-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
In honor of 25 years of Demon Summoning, GAF Plays: The (Shin) Megami Tensei series
- Thread starter Jucksalbe
- Start date
Sseklebeast
Member
I'm playing through IS as well. I'm trying to notice any distinctions with the psp and ps1 version. I really love the character designs in this game, particularly the Masked Circle / Masquerade top dogs.
Man, I just spent like a couple of hours listening to the Innocent Sin OST and going through some random Kaneko tumblr. This franchise really makes me feel like an embarrassing teenager, I could spend a whole afternoon just daydreaming about it haha. I know there are other folks who feel the same way about Kiseki or Phantasy Star or Mother or Dragon Quest but when I see the words "Megami Tensei" my heart goes all aflutter.
Just take it with you.
Member
The game was already pretty easy (except for that final boss, oh boy), but the PSP version nerfed everything even further, so now even the final boss is a joke.
Okay, I'm finally done with Tales of the Abyss, time to continue my playthrough of Raidou.
Last time we made it all the way to the first chapter. We learned that Kaya goes to Ouran High, so now we try to find classmates of hers all over town.
The first girls we find don't really help. All they do is gossip, at least they give some kind of hint where we can find the important person. Also, I want to start my rant here which will probably continue throughout all of my posts of this game and this one especially.
Every demon has special abilities that you can use on the map and that you need to get additional information from some characters. That's the "?" you can see on the screenshot. There's two thing I really hate about that. Even if you know the ability but don't have the right demon summoned, the game will still only show a "?". Which means, you have to guess which ability might be the right one. And you have to make sure to always have the right demons with you. So far everytime I needed an ability, you could find the corresponding demon in the area, but it's still really annoying.
Also everytime you summon a demon you consume MAG points, so far it didn't pose any problem and my MAG points have always been increasing but this is really bothering me on a principle level. MAG points make no sense at all in this game. Oh well.
She seems to know Kaya but as soon as she wants to tell us about her, she's abducted and taken to the Dark Realm.
You get there by visiting the shrine from the beginning of the game and perfoming a ritual.
We're immediately greeted by the boss who seems to be right down the street. But first, we should check out all the surroundings. Another place where we need a new demon ability, at least it's optional this time.
Here we first meet the different kind of barriers. The first one is impassable (wait, might there be one on that main street in front of the boss?), the second one is not. The wonderful thing about the second one is, that it's only vunerable to one element (or type of attack), so basically if you don't have the right demon (or bullet) here, you're screwed....again. Good thing, I caught that Agathion earlier on.
Behind the barrier: boss fight! After they made us choose a Volt demon for the barrier, surely this boss is vunerable to Zio, right? Wrong. In fact it's a Volt demon itself, vunerable to ice and there are three of it. The fight isn't very hard, in fact this enemy will be a normal random enemy very soon.
So, now that we rescued here, we get some vital tips on where to go next. And also a pseudo-cryptic message that basically tells us to go back to the residence and look for the cellar. Also, there was in fact a barrier in front of the boss. So all that running around was necessary after all.
But before we go there, it's time for some more demon fusion. Since I couldn't take screenshots of it last time, I at least wanted to show off the animation. It's a bit different from how it's presented in, say, Persona. It's also accompanied by some funny dialogue depending on the demons you're fusing.
Okay, here we need a Volt demon again. Good thing, we didn't fuse it before. This time it's for the "Inspect" command that makes the demon look around and find invisible things. Here we find a hidden passage that leads to the cellar. Surprise!
Underground, we find this huge demon. But it's not a boss fight (yet), he just wants us to bring him some wine. As luck would have it, we just heard talks about a new assistant in the residence that was sent out to fetch some wine. At this point it should be clear that this game is as much an adventure game as it is an RPG.
Of course, the assistant hasn't come back yet, so we have to go back to town to find her (she's right at the entrance). We need another demon skill here (mind reading), but at least no new demon was needed for it. So now that we have the wine, back to the mansion (again).
We give the wine to the demon, but of course he needs a meal to go with the wine. This means: boss fight!
Pretty easy fight. Just make sure to have a demon with Dia at this point. Or use items. We don't even get to finish him off, the fight stops when he's at about 20% health. Afterwards, we give him some more beverages (which he didn't like), I guess you can do something more here, but actually we can now use him as a bridge to get to the other side.
There we find a cell with a lot of suspicious talismans attached. And we need to use "Inspect" again, oh well, we didn't have a chance to lose that demon since last time anyway. After looking around we find a rather disturbing diary, seems we should have a word with Kaya's uncle.
