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SMT3:Nocturne - PS2 JRPG masterpiece - don't worry, there are no moé children here

random battles and trying to spit game at fickle demons are the two downsides to this game for me.

Otherwise it's the bomb.
 
To be honest, I still think the Demi-Fiend looks a bit stupid.

I also want a Dark Souls-ish action RPG with those monster designs and that shading style.
 
matador was the breaking point? I completely destroyed that boss, but then again I did get sidetracked in the game and messed around a lot with getting monsters on my party, so maybe I was OP
 
Brobzoid said:
random battles and trying to spit game at fickle demons are the two downsides to this game for me.

Otherwise it's the bomb.
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The atmosphere of the game would be severely injured if monsters were bouncing around all of the environments, though. Like, majorly. The game has a wonderful feeling of solitude that would just not exist if enemies were visible.
 
Aeana said:
I'm always surprised about the Matador thing. I don't think he's that much harder than what comes before it. But I admit I have been with the Megaten games since I was a kid, and I had played SMT3 vanilla before I played Maniax/NA version and ran into Matador.
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Personally, I found Daisoujou much harder than Matador.
 
cyborg009 said:
I'm interested in knowing why is she so important
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Well...

Late in the game, there's a place where you can find a door that asks you to "present the one who has been with you longest," and if you choose the Pixie or the one with the Pixie's "lineage," you can get rewarded with an "Uber pixie" that has extremely good stats and skills to pass on.

It's not really significant to the story, but it's very useful.
 
Hanging onto the first pixie is easy since she/whatever monster she's fused into is always in the first slot of your reserve lineup no matter what.
 
Aeana said:
I dunno. Going by his games since he left Atlus, I'd say maybe he wasn't as integral as we all thought.
And before SJ came along, I felt like Raidou 2 was surprisingly close to a classic-feeling SMT all things considered.
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Really? How was Raidou 2 compared to the original? I've only played it briefly.
 
I bought it about 2 years ago. I played it for a few hours and stopped, I'd just gotten bored with it. All I can remember is a high random encounter rate and bland looking dungeons. I enjoyed the whole vibe of the hospital in the beginning. I think what may have happened is I was burn out on SMT at the time. I had just played Devil Summoner 2 and P3FES back to back, than went right into this. I don't think I'll ever really get into this because my tastes in RPG's has changed a lot over the years, I'm not sure if it's my kind of game any more. I might give it 1 more try some time. I would like a game that takes the story and setting of this mixed with the gameplay of Xenoblade, big open, explorable, no random encounters, ect.
 
I agree with this recommendation, I feel the game gets everything right, story, visuals, atmosphere, choice, battle/negotiation system, world, NPCs/demons and dungeons.

Some comments (bolded) on the OP:

Seraphinianus said:
Of course, we've all been burned by a "best JRPG ever" recommendation, so here are some elements to consider:
  • Occasional bullshit insta-kills on your protagonist (game is over when he dies).
    There's two type of death spells, holy and demon, but you can defend against both with lowered percentage or perfectly with later skills. The trick is to not let those pass by or replace them with other ones, even though you have to sacrifice two of your 8 permanent ability slots for them.
    Of course on an enemy iniative encounter, if all of the opponents decide to attack the protagonist, you'll still die. Rare thing to happen on normal difficulty though.
  • You may feel the need to grind a few levels when you get stuck on a harder boss
    I found that trying to find a demon who can exploit the boss's week spot or can seal their attacks works much better than grinding as levels don't mean much in this game.
Click to expand...
 
Aeana said:
The atmosphere of the game would be severely injured if monsters were bouncing around all of the environments, though. Like, majorly. The game has a wonderful feeling of solitude that would just not exist if enemies were visible.
Click to expand...

the problem isn't so much that you don't see the enemies, rather that you get no indication of when shit's gonna pop off. Any sort of heads-up would be appreciated. That's an issue with most RPGs for me though, besides SMT the only RPG with random battles I've finished is pokemon yellow.
 
Credo said:
Quick pro-tip: Keep track of the first Pixie you get, and do not ever part with her! You don't have to keep her as a Pixie the whole game, but keep track of what you use to fuse her with (and the fusions thereafter). Do not get rid of her (or what you use her to make) in any way. It will pay off later.
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Yeah, definitely want her to open doors later on. As a team member, uber Pixie isn't that great.

Loved this game but I liked Persona 3 better(don't shoot me!). It's still one of the best games on the PS2.

Was I the only one who didn't die by Matador the first time? I think I didn't really die until really late in the game. I remember being really lucky throughout the game though...
 
I would really like to see ATLUS come out with another game like this, given that I don't like the musical direction ATLUS has taken with the Persona series. That being said, I like Persona 2 Innocent Sin much better.
 
Brobzoid said:
the problem isn't so much that you don't see the enemies, rather that you get no indication of when shit's gonna pop off. Any sort of heads-up would be appreciated. That's an issue with most RPGs for me though, besides SMT the only RPG with random battles I've finished is pokemon yellow.
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You get a meter in the corner telling you the chance of an encounter:

smt3-3.jpg


If you're running around with that in the red, it's not a surprise fightin' happened.
 
SatelliteOfLove said:
You get a meter in the corner telling you the chance of an encounter:

smt3-3.jpg


If you're running around with that in the red, it's not a surprise fightin' happened.
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Brobzoid, he's talking about the diamond in the bottom right corner. When the inside of that diamond turns red you have a random battle in your next 1-30 steps.

Edit: Also, can anyone share some PCSX screens?
 
I admit I've never played this despite being a MegaTen fan. I really liked Digital Devil Saga and Strange Journey but finished neither one of them because it felt (to me) like the difficulty got higher than I thought was fun at a certain point in both games. And Nocturne is supposed to be harder than both of those, right?

