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Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne |OT| GO GET THE BUFFS!

Call it what you will—A revelation from God, or a curse of the demon king.
The fact remains that our world came to an end.
A heretic called upon an unearthly light, and devastation ensued.
Chaos crawled out of the depths of the ocean, from the black abyss.
Death upon death... nothing but death in this barren land.
Who can we pray to?
There are only demons and fiends here...
A voice in the dark beguiles me.
"Truth is a mystery, unraveled by the candles' flames".

— From the Journal of a Man who Wandered into Another World

Two. My TWO favorite games of all time released in the span of one week. Thank you Based PSN for letting folks know of this wonderment who haven't experienced it before. This is Atlus' best game, so enjoy the ride.

Just purchased. Got a fair way through on the PS2 years ago, really looking forward to finishing it this time. Anyone have a MC build recommendation?

Survival. Other demons can do the bulk of the damage/healing/etc, but MC death == Game Over is beyond your top priority. +HP, Endure, are mandatory.

Beyond that, note that this isn't SMT4, and unlearned skills CANNOT be relearned.

Also unlike SMT4, physical attacks cost HP. It's tempting to get in a lil' more hurtin' but...well...hehe

There is NO respeccing. Points in Vitality however are never wasted.

Note how Press Turn treats multi-target attacks here.
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
Yes there is.If you can get your save from ps2 memory card you half way there.

What about the other half? I'd be really interested to know if there's a way to do it, even though my SMT3 save file would be worthless here anyway.

I got to the part where
the world ends
and....it froze on me.

Ugh...not again. Maybe I should have waited before I bought it, just to see if there are any issues with it.
 
I remember hearing about having Dante in your party gimped you as he lacked the powerful attacks needed for endgame bosses and he can't be removed from your party. I heard they fixed this with Raidou.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I remember hearing about having Dante in your party gimped you as he lacked the powerful attacks needed for endgame bosses and he can't be removed from your party. I heard they fixed this with Raidou.

He can't be removed from your party? You can't remove party members in this game?

I really hope Sony has something in the works where PS2 classics will be playable on PS4.
 

Requeim

Member
I remember hearing about having Dante in your party gimped you as he lacked the powerful attacks needed for endgame bosses and he can't be removed from your party. I heard they fixed this with Raidou.

Completely wrong. If anything it's the opposite, Raidou is so powerful that he makes the TDE boss easier than it should be.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I remember hearing about having Dante in your party gimped you as he lacked the powerful attacks needed for endgame bosses and he can't be removed from your party. I heard they fixed this with Raidou.

He has some uses, namely a high crit rate and the buffs. I've beaten the final boss with him in my team before.
 

PCH

Neo Member
Ah, thanks! Didn't know about that. I guess there's no easy way to change the region on PS2 saves like there is for PSX saves, is there?

Just use ps2 save builder to change region of a save once you get it off the card.
I will also have to do it on my save as i have EU version save and not looking forward to making "all but almighty"Michael with Pierce and Victory Cry again.
 
i am interested in this and i have a couple of questions. is the gameplay similar to persona series? turn based startegy? how do the graphics hold up? is it similar to persona fes or worse?
The combat system is pretty similar to the one used in Persona 3/4. There are some differences that make it more complex, but the basics are the same. I'm on my phone, otherwise I'd elaborate a bit more. It's got my favorite turn based battle system.

Graphically it's much better looking than the Persona games. Nocturne has an incredible art direction and a great atmosphere.

If you want to get into SMT this is a great starting point.
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
Just use ps2 save builder to change region of a save once you get it off the card.
I will also have to do it on my save as i have EU version save and not looking forward to making "all but almighty"Michael with Pierce and Victory Cry again.

Thanks, I'll try that later. Nocturne is still downloading so I can't really try it right now, but I managed to get a save from my PS3 onto my PS2, which is already promising.

Edit: Managed to transfer my P3:Fes save (without region change). Nocturne's still downloading.
 

draetenth

Member
I remember hearing about having Dante in your party gimped you as he lacked the powerful attacks needed for endgame bosses and he can't be removed from your party. I heard they fixed this with Raidou.

The issue with Dante is that the Final boss for the True Demon Ending takes only 25% of damage from all attacks (including almighty) unless you have the skill Pierce which Dante can't learn. However, you can you can beat it with Dante because the only thing Pierce really does is make the fight go faster.

Honestly, I built my MC as physical fighter, but by the end Beelzebub (death flies + victory cry), Metatron, and Vishnu/Harlot were more than enough. My MC spent the whole final fight using mediarahan and giving mana to the other three fighters.

Note on stats: if anyone is going for the True Demon Ending - you will most likely get the ultimate magatama: Masakados. It gives you +10 in all stats except for luck. so you never need more than 30 in all stats except luck (which you can pump to the max of 40).

It isn't a big deal though - you can level beyond 99 (though it won't show) and you don't really need to be that high level to beat the game...
 

vocab

Member
well and the PSX version of Persona.

1344286623391_1873462.png
 

Cyrus_Saren

Member
I played this and got to the very end of the game. Ended up hearing that I would need to level and get a certain demon since I
passed the fifth kalpa and would have to fight Lucifer
. I had Pierce but just did not have the drive to level anymore. Always think about going back but I know I would want to start all over.... regardless, it is a great game. Absolutely love the music!
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
Ah, I managed to copy my PAL PS2 file to the US PS3 version. Thanks again, PCH! This is great, I didn't think it was possible.
 

