Heropon said:

I've finally beaten Persona 3 Portable. It was a pretty solid game and now I want more, but I think P4 is much more difficult to get right now...

Click to expand...

"Pretty solid game" is a mild understatement.
Persona 4 is still easily available in the EU. Or you could wait for the Vita version if you have/want a Vita.

Jucksalbe said:

"Pretty solid game" is a mild understatement.
Persona 4 is still easily available in the EU. Or you could wait for the Vita version if you have/want a Vita.

Click to expand...

Well, I searched a little and you're right, it isn't difficult to get it. Right now the only question is how much I want to pay.

About the quality, you're right too. I didn't express well the greatness of this game. It's really addictive, I don't know why I stopped playing it in the summer...

Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei: Sequence Breaking... Kinda

Last time, Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow killed Medusa , saving the Floating City of Bien from her evil curse and made mad bank playing casino games. Today they're... not gonna make a lot of progress. First stop: The Captain's room in the center of Bien's 2F:



"I'm the Captain of the Floating City of Bien. Mr. Cooper, I want to extend my sincerest gratitude for saving us and our fair city. Would you like me to move the city?"

He presents Anderson with three options:

• Mazurka Corridor
• Palatium Infini
• Stay here

Mazurka Corridor is the fourth dungeon, Palatium Infini is the last. Bien is basically our airship, and yes, there is literally nothing stopping Anderson from flying it over to the final dungeon, fighting his way to the end and challenging Lucifer.

...he would die horribly, for several reasons, but, you know. Right now, he elects to go to Mazurka Corridor.



Wheeee.



Cool thing about the Captain's room: It's right by the elevator, and the eastern exit of Bien is located right in front of the elevator on the 1F. The Gatekeeper here says: "Goodness me, are you folks leaving? Please be careful out there!"

Anderson and Rachel steel themselves for whatever awaits them as they step through the gate and...



Well this is generic.



In the next room they're greeted by writing on the wall: "Mazurka Corridor." You can see from the map that they've skipped quite a bit of ground. Bien is no longer visible on the map, nor is Valhalla.



I do not much care for the aesthetics of this dungeon!

Andy and Rach wander around for a while until...



A battle! Femme Naias, level 34. Casts Marin Karin. Has Poison Bite and Petrification. Not very scary, but given that she's nearly ten levels stronger than Andy and Rach, she's worth a ton of experience. They can appear in groups of 3-7.



Enough for level ups, even. That's pretty much what we're doing here. Getting some experience so we can get new allies. It's a good place to level up because the relative safety of Bien is nearby, and if things do get inky Rachel can Trastart the party back Bien's Elder.



Foul A Bao A Qu. They travel in larger groups (5-8), are comparatively fast, but are weak to fire. So... they don't last long. You know. Because Rachel can burn things with her mind.



Wilder Manticores take a bit more to dispatch because they drain Fire, so Rachel can't just burn them to crispy bits like she's been doing with everything else. They can hit pretty hard and use Burninate and Roar, plus they travel in larger packs (5-8), so a party without a lot of Mediama casters might be in trouble.



They gave enough experience for Andy and Rachel to level up (again), and Rachel learns Marin Karin. Yeah, because I'm definitely gonna spend her MP casting that instead of Agirama/Mediama.



Finally, a neutral encounter! Beast Basilisk (Level 30) has the Petrify extra ability (natch), but that's all. Killing it gave Anderson and Rachel another level up. Whee.



Then there's this guy: Night Loa. Loa has the potential to be one of the most annoying enemies in this section, especially given Anderson and Rachel's current mission. Loas cast Zio and Makaranda (2 MP, drains MP from one enemy, naturally this is a spell that only Evil-aligned demons have access to), and if that wasn't annoying enough, they have Energy Drain. Energy Drain, which only affects Anderson and Rachel, will knock them down one level and decrease their Constitution by 1 point. This is, like, super annoying, because the only protection from it is casting Tetraja, but it's so rare that you don't really want to keep a Tetraja casting demon around in the active party all the time, but then it hits and you're like "Danggit" and you reset because you're a sperg and can't stand when Anderson and Rachel level up at different rates.

...not that it happened to me, or anything.

Anyway. Loas only show up in groups of up to three, they drain lightning magic and are weak to Expel. They're pretty beefy compared to other enemies in the area, so it can take a little bit of work to take them down.

Still, at this point, most of their demons were tapped out of MP, so Anderson and Rachel decided to go back to Bien to heal and save.



Then in the room that leads back to Bien, this happened. Night Succubus are technically at a lower level than Anderson and Rachel, but there's a lot of them and our party is already feeling pretty haggard. Rachel could have burned the rest of her MP casting Agriama, but then the party would have to take a chance against their Ziolaon (9 MP, the strongest lightning spell, can hit up to three times) spells, and that's not something they're prepared to do. Succubi can also cast Marin Karin and have the Paralysis extra, both of which are normally no big deal, but being able to incapacitate multiple members of the team and spam Ziolaon? Things could go bad, quick.

So they run. They run so far away.

...it takes three attempts to get away. Like in these old SMT games, when you run away from a battle, your party literally moves back a space on the map.



...this is how the party came out of the skirmish. I think Rachel cast Trastart to get back to the Bien Midway instead of walking back?



