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

Shengar

Member
Does anyone here have the GO GET THE BUFFS comic?

6c0.png
 
For an ancient PS2 classic? come on now. $9.99 is high as it is for that kind of game. Only worth it because SMT:Nocturne is quality all the way through.

It isn't that the price doesn't make sense, I just thought I read that the price would go up after this weekend. It must have been for something else.
 

GeekyDad

Member
I would have paid $20 for, no problem, so $10 is a nice surprise for me. Considering Nintendo are charging close to that for their SNES and GBA VC, I don't think the price is high at all.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Put a couple hours in and my only real issue with the release is that it feels a bit sluggish, very minor but mostly noticeable when exploring as it feels a bit swimmy moving the MC and panning the camera around environments. Last time I played this was on my 60gb PS3 with the disc last fall after I purchased SMTIV. Recall it running a lot snappier during exploration on the disc version, but combat is just as quick and doesn't seem to suffer similarly.

The AA smoothing is kind of nice too and turning it off doesn't detract from IQ but adds more pronounced jaggies that are nearly gone with it turned on.

No crashes yet. Playing on a new Super Slim PS3(my 60gb launch PS3 finally died when DSII came out)

My first real play also. Have owned the disc since the NA launch a decade back, but never really played beyond the initial hours. Looking forward to a blind run! (Trying to avoid any hints or prep work for fusing tips...just wanna experience the game)
 
I would have paid $20 for, no problem, so $10 is a nice surprise for me. Considering Nintendo are charging close to that for their SNES and GBA VC, I don't think the price is high at all.

That's because what nintendo is doing is borderline criminal.
 
Great OT. Nocturne is such an amazing game, I've put hundreds of hours into playing and replaying it over the years. My absolute favorite game.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Protip! Avoid opening chests until the moon phase is full(8/8). Then you are guaranteed to get the best or most rare item in the list of possible items. Not a big deal really, but why waste getting a lifestone when a few random encounters to wait for the proper moon phase can give you something better.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
First time I tried playing this many years ago I remember not liking it because of the minimal story. Put about 5 hours in last night and enjoying the game a lot more, really like the atmosphere. No crashes or technical problems so far but man I really hate that you can't skip the terminal animation after each save.

Protip! Avoid opening chests until the moon phase is full(8/8). Then you are guaranteed to get the best or most rare item in the list of possible items. Not a big deal really, but why waste getting a lifestone when a few random encounters to wait for the proper moon phase can give you something better.
Welp, I figured something like that was probably the case cause I kept getting life stones. I suppose it's fine since there's no equipment so it would've been consumables anyways.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
I used to have a great Daisoujou back in the day, but I forgot the build... Any suggestions?

Daisoujou is fantastic anyway so long as you have Spirit Drain (eh, or is it Meditation the name of the skill...??) and Mediarahan/Prayer, any other spell/ability in there is just groovy. He is simply the best healer in the game, if not in the entire SMT series.

Anyways!

I have never tried hard mode before, so I am thinking when I start later tonight I am gonna post my play log here in this thread as I play through Nocturne the 1st time in hard mode. Gonna aim for TD ending too... hopefully you folks don't mind, it's just for a bit of fun.
 

draetenth

Member
I used to have a great Daisoujou back in the day, but I forgot the build... Any suggestions?

IIRC I made one that had: Meditation, fog breath, dekaja, and dekunda. I think I also prayer + preach on it. I think i got all abilities on him at creation (it's been awhile though so I could be wrong), but used a mitama fusion to add dekaja. He was perfect all the way up to the final dungeon for me.
 
Nocturne newcomer, reporting for apocalypse duty!
I played for some time last night and beat the first boss (
Forneus
). Next time I get to play might not be until tomorrow, but I can't wait to really dive in.

Also, I was quite tickled to see that this game does, in fact, feature Dante from the Devil May Cry™ series.

That's great! Thanks for responding... Awesome to hear. Best of luck!!


Added to OT!

Great OT. Nocturne is such an amazing game, I've put hundreds of hours into playing and replaying it over the years. My absolute favorite game.

Thanks so much, man!! :) Glad to have some of the game's most hardcore fans in the thread!
 

Hugstable

Banned
I ended up putting the screen mode to none so it goes to 480p instead of being upscaled and turned the smoothing on and it looked way better to me. Also lessened the blur a bit. <3 this game. Matador es coming soon!!
 
Played for three hours, made it to Ginza. What are good demons and skills for this early part of the game?

Also, what did you guys name the protagonist? I went with the good ol' Giant Bomb default of Charlie "Tuna" Tunoku. Being called Demon Tuna in game is pretty funny.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Played for three hours, made it to Ginza. What are good demons and skills for this early part of the game?

Also, what did you guys name the protagonist? I went with the good ol' Giant Bomb default of Charlie "Tuna" Tunoku. Being called Demon Tuna in game is pretty funny.

