• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Shin Megami Tensei IV |OT| The Dark Souls of Persona

Jinfash

needs 2 extra inches
Are there any indications of alignment past the part where the cynical man disappears?

Currently helping demon Akira after helping human Akira.
 
Should I feel any shame, as someone who's played many JRPGs, for dropping the difficulty? I like a challenge, but I feel that I've made little progress in the first three hours, despite having a solid understanding of the game's mechanics.

The beginning is very challenging since you're so fragile (I found myself constantly running back to the barracks, and lord help me if an enemy got a preemptive attack), but as you develop your party and abilities more you should start to have an easier time of things.

One of the neat things about this game is how razor-sharp combat is. You need to exploit demons' weaknesses and take every advantage you can, because they sure as shit will do the same to you if given the chance (preemptive strikes, mostly, but also from user error or just an unlucky miss). You generally do not have the HP to just tank through fights, which means you must always be aware of what you're going up against and learn from your mistakes. I think lowering the difficulty would slacken this tension quite a bit, to the game's detriment.

That said, you gotta do what you gotta do, and if it makes the game more enjoyable for you, nothing wrong with that. I'd suggest turning the difficulty back up once you've gotten over the hump and seeing how things go from there.
 
Ahhh, I'll just relax until there is an English Guide, all this talk about neutral is too confusing sometimes. And even then, the requirement
to finish a lot of the challenge quests again
makes me think I need some time to breath a little. lol
 

Caladrius

Member
Should I feel any shame, as someone who's played many JRPGs, for dropping the difficulty? I like a challenge, but I feel that I've made little progress in the first three hours, despite having a solid understanding of the game's mechanics.

Nah. The first time you play a MegaTen game is always the hardest. The games constantly throw new things in to trip you up. Experience lets you get more accustomed to that. When you get to see what kind of things the series throws at you and what you can do to counter them, they get much more manageable (But never really easy. Even experienced players get the tar beat out of them at least once or twice on a couple of bosses.)
 
Late game boss spoilers:
I just got to King Kenji. If he didn't have Megidola I could just set the fight to auto and win, bleh. Gonna try again and hammer him with debilitate and use sukukaja to max.

edit:
Beat it second try. I can see that fight being a huge pain without a null phys/ailment demon. Thank goodness for Alice lol. Last round he casted Ancient Curse and it hit everyone but her and she smirked and I used a concentrated Megido to kill him
 

Truant

Member
Just got this. Finished the first dungeon. Man, this game can turn on a dime. I lost my entire party after 10 flawless encounters!

Any tips for beginners? Currently lvl 6. I have horseface, voodooguy, and fairy animegirl in my party. My main is an allrounder.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Mid game spoilers discussion

I'm only to the part where you know the ceiling above Tokyo has been there for 25 years. Of course a ceiling would block out light above it, but is it feasible that no light would be coming from the sides? Do they ever explain how big the ceiling is?

I know Shin Megami Tensei is a Japanese video game and will usually center around Japan except for the special case of Strange Journey (and even that wasn't given a number), but I've seen some silly stuff like in the Devil Survivor 2 anime (Maybe the game is different) where they basically acted like the rest of the world didn't even exist. Even Devil Survivor 1 had a reason why the main characters were cut off from the world, but it doesn't make it any less silly that the judgement of mankind would happen in Tokyo. Believe me I enjoy playing in Apocalyptic Tokyo and I would like to see more games set in an Apocalyptic Tokyo or a Cyperpunk setting, but I guess I have a disconnection from the setting and the story being told.

Basically SMT has Tokyo is the center of the universe.

I feel like I'm going to be told "but that is SMT!" but it is still pretty strange, especially in the Devil Survivor 2 example where they literally had to protect landmark barriers only in Japan as though that was the only place in the World that needed protected and only the Japanese protected it.
 

khaaan

Member
Just got this. Finished the first dungeon. Man, this game can turn on a dime. I lost my entire party after 10 flawless encounters!

Any tips for beginners? Currently lvl 6. I have horseface, voodooguy, and fairy animegirl in my party. My main is an allrounder.

People say that's not the best of ideas, but I've been focusing on a physical build and for the longest time was getting by with mostly magic on MC. The game seems to get more manageable with time, the early part of the game definitely felt like it was the most volatile Now that I'm later on, things can definitely turn for the worse but I find it's more in boss battles and those can usually be taken care of by abusing weaknesses.
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
How do I tell a weakness before triggering it? Right now it seems random, but I'm sure it tied to some system.

There's an app you can buy that tells you that I believe. You can also look at the enemy and try to guess what's their weakness based on hoe it looks. Like, if there's a demon who has flames for hair and uses agi (fire) skills, you know it should be weak against bufu (ice) attacks, or flying demobs are usually weak against gun attacks.
 
Mid game spoilers discussion

I'm only to the part where you know the ceiling above Tokyo has been there for 25 years. Of course a ceiling would block out light above it, but is it feasible that no light would be coming from the sides? Do they ever explain how big the ceiling is?

When you get to the edges of the Tokyo map, the answer to this becomes obvious.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Dude how many movies/books/comics/games is the US the epicenter of every major event you can ever think of?

Well New York is the center of a lot of media, but it isn't portrayed as for some reason being the only thing there. It isn't like I even live there. Give me an example when it seems like it is the only place that does matter.
 

CSX

Member
YESSSS THE BASTARD FINALLY APPEARS!!!

wish me luck GAF

mRRUYhg.jpg
 
Gah I have no idea where to go for these Neutral quests. I'm just wandering around aimlessly, activating Terminals.

