• 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.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse |OT| Tokyo's Bad Day Is Too Sweet

R

RDreamer

Member
Oh my god I'm still stuck at the ending boss. Got through the first part really easily this time and was actually breezing through the 2nd... until he got some great crits and whipped party 2. Party 1 went strong for a bit until he got lucky once again with massive damage.

I don't know how you do this besides being lucky... It's incredibly frustrating to have a boss that you can fight for 30+ minutes and then die to bad luck...
 
B

BlackJace

Member
Yeah one complaint about the final fight is that one critical can throw you way off. Not a guaranteed loss, but it takes some quick thinking to recover before Infinite Power shows up again.
 
R

RDreamer

Member
Finally beat it. Just got the skill "Doping" and I think that put me over the edge and into safety should anything fucky happen.
 
S

Snakethesniper

Member
RDreamer said:
It's slightly more clear, and it does show you where to go, but sometimes that's just a blank map with a dot on it and it doesn't really make it clear how to get to said dot. I still ended up looking up maps and/or maps of japan sometimes to see where the fuck I should go, especially for side quests.
Click to expand...

jonjonaug said:
1. Yes, also it's much easier to navigate the map due to having more routes available to you from the getgo when moving around, instead of having to find tunnels to get to places like in SMT:IV.
2. Just register your demons whenever you go into the demon fusion app. Make sure you don't accidentally overwrite good leveled/fused demons with their generic recruit version if you fuse them away and recruited another one for fodder.
Click to expand...

TheGeniusArcana said:
1)The map is a lot better and has labels for locations as well. The objective marker is virtually useless since it tends to just appear on a blank map section since you've probably never been there before and it doesn't tell you how to get there either. Despite that, figuring out where to go isn't really a problem at all.
2) I pretty much just keep registering the demons in my stock as they level up and gain new skills. Make sure to do it before you fuse them away so you can summon them later if you need to. There's no reason not to register/overwrite them unless you somehow end up with a demon that is worse than the one you had in the compendium.
Click to expand...

Tyrant Rave said:
The Compendium is pretty straightforward. It automatically records a demon once you recruit/fuse it. From there, you can always just go in and overwrite the previous record if you want to pay to summon it again later.

The fusing mechanics work the same as IV, so Fusion Search works the same. It's pretty much impossible to really screw yourself out of certain demons because of how inheritance works. There's a great fusion chart online if you want to know how to fuse certain demons, you can also look up skills to see which demons have them to help plan better.
Click to expand...

thanks everybody
 
M

Mcdohl

Member
Fireblend said:
I didn't use a guide and beat that last dungeon decently quickly. I think I got lucky in the first floor because it was just a matter of finding the right door, but I thought the other ones were pretty straightforward. I actually don't get all the complaints about it. I agree it's dull but and nowhere near the egg, but I don't think it deserves as much hate as it gets.
Click to expand...

Was your luck high? Some doors are locked if you do not have your Luck status high enough. I believe those doors are shortcuts (unsure since I can't open them myself).

Also, no way man, the
Egg
was way more straightforward until the last floors, and the maps weren't as massive and boring.

Also the song was nostalgic and hype as fuck.

On the last dungeon though...maps are massive, but boring and repetitive, fights offer little incentive (can't recruit! this felt pace-breaking to me), and the song is as dull as the dungeon.

Edit: Just look at this shit, what the hell where they thinking?

yhvh.gif
Click to expand...
 
L

Lynx_7

Member
I feel like the only reason I managed to beat the final boss on Apocalypse difficulty was due to him using his physical attacks more often than he had on my previous tries, thus making him lose a few turns to Shiva. It also made it more manageable to actually keep Flynn's party alive for a long time. Beat the game at level 92 (Nanashi).

Not sure if I'll even attempt the DLC.
Stephen
is probably gonna require more grinding than I'm willing to do.
 
J

JEKKI

Member
daaaaaang I'm like 40 hours in and the moon says I'm only half now? how long is this game??

also did Asahi's voice suddenly change??
 
M

Mcdohl

Member
Aaaaaand game complete!

Clocked at 49 hours and 16 minutes, with all challenge quests complete, MC @ level 107.