MechaX

Member
I'm so glad it's the Dante version, so now I can just import my Clear Save from my PS2 and play the game fresh that way.
 

Atlas157

Member
I just beat the first boss of the game. I'm liking it a lot so far but why does Demi-Fiend miss almost every physical attack? I don't know if it's my shit luck or if the game is like that.
 

lordmrw

Member
I think its been close to 10 years since I played through this. I still have my beaten up copy I bought at release, maybe I'll work through this slowly over the year.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I don't think so.

Also, woooow. Is it just me or does this look significantly worse than average for a PS2 classic? Looks like it's not deinterlacing right.

Well there were reports of emulation issues with the Okada SMTs. Maybe I should pass then.
 

Sophia

Member
Well there were reports of emulation issues with the Okada SMTs. Maybe I should pass then.

There are definitely emulation issues. The text bounces rarely, and I saw a minor graphical glitch entering the Cathedral of Shadows at the bottom the first time. Plus the game looks like crap whenever it's in motion. Then there's the person who posted above us that the game locked up during the Conception scene...

I mean, it's playable. But I wouldn't think this to be acceptable. I found it looks better if I turned off all the filtering options and let my monitor do the work.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Any suggestion to make physical build for demi-fiend? The early game is really hard to go through without magic stat :(

Dude, in Nocturne, physical Demi-Fiend *IS* the best.

In fact, you're pretty much required to go physical if you want to get all Magatama considering there's one of them that requires you to have 30 Strength to obtain.

And one of the best end-game moves is physical.

Also,

There are definitely emulation issues. The text bounces rarely, and I saw a minor graphical glitch entering the Cathedral of Shadows at the bottom the first time. Plus the game looks like crap whenever it's in motion. Then there's the person who posted above us that the game locked up during the Conception scene... I mean, it's playable. But I wouldn't think this to be acceptable. I found it looks better if I turned off all the filtering options and let my monitor do the work.

Damn, I was just gonna ask if there are any emulation issues. Not liking what I'm hearing so far...

You folks talking about emulation issues... you're talking about this PSN version or emulated with a PC version...?
 
Put 60 or so hours into the game to get the TDE a few years ago and it was an amazing experience. Don't know if I'm quite ready to jump back in for another playthrough, but I'm jealous of all you guys who are getting to experience it for the first time.
 

.la1n

Member
Haven't experienced any of the emulation glitches so far but I'm only about two hours in. Hopefully if there are any widespread issues they can patch it like what was done with Fatal Frame II.
 

Sophia

Member
Ouhhh :(

Hopefully they're not making this unplayable....?

I can forgive a few faults really since it's Nocturne... are they severe?

From what I've experienced, they're not severe and not unplayable. Pretty annoying tho. The text sometimes flickers, and/or becomes difficult to read. There were also a few minor graphical glitches, such as getting a blue line at the bottom of the screen for a second when entering the Cathedral of Shadows. I found letting my monitor do the scaling helped a lot with the image quality too.

However someone above said the game outright froze during the Conception sequence. I haven't seen anyone else back that report up, so take that as you will.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
The game locking up sounds pretty damn severe.

Uuuurghhh.... really? :(

But it's nothing that a PS3 reset can't fix, right? Because damn I've been wanting this so bad.

However someone above said the game outright froze during the Conception sequence. I haven't seen anyone else back that report up, so take that as you will.

Hmmm... but after two hours in it's pretty much safe to assume that the he has passed the Conception scene, right?

Haven't experienced any of the emulation glitches so far but I'm only about two hours in. Hopefully if there are any widespread issues they can patch it like what was done with Fatal Frame II.
 

Sophia

Member
Hmmm... but after two hours in it's pretty much safe to assume that the he has passed the Conception scene, right?

Presumably. They only posted once in the thread, and I have yet to see anyone else say they've had the game lock up. Thus, I wouldn't be worried about that. The rest of the emulation issues are all really minor. They're just, as I said, highly annoying.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Presumably. They only posted once in the thread, and I have yet to see anyone else say they've had the game lock up. Thus, I wouldn't be worried about that. The rest of the emulation issues are all really minor. They're just, as I said, highly annoying.

I have a bad feeling Atlus USA said it was acceptable and called it a day. What gets me is how it got past SCEA QA.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Presumably. They only posted once in the thread, and I have yet to see anyone else say they've had the game lock up. Thus, I wouldn't be worried about that. The rest of the emulation issues are all really minor. They're just, as I said, highly annoying.

I can live with minor and annoying since this is Nocturne and I have no other venue to play it and I want to play it so bad.

They can patch these things?

Just like Persona 3 FES, if they patch it they most likely require players that bought it to re-download the patched full game again from PSN.
 

Requeim

Member
Does the game run smoothly when emulated on PC?

Yes. It used to have an annoying glitch with the shadow of the player character, but it has now been fixed (by turning of that one shadow entirely i believe, not a big deal)

It does require a better computer to run than Persona 3/4 do, though (I can run those perfectly on my laptop for example, whereas nocturne chugs quite a bit)
 
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