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Atlus announces Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)

D

duckroll

Member
ethelred said:
Yeah... I was a little curious about that. It looks like the key staff for Devil Survivor is about half Career Soft Growlanser/Langrisser vets and half Atlus R&D1, which certainly makes for kind of an interesting mix. The director had been directing and producing Career Soft games, and three of Devil Survivor's six design planners worked on Career Soft games while the other three were R&D1 (EO2, specifically). The programming team also seems like an even split between Career Soft and R&D1 (the R&D programmers had worked on a variety of games ranging from P4 to Raidou to the Trauma Center series).

Devil Survivor had four scenario writers and two scenario advisors. Two of the writers were Career Soft, and the other two were R&D1. One of those two worked on EO2, and the other was the scenario writer for P3 and one of the two writers for P4 -- I can definitely see that influence in a lot of Devil Survivor's character stuff. Both of the scenario advisors were R&D1 (one of the advisors, Shogo Isogai, is the SMT2/if/Nocturne writer who's also doing Strange Journey).

So... yeah, kind of interesting. The Growlanser series was never a super strong seller, but it hit a high-water mark with 4 and then just kind of tanked afterward -- 5 and 6 sold much worse than 2 and 3 had, and the PSP port's numbers weren't all that good either. So if Atlus is cannibalizing that team and putting key members of Career Soft on projects with a half & half mix of R&D personnel, and having them make Megaten-branded games, that really is probably a better use of their resources given how the series was struggling. And like I said, while Devil Survivor's sales weren't great relative to Atlus's overall lineup of games, they're much better than the company's other SRPGs, and a sequel that improved on the quality of the first could do even better. If the choice is "should we have these guys make Growlanser 7 or Devil Survivor 2?" that's probably an easy call.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't think Career Soft exists anymore. Shinjiro Takata was the head of Career Soft as the producer (and later on the director) of all Growlanser games from the start. Considering how Devil Survivor does not mention Career Soft at all, but instead credits the entire game as "Atlus" I would say Career Soft has long since been absorbed into Atlus proper.

The director/producer, chief scenario writer and main programmer of Devil Survivor are all the key Growlanser director/producer, main writer and main programmer staffers. So while it's pretty clear to keep them happy, Atlus has not entirely canned the Growlanser series, I also find it hard to believe that Atlus would invest much more into the series given how the well Devil Survivor did compared to recent Growlanser games in general.
 
D

duckroll

Member
HK-47 said:
What are the chances of the Greek and Shinto demons from the Persona games showing up?
Click to expand...

It's unlikely that any super unique story design in a megaten game will be reused. While it's entirely possible that they have a new design while using the same name, the actual unique character based Persona designs will remain unique to the Persona games.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Thats a bummer. Pallas Athena, Io and Sunsano-o had such good designs. Have they gone on record as saying thats how they approach it?
 
E

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
HK-47 said:
Thats a bummer. Pallas Athena, Io and Sunsano-o had such good designs. Have they gone on record as saying thats how they approach it?
Click to expand...
those designs clash with the rest of the art. it'll look kind of inconsistent.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
MollyMillions said:
That's good to hear. Both Raidou 2 and Devil Survivor are on my to-do list. I think your point about WRPGs featuring more moment-to-moment character-based changes vs. SMT's sweeping end-game decisions is a good one.

I think what I meant is more that the SMT view of what the three moralities represent is more nuanced and interesting than the standard WRPG selfless do-gooder vs. selfish psychopath dichotomy. Basically in SMT I you can support Law which leads to a divine dictatorship, Chaos which leads to a hedonist wasteland, or Balance which pits you against both as a humanist who kills both God and the Devil. That sounds so much less boring than Save the Princess/Rule the World.
Click to expand...

Than you probably shouldnt say Obsidian needs to learn something. They've never been that simple outside of NWN 2 vanilla.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Error said:
those designs clash with the rest of the art. it'll look kind of inconsistent.
Click to expand...

The art already has clashing designs. The newer demons of Nocturne and Persona 2 have a different style and coloring approach when compared to the slightly upgraded artwork used for some of the demons in the first two SMTs. So I dont think thats the reason.
 