At the Cathedral of Shadows: Jirae Dwarf and Fairy Troll are fused together to create Elemental Pazuzu. I don't know why Pazuzu is classified as an Elemental, ok, but he is. He can cast Zanma, Dorminar, and Tetraja. He's a pretty reliable ally. Not great, but he's got decent stats and plenty of HP and MP.



On the way back to Bien's elevator, Anderson and Rachel level up again.



Back in the salt mines, they bump into level 32 Jirae Lakhe. They appear in groups of up to four, have no abilities, and reflect curses. Their stats are mediocre and they're generally nothing more than a speed bump for our team, plus all the levels that Anderson and Rachel have been gaining have seriously dropped the amount of experience enemies give here.



And another neutral encounter: Yoma Girtablilu (level 33). Girtabilu can cast Penpatra (4 MP, heals Sleep, Bind, Panic, Close and Happy status for the whole party), but that's about it. They have fewer HP than Lagoon despite the level difference, and have parties of up to four.



Just for kicks, I tried out Pazuzu's Dorminar spell. It put four of these five Naiases to sleep (as indicated by the facedown demon icons at the top of the screen), which is a pretty good deal. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna waste all his MP trying to put enemies to sleep, but that was neat.



They were also sweet enough to leave behind enough experience for Anderson and Rachel to hit level 30.



Wilder Fenrir. Despite their higher level, they aren't any more dangerous than Manticores (I'd even say they're significantly less threatening because they aren't immune to fire). They kind of look doofy and can travel in packs of five.

I think Anderson and Rachel were on their way back to Bien to make some new allies at this point, because my next screenshots have them deleting Werecat from the iPhone to make room for fusion fodder.



Ingredient 1: Beast Nekomata. She was polite enough to spawn immediately outside of the Bien Midway so they did not have to walk back to the 2F of Daedalus.

The second ingredient took a long time to get ahold of. Lots of wandering around the 2F trying to locate it. On the upside, Rachel leveled up and learned Hanmahan, her second and final offensive spell. Hanmahan is a powerful Expel-based spell that cost 9 MP to cast. It hits twice but does massive damage. Like, the damage modifier is higher than all of the Agi-line and Zio-line spells. It's powerful. The downside is that 9 MP is a lot, so she can't cast it with the same freedom that she can with Agirama.



Nearly two full levels since they set out looking for one, Andy and Rach finally find a Fairy Elf to recruit. We've long since blown past her being a useful addition to the party, so we're gonna immediately trade her in for a more powerful palette swap:



Beast Nekomata x Fairy Elf = Genma Alraune. Alraune is the lowest-level Genma in the game. Look at that intelligence stat! It mostly goes toward healing, because she's got nothing going for her offensively. Marin Karin and 8 Strength points. Pfft. Mediama is always welcome, and... Paraladi is always meh.



We've got one more ally to fuse before we move on. Back to the Daedalus! Well, I guess "Fly back to Valhalla, then back to the Daedalus" is more appropriate.

Doru will let us through no problem. He says the same thing as the other Gate Keeper.

Anderson and Rachel level up again, which is perfect. They also delete Tapir. Sorry dude, you were really useful once upon a time, but you just aren't third dungeon material!



Here's what we need: Beast Cancer and Beast Nekomata.



Together, they become Holy Bastet, who is, by far, the best ally we've seen: A huge HP pool, great stats all around, and some mighty powerful magic. Agilaon: 6 MP, fire damage, hits two to three times. It's the most powerful fire spell in the game (which, remember, still makes it weaker than Rachel's Hanmahan spell). She also has Mediama and Marin Karin, and, as always, Mediama = Yes, Marin Karin = No.

Bastet reflects Killing Curses, but I'm not entirely sure how useful that is.



While they're at the Midway, Anderson plays some Big & Small to earn a few extra DBucks so he can do a little shopping.



...a little shopping in the final dungeon.

Look at that sweet Mode 7 action.



"ingressi estis palatium infini"
From the eastern gate of Bien, Anderson and Rachel enter the final dungeon and are immediately confronted with this inscribed on the wall. It's very... blue. It's not quite as striking as Daedalus was, to me at least, but at least it looks more interesting than the last three dungeons.



Our goal: Travel south through the door, then immediately west down the hall to a small, one tile room (where the pink tile is in the picture). There's a warp inside that will teleport the party to the north part of the floor. You can walk up there by going north from the entrance, but that takes more steps, and the less time we spend here, the better.

Immediately outside the room Anderson is teleported to is a spinner. I don't really understand the point of spinners. You more than likely have Mapper active, the full automap is only a button press away, and you have a compass in the top left of the screen anyway. It's less an obstacle and more an minor annoyance because you have to wait for the spinning animation to finish.

There are three doors to the south as you travel west from the spinner room. The first leads to a Junk Shop, the second leads to the Armor Shop, and the third to the Weapon Shop. These are the last shops in the game.



