SMT V Vengeance: Should You Side With Anansi or Onyankopon?

By the time you get to the Shinjuku Ward, you’ll probably be used to choosing between two sides in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. This time, we have the choice between Anansi or his father Onyankopon, so here’s who you should side with in SMT V.

Should You Choose Anansi or Onyankopon in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance? (SMT V)

One of the new areas in Vengeance is the Shinjuku Ward, exclusive to the Canon of Vengeance. After meeting Mastema in the main story, keep heading forward until you eventually come across a building right in front of the Shinjuku 3rd Block leyline in which you can find Anansi.

He’ll only be present here if you did the “Tough Love” side quest in Shinagawa, where both of you competed to see who could kill more Basilisks in the area. If you did, he’ll ask you for your help here.

Anansi offers you the “Reclaim the Golden Stool” quest, where he asks you to dispose of his father Onyankopon, who’s once again against his son’s power-crazed ambitions. He gives you his father’s location, which is close to the Shinjuku 1st Block leyline.

You can find him by heading north from the leyline and climbing your way up through the blocks. You’ll eventually meet Onyankopon standing on a stone, who you can either immediately attack or listen to. If you choose to listen to him, he says that Anansi has lost his way and you must take back the Golden Stool from him no matter what it takes, putting you against his own son in the “Reclaim the Golden Stool” quest.

Related: SMT V Vengeance: Should You Side with Principality or Lilim in Shin Megami Tensei V?

You can meet them in any order you want, and choosing to attack any of them settles your side for good. Once you choose to pick your side, the other Demon’s quest will be automatically invalidated and cannot be completed anymore.

Choosing to side with Onyankopon will increase your Law alignment points and recruit Onyankopon himself for your team. But siding with Anansi will increase your Chaos alignment points instead, making him join your team instead. As endings in the Canon of Vengeance are determined by whichever alignment you pick, make sure to get the correct choice.

But if you don’t care about which ending you’ll see first, Anansi is the best choice here. He’s much more competent than his father as a Demon in battle, having powerful Dark-type moves and some utility with Fire Block and an AoE sealing skill, which can be great for some of the opponents in the open world.

While Onyankopon’s buffer/healer utility is great, his innate Physical weakness and no offensive moves available cripples him a bunch at this point of the game. Essences can fix him, but you already have other options at this same level range (such as Idun or Isis), making him somewhat obsolete as soon as you get him.

However, fighting Anansi is relatively easier than fighting Onyankopon. Anansi will try to use ailments on your party and hit you with Dark-type moves, while Onyankopon can heal himself and will constantly set up Tetrakarns to reflect physical hits (his weakness), stopping you from getting extra turns. Anansi hits harder and may kill some of your Demons if underestimated, but Onyankopon takes much longer to defeat if you don’t burst him down at the right time.

Both are decent challenges, but you’ll finally get the other one to join you after you manage to win your boss fight. As a bonus, both Anansi and Onyankopon can be fused as Special Fusions after completing any of the quests. If you feel disappointed in the Demon you got, you can just fuse for the other one instead later.

This is the case for every other Alignment quest, but this is somewhat special as it requires completing the quest before fusing the actual demons. This also indirectly means that, if you don’t take the girl’s hand at the beginning of SMT V, you won’t be able to get either Anasi or Onyankopon to your team until a New Game+ cycle. The full compendium will have to wait.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is available now.