L

Llyranor

Member
Yeah, after reading up a bit on this/SMT, I think I'll be picking this up once it gets localized.
HK-47 said:
Than you probably shouldnt say Obsidian needs to learn something. They've never been that simple outside of NWN 2 vanilla.
Click to expand...
Strangely enough, the lead designer for NWN2 then went on to work at Bioware! Funny how that works!
 
V

Varna

Member
Llyranor said:
Yeah, after reading up a bit on this/SMT, I think I'll be picking this up once it gets localized.
Click to expand...

You should try to track down Nocturne if you have not played it. Currently replaying it... it's still the best JRPG out there.


Llyranor said:
Strangely enough, the lead designer for NWN2 then went on to work at Bioware! Funny how that works!
Click to expand...

:lol
 
D

duckroll

Member
HK-47 said:
Good riddance.
Click to expand...

NWN2 wasn't that bad. I felt it had a lot of good ideas and the execution was above average too. It's just that the actual storyline is pretty generic and along the lines of what you would expect from a "normal" D&D low to mid level campaign.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
duckroll said:
NWN2 wasn't that bad. I felt it had a lot of good ideas and the execution was above average too. It's just that the actual storyline is pretty generic and along the lines of what you would expect from a "normal" D&D low to mid level campaign.
Click to expand...

He left the project half way through. It almost sunk the whole game.
 
L

Llyranor

Member
He left more than halfway through the project. JE Sawyer had to take on the lead role in the last few months before the game came out, when it was too late to make major changes, and essentially damage control.

Here's what he had to say about it recently:
http://grupo97.halconesrojos.com/index.php/artlos-mainmenu-28/9-juegos/346-jesawyerinterview
I think the major issue during development was that vastness of the project was overwhelming for a small (at the time) developer like Obsidian. I believe that we should have planned more carefully from the beginning what we wanted to change and what we should have left alone.
Click to expand...
 
E

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
HK-47 said:
The art already has clashing designs. The newer demons of Nocturne and Persona 2 have a different style and coloring approach when compared to the slightly upgraded artwork used for some of the demons in the first two SMTs. So I dont think thats the reason.
Click to expand...
yes, but the personas have this mechanical design to them... like they are robots. Demons from SMT games look more like creatures, living things.

Kind of hard to put it into words...
 
A

Aeana

Member
The system video is new. Looks like I was right about the encounter music. It shows the very beginning of the real battle theme, once they choose to attack the demons.

Between that and the new character video, it's pretty weird to hear orchestral stuff from Meguro.
 
V

Varna

Member
Looks incredible.

The orchestra music does indeed sound weird... I'm kinda hoping there are many battle themes like depending on your location like in Nocturne. Might hoping for too much though.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Here are some interesting points we can discuss from the new gameplay video:

- When DISCOVER pops up, FORMA SEARCH lights up. What does that mean?

- You can see the moon phase changing while moving around <3 <3

- In the battle the main character here has both sword and gun attacks, indicating you can equip both. His normal sword attack is a single enemy physical attack which hits 2-4 times, and has a possible add-on effect of Charm. His normal gun attack is a single enemy gun attack which hits once and has no add-on effect, but he has two other gun skills which require MP.

- You can see him taking damage from stepping on a floor obstacle area.

- The bar in the top middle is definitely an encounter detector.
 
J

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
No rock battle theme? Not sure how I feel about that... I agree that it's weird to hear orchestral music from Meguro, it'd be nice if I could hear more of the tracks though! I wish Atlus would stop teasing us and let us see an entire battle.
 
V

Varna

Member
duckroll said:
- You can see the moon phase changing while moving around <3 <3

- In the battle the main character here has both sword and gun attacks, indicating you can equip both. His normal sword attack is a single enemy physical attack which hits 2-4 times, and has a possible add-on effect of Charm. His normal gun attack is a single enemy gun attack which hits once and has no add-on effect, but he has two other gun skills which require MP.

- The bar in the top middle is definitely an encounter detector.
Click to expand...

Wow. They went the complete opposite route from SMT I and II. I'm a bit bummed... was so looking forward to blowing demons away with assault rifle and nerve rounds!

EDIT: Oh nevermind... those are only for the battle on display right?
 
D

duckroll

Member
Varna said:
Wow. They went the complete opposite route from SMT I and II. I'm a bit bummed... was so looking forward to blowing demons away with assault rifle and nerve rounds!