Armor shop:

• Orichalcum Mail (18,000 DBucks, Male only, 12 Def)
• Aura Armor (37,000 DBucks, Unisex, 14 Def)
• Aura Shield (25,000 DBucks, Male only, 7 Def)
• Aura Helm (25,000 DBucks, Unisex, 10 Def)

Weapon shop:

• Vermillion Blade (12,000 DBucks, Female only, 38 attack, hits 2-4 times)
• Reaper's Scythe (20,000 DBucks, Male only, 45 attack, hits 1-3 times)
• Sword of Perseus (30,000 DBucks, Male only, 48 attack, hits 2-4 times)
• Aura Blade (50,000 DBucks, Unisex, 74 Attack, hits 1-2 times)

So. This is it. The very finest things that money can buy. It's expensive, and if we really, really, really wanted to, we could go grind up more cash from Big & Small and get everything we wanted. But that would be overkill. Instead, Anderson just picks up an Aura Shield and Aura Armor from the armor shop and the Sword of Perseus from the weapon shop. The Aura Helm probably would have been a better investment than the Aura Shield to be honest, but whatever.

Rachel doesn't get anything, although if you have the cash an Aura Blade would be worth picking up. I gave Anderson the Sword of Perseus because y'all know me, I love multiple hits.

Rachel trastarts the party back to the safety of Bien so they can heal and save.

Ok. We got endgame equipment and tons of levels. Let's blow through the Halls of Valhalla.

...



First thing's first: Head down to Bien's Southeastern Gate to talk to Garu. (Ok, actually, the first thing is flying Bien back to Valhalla, but whatever)

Garu: "Not only did you get my shield back, but you saved the town too! ... I want you to take this. It's an Amulet my friend Lor entrusted to me with his dying breath. It's supposed to have some sort of power."

Anderson receives Lor's Amulet. This is the key item he needs to defeat Loki, the Tyrant of Valhalla. Just like with the Statue of Tabatha, I'm not sure how it's supposed to help when Lor fought Loki and lost, but you know, whatever. Let's just say that Lor went on a suicide mission against Loki to create the Amulet. Like, maybe he needed one of Loki's hairs, or something. Does that work for everybody? It's better than the "Hey to stop Medusa from turning you to stone you literally need the remains of a creature she turned to stone earlier" right?

Next Time: We'll do Valhalla. All of it.

Well, after dithering all year long, I finally caved and picked up a Shin Megami Tensei cartridge from eBay thanks to the big hole in my schedule where Eternal Punishment was supposed to be. Setting things up on my laptop was horrible as usual, I'm pretty good at finding ways to mess things up on PCs and this isn't really the way I wanted to experience the flagship entry in this franchise for the first time, but what are you going to do. It's still extremely exciting and satisfying to finally be playing this after years of media blackout.

Might try to post some screens like everyone's been doing but I guess I'd have to think of something interesting to say alongside. The cool thing is I'm using a modified version of the fan translation that apparently came out just a couple weeks ago. It uses the naming conventions for spells and demons I'm familiar with and fixes some apparent bugs, very helpful.

PREAMBLE OVER.

Only played for a short bit last night, but the game feels familiar and alien at the same time. Traversing the city as blue pointer man and the hospital as first dungeon reminds me how closely Revelations: Persona mimicked the OG series before spinning off into its own thing, something SMT3 should have clued me in to as well.

Allocating stats for four people at once at the beginning is pretty scary, I'm not a min-maxer but I hope I haven't screwed myself over. I picked vitality and strength for the main dude since I figure those are always good early on and that's how I played SMT3.

Trying to figure out the demon system is interesting as well, I accidentally ran out of MAG going through the hospital, so the incentive is to summon demons sparingly and rely more on your party? Having human party members feels so weird!

Anyways, really excited to see how things go and I'm feeling great about finally getting to play this classic pillar. I'm gonna go neutral and have tried hard to make sure I have no idea what's coming up.

randomkid said:

The cool thing is I'm using a modified version of the fan translation that apparently came out just a couple weeks ago. It uses the naming conventions for spells and demons I'm familiar with and fixes some apparent bugs, very helpful.

Click to expand...

That sounds great. Can you share the link?
I still can't get the sound right with an emulator in this game. Every damn music crackles. Haven't played very far (not even fought so far) because of that.

Jucksalbe said:

That sounds great. Can you share the link?
I still can't get the sound right with an emulator in this game. Every damn music crackles. Haven't played very far (not even fought so far) because of that.

Click to expand...

Oh sure whoops, meant to include the link:

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/988/

I had the same music crackling issue with SNES 9X when I tried to play through my TV. When I switched to just using my laptop screen, the issues disappeared. Who knows why. I hate PC gaming haha.

Thanks, added the link to the OP.
I have the sound problems on two different laptops. Maybe I should do it the other way around and try it on my TV.

Edit: It actually worked. Thanks!

randomkid said:

Well, after dithering all year long, I finally caved and picked up a Shin Megami Tensei cartridge from eBay thanks to the big hole in my schedule where Eternal Punishment was supposed to be. Setting things up on my laptop was horrible as usual, I'm pretty good at finding ways to mess things up on PCs and this isn't really the way I wanted to experience the flagship entry in this franchise for the first time, but what are you going to do. It's still extremely exciting and satisfying to finally be playing this after years of media blackout.

Might try to post some screens like everyone's been doing but I guess I'd have to think of something interesting to say alongside. The cool thing is I'm using a modified version of the fan translation that apparently came out just a couple weeks ago. It uses the naming conventions for spells and demons I'm familiar with and fixes some apparent bugs, very helpful.