Went for the
peace route super happy ending
.

I think that after lv99 it doesn't matter that much how much you further level up for the final boss. You need to buff and debuff, Navarre was a godsend.

Loved the game, with the sole exception of the final dungeon, but the final boss made up for it. What a cool fight!

10/10 game, definitely on my GOTY list.
 
R

RDreamer

Member
Mcdohl said:
Aaaaaand game complete!

Clocked at 49 hours and 16 minutes, with all challenge quests complete, MC @ level 107.

Went for the
peace route super happy ending
.

I think that after lv99 it doesn't matter that much how much you further level up for the final boss. You need to buff and debuff, Navarre was a godsend.

Loved the game, with the sole exception of the final dungeon, but the final boss made up for it. What a cool fight!

10/10 game, definitely on my GOTY list.
Click to expand...

Goddamn. Shit took me 80 hours and my MC was only level 97 at the end.
 
M

Mcdohl

Member
RDreamer said:
Goddamn. Shit took me 80 hours and my MC was only level 97 at the end.
Click to expand...

Woah, I feel like I didn't rush anything.

I did not fill much of the Compendium though. I was more of a 'stick to the same demons for a while' kind of player.

Swapping a demon from my team was a monumental (and emotional) task.

Also, as in SMT IV, I focus on MAG for the MC and give him all elemental magic. He became OP as fuck, specially when he
Awakens his power
and is able to pierce the fuck out of everything. So easy to figure out weaknesses that way.

Also, auto-heal by walking Apps, and avoid weak enemy encounters app may have significantly reduced my playtime as well.
 
D

DaanMuffin

Member
purseowner said:
Is EuroGAF ready to take over this OT tomorrow? ;)
Click to expand...


Got an email to pickup my preorder (and 7th dragon) 2 days ago, went to the store but they refused to sell it 'we have your copy, but we can't break street date.' I was also picking up FFXV and asked if I could already get that and they said 'oh yeah we've been selling that since friday'.

Retail logic.

Anyway, really looking forward to playing this. Also thanks Atlus and Deep Silver for not leaving us hanging for a year and a half
 
R

RDreamer

Member
Mcdohl said:
Woah, I feel like I didn't rush anything.

I did not fill much of the Compendium though. I was more of a 'stick to the same demons for a while' kind of player.

Swapping a demon from my team was a monumental (and emotional) task.

Also, as in SMT IV, I focus on MAG for the MC and give him all elemental magic. He became OP as fuck, specially when he
Awakens his power
and is able to pierce the fuck out of everything. So easy to figure out weaknesses that way.

Also, auto-heal by walking Apps, and avoid weak enemy encounters app may have significantly reduced my playtime as well.
Click to expand...

I did the same stuff, pretty much. I was sticking to the same demons for a while, too. I was never satisfied with really specialized ones. I needed a lot of skills to replace my great demons I already had or else I just wouldn't. I pretty much rolled with a party of demons that all had every elemental spell. My MC was magic based too and had all elemental spells as well.

I do tend to somehow go through RPGs slower than others, though. Not entirely sure why or how. The last dungeon inflated my play time quite a bit by itself, though.
 
B

BossDarkseid

Member
Ok...my copy got dispatched and should arrive tomorrow...which is good because it'll be nice to curl up with this after getting Laryngitis and Conjunctivitis >_> For someone who's played SMTIV what difficulty should I go with? Also is there a Minotaur/Matador esque enemy who comes outta nowhere?

Also... (sorry :p) does anyone know if it was announced what DLC will be available at launch for EU?
 
O

Opa-Pa

Member
BossDarkseid said:
Ok...my copy got dispatched and should arrive tomorrow...which is good because it'll be nice to curl up with this after getting Laryngitis and Conjunctivitis >_> For someone who's played SMTIV what difficulty should I go with? Also is there a Minotaur/Matador esque enemy who comes outta nowhere?

Also... (sorry :p) does anyone know if it was announced what DLC will be available at launch for EU?
Click to expand...

You should be fine playing on hard (War difficulty). It's only weird downside it's that it makes the compendium even more expensive, but personally I just switched to normal whenever I needed a past demon.