If Nocturne hits the PSN at $9.99 at some point then I would feel comfortable giving it a play for that price.
 
The reason why people find these games difficult is because most "mainstream" JRPGs don't really make buffs/debuffs important, outside of maybe Haste. They are critical here. And then people have to learn a whole new language of spells.

Even after many of these games, I still always forget what Sukundajdadeku means.
 
CLOUDsea said:
Is the Matador that thing in the subway system/cave area that's all dark? IF so, that's where I left off ...
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Yeah. But people shouldn't give up. I always consider that fight a sort of ending of the introduction. For me, when finishing the Matador fight, the game truly starts.
 
Still remember that pansy ass Gaffer who felt bad about a game using demons...

I won't say it is my fave, I prefer DDS, but it is an awesome hardcore game that fans of punishing games like Dark Souls and Demon Souls should try.

A lit of times when you fuck up, it really is your fault and tweaking your team can fix it.

Only thing I fucking FUCKING hate about this game is the stupid instakill attacks. They are annoying and I find they detract from the game play. I want to focus on weaknesses and not pussy one shot kills. I'm also adding the half health hit moves too. Fuck that shit.

I didn't find the lack of voice too bad, but after playing DDS, I would prefer it.

I also hate how you can't get a skill back after you replace it. I rage quit after learning how one skill made the final encounters easier...
 
The only persona game i played. I put around 197 hours in it. It´s my most played game ever and only completed JRPG ever. I only played 2 JRPG FF7 and this.
 
Y2Kev said:
The reason why people find these games difficult is because most "mainstream" JRPGs don't really make buffs/debuffs important, outside of maybe Haste. They are critical here. And then people have to learn a whole new language of spells.

Even after many of these games, I still always forget what Sukundajdadeku means.
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Isn't Sukukaja the agility buff for the party? I think dekunda is the debuff for status bonuses on foes
 
7threst said:
Persona game? I hope the Megaten hardcore won't hear you! :)
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The 'Megaten hardcore' who hate on Persona make me laugh. SMT has changed, but Hashino's games still outshine most other Japanese devs without even breaking a sweat.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely miss Cozy Okada's games(and Kaneko being reduced to who knows what he's up to status makes me sad), but their current projects are still great.
 
It ruined DDS for me, somehow. I should have played that first and then Nocturne. Then play a 2nd playthrough of DDS because of that extra boss.

Ok, back to Nocturne.

I like how your friends
will give you the back and fight you with one of the best songs from the game
. That has become a peculiar thing I like the most from the mainline SMT games.
 
i think the spell names are worth mentioning as a negative, along with not being able to quickly check the skill descriptions when fusing. you get these things down quickly though, small price to pay.
 
cj_iwakura said:
The 'Megaten hardcore' who hate on Persona make me laugh. SMT has changed, but Hashino's games still outshine most other Japanese devs without even breaking a sweat.
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Well, the fact that you interpret someone stating a fact as 'hating' says a lot.

The fact is that Persona is not SMT; they are different in many ways.
 
Y2Kev said:
The reason why people find these games difficult is because most "mainstream" JRPGs don't really make buffs/debuffs important, outside of maybe Haste. They are critical here. And then people have to learn a whole new language of spells.

Even after many of these games, I still always forget what Sukundajdadeku means.
Click to expand...

People don't find Nocturne difficult, people find it frustrating because the game forces the player to replay the entire dungeon if he loses to the boss, which he usually can't beat at the first attempt because his team is not prepared for that specific type of opponent. There go 40 minutes of the player's life if he wants to continue playing the game. Dungeons themselves are piss easy and there's no tension, just grinding until you meet the boss again.

What a terribly designed game it was, that Lucifer's Call.
 
Aeana said:
It's pretty logical. -kaja are buffs, -nda are debuffs. Dekaja removes kaja effects, dekinda removes nda effects.
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That's cool, I didn't know that! Even when it's pretty obvious considering there is also logic in the offensive spells: the prefix (mabufu for bufu spells for example) and suffix (agilao for agi spells for example), meaning either a version of the spell that hits multiple targets, or a stronger version of the base spell.
 
cj_iwakura said:
The 'Megaten hardcore' who hate on Persona make me laugh. SMT has changed, but Hashino's games still outshine most other Japanese devs without even breaking a sweat.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely miss Cozy Okada's games(and Kaneko being reduced to who knows what he's up to status makes me sad), but their current projects are still great.
Click to expand...

Oh very true! I posted it with a smile, because to me pretty much all Megaten-related games are great. Personally, I don't get the elite looking down on newer Megaten-games (like Persona for example). To me, they simply miss out on great games.
 
cj_iwakura said:
It shares some things in common. Bleak atmosphere, one man against the world, a primary focus on an adult, mature cast.

Lucifer.
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This is precisely why P4 is so much better. It lacks that type of FF-like melodrama for most of the game. It is light-hearted, with dark undertones. I appreciate the toning down of the overly dark tone of most SMT games. YMMV.
 
szaromir said:
People don't find Nocturne difficult, people find it frustrating because the game forces the player to replay the entire dungeon if he loses to the boss, which he usually can't beat at the first attempt because his team is not prepared for that specific type of opponent. There go 40 minutes of the player's life if he wants to continue playing the game. Dungeons themselves are piss easy and there's no tension, just grinding until you meet the boss again.

What a terribly designed game it was, that Lucifer's Call.
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There are terminals in dungeons where you can save. And you can beat almost every boss in the game with a generalized party
Build a party that covers all of the bases and you're fine. Play smart.
 
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