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Shin Megami Tensei IV Developer Q&A Session

jineha

Neo Member
I'm really sad even westerns think JP boards are too critical.
It's jut like Bayo2. A sequel is exclusive on Nintendo system. Japan is a handheld heaven, so we have such things so many times. DQ9 is the worst. Over 400 hundreds negative reviews on Amazon before DQ9's launch! But DQ9 sold over 400 million copies only in JP. It's quite ridiculous. They are pretty annoying when MH3U/4. This time SMT4, Nocturne was on PS2, is their target.
Of courses there is another reason. Mainline SMT has much longer history in here. So stubborn old fans are comlaining about SMT4.
 
Rejoice, for you are able to manually pick the skills you want now.

Game-changer. I really liked how Devil Survivor handled skill inheritance. I am glad the main series is moving forward as well (not to dismiss SJ's "sources").

No moon phase is a bummer because it's a unique feature of the series with interesting gameplay applications (e.g. that one boss fight in Nocturne), but not a big deal in the scheme of things.

I guess experience for negotiating and fusing is cool, although I would much rather they forgot about experience and just made the negotiating system fun. Demon negotiation could be one of the great features of the franchise, but at least in Nocturne and SJ (can't speak for SMT or SMT2) it's brainless.

Still, getting more and more excited for the game.
 

2San

Member
So how does SMT4 compare to soul hackers? I haven't played either of them(euro here). Does one have a more story focus for example?
 

Soriku

Junior Member
So how does SMT4 compare to soul hackers? I haven't played either of them(euro here). Does one have a more story focus for example?

We don't really know yet. Both are story focused though.


Don't think the canceling bit is referring to the skill selection. You know how you select a demon for fusion and it shows you what fusing it with another demon gives you right? And you have to do that manually for multiple demons to see what demons are available to you for fusion. Except now it'll let you do a fusion search so you get a list of demons you can fuse without figuring it out first. Soul Hackers has this option btw.
 
I won't miss the moon phase system, most of the time all it did in Nocturne was make me run in circles until the correct phase came up so I could exploit Dark/Bright Might and open shiny treasure chests for the best drops.

Getting experience for fusion sounds interesting, I'm guessing there might be something like Margaret's requests in P4. Considering that there's no more random skill inheritance, it's going to be much less of a pain in the ass to accomplish too. It looks like we don't need a fusion chart to figure out what demons we need to make another either.
 
This will be my first SMT and first MegaTen game - so hyped. I love the soundtrack I'm hearing so far. I think I might go on media blackout now.

Yeah, they're getting chatty with some details, not just ground rules here. Sad no moon phase, though, that was a very ancient mechanic based in myth and the occult.

I heard the Japanese boards reception to this game is more cold than ours.

SMT3 was the RPG of gen 6 over there with hardcores (it should be everyones, but what can you do), so it's to be expected.
 

luca1980

Banned
So how does SMT4 compare to soul hackers? I haven't played either of them(euro here). Does one have a more story focus for example?
It's not in first person. Exploration wise it should be like a normal jrpg just with maze like smt dungeon
 

Himself

Member
Hmm I'm on the fence about this. I've never played a SMT game before and nothing about this looks particularly special. I feel like I've done enough simplistic dungeon crawling in my life. If it didn't have the prestige of the SMT name I doubt I would look twice at this.

What makes the SMT games so great? I've only played Persona 3 (not technically SMT, I know) and the dungeon crawling didn't exactly blow me away.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Hmm I'm on the fence about this. I've never played a SMT game before and nothing about this looks particularly special. I feel like I've done enough simplistic dungeon crawling in my life. If it didn't have the prestige of the SMT name I doubt I would look twice at this.

What makes the SMT games so great? I've only played Persona 3 (not technically SMT, I know) and the dungeon crawling didn't exactly blow me away.

For one, SMT4 won't use randomly generated dungeons like Persona 3. And there'll be much more variety. As far as SMT dungeon crawling goes Persona 3 isn't exactly a standard.
 