And some people found a boss at the Fairy Forest to be as hard as those. I didn't have any trouble against it, but either way, it's pretty easy if you have a skill called magaon.
 
E

E_Darkness

Member
I'm getting an early christmas present apparently so I'm gonna be able to start SMT4A this weekend.

I was disappointed with SMT4 but this seems to fix all the issues I had with it. I only got the neutral ending in SMT4, from what I know of the game I shouldn't have to know much else. Is hard difficulty unlocked off the bat?
 
T

Tyrant Rave

Banned
E_Darkness said:
I'm getting an early christmas present apparently so I'm gonna be able to start SMT4A this weekend.

I was disappointed with SMT4 but this seems to fix all the issues I had with it. I only got the neutral ending in SMT4, from what I know of the game I shouldn't have to know much else. Is hard difficulty unlocked off the bat?
Click to expand...
Hard is in by default, so you can start with it.

It's got a much more even difficulty curve and I think you'll like the affinity system too. Demons feel more unique now and it adds another layer of complexity to building teams.
 
E

E_Darkness

Member
Tyrant Rave said:
Hard is in by default, so you can start with it.

It's got a much more even difficulty curve and I think you'll like the affinity system too. Demons feel more unique now and it adds another layer of complexity to building teams.
Click to expand...

This is the change I'm most happy with. SMT4 just let demons transfer any old skill in fusions.
 
M

Mcdohl

Member
E_Darkness said:
I'm getting an early christmas present apparently so I'm gonna be able to start SMT4A this weekend.

I was disappointed with SMT4 but this seems to fix all the issues I had with it. I only got the neutral ending in SMT4, from what I know of the game I shouldn't have to know much else. Is hard difficulty unlocked off the bat?
Click to expand...

What did you not like about SMT4?

I don't want to be a party pooper, but it's very similar to it.
 
E

E_Darkness

Member
Mcdohl said:
What did you not like about SMT4?

I don't want to be a party pooper, but it's very similar to it.
Click to expand...

  • Demons skill transfers not being balanced.
  • Demon designs were awful. How do you mess up Lucifer? The art style was awful for the angels (but the designs were good).
  • The game stops being hard after Minotaur. The only parts I found hard were optional stuff, like Beelzebub (maybe just me, but I remember it being hell),
  • Magic Flynn OP.
  • Neutral kinda felt unfinished, Masakado feels like it should've been the routes final boss and it was a DLC superboss
  • Dungeons were bland. The final dungeons were pretty neat design wise.
  • Ending was a bit flat.
    The white were right still best ending.
  • I had to wait for it to release in Europe.

Demon affinities and demon redesigns actually fix a lot of my issues with it. I know its similar which is why I'm annoyed a few minor tweaks would've fixed the game for me completely. I mean there's probably more issues I have but those are the first ones I could think of. Don't worry I know what I'm getting into, if this still had the issues I had with SMT4 I wouldn't give it the time of day.
 
B

BossDarkseid

Member
Copy arrived. Wanted to check out the Add On content and bar two or three cosmetic items all the "story" stuff is listed as free but Expired and you can't select it :/
 
M

Mcdohl

Member
E_Darkness said:
  • Demons skill transfers not being balanced.
  • Demon designs were awful. How do you mess up Lucifer? The art style was awful for the angels (but the designs were good).
  • The game stops being hard after Minotaur. The only parts I found hard were optional stuff, like Beelzebub (maybe just me, but I remember it being hell),
  • Magic Flynn OP.
  • Neutral kinda felt unfinished, Masakado feels like it should've been the routes final boss and it was a DLC superboss
  • Dungeons were bland. The final dungeons were pretty neat design wise.
  • Ending was a bit flat.
    The white were right still best ending.
  • I had to wait for it to release in Europe.

Demon affinities and demon redesigns actually fix a lot of my issues with it. I know its similar which is why I'm annoyed a few minor tweaks would've fixed the game for me completely. I mean there's probably more issues I have but those are the first ones I could think of. Don't worry I know what I'm getting into, if this still had the issues I had with SMT4 I wouldn't give it the time of day.
Click to expand...

A lot of those complaints are back.

I did the Magic MC OP build, and you even unlock
Auto-Pierce later in the game
.

