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Demon negotiations in Shin Megami Tensei games don't add fun

Very casual SMT player here.

When I reach the Demon negotiation tutorial in any SMT game, my brain makes me turn the game off almost immediately. I understand it's quirky to give the demons personality, but I see it as a very limited gameplay mechanic that requires nothing but reading very dull dialogue that are often repeated and possibly with a formula that can bypass it or in some cases none in the original SMT games where it's almost entirely random AFAIK. My brain turns into fuck this game mode.

Makes me feel more drawn to playing something like Persona 3 or Persona 4 with the card shuffle. I read someone say they hated this random element but from what I recall, the card shuffle is not random, as in you can physically watch where the card goes to pick the reward you want.... I found that pretty engaging to keep me on my toes.

Persona 3, 4 and Digital Devil Saga are the only games under the franchise I can think of that don't have negotiations. The TLDR is I don't like thing and I want thing to go away even if you like it because I am the best.

Ya feel me or what's the consensus on this shit? I don't think it helps the game.
 

kingbean

Member
I enjoyed it a lot if Persona 2 and moderately in Nocturne.

By the time Strange Journey Redux came out I was pretty sick of it, it made the game too easy to get out of random fights. Then the game just straight up gives you the ability to avoid random battles lol.
 

Dontero

Banned
The problem with them is that they are too simplistic as game mechanic. If there were less demons but each demon had actual character and stuff you could talk him about it would make sense instead they are just one two liners.
 
I'm currently playing Strange Journey on the DS and when I fail at negotiating... I wanna smack the shit out of them! Especially when their attitudes are slick and smartasses. I'm not a fan of it either but I deal with it.
 

kunonabi

Member
Love the negotiations especially in Eternal Punishment. Card shit was awful and always will be.

There is nothing like being one hit away from death and having to reload a save point from an hour ago and having to resort to a last ditch negotiation to make it out of the battle.
 
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shoplifter

Member
Love the negotiations especially in Eternal Punishment. Card shit was awful and always will be.

There is nothing like being one hit away from death and having to reload a save point from an hour ago and having to resort to a last ditch negotiation to make it out of the battle.

That's part of the magic of old RPGs
 

cireza

Banned
Indeed, it is a very shitty, random mechanic. Always hated it. Persona 4 did not have it, so that's a good point for the game. It still has poor dungeon design and repetitive battles though.
 
I've googled just out of curiosity with no results, but is it viable to beat SMT games while completely avoiding the negotiation mechanic outside of the obvious compulsory ones?

Love the negotiations especially in Eternal Punishment. Card shit was awful and always will be.

There is nothing like being one hit away from death and having to reload a save point from an hour ago and having to resort to a last ditch negotiation to make it out of the battle.
I think the demons in Soul Hackers are the hardest I've had to deal with in any SMT. I was regularly getting fucked over.

So I can see there is some sort of appeal in it fucking you sideways, some kind of curveball outside of just rolling through battles. A bit like Mr.X in RE2make.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
FUCK NO!!! I LOVE it!!! That what makes me going through long dungeon easier, this why I as much as I love both Persona 3&4, I find going through its dungeons pretty tedious.
 
I think they add quite a bit of flavour to the series. However, the main issue is that in most games they aren't very fleshed out, since SMT tends to be budget conscious (it's all about that punk rock ethos).

As such it usually ends up being completely random which can turn people like you off. I see it as adding a nice wrinkle to encounters but would definitely love it if the system was more robust like how speech works in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided for example.
 

Pallas

Member
I always enjoyed them, they say some really weird shit in Persona 2, not sure if it’s because of translation errors or what but it’s interesting.
 

Dark Rider

Member
You can get a few demons then never recruit any new demons at all just level up what you have. You will need to depend heavily on items though to compensate for the abilities you will be missing because you are skipping the demon recruitment.

That said I want demon negotiation to stay, it is a stable of the franchise that I and the majority of the games fans love.
 

Gargus

Banned
For a lot of people it is fun for them. Although I don't worry about stuff I don't like because I know there are people out there who do like it.

I don't like it myself just like I hate roguelikes but it doesn't bother me they exist.
 
Boys.... I was wrong. I've got sucked in for now. If these games didn't have the demon negotiation system, they would be half the game. It adds a number of quirks to the gameplay that make it a little more than kill, kill, kill.

 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
mission_accomplish_1112950c.jpg
 
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