I think after that I played for 20 more hours (but I think I'm a bit slower than normal?) including some side quest stuff. You're aren't locked in your alignment yet, just keep playing!
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Shin Megami Tensei IV |OT| The Dark Souls of Persona
- Thread starter Volcynika
- Start date
I think after that I played for 20 more hours (but I think I'm a bit slower than normal?) including some side quest stuff. You're aren't locked in your alignment yet, just keep playing!
Thanks! Happy about both parts of your answer!
Young Magus
Junior Member
Niiice find there PK, I wish I could find one of mine :'(
Post-Reverse Hills Spoilers:
It's the Chaos theme that plays in Blasted Tokyo when you talk to Akira
Also, (more ending spoilers):
I really like the dialogue choices and responses to each answer in the final battles of each boss. Especially if you chose the neutral path as the current answers are the ones that are not most defiant but rather mildly accepting of the philosophy but not to the point of complete and blind devotion. Isabeau's speech to the Law boss really helped with this sentiment. For some reason, I'm a sucker for the whole " the human spirit will conquer any hazard/obstacle in our way" thing so that may have helped
Spirit Drain is more or less useless. Energy Drain is where it's at. With around 170 Ma right now, I can drain about 100 HP+MP from an enemy. That's 100 damage plus refilling my MP! My demons with Energy Drain usually do about 40 HP+MP. What I usually do though, is spam Megidola to clear normal battles, but if my MP is falling off, I start the battle with an Energy Drain, and then skip a demon's turn to force a press turn, then spam Megidola anyway.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Spirit Drain is more or less useless. Energy Drain is where it's at. With around 170 Ma right now, I can drain about 100 HP+MP from an enemy. That's 100 damage plus refilling my MP! My demons with Energy Drain usually do about 40 HP+MP. What I usually do though, is spam Megidola to clear normal battles, but if my MP is falling off, I start the battle with an Energy Drain, and then skip a demon's turn to force a press turn, then spam Megidola anyway.
Nice
My MC is gun-based so I don't get him an Energy Drain, but practically all of my spell users be that healing or offensive get an Energy Drain in their skill repertoire. I find it useful in prolonged battles like bosses and such.
It's nice to see that there are many who can find value in Energy Drain
I don't get it myself, but I'd guess that Holy Wrath does more to Chaos, Judgment to Neutral, and Sea of Chaos to Law.
The Silver
Member
QuiteWhittle
Member
I doubt Lucifer is going to be permanently fused to Walter for the rest of SMT canon.
A Sentient Keyboard
Member
Quick question: sometimes, when a demon levels up, he offers to change a move into another one. However, this seems to occur at random: one time I leveled up the barbarian dude to level 6, didn't get an offer, died, reloaded an earlier save, leveled him up to level 6 again, and then did get the option to change a move.
Is it purely random chance? Or is there a system behind it?
Is it purely random chance? Or is there a system behind it?
It's purely random, but there is an App you can buy which increases that chance significantly.
A Sentient Keyboard
Member
Hmm, thanks.
One more thing, is it worth using the Angel demon line? Getting to skip half the levels through evolutions seems like a pretty sound advantage, so what's the catch?
The catch is that the next Divine is limited to the skills the previous one had + the ones it learns. So it would probably not be the best idea to start with the basic Angel demon. I started the evolution chain with a Power which was fused to have resistances which covered the weakness of several of the future Divines, and now I'm at the end of the chain with a Cherub which ditched most of those resistances because it already has then, making more space for new skills. Pretty happy with how it ended up, but planning when to start the chain is key.
A Sentient Keyboard
Member
Ah, I hadn't considered that.
NeonZ
Member
I hope the angels keep their designs from this game - and in fact, I hope other angels are redesigned to be more like them. The designs of the unique named angels have always looked kind bland to me - generic angel with randomly colored skin and hair, really? It seems to be a remnant from all of them being just Archangel color swaps in SMT 1, when they're playable characters, but I feel like it was a mistake to keep those designs later. Besides the four archangels/seraphs from SMT1, Aniel, Kazfiel, Remiel, Raguel and some of the generic angel classes also could use redesigns.