PREAMBLE OVER.

Only played for a short bit last night, but the game feels familiar and alien at the same time. Traversing the city as blue pointer man and the hospital as first dungeon reminds me how closely Revelations: Persona mimicked the OG series before spinning off into its own thing, something SMT3 should have clued me in to as well.

Allocating stats for four people at once at the beginning is pretty scary, I'm not a min-maxer but I hope I haven't screwed myself over. I picked vitality and strength for the main dude since I figure those are always good early on and that's how I played SMT3.

Trying to figure out the demon system is interesting as well, I accidentally ran out of MAG going through the hospital, so the incentive is to summon demons sparingly and rely more on your party? Having human party members feels so weird!

Anyways, really excited to see how things go and I'm feeling great about finally getting to play this classic pillar. I'm gonna go neutral and have tried hard to make sure I have no idea what's coming up.

Click to expand...

You don't have to limit your demon summoning. You can get a LOT of MAG from negotiation, so if you negotiate for MAG on occasion, you'll be able to keep most of your demons out all the time if you really want to.

I was listening to the Giant Bombcast and for some reason I just can't get the name of the Megami Tensei game they mention, what I know is 19th century detective or a cop, ghosts? Golden armour and you turning into a duck. What game is that?

19th century detective should be one of the Raidou games (though technically they play in the beginning of the 20th century). Don't remember anything about a golden armor or a duck, so it's probably the second game.
The full title of that game would be: "Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon".

Okay everyone, here are some screenshots.

Check out everyone's favorite first demon, with newly patched familiar spell nomenclature. Come to think of it, is there any Megaten game she hasn't appeared in?





Here's some of that classic Shin Megami Tensei character sprite art I love so well. No icky dialogue portraits, I'm convinced that some of the cutscenes in Trauma Team were an homage to this stuff.



And finally, an illustration of why the game feels happily familiar to me.

Click to expand...

Musically everything feels very familiar also, some of these songs apparently made appearances in SMT: Imagine among other places. Everything's looped a bit too short sadly, but I do kinda like how the house music sounds like a whacky circus theme for no reason.

Still having a great time. I guess demons don't level up though? Makes them seem more tool-like than ever, I wonder if this means I'll use them less or more often.

Nope, demons don't level up. Literally what you see is what you get.

Also, Light-aligned demons are far, far more powerful/useful than Neutral demons, but you can only create them through fusion, so.

Jucksalbe said:

19th century detective should be one of the Raidou games (though technically they play in the beginning of the 20th century). Don't remember anything about a golden armor or a duck, so it's probably the second game.
The full title of that game would be: "Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon".

Click to expand...

I'm gonna check it out, I'm surprised that searching Shin Megami Tensei duck doesn't result in anything.

randomkid said:

Check out everyone's favorite first demon, with newly patched familiar spell nomenclature. Come to think of it, is there any Megaten game she hasn't appeared in?

Click to expand...

Pixie is the real Slime of the series, forget Jack Frost!

Just take it with you. said:

Pixie is the real Slime of the series, forget Jack Frost!

Click to expand...

Yep, you could make a good case cuz she's always the first demon you see too right?

Made some more progress and I know we're supposed to be able to spoil things freely here, so with that warning out of the way I'll just say poor mom's no nonsense killing was rather brutal, I don't know why I thought she'd just hang out at home the whole game like this was Chrono Trigger or something, didn't have the heart to take a screenshot.

Blew all my money on the best gun I could get, hope I did the right thing. Just got to a new part of town so time to meet some new demons I hope.

Some basic questions: should I be waiting to get treasure chests on full moons like in SMT3? And do the Kajas and Kundas stack like usual?

randomkid said:

Yep, you could make a good case cuz she's always the first demon you see too right?

Click to expand...

IIRC in SMTII it's a High Pixie.

Sooo...after DDS1 I finished DDS2, 22 hours as well (weird!).
And...uuuh...hm...what!?

I'll just say the positive stuff first, this time.

I'm glad that most of the stuff I didn't like in DDS1 was "resolved" in the sequel (showing once again that ATLUS cares about this stuff, there even was a joke about it in Raidou 2!). For example right off the bat you have more choices to make, and the new Mantra system allows for better builds without useless skills and encourages "exploring" different Mantras.
Also I really liked the new stuff like rings, random quizzes (!?) and the Berserker Mode.

The music manages to be even better, and this game explains why I'm a bit sad that Meguro isn't involved in SMT4. I really would've liked to hear him go full electronic, here's hoping we'll get some of that in P5.

And pretty much every question I had about DDS1 was answered! It's so refreshing to actually get some clarity...too bad they forgot to answer every other question that DDS2 created!!

And now I'll get into spoiler-rant territory.

End rant.

I'm conflicted. Everything feels more refined and improved, the game is simply more fun to play. But, at the same time, the game feels a bit cheap with all those boring looking dungeons, uninspired bosses and lack of puzzles. And the later part of the game is complete nonsense (Although I have to give them credit for how..."progressive" some of that stuff was. But that might have been because of the Hindu themes.).

Thanks to DDS2 I appreciate DDS1 more, but DDS1 by itself still has an incomplete story.
In the end I think DDS1 might still be a better "package", faults and all. Characters had the time to fully develop (leaving little to add in the sequel), and the mistery surrounding everything kept me more involved.

