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Shin Megami Tensei IV |OT| The Dark Souls of Persona

Seda

Member
Some very minor sidequests.
At specific points of the game you will be locked out of certain areas and not be able to regain access to them. Fortunately the game makes it rather clear when those points are.
But don't worry, the rewards for those sidequests aren't that amazing anyway.

Cool, thanks.
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Didn't plan on pre-ordering this but I gave in and dropped some cash on it the other day after checking out the SMT4 website. The game looks really good and the 2D sprites for the demons look great. Looking forward to learning more about the story. Apparently this SMT is heavier in the story department than past SMT games? I have Nocturne but haven't played it much so I don't know much about it.
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
So who's ready for 7 weeks of post-release DLC?! I think the final (?) DLC for the JP release hits this week. Sounds like it might be some sort of story DLC.

Doesn't sound much better. So far the Japanese DLC have been nickel and dime shit like 2 buck costumes and 3 buck "quests" which either involve exp/ap/macca farming drops, or special boss fights which unlock extra demon fusions. Typical Japanese RPG DLC. :(

Duckroll plz, make it stop.
 
Didn't plan on pre-ordering this but I gave in and dropped some cash on it the other day after checking out the SMT4 website. The game looks really good and the 2D sprites for the demons look great. Looking forward to learning more about the story. Apparently this SMT is heavier in the story department than past SMT games? I have Nocturne but haven't played it much so I don't know much about it.

It's definitely more character interaction based. Like in SMT3, you're pretty much all by your lonesome the entire game, but here you're running around with actual characters and they have Things To Say.
 

An-Det

Member
Game is close now, I'll have to pick up a 3DS XL soon to play it. Being able to save anywhere is cool, but are there multiple save slots as well or just the one?
 
Game is close now, I'll have to pick up a 3DS XL soon to play it. Being able to save anywhere is cool, but are there multiple save slots as well or just the one?

There are multiple save slots. There are reports of a bug impacting the second save slot in the Japanese version, and it's unknown if this has been corrected for the NA version. It probably hasn't, given that none of the bugs in Soul Hackers were fixed for NA audiences.

Although isn't there some save back up thing from Nintendo?
 

jello44

Chie is the worst waifu
There are multiple save slots. There are reports of a bug impacting the second save slot in the Japanese version, and it's unknown if this has been corrected for the NA version. It probably hasn't, given that none of the bugs in Soul Hackers were fixed for NA audiences.

Although isn't there some save back up thing from Nintendo?

Yeah, you can back up saves to the SD card now.
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
I'm thinking about buying 2 copies of the game. One to play it, and other to keep it sealed. I assume the price of the limited first print edition will sky-rocket later.
 
HYPE!

It seems like only yesterday when I saw the first video that came packaged with Soul Hackers in Japan. Man, I hope this week goes by fast.

As I said in some other thread, going Law for the first time (usually do Chaos first), I CAN'T WAIT!! :D :D
 

Bigdrbingo

Neo Member
GAF, I've been wondering if I should pre-order this game or not... I am a HUGE fan of P3P and Persona 4 along with Devil Survivor. These 3 games are probably in my top 10 games I've ever played. However, I don't really like other entries in the SMT universe like Strange Journey or Persona 1 and both Persona 2 games. I haven't played Nocturne, so I can't really comment on it. I'm trying to decide if I should buy it and get the limited edition with art book and soundtrack, but I obviously don't want to buy if I'm going to hate the game. My backlog is pretty large as it is, but if this appears to be on par with P3P/P4/Devil Survivor then I will definitely make room to play it. Any help?
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
GAF, I've been wondering if I should pre-order this game or not... I am a HUGE fan of P3P and Persona 4 along with Devil Survivor. These 3 games are probably in my top 10 games I've ever played. However, I don't really like other entries in the SMT universe like Strange Journey or Persona 1 and both Persona 2 games. I haven't played Nocturne, so I can't really comment on it. I'm trying to decide if I should buy it and get the limited edition with art book and soundtrack, but I obviously don't want to buy if I'm going to hate the game. My backlog is pretty large as it is, but if this appears to be on par with P3P/P4/Devil Survivor then I will definitely make room to play it. Any help?

This game really doesn't look anything like P1 or 2, and the only similarity I can see with Strange Journey from a gameplay standpoint is the first person battles.

So based on that, if you loved p3, p4 and devil survivor, I'd assume that you'll end up loving SMTIV.

Go pre-order it.
 

cluderi

Member
My first run is preordered but if that eshop offer includes retail codes I might double dip ( thanks to an ordering error I have a spare sealed USA Fire Emblem here in Aus and it'll take a week for SMT IV to arrive)

So looking forward to this game.
 
