I played persona 1 (PS1, beat it), 3 (PS2, beat the normal game + FES) and 4 (stopped halfway, still mean to beat it one day), but I never played any of the Persona 2 games. I'm finally giving Innocent Sin a go. I'll try taking screenshots and making comments, but since it's my first time a lot of it may be outright inaccurate as I genuinely don't know what the game will throw at me. Tips are welcome but no spoilers, please!



After the cool animated intro I'm treated to ??? (later, Tatsuya) trying to make his bike work and some students failing to bully him.



Lol'd at "Thuggish student" followed by "Less thuggish student", gotta love these naming conventions.



We're interrupted by Tatsuya feeling weird and principal Hanya's arrival who, despite having that face and showing up with ominous music and some incriminating monologue, is supposedly loved by everyone. I barely remember him from the first Persona but he's obviously up to no good.

In my usual RPG fashion, I decided to stroll around for a while before I go see Ms. Saeko. Everyone is super patient, which means that before I meet her I can look around the big school and get to see weird things like many students having bandages on their faces due to some disease and talks about a suspicious Joker game that makes your dreams come true. Along with all the gossip and mysterious talk regarding cursed emblems and walking statues, people also say Tatsuya is athletic, popular and generally a cool guy who also has a hot blond infatuated with him. Oh and:



The map works like this, which means I'll have to employ herculean will to stop myself from stepping on every single square (ps: I won't resist doing this).



Meaning free heals!



Hopefully the first of many. Not much, but nothing like finding money in a trash can.



I finally meet Ms. Saeko outside to talk about my future, then Lisa arrives only so we get to know that shit just got real.



Except not really. Our hostage (Kozy) seems to be having a good time and it turns out that, unknown to Eikichi, his friends just wanted to trick Tatsuya to come meet him (violating the Bro Code in the process) so he'd be convinced to join Eikichi's band (great plan&#8230.



Eikichi gets mad at Lisa and summons a Persona, prompting Tatsuya and Lisa to awaken their own.



The three pass out and meet Philemon, who came a long way appearance-wise since his awkward CG days in the PS1 version of the first game. He talks about Personas and rumors becoming reality, which ties with all the hullabaloo at the school.

Right after having this otherworldly experience, Lisa suggests they play the joker game to confirm things. This doesn't particularly strike me as a good idea but hey, why not? If you're going supernatural might as well try it all.



Everything goes to shit, no one says what they want so the Joker turns them into shadows, then he somehow knows Eikichi, Tatsuya and Lisa. A grudge no one else remembers gets him angry and violent, but right before he offs everyone he notices they don't remember jack and feels it's pointless to kill them like this. He leaves a flower and disappears.



(This always works!)

They mourn a bit because of Eikichi's friends being turned into shadows that no normal person remembers, then decide to investigate all of this. I decide to stroll around again. Kozy talks about a rumor of a ramen shop that sells weapons, which automatically makes it the best place to start. It doesn't really sell weapons (for now), but before solving that detail I go visit the other stores.



I go through the other places, including our buddy Igor's Velvet Room. He still had a budget for a bigger staff and wasn't living in elevators and cars. I also get the Satomi Tadashi song stuck in my head for the entire day.



Get your dad in our team!



I believe you.



How is babby formed?



Mr. Silverman, living the weeaboo dream. He needs to review his notions a bit though.



After a bit of investigating we learn that rumors are indeed coming true, something that is very convenient (also working as a funny jab at the fact that every single rumor and legend in RPGs turns out to be true). Making the ramen shop actually sell weapons is a piece of cake, and a local detective agency (Kuzunoha!) ends up being very useful.



The beloved sketchy principal becomes the next clue, so off I go. Everything is weird(er) at the school, and scary things supposedly happen when the clock tower starts again, and it just did. Now that the school is a proper dungeon I start walking on every single square of the map because I can't help it.



These cool guys teach me how to socialize with their demonic kind.



As promised. Thank you, caretaker!



A twist! Kozy is Eikichi's old school love.



Plus, some suggestive Tatsuya-related factoids.



After a fun time of killing and making small talk to demons (which scored me some saffron earrings and ultraviolet strings), I proceed to the principal's office and there's no Hanya to be seen. We get to meet some students that rob Eikichi's non-cursed emblems. He then gets exasperated and displays some xenophobia and low-key racism. In the end it's all good because he makes a new nickname for Lisa and gets his revenge for being called Undie Boss every five seconds.



Right after that we meet Maya and Yukino, both Persona users. They work at a magazine called Coolest and were at the school to make a spread about the weird stuff. I remember Yukino from Persona 1 and she was boss. Even if I didn't, she makes sure to give me a quick rundown.



Fuck yes. They join my party and I get more (wo)manpower and more little heads on the right of the screen.



Maya feels like we met before, but ends up blaming it on Tatsuya being too handsome.



This curious reaction happens when she hears about the serial arson case. Bracing myself for these future reveals!



Lol.

It is known that the school's emblem is also featured on the clocks in the classrooms, so the plan becomes breaking all of them to see what happens since we didn't manage to find the principal. I go back to demon hunting/socializing, but I take some time after being faced with my inability to deal with any sort of demon that include gloomy + foolish in their personality (thanks for the tips above, Vamphuntr!). I'll finish breaking all clocks later.

Click to expand...

A room in Nocturne at the very beginning references this.

The fiery alleys of Antlia’s lower levels are home to some equally hot-blooded demons. At least it provides some relief from the constantly-blowing snow.



Every so often, I run into a pack of Oni who grunt something about “Morax” and ruling the world, then charge at me like they really want me dead--as opposed to most other demons, who seem to only kinda sorta want me dead. I’m not bothered... Oni may be buff (do demons have personal trainers?) but, like a lot of people, they don’t seem to enjoy being electrocuted.



