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

How does Alignment and Challenge Quests work? How do you know if doing a quest will have an effect? According to the cynical man I'm on the Law Path but I want to go Neutral (or even Chaos) so I'm nervous about doing Challenge Quests if they are going to put me more firmly into Law.
 
Square Enix take notes, these fools are putting airships in handheld titles. What's your goddamn excuse?

You'll forgive them once you get your hands on Bravely Default.

RIGHT?

And at the same time, I love the I actually missed something so cool. It'll make my law and chaos runs that much more entertaining.

Man, this game. Even months later it's still surprising me.

Really, it's not that useful.
There's only a limited number of spots you can land/fly from.
 

esoterika

Neo Member
For those of you doing subsequent playthroughs on NG+ for additional endings, how long are these additional playthroughs taking?

Also, given the choice between Bufudyne and Cold World, which should I choose?
 

Caladrius

Member
For those of you doing subsequent playthroughs on NG+ for additional endings, how long are these additional playthroughs taking?

Also, given the choice between Bufudyne and Cold World, which should I choose?

Dunno about the overall length, but I finished everything up to Kiccigiorgi in a quarter of the time of cycle 1.

Bufudyne or Mabufudyne. Cold World doesn't give enough extra power to justify the MP cost unless you have an insane luck stat.
 

Alec

Member
For those of you doing subsequent playthroughs on NG+ for additional endings, how long are these additional playthroughs taking?

Also, given the choice between Bufudyne and Cold World, which should I choose?

My first playthrough I got Law at 40 hours. Second playthrough was Neutral, which took 15 hours...I reached the endgame at 9 hours and spent the next four or five hours doing all of the required quests to progress in Neutral. If I do a third for Chaos, I estimate I can probably finish it in 9 hours, maybe a little less. And of course the White ending will be even quicker.
 

Andrew J.

Member
This game has made me wonder something: Why does Atlus change the names of demons across the franchise? A big example that comes to mind is Orcus/Horkos. Up until Strange Journey, that fat yellow king lizard pig thing was always "Orcus". In Strange Journey "Orcus" was a boss, but called Horkos. I thought maybe that change was made only for SJ, since they wanted to give him a more bossly sounding name. But then here we are in SMT4 and that demon is a regular demon called "Horkos". I have yet to finish Soul Hackers, and haven't seen this demon in it yet. SH is an old game, but the 3DS release of it was the first official English translation.

That specific example has something to do with the way that demon transforms later on in the game.

What I find strange about demon names is how the Four Symbols have Chinese names in the mainline SMT games but Japanese names in Persona and Devil Survivor.
 
For some reason Xi Wangmu is giving me a ton of trouble. Guess I shouldn't have replaced most of my buffs and debuffs with other skills, I feel like they'd seriously come in handy. :/ That was a terrible idea.

I've heard that it's possible to farm incense, but different paths get different types (like Mag Incense for Law). I'm planning to go Chaos, so what type of incense can I farm then?
 

esoterika

Neo Member
Dunno about the overall length, but I finished everything up to Kiccigiorgi in a quarter of the time of cycle 1.

Bufudyne or Mabufudyne. Cold World doesn't give enough extra power to justify the MP cost unless you have an insane luck stat.

My first playthrough I got Law at 40 hours. Second playthrough was Neutral, which took 15 hours...I reached the endgame at 9 hours and spent the next four or five hours doing all of the required quests to progress in Neutral. If I do a third for Chaos, I estimate I can probably finish it in 9 hours, maybe a little less. And of course the White ending will be even quicker.

Thank you both. Good to know. Also, Bufudyne it is, thanks.
 
For some reason Xi Wangmu is giving me a ton of trouble. Guess I shouldn't have replaced most of my buffs and debuffs with other skills, I feel like they'd seriously come in handy. :/ That was a terrible idea.

I've heard that it's possible to farm incense, but different paths get different types (like Mag Incense for Law). I'm planning to go Chaos, so what type of incense can I farm then?

Law misses Magic incense , Chaos misses Dex incense.

Neutral can get them all (the ones you miss are from the final dungeon of the other route and Neutral does both (also Red Rider drops 10 of all Incenses, but you need 100+ Luck to open its door)).
 
I bought all DLC, I played and got the re skinned napea, but for some reason I paid the 10 gold jets for the beast one and it is not showing up in my special fusions options? Anyone know what I have to do to fuse it?

You have to meet 3 conditions for special fusions to show up 1) Have at least one of the components (in your compendium suffices) 2) Have it unlocked and 3) I've heard you need to be within a certain level range but considering I've got a Level 44 Reaper staring at me while I'm level 19 I'm going to guess not.