On our way back we get attacked by a bunch of skeletons. The Turdaks are weak to fire, the boss itself has so few HP, that you can kill him with your sword in a couple of seconds.
The uncle is still meeting with someone unknown, so the butler doesn't let us near his room, but we can use a demon to at least eavesdrop. Since we have no idea where to go afterwards, it's back to the Detective's Agency.
That was totally worth it. Back to the residence AGAIN.
This time we get to meet the uncle, but when we do he transforms into a demon and runs off. The whole transformation FMV reminded me a lot of Parasite Eve, only a little less nasty. After him!
As soon as we leave the room, we are stopped by someone who looks very someone-ish. Seems he doesn't want us to leave, so we get to fight a giant eye.
This boss is a bit harder than the one's before. You can only hit him when his eye's open which basically means killing his minions first. When you get too close he uses a spinning attack that has a pretty far reach. I didn't really find his weakness (he has to have one, they explicitly mentioned that at the beginning of the fight), but my ice combination attack hit him pretty hard anyway.
And that's the end ofchapter Episode 1! You can look up a summary of the game's story so far in your office which is quite nice to have. I always have a hard time to remember Japanese names, so everytime they mention someone by name, my first thought is "Who was that again?". I guess I miss a lot of connections just because of that. Doesn't hurt to have a way to look up past events then.
Also, don't look too close at the play time. I left the game running for over an hour once without doing anything and another time I fell asleep while playing, so this is not really showing the time I actually played.
Last time we made it all the way to the first chapter. We learned that Kaya goes to Ouran High, so now we try to find classmates of hers all over town.
The first girls we find don't really help. All they do is gossip, at least they give some kind of hint where we can find the important person. Also, I want to start my rant here which will probably continue throughout all of my posts of this game and this one especially.
Every demon has special abilities that you can use on the map and that you need to get additional information from some characters. That's the "?" you can see on the screenshot. There's two thing I really hate about that. Even if you know the ability but don't have the right demon summoned, the game will still only show a "?". Which means, you have to guess which ability might be the right one. And you have to make sure to always have the right demons with you. So far everytime I needed an ability, you could find the corresponding demon in the area, but it's still really annoying.
Also everytime you summon a demon you consume MAG points, so far it didn't pose any problem and my MAG points have always been increasing but this is really bothering me on a principle level. MAG points make no sense at all in this game. Oh well.
She seems to know Kaya but as soon as she wants to tell us about her, she's abducted and taken to the Dark Realm.
You get there by visiting the shrine from the beginning of the game and perfoming a ritual.
We're immediately greeted by the boss who seems to be right down the street. But first, we should check out all the surroundings. Another place where we need a new demon ability, at least it's optional this time.
Here we first meet the different kind of barriers. The first one is impassable (wait, might there be one on that main street in front of the boss?), the second one is not. The wonderful thing about the second one is, that it's only vunerable to one element (or type of attack), so basically if you don't have the right demon (or bullet) here, you're screwed....again. Good thing, I caught that Agathion earlier on.
Behind the barrier: boss fight! After they made us choose a Volt demon for the barrier, surely this boss is vunerable to Zio, right? Wrong. In fact it's a Volt demon itself, vunerable to ice and there are three of it. The fight isn't very hard, in fact this enemy will be a normal random enemy very soon.
So, now that we rescued here, we get some vital tips on where to go next. And also a pseudo-cryptic message that basically tells us to go back to the residence and look for the cellar. Also, there was in fact a barrier in front of the boss. So all that running around was necessary after all.
But before we go there, it's time for some more demon fusion. Since I couldn't take screenshots of it last time, I at least wanted to show off the animation. It's a bit different from how it's presented in, say, Persona. It's also accompanied by some funny dialogue depending on the demons you're fusing.
Okay, here we need a Volt demon again. Good thing, we didn't fuse it before. This time it's for the "Inspect" command that makes the demon look around and find invisible things. Here we find a hidden passage that leads to the cellar. Surprise!
Underground, we find this huge demon. But it's not a boss fight (yet), he just wants us to bring him some wine. As luck would have it, we just heard talks about a new assistant in the residence that was sent out to fetch some wine. At this point it should be clear that this game is as much an adventure game as it is an RPG.
Of course, the assistant hasn't come back yet, so we have to go back to town to find her (she's right at the entrance). We need another demon skill here (mind reading), but at least no new demon was needed for it. So now that we have the wine, back to the mansion (again).
We give the wine to the demon, but of course he needs a meal to go with the wine. This means: boss fight!
Pretty easy fight. Just make sure to have a demon with Dia at this point. Or use items. We don't even get to finish him off, the fight stops when he's at about 20% health. Afterwards, we give him some more beverages (which he didn't like), I guess you can do something more here, but actually we can now use him as a bridge to get to the other side.