Get to lvl 18 and fuse a Jack Frost/Pixie with an Angel to create an Uzume. She has Media.

Having Fog Breath (Preta has it, not sure what else) will also help.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
Oh lawdy I finally got something that learned estoma (archangel). Should be smoother sailing from here on out.

For skills like heatwave that say the damage depends on HP, does it do more damage when your MC's HP is low/high or when the enemy's HP is low/high?
 

GeekyDad

Member
That's because what nintendo is doing is borderline criminal.

On that we can agree.

I ended up putting the screen mode to none so it goes to 480p instead of being upscaled and turned the smoothing on and it looked way better to me. Also lessened the blur a bit. <3 this game. Matador es coming soon!!

Good tips. Will check that out when I play. This will be my first time with the game, and I'm really looking forward to it. But it's probably gonna be a while. Downloaded and installed it, but so many games, so little time right now -- not that I'm complaining.
 

Ourobolus

Banned
Fought up to Specter. I clearly forgot a lot about this game. Got wrecked by fire the first time through, and kept using group attacks when I should have focused on the specters one at a time. Breezed through it the second time though.
 

Caderfix

Member
Fought up to Specter. I clearly forgot a lot about this game. Got wrecked by fire the first time through, and kept using group attacks when I should have focused on the specters one at a time. Breezed through it the second time though.

I did the same, managed to defeat only one before they merged. I was able to bullshit my way through it though lol
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
My play log 1:

"Ugly high school girl" and "Even uglier high school girl" makes me laugh.

Aaaaah the guitar riffs of Meguro is a music to my ear.

Playing hard mode. This is the 1st time for me, playing Nocturne's hard mode, so I am a bit wary, to be honest, hahaha. Well, let's see how it goes.
 
My play log 1:

"Ugly high school girl" and "Even uglier high school girl" makes me laugh.

Aaaaah the guitar riffs of Meguro is a music to my ear.

Playing hard mode. This is the 1st time for me, playing Nocturne's hard mode, so I am a bit wary, to be honest, hahaha. Well, let's see how it goes.

I thought that was hilarious! Also, when I was supposed to go find Isamu in the medical center, I said "nah" and went back to Shibuya to watch the news on the big screen.
 

Calabi

Member
My play log 1:

"Ugly high school girl" and "Even uglier high school girl" makes me laugh.

Aaaaah the guitar riffs of Meguro is a music to my ear.

Playing hard mode. This is the 1st time for me, playing Nocturne's hard mode, so I am a bit wary, to be honest, hahaha. Well, let's see how it goes.

Are you insane you will die alot. Normal was hard for me in this. The game is cruelly random.
 

Hugstable

Banned
On that we can agree.



Good tips. Will check that out when I play. This will be my first time with the game, and I'm really looking forward to it. But it's probably gonna be a while. Downloaded and installed it, but so many games, so little time right now -- not that I'm complaining.


Yeah I was playing yS:Celceta until this game came out on PSN and sidetracked me. I'm sure I'll end up getting back to yS today though, or end up juggling both games. Nocturne is like Chrono Trigger to me, I usually play the game ever 2-3 years haha.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
My play log 1:

"Ugly high school girl" and "Even uglier high school girl" makes me laugh.

Aaaaah the guitar riffs of Meguro is a music to my ear.

Playing hard mode. This is the 1st time for me, playing Nocturne's hard mode, so I am a bit wary, to be honest, hahaha. Well, let's see how it goes.

It will go terribly lol. I remember needing six tries before I could get past the small Amala segment during the beginning before you explore the hospital (after the Conception), and there are only like two (?) battles with Pretas in the way.

Granted I don't think you could heal and you had no demons, but damn. Be prepared to die a lot, and probably grind a lot. On Normal you could get away with little to no grinding. I primarily grinded at the end because I wanted to make uber demons. I'm not sure how hard the TDE boss would be otherwise.
 
yup it was republished like 2010ish... i remember paying 80$ for my copy used from gamestop back on '06-'07, and thinking i hit the jackpot... until i saw the reprints a few years ago dropped the price to 15-20$ NEW

The reprints don't include the OST disc like the original though, right?

Unrelated: why did they change the name to Lucifer's Call for the UK?
 

cj_iwakura

Member
The reprints don't include the OST disc like the original though, right?

Unrelated: why did they change the name to Lucifer's Call for the UK?

-Nope. It included all the new Maniax music and is really good.

-Copyright, probably? Despite
it being a spoiler
, I like the alt title.
 
-Nope. It included all the new Maniax music and is really good.

I thought the US release was just a localized version of Maniax..? I wasn't aware there were two sets of music. I do wish Atlus had released a more deluxe version of the US release with a color art book.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Reached Ginza myself and am heading to Ikebukura to infiltrate this new cult or whatever.

Funny how easily I am finding the game flow right now having years of experience with SMT since Nocturne first launched. A decade ago I found fusing overwhelming and intimidating and ended up dropping the game. Now having played all the Persona games(1-4), DDS1/2, and a bit of Soul hackers and SMT4, I feel Nocturne thus far has been a breeze.

