Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance - How to Fight Masakado and get the 'We Shall Protect Our Tokyo' achievement

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance adds several quests and demons compared to the original version released in 2021. One of the new demons is Masakado, a Shin Megami Tensei stalwart that would have been a nice surprise had Atlus not spoiled his appearance in a trailer.

However, Masakado is elusive, and finding him is actually one of the trickiest things to do in the game, if you are uncertain where to look. There's even an achievement for beating him called 'We Shall Protect Our Tokyo'. This guide is here to help.

Here are the steps to finding Masakado and adding him to your team.

1.) First, you must be on a Canon of Creation route to find Masakado. This is because he is located at his gravestone in Chiyoda, near the Otemachi leyline. This is actually somewhat true to real life (Google it if you must). You don't go to Chiyoda in Canon of Vengeance, so this quest is not available on that route.

2.) The second step is by far the easiest to miss. You must have the demon Yoshitsune in your party or demon stock. That's because Yoshitsune will have a quest that he'll give you in the Demon Haunt. If he's not in your party or stock, you would never see this quest and could easily miss it. He will not have this quest in Canon of Vengeance, only in Canon of Creation.

3.) Once Yoshitsune is in your party, talk to him in the Haunt and complete his quest 'Will of the Samurai', which has you fight an Atavaka near Ginza, past a Magatsuhi Rail.

4.) After defeating the Atavaka, complete the quest 'Trial of the Seven Stars', which now appears east of Nihonbashi Leyline in Chiyoda. You'll do a little quest involving Miman.

5.) Finally, you'll unlock the 'Guardian of Tokyo' quest, where Masakado's grave is found north of Otemachi Leyline. The rail needed to reach the gravestone will not appear unless you've completed Trial of the Seven Stars. Go to the gravestone and talk to Masakado.

6.) However, Masakado will ask for a few things before he agrees to fight you. You not only need the Lord's Sword, but you also need to power it up. You'll do this through the 'The Ancient Guardian' quest, as well as by defeating the Four Heavenly Kings in the 'Keeper' quests (like, Keeper of the North).

7.) Once you've obtained the Lord's Sword and defeated the four kings, then you can fight Masakado. He'll join once you beat him.

There's actually one last wrinkle to discuss when talking about Masakado. If you've played Canon of Vengeance, you may have picked up a Kiou Sword in Shinjuku, north of Shinjuku 3rd Block. An Arahabaki will come and take the sword to 'another timeline'. The other timeline is Canon of Creation, of course. 

In Canon of Creation, assuming you've New Game Plus-ed into this route, you can meet the Arahabaki in Chiyoda, near where the Kunitsukami gather near Kanda-no-yashiro. He'll give you the Kiou Sword here.

Once you have the Kiou Sword, if you talk to Masakado at his gravestone, you can choose to fight a powered-up version of him, which has higher stats and (more dangerously) two more press icons per turn. 

If you manage to beat powered-up Masakado, you don't get anything tangible other than the satisfaction of doing so, but it's another challenge to tackle for those who want to surpass all that Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance has to offer.