The Shin Megami Everything Thread

[MX7]

It's that 'not too distant future circa mid-90's' aesthetic that has me so hyped for Soul Hackers. 2D devils + 3D dungeons + cyberpunk + 32bit = me being pretty excited.
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Just finished Etrian Odyssey IV after over 75 hours of trudge. I don't think I've ever put quite that much time into a game in one, focused play-through before. Suffice to say I heartily recommend it as a perfect gateway drug to crawlers, or just to anyone who wants to play a turn based RPG polished to perfection.
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Looks like the limited edition of SMT4 comes with a 100+ page strategy guide/art book and a 20 track CD spanning the whole SMT series! That completely shits over the Soul Hackers and EO4 LEs, definitely makes it worth the extra $10!

[CMoon]

LOL, 4/10 user review on gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/997805-shin ... iew-153930

[BareKnuckleRoo]

LOL, 4/10 user review on gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/997805-shin ... iew-153930

"Fans of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise expect sleek gameplay, cutting edge graphics"

"Soul Hackers falls way short of the true SMT experience we've seen in Persona 3 and 4."

Yeah, because there were no megaten games before p3 and p4, amirite. For fuck's sake, really? Ugh.

[Skykid]

LOL, 4/10 user review on gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/997805-shin ... iew-153930

"Its laughable how many times these "hackers" pull out a floppy disc, for example. For a game that has released in 2013, this sure feels like a retro 90s setting."

"Released:
Saturn
JP November 13, 1997"

What an idiot.

[Formless God]

-The characters are drawn in ugly 2D sprites, completely lacking any detail.
-tilesets that I could make in a day on RPG maker
-you can't actually see the weapon and armor models on your characters, which is a huge blow to the game's customization.
-is a cheap Pokemon ripoff.
-simply come down to exploiting your enemy's weakness in order to secure victory
-artificial difficulty
-if the main character dies, it's a game over liek dis if u cri evry tiem
-Adding to the anti-fun is the demon compendium and demon fusion
-true SMT experience we've seen in Persona 3 and 4

Laughed so hard I woke up Nyarlathotep.

EDIT:
Fuck it.
I've dealt with so many retards on that site I genuinely thought it was a serious review, though. Spooky.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I think it's a bit irresponsible to be posting fake/troll reviews of a newly released game. There must be some buyers who check reviews like that before deciding to buy or not, and it's possible a review like that could negatively affect sales, regardless of whether it's fake or not (the people reading the review might not be aware of it).

[BryanM]

Tried playing Imagine this week. Since I can remember being excited for it.... when I was six. (Ok, I was somewhere around 13 at the time.)

I want to like it, it wouldn't have taken much to get me to like it, was hoping for it to be at least like a real-time Megami game where you could only have one minion summoned out....

Just... can't. God.

It's like it was designed by someone who's never played a game before. Or someone who's never owned a computer. (All things considered, that's tremendously fucking likely. It's Japan, after all.)

The age of the thing shows. When did it leave beta? Something like 2007? (I was nowhere close to 13 in 2007. Srsly.) It reminds me of Anarchy Online. Just every fucking thing I expect to be simple; it works the opposite of that.

Let's take autorun. Any 3rd person game piloted with a keyboard designed during the history of mankind, the autorun works like this: You push the R button. You begin to run. You can steer left and right with the movement keys or the mouse. The end.

Here's how it works in Imagine: Push the R button. Nothing happens. Oh sweet Jesus, here we go. Google search. Hurm. ...it's... a skill? You have to... use up a skill slot on your UI? Oh christ... fumble around the ui to find the list of commands. Play where's waldo for it in the sea of commands. (There's a skill for every emote, like /wave and /clap. Really!) Drag it to the skillbar. Remap that button's keybind to R. Press R. Begin to run. You may not steer left or right; that cancels your movement. You also may not smoothly transition from moving into Autorun. You have to pause two seconds completely, then you may begin to autorun. Have fun!

