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Shin Megami Tensei IV |EU OT| Atlus Shrugged

May not be true but should be close. If OP took my thread verbatim, that would be for the NA version I think. Not sure how much data was added/removed for the EU release. If someone can check it when it is released to verify the size, (or OP already found out somehow else) then OP can be updated.
Waiting on the actual size when it releases later, not heard or seen anything from EU reviewers on the size of the game, but seeing as they'll more or less just release the NA version but with EU region coding...
 

Korigama

Member
Thanks! Out of the story DLCs was there a specific one you enjoyed the most? Are they supposed to be done at the endgame or are they easier than that? I just want to know what I should pick up first, I'm planning to get them all over time anyway
The story DLC should definitely be saved for the endgame. They focus on fighting high-level bosses with unique abilities. They are as follows:

-Clipped Wings 1&2 (Part 1 focuses on fighting and unlocking
Uriel and Raphael
for fusion, while Part 2 is
Gabriel and Michael
)
-Ancient One of the Sun (focuses on
Ancient of Days
)
-The Eternal Youth (focuses on
Sanat
)
-For the Past...For the Future (focuses on
Masakado's Shadow
, which requires the most preparation)

You should play them in the order of: Clipped Wings 1&2, The Eternal Youth, Ancient One of the Sun, and For the Past...For the Future for the absolute last (I have my doubts that this one is even possible without having played through the others before it).
 

Joqu

Member
The story DLC should definitely be saved for the endgame. They focus on fighting high-level bosses with unique abilities. They are as follows:

-Clipped Wings 1&2 (Part 1 focuses on fighting and unlocking
Uriel and Raphael
for fusion, while Part 2 is
Gabriel and Michael
)
-Ancient One of the Sun (focuses on
Ancient of Days
)
-The Eternal Youth (focuses on
Sanat
)
-For the Past...For the Future (focuses on
Masakado's Shadow
, which requires the most preparation)

You should play them in the order of: Clipped Wings 1&2, The Eternal Youth, Ancient One of the Sun, and For the Past...For the Future for the absolute last (I have my doubts that this one is even possible without having played through the others before it).

Very helpful stuff, thank you. Sounds like they'll be a fun challenge so that's great.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
I saw DEX boosts gun damage but you don't start the game with a gun, so I didn't know what the point was (went into the game without reading up on it in advance). It's like more than 10 hours into the game before you get a gun. By then I was already going almost full MAG. Too late to change now!

The game is strange on that point, and does nothing to explain this, but Dex actually has more influence on physical skill damage output than Strength. Late game, physical skills outdamage magic skills by far, but the press turn system is there to compensate for that.

Except you don't get more MP :( Your MP only goes up like 3 points each level no matter what stats you boost. HP goes up like 7 points per level. Edit: It's not like Devil Survivor, for example. In addition, physical skills consume MP rather than HP in this game.

Yeah, that's quite strange, and I'm not a big fan of that. Especially the physical skills that consume MP.
MP-based demons are almost useless, because to frail due to the very low HP.
 

Jb

Member
It's time!

14144650795268tpne.gif
 

Celine

Member
The game is strange on that point, and does nothing to explain this, but Dex actually has more influence on physical skill damage output than Strength. Late game, physical skills outdamage magic skills by far, but the press turn system is there to compensate for that.
So what's suggested to improve?
MAG,DEX,AGI?
 

repeater

Member
Wouldn't it be funny if, when the downloads are finished, we boot up the game and are met only with a pic of Trollface photoshopped on top of an Atlus logo? :D

OK it wouldn't be funny at all actually. :/
 

Jisgsaw

Member
So what's suggested to improve?
MAG,DEX,AGI?

Depends on what you want to do.
Mag is a must if you want to have a magic build, Dex for a physical one. Forget strength.
Agility is great to not miss a hit, and for the skills that have a multi-hit count that is dependent on your agility (e.g. Berserk, or, I think, Ice breath and skills like that). But that's more something for a physical build.
Luck brings you a shit ton of crits (and smirks) for a physical build.

Just choose if you want to go magic or physical, pump most of the stats in mag or dex respectively, compensate with your demon roster, and the rest doesn't really matter.
 

Tizoc

Member
Flynn's kinda an odd name, but then again then this game is in a japanese-like setting with some non-japanese names so whatevs.

...but man deciding to go Magic or Physical is confusing, how do I choose @_@
 

omlet

Member
Yeah, that's quite strange, and I'm not a big fan of that. Especially the physical skills that consume MP.
MP-based demons are almost useless, because to frail due to the very low HP.

Yeah, it usually just comes down to who gets the first turn, at least so far as I've gotten in the game, at least when the enemy group gets 3-4 turns (encounters of 1-2 enemies are not dangerous).

If I go first, enemy group will be dead in 1 turn easily.

If enemy goes first, I usually have a minimum of 1 death before I get to go, and if I got press turn'd myself, it's usually a game over.

So what's suggested to improve?
MAG,DEX,AGI?