A lot of the demon designs are back, some had some retouching though. I love SMT IV designs though, even Lucifer and the crazy ass angels :p

The game is harder I think, at least the final boss was challenging.

Dungeons are pretty similar, some even revisited.

Peace Ending is
power of friendship levels of happy
.

You had to wait again in Europe.
 
J

jonjonaug

Member
Octavianus said:
Are the other endings decent at least? Still debating if I want to get this or not... IV was alright but I liked 1, 2, Nocturne and Strange Journey A LOT more.
Click to expand...
The other ending is very edgy if that's what you're worried about.

I would say the writing quality is generally greatly improved over IV.
 
S

Semajer

Member
BossDarkseid said:
Copy arrived. Wanted to check out the Add On content and bar two or three cosmetic items all the "story" stuff is listed as free but Expired and you can't select it :/
Click to expand...

Just got my copy and that's the same for me as well. Is it mimicking the American or Japanese release schedule? Does anyone have a list of when which DLC was release?
 
S

Spieler Eins

Member
oh wow so this game is... a cookie cutter comedy version of SMT4. What am I playing? Why do you go on goddamn handholdey Pokemon hunts with sassy sidekicks and "quirky" NPCs?

dean-what-gif.gif


Also the difficulty so far makes the original SMT4 look like Strange Journey.
 
J

jonjonaug

Member
Spieler Eins said:
oh wow so this game is... a cookie cutter comedy version of SMT4. What am I playing? Why do you go on goddamn handholdey Pokemon hunts with sassy sidekicks and "quirky" NPCs?

dean-what-gif.gif


Also the difficulty so far makes the original SMT4 look like Strange Journey.
Click to expand...

Yeah, keep playing and get back to us later. Maybe play beyond the first hour or so?

Like, do you even have any demons yet?
 
S

Spieler Eins

Member
I've played 5 hours and it was awkward enough not to get any demons for so long, while going through unusually hamfisted exposition and tutorials like goddamn Pokemon. The first hypothetical need to focus on anything in this game was the boss in that weird fairy garden sitcom, but only if one doesn't have anti-smirk. This title is like strange a parody so far.
 
O

Opa-Pa

Member
The game definitely gets far darker than IV in places and has better writing overall, IMO, but the laid back tone of the story and friendly banter are things you have to get used to, for better or worse.

Also I remember not losing very often and destroying most bosses at the beginning with ease, but that's because I was careful and knew how to play. But I'd still said it's pretty well balanced and legitimately hard, unlike IV which was a joke post Medusa. There are serious challenges in there.

And by the way, I know hearing there's a good ending
that's happy is weird, and sounds lame and out of place, but honestly I thought it was fitting and well deserved.
The story in this game is one crazy, unpredictable ride.

The bad ending, on the other hand,
is just "okay but I wanna be an asshole instead!" with little motivation to choose it. Its only redeeming quality is that's harder to get and a fun challenge IMO.
 
L

Linkura

Member
Spieler Eins said:
oh wow so this game is... a cookie cutter comedy version of SMT4. What am I playing? Why do you go on goddamn handholdey Pokemon hunts with sassy sidekicks and "quirky" NPCs?
Click to expand...

Yeah... I quit after like 18 hours. Could not take it anymore. The handholding goes away, but there's a lot of shit that I really don't want in an SMT game in there.
 
J

jonjonaug

Member
Opa-Pa said:
The game definitely gets far darker than IV in places and has better writing overall, IMO, but the laid back tone of the story and friendly banter are things you have to get used to, for better or worse.

Also I remember not losing very often and destroying most bosses at the beginning with ease, but that's because I was careful and knew how to play. But I'd still said it's pretty well balanced and legitimately hard, unlike IV which was a joke post Medusa. There are serious challenges in there.

And by the way, I know hearing there's a good ending
that's happy is weird, and sounds lame and out of place, but honestly I thought it was fitting and well deserved.
The story in this game is one crazy, unpredictable ride.

The bad ending, on the other hand,
is just "okay but I wanna be an asshole instead!" with little motivation to choose it. Its only redeeming quality is that's harder to get and a fun challenge IMO.
Click to expand...