This is just one of about a dozen or so terrible first impressions (want the game to run full screen? You have to run another .exe that lets you set like two variables. Seriously. It's not in the in-game Graphics menu screen.)

The wonky balance and migraine inflicting battle system also kind of brings things down. One of my least favorite things in the world is its inventory and equipment menus. You have to right click everything to get a tooltip to come up. And when it does, it's just a huge blob of text and numbers. No bold, no line breaks (even line spacers) where it could really use it, no colors, just plain white unformatted text. And then? The items you have equipped still sit in your inventory. With a little E to designate you're wearing them. What slot is that doohicky occupying? Who knows. Let's spend 8 seconds to investigate it.

So if you want to be profoundly irritated at a game that could have been pretty good (potentially amazing, if they let you control more than one monster at a time. Having an army of monsters under heel is the entire point of Pokemon; you can never get beyond "pretty good" without that.) go ahead and give it a shot. You already own it after all; it's free to play.

Presented by Cave? Presented by my ass...

Bonus: Character slots:

* Why can't I make a second character in my account?
* To make more than one character, you must purchase Character Tickets with AC from the Character Select screen. However, keep in mind that if you delete a character created with a Character Ticket, you'll have to buy another in order to create one again.

[Phellan Wolf]

LOL, 4/10 user review on gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/997805-shin ... iew-153930

Do they realize that is just a revamp from a 15 years title old???
Jesus Christ I think that if they ever try the old style used in the dark spire they'll probably have a headache and will be put away from playing the game.

[MX7]

I thought that I'd posted a long thread about my Soul Hackers experience so far, but apparently I didn't push submit. Suffice to say, this is a title of ridiculous pedigree. It feels like the missing link between the (massively underrated as it transpires) SNES games and later instalments. Graphics are superb for those with a murky poly fetish, character design is excellent, and the soundtrack is occasionally amazing. The way you can zoom around at double speed and even save your game anywhere kind of reminds me of how I used emulator tools to get the most out of SMT1&2. So far it's a little easy, and reviews suggest it's not as hard as Strange Journey (again, a little too easy but no great problem), but there are so many perfect little moments it really is essential for anyone with an interest in these kind of games.

[Eaglet]

Really hope it arrives in ma box today.
Been looking forward to some awesome coyberpank for a long time now...

[CMoon]

Yeah, I'm 5 hours into Soul Hackers and completely digging it. It probably is a little on the easy side. The only fault I can see in the game is that it is trying so many things at once! Nocturne and Strange Journey feel absolutely streamlined compared to what's going on here with both the alignment and personality system in play (not used to demons telling me they don't feel like casting spells.) Fortunately the game is pretty forgiving, and having a party member die is really no big deal. Absolutely love the graphics and feel of the game. At this point I'd recommend it above Strange Journey, but need to push further into the game.

And yes, as said above, there's something about the game where it does feel like a missing link. I'll probably never get to play SMT I & II (and it isn't something I'm really itching for), but having played pretty much everything post Nocturne, this feels like it is the game that should have come before Nocturne, even if it is a spin off series. Great stuff!

[cj iwakura]

Soul Hackers is extremely similar to SMT1 & 2, and quite possibly the closest thing we'll get to those two games ever being localized.

[Phellan Wolf]

Soul Hackers is extremely similar to SMT1 & 2, and quite possibly the closest thing we'll get to those two games ever being localized.

Keep your hopes cause after seeing how is acting Atlus now a days, I wouldn't scrap an upgraded port or remake of both. Just take a look, the first Etrian Oddyssey has been redone.

[MX7]

The way Atlus has been dumping SFC megaten games on iOS, it wouldn't surprise me if they release a compilation of SMT, SMT2, SMT If... and Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei on 3DS. Or even the PlayStation ports. That'd be cool, though whether it'd get localised would be another question.

In terms of sheer dread, there's no other Megaten that can topple the first Shin Megami Tensei.