EDIT: Oh nevermind... those are only for the battle on display right?
Click to expand...

Correct, it is simply the battle we're looking at in the video. From what they're said, the game will feature TONS of customization for the player's suit and weapons. The fact that the regular sword attack is able to do multiple hits and have a status effect simply tells me that weapons can be customized as such. I'm sure this applies to guns as well. :D
 
D

duckroll

Member
Varna said:
Not being able to make a gunslinger character was the worst part about Nocturne.
Click to expand...

Nocturne was an equal opportunity gimp in terms of weapons though. They didn't just take away guns, they took away ALL weapons. You just punched shit!
 
V

Varna

Member
duckroll said:
Nocturne was an equal opportunity gimp in terms of weapons though. They didn't just take away guns, they took away ALL weapons. You just punched shit!
Click to expand...

It was much better customization wise though. You only had two real options in SMT I and II. Either use a sword or a gun (you could easily be a master of both since so many of the other stats were worthless to the main character).

I wonder if your character will be able to use magic this time around.

Error said:
Oh come on, punching is awesome.
Click to expand...

Not as satisfying as mowing down a group of demons with a mini-gun and having the remaining foes not be able to attack because they are too "happy."

Guns were way too powerful in those games though. Actually summoning demons was a last resort. Went through 99% of encounters with guns blazing.
 
S

Segata Sanshiro

Member
By god.
Unbridled enthusiasm is what I'm feeling at this point.
My biggest problem is whether to wait for the English version or not.
Probably gonna cave in once it's on shelves.
 
C

charlequin

Banned
jj984jj said:
No rock battle theme? Not sure how I feel about that... I agree that it's weird to hear orchestral music from Meguro, it'd be nice if I could hear more of the tracks though! I wish Atlus would stop teasing us and let us see an entire battle.
Click to expand...

I'm sure they're saving that for, like, a million years from now.
 
B

Busaiku

Member
I'm really liking the look of it.
Maybe I missed it, but were any of the other characters' actions/abilities explained yet?

duckroll said:
In the US maybe. In Japan, DS has no chance of touching the EO/EO2 numbers.
Click to expand...
Going by Garaph, the original EO was last tracked with 122k.
The half year top 100 had DS at about 107k (up about 28k since its last spot in the 30).
I don't think it's gonna get to the EO2, but it might end up close to, or even passing the original EO.
 
C

Chrono Helix

Member
Segata Sanshiro said:
By god.
Unbridled enthusiasm is what I'm feeling at this point.
My biggest problem is whether to wait for the English version or not.
Probably gonna cave in once it's on shelves.
Click to expand...

That will depend on what Atlus Spoils we'll get.
 
T

Turbo

Neo Member
Hmm, not sure what to say. The video reduced some of my enthusiasm for it ( I guess I was a bit hyped... :D ). Still, I am going to get it for the awesomeness ( and the fact that I need some SMT badly...).
 
Gorgon

Gorgon

Member
DS games are not region locked, right?

I think I'll try to get this one somehow from the US instead of waiting for an european release.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Just saw the 2 page Famitsu article on SJ this week. It basically shows off the scanner functions. When you're in battle, the bottom screen will show the different enemies, along with their weaknesses, stats, skills, etc. The rest of the article shows off the main applications on the Demonica Suit, like the Gate Search, Enemy Search, Forma Search and Space Search functions. It also shows what these search results will generate on the dungeon map as icons when you successfully use them. Seems pretty cool!

Oh and for Devil Survivor fans, it also shows Kudlak in the game. I can't wait to see him animated!
 
E

ethelred

Member
duckroll said:
Just saw the 2 page Famitsu article on SJ this week. It basically shows off the scanner functions. When you're in battle, the bottom screen will show the different enemies, along with their weaknesses, stats, skills, etc. The rest of the article shows off the main applications on the Demonica Suit, like the Gate Search, Enemy Search, Forma Search and Space Search functions. It also shows what these search results will generate on the dungeon map as icons when you successfully use them. Seems pretty cool!

Oh and for Devil Survivor fans, it also shows Kudlak in the game. I can't wait to see him animated!
Click to expand...

