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Shin Megami Tensei Community Thread: Be Your True Demon

N

nan0

Member
I want to get into the series, but I quit P4 (my first SMT game) after
Shadow Mitsuo
because the time contraints and confusing/random personae fusing system turned me off. The difficulty was bearable (I played on easy), but is there maybe are more suitable game for novices to the series?
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
nan0 said:
I want to get into the series, but I quit P4 (my first SMT game) after
Shadow Mitsuo
because the time contraints and confusing/random personae fusing system turned me off. The difficulty was bearable (I played on easy), but is there maybe are more suitable game for novices to the series?
Click to expand...

That was it.
 
R

randomkid

Member
nan0 said:
I want to get into the series, but I quit P4 (my first SMT game) after
Shadow Mitsuo
because the time contraints and confusing/random personae fusing system turned me off. The difficulty was bearable (I played on easy), but is there maybe are more suitable game for novices to the series?
Click to expand...

Well, erm, P4 is probably the most accessible Megaten game, so if you are turned off by the difficulty and the fusion it might be tough for you to get into this franchise. I think Innocent Sin is pretty easy on the low difficulty settings, but I've played enough Megaten to have lost perspective on how challenging the games are for people coming in totally blind.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
IMO, the easiest Megaten game is Devil Summoner 1, but it's become rare as heck.

It's an action RPG, so you can literally run away from most of the nastier attacks.

(Ironically, on Devil Mode, it is the HARDEST Megaten game by a mile.)


Innocent Sin is pretty easy, too, final boss aside.
 
X

xenoflux2113

Member
I was having a talk about RPGs with a co-worker a few minutes ago and he told me that SMT games are to cookie cutter jrpg but Final Fantasy games are not (WTF). I was actually offended by this as he has never played nor will he play an SMT game.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Xeno_Flux2113 said:
I was having a talk about RPGs with a co-worker a few minutes ago and he told me that SMT games are to cookie cutter jrpg but Final Fantasy games are not (WTF). I was actually offended by this as he has never played nor will he play an SMT game.
Click to expand...

I could think of a zillion counterpoints, but I'd say show him this.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Xeno_Flux2113 said:
For some reason I don't think even that will sway him. He is a self proclaimed RPG expert but refuses to think that there are RPGs out there aside from FF games... oh well I know a lost cause when I see it.
Click to expand...

How is he taking the time travel from 1999? Did he take the news of Gooch's leaving and the Enix merger well?
 
X

xenoflux2113

Member
SatelliteOfLove said:
How is he taking the time travel from 1999? Did he take the news of Gooch's leaving and the Enix merger well?
Click to expand...

I honestly don't think he knows about that. With Mistwalker not putting anything out on PS3. Its sad really, I tried to have him look into Persona 3 Portable as I figured it was the most accessable entry for him and nope, to JRPG cookie cutter. Then again he also says games like Skyrim are not rpgs either. So there is no WRPG genre for him. Still to look at any SMT game and say its cookie cutter, clearly he doesn't have good taste.
 
R

Raiho

Neo Member
I had trouble getting into the DS games mainly because I only had an old fatty DS and the screen was horrible. The screen only 3DS isn't great, but it's far better than what I had. Thinking of playing through Devil Survivor before DS2 comes out. I have the DS version, but I'm thinking of getting Overclocked for the voice acting.
 
G

goldlion054

Member
Strange Journey is really really good so far. I'm not too far in (Just got to sector B)
Speaking of which, the boss at the end of Sector A was a joke. Just tarukaja'd up and went nuts with attacks.
. But I like the way the demon fusion works (like most megaten games) and the cores i get from demon loyalty. I'm sure it will get harder from here, but I'm ready. Not my first game from the Megaten series!
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
goldlion054 said:
Strange Journey is really really good so far. I'm not too far in (Just got to sector B)
Speaking of which, the boss at the end of Sector A was a joke. Just tarukaja'd up and went nuts with attacks.
. But I like the way the demon fusion works (like most megaten games) and the cores i get from demon loyalty. I'm sure it will get harder from here, but I'm ready. Not my first game from the Megaten series!
Click to expand...

The major difficulty spike is, as a rare mix-up, halfway through the game. You'll know it when you see it.

Mild spoilers, not the whom, but what they do:

Basically lots of healing. You need to be able to dish out LOTS of damage real fast, before they heal it all.

At least that's who I thought the difficulty spike was.

The whom:
Captain Jack.
 
