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Shin Megami Tensei Community Thread: Be Your True Demon

spiritfox

Member
In light of today's announcement, I'll like to post this picture again for posterity.

zPzVtjU.jpg
 

Opa-Pa

Member
In retrospect, Atlus including "new Strange Journey game" in that poll was the greatest tease. It felt really out of place back then, and welp, here we are.

Was the bolded actually confirmed? It looks like the humans have at least been touched up a bit, but I seriously doubt all the Kaneko demons are just going to get redrawn. Maybe we'll see newer Doi demons from the SMT4 games though.

The lead artist is Doi and those reworked designs were handled by him. Demons remain just the same, though.
 
I want to point out how creepy it is in 4A that 14-year-old Asahi and Toki are constantly hounding you and want your babies, and in the beach DLC the older guys get a nosebleed over Toki's fetish swimsuit and Asahi meets an ejaculating sea cucumber. Meanwhile the 21-year-old Nozomi with a sexy adult body has, like, no titillation involving her beyond her design.

That stuff is incredibly disturbing no matter what, but this means the little girls get extra special fervent attention.

Fuck this game.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Not only that, but Asahi is, for all intents and purposes, your sister and yet the game treats her like a completely normal love interest from the very beginning. It's all pretty fucked up.

I loved everything about the game except the handling of Toki and that side of Asahi's character.
 

randomkid

Member
don't you get it though, the game was meant for teens so they're not underage, of course they should be the only ones with the hots for you

I had so many problems with Apocalypse I ended up writing a deeply embarrassing rant to document my feelings (here is a link!) so yeah between that game and what's happened to Strange Journey I'm not feeling super confident in the stewardship of my favorite series at the moment!
 
I've put 50 hours into Apocalypse (not really sure how much I have left) and the story isn't grabbing me like SMT stories always do.
It's giving me the feeling I'm also getting from the the extra week they added to DS2 RC which I'm also playing, it just feels tacked on and uneventful.
I was pretty interested in SMTIV's lore so I'm hoping this picks up, there are some story threads that hopefully will make it more interesting later on, especially
the link between the protagonist and Akira.
 

asagami_

Banned
Not only that, but Asahi is, for all intents and purposes, your sister and yet the game treats her like a completely normal love interest from the very beginning. It's all pretty fucked up.

I loved everything about the game except the handling of Toki and that side of Asahi's character.

It's implied she is the reincarnation of the Akira's sister right? Funny, the first time I saw Asahi and her goggles I joke she was Akira's sister.

Btw, I don't know what is creppy, if this in SMT 4 or what happen in SMT 2
Aleph is not an adult for god sake D:
 

Hylian7

Member
IMO, from a story perspective I liked SMTIV better, but Apocalypse's story was by no means terrible.

From a gameplay perspective, I think there's no real contest and Apocalypse wins there. In SMTIV it was kind of stupid how you could roll with an Agi Jack Frost and have the same effectiveness as a Bufu Jack Frost. The rework to light/dark spells was kind of welcome, because in past games they were often useless for the most part. You didn't want to expend the MP to use them on regular battles, and on bosses they didn't work. In Apocalypse, the damage makes it worth it now, and you can still proc the insta-kill on regular battles. The world map was a night and day difference between IV and Apocalypse. The last dungeon in Apocalypse was pretty awful, but not because it was so long and the teleporting. The issue for me was all the wormwood and Navarre barriers that would block something, and you would get past them and......fucking nothing. What was the point?

Overall I really liked the SMTIV world and atmosphere, but I think that world is pretty much done at this point and I'm okay with that. I eagerly await SMT Switch.

Also I wonder if that rumored PS4 version of that game is still happening...I would think Atlus would have announced it at their stream last weekend.
 
IMO, from a story perspective I liked SMTIV better, but Apocalypse's story was by no means terrible.

From a gameplay perspective, I think there's no real contest and Apocalypse wins there. In SMTIV it was kind of stupid how you could roll with an Agi Jack Frost and have the same effectiveness as a Bufu Jack Frost. The rework to light/dark spells was kind of welcome, because in past games they were often useless for the most part. You didn't want to expend the MP to use them on regular battles, and on bosses they didn't work. In Apocalypse, the damage makes it worth it now, and you can still proc the insta-kill on regular battles. The world map was a night and day difference between IV and Apocalypse. The last dungeon in Apocalypse was pretty awful, but not because it was so long and the teleporting. The issue for me was all the wormwood and Navarre barriers that would block something, and you would get past them and......fucking nothing. What was the point?