But interestingly enough, it seems that not everything down here wants to kill me. I stumble across a Sandman who, instead of immediately flinging lightning at me like his cousins, actually asks me for a favor! I guess the little guy loaned his spare bag to someone and doesn't have the guts to ask for it back. Because I'm such a nice guy, I help him out... once I know what's in it for me, of course.



Enough of all this friendliness and camaraderie crap; I've almost forgotten I'm actually down here for a reason. I make my way through lots of doorways that like to seal themselves off behind me, fending off wave after wave of demons, when suddenly I find what I’ve been looking for... the energy source at the center of this place.



I move through one last doorway, and...



Ohhh, so you’re Morax! Geeze, you’re kinda enormous. No wonder those demons are at your beck and call... is, uh, is that a belt buckle over your abs? It is? OK. Just, uh, just checking.



Well, uh, gee. I never really thought about it like that. Maybe my worldview really is all--



Pfft, fuck that. I guess I’d better get on with this killing you expect me to do!



It turns out our buddy Morax is weak to ice, and I’m packing a frost mage and a clip of bullets I was keeping in the freezer for just such an occasion! Demon Co-Op, go! Oh, but Morax counters with some potent physical attacks and an annoying group fear skill that sends my now-toothless Oni running. No matter, I keep on him with my Frozen Shooter generic icy armament, and he eventually dissolves in a fit of angry shaking.



Beckoned you? Let's not go down to crazytown, mysterious voice.



Once the air stops speaking to me, I find a couple odd-looking items on the ground and take them back to the ship. Arthur, our AI in command (who I totally trust) now that Commander Gore’s out of the picture, says the energy source is the key to traveling to the next space-time layer--the next sector! Cool! But what about this brass horn? I guess I’ll just hang onto it for now...



Wow, thanks, Debbie Downer! "Maybe we're really just screwing ourselves over EVEN MORE!" As if the crew doesn't have enough crap to deal with.



Whatever. Let’s plane shifting!



Next time, I set foot in the mysterious sector B, and my journey gets ever stranger...

Up to the second mall in SMT1. My team's already auto'ing most mobs.

And Andras loves my posse.

Missed the timeframe when Raidou 2 was released and now it's like 120$ >. They released Raidou 1 here in Europe but not Raidou 2. Would so love to play it, I kinda liked 1, especially the cat and the setting.

I'm so glad this thread is here!

I just started SMT: Devil Survivor II for the DS and quickly started wonderIng what the history of this series is....so thanks for the primer OP.

So far I'm right at the beggining, I've got one demon for each of my three party members though I suppose I didn't really get to pick which demon would accompany each character because even though I had the girl kill the little red guy (obaryon or something similar) that demon still ended up as my main guy's demon.

Speaking of which, I chose female at the beggining when it asks you but my main is still the guy I started with, I'm guessing I should just keep playing

The next tutorial battle I died on by some random pixie killing (Daiachi?) and when I restarted from my last save I picked one different answer than I had before I died and when I got back to the battle I had perished at previously I had three choices of places to go where before I only had the battle to choose from.

I'm still very green to this series. I played through a good deal of Persona 4 on ps2 years back but never had a chance to complete it. I still wonder who the killer was

This thread... damnit... Nocturne is calling me... can't... throw... life away...

I just noticed that you can now preorder the Persona 3 Official Design Works at Amazon UK. Has this been released in the US and if so, is it worth it?



Edit: sorry if this is the wrong thread for this kind of questions.

foobarry81 said:

I just noticed that you can now preorder the Persona 3 Official Design Works at Amazon UK. Has this been released in the US and if so, is it worth it?

Click to expand...

Well, you can preorder it on Amazon.com, too. So it's not yet released in the US.

foobarry81 said:

Edit: sorry if this is the wrong thread for this kind of questions.

Click to expand...

Technically there's an SMT Community thread (link in the OP *hint*), but here's fine, too. A lot of SMT fans here, so they will probably be interested (I preordered it ).

ok, going to start Nocturne now.

my body is ready.

I'm at the last month of P3P and I'm currently debating whether or not I should . I'm not going to hit max SLinks, so that means no super duper Persona for me. I went through Monad and my MC is Lv99 with the Messiah heart items, but I'm not sure if I want to just finish the game (this the first time I've played P3P, I beat FES a few times) and start on Strange Journey or something.

foobarry81 said:

I just noticed that you can now preorder the Persona 3 Official Design Works at Amazon UK. Has this been released in the US and if so, is it worth it?

Edit: sorry if this is the wrong thread for this kind of questions.

Click to expand...

It keeps getting pushed back. It was supposed to come out in March. :/

When we last left off, all hell was breaking loose as demons invaded the land. Let's go back to Madam's and give her the bad news.




As Alfred welcomes us back, Cerberus ditches us and runs off.




Madam is not at all pleased that we weren't able to retrieve Hanada alive, but there's little time for that now, because we have a visitor from the Center.




Try to remember! Your true name!




Flashback! Liquid drains before us, I guess we're in a tank. A man greets us and says that whether we choose to serve god or the demons, humanity is putting its hopes in us. Then we actually give Hawk a name, which is Aleph.




Do you remember? Aleph! I'm Zain, and I've been looking for you.




It turns out that our hero has been a resident of the Center all along! How about that?
Madam aka Captain Obvious remarks that the whole business with the colosseum would have been unnecessary had we known that.




We then return to the Center, and some dude is all up in our grill right away. He welcomes us home and gives us our citizen ID card, and Hiroko is escorted out of the room for reprimanding or something.




Turns out Mekata erased our memories before we were kidnapped and taken from the Center, which, I think you'll agree, isn't a particularly nice thing for someone to do.




Then there's a sudden shift in tone and he's all "ok now you are to become our messiah."




He then brings our our partner, Beth, who I think is a little bit on the clingy side. "I'll never leave your side, EVER," she says.