Granted, I am still really early on, but the strategy of maintaining a balanced set of demons with the most useful skills through fusing and collecting is an aspect I am able to fully embrace instead of feeling lost and puzzled as I once did.

You do really appreciate being able to not cast 'analyze' to see enemy stats and affinities in later games though. A pain to remember everything and waste a turn recasting if you forget in Nocturne. When fusing its easy to forget what skills like Sukunda or Makukaja are, and having to back all the way out of the room to check the menu to reference them is also a minor inconvenience...as is constantly reselecting your fused monsters to re-roll transferred skills until you get the ones you want.

I'm pretty much playing blind and am already beyond the point I left off a decade ago in new territory. Looking forward to Matador to see what the fuss is about, and am doing my best to avoid fusion or skill tips as I enjoy just letting fate dictate what demons I get as I progress through conversation and fusion. (Trying to not min/max a perfect run or purposefully go for certain OP fusions/demons)

Having a total blast. Oh and using that skill from will o' wisp that increases the encounter rate until the new moon is nuts and good for grinding levels. I love that a single battle can have a huge number of reinforcements leading to XP gains in the hundreds. Gotta be careful though as I had a few near wipes after killing like 20 enemies in a single battle, but I love the tension of surviving for such huge gains.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I thought the US release was just a localized version of Maniax..? I wasn't aware there were two sets of music. I do wish Atlus had released a more deluxe version of the US release with a color art book.

There's the original OST without the Maniax content and the US release bonus OST which is the Maniax OST and a couple extras.
(And still better than the sampler OSTs we get nowadays)
 
There's the original OST without the Maniax content and the US release bonus OST which is the Maniax OST and a couple extras.
(And still better than the sampler OSTs we get nowadays)

Okay, yeah thanks, my original US release has that bonus OST in it, and that's what I was asking about in terms of the reprints.
 
Reached Ginza myself and am heading to Ikebukura to infiltrate this new cult or whatever.

Funny how easily I am finding the game flow right now having years of experience with SMT since Nocturne first launched. A decade ago I found fusing overwhelming and intimidating and ended up dropping the game. Now having played all the Persona games(1-4), DDS1/2, and a bit of Soul hackers and SMT4, I feel Nocturne thus far has been a breeze.

Granted, I am still really early on, but the strategy of maintaining a balanced set of demons with the most useful skills through fusing and collecting is an aspect I am able to fully embrace instead of feeling lost and puzzled as I once did.

You do really appreciate being able to not cast 'analyze' to see enemy stats and affinities in later games though. A pain to remember everything and waste a turn recasting if you forget in Nocturne. When fusing its easy to forget what skills like Sukunda or Makukaja are, and having to back all the way out of the room to check the menu to reference them is also a minor inconvenience...as is constantly reselecting your fused monsters to re-roll transferred skills until you get the ones you want.

I'm pretty much playing blind and am already beyond the point I left off a decade ago in new territory. Looking forward to Matador to see what the fuss is about, and am doing my best to avoid fusion or skill tips as I enjoy just letting fate dictate what demons I get as I progress through conversation and fusion. (Trying to not min/max a perfect run or purposefully go for certain OP fusions/demons)

Having a total blast. Oh and using that skill from will o' wisp that increases the encounter rate until the new moon is nuts and good for grinding levels. I love that a single battle can have a huge number of reinforcements leading to XP gains in the hundreds. Gotta be careful though as I had a few near wipes after killing like 20 enemies in a single battle, but I love the tension of surviving for such huge gains.

That's not a lack of a convenience feature, that's a balance feature. Now, your noting of the inclusion of the Info Button during fusing in later PS2 Megatens. Smart. Just needed a shuffle button and we're set.
 
That's not a lack of a convenience feature, that's a balance feature. Now, your noting of the inclusion of the Info Button during fusing in later PS2 Megatens. Smart. Just needed a shuffle button and we're set.

While it might be due to balance to make people go in and out of the menus over and over to hopefully get the demon fusion they're looking for, there has to be a better system for fusing demons than that. It's lazy game design. I would prefer a straight point assignment system to wasting 30 minutes staring at menus every time I fuse a demon.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Photo_May_08_6_37_46_PM.jpg


Hi GAF, guess who I found.

...and dead. Really didn't expect this guy to just show up out of nowhere and man he really does seem out of place considering how easily I was wrecking everything up til now.

Gonna give it a few more tries, but all de-buffs seem pointless since he kind of removes them each round. :/
 

Tizoc

Member
This is gonna be a silly-ish question but of all the demons Atlus could've used how did Matador end up being...well 'that one boss', how was he selected and how did Atlus go about programming his battle?

Is $9.99 a temporary price? I vaguely remember reading that somewhere.

No that is it's base price. Just about all PS2 games on US PSN are $9.99
 
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