TurnipFritters
Member
I'm expecting it to come in around July 19th.
(I purchased the super super special edition that works on North American 3DS and comes with English language text and voice acting)
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Shin Megami Tensei IV Import Impressions Thread of Doom
- Thread starter RyougaSaotome
- Start date
I'm expecting it to come in around July 19th.
(I purchased the super super special edition that works on North American 3DS and comes with English language text and voice acting)
Interesting.
I hope you guys are playing the game with headphones. SMT soundtracks deserve good speakers or headphones.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I'm expecting it to come in around July 19th.
(I purchased the super super special edition that works on North American 3DS and comes with English language text and voice acting)
D: with your old school SMT play by play, posting you did a while back had just thought you were gonna roll with the JP version.
Play Nocturne if you like atmosphere, it is amazing.
TurnipFritters
Member
I probably would have, but since it's only two months (and the 3DS being region locked) I figured I'd just wait.
Glass Rebel
Member
Oh cool, Dynamic Kill effects are always neat to see.
What are you talking about? Prelude 3? Because Prelude 1 and Hallucination 1 are from SMT1. They're meant to evoke nostalgia.
Deified Data
Banned
I will say that I am pleased to see that the difficulty will remain consistent with the rest of the series.
And that's the last thing I'll say in this thread for fear of encountering spoilers. I still need to beat Soul Hackers.
And that's the last thing I'll say in this thread for fear of encountering spoilers. I still need to beat Soul Hackers.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Good point on the region locking... always forget about that since dont buy any US soft here. D:
So far ザン and ムド are the most amusing to me lol.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Argh double posted again. Really need to stop having 2 windows of the same page open...
Apologies once again everyone. :/
Anyways, wonder if I should back up my data onto a PC JIC...
Apologies once again everyone. :/
Anyways, wonder if I should back up my data onto a PC JIC...
StreetsAhead
Member
I have no idea what I am doing, but I am digging the battle/scout system so far. Played up until I died last night but
.
First SMT game, btw, so I'm just fumbling my way around but I do think I will enjoy it.
then something weird happened and I was too tired to deal with it, I guess I'm in the underworld though
First SMT game, btw, so I'm just fumbling my way around but I do think I will enjoy it.
RyougaSaotome
Member
I really love the kill effects for Agi and slash-type attacks. They look fantastic.
Early story spoilers from the first dungeon:
Early story spoilers from the first dungeon:
Damn, SMTIV doesn't waste its time throwing STEVEN at you right away. I was a bit shocked when he just popped up in the second chunk of the first dungeon. "Hey guys. That little girl? She likes ya'all. OK I'MMA HEAL YOU NOW.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Were they pretty much completely random in Soul Hackers, too? This is my first SMT game.
They're random in every SMT. But usually for the same demons there are choices that will most likely appeal to them almost every time.
StreetsAhead
Member
Usually means a more 'mature' game. Bravely Default also had one.
RyougaSaotome
Member
Really? I'm finding it much easier to recruit demons compared to my time with Soul Hackers. I feel like demons are less likely to flip out on you after one wrong choice, provided you don't pick the absolute worst option.
First half seems to be going for the nostalgia effect, and ended up sounding mediocre. Second half was pretty good. Overall, a subpar MegaTen battle track.
Is this the regular battle theme?
So that was what they showed in that 30 second trailer. I thought he was talking about the MC when he said taht lol
They always tell you what they do unless maybe you're talking about the really old SMT games.
It seems to be, but like Nocturne there are a lot of battle themes so we'll probably hear the other ones just as much.
I like it anyway. It grew on me.
All of the SMT games for the past couple years have.
I've only played for 1,5 hour and just cleared the first dungeon, but I'm loving the game already.
To be honest I really liked how the first dungeon would wipe your entire party for one small mistake/failed negotiations at the beginning.
Need to play some more today after work.
To be honest I really liked how the first dungeon would wipe your entire party for one small mistake/failed negotiations at the beginning.
Need to play some more today after work.
RyougaSaotome
Member
It's one of a few battle themes. At least within the first six hours.
RyougaSaotome
Member
Playing through SMTIV I'm reminded of how much I missed dark and creepy RPGs.
2nd dungeon/early story spoilers.
2nd dungeon/early story spoilers.
When you head back to your village and enter the forest, I love how there are blood stains everywhere. It's so goddamn foreboding.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Really wishing this game had a soft reset command.
Thinking about dropping the difficulty, but would rather not...
Can't say I'm having a ton of fun spending the last hour or so reloading my game over and over again trying to recruit demons until I have a full party.
Thinking about dropping the difficulty, but would rather not...
Can't say I'm having a ton of fun spending the last hour or so reloading my game over and over again trying to recruit demons until I have a full party.
How far are you into the game right now? I just arrived at the part Ryouga described, but other than getting one-shotted a couple of times during mini-boss encounters it hasn't been that bad for me. Then again I did spend about 1.5 hours wandering around trying to figure out how to finish a quest, which got me a good 3 - 4 levels.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Still on the third quest. Right at the part where you climb a ledge to get to a treasure box, but are forced to fight a bunch of monsters first. I can't beat that bunch of monsters because I only have one demon left in my party. Been reloading constantly because it seems like I have a 5% chance of actually successfully recruiting a demon.
edit: finally got another demon and beat the horde of monsters to finish the quest. Working my way out of the first dungeon now, but damn, that was rough and not in a good way. I don't see how it's fun to get hit by a pre-emptive attack and immediately be wiped out. I just hope I can get to the point soon where I can reliably get through a battle without having at least one party member die.