Overall I really liked the SMTIV world and atmosphere, but I think that world is pretty much done at this point and I'm okay with that. I eagerly await SMT Switch.

Also I wonder if that rumored PS4 version of that game is still happening...I would think Atlus would have announced it at their stream last weekend.

It's definitely a step up in everything except story but like I said, I'm not done with it yet.
The fact that everything is familiar makes it lose that feeling of mistery and foreboding SMT games usualy have so it really needed the plot and characters to make up for it but unfortunately that isn't the case. Luckily there are many significant gameplay and QoL improvements.
 
Can any veterans shed some light on the difficulty of Persona 5? I think I'll just start on hard difficulty unless it's BS like in Nocturne.

I finished Digital Devil Saga 2 on hard difficulty last year and it was hard as shit so I'm a little wary. That was not so much fun and required too much grinding.
 

Hylian7

Member
Playing P5, there was something I wanted to discuss in here that I felt the P5 thread was moving to fast for it: Demon naming consistency. Persona 5 isn't the only time Atlus has changed demon names.

Orcus was originally the yellow pig king, then in Strange Journey, it was a boss as Horkos. From that point in the series forward (with the exception of Devil Survivor 2), it was Horkos, and Orcus was the gate portal thing it was since Strange Journey.

If memory serves correctly, wasn't Pyro Jack called Jack'o'lantern in Jack Bros? He has been Pyro Jack since then, but then in P5 he is Jack'o'lantern again.

In Devil Survivor, Beldr was the first major boss. In SMTIV and beyond, he became Baldr.

Some of the name changes make sense because they were better translations, such at Fomor (Nocturne), to Fomorian. Some were mistakes, like Mithras and Mitra in SJ. For the others though, such as Orcus/Horkos, what is the deal there?

Can any veterans shed some light on the difficulty of Persona 5? I think I'll just start on hard difficulty unless it's BS like in Nocturne.

I finished Digital Devil Saga 2 on hard difficulty last year and it was hard as shit so I'm a little wary. That was not so much fun and required too much grinding.
I am near the end of the first dungeon and playing on normal, and have never really been in danger of dying. The worst was a time two party members were stunned and the enemy kept calling reinforcements. It has been a breeze so far, but that could change and the first dungeon could be a breeze intentionally.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I got wiped in normal by a fluke AOE in P5's first palace. Don't underestimate it.


And Jack O'Lantern is the right translation. They just used Pyro Jack for a while. Possibly letter limitations, like "Uzume" in Nocturne.
 

Joqu

Member
I guess they felt Pyro Jack was an iconic name, I've certainly grown attached to it. The change is fine though
 
If memory serves correctly, wasn't Pyro Jack called Jack'o'lantern in Jack Bros? He has been Pyro Jack since then, but then in P5 he is Jack'o'lantern again.

I had to go look up what Jack Bros is. Disappointed it wasn't a SMT-themed platformer. Which now that I have in my head, I really want.
 

Lynx_7

Member
Man, I wish DS:Overclocked had a feature to put you back at the end of the 6th day so that you could choose another route after beating the game. I know there's unlockables and stuff, but they could give you the option to either go straight to NG+ and get your rewards or go back to the 6th day and only unlock stuff once you get another ending (for example:
Yuzu's route > Yuzu's Ending + 8th day > question asking whether you want to go to NG+ or go back to the route selection > select another route you've unlocked in this playthrough > route ending > choose NG+ to unlock Haru's and the other person's rewards, titles, demons, so on and so forth, or choose to do another ending, you get the gist
)
It's a really good game, but I don't know if I'll have enough patience for 5 or 6 playthroughs. I'll probably just do
Gin's ending first, since it's the one that feels most natural for my character right now, Yuzu's ending second because I really want Loki, and then finish it off with Naoya.

I had to go look up what Jack Bros is. Disappointed it wasn't a SMT-themed platformer. Which now that I have in my head, I really want.
Jack Bros Amala Galaxy, featuring Mario from the Super Mario Bros.™ series. Stephen has been kidnapped by YHVH and it's your job to rescue him. Every single universe from the SMT metaseries represents a world with its own unique sets of stages. Nocturne has a vortex world theme, Strange Journey has ice and expanse stages, SMT IV:A has lollipops and unicorns, and so on.
I'm down.
 

