of spatial and temporal travel and the luck/fate hax given to him by the Luck Locust's give him pretty much the same reach or at least one enough to bounce back from whatever John tries to attempt.

Constantine can absorb Raidou's magic but the latter can bypass that by just...shooting him.Them bullets are physical.

Illusions could do the trick for a while but Raidou is used to those and they aren't gonna seal his fate on the long run, ‘specially with his ways of getting around them.

However, from the evidence I've seen, John does seem to possess a more solid magical arsenal overall.

Raidou can respond to most of John's options, and he definitely has stuff of his own to take the lead and push the battle forward, but in a contest of just magic, John just seems to have an easier shot at changing the dynamic of the fight to his advantage with his sheer variety of spells, while Raidou will spend most of the fight adapting to his opponent while also having a generally more grounded moveset in terms of, uh, "craziness".

That's not to say he can't do anything, oh no, he absolutely can, his close range arsenal and sheer amount of summons and spells that come from them certainly give him a lot of possibilities to approach his opponent directly, I'm just saying that in terms of batshit crazy magic, he's kinda beat.

But will nuts magic be enough? Well.

Speed-wise (velocity being an important aspect of this fight), I would personally give it to Raidou. In terms of quantifiable feats and scaling, the Hellblazer definitely has the edge over the Devil Summoner, just by having higher numbers to work with, but it's beyond what's measurable where Raidou shows his true colors, since his Immeasurable scaling seems really reasonable and I agree with it, reaching a level I do not think John can reach on his own (even having heralds at Infinite he would still be slower).

Granted, he can gain time by keeping himself at a distance from Raidou, which he can definitely do with his magic, but in the long run it is not likely to do much to prevent Raidou from just speed blitzing him to get back on his feet, be it by himself or through one of his higher end summons (Mara speed blitzing someone sounds funny).

And even then, Raidou can make the speed gap even bigger with spells like Sukukaja.

Yes, John could potentially counter said types of spells with his own, but I'm speaking in a general sense. So yeah, the victor in this department is not rocket science for me.

Now, on to power and durability, well, I think everyone knows where this is going.

Physically speaking, John reaches like around MCB-Town, which is kinda pitiful but we all know that physical strength is not what makes him deadly, obviously. With magic, he reaches Universal levels of power in terms of sheer destructiveness, but again, it's in his magic's hax and its applications where he shines, so judging him by just a power level is kind of dumb lol.

As for Raidou, well, being on par with Demi-Fiend and high end demons should put him at around Complex Multiversal levels of power. There are arguments for Outer but I really don't wanna jump the gun just yet and even then for this debate it doesn't even matter. So, yeah, it's pretty obvious the XIVth Kuzunoha has a large advantage in this regard. He absolutely dominates in terms of physicality, so let's go over the second-to-last aspect, which is admittedly pretty darn important.

In terms of intelligence and experience, well, both are gosh darn smart, and they are some of the best detectives I can think of.Raidou has the advantage of having best gato as his sensei, but John has many more years of overall experiences by just, you know, being at the business for a while longer, which I think is definitely gonna help him on this fight, at least at first.

Raidou is, again, very smart but he just doesn't have the many years of experience Johnny over here has. And the most important aspect of them all, drip, where Raidou fucken solos DC golly g, it's not even close. But being serious, I summarized what I wanna say pretty well, so, which detective do I think is more likely to get ahead of the other here?

Well, let's go back to a strangely worded question I made previously.

"But will nuts magic be enough?"

I personally...really doubt it.

Don't get me wrong, John has, as I said before, so much stuff to throw at Raidou that it's easy to believe he could get him overwhelmed, but I really don't think Raidou would go down like that.

As previously stated, not only can he resist a lot of John's most dangerous magic with his own stuff, from summons to passive abilities, but he also speed blitzes John pretty hard, which makes it doubtful to me if he's even gonna let Constantine get him with his hax for long.

I think that if given the chance, Raidou could be defeated if John throws absolutely everything he has an Raidou, since despite what I said previously about their movesets countering each other, I'm willing to believe John has stuff that Raidou doesn't have an answer for, which would definitely secure his win if he was given prep time.

However, all hail redundancy by repeating what I've already said before, Raidou is so much faster than him and is able to one shot him with one properly landed blow, which makes this frankly kind of one sided if Raidou goes serious from the start.

If he doesn't, and both start casually, chances are he's gonna pull through what Constantine throws at him first and have his best action be the killing blow, which I know doesn't sound that exciting but VS debating is like that.And I really doubt Raidou would be the person to joke around in a serious fight, specially in a literal Death Battle sense.So, yeah, I wish this was more complex to talk about from my end but in my opinion, through sheer resolve, resistances, power, durability, and speed, Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV takes the cake here.

But hey, I haven't really looked at the other verdicts, so probably I'll be enlightened in how I missed smth important that makes this MU way closer, or maybe John is more likely to win after all. I may like Raidou a bit more but if the former won instead I wouldn't be against it, since I still really like him and the whole "underdog pulling off a win by their own wits" dynamic sounds super cool too.

One way or the other, despite the reasoning I have for having Raidou win, I do hope that if this episode happens, it has both go all out because not doing so seems like a massive waste.

And, yeah, I think that's about it. See ya.

...

Oh yeah btw the Devil Summoner OST slaps so hard like-

Agent

(Imma play Akatsuki Blitzkampf after this, and setting the mood for British bitch vs 2000s Detectve fuck boy)

Raidou goes Boogy Woogy and John gets his ass clapped. Only for John to say thanks for the tip, and continue the DC win streak. But nah, that ain’t happening today. See you all on the other side of the pits of Hell.