I'm looking at some of the info on fusion that's been released over the past month.

http://www.siliconera.com/postgallery/?p_gal=282254|3
From this screenshot, the options you can use to filter the fusions are
Include a demon in the party as a fusion ingredient in the search results
EXCLUDE a demon in the party as a fusion ingredient in the search results
Show ten recommendations
Only show unconfirmed demons (Unconfirmed here either means demons you haven't encountered or haven't ever recruited)
Choose a race you want the resulting demon to be
Choose the specific demon you want the resulting demon to be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OijBAKHdxo
In this video we can see more of the options available from 0:12
Choose the category of skill you want the resulting demon to have (physical gun fire ice lightning force almighty etc)
Choose the specific skill you want the resulting demon to have
Choose a resistance you want the resulting demon to have
 

Dascu

Member
Hmm I'm on the fence about this. I've never played a SMT game before and nothing about this looks particularly special. I feel like I've done enough simplistic dungeon crawling in my life. If it didn't have the prestige of the SMT name I doubt I would look twice at this.

What makes the SMT games so great? I've only played Persona 3 (not technically SMT, I know) and the dungeon crawling didn't exactly blow me away.

Well for one, SMT dungeons actually have a design, contrary to Persona's randomly generated repetition. Furthermore the atmosphere and story is usually a lot darker, more serious and minimalistic. Plus there is demon negotiation, meaning that you can avoid almost all battles in the game by talking to demons instead of fighting them.
 
It's all sounding good. Also nice to know you can turn off voices. Though it seems like this game will be a lot wordier than Nocturne, so dunno. But at least the option is there if the English VA is terrible.

I'm really sad even westerns think JP boards are too critical.
It's jut like Bayo2. A sequel is exclusive on Nintendo system. Japan is a handheld heaven, so we have such things so many times. DQ9 is the worst. Over 400 hundreds negative reviews on Amazon before DQ9's launch! But DQ9 sold over 400 million copies only in JP. It's quite ridiculous. They are pretty annoying when MH3U/4. This time SMT4, Nocturne was on PS2, is their target.
Of courses there is another reason. Mainline SMT has much longer history in here. So stubborn old fans are comlaining about SMT4.

It's just a vocal minority. Besides SMT has a history more on Nintendo platforms. Unless they're complaining that it is on a handheld, which would be nothing new.
 

Trigger

Member
One fan asked about Shin Megami Tensei lead roles always being male characters and if there’s a chance we could be seeing a female lead in the future. The possibility of a future female lead wasn’t ruled out, although different development team members seemed to have different feeling towards the idea. Some welcomed the possibility of there being a choice of gender, while others felt that Shin Megami Tensei games are better suited to male leads.

How silly. The MCs in most SMT games have been virtually blank states.
 

Himself

Member
Well for one, SMT dungeons actually have a design, contrary to Persona's randomly generated repetition. Furthermore the atmosphere and story is usually a lot darker, more serious and minimalistic. Plus there is demon negotiation, meaning that you can avoid almost all battles in the game by talking to demons instead of fighting them.

OK now this sounds like something I'm into.

I have to be careful with JRPGs nowadays. I spent the majority of the PS1 years playing them, but I really don't have the time to put into them anymore unless the payoff is great. Im just tired of the tropes and cliches of the genre (reluctant hero saves the world, grinding, amnesia, tons of filler, etc.) This sounds like something different enough to give a shot.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
I'm looking at some of the info on fusion that's been released over the past month.

http://www.siliconera.com/postgallery/?p_gal=282254|3
From this screenshot, the options you can use to filter the fusions are
Include a demon in the party as a fusion ingredient in the search results
EXCLUDE a demon in the party as a fusion ingredient in the search results
Show ten recommendations
Only show unconfirmed demons (Unconfirmed here either means demons you haven't encountered or haven't ever recruited)
Choose a race you want the resulting demon to be
Choose the specific demon you want the resulting demon to be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OijBAKHdxo
In this video we can see more of the options available from 0:12
Choose the category of skill you want the resulting demon to have (physical gun fire ice lightning force almighty etc)
Choose the specific skill you want the resulting demon to have
Choose a resistance you want the resulting demon to have
Did 3 allow you to choose resistance? Because that sounds like it'd come in handy
 
I read that you can also fuse during battles now too, which is pretty interesting if true.

Regardless, I'm liking everything I've heard about it so far.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
How silly. The MCs in most SMT games have been virtually blank states.

True but I think they feel the events of the game work better with a male. IDK.

Did 3 allow you to choose resistance? Because that sounds like it'd come in handy

No.