Now let's get down to brass tacks. Holytown is in danger. King Frost has turned the whole place to ice, and a basilisk is running around spraying poisonous gas at everything, so get out there and take care of it, soldier.




Right outside the door is a virtual battler. I could use some train--what is he doing here
Hey, a demon analyze program neat. Thanks, dad.




There's not much to do in the Center right now, so let's head to the map and go to Holytown.




Along the way, I hit up a CB (codebreaker) parlor. The objective of the game is simply to try to guess the number the guy has in mind, and you get a prize for doing it. I won a neato new weapon for Aleph! It hits 1-3 times and can cause panic, and it's quite a boost in attack power and accuracy as well.




As we emerge from the other end, we can indeed confirm that, yup, this place best be frozen.




Along the way, I of course ran into the basilisk and it poisoned my party and ran away like the chickensnake it is. Jerk.




I eventually come across this place, and inside, it's certainly chilly. On the PSX version, the framerate here is atrocious, but fortunately, it won't be like this for long.




I find King Frost. He doesn't seem to have any real motivation for freezing everything, except 'cause it's fun. Other things that are fun: beating King Frost.

Now that he's gone, the place begins to defrost, so let's make our way back to the Center. Well, after we take care of one piece of unfinished business.




SUCK IT BASILISK

Back to the Center with us.




The bishop congratulates us on our successful mission, and says that he learned what happened with Hanada from Hiroko, saying that Mekata is the only threat left. Just then, a dude busts in with some news.




Turns out that Betelgeuse has shown up at the factory area and is threatening the whole site. Also, the demi-Nandis that they breed for food are going nuts. I guess we have to take care of that, too, since the temple knights don't do anything but stand around.




South of the Center, we go through a tunnel and emerge at the factory. Here, my favorite music in the game plays. 2D: Siren. Gives me goosebumps every time!




The general theme of this place is that the workers LOOOOVE working and they live for it. It's kind of creepy/weird.

There are a couple of buildings around, and some shops, but not a whole lot.




I was reminded that I forgot to show the PSX version's shop interface, so here it is. It's even better than the GBA one, because it shows all of the information on the screen at once. Here, I am buying RANDY SHOT bullets, which charm. Charm isn't quite as overpowered as it was in SMT1, but it's still great.




This is our destination. The entrance to the excavation sites.




Inside is a fairly linear set of dungeons with brief overworld interludes, and our first dark zones. They're darker than they are on GBA, but not as bad as they were in the original version.




At the very bottom, we meet and defeat Betelgeuse. Sadly, he poses absolutely no challenge and the fight is over in one round.




Afterward, a guy shows up and thanks us for getting rid of Betelgeuse. Working is his life, and now he can work at full strength. He also mentions having recently dug up something called the Jupiter Pillar, which is good to know, but not useful information at the moment.

Back to the Center with us!

I wish I had time to play these.

Aeana said:

At the very bottom, we meet and defeat Betelgeuse. Sadly, he poses absolutely no challenge and the fight is over in one round.

Click to expand...

"We've come for your daughter, Chuck."

Betelgeuse looks FAR more terrifying in the SFC version, since he comes out of pure blackness.

I just wanna say I really enjoy reading other peoples playthroughs, especially the Japanese Megaten games that didn't got a western release. I didn't think I would enjoy it that much that I am like "forget playing these games, I enjoy reading about other people playing them just as much" haha! Keep it up please

Back at the Center once again.




Zain thanks us for our efforts, and then says he wants to show us something in Arcadia.




Apparently, Arcadia is an experimental area where they are preparing for the Thousand Year Kingdom (sounds familiar from SMT1!). Also, Gimel is there. You know, that dude we named early in the game and totally forgot about.




Arcadia is an interest-looking place. Very peaceful, lots of Roman style architecture, and...




King Muscle?! That was one of the previous champions, right? He says it's natural for him to be chosen to live here in Arcadia. Just look at his body. LOOK AT HIS MUSCLES.




One of the residents mentions that although the people can live in Arcadia without fear of tragedies or disasters, death is inevitable. So the next step is to find the secret of immortality! Indeed, humans are never happy with what they have.




Finally, we meet up with Gimel. He explains that Arcadia is a test-case for the type of utopia that Tokyo Millennium could build once the Thousand Year Kingdom is a reality. Everyone lives in peace, and there is no conflict. It's truly perfect, and he is looking forward to the day when the entire world is like this. He then asks us to return to Zain and report that Arcadia has been more successful than expected.




Gimel might want to hold that thought. When we return to the Center, something is very wrong. Demons are suddenly attacking.




Captain Obvious MkII confirms that, yes, indeed, demons are attacking, and says that a false Messiah has appeared, as well. They aren't sure where he is, but they've heard reports from both Holytown and Valhalla. Let's go to Holytown first.




It seems that people have moved back into Holytown now that the ice has thawed. A woman helpfully informs us that Daleth is the true Messiah, and he's totally in Valhalla.




In the bar, we run into... Louis Cyphre. That's unexpected. He's heard a lot about us, apparently. He's come here to see what kind of city the Mesians have managed to build, but alas, he has been unable to gain access to the Center.




In the junk shop, we're unexpectedly handed the Mercury pillar out of nowhere, which is quite a surprise and will save us some time later!




DANCE BREAK
The disco in Holytown has a rave party on full moons!




Back in Valhalla, we stop by to see Okamoto. Apparently, we're scheduled to enter the colosseum again. Really? Nobody told us that. Let's go see what that's all about.




You're going to fight Daleth in the arena. You know all about that, right?

NO




Apparently Daleth is the Messiah that the Millennium folks have been talking about for ages. Since Aleph is also supposed to be Messiah, clearly they have to box. That's the only way to solve it! Fine, then, let's do this.




Apparently he didn't think we'd come. If that's the case, why did he stand around in the center of the arena waiting for us? Villains, man. EN GARDE, ANTI-MESSIAH.