There we find a cell with a lot of suspicious talismans attached. And we need to use "Inspect" again, oh well, we didn't have a chance to lose that demon since last time anyway. After looking around we find a rather disturbing diary, seems we should have a word with Kaya's uncle.
On our way back we get attacked by a bunch of skeletons. The Turdaks are weak to fire, the boss itself has so few HP, that you can kill him with your sword in a couple of seconds.
The uncle is still meeting with someone unknown, so the butler doesn't let us near his room, but we can use a demon to at least eavesdrop. Since we have no idea where to go afterwards, it's back to the Detective's Agency.
That was totally worth it. Back to the residence AGAIN.
This time we get to meet the uncle, but when we do he transforms into a demon and runs off. The whole transformation FMV reminded me a lot of Parasite Eve, only a little less nasty. After him!
As soon as we leave the room, we are stopped by someone who looks very someone-ish. Seems he doesn't want us to leave, so we get to fight a giant eye.
This boss is a bit harder than the one's before. You can only hit him when his eye's open which basically means killing his minions first. When you get too close he uses a spinning attack that has a pretty far reach. I didn't really find his weakness (he has to have one, they explicitly mentioned that at the beginning of the fight), but my ice combination attack hit him pretty hard anyway.
And that's the end of
Also, don't look too close at the play time. I left the game running for over an hour once without doing anything and another time I fell asleep while playing, so this is not really showing the time I actually played.
kamikazekoala
Member
Devil Summoner was so nice. A shame we didn't get the second one in Europe. Maybe an PSN-release would be nice? 
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
You know I just noticed something weird. The US PSN store has FES for DL but the JP store does not. WTF is up with that.
cj_iwakura
Member
Weird. But they have SMT1, 2, and If. I think they win.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I was hoping they would have the raido games too. I got both copies of the original 2 unopened the JP version, those got a premium on em so would have to have to crack it open. Bought em again just to collect. I suppose I could always buy "the best collection" since they got that.
Yeah Im gonna pick up SMT 1 & 2 later today. Was hoping for FES also but yeah no go. The Japanese seem confused / pissed off as to what happened with that. Since initial reports were the JP one was supposed to come out before the US but never did.
Cyberquake
Member
I have some PS2/PSP megaten releases, as well as both Saturn games... but i'm still waiting for the translation patch for the SNES Megaten 1 & 2 remake to be finished before I start to finally play the series.
Me and my obsession of playing a game series starting by its roots :|
Me and my obsession of playing a game series starting by its roots :|
cj_iwakura
Member
Are you in Japan, or just import a lot? I was considering asking a JP PS3 owner about maybe grabbing a card for me or something so I could grab SMT1&2(I'd pay of course).
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Oh yeah I can help you out with a card. I live here locally so. The ER is a bit brutal now so hope you dont mind that. I was actually going to pick up a card myself since wanted to grab the SMT games.
1 U.S. dollar = 78.5916378 Japanese yen
Send me a pm if still interested.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
I can now post in this thread for the original reason. After clearing out chunk of my backlog and being a good boy and not going hogwild in the Summer Steam sales, I'm replaying SMT3, DDS1 and DDS2 in anticipation of SMT4.
Died at Matador from a combination of being way underleveled (16, 10, 11, 12) and him casting Mazan only once, but spamming Focused Andalucia desecrating a focus-immune strategy. Good times.
Died at Matador from a combination of being way underleveled (16, 10, 11, 12) and him casting Mazan only once, but spamming Focused Andalucia desecrating a focus-immune strategy. Good times.
Heh, I'm playing SMT3, DDS1 and DDS2 for the first time, just because. I just beat a blue neon snake thing.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Do hope you enjoy DDS1 & 2. Since those are 2 of my favorite games in the SMT series.
indigo-cyclops
Member
Same here, really love those games a bit more than the others. The universe is fascinating.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Exactly! For an original universe I had thought the world and the characters were quite well done.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
SatelliteOfLove
Member
cj_iwakura
Member
Yuko 4 evar~
Best social link for best girl.
I was having a bunch of trouble with White Rider in Nocturne, really the first boss in the game I had significant issues with.
I saw a recommendation to use Stone Gaze. One of my monsters already had it. I creamed him the next go around.
I feel a bit stupid for not thinking of that :/
I saw a recommendation to use Stone Gaze. One of my monsters already had it. I creamed him the next go around.
I feel a bit stupid for not thinking of that :/
We meet a new character:
And with that:
Let's get started!
