Shin Megami Tensei V - Leanan Sidhe or Apsaras, who should you side with in 'The Spirit of Love' and 'The Water Nymph'

As you play through the first region in Shin Megami Tensei V, one of the very first quests you'll come across is 'The Spirit of Love', where an Apsaras ultimately wants you to defeat a somewhat-nearby Leanan Sidhe due to a disagreement in how they treat their followers. She gives you the quest as you go off to seek out Leanan Sidhe.

Leanan Sidhe is found a bit later in the zone; she's upstream a bit, past a few waterfalls. When you meet her, if you listen to what she has to say, she'll give you a different quest called 'The Water Nymph'. This quest is essentially the opposite of 'The Spirit of Love', where Leanan Sidhe wants you to defeat Apsaras. In this case, Apsaras wants to treat followers under her wing completely, whereas Leanan Sidhe wants to let other act on their own, even if that means they might fail sometimes.

So, we're at an impasse. Each demon wants you to take out the other, and you have to pick which demon to support. And no, you cannot support both. Which do you pick? The short answer is, it's up to you.

This isn't the only 'either/or' quest pair you'll find in Shin Megami Tensei V. In fact, each of the game's main four regions has a pair of mutually exclusive quests. These quests generally follow the same format in each region, with two separate quest-giving NPCs wanting you to take out the other one. The rewards for the quests are usually similar; for example, 'The Water Nymph' awards Stamina Incense x2 while 'The Spirit of Love' rewards Health Incense x2.

Generally speaking, it's worth noting that each pair has seems to have one quest that is more Law-aligned and another that is more Chaos-aligned, when it comes to your character's alignment common to SMT games. In this case, it feels like 'The Spirit of Love' is Law-aligned, while its counterpart quest 'The Water Nymph' is more Chaos-aligned. However, it's not clear if your choice of quest actually has much effect on the rest of the game. So, pick which you want, based on which reward you want or which philosophy you want your Nahobino to follow.

The four mutually-exclusive quest pairs in the game are as follows.:

• Minato Region: The Spirit of Love or The Water Nymph
• Shinagawa Region: Those Seeking Sanctuary and Holding the Line
• Chiyoda Region: Black Frost Strikes Back and A Sobering Standoff
• Taito Region: In Defense of Tokyo and The Raid on Tokyo

For a full description of these quests, as well as every other sidequest in the game, check out our Shin Megami Tensei V Quest Guide.