If you don't want to do the alignment exclusive challenge quests, you can go pretty quickly to the final dungeon after you're done with the
in both law and chaos. Neutral might take longer because it has obligatory challenge quests.
If you don't want to do the alignment exclusive challenge quests, you can go pretty quickly to the final dungeon after you're done with the
White Man
NeonZ
Member
Hm... I haven't been able to find this information anywhere using google. What do I need to do to buy things in Ginza's special shop? I've found the shop, but I'm apparently not a member, so I can't buy anything. I'm near the game's ending (law path). I thought it'd be another challenge quest, but I don't see anything regarding a membership among the new ones I've found.
GeekyDad
Member
Hmph...I didn't even know you could get into that part of town without being "a member."
I think it has something to do with a quest, then. Perhaps the silver coin you get from the dude in the underground area of one of the other gateways. Can't quite remember offhand.
So I just played some other demos on my 3ds and wow, the 3d in SMTIV, while nice looking, is really poorly done. I just assumed I wasn't holding it right and that's why I almost always had some ghosting. But in the other games I tried the "sweet spot" was huge, I had no problem finding it, and once there I had 0 ghosting. So it's not just that I suck at it, it's that the game is doing it wrong. This is disappointing because like I said, I actually really like how it looks, primarily in dungeons (all the ui stuff is superfluous.)
Thickstone
Member
Quick question on the difficulty:
The game is not _that_ difficult, right? I'm currently clocking 11h and so far, only two bosses were a real threat (you know...them)
If you know what you're doing, it's really not that much of a problem. Although truth being told, that's more than most games require.
Loving the game btw. and I don't remember Nocturne too fondly (dat level design, yuck)
The game is not _that_ difficult, right? I'm currently clocking 11h and so far, only two bosses were a real threat (you know...them)
If you know what you're doing, it's really not that much of a problem. Although truth being told, that's more than most games require.
Loving the game btw. and I don't remember Nocturne too fondly (dat level design, yuck)
Aeana has mentioned in a couple posts that she likens the difficulty to a bell curve, hard at beginning, tapering off in the middle, and picking up in difficulty near the end.
Given your experience thus far, and previous franchise experience, you should be more then fine.
As an anecdote from me, I've only gotten my ass seriously handed to me once, and after a solid fusion session and changing my body equipment, it was fine. Everything else has been smooth sailing, aside from an enemy spawning on top of me and demolishing me in an ambush from time to time.
Thickstone
Member
Good to know, then! I liked the difficulty in the beginning since it created so much tension (just like Demon's Souls) and perhaps it's for the better that it gets a bit easier in the middle part. Might sound silly, but I find this tension hard to bear and stressful over a 40h jRPG.
Muffin Awesome
Member
Finally beat
man he wiped the floor with me for a while. Also I have 10.5 hours logged, am I grinding too much and questing too early, I am about to travel to the unclean ones zone.
David
I've never played a Shin Megami game ever. I am totally sucked into this though at the 6 and a half hour mark. Love the old school battles and how snappy they are.
I think I have had my party completely die about 5 times so far and it seems easier to just reset the game and reload my last save (which I do often). Funny to hear veterans of the franchise complaining about the difficulty. It definitely isn't easy but I've been trudging along pretty well I think for a SMT virgin.
I think I have had my party completely die about 5 times so far and it seems easier to just reset the game and reload my last save (which I do often). Funny to hear veterans of the franchise complaining about the difficulty. It definitely isn't easy but I've been trudging along pretty well I think for a SMT virgin.
NeonZ
Member
Hm... Spoilers for some late game challenge quests.
I wonder when they'll actually include the main Christian figures on screen, rather than just make side references to them...
Also, Black Maria's alignment seems off considering her behavior.
Black Maria references Mary as a human woman who did things on the realm of the gods, comparing Nozomi to her, and the Longinus Spear is the prize for killing Mastema in the law route.
Also, Black Maria's alignment seems off considering her behavior.
She cares about the people who worship her as an aspect of Mary, and doesn't wish to abandon them, which seems pretty unfitting for a Chaos aligned demon. She was also supposed to be a fairy before according to this game, and most fairies are neutral. It seems like they just carried over her alignment from previous games.
ActStriker
Member
My playtime is almost at 20 hours and I only just got to Kasumigaseki... this game.