The reporter tells us about several sightings of the "Red Cape". She managed to take a photo of it (which by the way already is in the newspaper she writes for, it's not like she's giving us exclusive information here) and it looks very much like the guy that fled from the Daidouji residence before. He was last seen in Ginza-Cho. To the Mystery Machine!
The girl is talking about me. Defying all probability, we go to the city first. Another huge city area with lots of new random encounters and it's very nice looking, too, with streetcars driving around. The city can get very confusing if you don't look at the map, because there's a bridge you can walk over and under and there are some exits that are basically in the middle of the map.
On our way we find a homeless person who tries to sell us something for 50.000 yen. Of course, this is a way too much, so we refuse. The next offer is a very different 50 yen. For that we get some kind of lucky charm. Even 50 yen seem a bit much for something we don't have much use for. But this is an adventure game, so we take what we can get, it's bound to be of some use somewhere.
We also meet a woman that asks us about some car accident. Never heard of it, sorry.
So, our first real stop is the restaurant where the reporter took the photo. We learn about Denpachi the rickshaw runner, who is close to Kiyoshi Daidouji. We should interrogate him.
But first, let's go to the Shin-Sekai which the girl on the street mentioned earlier. Here we learn that we're actually not so special, there are a bunch of devil summoners all over the world. Way to bring down our ego.
There's another very suspicious area on the map. It turns out to be some kind of garbage dump and the only thing to really do here, is to talk to a dog. After a rather strange conversation he asks us about our "dream". This seems important enough that you get to put it in freely. That's it, what was that about? Maybe it will important later on, so maybe it's a good thing that I took a screenshot. It kind of reminds me of the scarecrow in Ocarina of Time.
Back to the story. Let's look for Denpachi. The area he lives in seems to be controlled by the Yakuza, though. So, to get in there we have to ask the boss for permission. For some reason his base seems to be the bathhouse.
At least we get some fresh air for all our body out of it. The fight with the Yakuza is very very simple, I guess you have to really try to lose here, it's more for the fun of the whole situation.
The area doesn't really seem to be under control of the Yakuza, the Soulless Army turned up and made the whole thing complicated. Well, at least we're allowed to go in now.
We found his house, but noone seems to be there. Well, think again, the Soulless Army is here. We are arrested and thrown into the Dark Realm.
There we kill the wardens, before we can be locked in the cell. There is someone else in the cell who looks like he runs rickshaws professionally, but the cell is locked, we have to find the key first.
...or get a lock pick. But this means we already have to leave the Dark Realm again and go back to the store near our agency. Yay.
Doesn't seem like we can haggle this time. We get the lock pick and it's back to the Dark Realm. This time we use the shrine. But this means we enter the Dark Realm at a different part of the town. So we have to get back to the cell.
There are soldiers all over the place, so we have to take the long way around. With a flying demon, we fly over the river and fetch a boat that's anchored at the end. You can get attacked while you're using a demon. Which is kinda nice, but the fights play really bad, so I wish they would have left that part out.
At the end there's a gate that's locked from the other side, so we need to find a way around. But with all the soldiers around we have to make sure, not to be seen (which is kinda stupid because since they should have seen us plenty already). Since they won't mind a demon in the Dark Realm, we send one ahead to open the gate.
We reach the cell again and free the "mysterious" person. But as soon as we open the cell, some soldiers arrive and try to stop us. Funny thing is, this time you actually have to win the fight, it's not even that hard. Makes the whole stealth section before kind of pointless.
Surprise, the man we freed turns out to be Denpachi. But before he will tell us anything we first have to find his sister, who looks somehow familiar. But since we don't know where she went, we have to ask someone who's in the business of "finding people".
We find her in the red-light district. Turns out she will help us only if we find the one who attacked her husband, the taxi driver (the "car accident" we heard about before). So now it's help Shizu -> help Denpachi -> find Mr. Daidouji. This needs another layer of complication.
But we have no lead to go on, so first we go back to the agency. There we learn that that reporter called for us. She wants us to meet in the bar that's supposed to be for devil summoners only (huh?).
Seems we have to look for the demon at full moon under the overpass. With a little bit of luck, this means running around in circles for quite a while. At full moon we meet this car demon (which you actually fight). But it's not him that attacked the people, it's he who was attacked. He gives us a crucial item that hints at the real culprit. It's part of a rickshaw.
But Denpachi is not at home. Let's ask his sister.
She confirms our suspicion and more(?) importantly takes the lucky charm we bought earlier. We didn't really learn anything new, though.
Last chance, let's ask his employer. No news about Denpachi, but there was another attack on a taxi in the city, so at least let's investigate that.
