>Sloooowly going through SMTVV >First playthrough, CoC, Law Route because I wanted to get that one out of the way first >Comfortably booting up the game a few hours every day, wasting my time in the endgame where there's only the superbosses left >Chilll grinding adventures in Taito with no DLC and Ippon-Datara's help >Decide to build a Beelzebub because why the heck not >"Oh, you wanted Drain Fire? Sorry, you'll have to wait until you reach the endgame of the Chaos Route bud :^)" Thank you ATLUS, very cool. I thought Surt would totally have Drain Fire and by extension his essence, but these dumbasses really locked it to fucking Belial.

>>991375 Sadly you should have done true neutral in CoC since that's required to unlock the Satan boss in Vengeance. And Vegeance only has law and chaos routes so you can get all the alignment locked demons in Vengeance afterwards.

>>991381 > >Sadly you should have done true neutral in CoC since that's required to unlock the Satan boss in Vengeance. And Vegeance only has law and chaos routes so you can get all the alignment locked demons in Vengeance afterwards. Fuck, I got the law route on my first walkthrough. Does anything change in V revengeance that warrants a second run before going into the canon of Vengeance for a third run?

>>991383 I don't think so. The super-bosses are Masakado in CoC and Satan in CoV and Satan can ONLY be fought on NG+ with true neutral having been completed in CoC. You can power Masakado up in CoC by getting an item in CoV. This is just for personal satisfaction of fighting a harder boss, though. It doesn't get you anything extra.

>>991381 Pretty much a straight-up copypasta and non of the new area gimmicks I take, Dammit.

>>991402 First, second and fourth areas are all the same. CoC and Vengeance have a different third region. The plot is significantly different in the second and fourth regions, though.

What pixel aspect ratio does the Mega CD version of the original SMT use?

I'm playing Strange Journey right now, probably 1/3 of the way through the game as I just finished Carinas. I haven't seen this game be especially difficult yet as it's reputation seems to be. Some annoying bits to be sure though, like how much they jew you on early game healing I'm guessing the dungeons turn to some real hell later. Anyways it's interesting enough so far. Right now it seems I'm leaning law. Is neutral the closest thing to a "true" ending I can expect from the game? I've only played SMT IV before and that's my only real frame of reference for that, and it seemed to be the best option there.

Happy birthday, Kaneko!

>>1011181 SJ doesn't start pulling shit with the dungeon design until Delphinus and Eridanus. Up until then things are fairly straightforward as the curveballs like Conveyor belts in dark rooms are reserved after you get your bearings.

>>958459 This is definitely half-baked. SMT was already a pretty budget series when it wasn't 3D, but this is taking it to a new level. The ideas seem interesting though.

>>991381 Searching up gudes right now and it looks like to be the opposite of what you've said searching steam and the wiki that you're suppose to do any route that isn't Destroy the Throne/Neutral Ending in CoC instead.

>>991391 >Satan can ONLY be fought on NG+ with true neutral having been completed in CoC You just need a save where you beat lucifer, afterwards you can load a non-ng+ save and talk to Mastema after beating Samael.