GAF, I've been wondering if I should pre-order this game or not... I am a HUGE fan of P3P and Persona 4 along with Devil Survivor. These 3 games are probably in my top 10 games I've ever played. However, I don't really like other entries in the SMT universe like Strange Journey or Persona 1 and both Persona 2 games. I haven't played Nocturne, so I can't really comment on it. I'm trying to decide if I should buy it and get the limited edition with art book and soundtrack, but I obviously don't want to buy if I'm going to hate the game. My backlog is pretty large as it is, but if this appears to be on par with P3P/P4/Devil Survivor then I will definitely make room to play it. Any help?

I say go for it. It's really awesome, and it's the perfect entry point for folks new to SMT/who've been on the fence about jumping into mainline.
 

Kenka

Member
Meanwhile in Europe...

W06_Protesters_08446.JPG
 

t26

Member
GAF, I've been wondering if I should pre-order this game or not... I am a HUGE fan of P3P and Persona 4 along with Devil Survivor. These 3 games are probably in my top 10 games I've ever played. However, I don't really like other entries in the SMT universe like Strange Journey or Persona 1 and both Persona 2 games. I haven't played Nocturne, so I can't really comment on it. I'm trying to decide if I should buy it and get the limited edition with art book and soundtrack, but I obviously don't want to buy if I'm going to hate the game. My backlog is pretty large as it is, but if this appears to be on par with P3P/P4/Devil Survivor then I will definitely make room to play it. Any help?

What don't you like about Strange Journey? This game probably has more in common with that than the other games you like.
 

Thoraxes

Member
Let's just get this out of the way: keep the SMT vs. Persona in-fighting out of here. It's fine to compare and contrast if you'd like, but the kind of fighting that usually occurs isn't going to fly.

Thank you so much for this. I hope this thread will be a great place for discussion of SMT IV.

I'm quite excited for the game in ONE WEEK! YEAAAAHHH :)
 

extralite

Member
That doesn't say anything about the difficulty.

Actually it does. You won't ever have to lose progress if you aren't already indebted.

And the rest of the game is easier than Nocturne too. And since strategy is all powerful with press turn you can retry until you beat an enemy anywhere, as often as you want, once you saved there.

Edit: I do think IV is probably a little easier than Nocturne, but I also don't think Nocturne was even remotely as difficult as some people say, outside of the
Matador
fight. Even he's not that bad if you go in prepared. After that point, if you know how to play SMT properly, you're fine.

IV is similar in that sense though a bit more forgiving for a variety of reasons.

I agree, Nocturne isn't actually that difficult. But when you die in a random fight you can lose quite a bit of progress, which isn't the case anymore in IV.

Another thing is that you can only exploit a weakness once you found it. And trying to find it can end your round prematurely and give a boss a chance to unleash there potentially disastrous attacks on you. In the end most battles boiled down to trial and error. There was a lot less error in IV for me though, also because the bosses can't punish you as hard as in Nocturne.

And Lucifer was genuinely difficult. You need a special skill to even do damage to him and you have to protect against all three kinds of status attacks, which aren't counted as weak spots anymore in IV. The last boss in SJ would have been a glorious boss in press turn, she really was more powerful than Nocturne Lucifer.
 

jackal27

Banned
Persona 4 has kinda been kicking my ass on normal. Should I play this on easy? Also, are there any cool character interaction elements in this game?
 

Aeana

Member
Actually it does. You won't ever have to lose progress if you aren't already indebted.

And the rest of the game is easier than Nocturne too. And since strategy is all powerful with press turn you can retry until you beat an enemy anywhere, as often as you want, once you saved there.
But losing progress doesn't have anything to do with difficulty, it just has to do with convenience. I don't think the amount of progress you lose when you die factors into difficulty, or it certainly doesn't for me. It's not harder if you have to redo more stuff when you die, just less convenient/more tedious. The difficulty is in the battles themselves.
 

extralite

Member
But losing progress doesn't have anything to do with difficulty, it just has to do with convenience. I don't think the amount of progress you lose when you die factors into difficulty, or it certainly doesn't for me. The difficulty is in the battles themselves.

Well, the battles themselves are easier also.

But a sequence of difficult events does raise the difficulty. Maybe a bit less in RPGs since you can repeat a strategy more easily*, but having to do a thing correctly once is easier than having to do, let's say three things correctly in succession. Screw up one of them and you have to retry all three. If every step is saved though, screw up and only repeat that particular one you failed.

I do think difficulty refers to how easily you progress in a game, what else should it refer to?

