I can't even finish free battles to earn money to buy reserve demons. I'm about Level 11-10. I have I would say the next level of creatures. Kikimora, Gagyron, Lim Tim (that valkyrie creature)... it was like this with DS1 for me, I guess nothing really changed. Maybe they'll make a DS2 Overclocked and work on balance some more. I pretty much shut it off when creatures heal themselves back to full strength after every skirmish.
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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 |OT| Big Dipper and Bigger Boobs
- Thread starter Kazerei
- Start date
In terms of that free battle try keeping your characters close together until they're strong enough to survive on their own and then split them into teams of two. Also it helps if you attack the monsters first instead of waiting so that on their turns you're not attacked by multiple full teams of monsters. Try wiping out the upper left portion of the map and then work your way around the map. Don't worry about skill cracking if its causing you to lose, focus on it once you're stronger.
You don't really need AGI for your physical attackers, all my best physical skills are HP-based actually. Not liking Fumi because she's a glass cannon I can understand, I guess she died a lot when you used her? If you flank her with a good setup, nothing can touch her though. I've always used her with a Tyrant and Deity. Deity to cast Awakening before each turn (1.5x MAG damage), then in battle a dance with Fumi, a dance with the Tyrant and a physical attack or whatever with the Deity. After the battle you get MP recovery from the Tyrant and I then cast Media with Fumi to full heal everyone. This is pretty damn overkill though, she finishes even bosses in 2 turns tops haha. You should really give her a try, she's my favourite character by far. Thor is an awesome Deity for this role by the way, I got Life Surge on him and have been using him since his fuse was unlocked. Lv 38 demon in a level 50 party but I don't care.
I like Io for the same reason, she can hold up pretty well and her MAG is still great. Got the remaining dances on her and she can finish most fights by herself.
I asked this before, but noone really replied, so what are your favourite demons so far?
My new favs are
- Fallen Bifrons: high MAG, Ziodyne, Agidyne, Fire Amp, Drain, Mana Bonus and his racial skill (HP/MP recovery on team when he kills something) make for a great demon
- Tyrant Hecate: Anti-Most + Anti-Phys = strong against everything, great MAG, Diarahan, Agidyne, Ziodyne, Pierce (fusion fodder) and of course Tyranny!
- Genma Cu Chulainn and Kresnik: high STR, Pierce, Phys Boost and Kresnik even has Null Phys
- Fallen Bifrons: high MAG, Ziodyne, Agidyne, Fire Amp, Drain, Mana Bonus and his racial skill (HP/MP recovery on team when he kills something) make for a great demon
- Tyrant Hecate: Anti-Most + Anti-Phys = strong against everything, great MAG, Diarahan, Agidyne, Ziodyne, Pierce (fusion fodder) and of course Tyranny!
- Genma Cu Chulainn and Kresnik: high STR, Pierce, Phys Boost and Kresnik even has Null Phys
It's okay.
Hmm, those are the demons I'd recommend around that level. Try and get a Bilwis too if you can, Fatal Strike and his high STR make him a hard hitter. What are your team setups?
cj_iwakura
Member
Amazing. Gameplay is pure addiction.
You can retreat from free battles, and there's no penalty for doing so. So don't feel pressured to finish the battle.
Also, I usually keep just one or two reserve demons, and only buy from the auction for the purpose of fusing new demons. You really shouldn't be having any trouble so early in the game...
Are the difficulty spikes manageable, or pure hell like DS1's? And are there any broken spells/attacks in this game?
I tried playing the original DS1, but the difficulty spikes on the 6th and 7th days were hard to keep up with. I remember having to grind for hours because all of my demons kept getting one-shotted. Abusing dances made the game somewhat easier, so I'm hoping that this game has some sort of cheap tactic I can use to progress through the plot haha. Also, I hated demons with Shield All; losing my extra turns ugh.