Eirikr

Member
For the others though, such as Orcus/Horkos, what is the deal there?

I wrote a bunch about these two here: http://eirikrjs.tumblr.com/post/145075105612/orcushorkos-infodump-theres-a-lot-to-digest

The short story is that both are probably Orcus. The pig Orcus might be related to a folk memory of the god Orcus, long after Christianity had been installed.

The other possibility is that pig Orcus could be an invention of a Japanese monster/myth book, such as those from Shigeru Mizuki. I recently found sources for a whole bunch of the most obscure demons, and it was Mizuki all the way down.
 
Man, I wish DS:Overclocked had a feature to put you back at the end of the 6th day so that you could choose another route after beating the game. I know there's unlockables and stuff, but they could give you the option to either go straight to NG+ and get your rewards or go back to the 6th day and only unlock stuff once you get another ending (for example:
Yuzu's route > Yuzu's Ending + 8th day > question asking whether you want to go to NG+ or go back to the route selection > select another route you've unlocked in this playthrough > route ending > choose NG+ to unlock Haru's and the other person's rewards, titles, demons, so on and so forth, or choose to do another ending, you get the gist
)
It's a really good game, but I don't know if I'll have enough patience for 5 or 6 playthroughs. I'll probably just do
Gin's ending first, since it's the one that feels most natural for my character right now, Yuzu's ending second because I really want Loki, and then finish it off with Naoya.


Jack Bros Amala Galaxy, featuring Mario from the Super Mario Bros.™ series. Stephen has been kidnapped by YHVH and it's your job to rescue him. Every single universe from the SMT metaseries represents a world with its own unique sets of stages. Nocturne has a vortex world theme, Strange Journey has ice and expanse stages, SMT IV:A has lollipops and unicorns, and so on.
I'm down.

Why don't you have a save file at the end of day 6?
 

Lynx_7

Member
Why don't you have a save file at the end of day 6?
I do, but then I lose the rewards if I just reload and do another ending. At best I guess I could go
Gin/Haru > Reload save > Yuzu > NG+ > Naoya
so I at least get the demons from
Yuzu's route
. I also have
Amane available
but then if I do that one and reload I'll lose
Metatron.
D:
I also still don't know if I'll go for
Lucifer
or not.

In better news, I can play SMT I on the go now! I'll play it seriously after I'm done with DeSu. Sorry Soul Hackers, gonna have to put you in the backburner again.
 
I do, but then I lose the rewards if I just reload and do another ending. At best I guess I could go
Gin/Haru > Reload save > Yuzu > NG+ > Naoya
so I at least get the demons from
Yuzu's route
. I also have
Amane available
but then if I do that one and reload I'll lose
Metatron.
D:
I also still don't know if I'll go for
Lucifer
or not.

In better news, I can play SMT I on the go now! I'll play it seriously after I'm done with DeSu. Sorry Soul Hackers, gonna have to put you in the backburner again.

Oh, well, can't help you there lol.

Why not finish SH first? It's so good.
I wish SMT got an android port. So frustrating.
 

40detectives

Neo Member
Umphf... The translation inconsistencies do bother me, but I'm ok with the puns like the ones we see in DeSu 1. At least there's a plot reason for them.

I'd like they thought on international localization from the begining a lot more. Too much obscure references to too much 'japanized' names.

One more thing, I'm a bit sad about the fact of asuming Kaneko absence for the future of the franchise. Their designs were the thing I loved the most from Strange Journey.

Why not finish SH first? It's so good.
I wish SMT got an android port. So frustrating.
Oh... yes. Double yes.
 

Hylian7

Member
Umphf... The translation inconsistencies do bother me, but I'm ok with the puns like the ones we see in DeSu 1. At least there's a plot reason for them.

I'd like they thought on international localization from the begining a lot more. Too much obscure references to too much 'japanized' names.

One more thing, I'm a bit sad about the fact of asuming Kaneko absence for the future of the franchise. Their designs were the thing I loved the most from Strange Journey.


Oh... yes. Double yes.
I honestly wonder if there is and merit to the theories they Kaneko is coming back for SMT Switch. Those theories were formulated because of the petals in the trailer, and that one picture of Kaneko. The room was also full of Kaneko demons, including the archangels in their pre-SMTIV designs. Obviously that sounds kind of far fetched, and I doubt he will come back, but it would be cool if it happened.