We find the Red Cape (you know, the demon we are actually looking for?), but it flees into the Dark Realm. After it!
Even in the Dark Realm, all he does is run away. You can get into a fight with the Red Cape, but after a short while he still runs away. No chance to defeat him.
And then the game shows off its fun part again. After a while the Red Cape runs away in a circle around the city. There's a car you can move to block the way, but you need a specific ability that I didn't have. So then I had to run around and try to catch all the demons in the area I didn't already have. You need a Fury demon to move the car. Took a while.
Ha! Cornered him! The fight itself is the same as before (that's why I didn't take another screenshot), it just drags a bit longer. The one thing to look out for is his laser-like attack that can stun you.
After the fight we learn that the Red Cape was actually Denpachi which means there's more than one of them. He tells us that Mr. Daidouji likes to hang out at his old factory (who could have guessed?) and by now even the game's characters are getting cynical about the overly complicated way we had to go to obtain that information.
Chapter 2 done.
And with that:
Let's get started!
The reporter tells us about several sightings of the "Red Cape". She managed to take a photo of it (which by the way already is in the newspaper she writes for, it's not like she's giving us exclusive information here) and it looks very much like the guy that fled from the Daidouji residence before. He was last seen in Ginza-Cho. To the Mystery Machine!
The girl is talking about me. Defying all probability, we go to the city first. Another huge city area with lots of new random encounters and it's very nice looking, too, with streetcars driving around. The city can get very confusing if you don't look at the map, because there's a bridge you can walk over and under and there are some exits that are basically in the middle of the map.
On our way we find a homeless person who tries to sell us something for 50.000 yen. Of course, this is a way too much, so we refuse. The next offer is a very different 50 yen. For that we get some kind of lucky charm. Even 50 yen seem a bit much for something we don't have much use for. But this is an adventure game, so we take what we can get, it's bound to be of some use somewhere.
We also meet a woman that asks us about some car accident. Never heard of it, sorry.
So, our first real stop is the restaurant where the reporter took the photo. We learn about Denpachi the rickshaw runner, who is close to Kiyoshi Daidouji. We should interrogate him.
But first, let's go to the Shin-Sekai which the girl on the street mentioned earlier. Here we learn that we're actually not so special, there are a bunch of devil summoners all over the world. Way to bring down our ego.
There's another very suspicious area on the map. It turns out to be some kind of garbage dump and the only thing to really do here, is to talk to a dog. After a rather strange conversation he asks us about our "dream". This seems important enough that you get to put it in freely. That's it, what was that about? Maybe it will important later on, so maybe it's a good thing that I took a screenshot. It kind of reminds me of the scarecrow in Ocarina of Time.
Back to the story. Let's look for Denpachi. The area he lives in seems to be controlled by the Yakuza, though. So, to get in there we have to ask the boss for permission. For some reason his base seems to be the bathhouse.
At least we get some fresh air for all our body out of it. The fight with the Yakuza is very very simple, I guess you have to really try to lose here, it's more for the fun of the whole situation.
The area doesn't really seem to be under control of the Yakuza, the Soulless Army turned up and made the whole thing complicated. Well, at least we're allowed to go in now.
We found his house, but noone seems to be there. Well, think again, the Soulless Army is here. We are arrested and thrown into the Dark Realm.
There we kill the wardens, before we can be locked in the cell. There is someone else in the cell who looks like he runs rickshaws professionally, but the cell is locked, we have to find the key first.
...or get a lock pick. But this means we already have to leave the Dark Realm again and go back to the store near our agency. Yay.
Doesn't seem like we can haggle this time. We get the lock pick and it's back to the Dark Realm. This time we use the shrine. But this means we enter the Dark Realm at a different part of the town. So we have to get back to the cell.
There are soldiers all over the place, so we have to take the long way around. With a flying demon, we fly over the river and fetch a boat that's anchored at the end. You can get attacked while you're using a demon. Which is kinda nice, but the fights play really bad, so I wish they would have left that part out.
At the end there's a gate that's locked from the other side, so we need to find a way around. But with all the soldiers around we have to make sure, not to be seen (which is kinda stupid because since they should have seen us plenty already). Since they won't mind a demon in the Dark Realm, we send one ahead to open the gate.
We reach the cell again and free the "mysterious" person. But as soon as we open the cell, some soldiers arrive and try to stop us. Funny thing is, this time you actually have to win the fight, it's not even that hard. Makes the whole stealth section before kind of pointless.
Surprise, the man we freed turns out to be Denpachi. But before he will tell us anything we first have to find his sister, who looks somehow familiar. But since we don't know where she went, we have to ask someone who's in the business of "finding people".