I think it depends if you want to have it easy early or easy later, sounds like.

You don't get a gun or any good physical attacks for a while. Using magic gives you a consistent press turn advantage in 9 out of 10 battles, if not more. For most bosses so far I have been able to arrange my team to exploit weaknesses and get 8 actions in a row. Sometimes even having a demon with a weak stat get 2 hits in thanks to hitting weaknesses is better than having a higher stat demon only get 1 hit in, but it does depend.

Gun and physical skills are strong but don't allow you to take advantage of press turn as often. At least so far (again I'm about 20 hours in, party level is mid 20s).

Pick one, though. I wouldn't split.

I think you can do without AGI. So far I have not been impressed with it. I rarely get ambushed, though, and I think having high AGI helps there. However, being able to save anywhere kind of negates the value of being able to avoid ambushes. Getting wiped out by a random encounter in this game generally doesn't mean anything other than mild annoyance as long as you save frequently.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
So mixed really isn't recommended huh

Nope, like in every SMT game I know of.
Well, I did hear going balanced keeps the difficulty up in the second half of the game, that's something.

Gun and physical skills are strong but don't allow you to take advantage of press turn as often. At least so far (again I'm about 20 hours in, party level is mid 20s).

Pick one, though. I wouldn't split.

I think you can do without AGI. So far I have not been impressed with it. I rarely get ambushed, though, and I think having high AGI helps there. However, being able to save anywhere kind of negates the value of being able to avoid ambushes. Getting wiped out by a random encounter in this game generally doesn't mean anything other than mild annoyance as long as you save frequently.

Yeah, physical skills usually don't take advantage of the press turns, that's to compensate their higher damage output compared to magic spells.
However, with high luck, you'll get quite a few critical hits.

Agility is not so great for a mag build (except for the hit count of ice breath and so on, if it does have an influence on them?). For a physical build, it's quite important to be sure not to miss a hit, and increase hit count of Desperate Hit, the best physical skill (which does almighty damage).
 

myco666

Member
FINALLY! Now just have to wait for it to download and do some work before starting the game. Going to have to put Soul Hackers on hold for this. Luckily hadn't put that much hours into it yet.
 
Build hints and recommendations:
Shin Megami Tensei IV just came out in Europe! If you're just starting out, here are some builds I recommend: http://www.kotowari.org/shin-megami-tensei-iv-4-protagonist-build-recipes/
Shin Megami Tensei IV came out this week, filling my Twitter feed with gamers lamenting their early Game Overs. The game isn’t unfairly difficult by any means, but in order to help people get a leg up I’ve decided to list a few awesome builds that may help level the playing field. Let’s get started!

The Basics

Your main character (or MC) is the only character whose stats you can control directly. With each level up, you’ll earn 5 points to put into any of the following stats:

Strength: Stat for determining attack damage.
Dexterity: Most important stat for determining gun-based attack/skill damage. Also very influential in determining physical skill damage.
Magic: Determines magical damage.
Agility: Dictates who will act first in battle, accuracy and evasion.
Luck: Increases your odds of landing a critical hit, escaping, smirking, and status infliction/recovery.

Having a build in mind when first starting out can really make the difference both early on and in the long-run. Here are some common builds and a recipe to follow at each level up.

Physical Skill Build

At level up: 3 points Dexterity/1 point Agility/1 point Luck

This build focuses on using physical skills rather than normal physical attacks.

In Shin Megami Tensei IV, Dexterity plays a huge role in boosting physical damage, so that is where you’ll be dumping the majority of your points. Agility is important because it helps you actually land your attacks. If you notice that your character is struggling to hit enemies in a new area, it may be time to beef your Agility further — just make sure you’re not missing due to a certain skill’s inherent accuracy. Luck is the one stat every build should have at least a bit of, but if you’re really into min/maxing you can put this point elsewhere.

Critical Melee Build

At level up: 2 points Strength/2 points Luck/1 point Agility

This build focuses on using your physical attack rather than skills. Find a weapon that hits multiple enemies multiple times to rack up critical hits/smirks thanks to that high Luck stat. While not the most entertaining build (since your MC can’t learn passive skills like Physical Pleroma) you can round out this build with support/buff skills.

Magic Build

At level up: 3 points Magic/1 point Agility/1 point Luck

This build focuses on blasting your enemies away with a powerful Magic attribute. Agility is buffed to help with accuracy/evasion, and acting first with this kind of offensive power is enough to end most battles in a single turn. I am also a firm believer that Luck is helpful with just about any build. If you plan on rolling a mage that inflicts a lot of status ailments, you may want to buff your Luck even more. I went with this basic build but scaled down my Luck a bit (after it was ~50 points) to improve my offenses.

A note on magic skills: Magic attacks cannot hit critically, so a high Luck stat may be less important with a magic-focused build.