My daily gaming time consists of about a half hour of ACNL and then maybe an hour or whatever I can manage of SMT4 at this point.
Be sure to bring more MACCA next time.
They've already shown the abrahamic God in SMTII. I don't think that he or the central figures of any of those religions have another chance at showing up (Unless you count a vague archetype like P3's Messiah), mainly because they're afraid of alienating overseas players. From an in-story perspective including them is iffy, considering at this point God has repeatedly judged the humans as beyond redemption and therefore unworthy of a savior.
GeekyDad
Member
I wouldn't worry about losing time to quests. That's what they're there for. Grinding is pretty much completely unnecessary, though. You'll notice you'll get tons more XP from scouting and completing quests than from battles.
I spend over a million macca a day in there. It costs roughly 1.2 million to complete the high-end suits, and I've been trying to complete one a day for the last few days. The weapons I'm not too interested in, though, as you get some pretty sweet stuff in later parts of the game anyway. But dem armors...must have them all!podracer35
Member
Ive found that I enjoy grinding a bit too much in this game. I was already lv 10 when clearing the first domain... I might want to go back to normal difficultyy at this rate.
And it doesn't help that demons seem to spawn so frequently! Even if I only want to explore and collect relics, I get jumped by a ton of demons! *sigh* I guess it's better to just press on with the story and set exploring aside for now.
And it doesn't help that demons seem to spawn so frequently! Even if I only want to explore and collect relics, I get jumped by a ton of demons! *sigh* I guess it's better to just press on with the story and set exploring aside for now.
robotzombie
Member
Does it matter where you sell relics? Or can you just go into any store and it'll always be the same value?
NeonZ
Member
"God" still is an often antagonistic figure in later games though, even if they don't put in a floating head as a boss and call it "YHVH" (his name is mentioned in Devil Survivor though). I don't see how someone who isn't bothered by their take on God would suddenly take offense at his son showing up.
That's not exactly true. Most SMT are basically apocalyptic scenarios, where God chooses a few people to be saved and goes on to condemn everyone else. There are also often references to events and demons from Revelations - a son of God based on the heaven's army leader and ruler of the Millennium Kingdom from Revelations would fit in pretty easily in SMT.
Elaugaufein
Member
Not really any game spoilers in this but I'm respond to text in spoilers so going to spoiler to be on the safe side.
It's not at all unusual in SMT games for Chaos aligned creatures to care about their follows. There's often a second axis in SMT games which isn't present in SMT IV which is Light- Neutral - Dark , Light creatures are usually benevolentish to humans, while Dark creatures usually prey upon them. This isn't hard and fast though some Light creatures are pretty nasty (eg Heralds (usually Law-Light), and Ares (who is often Chaos-Light)).
You can see this in Pele as an example.
Its generally the case that Fury/ Kishin (ie protector gods who have a nasty temper) and Lady demons are Chaos-Light and are roughly equivalent to the Law-Light Deity and Megami demons.
It's also not unusual for demons who's nature is changed to change their alignment so a Neutral Fairy becoming Chaos isn't that out of place (generally it seems that alignment in SMT is more strongly tied to perception than how the creature will necessarily behave).
You can see this in Pele as an example.
Its generally the case that Fury/ Kishin (ie protector gods who have a nasty temper) and Lady demons are Chaos-Light and are roughly equivalent to the Law-Light Deity and Megami demons.
It's also not unusual for demons who's nature is changed to change their alignment so a Neutral Fairy becoming Chaos isn't that out of place (generally it seems that alignment in SMT is more strongly tied to perception than how the creature will necessarily behave).
Basileus777
Member
I take it you don't live in the United States? There's a fairly significant difference between a vague God and having Jesus show up as a potential villain.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Thanks to work I'm still only 11 hours in, and still accomplishing little because each new area means I spend 2 hours recruiting every local demon for fusion. I couldn't even tell you what part of the story I'm on. I'm hooked on manufacturing critters, help me
TheBaronOfNA
Banned
Not mention that the christian take on 'Father' God varies with him.
The ironic thing is that early Christianism will have more in common with the Cult of Gaia than the Law allingment of this game.
I understand your pain.