We find her in the red-light district. Turns out she will help us only if we find the one who attacked her husband, the taxi driver (the "car accident" we heard about before). So now it's help Shizu -> help Denpachi -> find Mr. Daidouji. This needs another layer of complication.
But we have no lead to go on, so first we go back to the agency. There we learn that that reporter called for us. She wants us to meet in the bar that's supposed to be for devil summoners only (huh?).
Seems we have to look for the demon at full moon under the overpass. With a little bit of luck, this means running around in circles for quite a while. At full moon we meet this car demon (which you actually fight). But it's not him that attacked the people, it's he who was attacked. He gives us a crucial item that hints at the real culprit. It's part of a rickshaw.
But Denpachi is not at home. Let's ask his sister.
She confirms our suspicion and more(?) importantly takes the lucky charm we bought earlier. We didn't really learn anything new, though.
Last chance, let's ask his employer. No news about Denpachi, but there was another attack on a taxi in the city, so at least let's investigate that.
We find the Red Cape (you know, the demon we are actually looking for?), but it flees into the Dark Realm. After it!
Even in the Dark Realm, all he does is run away. You can get into a fight with the Red Cape, but after a short while he still runs away. No chance to defeat him.
And then the game shows off its fun part again. After a while the Red Cape runs away in a circle around the city. There's a car you can move to block the way, but you need a specific ability that I didn't have. So then I had to run around and try to catch all the demons in the area I didn't already have. You need a Fury demon to move the car. Took a while.
Ha! Cornered him! The fight itself is the same as before (that's why I didn't take another screenshot), it just drags a bit longer. The one thing to look out for is his laser-like attack that can stun you.
After the fight we learn that the Red Cape was actually Denpachi which means there's more than one of them. He tells us that Mr. Daidouji likes to hang out at his old factory (who could have guessed?) and by now even the game's characters are getting cynical about the overly complicated way we had to go to obtain that information.
Chapter 2 done.
Okay, time for chapter 3. This will be a rather short update, because this was a really short chapter which basically just consists of one dungeon and some story scenes.
Now that we solved the case of the Red Cape in Ginza-Cho, we can go back to looking for Mr. Daidouji. At the end of the last chapter we got a tip that he might be in his old factory and it seems there were sightings of another Red Cape there as well.
The factory is in the northern part of Fukugawa-Cho, not much to do on the way, except for paying for another ride on the street car. We should really get a monthly pass.
Right at the entrance we find a cane. Time for a quiz to test if we really paid attention so far, feels like the game is mocking us.
Inside we find the reporter Tae, who seems to have been running around the factory for quite a while. Maybe there's nothing here or maybe she just didn't check the door in the back?
Well, that takes care of her.
Seems the owner of those Matryoshka dolls is the "mysterious man" (well, you could just take a look at the game's cover art). He wants to play with us, so he hides some shards in a dungeon that we have to get. Like a real evil man would do.
So, let's get going. Touching any of the dolls will transport us to a different location inside the dungeon. The dungeon itself consists of basically an array of the same room over and over with barriers all over the place. It can get very confusing until you remember that there's a map button (yeah, it took me a while).
The only diversion we get in this dungeon is talking to some factory workers that got trapped in here. I don't know if any of the choices matter or if they are just for fun.
And so I don't forget what bothers me the most about this game, there are elemental barriers scattered throughout the dungeon. Good thing we brought a really diverse lineup of demons.
Time to get some actual work done. The glowing thing on the floor is the first shard we are looking for. But of course it's not that easy, first we have to fight. It's not that hard, actually the smaller version of this enemy even is a random encounter in this dungeon, but both the small and large versions can charm you and your demon. This can be rather annoying, especially running away from a charmed Oni feels a bit...stupid.
Two shards down.
Inside the dungeon we even meet another Red Cape, maybe the Red Cape? The fight is the same as before. Watch out for his laser beam and you'll be fine.
Of course, he was just another factory worker.
Mission accomplished! Now to get back to the real factory...
Yeah, right.
Right before he wanted to tell us everything, something grows out of him and flies away. That timing...
Finally, we get to meet that "mysterious man". It's Ra Ra Rasputin!
Well, that didn't really impress us. He seems rather displeased when we tell him, we don't know who he is.
Since we didn't get our chance before, Rasputin shows pity and tells us a bit about what happened. Okay, so that parasite is called a Hiruko. That sure did help. But we might learn some more in the future, that's a nice promise to make.
It's not so nice, though, when he wants us killed first. Nice to see how SMT mixes mythologies however they please again.
The fight starts off easy, way too easy. He goes down so fast, you just know there has to be more. And indeed, he then splits into two and after that into three.