DS2 is a lot like DS1. If you found DS1 hard towards the end of the game, then you will probably find this game extremely hard as well. I think most players familiar with SMT demon systems found it the reverse though. DS1 started out really hard on the first 2 days or so because you have less options and the gameplay is still being introduced to players. After that, once the options open up it gets pretty easy.
With the experience from playing DS1, I would say DS2 starts out easy, and the difficulty "spikes" are all manageable. There are definitely spikes though. Some fights are designed normally, while other fights are designed to be overwhelmingly "unfair" unless you analyse the situation and know what sort of party builds you need to best accomplish the goal without tearing your hair out.
Just like late game DS1, DS2's strategy so far seems to be 80% focused on preparation, and 20% about actual implementation in the battles themselves. How you form your parties and what demons you have, and what skills your demons have will affect the challenge very significantly.
I've played about 5 hours so far, on Day 3 now.
Sounds great, thank you for the information. Hoping the print run isn't too small, I can't afford this game right now. I'll definitely check it out along the way though.
Is it weird that I found Nocturne easier than Devil Survivor? There's just something about SRPGs that make them more difficult for me.
There's probably a good reason for that. I don't know how you play games in particular, so I can't really speculate on that, but I find that the difference between RPG SMT and SRPG SMT is that with the RPG, you can get a better "feel" for how demons handle in a party much faster and immediately by just fighting a few short random battles.
With a SRPG, there is much more investment required to fully understand how team dynamics work, since even a Free Battle isn't going to take like 10 seconds unless you're very much overpowered. In addition to that, the non-combat parts of a battle in DS introduces Race abilities for demons which is something new compared to regular SMT or Persona games. Some players tend to ignore these skills a lot because they don't fully understand the benefit of the system, and that puts them in a serious disadvantage.
You don't really need AGI for your physical attackers, all my best physical skills are HP-based actually. Not liking Fumi because she's a glass cannon I can understand, I guess she died a lot when you used her? If you flank her with a good setup, nothing can touch her though. I've always used her with a Tyrant and Deity. Deity to cast Awakening before each turn (1.5x MAG damage), then in battle a dance with Fumi, a dance with the Tyrant and a physical attack or whatever with the Deity. After the battle you get MP recovery from the Tyrant and I then cast Media with Fumi to full heal everyone. This is pretty damn overkill though, she finishes even bosses in 2 turns tops haha. You should really give her a try, she's my favourite character by far. Thor is an awesome Deity for this role by the way, I got Life Surge on him and have been using him since his fuse was unlocked. Lv 38 demon in a level 50 party but I don't care.
I like Io for the same reason, she can hold up pretty well and her MAG is still great. Got the remaining dances on her and she can finish most fights by herself.
I asked this before, but noone really replied, so what are your favourite demons so far?
My new favs are
- Fallen Bifrons: high MAG, Ziodyne, Agidyne, Fire Amp, Drain, Mana Bonus and his racial skill (HP/MP recovery on team when he kills something) make for a great demon
- Tyrant Hecate: Anti-Most + Anti-Phys = strong against everything, great MAG, Diarahan, Agidyne, Ziodyne, Pierce (fusion fodder) and of course Tyranny!
- Genma Cu Chulainn and Kresnik: high STR, Pierce, Phys Boost and Kresnik even has Null Phys
0_o I was afraid you'd grill me out and spend like 10 paragraphs specifically describing why so and so are good and bad. Honestly, I sorta agree with you since Deathbound/beserk/hass are pretty damn good skills, but Multi Strike just shits on everything once you get it, its outrageous. Really, I recommend you try it with Keita / Hanako, your jaw will hit the floor. (even though Jungo is really strong, his low speed means he won't get max damage.
As for Fumi, I KNOW she's really good ((I think she's a smidgen overrated) given the right opportunity, she can pretty much 2 turn every boss in the game. I've used her a few times but I just prefer the other characters in battle. As an aside, I have her at level 49(?) and she has 38 magic. 0_o
The beauty of this game is that you can use pretty much anyone you want if you're good enough. Next time around i'll around i'm thinking of running Makoto, Fumi & Jungo. I'll probably give Jungo and Fumi swift steps so they can abuse their sikceningly high attacking stats.