WTF, I streetpassed my Abaddon away and it came back as a Pyro Jack? He was one of my best demons too. >_>

40 app points though, that's kind of game breaking.

I believe Black Card fuses , while White powers up the attached demon. So if you don't want it to fuse use the other card.
 

GeekyDad

Member
Ha, ha, ha!! OMG (Neutral late-game spoiler):
"Even you won't be able to beat off this magnificent schlong." - Intuitive man
Wow...
 

BlackJace

Member
Well, I'm stumped. (Boss spoiler)
Beelzebub is too much for me.
I have no idea where to go to maybe train a little. Triple Megidolaon spam is a beech.
 
Okay, I think I messed up. Ending spoilers:
so I had to make a decision after fighting Kenji. Turn the world to nothing or not. I chose nothing and the world was consumed by a black hole. Ending credits are rolling.

What ending was this?

I'm so confused and sad. I thought I could go back and finish off some quests. Ugh.
 
Okay, I think I messed up. Ending spoilers:
so I had to make a decision after fighting Kenji. Turn the world to nothing or not. I chose nothing and the world was consumed by a black hole. Ending credits are rolling.

What ending was this?

I'm so confused and sad. I thought I could go back and finish off some quests. Ugh.

I believe that's the bad ending.

And another quick question about length for those who have beaten it:
I just finished the Monochrome Forest on Chaos, how much more is left?
 
For some reason Xi Wangmu is giving me a ton of trouble. Guess I shouldn't have replaced most of my buffs and debuffs with other skills, I feel like they'd seriously come in handy. :/ That was a terrible idea.

I've heard that it's possible to farm incense, but different paths get different types (like Mag Incense for Law). I'm planning to go Chaos, so what type of incense can I farm then?

Bring Dekaja.
 
So that's it then? The game ends there for me?

As others have said, you picked the bad ending. Just reload your last save before fighting Kenji. Do not choose to return the world to nothing. You will be forced to choose either a lawful or chaotic answer, which is not decisive in itself but will help determine whether you end up on the law, neutral, or chaos route for the remainder of the game.
 
How substantially worse/shorter is the Law/Chaos path compared to Neutral? I'd prefer the latter, obviously, but I'm not going to consult a guide for every choice.
 
That specific example has something to do with the way that demon transforms later on in the game.

What I find strange about demon names is how the Four Symbols have Chinese names in the mainline SMT games but Japanese names in Persona and Devil Survivor.

I think most of the demons from Chinese mythology have similar inconsistencies (Wukong/Seiten Taisei, Beiji Weng/Hokuto something etc) Xi Wangmu is known as Seioubu in the Japanese version.
 

Goby

Banned
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.

You can't be nice to those who would reject YHVH's love.
 
It's actually one of the earliest challenge quests to come up in Tokyo. I think you get it at the Ueno Hunter's Association. The prelim tournament happens at an arena right by the bridge (south and a bit east of Ueno), and the finals happen much later in the game.

I keep checking back and I never get the challenge quest. Guy keeps telling me to come back after I make a name for myself. But I think I'll hold off on it until the point of no return comes up, in case I need to balance out my chaos/law points.

Damn, I destroyed
King Kenji
with Tetrakarm.

Heh same. I was getting destroyed and then said "fuck it, I have this old Decarabia in my stock. Maybe he can do something." Reflect reflect reflect. Win.

How substantially worse/shorter is the Law/Chaos path compared to Neutral? I'd prefer the latter, obviously, but I'm not going to consult a guide for every choice.

Apparently law is the shortest.

Also law (and perhaps other routes) have a trick dungeon that people are really dumb with solving. Many people think the doors you have to go through are random, and save and brute force it. The solution is to note which doors say "ENTER" from any distance. The real doors only show enter when you get close to them. BOOM I just saved you hours of frustration. You'll know when/if you get to that dungeon what I'm talking about.
 

Dunbar

Member
Are there any list of tips for people who are trying to play this as their first SMT game? I'm constantly dying even on the tutorials and I have no idea what to do or what I'm doing wrong. I want to put in the effort to get into this series but it seems like almost everyone in threads I read has played all or most other SMT games and they're able to pick up strategies in this one from playing those.
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
Are there any list of tips for people who are trying to play this as their first SMT game? I'm constantly dying even on the tutorials and I have no idea what to do or what I'm doing wrong. I want to put in the effort to get into this series but it seems like almost everyone in threads I read has played all or most other SMT games and they're able to pick up strategies in this one from playing those.

