Allows you to dodge instant death spells and critical hits while you spam your own instant death spells. Also improves demon negotiation chances i believe. Spamming hama and mudo allowed for easy battles against normal enemies and on boss battles, it allows me to play the ultimate support unit while my demons do the fighting especially with Anchiloran
It's rebalanced, fixing some of the common complaints from fans of the series, but it's the same in general lines.
Smirk's bonuses have been downgraded; Str isn't underpowered compared to the other damage stats anymore; there's a reason to stick demons with appropriate skills; the non-demon party members also have more abilities and you can choose the one you take to battle rather than it being random.
this reminds me, more multiple endings. anything to watch out for achieving the best ending AKA avoiding the endings that leaves me playing only part of the actual game like IV's alignment paths?
This isn't how it was in the review copy I was sent.
The only thing I noticed like that in the entire game was a random NPC that you need to go out of your way to talk to who had Japanese text for his generic name.
Regarding physical builds, is strenght still useless compared to dex?
I may run a physical build this time around since I went with magic in IV. Plus the protagonist just looks more like a physical/guns dude.
as far as i know strength boosts physical skills while dex boosts gun skills in apocalypse, so your build depends on whether you wanna punch dudes or shoot dudes
as far as i know strength boosts physical skills while dex boosts gun skills in apocalypse, so your build depends on whether you wanna punch dudes or shoot dudes
Hm, guess I'll be focusing on Dex with a little bit of Agi and Str now and then. Or should I drop Str for Luck, maybe?
My DemiFiend was a physical juggernaut and my Flynn was a magical god, so obviously the next logical step is to make Nanashi the greatest cowboy that Tokyo ever had. I just hope the game doesn't screw me over too badly in the skills department.
It's really not, more of a "what if"-esque midquel that takes the story in a completely different direction. Either way, you can skip the original since pretty much all you need to know is explained in the first hour or so. It's like playing Danganronpa 2: You'll definitely get more out of the experience if you play the original, but it's not required in order to understand the story or appreciate its themes, the characters that appear in it, etc.
Also: Getting the neutral path in Shin Megami Tensei IV is an incredible pain without a guide, which a lot of people seem to have forgotten.
this reminds me, more multiple endings. anything to watch out for achieving the best ending AKA avoiding the endings that leaves me playing only part of the actual game like IV's alignment paths?
There's technically two "good" endings this time around, both of which are, so far as I can surmise, decided by a very obvious chose in the penultimate dungeon and not through IV's convoluted machinations. The other endings are the Law & Chaos endings which cut out a significant amount of content, so they're best avoided unless you want to beat each path once.
I think Apocalypse is supposed to be a direct sequel, not a "what if" scenario. It doesn't directly follow any of SMT IV's endings, but Apocalypse is meant to be the actual tale that follows SMT IV.
The game takes an alternate timeline to IV, with the event that separates the two timelines being Nanashi forming a contract with Dagda, and Apocalypse's story taking a completely different direction than any of IV's paths ever did.
I think Apocalypse is supposed to be a direct sequel, not a "what if" scenario. It doesn't directly follow any of SMT IV's endings, but Apocalypse is meant to be the actual tale that follows SMT IV.
Yes, and what I'm saying is that I'm pretty sure the developers have stated that this is a direct sequel to SMT IV in the proper sense. The fact that this game's opening is an "alternate" take doesn't mean it's not a direct sequel. It just means that the endings of the previous game were the "alternate" ones in terms of the duology.
It's really not, more of a "what if"-esque midquel that takes the story in a completely different direction. Either way, you can skip the original since pretty much all you need to know is explained in the first hour or so. It's like playing Danganronpa 2: You'll definitely get more out of the experience if you play the original, but it's not required in order to understand the story or appreciate its themes, the characters that appear in it, etc.
Also: Getting the neutral path in Shin Megami Tensei IV is an incredible pain without a guide, which a lot of people seem to have forgotten.
So yeah, to get full enjoyment, play the original. Hence, inadvisable. I'm sure A fills in the gist, but you won't get the full backstory of Mikado, Aquila, Tokyo, the Ashura-kai, Lucifer, etc.
I think Apocalypse is supposed to be a direct sequel, not a "what if" scenario. It doesn't directly follow any of SMT IV's endings, but Apocalypse is meant to be the actual tale that follows SMT IV.
Sure, that's true. There's actually one thing I think they retconned in the SMT IV to SMT IV: A transition before the Neutral path diverges. Not really a spoiler, but just in case.
Danu was supposed to continue her duties as Black Maria when she entrusted Nozomi as the fairy queen, but she's back in Apocalypse like that part didn't happen.
Gonna add on to this that there's only one "real" path - it's pretty clear what the intended ending is.
To toss in an opinion, with a couple exceptions, I thought the anime direction wasn't too bad. I usually roll my eyes at those types of POWER OF FRIENDSHIP things, but I thought it fit in well to the theme of unity that SMT4's neutral ending was setting up. Some of the scenes with Toki and Asahi made me cringe a bit, though.
Almost done with the game, actually have really enjoyed the story. It's nothing life changing, but it's a lot of fun. Very nicely paced, got its share of exciting parts, though the segment I'm at right now is comparatively a bit dull. Hoping it's just because I'm between high points in the story.
With all those special guns and bullets that I never touched because my DEX was crap and gun skills that are equivalents to strength skills, it'd have to be as viable as a STR build. Might be more versatile, too, because different bullets cover different elements, while STR mainly has standard physical and you're kinda screwed if the enemy is resistant to that. I had to focus way more on my team composition this time around compared to in SMT IV where I didn't care because Flynn was just casting Sea of Chaos over and over again on everyone.
MAG will always rule over both, though, by covering more elements, very high damage and being able to almighty anything.