My exposure to Pesona is limited. I only played and beat the Persona 2s and I thought IS was on the easy side and EP was rather hard but breakable with constant un- and reequipping of a persona that can exploit a boss's weak point. I heard 3&4 were a bit easy even though they applied a variant of the press turn system. I played 3 a little and thought it was fun, yet easier than previous press turn games.
But difficulty isn't binary. It's not either easy or hard. There are many layers of difficulty and one of them is real time/action based factors. There is usually a lot of luck involved in RPGs and since the exploitable weaknesses are so crucial for the press turn system, being the first to strike can decide the battle. Often there will be no second round.
In Nocturne, you could always be surprised, it was random. You could be wiped out because of that, just before a terminal. The answer was to have demons with immunities against the attacks of the enemies of the area, to end their turn quickly. It still is the answer in SMT4.
But in SMT4, like in Persona, initiative is decided by getting collided or attacking the enemy first in real time. So even though Persona (3&4) may be easy overall, a gameplay element from that series is influencing difficulty in SMT4 in a major way. There is one element of luck eliminated if you have good reflexes and can judged distance and velocity. If you're bad at these things, you will always be out of luck though.
Parakeetman already answered this but yes it is chance based. There even occur critical hits and you can decide a negotiation at once when that happens. But certain answers should have higher chances of working with certain demons.
In some SMTs (actually most of the recent ones I remember), answers would work consistently. In Persona 2 if you figured out the correct dialog choices they would always work. It made them repetitive though. And that game had one of the most complex and detailed dialog systems in the series (but it still get repetitive after too many encounters). So the chance based system in this one keeps negotiation fresh even though the choices aren't as varied as in Persona.
I save a lot also but I rarely load up a save again, rather paying up for the continue. But that also is rare. Don't go in to deep too soon, build your party and level a little.
Defeat all enemies except one by going after weak spots. Weaken the remaining one. Do that all in one round and when the MC's turn comes up again, talk to the weakened remaining enemy. If it doesn't work out, they won't do much damage to you anymore (since they're alone) and are easily defeated.
Always take the initiative. Fight everything you hear and see (unless you're already high leveled later in a dungeon).
I used two continues and loaded up my game after a game over maybe thrice in a 7 hours and 19 minutes. No debt accumulated. The one time I did, I had to load a save.
Edit: If you want to keep the number of fights down, remember that you can end a battle at once if one of the opponents is already in your party. Just talk to them and they may even give you an item, money or heal you.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Hopefully will be rich by the time I make it out of this 2nd dungeon. Since am still working on clearing the place, but focusing on leveling my new demons first. Thankfully at the same time the treasure points spawn at a fairly normal rate and are easy to get to being right along the main path. Though for the most part only been getting 1 - 2 star rank treasure items. Still will add up and every bit counts!
RyougaSaotome
Member
7 hours in, just completed the first area and moved on to
Story spoilers:
Tokyo.
Story spoilers:
I loved the reveal of Tokyo Sky Tree piercing the ceiling above Tokyo. Such a cool piece of imagery. I had a hunch it was the Sky Tree as I was running down the stairs, but still.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I just learned last night that you can leave the dungeon and go to sleep at your dormitory to revive and completely recover your party whenever you want. That really changed everything. No wonder I was having so much trouble in the opening hour or so.
I feel like I've made it over the first big bump. Things are still challenging, but no longer feel like I'm completely at the whim of a dice roll.
I feel like I've made it over the first big bump. Things are still challenging, but no longer feel like I'm completely at the whim of a dice roll.
Any of the battle themes have vocals like in SMT3? I loved those tracks.
Thx for the impressions everyone. Hype is at max.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I suppose I may be in the minority here, but I just can't get behind complete randomness. I obviously don't know the math going on in the background, but it seems completely random so far (I've probably done the scout thing over 50 times by now). It seems that most demons ask 3-5 questions, each with 2-4 possible answers. Assuming their responses are completely randomly generated, that's like a 0.1% chance to successfully recruit a demon in the worst case scenario. Now I'd hope the different answers have different probabilities depending on the demon type, but so far that really doesn't seem to be the case.
I dunno, it seems like I'm the only one who is bothered by the randomness of this aspect, so I'll just shut up about after this post.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
It's 176 pages if I recall.
It's not that random and the chances aren't that low. If you consider what the alignment and the personality of the demon is (probably) like, you should be fine within a few tries. Edit: You do know that you can talk to the same demon again and again, even if you failed in the round before? That is new, in earlier games pissed off demons would not talk anymore (during the same encounter).
I also like that you now get exp from recruiting (and it's even more than from defeating) an enemy.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Thats one thing that is appreciated greatly. Also from doing fusions.
Shes in the game.
will show up in 2nd dungeon
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I know you can talk to the same demon again and again in the same battle, but like I wrote in my initial complaint, the correct answers appear to be randomly generated anew each time you select the conversation option.
RyougaSaotome
Member
While the order/questions asked varies a lot. I've found that the answers that worked have pretty much worked every single time. Except in cases where we're negotiating payment.
It's really not that random.
Thanks for all of the impressions. I like what I hear. I really enjoyed Strange Journey up until a certain point (so I never finished it) as I thought the atmosphere and storyline were pretty fantastic. It sounds like I most certainly need to plan on playing SMT IV when it arrives in the US in July.
Thanks for the impressions!
It's an RPG for the 3DS. Have you ever played any of the SMT spin-offs (like Persona)?
SMT IV is the newest mainline game since SMT III: Nocturne (which was released in 2003/2004).
It's an RPG for the 3DS. Have you ever played any of the SMT spin-offs (like Persona)?
SMT IV is the newest mainline game since SMT III: Nocturne (which was released in 2003/2004).