I kinda have to agree. While I wasn't expecting to like the "power of friendship" stuff (and there are places where it does become a little unbearable), I thought the party had surprisingly good chemistry. Late game spoilers:
It ended up being a little refreshing to have a party that didn't all kill each other at the end for once. Several of the party members have a good amount of well written character growth, and I enjoyed the moments where some series conventions were subverted (Gaston and Hal becoming friends by the end instead of killing each other, for instance).

I think what separates it from the other games is that in the other games your party members start as regular people and become less human over time, but in SMTIV:A it's sort of the inverse as to what you normally see. Here you have Gaston, Toki, Hal, and Navarre who start out as two zealots, a half demon running with a gang, and the ghost of a huge jackass. All of them become more human and capable of relating to others normally over the course of the game, instead of going bonkers like other party members in SMT games. The rest of your party are either the designated heroine (Asahi), or have already completed their character arcs in SMTIV. That still doesn't keep the game from giving you hard fights against gods or anything, Krishna is a hyper competent villain whose plans are always one step ahead of you right up until the end of the game. It didn't pull back from having some real "what the fuck" moments either, like Asahi's death or Toki being possessed in the Cosmic Egg. While it might be lighter in some ways, I still think it kept that SMT spirit while trying new things that were mostly successful.
 
J

JEKKI

Member
darnit! u know what's worse than dying??

getting ambushed by an enemy that spawns directly in your running path,

getting all paralyzed first round,

then macca beamed on the second, losing a good $300K...

at that point I was like nope!! restart!!
 
O

Opa-Pa

Member
I never thought about it, but I think that "reverse growth" (compared to traditional SMT) your allies have could be attributed to the fact that instead of having to adapt to a whole new hellish world all of a sudden, they actually grew up in it, were shaped by it, and slowly get pasts the dogmas they were thought growing up.

Pretty neat!
 
S

snow in jamaica

Member
Spieler Eins said:
This title is like strange a parody so far.
Click to expand...

This is how it felt for me in the sense that a lot of misconceptions about the series came true with this game (SMT wasn't edgy or hostile toward religions until now, and false equivalences regarding how "anime" the series is now and was in the past feel more relevant than ever). I just felt fatigued by the end, and the more I tried to rationalize the stream-of-consciousness exposition from both dialogue and files, the harder my brain tried to drag me to bed. It just felt like everything was put together by a dozen writers, each one in isolation.

I feel like that all sounds aggressive. I'm glad the game had me thinking, but after a point it was too much and too incohesive and I didn't feel like there was much room for my own interpretations. All the mythological borrowings felt a lot more irresponsible this time around.

Maybe there's a like-minded person who'd more elegantly explain.

I still love love love the city (I took hundreds of screenshots) and soundtrack and just seeing all the old demons I love as well as the new Doi works that gelled with me (Adramelech, Sukuna-Hikona, Krishna, Mephisto). That's enough for me to have a good time in the midst of frustrations, and I'd say it's worthwhile whether you come out enjoying the narrative or not.
 
F

Frimaire

Member
Muffin Awesome said:
Did it make a noticeable impact?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it kept increasing my damage, Not sure if there's like a soft cap or anything, though.
You would think that if I kept pumping points into a stat that wasn't doing anything I would have had a pretty tough time with the game, though...
 
B

Blackquill

Member
Hello, I am level 99 with my MC but I am missing 2 AP points to get a app I really want too, is there a guide somewhere on the internet to help me find all the corpse in the game ? Maybe I missed something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Shin Megami Tensei Vengeance releases June 14th 2024 [Multiplatform]
News 4 5 6 7 8
392
20K
Danjin44 replied
Shin Megami Tensei Series Soundtracks to Release Digitally on August 31, 2023
News
0
298
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance - New Trailer + Preview Thread
Opinion Trailer 2
87
3K
Danjin44 replied
Shin Megami Tensei series character designer Kazuma Kaneko leaves ATLUS after 35 years, joins COLOPL
News Game Dev
31
2K
Madonis replied
Shin Megami Tensei V - Review Thread
NSFW 2 3 4
167
15K
Tschumi replied
Top Bottom