However, in SMT, old Scratch isn't so one dimensional, and in that lies the beauty of his creation... er, interpretation in the series. He is a mystery most of the time, not revealing his true self, and acting under aliases and disguises ranging from Young boy, Mysterious Young Man, Mr. Louis Cypher, and an Old man, always showing up and giving cryptic hints at what the protagonist should do, which is made all the creepier by the fact that he shows up not only in modern times, but even as far back as the 1920s in the oldest set game of the series.
Lucifer as Portrayed through most of Nocturne.
SMT: Nocturne is where Lucifer really makes himself a character worth writing about. Let's take a quick detour into history for a bit. Now, I am not a holocaust denier, or in any way defend the actions of Hitler and the Nazis, but there is something everyone seems to just let slip their mind when discussing the Holocaust. Nazis were human beings, not rage filled monsters in people shaped sacks. They were real people, who fell into one of two categories, the ones thinking they were doing the right thing, and the ones who were to afraid of the consequences of speaking out against the majority. Again, I don't defend the Nazis, but I ask you, what do you think the world would be like if they won? You see book after book based on this idea, but let me save you the trouble of reading them. It would be the same. Not to the individuals killed during the war, but overall, the people living today would look at WWII the same way we do, as something that happened a long time ago that they love to teach us about, but has little influence on how we live now. Why? Because the winner writes the history. Now think about this, how many times do you think the "bad" side won the war in human history? I'll tell you, A LOT. White colonists have wiped out entire peoples, who become footnotes in history, and why? because they existed where the white man wanted to be (note that this isn't anti-white, as I am a white male, and I think it would have been the same no matter which race or civilization expanded first).
Now, back to Lucifer. Take everything you just thought about, and apply it to the Bible. The Bible is history (or so it's meant to be taken, or so it's followers would like to think), and who lost that heavenly war? Lucifer and his fellow rebel angels. So, what if Lucifer was never the bad guy? That's the question asked in SMT:Nocturne, the game in the series where Lucifer had his biggest role to date.
It's not presented in the most spectacular fashion, but the implications of knowing that the enemy is God, in the form of fate, and that Lucifer's sin was the desire for Freedom from an iron fisted dictator who created everything, is so poignant and different from the stories almost all westerners grew up with, you find yourself rooting for him in some twisted way.
In the end, Lucifer's role in Nocturne is so profound and human, that I honestly sympathize with Lucifer more than any character I've ever come across in a book, and that is the highest praise I can give.