Finished Strange Journey. I'd give it probably a high 7 or low 8 out of 10. Was expecting more out of it. I ended up going the neutral route in the end. Anyways, to review the game's elements: >Gameplay Its alright, The dungeon crawling aspect was annoying, not really my thing. It turned into a slog. Wasn't really difficult so much as tedious and time-consuming. The amount of traps that existed purely to troll you and waste your time was really irritating. (See: traps that warp you to the farthest point away, or drop you down to the longest walk back in a lower level) The worst one was the Eridanus teleporter maze. Everything else was largely manageable, just annoying. Second worst was probably Delphinus's darkroom conveyer belt maze but it didn't come close to the first one. I think I just don't really care for first-person dungeon crawling. I'm more a fan of top-down roguelite dungeon crawling like PMD Explorers, or isometric stuff like Diablo 1. I haven't seen a first-person dungeon crawling game that has interested me like those kinds of games yet. The actual combat was fun enough, as expected of an SMT game. Fusing demons, becoming more powerful, uncovering higher tiers of skills in your squad, its a satisfying gameplay loop. The final boss was hell and took way too long for me, but finally beating her after all that grueling effort was such a satisfying moment. Aside from the final boss, and those few occasional difficulty spike bosses, it was pretty easy goings. The final boss was a ridiculous difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game. I only remember about 3-4 difficult bosses in the game, but nothing really compared to the final boss which was insane. I had to grind for a bit and fuse a new demon for it, and even then it was extremely hard. One of my failed attempts involved me using nearly all of my healing items I saved up throughout the entire game (As in, over 100+ items used), and I still lost because I failed to do enough damage to the boss that it couldn't just heal up. Figuring out a solution and actually overcoming it was great though. I felt I made some pretty damn strong demons, was a good feeling. >Story and Character Writing The premise and some of the ideas were interesting, but ultimately leave a lot to be desired with its execution. So many holes, threads and other things that didn't really go anywhere, or led to something unsatisfying in the end. It also just felt lacking in terms of content, it needed more period, it feels only a bit more than barebones, like they planned out some interesting scenarios, but didn't think much else through beyond those to properly connect them together. Some examples: Louisa Ferre having almost no real impact on the story from what I saw. Mastema being a very vague entity whose motives you apparently only find out in the Chaos route, and it turns out to be lame as fuck. The Three Wise Men kinda just being... there, I guess? Jack's squad was a very interesting element to add to the Schwartzwelt, but once their plot thread is over, it feels like a "whatever" kind of thing. Jimenez and Zelenin were interesting, but just needed more with them, period. It was hard to feel any connection with Arthur, which is a shame since he's ostensibly the neutral route guy. Commander Gore just felt like kind of a bad joke by the developers, honestly. Guy started out as some incredible soldier and turns into a clown who doesn't really know where he's going by the end of the game The game also beats you over the head with the whole "humans bad" thing in the dungeon design and by telling you over and over, but they never really show you why or how humanity was actually bad in the world, its kind of an abstract "Oh isn't this part of humans bad", but when its violent demons who want to kill you telling you this, why the fuck should you listen? The intro at the beginning of the game is hardly enough, you don't actually know how good/bad the world is. A few newsreels doesn't really tell the story of humanity. Plus demons complaining about humanity while simultaneously relying on them, its kinda like "eh". Definitely takes some of the bite out of the story. The ideas were interesting in the sense of broad premises, and I actually liked the reps (minus Arthur/Gore), but it feels half or even quarter-baked, honestly. Going into this strange world, it should've inflicted a lot more horror/despair, but it failed to, imo. There were interesting events like what happens to Jimenez, Jack's squad being a strange and unusual threat, the appearances of entities like Mastema, and trying to uncover the mysteries of the Schwartzwelt in general, the tension between the strike team vs the research team, and the way they handled the whole "order of the investigation team and its structure vs the chaos of the field and the real world", the idea of an international team coming together for a final hope for humanity suicide mission type thing, but those ended up being just isolated things in general, or didn't go to fully developed places to be satisfying imo. Oh, and the endings were fucking terrible. The neutral ending was so matter-of-fact and lame, and the others weren't anything special either from what I saw of it. I felt genuinely nothing aside from general disappointment from them. Going through a 50+ hour game for those, talk about a waste. Barely any effort put into them at all. >Music Not very impressive. It was okay. There were only a few tracks that kinda stuck out to me. I liked the last dungeon theme. Standard fare for a game with this kind of vibe I suppose. I'm surprised Meguro composed for this game, as you wouldn't really know it from the soundtrack. Unfortunately that'snot a compliment in this case. >Visuals Very budget game as expected with most SMT games it seems, dunno what to really say about it in this respect. Didn't help that it was on the DS. Some of the environments were okay I guess, but nothing too crazy and never really "wow'd" me. Demon designs were generally good/interesting but that's to be expected of SMT. would fug Mem Aleph >Overall My biggest issue with the game was the story being lacking in content. I wouldn't have minded the annoying aspects of the gameplay if the story rewards were good enough to keep me going between the areas, but it felt like the game was significantly unfinished in that respect, which is a shame. Made the game feel like something of a slog as a result. I had high expectations given that people seem to praise the plot of this game, but there were many flaws with it. Not much of the game stood out to me as a result by the end. It was just a decent game to me in the end, but not one I would quickly recommend, but then I'm talking in the SMT thread so I'm probably different from most of the thread in that respect. Part of me wishes I played the remake, but I listened to fags here well, 8chan prime technically that said the remake was shit, but at least I'd have gotten some more hot chicks if I had gotten that instead. >>1016530 I had already gotten past those by the time you posted, RIP.

>>1019863 >I'd give it probably a high 7 or low 8 out of 10 A fair assessment. I agree with a lot of what you posted but its still one of the more enjoyable games for me. Its not classic but its still something i go back to. People had the same criticism which is why they were so excited for the remake Shame the anime style and added character didnt really help any. But it does answer the the three wiseman question

>>1019863 >The final boss was a ridiculous difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game. I only remember about 3-4 difficult bosses in the game, but nothing really compared to the final boss which was insane. I had to grind for a bit and fuse a new demon for it, and even then it was extremely hard. One of my failed attempts involved me using nearly all of my healing items I saved up throughout the entire game (As in, over 100+ items used), and I still lost because I failed to do enough damage to the boss that it couldn't just heal up. Figuring out a solution and actually overcoming it was great though. I felt I made some pretty damn strong demons, was a good feeling. That was my experience with SMT If and Hazama with the baby fetus. Keep in mind you can revive demons as zombies in If I think, I didn't realize it at the time.