He goes down in one hit! Some Messiah!




He asserts once again that he is the real Messiah, and engages us again.




And I beat his face in once again.




Witness the power of the TRUE MESSIAH! CRITICAL STRIKE




Noo, look out Aleph!
Suddenly, Beth is gone.




One more fight, and one more victory for us.




Daleth doesn't understand how he lost if he's the Messiah. Here we have the option of finishing him off or not. We choose yes, but Beth pleads with us to let him live, so he lives.




It's too late for Beth, but she wants us to let Daleth live. Before she draws her final breath, she says that being with us made her happy. Aw.




The anti-Messiah has been defeated! Let's dancin'!




As we exit the arena, a little boy comes us to us with a letter. "You need to know the truth. MEET ME SOMEWHERE --Mekata"

Well dang, let's go do that.

Out of all the PS2 SMT titles I haven't played the Devil Summoner games yet. The least I could do in the 25th anniversary of my favourite JRPG franchise is to remedy that.

So I just started up DS2: Raidou vs King Abaddon (I heard it's best to skip Raidou and The Soulless Army and jump right into this one). Enjoying the battle system so far, which felt kind of weird at first since every SMT game I played thus far had the Press-Turn one.

Anyways, love the work you guys are putting into this thread. Keep it up

Ooh, have fun Despera. The action combat is a little weird at first, but that game does a lot of great SMTish stuff. The fusion is great, the negotiation is great too, and the alignment being such a big factor is uncommon for a spinoff game. I really love that game.

Finished Digital Devil Saga 2. In all I really liked the series, but would like to know some more of the backstory as well. That said, I came across a listing for this:

Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner: A's TEST Server Complete Edition.

With the chances of this ever getting released out of Japan being slim to none, can anyone summarize the plot of this game? Probably a longshot considering the platform, but can't hurt to ask.

Love how high-res SMT2's backgrounds look on the rerelease, I only ever played the SFC version.

I'm still at the resistance/mall in SMT1, but loving it. You'll be mine, Jack Frost!

In other news, I'm preparing to go after the next uber boss, and this one is more important to me than Satan.

I'm doing this using P3 Vanilla, the true demon's road.



It's time to die.


I understand she's second only to Hitoshura. I can't wait.

Also, I love vanilla's second OP, the montage one.

Would anyone mind if use some of the screenshots posted here for the OP (credited, of course)? I think that would be more fitting for this thread than using images from an external site.
Does anyone even look at the OP (and the summary below) anymore?

@cj_iwakura: Some of your images are gone because your Photobucket account exceeded its bandwidth.

Jucksalbe said:

Would anyone mind if use some of the screenshots posted here for the OP (credited, of course)? I think that would be more fitting for this thread than using images from an external site.

Click to expand...

Sure, you can use any of my SJ shots if you want.

Last time, we got notice from Mekata to meet him in the slums.



LONG TIME NO SEE, ALEPH. You don't remember me, huh? So you haven't regained your memories.

He wants to explain everything, about who we are and why we lost our memories, but first... he wants us to find Hiroko. She's been imprisoned for her exploits, and he wants her to be here when he delivers the truth. Sounds good. The catch is that since security is so tight, we're gonna have to take the long way through... the underworld? What? Well... sure, okay.




Down in the passageway to the Center, there was a door that was blocked by this guy. He lets us pass now, and gives us some key codes.




In the next area... it's this guy again. Lordy lord, I already beat you like 5 times.




6. But this time, he leaves us the Mars pillar when he runs away like the sissy girl. That's pretty nice of him.




Welcome to the underworld! It has neat cloudy things, or maybe it's gas or something, I dunno.




Along the way, we encounter a shrine kind of chillin' all by itself.




Inside is a statue of the kunitsukami Kotoshironushi. Wait, that's not a statue. let's use a dis-stone on him! He thanks us, and we go on our way.




In the next area are several doors with security doors, this must be where we use the codes given to us by that guy earlier.


This place is a little bit special. It has an unusual branching path. There are two ways to get to our next destination, but one is much better than the other. We could simply rush through the last security door and beat the boss, but... let's do something different.




Deep into this floor is this little girl. She has a thing for our hero, and pretty much demands that we let her join our group, so I'm not about to refuse. After joining, she wants to help us get into the labor camp, so she teleports us to somewhere we couldn't get into before.




And she opens the gates for us. Nice girl.




A little ways into the jail, we run into Zain. He says that he can't let us free Hiroko, because she broke the laws, and laws are there for a reason. Those who break them must be punished. Gee, I wonder what his alignment is? Clearly, that's not gonna work out, so...




Kerslam.




Afterward, he realizes that it probably wasn't such a good idea challenging the champion of Valhalla. After our battle, he's had a bit of a change of heart. He still thinks that laws should be followed, but that maybe there is such a thing as bad laws, and those should be changed, and that maybe the Center isn't going about reaching their goal the right way after all! Derp. He steps aside, but warns us that Hiroko is not herself right now.




Inside is Hiroko, but she immediately tells us to go away. She doesn't want to see us.




We can force our way in, or leave. I'm not leaving-
Opening the cell makes her angry, though, because gosh darn it, she's happy where she is.




Just then, Naja appears and asks us if this girl is our girlfriend. "No"




But you really like her, right? I can tell. Well then, I'll give Hiroko my power. If I do that, then I'll be part of her, and you'll love me too.




Naja fused herself with Hiroko! And Hiroko's stats all go up by one point each.
Or so it says. Actually, in the PSX version, it all works as it should, but in the SFC version, you wouldn't actually get a stat boost like you're supposed to. I don't know if this was fixed in the fan translation or not, though.

If you muscled your way in without meeting Naja, then you'd just take Hiroko with you by force, which just seems odd.




Huh? Where am I?