[cj iwakura]

The way Atlus has been dumping SFC megaten games on iOS, it wouldn't surprise me if they release a compilation of SMT, SMT2, SMT If... and Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei on 3DS. Or even the PlayStation ports. That'd be cool, though whether it'd get localised would be another question.

In terms of sheer dread, there's no other Megaten that can topple the first Shin Megami Tensei.

Agreed. That game is a never-ending cavalcade of grimdark.

And yeah, the time is ripe for a port of 1 & 2 in some form, now that they've officially acknowledged the mainline numerals.

Also here's some new screens from the US site that went live:





















Flynn Iwakura has its charms.

[Formless God]

The screens without cut-ins are beautiful. Have a very oldschool, SMT vibe to them.

I was so hyped for this I'm running EO and SJ at the same time. Of course I'm just gonna drop both of them after 20 hours like I did every year with SJ ;_;

port of 1 & 2

EO/SJ engine
Decent interface
Press Turn
Localized

fatlus pls

[cj iwakura]

I hope the voice acting is as substantial as Soul Hackers. I loved that even random NPCs in Paradigm X and dungeons had voiced dialogue. It really gave it an extra spark.

[Phellan Wolf]

By the way MX7 would you recommend EO IV???? I enjoyed thw trilogy but the second one was really good, it overshadowed the third chapter IMO.

On a side note, how is the ost Cd included in soul hackers???

[RNGmaster]

Digital Devil Saga is really really good and you guys ought to play it if you haven't. The art direction and visual design is fucking stellar, and I think a lot more went into balancing the game than in Nocturne. Some may say it's too accessible but I'm just fine with that.

[MX7]

Tried very hard to like Digital Devil Saga, but the dungeons were really boring and the music made my ears bleed. Also the dialogue was just painful, like bad sixth form poetry.

By the way MX7 would you recommend EO IV????

I'd definitely give it a go. It's a much more smooth and polished experience than the earlier EOs, but I got pretty obsessed with this one.

[cj iwakura]

Digital Devil Saga is really really good and you guys ought to play it if you haven't. The art direction and visual design is fucking stellar, and I think a lot more went into balancing the game than in Nocturne. Some may say it's too accessible but I'm just fine with that.

The fact that it has the most brutal optional boss fights ever made balance that out.

It's like when they were making the Demi-Fiend fight, every challenge they thought of, they decided to one-up it.

Let's make him resistant to almost everything.
Let's give him a ludicrously high crit rate.
Let's have him instant kill your team if you null anything.
Let's have him cast Gaea Rage every three demon summons, and you only survive if you're asleep, which you have a very low chance of being.
Let's have him become twice as vicious when he's near death.

Did I miss anything?

Oh, and you might not even get a turn against him if Girimehkala's Mamudoon hits your entire team(which it very well can).


Soul Hackers' arrange CD is okay. The Goumaden remix is AMAZING.

That said, the full OST is infinitely better, and the only superior remix is Goumaden.

[CMoon]

Not to pile on DDS (I've only finished DDS1), the lack of demon recruitment fundamentally changes the game for me. I actually really dug the soundtrack and visuals, but as I started tackling the optional bosses, the game started to feel like more of a chore. There weren't any clever fusions to do, and my team quickly settled into a few basic strategies that slaughtered just about everything. I also really wasn't too fond of the buying skills with cash system--a mechanic which essentially forced me to grind for hours (even with plenty of demon eating skills.) Not to say that the other SMT games (or rpgs in general) aren't guilty of grinding as a mechanic, however it just felt too transparent here.

[Phellan Wolf]

By the way, any rumors for Persona 5???

[BryanM]

Just the same baseless speculation afaik. Considering how long it's been in the cryotube, and the Phantasty Star 4 and FailBox 3000 coming out right now, the 3DS is looking like a likely candidate.

With Soul Hackers now, Tensei 4 (hory sheet, only a two month lag for localization) and Tensei X Fire Emblem upcoming, the hype train probably won't start up until next year. They're all megami'ed out.