So is SMTV any good?

>>1020279 It's mediocre

>>1020282 What about SMTV:V?

>>1020279 I'd give it probably an 8 or 9 out of 10, but do your own research beyond this site.

I just got SMT V: Vengeance and the Konohana Sakuya DLC over the Dagda DLC since I heard it she was better for most of the game since she's a reliable support over Dagda who you get much later in the game. Playing the canon of vengeance route. I got some essences transferred over from the last game among other things since I got Abdiel's Law ending in the first game. What should I expect this time compared to the previous game?

>>1020284 I'm playing it since I found a cheap used copy. It still has no dungeons of note, the added save anywhere breaks the game and bosses are mostly one note. The plot gets going around the third area which is pretty long into the game although since I am not done with the game yet I will hold off from critiquing that further. It doesn't touch the likes of Nocturne and SJ at all so far.

>>1045377 >What should I expect this time compared to the previous game? It actually feels complete this time as even in CoC missing parts have been added back in and CoV adds some character work that makes the reps merely decent instead of cardboard cutouts. Tao moves from a plot device to a fun enough character with Yoko to bounce off of. The difficulty has been completely destroyed by the fixed level curve and the sheer abundance of tools you're handed. On the other hand you have to spend less time grinding to get over it >>1045410 >It doesn't touch the likes of Nocturne and SJ at all so far. Definitely, but it definitely makes me more optimistic regarding the future of the franchise even if Kaneko isn't around anymore.Though I guess that's just me accepting that it will never get as edgy as old-Atlus ever again.

>>1045455 I don't have much hope considering this is the standard IV set in the past 12 years at this point. I would say the series needs to start having what made the older games set apart from other RPGs again but the old talent pretty much left. You would think the EO director they got for this game would have dungeons laid around the overworld but I guess they prefer muh mechanics even though older games battles are more engaging overall.

I know Atlus has a really bad reputation with remakes, but just to be sure I am asking, having played neither the original nor the remake, is the remake just as good, or does it shit all over the original's story?

>>1045502 The rerelease is fine. If you're looking for more content it's worthwhile as the 8th day endings are generally fun to go through and VA work is good enough and you're given an option if you want to play through them or move on to NG+.

>>1045502 It's one of the rare good ones alongside Soul Hackers and DeSu 2 from what I heard of the latter.

>>1045510 >>1045558 Thank you for your answers, good to know it's one of the few good remakes.

>>1045502 Overclocked supersedes the original in most fans' eyes. It redeems Yuzu, that's much it comes in clutch. 2 tends to get shat on but that's just shit being piled on more shit.

Beaten Vengeance and yeah it's a mediocre SMT experience by the end of it all. Plot started to pick up in the third area and subsequently went to shit after the end of it. I have no hopes for 6 being a good SMT game, at least there's Etrian Odyssey.

>>1047648 I think they designed the third area above all else and tried to figure out how to make it work

>>1047986 Probably, when I got up to the last area it is baffling how it is a whole lot of nothing until the very end. The finale isn't good enough to make up for that fact, at least with something like Nocturne for example you scale up a grueling final dungeon while fighting the Reason representatives that culminates with the final boss + Lucifer if you did TDE. It would've been more fitting if you fought Orochi as one of the final fights instead of Tiamat since they want to do that whole dragonslayer spiel, another mythological screw up from nu-SMT I suppose.

>>1045468 >I would say the series needs to start having what made the older games set apart from other RPGs again but the old talent pretty much left. Seems to be the real problem these days even for Japan. While there are some talented designers and programmers over there still, the majority of directors, producers etc. that aren't the super old foggies who made the games we grew up with either slowly retire or join mobile companies / ///The Chinese Government Offshoots\\\. People in gaming seem to generally have no vision, no drive and no desire beyond making Nintendoshit or big-tittied gachashit in some way and instead opting for general UE-based tech demos to satisfy a schizophrenic public of oversees retards. Thankfully manga is still hanging on but with the rise of webcomics in Japan where even old IPs are now turned into those that last bastion may fall as well. >>1048068 The connecting myths shit was such a disappointment in its execution. One of the few cool ideas of SMTV and it was lazily and sloppily, shoddily implemented in the story and gameplay. As for Etrian Odyssey, here's hoping Lancarse isn't destroyed from that action-roguelite zombie samurai kusoge they released some time ago. Top brass seem very eager to fire part of the team for even small potatoes compared to heavy shit like Itagaki's screw-up.

Got folded multiple times by Glasya-Labolas & Naamah especially with her signature attack "Capitulate to pleasure" for a total of up until 10 times at most on hard mode. Luckily I managed to find some advice on reddit to fuse Apsara essence and managed to win with High Pixie Finishing of Glasya-Labolas with a Zio I essence fused into along with Pyro Jack and Leanan Sidhe. Are the other Qadistu Going to be this difficult on Hard Mode by any chance?