Hiroko doesn't remember anything, and says she felt like she was being controlled. She asks how we found her, and once she hears Mekata's name, she's totally gung ho and joins the group. Time to get out of here.




We exit through the other way that we would have taken had we not found Naja. It leads through a part of the Factory we couldn't get to earlier. Then we go through the area with the security doors and back into the path from Valhalla.

Along the path, we run into...




Zain. And he is most certainly not bearing good news. "Valhalla has been swallowed by Abaddon!" What. Apparently, the Center had him do it. They are accelerating their plans to bring forth the Thousand Year Kingdom by any means necessary.




Well, uh... okay, let's see...




Hot damn. He was right. Where Valhalla once stood, there is... nothing.
Well now what are we supposed to do?




As we turn around, we hear a voice. It's Cerberus. He's really depressed because he wasn't able to save Madam, but we've become much stronger than we were before, so he happily joins our group.

After breaking all classroom clocks I proceed to the teacher's lounge where there are a few more. The two dudes who wouldn't let me in before are gone.



I am now sanctioned to break all the clocks, even though there aren't that many left. Now that I have Yukino in my team I realize there are a bunch of characters from P1 that I don't remember like Saeko, Tamaki and Tadashi (I played it a million years ago). After getting the property damage done with, nothing happens. It dawns on us there's still one clock left… the one on the tower. Place is locked though.



Hanya works his magic through the speakers and now no one is willing to help us get the key, even Saeko. We manage to discover the janitor has a copy by talking to the enthusiastic Mr. Aishi.



The language proficient and caucasian Lisa is bad at English. Is such a thing even possible? Yes it is. Not that surprising considering she grew up in Sumaru (and her father's Japanophile ways).



The janitor's memory isn't in top shape so we start looking around the room. I don't find the key, but I get to know the old guy used to enjoy kissing a poster and keeps a box with candles and ropes (something that Eikichi can't stop wondering about). Eikichi himself finds the key, it was in a necklace around the Janitor's neck. To the clock tower.



Not a good thing. The music also gets layered by ghastly voices, which is very creepy.



ohshit.



Our enemies appear. Principal Hanya uses this opportunity to explain how people like him and where his L'oréal hair came from. Joker is cryptic again, this time with added tears to his dramatics.



Joker disappears once more, not before leaving another flower behind. The boys get excited and jump on the huge cogs. Hanya does the same and they spin for a bit. The girls don't' see any other option but to follow and the first boss battle ensues.



He's seriously using a huge wrench as a weapon. Hanya has a lot of HP but he's a pushover. I love how he made sure to name his drill-headed persona attacks but apparently ran out of names by the time he got to "Whatever Drill". Everything starts shaking after the battle and the tower looks like it's about to collapse.



bailout.gif



Maya goes all philosophical on a quick analysis of the Joker, reciting a poem about a doppelgängers and suggesting he's similar to Tatsuya in a way.



We still don't know much, so the next course of action becomes using more rumors in our favor and meeting Kozy at Peace Dinner to see what she can tell us. Thinking positive, I head out to see how's the school after the curse was broken.



I finally get why she calls Tatsuya chinyan all the time.



While gathering rumors I hear that Hanya bailed out through the park. Where he went is still a mystery.



This is actually a reasonable idea, except for the fact he would kill all of us at our current level. Lisa suggests we make some rumors to make him weaker/disappear, but Maya explains it wouldn't work because everyone thinks the Joker is awesome and wants to meet him, and the rumors need to have some weight to them. If people don't really want a rumor to be true, chances are it won't be.



Damn! After that first freebie spreading rumors got more expensive than I expected, but I don't have much of a choice.



She never sounds convincing when she says this. I wonder what's up. Her two friends from school are still MIA so no luck with that for now.



Crisis averted.



Eikichi was fat. Looks like this will influence how he reacts to Kozy being Hanakouji.



Healing by tanning is a bit too revolutionary for me.



It would be cool if in Persona 5 Igor would go back to being more of a put-on-a-show kind of guy.

I can't make a lot of personas yet so I just summon a cheap Poltergeist and get on my way. After that I visit the armor shops and go nearly broke by acquiring the latest armor so the team can keep surviving. That leaves me with little money, but thankfully Time Castle now has some mid-tier weapons available that are more in line with what I have to spend at the moment, and aren't as bad as the lower priced ones from Shiraishi. Even though I end up with only 450 yen in my pocket, I feel ready for anything. Next stop, Peace Dinner.

Jucksalbe said:

Would anyone mind if use some of the screenshots posted here for the OP (credited, of course)? I think that would be more fitting for this thread than using images from an external site.
Does anyone even look at the OP (and the summary below) anymore?

@cj_iwakura: Some of your images are gone because your Photobucket account exceeded its bandwidth.

Click to expand...

Feel free to use any of mine if you want. I personally think the summary is a great idea for a thread like this (as long as it's not too much work for you).

game over against Matador. =( I almost killed him but the thing is if he uses Focus + Taunt + that random physical skill you're dead, like DEAD.
then well, I also had a demon weak to his element (this 'cause this demon has anti-force, too bad that in this game it doesn't work as void-element X, so useless skill and still weak to force)
also I should be level 18 but I'm 16, griding in this game seems so slow, and you need the fucking money that enemies drop but they are so greedy. like "yeah gimme 250 macca" "ok" "cool thanks, here 260 macca". WOOOO

btw, questions:
the first Pixie is now High Pixie, can she still become that imba Pixie at the end of the game?
is there a good walkthrough, 'cause the ones on gamefaqs are not that good as usual.
hama skills = fatal skills? The hell. guess now I'm too used to DDS.

Fuu said:

Click to expand...

This is perfect. XD I love how the majority of the party is just standing there going "k bye."

Picked up Nocturne due to this thread and the SMT4 announcement. Loved Persona 3 and 4 and while this game is really good it's not quite as good for me. I do like the press-turn system more than the one more system. I'm about 30 hours in.