Oh, really? That's pretty cool. If Kudlak is in it, hopefully that means Kresnik is in it, too.
 
M

magicalsoundshower

Member
jj984jj said:
I uploaded the new clip to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoj8GeAdVrw
Click to expand...
By Jove, "people popups" (that's what I call them) are back! I pray that there's now a button that lets you skip their dialogue quickly in case you keep running into them over and over. The fact that you had to mash A to skip through their dialogue every time you "met" them made the disco in Shin Megami Tensei 2 one of the most infuriating places in a video game I've ever come across.

But then again, I might be wrong and the guy at the beginning was probably a member of your own party seeing as he said "let's be careful" at the end.
 
V

Varna

Member
I'm sure they won't let that slide this time. Doesn't seem like there are a lot of people first of all and it also seems like that dialogue is story related.
 
C

charlequin

Banned
duckroll said:
When you're in battle, the bottom screen will show the different enemies, along with their weaknesses, stats, skills, etc.
Click to expand...

Awesome. It's so important to have this information in these games, so I'm glad they're following up on games like P4 and making it more easily accessible. Plus I'm always glad to see developers making effective and sensible use of the two screens.
 
J

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
The environments on the new scans are really beautifully designed, I really like the attention to details.
 
Y

Yaweee

Member
duckroll said:
Just saw the 2 page Famitsu article on SJ this week. It basically shows off the scanner functions. When you're in battle, the bottom screen will show the different enemies, along with their weaknesses, stats, skills, etc.
Click to expand...

Also of note (musings and comparisons to DS' system): the info is stacked horizontally, so it is a list you scroll through opposed to Devil Survivor's showing all three enemies at once. It has room for three enemies at a time, but there are four enemies visible on the top screen. It seems like you need to analyze or kill the enemy before you can see their info, unlike DS where you knew everything immediately.

The bottom screen has L-R toggles, and a 1/5 written at the bottom. Presumably you can also check your party information (like DS), but I have no idea what the other three menus would be (map, inventory, and ...?)

Interesting, even the enemies have the D-Force meter, or so it seems, so I don't think it is related to the fusion system anymore. Might be a limit-break system like EO2.

Forma appears as one of the icons on the map screen, so perhaps they are like EO's resource nodes?
 
T

totowhoa

Banned
Sorry to jump a wee bit off topic, but following this has me pumped to finally try SMT 1 and 2. Whether or not I do so immediately depends on how long they take to beat (through the main ending and true ending if applicable). Wouldn't go for a 100%.

Thanks GAF :D So excited for this. I'm hoping SMT 1 and/or 2 will serve as a good sneak preview.

Edit: Didn't see this posted yet, but may have been. Trailer with English subs. It's an SMT masterpiece!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT7Zin2bDHo
 
D

duckroll

Member
Atlus is playing SMT:SJ and we're not. :(

img_090807.jpg
 
V

Varna

Member
Fuck. :(

Didn't Atlus USA announce Persona PSP likes weeks after Atlus JP? I guess we will be playing this sometime next year during the summer. :(
 
D

duckroll

Member
I finally managed to access the mobile site for Strange Journey. Here are some exclusive screens from the mobile site.... :lol

24mrn61.jpg


sm52ed.jpg
2zs9u9z.jpg


5whums.jpg
2mzek9e.jpg



Also, in terms of information the following bits are mentioned in the gameplay section of the mobile site, but not in detail:

- The Schwarzverse is a new frontier, and as such there will not be any shops in an undiscovered territory. You will have to survive with what you bring with you, and create what you need beforehand.

- Aside from developing new applications, by bringing materials and resources back to the Red Sprite, you'll be able to create new items and equipment - including swords and guns. Creating items will be the only way to replenish supplies, since you cannot buy items.

- In certain battles, or in the story, there will be many choices you have to make during conversations which will have a direct impact on the progression of the game.

- Aside from the plot based missions which revolve around exploring and investigating the Schwarzverse, there will be many optional sub-missions available. These are called EX-Missions. You get EX-Missions from both demons as well as fellow crew members. By helping them fulfill their requests, you will gain extra rewards.
 
Gorgon

Gorgon

Member
The more info you guys/gals post about this game, the more hyped I become. I'm really digging the whole premise and setting of this game.
 
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