Yeah, that's where I stopped playing yesterday. I hit a dead end, did all the challenge quests that didn't involve collecting random body parts, then called it a night early morning. Except I haven't even gotten to the point where I received any quests yet. I seemed to have missed something.
 
Gah I have no idea where to go for these Neutral quests. I'm just wandering around aimlessly, activating Terminals.

Spent 3 hours doing them until I finally got 1st Rank. I'm not sure which ones are needed but here are the ones I finished before getting rank 1 : every Nozomi quest (ending with the fairy thing), the demonnapping quest, rescue the old man, the 4 camera quests, the Doinysus wine quest, the tv show quest, protect the tower and the Hunter tournament. Basically, just visit each bar and get new quests there, then do all the quests you haven't done if you don't get ranked first.

Easily the worst part of the game, IMO.

EDIT : Pretty sure you need to do the 4 Devas quest as well, which is much easier if you finish the Amaterasu one first.
 

BlackJace

Member
Spent 3 hours doing them until I finally got 1st Rank. I'm not sure which ones are needed but here are the ones I finished before getting rank 1 : every Nozomi quest (ending with the fairy thing), the demonnapping quest, rescue the old man, the 4 camera quests, the Doinysus wine quest, the tv show quest, protect the tower and the Hunter tournament. Basically, just visit each bar and get new quests there, then do all the quests you haven't done if you don't get ranked first.

Easily the worst part of the game, IMO.

I think all I need to do are the last 2 camera ones, I believe. Padding sucks so much, but I love the game too much to call it a blemish against it lol.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Been playing all day and didn't save at all. Forgot I owed Charon on my tab. Couple smirks and Press turns later and I lose 6 hours of progress! Awwww yisssssss
 
Finished SMT IV on the Neutral path. In game clock shows my completion time at 70 hrs and 34 mins. I'll be jumping right back in to new game plus trying for the Law and Chaos paths this time around. Such a fantastic game. It's been a while since I've played an RPG that was as well made as this one was. I don't think that I have too many complaints about the game, other than a bit of confusion at times over navigating the map but nothing game breaking. As it stands right now this is my GOTY for 2013, no questions asked.
 
Been playing all day and didn't save at all. Forgot I owed Charon on my tab. Couple smirks and Press turns later and I lose 6 hours of progress! Awwww yisssssss

That sucks (although you really shouldn't have gone even close to six hours without saving).

I just had to pay Charon for the first time in a long time since I hadn't saved in about 15 minutes and didn't want to lose my progress and a couple of quests I had done after a surprise attack (normally I'm better about saving and just restart).
 

Goby

Banned
I really wish the law path wasn't so fucking laughable at times

I just can't get over
how obnoxious those asshole mikado citizens are. "Oh yeah i slew a dude last week because he shittalked God." "Dude that's nothing, I got my son executed for being a prick!"

And no I am not exaggerating. Kinda wish there was more finesse to it, but what can you do :/

you can not do the law path, for starters lol

You sound like a heretic son of man.

Do not displease YHVH
 
I have a bad habit of rocking out to some of the field music in this game while failing to pay attention to my surroundings. Demons are jumping me because of this damn soundtrack. Why does it have to be so good.
 
Does anyone know where to get this lv 30 Jirae demon, I remember seeing it but forgot where it was.

I need it to special fuse this lv 42 enigma demon.

While im at it I might as well ask where the lv 35 tree demon is for the lv 41 zealot fusion
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Marvel Comics operated this way with NYC for many years. Every alien invasion, massive disaster, etc. was in NYC. All the superheroes were based out of there with a small minority who weren't. They've tried to get better at this -- the whole Initiative thing with teams for every state was a start -- but as usual the stories have since drifted back to the NYC-centric status quo.

There's a difference there though, the Alien Invasions start there, a city could be destroyed and would definitely set a bad precedence for future defense, but it isn't the only place on Earth.. The heroes are attacked where they live. In contrast to SMT where say humanity is tested in Tokyo. In SMT3
the whole world is destroyed except for Tokyo which becomes the Vortex world, a place where it will be decided how the next world is.
Devil Survivor 1
makes Humanities Ordeal happen in one stretch of Tokyo.
 

PK Gaming

Member
You sound like a heretic son of man.

Do not displease YHVH

I actually liked the Law path in Devil Survivor 1... I know that it's the exception, but I really appreciated the law path in the game. Yeah the angels were jerks, but they weren't stupid jerks.
 
Well, first, congrats on getting a copy. I assume you're somewhere in Europe playing on an American 3DS? I know the wait has got to be excruciating for folks.

There is a "bad" ending, but I wouldn't say it was unsatisfying. It just cuts the game way short. You'll know if you get it, and it really doesn't have anything to do with alignment. It's a choice you make at a specific juncture in the game.

But yeah, I would play the game just as you have said, making each choice according to what you feel is right at the time based on the options they afford you.

Thanks a bunch!

About the import thing, yes, I am an European with an American 3DS. I usually get my games via the eshop, so waiting for imported games to arrive is not something I have to go through often. Of course, SMTIV's was an exception because of the fancy first shipment edition.

I mostly got a US 3DS (XL) because I was sick of waiting for games whose EU release was delayed for months (Virtue's Last Reward, Fire Emblem), but it has many other advantages like cheaper games (the dollar-euro exchange rate is very favorable) and better club nintendo bonuses.
 

esoterika

Neo Member
I'm sure this has been asked but I can't find it:

How far into the game is the end of the included strategy guide (progress wise)?
 
Top Bottom