Also thinking about doing another Persona 3 playthrough...has anyone ever played it with only the MC?

Got a little carried away and forgot to do an update. I hope it all fits in here.

When we last left off, Valhalla got EATEN by Abaddon. So we're on our way to the Center to set things right.

Sadly, the Center is closed [not pictured], so we head to Holytown.




In the bar, we get a couple of tips. Apparently, the guys blocking the pathway to the underworld in the grand church have packed up and left. Louis Cyphre also lets us know that if we're looking for Abaddon, the underworld might be a good place to start.




Outside, we find Zain rallying the people. He tells them that the Center is responsible for Valhalla's fate, and that Holytown could be next. That the people of the outer cities were never going to be allowed to be a part of the Thousand Year Kingdom. It seems that Zain's attitude has changed dramatically after the tragedy. Good for him.




Back to the grand church. It's certainly been a while.




Inside, we run into this clown again. He falls quickly once again, and flees. What a doof.




We can finally reach this elevator now that nobody is blocking it. Time to go 60 floors down...




And we're back in the underworld.




It seems that this is where all of the people (and demons - particularly the fairies and spirits) escaping persecution on the surface have come to live.




Checking the wall, we find that we've wandered into the kingdom of Oberon, king of the fairies. Interesting.




Then we run into Daleth once again. He's really getting on my nerves. He claims he's going to stop us for good this time. Psh, yeah right. How are you going to do that?




"Puck, do it!" what, do what? Who's Puck?!




All right! This'll make you feel great.
> Puck tossed the 浮気草の露 on Aleph!
(I really can't think of a good way to translate 浮気草の露. Literally it's "unfaithful grass dew." I looked up what it is in the fan translation, and it's "Infidelilly Sap" which... I guess is okay.)




Hiroko: Look out!

Good lord, not again.




Yeah, the sap hit her instead.




Crap, I missed!
> Puck flees.




Stupid Puck! He ruined everything!




Hiroko: Ahh... Daleth. Where have you been all my life?!




Ack! Get away from me!
> Daleth runs away.




Hiroko: Where are you going, my love?! Daleth, please wait for me!




Just then, a girl named Anoon shows up and explains that the stuff Puck used will make the recipient instantly fall in love with the first person they see. Great...




Oberon has heard all about it. He tried to catch Puck, but he slipped out. We must go catch him and get the sap back.




A little side trip first. On the next level, there's this weirdo crater.




Apparently, it's some sort of magical crater with an endless supply of weapons that we can sell for lots of money. Sounds awesome, let's dig.




This process takes at least two minutes. Seems like an eternity.




Saturn pillar! Wait, that's not a weapon. I want weapons!
Oh well, let's get that rotten Puck guy.




Here's holed up in here.




Only a couple of steps in, we run into him.
He doesn't seem happy to see us.




I'm sorry I threw that stuff on your friend, but Daleth made me do it! Let me go!
> Will you let Puck off the hook?
NO




He then uses sleep gas on us, and runs away. This is silly, because even if you're asleep, you can still move, and there are no fights in this area, so big deal.

From here, we run into him every couple of steps, and we get the same conversation with a random chance of a different result. He can do a lot of damage to everyone, use poison, sleep, or mute. It can suck.




At the end, we finally corner him, and he tries to bribe us with 10,000 macca. I ain't taking no deal, kid.




Sorry, kidding, kidding. Take the sap!
> Puck holds out the infidelilly sap.
> Take it?

NO, I'm not that stupid.




Ahh.. you're mad, huh? Here, how about I give you the 10,000 macca and you let me off the hook?

I agree, and he gives me the sap and 10,000 macca. Sucker.




Back at Oberon's pad, we bring the sap and he tells us to go find Hiroko.




Downstairs, we run into Anoon. Hiroko and Daleth are inside, and for some reason, Oberon told her to come too.




Hiroko: What the hell are you doing? Why did you bring me to a secluded place like this?! PERVERT




Daleth: What?? You followed me here! Damn it, I didn't do anything!




Hiroko: Ah! Aleph! You've come to save me!

Just then...





Anoon throws the sap on Daleth, and he becomes entranced by her beauty. Cool. Now maybe he'll leave us alone!




Before we head out, we stumble upon Daleth and Anoon's love nest. He lets us know that the Mars pillar of us that we picked up is one of the artifacts that let one travel to the demon world. Whoop.




Next we head here, and...




Hey, there's a virtual battler. In the underworld. I bet I know what that means...




Yes! Steven raises our demon stock to 9 from 6, finally.




Apparently, this is a mutant community.




It's even got a mutant elder. He says that this is the underworld, but it actually used to be Tokyo, but it was ravaged by missiles, a flood, earthquakes, and other disasters. Now, Tokyo Millennium has been built on top of it and this Tokyo has been completely sealed off.

It turns out that this mutant community is actually built within the ruins of Roppongi, and Oberon's made his kingdom in Shinjuku.




Further in, we run into this guy. He's cowering in fear, and tells us to please leave him alone.




His name is Hiruko, and once he realizes we're not the ones sent to kill him, he asks us to listen to a request. He wants us to revive Masakado. He goes over the legend of how Masakado's body was torn into six pieces when he got between a dispute between the Amatsukami and Kunitsukami, ancient gods of Japan. Long story short, Masakado's parts are sealed with the Kunitsukami in shrines in the underworld, so we have to go free them.

vicissitudes said:

Picked up Nocturne due to this thread and the SMT4 announcement. Loved Persona 3 and 4 and while this game is really good it's not quite as good for me. I do like the press-turn system more than the one more system. I'm about 30 hours in.

Also thinking about doing another Persona 3 playthrough...has anyone ever played it with only the MC?

Click to expand...

What don't you like about it compared to Persona 3?
It's certainly a very, very different game from the Persona series. SMT4 will be, too.

