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Shin Megami Tensei IV: An analysis (very long read, contains unmarked spoilers)
- Thread starter Hylian7
- Start date
It took like a year before it released in Europe, but yeah, I love the game to bits. Best 20 spent in ages.
A few months before I actually completed Strange Journey for the first time (which rocked btw) so playing IV quickly after that was a bit different, but its so good. Minotaur battle wasn't that hard actually. Just balance your team and you're good to go. Loved every second of it.
A few months before I actually completed Strange Journey for the first time (which rocked btw) so playing IV quickly after that was a bit different, but its so good. Minotaur battle wasn't that hard actually. Just balance your team and you're good to go. Loved every second of it.
Sumio Mondo
Member
That was my biggest problem with the game. It was a good game, don't get me wrong. Just felt like a retread of what I had already played before, this time with weaker art/aesthetics (nobody can replace Kaneko!). The soundtrack was good, but nobody will ever replace Meguro, either.
The dungeons were also whack compared to previous SMT games and really disappointing. It's definitely one of my least favourite SMT games I've played yet, but even a weaker SMT is still better than 90% of other RPGs out there that I've played.
BossDarkseid
Member
I feel like i need to carry on with Strange Journey now.
Is it especially different if i've played P3/P4/SMTIV/SMTIII etc or is it basically same battle system, dungeon crawling etc?
Is it especially different if i've played P3/P4/SMTIV/SMTIII etc or is it basically same battle system, dungeon crawling etc?
Pandora012
Member
While this wasn't my favorite SMT game it was pretty enjoyable. But, I had to put it down after I saw what they did to Lucifer.
Sumio Mondo
Member
Different battle system. Instead of Press Turn (which is probably my favourite turn based system ever) or One More like P3 and P4, it has a system whereby those of the same Alignments (Law, Chaos and Neutral) also attack if you hit an enemy weakness.
It's also really hard, probably the hardest SMT I've played yet. The game kicks ass though, so if you liked the games you just mentioned a lot, definitely play it. I like it more than SMTIV, that's for sure.
zero shift
Banned
I don't understand how the game played it "safe". For starters the meat of the game was in the sidequests rather than the main story, unlike the other Megaten games.
On my new playthrough of the game, I'm at Medusa and wondered something: Why was Medusa there to begin with?
In Tokyo, the Ashura-kai guys mention that Medusa was up there in the tower and people couldn't get past her, yet what do we see before we get to Medusa? There's scaffolding and signs written in the "mystic script", and tools indicating that attempts to dig were being made, but obviously they didn't make it to Minotaur. One of the signs says something about being motivated by the thought of seeing the sun again for the first time in 25 years.
As you fight Medusa, she mentions that you must be "Tayama's dogs" implying that she isn't in cahoots with the Ashura-kai, but yet it's unlikely she has any kind of alliance with the Ring of Gaea either. We don't hear anything about King Aquila making a pact with Medusa, only Minotaur. Did she just move in after the firmament was formed and turn people to stone in that room?
In Tokyo, the Ashura-kai guys mention that Medusa was up there in the tower and people couldn't get past her, yet what do we see before we get to Medusa? There's scaffolding and signs written in the "mystic script", and tools indicating that attempts to dig were being made, but obviously they didn't make it to Minotaur. One of the signs says something about being motivated by the thought of seeing the sun again for the first time in 25 years.
As you fight Medusa, she mentions that you must be "Tayama's dogs" implying that she isn't in cahoots with the Ashura-kai, but yet it's unlikely she has any kind of alliance with the Ring of Gaea either. We don't hear anything about King Aquila making a pact with Medusa, only Minotaur. Did she just move in after the firmament was formed and turn people to stone in that room?
Medusa's there to be a reference to the original Megami Tensei game, where she and Minotaur were the first bosses that you fought. I know that isn't the type of answer you're looking for, but it's things like this that kinda bug me about SMTIV.
It seems to spend more time referencing SMT games than it does actually *being* an SMT game
I disagree on it "not trying to be an SMT game". While Medusa being there isn't really explained, we can still believe she was there just because there are demons everywhere in the tower and she just moved in. That kind of goes for a lot of stuff in the series and in this game. Why was Kenji a floating giant head? Who cares, it's awesome!
Perhaps it was a fairly unimportant plot point I over thought. The setup for Medusa was pretty cool, with all the people turned to stone on her floor, and the atmosphere that room gave.
After getting past Medusa, Jonathan asks how the Black Samurai got past Minotaur and Medusa. This isn't explicitly explained, but it is logical to infer that she got past because she is a demon and other demons know that.
As for the scaffolding, something I didn't think about was that it was actually OUTSIDE the tower technically. Perhaps people climbed the outside of the tower in effort to try to do something about the dome.
discoalucard
i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
What do people really consider dungeons in this game? There's Naraku, the final dungeon, and that one base you visit a few times (Ichigaya, I think?) but otherwise it never really felt like there were dungeons in the traditional sense. And that's one of the reasons I like it more than Nocturne. In SMTIV you're not in an area that's specifically marked as a dungeon (most of the time), you're in some area that's patterned after Tokyo. But back in Nocturne, it kinda hewed too closely to its roots when it came to dungeon design, so you're supposed to be exploring the malls of Ginza but it's all repetitive tiles and 90 degree angles.
I'd argue that Midtown, Reverse Hills of Rippongi, Ikebukuro in general, all the domains, Pluto's Castle, and tons more were all dungeons.