[RNGmaster]

Not to pile on DDS (I've only finished DDS1), the lack of demon recruitment fundamentally changes the game for me. I actually really dug the soundtrack and visuals, but as I started tackling the optional bosses, the game started to feel like more of a chore. There weren't any clever fusions to do, and my team quickly settled into a few basic strategies that slaughtered just about everything. I also really wasn't too fond of the buying skills with cash system--a mechanic which essentially forced me to grind for hours (even with plenty of demon eating skills.) Not to say that the other SMT games (or rpgs in general) aren't guilty of grinding as a mechanic, however it just felt too transparent here.

It is rather grindy and takes a hell of a long time to replace Macca, but I love how your party members don't lose skills permanently. It makes your party much more immediately flexible and reduces the chance of screwing yourself over, especially compared to Nocturne.

Demon fusion is cool in principle but since skill inheritance is pseudorandom I ended up grinding reset on fusions for hours to get the right skill setup bc I'm OCD or some shit. Yes, look at my username and laugh, but I hated the random aspect.

[cj iwakura]

By the way, any rumors for Persona 5???

My wager is that something is going to happen around the time of SMT IV's release.

[BryanM]

The most batshit* thing I could think of is they make it into an MMoozer. It's obviously something they haven't forgotten with the references to Imagine in P3, and we're talking rumors here, so...

... plus the whole years gone by thing. Even with +2 years added for a new engine to be developed, it's been a little long for their best seller.

Presented by Cave? No. Presented by ATLUS.

* (Well really, the most batshit thing would be a moozer with a very strong use of this year's cross dimensional universes theme, where everything ever is mixed together into a world where Tensei mainline, Persona users, and devil survivor guys comingle in this big giant ball of crazy.)

[Phellan Wolf]

Just the same baseless speculation afaik. Considering how long it's been in the cryotube, and the Phantasty Star 4 and FailBox 3000 coming out right now, the 3DS is looking like a likely candidate.

With Soul Hackers now, Tensei 4 (hory sheet, only a two month lag for localization) and Tensei X Fire Emblem upcoming, the hype train probably won't start up until next year. They're all megami'ed out.

Ouch I've just forgotten about the cross over. I simply can't see it, very different worlds IMO, but lets see how it turns out.

[BryanM]

Demon fusion is cool in principle but since skill inheritance is pseudorandom I ended up grinding reset on fusions for hours to get the right skill setup bc I'm OCD or some shit. Yes, look at my username and laugh, but I hated the random aspect.

I did horrible things to myself with Strange Journey. Not just skills; every single time I gained a level, too.

Those bastards know we have the OCD or we wouldn't be at the party in the first place. And yet, they still do this to us anyway.

Evil satanic bastards.

[Formless God]

The vortex sucks Flynn, and he awakens in a city covered in flames. The scene is reminiscent of other Shin Megami Tensei titles and another voice instructs Flynn to run over. You can explore the city, but there isn’t anything to see other than burning cars and a glowing white presence ahead. The figure talks about fighting and then says that, now that Flynn has arrived, he can take form.

The presence turned out to be Walter, one of the samurai in Shin Megami Tensei IV. After conversing with Walter, Flynn is whisked away to a desert-like area. A stone head and another glowing entity lie ahead. A gentle voice says, “Good, now I can take shape, too. I prayed and waited longing for the day you would come.” This character is Jonathan, who has the opposite vibe of Walter. “The two of us are going to make a world where the peace we know today lasts forever.”

Another figure then comes into view—a fuzzy image of a girl. This character, simply called “Girl,” asks Flynn to revive her.

Code: Select all

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/05/07/i-played-and-survived-the-beginning-of-shin-megami-tensei-iv/

I'm excited to hear that fights now are up to the player to decide and the difficulty's rebalanced around the Save Anywhere system. I've always disliked random encounters and the fact that everything that's not next to a save room is easy as piss. Good riddance to both.