BONUS: DDS drinking game. Take a sip every time you hear: devour, data, comrade, some version of "pray", "I do not comprehend". Shot every time: an enemy is weak to electricity, Cielo ruins a serious scene with an unnecessary comment.

I really like Cielo's voice up until the Jamaican accent. It probably became Kansai in the JP version or some such.


As for the ending, I imagine it all goes back to the Hinduism themes, especially

Okay, I finally reached the extra content in New Game+ and since there are not much cover on it, I decided to do it.
Big spoilers warning.

In sector Grus, remember that door guarded by an Angel who says on your first play something like "God told me that the time will come when son of man can pass".
Now there are a suspicious looking crewman there who tells you that there are a big treasure guarded by a powerful demon. So why not, let's accept this quest.


This is probably the biggest maze in the game. I got lost many times. This dungeon has everything: one way doors, invisible pits, warp squares, trap floors...


Here we are. The boss is right behind this door.


A seal?


So, it's Alilat from Soul Hackers.
Description from the megaten wiki:
"Al-Lat was one of three main idols alongside al-'Uzza and al-Manat worshipped by the people of Mecca before the message of Islam was spread by Prophet Muhammad. Its origins are traced from the traditions of Sumerian civilization brought to pre-Islamic Arabia by merchants and nomads who idolized stones in their daily life. In one instance, it is regarded as a goddess, and had a son Dusura, who was idolized by the people of Petra in ancient Jordan. Alilat is associated with the morning star, which is also associated with Venus."


It was an easy fight.


So, he isn't human after all...


Metatron? Oh wait.


It's something else. What he said is that he used to be God who loved humans and protected them but when humans lost faith in him, he abandoned them. The demons in the Swarzwelt took the opportunity to invade earth and seal him away blahblah...

So the demons are evil and angels are good now huh?
Okay let's go and recover the most important lost part of himself like he said and see what happens....


More dungeon crawling...


Here we are. whose voice is that?


Shut up please.


I am a human and humans are curious creatures by nature. So screw it, I will go and see what will happen.


Come at me bro.


If you say so...


He seems to have a will of his own. Why did he attack a part of himself? Strange...


Oh shit. Is this "his" lost part?


So, this is Demiurge from Devil Summoner and now I have to fight this thing.

Description from the megaten wiki:
"Gnosticism portrays Demiurge as an inferior "evil" god who created the world who appears as the "God" of the Old Testament. He was also known by different Gnostic teachings as Adam Kadmon, Choronzon, Samael, Saklas, or Yaldabaoth, "Son of Chaos". He can be compared to YHVH; in fact, they could be the same due the fact that they are both the Old Testament God.

In most schools of Gnosticism Demiurge was created by Sophia, due to her exile from the pleroma, made matter and soul, which made her long to be back in the Pleroma. Demiurge was created from these feelings, and he created the physical world, making humans ignorant of Sophia, yet she infuses some spiritual spark into humanity.

The concept of a Demiurge is that it is an artisan figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. Even if it's a fashioner, it isn't a creator figure in a monotheistic sense: the demiurge itself and the material it uses to create and fashion the universe are considered uncreated and eternal or the product of another being, depending on the system. "


Oh that was close


But with my strong demons, this isn't a big deal.


Sweet!


Well done gentlemen!


Haha. He became quiet.


Who's the god here huh?

My team:

As you can see, I wasn't really high leveled (I could go to lv99) but I carefully prepared my demons and that did the trick.

After that he went to fuse with Demiurge and I had the option to stop it or watch the fusion.
I tried the 2 options and that was disappointing because it didn't change anything. If I accepted, after the fusion I had Demiurge (he didn't change) standing in front of me and if I refused, that mysterious voice seals it away and thanks me. But the result is exactly the same...

Regarding that voice, who was it? I can only think of to possibilities: Lucifer or Mem Aleph...
BTW I am very disappointed to see that Lucifer didn't have any important role in the story.
Also, after beating the game with the 3 ending, this is the 1st time the Neutral ending is the worse in a SMT for me.

That's it. Despite I didn't like some aspects of the game, this is my favorite Megami Tensei game since Nocturne.
Kaneko did a very good work on the design and I hope this isn't the last megaten in which he gets involved.

Most impressive.


I should replay SJ before SMTIV. I really liked it, but it felt like it could've been lots more. Still, the atmosphere was great.

Hell yeah! Just beat the Matador in Nocturne!

Surprisingly I beat him on my 4th try, I expected it to take more.

kai3345 said:

Hell yeah! Just beat the Matador in Nocturne!

Surprisingly I beat him on my 4th try, I expected it to take more.

Click to expand...

Hey, what was your party when you beat him? I'm currently stuck on him but leveling up my character to learn Fog Breath since that should be a big help. I managed to get 2 force-immune demons on my team but he still kicked my butt because of the max agility thing .__.

EDIT: Nvm, just ripped him apart once I got Fog Breath on my main character

Man, I hope I can finally get back to playing SMT soon, I was really starting to get into the flow of things when I left off and the game's steady been in my thoughts. As I recall, left off at a climactic confrontation in a tower/building where I saved the Resistance leader from a stadium crucifixion by fighting huge mobs of enemies with Maragis and Mazans. Hopefully she joins my party soon.