M

Mitama

Member
Tomorrow is exactly one week before the release of Devil Survivor 2. Does that mean the OT will start at that time? :D
 
J

Jenga

Banned
Scythe27 said:
I can't wait to play it, but I don't even have a 3DS yet.. might have to bite the bullet and pick one up next week.
Click to expand...

Devil Survivor 2 is DS, not 3DS.



Anyway, I've started up P2: Eternal Punishment and the english dub is fucking terrible. Eugh.
 
K

Kazzy

Member
Ah, why have I only just discovered this thread? I've pretty much taken the traditional route to the franchise, in so much that I started with the Persona games before working backwards.

I have yet to really start Nocturne proper, which is fairly glaring considering the love it gets.

Reading through this thread has reminded me that I've still got some significant holes in my collection too. Which is a dangerous thing because I suddenly get paranoid that like a lot of Atlus titles, they will suddenly fall off the face of the earth, and I will forever kick myself for not buying them when I had the chance (Devil Summoner I'm looking at you).

All the other PS2 titles are extremely affordable though, at least in the UK. Its the handheld titles which seem to be more expensive, which is a kicker as I'm using those a lot more recently.
 
M

Mitama

Member
Sooo.. Is Persona 4 worth grabbing a Vita for? After hearing so much praise for Persona and really loving the DS RPG's and Nocturne, I was very disappointed that I couldn't really get into Persona 3: Portable.. Admittedly, I've only played it for like 10-20 hours but I just didn't like how it basically felt like a social sim instead of an RPG. And then when you finally get to the actual RPG part, it's just a pretty boring dungeon.

What I like most about the other SMT games that I've played are the story/dungeon crawling/demon fusing and P3P really only delivered on the "demon fusing" in my opinion.

I know the answer is probably going to be "Persona 4 is just more of the same.." but I really want to like it. :/
 
K

Kazzy

Member
Mitama said:
Sooo.. Is Persona 4 worth grabbing a Vita for? After hearing so much praise for Persona and really loving the DS RPG's and Nocturne, I was very disappointed that I couldn't really get into Persona 3: Portable.. Admittedly, I've only played it for like 10-20 hours but I just didn't like how it basically felt like a social sim instead of an RPG. And then when you finally get to the actual RPG part, it's just a pretty boring dungeon.

What I like most about the other SMT games that I've played are the story/dungeon crawling/demon fusing and P3P really only delivered on the "demon fusing" in my opinion.

I know the answer is probably going to be "Persona 4 is just more of the same.." but I really want to like it. :/
Click to expand...


P4 is just a refinement of what had come before it, admittedly an excellent one, but if got tired of P3 I don't know if it will necessarily sway you.

Was the dungeon crawling tedious for you because of the combat, or just the general design? I know for many Tartarus was one big pain, and P4 mixes it up a lot more, with each new dungeon having its own distinctive theme. The cast is more likeable too, and the overall narrative is really appealing. In that regard it has a much better pace than P3, which I thought lagged horribly before it kicked into the finale proper.

Its definitely the superior game, but the basic structure is still the same, you'd probably be better buying a cheap copy on PS2 before you decide to take the plunge with the Vita. And on the subject of P3P, I thought it was a great port, but the presentation meant that a something was lost in translation with the cutscenes. I can't imagine it would have the same impact on newcomers, it felt like it was intended for the fans. Maybe that was a contributing factor?
 
M

Mitama

Member
Watanabe Kazuma said:
P4 is just a refinement of what had come before it, admittedly an excellent one, but if got tired of P3 I don't know if it will necessarily sway you.

Was the dungeon crawling tedious for you because of the combat, or just the general design? I know for many Tartarus was one big pain, and P4 mixes it up a lot more, with each new dungeon having its own distinctive theme. The cast is more likeable too, and the overall narrative is really appealing. In that regard it has a much better pace than P3, which I thought lagged horribly before it kicked into the finale proper.

Its definitely the superior game, but the basic structure is still the same, you'd probably be better buying a cheap copy on PS2 before you decide to take the plunge with the Vita. And on the subject of P3P, I thought it was a great port, but the presentation meant that a something was lost in translation with the cutscenes. I can't imagine it would have the same impact on newcomers, it felt like it was intended for the fans. Maybe that was a contributing factor?
Click to expand...