My favorite demons so far are:
Kishin Take, Kudlak, SUPER Mothman, Chernobog, Tyrant something. I'll replace them soon though
I'm too lazy/DS isn't with me to give you a proper answer, but I do have a set of favorite demons.
Koroviev
Member
Words of truth.
Hell yeah. Played from 10PM last night until now (10.30AM). Taking a break because my head feels like Psyduck. :V
Haha wow, I encountered an enemy that used multi-strike on me and it's crazy indeed, killed off my entire party with ease. No wonder it's an endgame skill, I've only just begun seeing it on new demons. What'd you do with your Mothman to make him super?
I thought DS 1 was pretty hard in the beginning, then became very easy until the route choice at the very end where it became ludicrously hard. I'm not sure if it was my route, it was naoyas (or something like that).
I'm at the beginning of day 2, going for a magic, then agi MC and my biggest problem is that the free battles give so little xp, I can see a lot of grinding in the future. The day 1 boss battle was brilliant.
. DS 1 was pretty much my favorite DS 1 game (with the phoenix wright games, strange journey, etc. being close runners up).
I'm at the beginning of day 2, going for a magic, then agi MC and my biggest problem is that the free battles give so little xp, I can see a lot of grinding in the future. The day 1 boss battle was brilliant.
I skill-cracked anti-fire and baited the boss into attacking the character I set the skill too. Totally exhilarating
The reason they give so little XP is because you are already at the level you are supposed to be at. Free battles are only good when you're severely underleveled and to be honest aren't worth spending time on. They barely have any skills worth cracking and the experience is just poor compared to the story battles.
That's what I was afraid of
. I have a tendency to occasionally overgrind and then not grind for many hours until things become too hard again. It seems there won't be such a thing in DS 2 then.What, is this a bug? Either I'm hallucinating since I played until around 3am or I misread, since I think the tutorial text explicity stated that all gains are lost in free battles unless they are finished.
Perhaps there is some use to this. Kill the high level groups and restart, or something like that.
Actually, the tutorial stated that you can exit a free battle at any time and still keep the experience. =p
It's not a bug, and it can be very heavily exploited. If you need to level up one character more than others, you can basically go into a Free Battle, use that character to defeat the nearest enemy mob, retreat, repeat. It works very quickly, and is much more efficient compared to playing "properly".
I can't seem to get this to work. I hold down L + R and it goes the same pace--I still have to hit a button to advance it.
Is there a setting I need to trigger?
Also, maybe it's me but the Osaka girl is actually the most realistic so far. I actually know TWO girls just like that--extremely outgoing and aggressively friendly and dress pretty much like that. They're both in my school's theater group, so it makes sense they'd gravitate towards that kind of "open and free and unashamed" attitude.
I'm just surprised straightlaced Japan would have that, but then I've never been to Osaka, is it famous for "actor" types?
Yes. Go into Config and turn Event Skip to "on". It is off by default.
Hell yeah. Played from 10PM last night until now (10.30AM). Taking a break because my head feels like Psyduck. :V
Haha wow, I encountered an enemy that used multi-strike on me and it's crazy indeed, killed off my entire party with ease. No wonder it's an endgame skill, I've only just begun seeing it on new demons. What'd you do with your Mothman to make him super?
Haha most definitely, I cried tears of joy the moment I cracked that skill, its just too awesome. When I fused him, the demons I happened to fuse him with had high stats, and as a result he became a nigh unkilleable, annoying support demon. He also gets
Demon flash; an 8 movement racial ability that makes you move faster than Sonic. !_!
Picked my route. There's no going back hehe.
Haha most definitely, I cried tears of joy the moment I cracked that skill, its just too awesome. When I fused him, the demons I happened to fuse him with had high stats, and as a result he became a nigh unkilleable, annoying support demon. He also gets
But he's gone now, I fused him awayDemon flash; an 8 movement racial ability that makes you move faster than Sonic. !_!