Decided to read through some of the other early SMT playthrough posts helpfully linked in the OP and it's really interesting to see how I've ended up using and fusing the exact same demons as others, I guess that's thoughtful game design? Jack Frost is a given but I thought I was so cool for engineering an early Earthrys and stumbling across Angel. Also had no idea that charm is actually useful in this game, glad that Dryad decided to join up without me having to fork anything over!

Edit: Also just missed the actual anniversary for the game, Oct 30, 1992, missed opportunity heh.

I really like the atmosphere of P2 but goddamn the battle system is so slow and clunky. And that encounter rate holy hell............

What the heck, Shin Megami Tensei came out on Android too???

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/11/0...ncarnated-for-android-still-only-in-japanese/

But it's effing region locked! Has this always been a thing for phones? Geez, playing side by side with Super Famicom could have been really cool, any kosher way of getting around it?

Are you sure it's region locked? I mean, I can access it on a European store, description is in English (the game of course is not) and it shows the price in €. I don't have an Android device, so I can't go any further than that.

On my phone, it doesn't show up in the Google Play store and when I search for it manually it gives me a "this item isn't available in your country" message, I'm in Amurrica.

Ah, okay. Maybe it just doesn't give me that message because I don't have an Android device. The port's not really supposed to be good anyway as far as I know.

I know, I just wanted to try out for myself. Mainly though I'm annoyed that apparently yet another platform I own is region locked. Wouldn't have expected iOS to be more open than Android.

Oh boy, the second to last dungeon in Soul Hackers is back attack city.

And of course the avians reflect magic.


Off to the back row with you, Nemmy.



Well that's a pain in the neck. Entered the four letter code in both towers, still no progress.

...

Do I have to go up the left one?

ATLUSSSS!

I'm playing Devil Survivor: Overclocked right now. Never got past the part in the original where they start talking about Beldr for the first time.

I still need to finish Strange Journey. I haven't played it in awhile. I was at the garbage place I believe. I feel like I'd be lost if I tried to pick it up again, not story wise but the mechanics, plans I had with fusing, and other gameplay elements.

This dungeon can rot in hell.



But here's my party for mass criticism!



MAG is in short supply, so I'm largely using just Maken and Nemissa.

Some of these demons are badass, some are fusion fodder/skill beasts.


(Leprechaun, has most of the -kaja skills)


(Cu Chulainn)






(Succubus)


(Custom demon)


(Kresnik)


???, repels physical! Put him in front of Nemissa and the demons only attack him.

He's that awesome.

Finished Satanael in Soul Hackers.

Boy was that a (major spoilers)

Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei: I annihilate thy form, Divine Techinique.....Niberlung Valesti!

Alright. So. The Halls of Valhalla are actually pretty lame. They're bigger than anything we've dealt with to this point, but if you know what your objectives are, you can skip like 80% of it. If you don't know what all you need to do here, you'll probably have to spend a lot of time looking.

We'll be... exploring the whole thing, for some god unknown reason.



First up: Going down the stairs across from Garu's Gate, then down to the southwestern most room of B1, which contains a chest. Inside was a Beast Bahan. Anderson cuts it to death.

From there, the party travels as far east as they can to reach the dungeon they were told about way back before they went into Bien.



On the way they meet new enemies: Fairy Puca, Wilder Nue, Femme Arachne, Yoma Orias.



I guess it is worth mentioning that Wilder Nues are surprisingly good for experience.



Night Incubus is significantly less threatening than their feminine counterparts.



This is the cell where Rick is being held.



"Oh, Strangers, my name is Rick. The Tyrant Loki bound me here. Will you break the bonds and set me free?"

This is literally the most important event in the game. Yes, this completely innocuous request by some random dude will determine if you can complete the game or not. So, um, naturally, Anderson agrees to help the poor fella.

(You need a minimum of 15 Strength to free him)



"Thank you... thank you. Please, take this armlet, I'm sure you'll be able to find a use for it."

Anderson obtained Rick's Armlet. This is why we saved him. This is an extremely important item that we won't use until like, the end of the game. Good thing they tucked it away in this place you have no reason to visit, ever!



"This is the real me. Please, allow me to accompany you."

You're given the option of recruiting him or not. I'm not really sure what determines which demon he becomes (it differs by playthrough), but for Anderson he became Holy Sobek, who's like four levels or so stronger than Andy and Rach. He knows Bufurama (6 MP, ice damage, hits 1-3 times) and Mediama, which, yes. Bufurama won't do too much damage, but Sobek's biggest draw is that 20 Constitution and 17 Agility.

He's totes coming with Andy.



...although they start closing the level gap almost immediately after recruiting him.



More things that die.



Next goal: Go up the stairs pictured here (next to the pink square that marks the party's current location) to reach a new part of the 1F. There are four points of interest here: The first is some writing on the wall directly south from the stairs that repeats the warning we saw back in Bien about Lucifer's magic flowing through the labyrinth.

The second, and only important point, is a room in the center that contains an Amethyst, which Anderson and Rachel liberate. We need this, and you'll see why later this update.



Third point: A fixed encounter with Spirit Ghost Isuma in the middle of a hallway. It's really only worth mentioning because it's the first non-mini boss we've seen like this.

