Shin Megami Tensei V daily demon vol. 199 – Mara

For its latest Shin Megami Tensei V demon trailer, Atlus is showing off Mara. This creature has had many appearances across the franchise going back to the original Shin Megami Tensei.

Here’s some background information on Mara, courtesy of the Megami Tensei Wiki:

In Buddhist myth, Mara is also known as “The Evil One,” a tempter, through the deceit of regarding the mundane and negative as alluring, and personifies unwholesome impulses, unskillfulness and the “death” of the spiritual life. In many religions that incorporate the cosmology of the Hindu originated Trailokya, Mara is said to sit atop at the Sixth Heaven of the Desire Realm that includes the mortal world, and is said to be both that which ensnares souls in Samsara by deceiving them with promises of happiness in the Desire Realms, and who is the ultimate obstacle of any who desire to achieve enlightenment into nirvana and sunyata.

Feeling threatened by the enlightenment the Buddha was trying to bestow upon humanity, he attacked Gautama Buddha when he was meditating beneath the bodhi tree. He was defeated when the Buddha simply touched the tips of his fingers to the earth, whereupon all the gods descended in a tremendous roar to pay homage to him. Though Mara was defeated that time, he still lingers in the world, hoping to seize the souls of the dying and unenlightened.

There was a metaphor known as Devaputra-mara which is the disillusion of regarding Mara as an objective being.

Take a look at the trailer for Mara in Shin Megami Tensei V below.

Shin Megami Tensei V will launch for Switch on November 12. Find additional coverage on the game including all previous demon trailers here.