*But then there's the random element which can result in you encountering a difficult enemy on your second time on the way to the same point where you previously died, resulting in another death which would definitely haven't occurred if you had been able to continue and save.
 

zoukka

Member
But losing progress doesn't have anything to do with difficulty, it just has to do with convenience. I don't think the amount of progress you lose when you die factors into difficulty, or it certainly doesn't for me. It's not harder if you have to redo more stuff when you die, just less convenient/more tedious. The difficulty is in the battles themselves.

Depends. Do you get the exp even though you die and get sent to the nearest checkpoint? Do you lose resources for dying in battle etc.

I like JRPG's where dungeons are self contained areas where the difficulty spikes and you need to take risks. If you die, it's off to the dungeon entrance or a save point with less resources. Although I can't even remember which games do this right anymore :b
 
But losing progress doesn't have anything to do with difficulty, it just has to do with convenience. I don't think the amount of progress you lose when you die factors into difficulty, or it certainly doesn't for me. It's not harder if you have to redo more stuff when you die, just less convenient/more tedious. The difficulty is in the battles themselves.

If there's anything that Fire Emblem: Awakening taught me, it's that I get no joy out of replaying long scenarios - especially when it's content that I've already mastered. I have no issue with being able to save anywhere, any time. I understand the need to incentivise strategy and careful planning and punish players for their mistakes, but I feel there are better ways of doing that than forcing players to retread upwards of 30 minutes of gameplay. Charging players a Macca fee for dying would be better.
 

extralite

Member
You edited this in, so a separate reply:

It's not harder if you have to redo more stuff when you die, just less convenient/more tedious.
But you might never be able to beat a sequence if enough of its parts are very difficult. You might be able to defeat each step 2 times out of 3, but if there are 3 steps that's 8 times out of 27. And the numbers only grow bigger. Imagine 5 steps which you might each defeat 1 or 2 times out of 5.

That's why I can't beat the last boss in SJ. I successfully guarded every one of her attacks a few times, even defeated the first form completely a few times but then I retry and she might wipe me out in two rounds.
 

MLH

Member
I've spoiled myself by indulging in the import impressions thread, yet I'm still quite excited for this. Hopefully the European version comes quickly (I'm expecting an August release) need to know... next week... on Ninty Direct...
 
I agree, Nocturne isn't actually that difficult. But when you die in a random fight you can lose quite a bit of progress, which isn't the case anymore in IV.

See I just find loss of a big chunk of progress tedious and annoying. It doesn't really factor into difficulty for me.

Yeah, there are surprise things that could happen, but it doesn't make me any less aggravated that I'm spending time on an area I've already gotten past.
 

Watashiwa

Member
That's why I can't beat the last boss in SJ. I successfully guarded every one of her attacks a few times, even defeated the first form completely a few times but then I retry and she might wipe me out in two rounds.

Let me guess: You've never used a password demon have you? You're expected to; the game is built around the knowledge that you'll be sharing information and strategies and demons on the internet. Just pay the fee and get a demon with Jihad.
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
Got it preordered, of course. But somehow the hype for it is gone. My last bit of hype was killed by those retailer costumes, that's so wrong.
 

extralite

Member
See I just find loss of a big chunk of progress tedious and annoying. It doesn't really factor into difficulty for me.

Yeah, there are surprise things that could happen, but it doesn't make me any less aggravated that I'm spending time on an area I've already gotten past.
Okay, how about this then? Sometimes when demons want to change their skills they actually have a really good one to replace it with. Or you got a rare drop or anything else good that is luck based. In that case you would lose it for good.

Losing progress, potentially very useful one that can't easily be repeated, does factor into difficulty. You might not feel that it matters much, or might be more annoyed by the tediousness rather than the objective fact of difficulty, but it still is part of difficulty.

Let me guess: You've never used a password demon have you? You're expected to; the game is built around the knowledge that you'll be sharing information and strategies and demons on the internet. Just pay the fee and get a demon with Jihad.

Actually I used the password system for a few lower level ones early when it was introduced but not later anymore. Thanks for the hint.

Edit: But I don't think you can claim that people are expected to beat the game that way. And someone has to get the strong demon in the first place.

Edit2: I looked it up, it's a heavy physical attack right? How will that help me survive? Sure, the battle will be a bit shorter but still long enough for something lethal to strike.
 

Lissar

Reluctant Member
Got it preordered, of course. But somehow the hype for it is gone. My last bit of hype was killed by those retailer costumes, that's so wrong.

I, personally, can't wait for my Amazon box jacket.

It's so ridiculous it goes around and becomes awesome again.

I would care if the exclusive DLC was awesome stuff, but it's nothing but cosmetic upgrades. UGLY cosmetic upgrades at that.
 
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