I actually don't even know what that means. You can give them different innate resistances now? What if they have negative resistances?
 
Did 3 allow you to choose resistance? Because that sounds like it'd come in handy

You mean Nocturne? If you wanted to find out your fusion options, you had to bring your party members to the fusion cathedral, then manually mix and match them to preview the resulting demon's resistance and inherited skills. You also can see the name (and ONLY the name) of the first skill that demon will get when it levels up, but its later learnable skills would remain unknown.

I just realized that your demons don't seem to learn new skills on levelling up, barring the skill mutation system I'm expecting will return.

I actually don't even know what that means. You can give them different innate resistances now? What if they have negative resistances?

You can search for demons that possess a specific resistance.
 
I saw another poster mentioning that in the Boss you can't kill thread.
If I remember correctly, it's a counter to any skill or item that reflects attacks. I agree that's unfair, especially with the absence of any kind of warning, but it's avoidable with the correct strategy.
Pretty sure that's false. The boss just has an unblockable instant death in her repertoire. A demon with Invitation (IIRC) is a must for the fight because she will use the move on your demons (if you're lucky) and there's an endurance ring heavily recommended to the MC that will let him survive it once.

Bosses punishing you for reflecting attacks is not something new to the series, but this wasn't that. Just random unblockable insta-death hatred.
 
I just watched a gameplay vid. You don't even see your characters attack during battle. Lame. Did the developers say why they chose this?
 
I just watched a gameplay vid. You don't even see your characters attack during battle. Lame. Did the developers say why they chose this?
I think it's so they can do battles like this:

BKpdTCd.jpg
 

Soriku

Junior Member
You can search for demons that possess a specific resistance.

OK that makes sense.

I just watched a gameplay vid. You don't even see your characters attack during battle. Lame. Did the developers say why they chose this?

Probably so the game can have 400+ demons. That and so they can fit TONS of enemies on screen.

Holy shit.... 100+ tracks on the OST? Fantastic.

Yup. I like almost all the songs we've heard thus far. Should be an eargasmic soundtrack.

And with Persona 5 hopefully being announced soon...my ears will probably fall off from the awesome.
 

luca1980

Banned
If persona 5 ends on 3ds things will get really interesting lol.
Anyway it better be a Europe 2013 release this summer. It better be. Can't hold hype any longer.
 
100+ tracks and full voice over, that cart/eshop download is gonna be absolutely massive...maybe this is why or a result of no 3d demons?
 

Kimawolf

Member
I finally went out and bought a 3DS because this game looks amazingly awesome. Picked up Soul Hackers and Luigi's Mansion too. Got this preordered.
 
Pretty sure that's false. The boss just has an unblockable instant death in her repertoire. A demon with Invitation (IIRC) is a must for the fight because she will use the move on your demons (if you're lucky) and there's an endurance ring heavily recommended to the MC that will let him survive it once.

Bosses punishing you for reflecting attacks is not something new to the series, but this wasn't that. Just random unblockable insta-death hatred.

yeah, that's how i remember it. as you say, you could attempt to push the odds in your favor, but it still came down to either being lucky or not. which, in any boss battle, is pretty cheap...
 

Yuterald

Member
Whoa, 100+ tracks? I cannot wait to her the music in this game. There's still a particular track from a Nintendo Direct video that I'd kill to hear. I'd wish someone could figure out a way to upload/rip it to YouTube, but at this point I may as well wait since I'll be playing it this summer! =D
 

Korigama

Member
Pretty sure people consider RE and VLR (999 is a DS game) good. In fact people have said VLR is better than 999...
And the few who say that would be wrong (VLR isn't bad or anything, but it's really not even close). There is by no means any consensus on VLR being superior.

No moon phase system for a traditional Megaten sounds odd, but whatever.
 

Soulhouf

Member
yeah, that's how i remember it. as you say, you could attempt to push the odds in your favor, but it still came down to either being lucky or not. which, in any boss battle, is pretty cheap...

The last boss must always be dangerous and conceived to be able to screw you up no matter how much grinding you do.
You should always be able to push the odds to your favor with good strategy but never be able to be sure 100% to succeed.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
The moon phase system...I'll kinda miss it but when you think about it you realize it's ignorable for like 95% of the game. It's more of a gimmick than anything.
 
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