And after that he goes back to just one, but with an improved ice attack. After brute-forcing him for a while, we decided to play it smart and just use an ice demon and wait on the side for the demon to finish him off.
Well, that's it. Mr. Daidouji is dead, the parasite fled, Rasputin is gone, too. So we head back to the agency.
Rasputin is important enough to warrant a visit from the shrine. We don't learn much important stuff to go on, though. So let's see what the next chapter will bring.
Going by my saves, it took me about an hour, with my slow playstyle that's really short.
Chapter 4. With no lead to follow, we will just have to wait and see what will turn up. Shouldn't take very long.
We get a visit by the owner of the item shop. Seems all his recent shipments have gone missing. Since we need his items he blackmails us into investigating his case. And on top he doubles all his prices, so we shouldn't make any big investments for now.
Harumi (is the "-cho" actually part of the name?) is where the port is located. So naturally we find a lot of sailors and foreigners here. Not much to do here anyway, there are some new demons to catch, their highest level seems to be 29. The Sati is probably the hardest to catch, since it's immune to bullets (just use a Frost demon). So with no real lead, we decide to talk to the first person we recognize.
It's the owner of the restaurant from the second chapter! Turns out she is related to the previous owner of the transport company. He died and his partner Elfman took over. Incidentally this is when the cargo started disappearing.
Let's ask for advice back at the agency. But first let's get two shiny new tubes. You can never have enough of those.
So, the Haguro-gumi. Who was that again?
Ah, right, the wannabe Yakuza. At least he gives us some more information. Seems like we really should pay a visit to this Elfman guy. Let's head back to Harumi.
On our way we meet the (now hopeful) owner of the item shop again. He's in his "just one last time" mood. Of course, the latest shipment gets lost, too, along with some of the sailors protecting it.
Enough is enough. Only one place stuff can suddenly disappear to. To the Dark Realm!
There we find three of the sailors in danger. Each of those scenes results in a fight against 9(?) Anzus.
On the road we find a strange but familiar doll. Well, well, who might be behind all this? But first there are some demons that desperately want to get rid of us.
Good thing, we have an Anzu set as default demon. These guys seem to be weak to force attacks. This wasn't much of a challenge, it can't be the real boss fight, can it?
We rescued the sailors, we found the cargo (unscathed, so nice of the demons to take good care of it instead of just dumping it), seems we are done here. So, let's talk about Elfman.
Hmm..."this ring should give you entrance", I have heard that in another game recently. At least we have the means to get to Elfman, so where is he?
This is bad. That demon didn't seem all too friendly last time. I hope we have enough booze ready.
Wait, wait, first another promotion, which gives us: nothing.
So to convince him we have to do some SMT style demon negotiation. Give me money, give me more money, that's enough!
So now we can use him as a boat and call him at every blue point on the map.
Before we go on, we should look around where else this new boat can take us. There are some strange locations that seem to be important later on and then there's the Training Hall. Actually it's just a bunch of treasure "chests", but the catch is you can only reach them with a demon. So basically, this area is a training ground for demons.
So, let's go to the church. This is a catholic church in a Japanese game, so naturally something evil has to be going on here. There's noone here, though.
Let's take a look at the cemetery in the back. There's a suspicious ghost here, so of course, before anything let's open the grave next to him.
This seems a bit mean, so let's at least talk to the ghost. He says he was killed by someone who then took on his identity. Since this obviously has to be related to our case, this ghost has to be Elfman, since real Elfman would never be really evil, or so we've been told.
We show him the ring to confirm his fomer identity. Now that we know what's going on, we can finally go back to the church and see what evil stuff happens there.
It's Rasputin, trying to look cool. He confirms what we already know so let's get to the juicy stuff.
So, we finally learn of Kaya's location and the name of that project he mentions earlier. Sure is nice of him to always tell us so much and then try to kill us afterwards. Nothing personal, of course.
This time we actually get to fight him personally. Well, at least after we get him out of those Matryoshkas. That's the easy part, though. For the second part of the fight, he stays outside and casts mean stuff like Megido (avoid at all cost!). I didn't really try to find a good strategy for this fight and more or less used a brute-force method. Bring out a healer and whack him until he falls (while avoiding Megido). It worked.
The big surprise (well, the first one): He doesn't flee after the fight. The second surprise: he's actually not human, but a "mechanical doll". Seems like a very good idea to just leave him there. We will soon regret that because....
....he's a terminator!
