Beating up a shopkeeper to make them leave so a new one comes with better stock is just something I found funny.

What is your favorite PS2 game?
"The one where Yuri Lowenthal calls you slurs the entire time"

I have an odd story regarding this game.  Originally, I imported the Japanese version because it had been a while without a localization and the PS2 was past it's prime.  But then, NISA decided to bring it over.  Not wanting to break a streak, I pre-ordered the limited edition.  Doing so, unbeknownst to Me, entered Me into a contest to win a large Japanese standee of the game -- the kind you'd see in an Akihabara game store advertising it coming soon.  So in the back of My closest right now, behind My shirts, pants, and boxes of whatever, is a 7-foot standee of Soul Cradle.
The limited edition, by the way, came with two posters, two T-shirts, and a mousepad along with the usual soundtrack and artbook.  The Japanese version came with a desk calendar, which I still have because you never know when it might be the 2007-2008 Japanese school year again.  I have more merch for this game than anybody on the planet, probably, somehow.

"General Content Warning ALL" Welcome back Drakengard

Voice acting director, "For Gig, we want you to sound like an edgy teenage Beetlejuice"
Voice actor, "No problem"

Game comes out
Audience, "I hate this guy so much, he sounds like an edgy teenage Beetlejuice"
Voice actor, "... Nailed it"

To be fair, cross-overs for nobody are the best kind of cross-overs

The thing about the story of Soul Nomad/Soul Cradle is that it ultimately is about how selfishness, self-centeredness, and narcissism destroy everything.  Median the Conqueror literally killed death because he couldn't believe in a future where he wasn't there to keep it all together through his raw strength, and per the opening lore, the world was able to be put back together without him through treaties and diplomacy.  The world would be fine without him.

The world didn't need Median's strength or power.  What was done through conquest could be done through diplomacy.  Median was a singular person only in terms of his strength, but that strength was fleeting, temporary, and when he was gone the world kept going despite that strength vanishing.  Yet that selfishness, narcissism, and self-centeredness meant that Median could never accept the idea that the future didn't need his strength to keep moving forward.

And so, he killed the god of death, thinking that it would end death itself, but instead threw a spanner into the cosmic works that would ruin everything that came after.

By the same measure, in the demon path the protagonist is angry about the fact that they were being used for the ends of others, that they were a tool, a vessel for Gig's power in the hopes of stopping the end of the world.  Their anger is about not being given the choice, that they're meant to go through all of this without his consent, that their agency is not a factor.  The expectation is that they are to be selfless and go save the world despite no one ever asking if that was something he wanted to do.

The default story is about taking the selfless path.  The demon path is the path of selfishness, and even if the initial anger might be justified, it doesn't excuse all that comes after.  In reality, what ensues is selfishness, narcissism, and self-centered behavior taken to its ultimate conclusion.  If the only thing that matters to you is you, then you ultimate want or need nothing and no one.  The world can burn to ash and everyone can die, so long as you alone are left.  You alone matter to you, and if you have the power to end everything else, then that's what you'll do since nothing else matters.

Median's selfishness is ultimately about his inability to believe that anyone else could do what he did, maintain what he created, and that only his strength could hold it all together.  It's a belief that he is the world's main character and nothing else can work without him, and while he dresses it up as being for everyone else, his inability to believe in the people around him and that will come after him creates an apocalyptic scenario.  Meanwhile, the demon path's selfishness is the refusal to do anything for others and living solely for one's own self, regardless of how much misery it causes for others, to the point of eliminating everything and everyone except yourself.

Both are forms of selfishness, although they're on opposite ends of a spectrum.  Median believed that he alone could make the world a good place and that a world without him would fall apart, while the demon path protagonist believed the world wasn't worth fighting for and that they alone mattered so they would take it all for themselves.  Both forms are ultimately equally destructive to the world.

They say that society thrives when old men plant trees they will never live to sit beneath the shade of.  Median's selfishness meant he didn't think anyone would plant more trees once he was gone, or everyone would cut down the trees he'd planted when he died, so he sacrificed all the seeds to try and make trees forever only to instead make a huge desert where trees couldn't grow.  The demon path protagonist, meanwhile, decided to burn all the trees in the world because everyone demanded they be a tree-planter without ever once asking if they wanted to plant trees, or even liked trees.

Only one hour can't believe your making short form content now

No cringy 00's badly translated JRPG's is truly complete without a voice appearance from Yuri Lowenthral he doesn't remember doing.

The way you talk about NIS games... the abrasive soundtracks, low production values, incredibly bizarre and mechanically intense gameplay... all of these things are positives to me! I am a NIS diehard and have played like all of their games, but it's definitely some kind of wake up call to hear the exterior perspective on my favorite studio's output.

Oh hell yeah it's Soul Nomad, the game that was doing Genocide routes before Undertale was a twinkle in Toby Fox's eye!

Everytime Kbash covers a lesser-known 2000s game, an angel grows wings

Me randomly getting recommended this:
"Why, Sir Algorithm, have you dropped this in my lap?"

"Yuri Lowenthal"

"Ah"

Gig sounds like he would run a drama channel.

They can never make me hate you Yuri Lowenthal

I really enjoy losing on the demon path, It feels fitting.

You spend the route causing all these cretins to collapse and break around around you. Then, right at the end, what few remain put their differences aside, reconcile with their siblings, remember what goodness means, and give their shounen hero speeches before finally kicking my ass. They became better in spite of me.

I love the idea of playing the villain, not some anti-hero, not a winner. A monster who gets beaten in the end.

Chef’s kiss.

I can't call Soul Nomad one of my favorite games, but it's easily one of the most memorable from that period in the late 2000s when I realized I could just buy games on the internet now, and not be limited to stuff that I actually found at a Gamestop. I think I originally found a few pieces from its soundtrack on youtube, and thought "Oh, I could buy that." It was way more of a ride than I was expecting.

I love that going to Brazil is literally part of the main plot

As someone who's first Disgaea game is 5, it's crazy how consistent this company is.

I got Soul Nomad as a Christmas gift in 2012. I had never heard of it but my ex-step-sister at the time said that I would like it since I liked final fantasy. Sadly, the very thoughtful gift was overshadowed by my excitement for the PS3 version of Skyrim and I didn't actually play the game until about 2-3 years later in 2015. It's an amazing game, I absolutely adored it. I don't have my copy of the game anymore, which sucks, but I could always get the steam version if I really wanted to i guess.