I think he might be involved with world design or something though. He was involved with that in SMTIV, and Apocalypse by proxy.

Also SMT technically did get an Android port... And it is only in Japanese. They released it in English on iOS, and the plan was to release on Android in English too, but that fell through.
 
Jack Bros Amala Galaxy, featuring Mario from the Super Mario Bros.™ series. Stephen has been kidnapped by YHVH and it's your job to rescue him. Every single universe from the SMT metaseries represents a world with its own unique sets of stages. Nocturne has a vortex world theme, Strange Journey has ice and expanse stages, SMT IV:A has lollipops and unicorns, and so on.
I'm down.

I would be so down for that.

I honestly wonder if there is and merit to the theories they Kaneko is coming back for SMT Switch. Those theories were formulated because of the petals in the trailer, and that one picture of Kaneko. The room was also full of Kaneko demons, including the archangels in their pre-SMTIV designs. Obviously that sounds kind of far fetched, and I doubt he will come back, but it would be cool if it happened.

I think he might be involved with world design or something though. He was involved with that in SMTIV, and Apocalypse by proxy.

Also SMT technically did get an Android port... And it is only in Japanese. They released it in English on iOS, and the plan was to release on Android in English too, but that fell through.

I really hope so, but I fear Kaneko just doesn't want to be hands-on anymore. You'd think he would be bored. And I don't really get this philosophy of stepping aside for the younger generation. If you still have good ideas and people like your stuff and you enjoy it, continue working. Give the younger people a new IP to work with (or give Kaneko a new IP) if they want to spread their wings.

Regarding the iOS SMT port, I think it's going to become unplayable when iOS 11 comes out, as the rumor is that 11 will only allow 64-bit apps. I'm trying to slowly finish it myself.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Yeah Persona 5 on hard is pretty similar to Apocalypse on hard, I'd say, so pretty fun and fair. You can switch difficulty at any time tho, so you can try hard and switch to normal if it feels like too much. Absolutely no need to grind in there btw.

And man I was so bummed by Jack'o Lantern. I'm aware it's the correct translation and I've played older games that call him that, but by this point was it even worth it to go back to that? Pyro Jack was much more iconic. I've been put off by name changes before like Beldr-Baldur but thay was obviously to fit the Bel thing.

Alao I hate that I think this, but I believe there's 0 chance Kaneko will handle character designs again, and the petals thing is a serious stretch :( Worst part is that I'm pretty confident it's by his own decision too.
 

Hylian7

Member
Something else bothering me with P5: Spell name consistency. Most of the games the Force spell is San. In Strange Journey and P5, it is Gary. What's up with that?
 
Something else bothering me with P5: Spell name consistency. Most of the games the Force spell is San. In Strange Journey and P5, it is Gary. What's up with that?

Zan and Garu are different. Garu is a wind spell. Zan is a Force spell, which I believe represents a type of concussive energy impact. They've made Zan look similar to wind or almighty in past games, but they're separate. They really need to figure out some unique look for poor Zan. In SMT1 I think it looked more like a shockwave; no idea why they changed it.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Oh right, those seem to be interchangeable for some reason (they don't seem to use both in a single game), but yeah one is Force and the other Wind. I believe Persona has always used wind while stuff like Devil Survivor uses Force.
 

Hylian7

Member
Oh right, those seem to be interchangeable for some reason (they don't seem to use both in a single game), but yeah one is Force and the other Wind. I believe Persona has always used wind while stuff like Devil Survivor uses Force.

SMTIV and Apocalypse used Force as well.

I forget which one Nocturne used, but I think it was Zan?
 
I'm finding the original SMT (PS1 remake) much more compelling than I ever thought it would be. I find myself wanting to find out what's happened the world after entering the Kongou- ... Shinkai(?) and despite intending to play the game off and on, I keep going back to it.

But wow was it a slap in the face when the game straight up deleted the items I had stocked up. I thought I was being clever by buying them before my yen disappeared. : (
 

Lynx_7

Member
Why not finish SH first? It's so good.
I wish SMT got an android port. So frustrating.