Just because of this thread I started a new playthrough of Nocturne. Right now, I'm preparing to fight matador. I ingested Hifumi of course, but I have no demon with fog breath. Gonna try anyway. Got beat up one time already... This game really teaches you that no matter how many times you play it, you cannot break it... at least, that is what I find out every time I play this game.

The hijinks with Anoon was possibly my favorite part of SMT2.

Either that or,


Epic stuff for an SFC game.

Out of curiosity, how are you guys taking screenshots of PSP games? Dev unit?

Chacranajxy said:

Out of curiosity, how are you guys taking screenshots of PSP games? Dev unit?

Click to expand...

It's in the OP.

Jucksalbe said:

It's in the OP.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a pretty thorough OP I guess, lol.

Aeana said:

What don't you like about it compared to Persona 3?
It's certainly a very, very different game from the Persona series. SMT4 will be, too.

Click to expand...

Some of it has to do with the age of the game.

- No social links to add some variety into the gameplay
- Story is more barebones
- No card shuffle to get more exp/money
- No weapon system
- Sometimes finding healing / saving spots is a pain, no "return to home" item
- I like the Persona system better because as the MC you can play any role by switching personas. In Nocturne if I decide to make my MC a physical then it's hard for me to switch that role halfway through the game because all my points are in physical and my skills are all physical. Also the skills I learn are pretty random. None of my magatamas seem to teach basic stuff like Agi or Zio.
- Minor annoyance but I hate the skills that hit random enemies.

Reviving: this is a big one. In Persona 3/4 if I have two characters on my team and one dies, I can use revival bead / recarm and then attack with my second character on that turn. In Nocture, on turn 1 I have to use revival bead to revive. On turn 2 I have to then summon it to the field, but character 2 loses its turn. On turn 3 I have to first heal character 2 because revival bead / recarm only heals about 3HP and not half!! Basically what this means is if any of my demons die in a battle I am screwed. If it's a boss battle that's basically a reset.

Anyway, there are some things I like about Nocturne and it's a breath of fresh air. But there are a lot of game aspects I miss from the Persona series.

Jucksalbe said:

It's in the OP.

Click to expand...

I hadn't turned my PSP on since KH:BbS and back then I was using an old version of a plugin called screenshotbmp. It pauses the game for various seconds while it takes the screenshot and it's kind of a pain (sometimes crashing the game too, which is pretty critical). Thanks for linking Stump's post in the op, I upgraded to prxshot after reading it and it's so much better.

perfect free said:

This is perfect. XD I love how the majority of the party is just standing there going "k bye."

Click to expand...

Haha yeah. As soon as the glass started to fall I thought "ok lol, he's gonna jump", then I prepared myself for the shot. Didn't expect it to be so hilarious!

The Shin Megami Tensei version Aena is playing on the GBA really looks stunning... seriously, it looks so great! It's a crime it didn't got a western release.

7threst said:

The Shin Megami Tensei version Aena is playing on the GBA really looks stunning... seriously, it looks so great! It's a crime it didn't got a western release.

Click to expand...

Would've been a ton of work with minimal profit.

Now, a 3DS anniversary edition containing I, II, and If...

vicissitudes said:

Some of it has to do with the age of the game.

- No social links to add some variety into the gameplay
- Story is more barebones
- No card shuffle to get more exp/money
- No weapon system
- Sometimes finding healing / saving spots is a pain, no "return to home" item
- I like the Persona system better because as the MC you can play any role by switching personas. In Nocturne if I decide to make my MC a physical then it's hard for me to switch that role halfway through the game because all my points are in physical and my skills are all physical. Also the skills I learn are pretty random. None of my magatamas seem to teach basic stuff like Agi or Zio.
- Minor annoyance but I hate the skills that hit random enemies.

Reviving: this is a big one. In Persona 3/4 if I have two characters on my team and one dies, I can use revival bead / recarm and then attack with my second character on that turn. In Nocture, on turn 1 I have to use revival bead to revive. On turn 2 I have to then summon it to the field, but character 2 loses its turn. On turn 3 I have to first heal character 2 because revival bead / recarm only heals about 3HP and not half!! Basically what this means is if any of my demons die in a battle I am screwed. If it's a boss battle that's basically a reset.

Anyway, there are some things I like about Nocturne and it's a breath of fresh air. But there are a lot of game aspects I miss from the Persona series.

Click to expand...

Most of your gripes actually have to do with the fact that it's a core SMT game, not its age. Like the social links thing - that's (now) a Persona thing, and not something that really belongs in SMT. All of your interactions with other people are calculated and affect your alignment, which affects the course of the game.

Lack of weapons is actually something I didn't like about SMT3 back when I first played it, too, though, but that's because in SMT1 and 2, you can use swords and guns and I really missed that.

As for switching roles on your main character, well, the difference here is obviously that you have a party full of demons to fill in your weaknesses. Treat them like your armor and you'll see that you actually have tons more flexibility than you do in the Persona games. Especially once you factor in the magatama, which actually let you change your weaknesses and resistances without restricting your ability set. I can understand your gripes with the permanence, though. As far as learning agi or zio goes, you won't learn them. Instead, you'll learn elemental breath spells and things like that.

7threst said:

The Shin Megami Tensei version Aena is playing on the GBA really looks stunning... seriously, it looks so great! It's a crime it didn't got a western release.

Click to expand...

What I'm playing right now is actually the PSX version of SMT2. I played the GBA version of SMT1 earlier in the thread, but didn't keep up with the updates like I should have.

cj_iwakura said:

Would've been a ton of work with minimal profit.

Now, a 3DS anniversary edition containing I, II, and If...

Click to expand...

Yeah, very true! But as a fan of the series it's kinda frustrating to see all these awesome games I never get to play, also because my Japanese skills are non-existant hehe
But yeah, an anniversary reissue of some Shin Megmami Tensei games would be more than welcome. Did Atlus announce anything about doing something for the anniversary yet?