There's a Skeleton standing right behind the fixed encounter tile. It says that the Minotaur gave Medusa the Bull Key, which, yeah, coulda figured that one out on our buddy.



At this point the team retreats back to Bien to catch a YoShi, which is promptly fused with a Cancer to create Genma Lakshmi. Lakshmi is a pretty nice upgrade compared to Alraune, as far as stats go. She's got Bufurama, Dorminar and Recarm. Dorminar still isn't worth the MP, but you will literally never not want access to Recarm.



Mo' level ups, fewer problems.



"There's a strange guy named Rags up on the 1F. He runs a shop that sells all sorts of weird stuff."
This dude is hanging out on B1, roughly under the shops of the 1F.

Anderson keeps heading north til he reaches some stairs that lead up to the north part of the 1F.



This lady is in a room on the 1F that's directly north of the Daedalus-Valhalla entrance. She says: "Have you seen the Necklace of Ares that Rag's Shop just got in? The design is simply splendid, but it's a bit too heavy for my tastes."



More things that die. The Fairy Formoire is a fixed encounter up in the northern part of the 1F. It's the highest level Fairy in the game at a whopping level 27. They barely have over 100 HP, but they do come with the Sabbathma spell (10 MP, allows the demon to summon one of your allies into the party without spending DBucks), but... eh. In general, I find that MP are a more valuable resource than money, especially in the older games where demons don't level up.



"If you get tossed in the dungeon, that's it, you're pretty much screwed. You'd have to be like, really , really strong to break the chains and escape."

A hot tip a little bit too late.



Another level up. Rachel learns Diarahan (10 MP, fully heals one target), the final healing spell in the game. Whee.



There really isn't any reason to go back down to B1, but let's look at what it has to offer:
1: "The stench of death lingers in the air..." of a room in the northern part. We'll come back here for a miniupdate, but it isn't anything too exciting.
2: West of the smelly death room is a chest that contains another Segaki Elixir.
3. A bald man says there's a piece of Amethyst in the south, but mentions that you can't reach it from here. I think he means you're supposed to go south and take the stairs back up to the 1F, but it's a non-issue because you don't have to come down here to get to it.
4.If you walk allllll the way to the southeastern corner of B1, you can take some stairs up to a section of the 1F that has a Bead in a chest.

In conclusion: There is literally no reason to visit half of B1.

(In fact, you can skip most of the the 1F, too. Once you defeat Medusa, you can exit out of the eastern gate of Bien to reach the eastern section of the 1F, effectively skipping the entire northern part.)



Here's our second-to-last objective for the Halls of Valhalla: Rag's Shop. Unlike in other games in the series, in DDS Rags functions strictly in plot items. Anderson can trade one piece of Amethyst for one item. His choices are:

• Dragon's Beard (it's also known as Chinese Cotton Candy)
• Kaminari okoshi (It's sort of like a Rice Crispie treat)
• Necklace of Ares
• Heavenly Magatama

Well let's see only one of these things have been mentioned thus far, so Anderson's gonna go with the Necklace of Ares. If you pick the Dragon's Beard, it turns out to be cursed (but not really) and if you try to buy the Kaminari okoshi you get struck by lightning. I'm pretty sure the joke is that you think you're buying candy but you're literally buying a Dragon's Beard or a Welcoming Lightningbolt? Puns, man.

You can actually purchase the Heavenly Magatama, and you can attempt to use it in the same capacity as you would the Necklace of Ares, but it will be ineffective.

Anyway, with the Necklace of Ares weighing down his pocket, the only thing Anderson has left to accomplish here is slaying Loki.



Let's keep heading eastward. This little kid says: "Hey, that doesn't look like any ol' talisman. Maybe you should take it to Mr. Hypnotist, he knows a lot about this kinda stuff."
(The Hypnotist he refers to is the one back at the beginning of the Halls of Valhalla. You know, the first one we encountered. All he says is that it can seal Loki's magic, so there's no reason to backtrack to him at this point).



Blue Lady: "Loki's magic is so powerful. There's no way you can stand up against it."
Fey Folk: "The Necklace of Ares is really, really heavy. Like, as heavy as three Sidhe Fangs."
(Ok: She actually says that it's as heavy as three "Seed" Fangs, but I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, and from checking several Japanese websites, it doesn't look like anyone else does, either. My best guess is that someone saw the word "Sidhe" and thought it was pronounced the same as "Seed"? That's what I'm going with, anyway. If anyone else has any thoughts/corrections, please feel free to share).



Levels! Anderson and Rachel surpassed Sobek already.



In the southeastern section there's a Dark Zone. You have to pass through here to get to the fourth dungeon. (If you're playing along at home, you may wanna pop into the fourth dungeon real quicklike. This path leads directly to a town area where you can save.)



There's another piece of Amethyst in here, too.



You don't need to enter the Dark Zone to get to Loki, he's up here above it (although there's a oneway door, so you'll have to go through the Dark Zone if you want to get out of this section). Party layout: Anderson on point with his spiffy endgame gear, followed by a sturdy Sobek and Bastet. Lakshmi is stronger than Bastet, but I figured since she has Recarm she should stand back a little. Pazuzu and Rachel Maddow bring up the rear.