Because SH has a feature to recap the story up until the point I stopped and SMT doesn't, so I might as well postpone the former. :p

That and I'm currently more engrossed by SMT's atmosphere and presentation. There's something really cool about the clean graphical style employed by the first 2 SNES titles, has a sort of retro charm to it. Also dat OST.
 

asagami_

Banned
You know, between Persona 5 (just finished the 1st Palace) and Apocalypse, I have faith there are still talent in Atlus to design good dungeons. I know the talent is now in Etrian Odyssey, but it's nice see 3D dungeon well designed.

Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if Atlus is releasing Strange Journey because
they are cheap as hell
the Shin Megami Tensei HD Project wil feature big, multi-layered complex dungeons.

Or I want believe :(
 

Airbar

Neo Member
So is Apocalypse worth it? Heard some stuff about it leaning more in the anime direction. Oh and is Soul Hackers any good? Got 50€ credit for the eShop and it's only 10€.
 
I didn't enjoy Soul Hackers honestly and I like Most MegaTens. I recall being annoyed by my demons refusing to fight for some reason. Perhaps I should have been more patient but I really wasn't.
 

Hylian7

Member
So is Apocalypse worth it? Heard some stuff about it leaning more in the anime direction. Oh and is Soul Hackers any good? Got 50€ credit for the eShop and it's only 10€.

Apocalypse - Definitely worth it. The story isn't as bad as people make it out to be and has it's cool moments. It's definitely not as strong as the story in SMTIV, or the other games, but still pretty cool in it's own right. I thought a lot of the accusations accusing it of being "anime", were a bit over the top. It does revolve around the theme of friendship, but it's part of this game's alignment system, which isn't the traditional one from SMT. Gameplay-wise, I think it's a step up from SMTIV with things like elemental affinities (no you can't roll with an Agi Jack Frost anymore, unless you want it to do almost no damage). Overall great game, and I highly recommend it.

Soul Hackers - I love this one too, but if you haven't played much older SMT, be prepared for some frustrations on elements. There are some things that aren't clearly explained right off the bat. For instance, I didn't encounter the explanation on demon behavior until a few dungeons in and wondered why my demons kept refusing to obey or leaving. There's other old SMT staples such as two currencies (Magnetite and Yen), and the fact that it costs Magnetite to keep your demons out, otherwise they get hurt as you walk. Once you understand these systems, the game isn't incredibly hard.
 

40detectives

Neo Member
Soul Hackers - I love this one too, but if you haven't played much older SMT, be prepared for some frustrations on elements. There are some things that aren't clearly explained right off the bat. For instance, I didn't encounter the explanation on demon behavior until a few dungeons in and wondered why my demons kept refusing to obey or leaving. There's other old SMT staples such as two currencies (Magnetite and Yen), and the fact that it costs Magnetite to keep your demons out, otherwise they get hurt as you walk. Once you understand these systems, the game isn't incredibly hard.

I can't talk about Apocalypse yet, but I would say something very similar to Hylian7 about Soul Hackers. I think its one of the most old-fashioned SMT experiences you can play in a 'live console' at the moment. If you tend to like the older games in the franchise SH would please you.

Personally, SH made me try other dungeon crawlers games like Strange Journey, which I've already knew it was a really hardcore one.

Btw, I think that the idea behind Soul Hackers battle system is just GREAT. You can't make your demons do what you want done. You have to adapt to their styles.........
or drunk 'em.

And that made the battles felt very quick and frenetic too.
 

Hylian7

Member
I can't talk about Apocalypse yet, but I would say something very similar to Hylian7 about Soul Hackers. I think its one of the most old-fashioned SMT experiences you can play in a 'live console' at the moment. If you tend to like the older games in the franchise SH would please you.

Personally, SH made me try other dungeon crawlers games like Strange Journey, which I've already knew it was a really hardcore one.

Btw, I think that the idea behind Soul Hackers battle system is just GREAT. You can't make your demons do what you want done. You have to adapt to their styles.........
or drunk 'em.

And that made the battles felt very quick and frenetic too.

What's funny is on the Saturn version, the battles are anything but that.

https://youtu.be/t6QwfRJ3arM?t=119

Can you imagine playing the 3DS version with those long animations?
 

Hylian7

Member
LOL, you got me, I played 3ds version. I guess back in those times that kind of animations were the eye candy of this games.

I played on 3DS as well, I just saw that video once and my jaw just hit the floor imagining how agonizing battles would be if it was that way on 3DS.
 
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