I loved the combat but yeah, the dungeon design kind of sucked in my opinion. It felt so bland and always more of the same, floor after floor. Having a new theme per dungeon does sound awesome! I think the missing cutscenes might indeed have something to do with it, I bet they really added to the story. From what I've played of P3P, I don't even remember anything of the story. :/
 
K

Kazzy

Member
Mitama said:
I loved the combat but yeah, the dungeon design kind of sucked in my opinion. It felt so bland and always more of the same, floor after floor. Having a new theme per dungeon does sound awesome! I think the missing cutscenes might indeed have something to do with it, I bet they really added to the story. From what I've played of P3P, I don't even remember anything of the story. :/
Click to expand...

The fact that you do your navigation entirely through menu's might have had something to do with that too, the portable version on the whole is a lot snappier. My playtime was significantly cut down with that version, but that's a bit of a negative, at least for me. I really enjoy the worlds that these games create, its something I'm always happy to embrace and spend a good chunk of time with. I felt like the P3P reduced those moments to brief windows, which took away from the overall atmosphere a little. To play devils advocate for a second, I've seen others who say the exact opposite .
 
J

Jenga

Banned
Listening to the remastered P2: IS ost. Nice effort, but goddamn they screwed up the last boss theme. Lost most of it's energy imo
 
G

goldlion054

Member
cj_iwakura said:
The major difficulty spike is, as a rare mix-up, halfway through the game. You'll know it when you see it.

Mild spoilers, not the whom, but what they do:

Basically lots of healing. You need to be able to dish out LOTS of damage real fast, before they heal it all.

At least that's who I thought the difficulty spike was.

The whom:
Captain Jack.
Click to expand...

Speak of the devil....

Yea, it got frustrating really fast. But its nothing I can't handle! I just wasn't prepared when I ran across said predicament lol
 
I

Iskander

Neo Member
I'm approaching the end of Persona 3 Portable (a little over 100 hours in), and it's captured me in a way that hasn't happened since the PS1 era. It's more than the sum of its parts; on the surface, the plot is thin, the dungeons are boring and repetitive, and it's about Japanese high school students (bless that trope, but man is it overused).

Yet it comes together in this charming whole, where every part supports the others: the music, the artwork, the story, the voice acting, the fusion mechanics, the battles, all great in their own rights but amazing when combined. The voice work was the biggest surprise for me, being an inveterate subtitle-snob; here, the voices are almost all perfect (except Ikutsuki, who grated), especially Junpei, who captured perfectly the "likeable douchebag" aspect of his character.

The S.Link-dating sim aspect started as a bit of a chore, but became engaging - almost embarrassingly so - by the end. As the
end of the world
approached, I started to actually wonder about the fates of these people with whom I ate at Wild Duck Burger.

I haven't loved a JRPG this much since FFVII and FFTactics, and it has everything that made me love JRPGs in the first place. I can't wait to play P4 Golden on the Vita, and maybe try some other SMT games.
 
K

Kazzy

Member
Seda said:
I have never played an SMT game. Well, I started Persona 3 FES about a year ago, but I was so put off by the social stats stuff and calendar structure and it remains the only RPG I've ever sold back. I guess I didn't really understand how to play the game or how the game works in general.

I really want to try to get into this series because I always see so much praise for the games, especially Persona.

I have some Amazon credit to get 1 or a couple of the games; what would be the best game or set to start with?

I've played and enjoyed most all Final Fantasies, Valkyrie Profiles, Shadow Hearts, Xenosaga/gears, Tales of, every Tri-Ace game, various Level 5 games....
Click to expand...

The Persona games (3 & 4 specifically) are probably the best jumping off point. The initial flurry of information regarding the social aspects can be pretty intimidating, like you say, but that is a little deceptive in fairness. You will quickly get to grips with it, and you'll likely find that it quickly makes your Persona hugely powerful if you bother to dabble in even a little fusing.

The mechanics aren't necessarily complicated, its just the games don't do the best job of explaining everything upfront.
 
S

Seda

Member
Watanabe Kazuma said:
The Persona games (3 & 4 specifically) are probably the best jumping off point. The initial flurry of information regarding the social aspects can be pretty intimidating, like you say, but that is a little deceptive in fairness. You will quickly get to grips with it, and you'll likely find that it quickly makes your Persona hugely powerful if you bother to dabble in even a little fusing.

The mechanics aren't necessarily complicated, its just the games don't do the best job of explaining everything upfront.
Click to expand...