Picked my route. There's no going back hehe.
Yeah, it's a pretty cool skill. I prefer Evil Wave for nuking from a distance though, so nice when combined with Awakening! So you are at the start of day 7, correct? Day 7 has a lot of awesome skills to crack and a craaaazy Septentrione, seriously. I'm looking forward to people cursing that one in here.
Every time I post I thank god I can't
I'm not getting this Fate System much. People on GameFAQs is saying that not getting all the characters at Fate level 4 won't get you an ending. So far I got Daichi, Io, Joe, and Makoto at lv. 1 Fate by the end of Day 1. I guess thats a good start.
I chose some pretty goofy choices though thinking the dialog wont affect anything. Now I'm kind of freaking out.
I chose some pretty goofy choices though thinking the dialog wont affect anything. Now I'm kind of freaking out.
The higher you level up a person's fate gauge, the more benefits you get. For example, at lvl 2 you get the ability to joint skill crack. (If Daichi has it, the MC can crack a skill HE selected and Daichi can crack a skill I selected. Its fucking awesome) at lvl 3 you get fuse a new demon, at lvl 4 you get send a demon to the MC / the MC gets to send a demon to a friend at any time. Pretty handy.
Lvl 5
A new demon
The fate system IS important, but only for 1 ending.
Daichi's secret ending. You need Yamato AND Ronaldo's fate bar to be at 4, or else you won't get it. Actually you need ALL of the characters to have a fate system of 4 and up, my bad
I'd just play through the game blind for now, instead of gunning for a route; much more enjoyable that way.
Oh, ok. That sounds pretty damn sweet.
I think I'm going to focus on getting Daichi, Io, and Makoto's fates up. Don't care for Joe much.
Chrono Helix
Member
I guess it's been too long since I played an SMT title. My second battle in DS2 and I let my pixie get killed in one-hit from her elemental weakness, and my hero nearly died too cos I used him to finish off Bai Suzhen (she decided to attack my poltergeist instead of the hero and one-hit killed it). Nearly lost Io from getting ganged up, too.
Couldn't you do that in the original game as well?
Now that you mentioned that, I was thinking that was possible in the first game.
Yeah, pretty sure you could.
Wut. How do you fail so badly? Lol.
I just started randomly making any monster that is stronger than the ones I have...because its showing pretty bad. I still lack a decent physical monster in my teams.
I did make a nice Kikimura with Zio, Zan, and Agi with Race-D and some other stuff and high Magic though.
CornBurrito
Member
I fucking love the battle music a lot more than the music in DS1.
All of the music is a big improvement over the short riffs from the first game. I really like the standard battle field theme.
Did anyone else catch this line from Daichi early into the game after you're told about Skill Cracking?
Daichi: "Well... It might be useful, but I wish there was a feature that skipped combat entirely."
I'm not certain it's in reference to that, but knowing Atlus USA's localization team...
Did anyone else catch this line from Daichi early into the game after you're told about Skill Cracking?
Daichi: "Well... It might be useful, but I wish there was a feature that skipped combat entirely."
I'm not certain it's in reference to that, but knowing Atlus USA's localization team...
CornBurrito
Member
Finally lost. Fuck Evil Wave users...
I may need to update my team. I'm still using Knockers, but there doesnt seem to be any stronger demons I can fuse.
Also Avatar Hequet is beast right now. Switch, Knight Soul, good magic, and pretty good physical stats? Yessssss.
Can't wait until he becomes obsolete.
I may need to update my team. I'm still using Knockers, but there doesnt seem to be any stronger demons I can fuse.
Also Avatar Hequet is beast right now. Switch, Knight Soul, good magic, and pretty good physical stats? Yessssss.
Can't wait until he becomes obsolete.
Koroviev
Member
My focus is on Makoto and Daichi. Not too interested in Io or Joe.