"I am known as Loki. You shall regret laying eyes upon me."
You held the Talisman of Lor aloft! The party was bathed in a holy light! Loki's magic was sealed!

Whee new background. Loki's design is based on artwork for the original novels, which explains his more... feral look.
...
We should all take a moment to be thankful that this game is a significant departure from its source material.



Tyrant Loki stands before you!
Surprise, Loki reflects fire! Just like every other Tyrant! Strictly speaking, Loki's much more powerful than Medusa, but at the same time so is our party. Not just Anderson's ballin' endgame gear, but our demonic allies as well.

Loki can cast Bufurama and Zandyne (well, if his magic weren't sealed he could), and he has the Killing Curse extra ability. I, uh, don't know if Killing Curse is sealed or not. It wasn't paying enough attention to see if he used it or not.

His physical attacks can hit anywhere between two and all characters, but the thing is he's hitting about as hard as Medusa was... which is far less threatening now because our party has far larger HP pools. The demons in the party are hitting between 5~9 HP a piece, while Andy boy is dealing ~25 per strike. Rachel is not contributing significantly to this battle.

This fight would have taken far longer if Anderson didn't have his fancy gear, but it still wouldn't have been a tough fight.



Andy and Rach level up again on Loki's mangled corpse, Lor's Talisman shatters and Anderson obtains a Rough Orb.

This concludes our tour of the Halls of Valhalla. Please look forward to fighting through the Mazurka Corridor for really reals next time.

TurnipFritters said:

Click to expand...

This is great. :lol Thanks for posting your playthrough, I've been enjoying it.

Trojita said:

I'm playing Devil Survivor: Overclocked right now. Never got past the part in the original where they start talking about Beldr for the first time.

I still need to finish Strange Journey. I haven't played it in awhile. I was at the garbage place I believe. I feel like I'd be lost if I tried to pick it up again, not story wise but the mechanics, plans I had with fusing, and other gameplay elements.

Click to expand...

Luckily, Sector D is somewhat straightforward. If you have a Jack Frost, Pyro Jack and Incubus (I believe Incubus is in that Sector) you can special fuse them all into a Black Frost who is ridiculously good for the boss of that place. In fact, try to have an entire party that is immune or reflects fire and you will have an easier time in that place because the boss spams fire spells constantly.

Could someone tell me who the last SMT character in this banner is? I think she's from If, but I can't recall.

(SMT SJ spoilers.)

cj_iwakura said:

Could someone tell me who the last SMT character in this banner is? I think she's from If, but I can't recall.

(SMT SJ spoilers.)

Click to expand...

Main Character's girlfriend in SMT Devil Summoner

buddha0991 said:

Main Character's girlfriend in SMT Devil Summoner

Click to expand...

Wow, I'd forgotten all about that. Thanks!

So if there's any interest, I should be finishing up Soul Hackers tonight, or at very least hitting the final dungeon.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cj_iwakura

Live now.

Check out this fancy new lady I fused:



Charm without MP cost, packs a decent punch, and really high HP/MP compared to everyone else means she'll be mad useful for a while I bet.

The heroine joined up and I had myself a conversation with Gotou, time to head to the American Embassy to hear their side of the story. I haven't figured out a way to unequip everyone's armor in order to sell before they leave my party, FF-style, unless I have some other bit of equipment to replace it with. Trying to earn as much money as possible to buy some nice bullets!

randomkid said:

Check out this fancy new lady I fused:



Charm without MP cost, packs a decent punch, and really high HP/MP compared to everyone else means she'll be mad useful for a while I bet.

The heroine joined up and I had myself a conversation with Gotou, time to head to the American Embassy to hear their side of the story. I haven't figured out a way to unequip everyone's armor in order to sell before they leave my party, FF-style, unless I have some other bit of equipment to replace it with. Trying to earn as much money as possible to buy some nice bullets!

Click to expand...

Congrats, your game is broken for the next bit. Sexy dance sexy dance sexy dance sexy dance

Two fluke deaths and counting in the final dungeon, still no save points found.

Haha I came so close to fusing an Aquaans instead, glad I decided to fool around with triple fusing! I'm assuming the interface issues are fixed in the PSX and GBA versions, right now it's so hard to tell if I'm actually cycling through the best possible combos, every fusion feels like a lucky find haha.

Edit: Just realized I haven't said anything about it yet, but this fan translation is really fantastic. Not too showy but still plenty of character, absolutely top notch work.

At the final boss now(I think). Stream is still go.

I should die horribly!

Well that was a wasted forty minutes. Final boss never uses dekunda my foot.

Got him about halfway down. He wasn't too bad all things considered.

Dekunda/Dekaja screwed me, then Megidolaon did my team in. Buffs/debuffs will break him wide open though.

Not bad considering I didn't grind at all.

I'll get him next time.

The Phys-version doesn't use Dekunda/Dekaja. The Magic-version you're fighting does though.

TurnipFritters said:

The Phys-version doesn't use Dekunda/Dekaja. The Magic-version you're fighting does though.

Click to expand...

What determines that?

Which path you took/boss you fought in Naomi's Vision Quest. If you fought you get Phys-type and if you fought you get Magic-type.

I think I made the right choice considering the phys damage the main deals. Nemissa's Megidola is no slouch either.