Okay, I bought Persona 3 FES and Persona 4. I will ask for help in this thread probably.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Megaten games are staunch holdouts of the "toolbox" RPG game design school: there is no "right way" to do anything, but there are ways that'll get your ass dead. This makes sense as they typically have a wide-open and robust character-building system, so rendering most of that worthless due to deviating from the defacto "correct way" would be counter-productive. From easiest to hardest it is up to us the players to suss out the way to power and away from game over screens.

Pay attention, experiment, overcome, succeed, enjoy.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
charlequin said:
...no? :p

The remake version of IS Aoba Park is pretty faithful to the original. The EP version you linked (while maintaining the same mournful-piano-plus-distant-children theme) is a way, way better piece that either though, I agree!
Click to expand...

Well that explains it! I thought they were the same, no wonder the remix sounded off.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Don't expect Minato in P4A.

73352328.jpg



On a lighter note, do you want SMT1 on the iOS? Of course you do.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/24/unlocalized-shin-megami-tensei-ends-up-on-ios/


You want it in English?

[NichM] -laughs-


(They once said localizing classic SMT games would make them no money.)
 
S

Supermanisdead

Member
is anyone here familiar with the dev of the new fighting game? advice on whether i should get it day 1 or is this the kind of team that makes SUPER versions for half price? 10 playable characters in a 60$ fighting game kind of shocks me.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Supermanisdead said:
is anyone here familiar with the dev of the new fighting game? advice on whether i should get it day 1 or is this the kind of team that makes SUPER versions for half price? 10 playable characters in a 60$ fighting game kind of shocks me.
Click to expand...

It's ArcSys. They tend to have wildly unique casts, without any real duplication, so the small rosters are usually a bonus. Everyone of those 10 will play differently from the rest.


They'll probably do DLC down the line, too. As for SUPER versions? Not likely, at least not after a year or so.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
Supermanisdead said:
is anyone here familiar with the dev of the new fighting game? advice on whether i should get it day 1 or is this the kind of team that makes SUPER versions for half price? 10 playable characters in a 60$ fighting game kind of shocks me.
Click to expand...

For their own games, Arc releases yearly revisions - whether rare free DLC updates or more common disc releases.

For their contracted/licensed titles they're usually one and done (Sega's Fist of the North Star, Capcom's Sengoku Basara X)

Since this is one of the latter, I don't expect a revision honestly. Unless this is like, a super success.
 
J

Jenga

Banned
_dementia said:
For their own games, Arc releases yearly revisions - whether rare free DLC updates or more common disc releases.

For their contracted/licensed titles they're usually one and done (Sega's Fist of the North Star, Capcom's Sengoku Basara X)

Since this is one of the latter, I don't expect a revision honestly. Unless this is like, a super success.
Click to expand...
At most I'm hoping for some DLC/balance patches.
 
S

Seda

Member
Starting up Persona 3 FES again. I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. I will be asking questions regularly.
 
K

Kazzy

Member
Seda said:
In Tartarus the first time, games seems to be making a bit more sense this time.
Click to expand...

I didn't actually mind Tartarus all too much, but you will begin to appreciate the value in variety, if you make it to the end that is. As a dungeon it essentially stays the same, but the little touches like the main theme slowly developing between each key area was nice. It can get a little monotonous, but I liked the feeling of unease whenever you hadn't yet found a way to escape.

If you ever hear the jangling of chains when grinding, don't stick around! You will not be powerful enough!
 
S

Seda

Member
I looked at a couple guides, and one says basically to Study every night (to raise Academics as high as one can I guess), but that got my character sick (I think?). Any way to avoid that or how do I get healthy?

Also, my characters get tired after just like 8 battles in Tartarus. Again, anyway to avoid that?
 
K

Kazzy

Member
Seda said:
I looked at a couple guides, and one says basically to Study every night (to raise Academics as high as one can I guess), but that got my character sick (I think?). Any way to avoid that or how do I get healthy?

Also, my characters get tired after just like 8 battles in Tartarus. Again, anyway to avoid that?
Click to expand...

If you overdo it, becoming sick will happen, but you can use it to your advantage by visiting the school nurse whenever you are ill. He basically gives you a drink that gives you a good courage boost, it has no penality despite the ominous text that accompanies it. You can game it slightly as sometimes getting sick the next day can be a little random, you can just load your save before proceeding to test that out. But like I said, It will eventually become unavoidable if you're always staying up late.

Of the three main statistics, Academics by far takes the longest to raise, so starting on it early is probably a good idea.

Especially if you are interested in getting Mitsuru as an S-Link
 
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