Read the digital manual.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Are there any list of tips for people who are trying to play this as their first SMT game? I'm constantly dying even on the tutorials and I have no idea what to do or what I'm doing wrong. I want to put in the effort to get into this series but it seems like almost everyone in threads I read has played all or most other SMT games and they're able to pick up strategies in this one from playing those.

Hit weaknesses. Save often. Fuse a lot. Level up.
 
As others have said, you picked the bad ending. Just reload your last save before fighting Kenji. Do not choose to return the world to nothing. You will be forced to choose either a lawful or chaotic answer, which is not decisive in itself but will help determine whether you end up on the law, neutral, or chaos route for the remainder of the game.

Do we know, based on the question asked, what path I may go on?
 

coopolon

Member
It is normal that I took 50 hours to actually just past the point of the hadholding of the strategic guide?

I am almost at 40 hours and doing shibuya. I can imagine losing about five of those hours getting lost, but I cannot understand how people are beating this in 40 hours when I am not even half way done. I must really suck at smt games.
 
Maybe someday will get a decent law path in core SMT.

For silly personal reasons I want to consider Law path, but until now all the Ashura Kai are being a bunch of dicks.

Honestly I felt the law path this game wasn't that awful.

Do we know, based on the question asked, what path I may go on?

Sort of? The final questions you get asked that don't lead to the bad ending give either +10 or -10 "points" which determine your law/chaos rating. -100 is chaos, 100 is law. Neutral is any range from -8 to 8. If you are at 18 points and pick the question that gives -10, you now are neutral and can go that route.

Meanwhile I picked the -10 option my first go around, but was told "too bad, you are too dedicate to law!" meaning I must have had 19 or more points.
 

Caladrius

Member
Are there any list of tips for people who are trying to play this as their first SMT game? I'm constantly dying even on the tutorials and I have no idea what to do or what I'm doing wrong. I want to put in the effort to get into this series but it seems like almost everyone in threads I read has played all or most other SMT games and they're able to pick up strategies in this one from playing those.

The early game is very difficult, due to having fairly few options. It gets more manageable as you gain more abilities and build up a selection of demons with varied skills. A few things to keep in mind.

1. Specialize- Most games in the series (especially this one) demand efficiency. You have to be able to hit something hard and fast. A magic and agility centric build is recommended for first-timers, due to how versatile magic is. Agility affects speed, accuracy and evasion, and should not be ignored.

2. Be prepared and understand your weaknesses- Battles in Megaten games can turn on a dime due to unforeseen complications, this is especially true of bosses. You need a diverse crew of demons that can handle a wide variety of threats and need to have a good understanding of how they're going to fight ahead of time.

3. Do not ignore Buffs and debuffs- This is an extremely common beginner's mistake. You NEED to use status spells in order to get the upper hand. The Minotaur is the first boss that demands this (use sukukaja, rakukaja or tarunda if you can), and they're useful throughout the entire games.

4. Be persistent- It's fairly common to get beaten hard by at least some bosses at least once. Take these as learning experiences and use them to build a team that will be able to go toe-to-toe with the boss.

5. Instant kills are not useless- Megaten is one of the rare series where instant kill spells are useful. These spells unfortunately can't be used against most bosses, but high-level versions are obscenely useful against regular enemies that aren't resistant to them, provided you put decent investment into Luck

6. Demons and negotiation- Negotiation is one of those mechanics that varies greatly from game to game, but in this installment it's fairly random, though some options succeed more consistently than others.(pay attention to how often they seem to work.) The only thing I can really point out is that you shouldn't roll over for the demons. Attempt to please them, but don't unflinchingly accept all of their requests (don't be afraid to the use cheat option once if the request is unreasonable) and after 5 or so requests you'll want to break off negotiations. Invest in the scout line of apps. The final upgrade makes recruitment far easier. Don't get too attached to your demons, as they usually get outclassed pretty quickly and you will need to fuse them into better things.

7. Save save save

If all else fails, use a guide.
 
I'm really debating between doing a Dex or Mag build for my Hard mode playthrough. I've done magic before and had a lot of good times with it, especially at the end with the almighty skill with Debilitate built in. I'd really like to do a phys run but I'm scared I'll be just setting myself up for a lot of frustrating moments since I can't always hit weaknesses with my bullets.

Halp?
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
I'm really debating between doing a Dex or Mag build for my Hard mode playthrough. I've done magic before and had a lot of good times with it, especially at the end with the almighty skill with Debilitate built in. I'd really like to do a phys run but I'm scared I'll be just setting myself up for a lot of frustrating moments since I can't always hit weaknesses with my bullets.

Halp?

Do a Luck Dex build?
 
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