PowderedToast
Junior Member
about 15 hours into innocent sin and i'm smitten. the plot really does unravel beautifully. it's as good as the old school megaten fans claimed it to be and more.
it's hard not to look back at P3 and see how in certain respects it simply pales in comparison.
it's hard not to look back at P3 and see how in certain respects it simply pales in comparison.
Don't worry, I feel the same way. Got to the end of Day 3 and just stopped playing. I have DS2 but haven't even bothered with it. No idea why they get so hyped.
I started this at the beginning of the week. I wish they'd left an option to carry over all your stats and gear in P4. I like going through just trouncing everybody.
Wait until you see the ending. I finished it last week and ooooh man. It's glorious.
Strange Journey beaten, Law ending.
I also have another save so I will try the chaos ending as well and after that I will play NG+ and go neutral and do the new side quests.
Until now I never consulted a guide and the only password demon I used was Cu-Chulainn given by him after his side mission. If I missed some important things I will fix that in NG+.
This is where the true game begins I guess. Now I will also try to complete the compendium as well.
The 2nd part is definitely much better story-wise.
The best megaten since Nocturne IMO.
I have a question regarding NG+ though: does the difficulty increase?
I also have another save so I will try the chaos ending as well and after that I will play NG+ and go neutral and do the new side quests.
Until now I never consulted a guide and the only password demon I used was Cu-Chulainn given by him after his side mission. If I missed some important things I will fix that in NG+.
This is where the true game begins I guess. Now I will also try to complete the compendium as well.
The 2nd part is definitely much better story-wise.
The best megaten since Nocturne IMO.
I have a question regarding NG+ though: does the difficulty increase?
Just take it with you.
Member
Don't you have to get your luck purified? I'm probably thinking of the wrong boss.
Aside from the extra areas that open up, no.
BasilZero
Member
Awesome thread!
I'm kinda familiar with the series since I've played some of the older games years ago but I didnt exactly get into the series until I started playing Persona 1 Portable on the PSP.
So far I've played P1P, P2IS PSP, and P3P , all on PSP.
Planning to get P4G for the Vita and possibly play some of the older classics once I get a hold of them.
I'm kinda familiar with the series since I've played some of the older games years ago but I didnt exactly get into the series until I started playing Persona 1 Portable on the PSP.
So far I've played P1P, P2IS PSP, and P3P , all on PSP.
Planning to get P4G for the Vita and possibly play some of the older classics once I get a hold of them.
TurnipFritters
Member
D...did I miss a memo somewhere?
robotzombie
Member
Finally started playing innocent sin psp. This game is so easy it actually makes me mad. Like I don't even feel like I'm playing a video game. Were persona 1 and eternal punishment like this? Because I remember them being difficult, or at least not complete joke easy
D...did I miss a memo somewhere?
It's a fan translation of the screenshots.
J
Jotamide
Unconfirmed Member
I've never played a SMT game before until yesterday when I started playing P4A. Even though it's not a proper Persona game I felt compelled to at least watch the anime to know what was going on.
Why weren't the Persona games a big thing back then? This looks like a series I would've absolutely loved a couple of years ago. Today, I don't have the time to dive into 100+ hour games anymore. If I ever find myself on vacation though I might P3FES a chance cause it's on PSN.
Why weren't the Persona games a big thing back then? This looks like a series I would've absolutely loved a couple of years ago. Today, I don't have the time to dive into 100+ hour games anymore. If I ever find myself on vacation though I might P3FES a chance cause it's on PSN.
TurnipFritters
Member
Persona 3 and Persona 4 were pretty big things a few years ago though? Persona 3 came out in NA in 2007.
SpaceBridge
Member
I need to find a copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, but its impossible. :_(
J
Jotamide
Unconfirmed Member
I mean as in having more exposure on different media. Never in my life did I hear about Persona until I started lurking GAF.
TurnipFritters
Member
The gameplay in Versus The Soulless Army kinda sucks, so you aren't missing much. You should totes pick up a copy of Versus King Abaddon though.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Headed to Yoyogi Park, no deaths since then while hunting Fiends and finshing Kalpas (going for Demon ending this time, though. Neutral -> TDE -> Demon).
I'm also mixing it up with demons I never used before, so I have Kushinada, Dionysus, and Ikusa along with stalwart favs like Arahabaki, Hanuman, and Daisoujou.
I'm also mixing it up with demons I never used before, so I have Kushinada, Dionysus, and Ikusa along with stalwart favs like Arahabaki, Hanuman, and Daisoujou.
PowderedToast
Junior Member
what's the consensus on the PSX ports of SMT I, II and if...? best versions?
SpaceBridge
Member
I have King Abaddon, maybe I'll play that. Was concerned I'd miss something plot wise though by playing the sequel first.