Jump to content

Shin Megami Tensei


SixTwoSixFour
 Share

Recommended Posts

I think I got partway through P3P (at least up to Aegis) but I never had the time to finish it off, and then whenever I got back to it I was too busy etc...

 

I do love the games though and I'm sure one day I will finish them.

 

How can you not have time for a portable game? I'm being cereal here. On the bus, on the plane, on the train, waiting for a crosswalk to change (we have long lights here), when someone else is driving... there are so many opportunities.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I got partway through P3P (at least up to Aegis) but I never had the time to finish it off, and then whenever I got back to it I was too busy etc...

 

I do love the games though and I'm sure one day I will finish them.

 

How can you not have time for a portable game? I'm being cereal here. On the bus, on the plane, on the train, waiting for a crosswalk to change (we have long lights here), when someone else is driving... there are so many opportunities.

 

When I say not have the time, I'm meaning that other games have not gotten in the way and it's been pushed to the back. Christmas isn't going to help either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

You can play the first two with a translated ROM by aeon genesis and an emulator.

DO IT.

They have the flavor of Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga, but with the gameplay of Strange Journey, and the deepest, most open-ended story of almost any game I've played, even in the modern day. It also aged very well, especially with Kaneko's illustrations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Persona 4 shouldn't be that hard to find if you're out of major population centers, but Nocturne is goddamn elusive. Don't even get me started on Digital Devil Saga, I had to go to a specialty store to get mine. Try small-business cd stores, etc. that possibly stock games, as well. Persona 3 and FES were so popular, that if you want either of them, your best bet would be to just go on the internet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the SMT games. I like Persona 3-4 the best. This is because P 3/4 break up the pacing really well. One is never doing the same thing for too long, unless you really want to. The characters are pretty well written too. Better than most other games, that's for sure.

 

Between those two, I give the edge to P4. The graphics and voice acting are both slightly better. The writing is much better too. It was incredibly fresh to play a JRPG that wasn't about saving the world.

 

P4 kinda drops the ball at the end though. It's really tough to get the "true" ending, and the story veers away from it's previous strengths. Personally, I missed the true ending the first time through because I actually SPOILERS wanted to kill that guy. You needed to be playing really really close attention to the internal logic of the game to realize why he was innocent. NOT SPOILERS ANYMORE.

 

I like the P3 music a little bit more, but I think it's all a matter of taste. They're both good. P4 has better battle themes, for which it gets mad props.

 

I like the atmosphere of Strange Journey, but grinding on its own doesn't work. The EX missions don't do much for me. Normally it was tolerable because the grinding was also exploration, so I always had two missions. Complete the map, and fill all my little XP bars.

 

The end is not tolerable. I have explored everything, but still need many many levels to hope to challenge the final boss (I took the chaos path). Plain old grinding is lame. I know that there's still more to explore in the final zone, but checking every wall for invisible doors is lame too. I haven't finished this game, because everything at the end is lame.

 

Devil Survivor is cool, but also needs to cool it on endgame difficulty. I'm near the end of the game, and even after grinding for a very long time I still can't beat a particular boss. It's pretty lame, because this isn't even the final boss. I shouldn't need to look up online how beat something. I really really like the split storylines though. Very cool. Also, I'm pretty sure someone died midway through the week who didn't need to. I look forward to playing through again and trying to save him.

 

I really like the SMT twist on SRPG though. Good good stuff. What's really telling though is that it throws aside so many classic SRPG systems. There are no weapons/armor/equipment, it doesn't matter where someone's facing, and they don't really do terrain bonuses either. I almost think of Devil Survivor as a happy medium between SRPG and JRPG.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Devil Survivor is cool, but also needs to cool it on endgame difficulty. I'm near the end of the game, and even after grinding for a very long time I still can't beat a particular boss. It's pretty lame, because this isn't even the final boss. I shouldn't need to look up online how beat something.

After haveing your ST up to around 15, Start pumping your MA stat

put some points in VI or Ag if you Have too

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I bought P3FES one summer many years ago, and I was so addicted to it that it literally changed my sleeping pattern because I would rather play it then fall asleep. I went to bed at 9-10 in the morning that summer. Then, all of a sudden, I just stopped for a long time. I got back to it like a year and a half later to finish off the Journey. Up to this day, I haven`t finished the Answer.

 

I found Persona 4 in my university library a couple months ago (I know my university lets us check out games, it`s awesome), and I took it home immediately. The same thing happened where I played a ton of it for like a month, but then I was kinda burnt out. I'll probably check it out again later to see if I can finally finish the goddamn thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

So I've played all the Persona games but now I'm about to venture into the main series with SMT IV.  It's a little intimidating, as I've heard how unforgiving these games are.  That aside, would anyone care to explain how this series works?  There are so many games and spinoffs that it's hard to keep straight just how many different branches of the Megami Tensei franchises there are.  Excluding Persona, is there one type of SMT game that tends to be better than the others?  Are there shitty spinoffs that aren't worth bothering with?  If I like SMT IV I'd like to try some other entries in the series but I would have no idea where to begin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm confused on all of them. I never seen any of them in action but it seems to be so godly or some thing like that. Almost ten years ago I had a chance to get into SMT but I got Disgaea instead. (Tip for the young... ignore review scores.)

Edited by MaliciousH
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've played Lucifers Call "Featuring DMC's Dante!!". Not to the end mind. It kinda plays sort of part FFX part Pokemon. And all Japanese weirdness. I actually from playing that through I'd give PErson a shot since it had the "SMT" titling and...well I understand why recent Persona games dropped the SMT stuff cos beyond art style there's not much alike between them.

 

You know, I've got a twitch account, and I swear like at least three programs/clients on my PC with Twitch support now, and the PS2 emulator. Could give a bit of a stream of it I guess. Would give me a game to play today.

 

edit: I had a half hour stream just now. Though it's only story/exposition for most of that, no combat or much. Need to have a bit of a break but might stream some more later.

http://www.twitch.tv/deanbmmv/b/440703586

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...