The Kishin (鬼神, Kishin)? or Guardian are all patron gods or warrior deities from various pantheons or countries. They protect a specific direction, race or country accordingly. Most of them however, are derived from Far Eastern mythology. They are generally physically overwhelming demons, and are all capable of utilizing weapons. With few exceptions, the Buddhist Four Heavenly Kings always make their appearance in every single Shin Megami Tensei installment. They are Light-Chaos (except in Majin Tensei II where they are Light-Neutral) and the namesake of the Guardians species.
"Angry gods. Their anger is directed at things like hostility, injustice, and bad luck, and is said to drive away the evil gods who create those things. They despise iniquity most of all and are compassionate gods. For this reason, they often protect/serve the chief god(s) in many pantheons."
The Kishin race has the Double Up Racial Skill, which allows their team to attack opposing teams up to 2 times during a single turn. Combined with the Beast's Animal Leg skill, it allows a single team to attack two separate enemy teams in one turn, or when combined with the Dragon's or Vile's Evil Wave and Chaos Wave skills, it allows a team to attack an enemy twice without any worry of retaliation, provided they remain outside that enemy's range.
The Kishin race has the Double Up Racial Skill, which allows their team to attack opposing teams up to 2 times during a single turn. Combined with the Beast's Animal Leg skill, it allows a single team to attack two separate enemy teams in one turn, or when combined with the Dragon's or Vile's Evil Wave and Chaos Wave skills, it allows a team to attack an enemy twice without any worry of retaliation, provided they remain outside that enemy's range. Stronger Kishin have this skill changed to Matchless, which grants a second chance to use skills outside battle.
* Asterisk denotes race that has been put under different species throughout the series. Italic font denotes the race/species name (not in katakana for Western loanword) has not yet received any official English localization.