Aeana said:

What I'm playing right now is actually the PSX version of SMT2. I played the GBA version of SMT1 earlier in the thread, but didn't keep up with the updates like I should have.

Click to expand...

Oh ok, that explains a bit maybe haha! Still looks really great!

7threst said:

Yeah, very true! But as a fan of the series it's kinda frustrating to see all these awesome games I never get to play, also because my Japanese skills are non-existant hehe
But yeah, an anniversary reissue of some Shin Megmami Tensei games would be more than welcome. Did Atlus announce anything about doing something for the anniversary yet?

Click to expand...

I wish, but Soul Hackers and SMTIV is already one hell of a celebration.

Aeana said:

Most of your gripes actually have to do with the fact that it's a core SMT game, not its age. Like the social links thing - that's (now) a Persona thing, and not something that really belongs in SMT. All of your interactions with other people are calculated and affect your alignment, which affects the course of the game.

Lack of weapons is actually something I didn't like about SMT3 back when I first played it, too, though, but that's because in SMT1 and 2, you can use swords and guns and I really missed that.

As for switching roles on your main character, well, the difference here is obviously that you have a party full of demons to fill in your weaknesses. Treat them like your armor and you'll see that you actually have tons more flexibility than you do in the Persona games. Especially once you factor in the magatama, which actually let you change your weaknesses and resistances without restricting your ability set. I can understand your gripes with the permanence, though. As far as learning agi or zio goes, you won't learn them. Instead, you'll learn elemental breath spells and things like that.

Click to expand...

I'm not saying I want S.Links in Nocturne, I'm saying give me something else besides dungeon crawling. When I compare SMT3 to Persona I feel like Persona has more gameplay elements across the board, and it seems like that's more because SMT3 was the first SMT game on the PS2 and later they added more stuff, rather than "SMT inherently means less features." For example, in SMT3 there's no triple-fusion. There's no reason to leave something like that out simply because it's an SMT game.

I suppose the different in terms of party is that in SMT3 your main remains somewhat static while other members changes wildly and it's reversed in Persona. However usually when I get some good demons after a fusion session I'll stick with that party for a while. I miss stuff like switching demons/personas on the go in the middle of a battle.

p.s. love the screenshots of SMT games I haven't played yet, keep up the good work.

vicissitudes said:

I'm not saying I want S.Links in Nocturne, I'm saying give me something else besides dungeon crawling. When I compare SMT3 to Persona I feel like Persona has more gameplay elements across the board, and it seems like that's more because SMT3 was the first SMT game on the PS2 and later they added more stuff, rather than "SMT inherently means less features." For example, in SMT3 there's no triple-fusion. There's no reason to leave something like that out simply because it's an SMT game.

Click to expand...

Uh, SMT3 does have triple fusion, it's just sacrificial, which amounts to the same thing basically.

SMT3's still my favorite game in the series. Sometimes the core foundation made better is enough.

Finished up my replay of P3FES last night. Such a great game. I'd never seen it before, but the post-boss scene with "Maya" was priceless.

cj_iwakura said:

Uh, SMT3 does have triple fusion, it's just sacrificial, which amounts to the same thing basically.

SMT3's still my favorite game in the series. Sometimes the core foundation made better is enough.

Click to expand...

No, sacrificial fusion is basically double fusion but your resulting demon is at a higher level (but it doesn't learn any spells along the way which is sad). Triple fusion means you actually get a completely different demon, and you get to inherit skills from all three demons.

I'm not trying to rag on SMT3 here, it's a great game. It just seems like later games added refinements that I enjoyed, and I hope to see some of them in SMT4.

vicissitudes said:

I'm not saying I want S.Links in Nocturne, I'm saying give me something else besides dungeon crawling. When I compare SMT3 to Persona I feel like Persona has more gameplay elements across the board, and it seems like that's more because SMT3 was the first SMT game on the PS2 and later they added more stuff, rather than "SMT inherently means less features." For example, in SMT3 there's no triple-fusion. There's no reason to leave something like that out simply because it's an SMT game.

I suppose the different in terms of party is that in SMT3 your main remains somewhat static while other members changes wildly and it's reversed in Persona. However usually when I get some good demons after a fusion session I'll stick with that party for a while. I miss stuff like switching demons/personas on the go in the middle of a battle.

p.s. love the screenshots of SMT games I haven't played yet, keep up the good work.

Click to expand...

You can switch out your party mid-battle in SMT3, too!

And yes, SMT3 doesn't have triple fusions, but it isn't a feature of later games. It's been in the series since the first game.
They did simplify fusion a bit in 3, removing triple fusions and reducing the number of races, but they also expanded it a lot compared to the earlier games as well with mythology fusions and sacrificial fusions and things like that. I'm not really sure why they made some of the changes they did, but I think it works well enough overall.

As for dungeon crawling... that's SMT. That is really the core of SMT. Dungeon crawling. I'm not really sure how else to put it, honestly.
This is, of course, one of the reasons why they started making the spinoff series, so they could explore other types of systems, but SMT is dungeon crawling, and it's nothing to do with age. Strange Journey came out in 2010, it's a dungeon crawler! And SMT4 will be one, too.

Being alone in a big, scary world where the battles never stop is the heart and soul of the series.

The only refinements I can think of from later Persona games that SMT3 could use are things like easy access to ability descriptions and some minor fusion issues.

In terms of the supposedly barebones story, this is such a common complaint and I just plain don't get it. I never once felt like I needed more cutscenes, exposition or yammering to stay engaged with the game. Things like demon conversations and compendium entries, occasional NPCs, very thoughtful cutscene placement, the environment and the atmosphere kept me plenty captivated. That's one of Strange Journey's flaws actually I think, too much yammering on the ship! Keep it simple and austere, makes everything so much more effective.