Critical Gun Build

At level up: 2 points Dexterity/2 points Luck/1 point Agility

A note on guns: Some end-game guns can hit multiple targets multiple times with just their regular attack. There’s more: different ammunition can inflict status ailments or elemental damage. A smart Gunner will have a variety of ammo types and change them based on the demons in the current dungeon.

This build focuses on earning critical hits with gun skills or with normal gun attacks. Between those criticals and the ability to load elemental ammo, there should be ton of smirking going on. If you’re less interested in scoring criticals, you can put one less point in Luck per level and add it into Dexterity instead.

A note on diminishing returns: After tossing about 200 points into (nearly) any stat, the return begins to drop off. Once you get your main offensive stat to about that level, it’s a good idea to put your points elsewhere.

Luck is a little different, since each point in Luck raises your critical hit rate a fraction of a point, this is one stat that can be pumped as high as you’d like.

***

If you’ve already played a bit, don’t worry: it’s never too late to change gears! You earn a ton of stat points by level 99 (like… over 400). Hopefully this information is enough to give early Shin Megami Tensei IV players a bit of confidence in themselves.
So potentially 5 blocks of game breaking bugs? :p
carloslol.gif
 

omlet

Member
Agility is great to not miss a hit, and for the skills that have a multi-hit count that is dependent on your agility (e.g. Berserk, or, I think, Ice breath and skills like that). But that's more something for a physical build.

Huh, is that so? It's true that I rarely miss on the occasion I use physical attacks, but as for multi-hit, you must need some crazy AGI for it to mean anything. Using multi-hit normals (spear) or those 1-4 hit magic attacks, I normally get only 1 or maybe 2 hits if I'm lucky.

Luck brings you a shit ton of crits (and smirks) for a physical build.
For those who don't know what this means, when you crit or hit a weakness, you (or the enemy) has a chance to "Smirk" which puts them in a state where their evasion is greatly boosted and on their next turn will deal additional damage (and then lose the Smirk buff). In other words, it's a Big Deal (tm).
 

Seda

Member
Just popping in to say 'Enjoy the game!'

I liked it quite a bit. Collecting and fusing demons is as addicting as ever. Was planning on a replay but don't have time.

You probably have heard that the early game (Naraku and some) is probably the most difficult part as you haven't had much chance to build a solid party by then. So don't give up too early!
 

Jisgsaw

Member
Huh, is that so? It's true that I rarely miss on the occasion I use physical attacks, but as for multi-hit, you must need some crazy AGI for it to mean anything. Using multi-hit normals (spear) or those 1-4 hit magic attacks, I normally get only 1 or maybe 2 hits if I'm lucky.

I don't know how it works in SMT IV.
I'm pretty sure that in previous entries, the difference between your and the ennemies Agility was the key point to the number of hits (with of course a random factor that has the most importance). Maybee they changed that, or I'm wrong from the start though.

But Agi is definitively important for a physical build to not miss a hit. It's not so improtant for magic builds, as elemental spells don't miss.

For those who don't know what this means, when you crit or hit a weakness, you (or the enemy) has a chance to "Smirk" which puts them in a state where their evasion is greatly boosted and on their next turn will deal additional damage (and then lose the Smirk buff).

Yeah, I forgot to explain that part, thanks.
Crits also give you half a press turn, like hitting an ennemy weakness.
 

nyarla

Neo Member
downloading now! \o/

australian eshop often updates at midnight so i'd checked then and it wasn't up...figured it might be tomorrow night instead, but nope, it was 1am, synced with europe. kinda amazed the lovely price has made it intact through the australia tax.
 

omlet

Member
You probably have heard that the early game (Naraku and some) is probably the most difficult part as you haven't had much chance to build a solid party by then. So don't give up too early!

This is definitely true lol.

I think in the first 2 hours I was playing the game I got about 20 game overs from getting ambushed or press turn'd or having failed Scout conversations. It was pretty frustrating.

Once you manage to get a full party you will gain traction and it will get easier from there, so don't ragequit at the beginning.
 

Joqu

Member
I heard neutral is pretty hard to get locked in this time. The window is pretty small apparently? I hope it works out, I always go neutral on a first playthrough. :s

Nope, like in every SMT game I know of.
Well, I did hear going balanced keeps the difficulty up in the second half of the game, that's something.

That actually doesn't sound too bad yeah. :p
But yeah, I think I'm gonna focus on MAG for the most part. Should be fun.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
Downloading now. I switched to a 32GB microSD w/ adapter in anticipation of the New 3DS next month. No worrying about data transfer, I'll just take it out of the adapter.

In ten minutes it's download 35%. I guess I'll stay awake and play a little bit die and rage quit.
 
Just wanted to drop by and wish you patient Europeans a fun ride! SMTIV is nothing short of amazing and it's definitely a worthy sucessor to the mainline series! My favorite jrpg on the 3DS. Try to not get too frustrated! Hee-ho!
 

aravuus

Member
Keeps giving me some 007-2916 error, fantastic.

How do you see the percentage downloaded? All I get is the stupid little blocks dropping into a SMT IV box.
 
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