Support NeoGAF

[MikeDip]

I finished the game last night, went the Law path since I always try to go Law in SMT games (Love angels)

I loved it, damn. No idea why it took me so long to start this game, but I wish I had played it earlier so I would already be in the process of forgetting the plot for my eventual replay.

 

[Gazoinks]

Yeah, at first I was glad since that made it more safe. But late game when the powerful skills cost a lot of MP, the physical build demons really need energy drain in boss battles or else they'll have to be switched out if the battle isn't over in a few turns. Or use items, but strangely, I never used items except Revival Beads.

I'm one of those crazy item stockpilers. I've been unable to take Chakra Pots from chests because I haven't been using any and my stocks are full.

 

[Caladrius]

Energy Drain is a waste, I've found, since battles aren't going to last long enough to require their use. You'll have enough consumables in the very rare case you need to refill, but due to how fast boss fights are, that's not going to happen much either.

Basically the MP app takes care of everything.

I found energy drain useful against Sanat, since it's surprisingly easy to tank his hits. It's definitely no good on physical demons though.

 

[Gazoinks]

Enemies have infinite MP, right? So you can't Energy Drain them until they can't do anything?

 

[Caladrius]

Enemies have infinite MP, right? So you can't Energy Drain them until they can't do anything?

I'm not sure actually. Asmodeus seems to need to stockpile it in order to use his signature attack. Most of the others don't though.

 

[Gazoinks]

I'm not sure actually. Asmodeus seems to need to stockpile it in order to use his signature attack. Most of the others don't though.

Hm, that's a good point. It might just be part of his pattern though, not necessarily a real MP number.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I'm not sure actually. Asmodeus seems to need to stockpile it in order to use his signature attack. Most of the others don't though.

I've drained enemies dry of MP before, so it's definitely finite.

Whether or not that affects their actual ability to use skills is another matter entirely.

In other news, I faced down

Spoiler

Red Rider again with a new, tankier party armed with Doping/Dekaja/Dekunda and my beastly Lham Dearg and made him my bitch. Felt so good.

I have a question about spawning the other fiends though. Does exiting the shelter and re-entering it work for the Tennozu / Toyoso spawns or is reloading and ree tearing the elevator required? Also, will they be clearly visible if they do spawn or do I have to run to the middle of the room?

Same with the other spawn points - is going to the world map enough to reset the RNG or will I be forced to reload the game every time?

 

[Soulhouf]

I've drained enemies dry of MP before, so it's definitely finite.

Whether or not that affects their actual ability to use skills is another matter entirely.

In other news, I faced down

Spoiler

Red Rider again with a new, tankier party armed with Doping/Dekaja/Dekunda and my beastly Lham Dearg and made him my bitch. Felt so good.

I have a question about spawning the other fiends though. Does exiting the shelter and re-entering it work for the Tennozu / Toyoso spawns or is reloading and ree tearing the elevator required? Also, will they be clearly visible if they do spawn or do I have to run to the middle of the room?

Same with the other spawn points - is going to the world map enough to reset the RNG or will I be forced to reload the game every time?

Yes you can exit the room and come back and they will reset. But you need to go to their spawn point every time.

Well done for Red Rider. I hope you're playing in hard mode, otherwise it doesn't count
Also I'm curious to see the Lham Dearg you made.

 

[JimPanzer]

btw. where can I find the quest with the infamous penis demon (mara, I guess)?

 

[Soulhouf]

btw. where can I find the quest with the infamous penis demon (mara, I guess)?

He is summoned by the penultimate terminal guardian.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Yes you can exit the room and come back and they will reset. But you need to go to their spawn point every time.

Well done for Red Rider. I hope you're playing in hard mode, otherwise it doesn't count
Also I'm curious to see the Lham Dearg you made.

...

..

.

I only just realised you unlock hard mode in NG+. Don't make me do that again ;_;

My new Lham Dearg (never did the resetting thing for better stats):

Draconic Reaction
Repel Ice
Enduring Soul
Life Surge
High Gun Plemora
Riot Gun
Titanomachea
Charge

 

[Soulhouf]

That's a very nice Lham Dearg.
You can make his Riot Gun even more powerful if you replace Titanomachea with Gun Pleroma.
Everything stacks in this game, meaning you will have +75% gun power instead of +50%.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

That's a very nice Lham Dearg.
You can make his Riot Gun even more powerful if you replace Titanomachea with Gun Pleroma.
Everything stacks in this game, meaning you will have +75% gun power instead of +50%.

Damn it, Soulhouf! Every time I think I have a near-perfect Lham Dearg, you tell me about another wrinkle in the game's stat system.

In other news, the DLC Exp/App/Cash missions are a godsend for this kind of post game, high level jiggery pokery, though I imagine it would break the regular game. I was initially sketchy about it, but the way it extended the game for me has actually saved me money on a new game.

*Goes back to fusing a LV 1 Lham Dearg with perfect stats*

 

[Korigama]

SMT IV's version of Alice's Die for Me! reminds me of Hakumen's Astral Heat from BlazBlue. I rather like it.

 

[JimPanzer]

omg I think I just fucked me completely. neutral path endgame spoilers ahead.

Spoiler

after obtaining masakado I fused him immediately and now I'm presented with a wall in naraku which needs a demon to be destroyed - am I right thinking thats masakado? am I fucked or is there any way to get masakado back? if I use mido and search for masakado he doesn't show up. god damn.

 

[ColossalLazy]

omg I think I just fucked me completely. neutral path endgame spoilers ahead.

Spoiler

after obtaining masakado I fused him immediately and now I'm presented with a wall in naraku which needs a demon to be destroyed - am I right thinking thats masakado? am I fucked or is there any way to get masakado back? if I use mido and search for masakado he doesn't show up. god damn.

You dont have the demons necessary to fuse it again I think. But I think you can buy it again from the compendium.

 

[JimPanzer]

You dont have the demons necessary to fuse it again I think. But I think you can buy it again from the compendium.

ye..I'm dumb. just realized as you posted

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

High Gun Plemora
Gun Plemora
Draconic Reaction
Life Surge
Enduring Soul
Repel Ice
Riot Gun
Charge

Made a brand new Lham Dearg by employing resets every time he leveled up and his stat increase wasn't +3 DX or better. Unfortunately, as demons only get 5 points per level (plus Enhancement App +1 on each stat if you have 'em), said points necessarily have to come off the other stats.

This guy was doing 2000+ damage on Matador off a charged Riot Gun where he was Antichthon'd twice, so I'm pretty happy. If only it hadn't taken hours and hours of resets to get to the fun part.

 

[Soulhouf]

Congrat viciouskillersquirrel. Now your Lham Dearg is a real bad ass.
The only way to become even stronger from there is to put Desperate Hit on him. But it's a bit tricky and you need a demon who doesn't have any weakness and who by default has at least 1 good skill. That's the only way to do it and unfortunately Lham Dearg isn't a good demon for that.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Congrat viciouskillersquirrel. Now your Lham Dearg is a real bad ass.
The only way to become even stronger from there is to put Desperate Hit on him. But it's a bit tricky and you need a demon who doesn't have any weakness and who by default has at least 1 good skill. That's the only way to do it and unfortunately Lham Dearg isn't a good demon for that.

Yeah, I looked into getting Desperate Hit on him and it was a bust. The rules for inheritance on Fusion-Lite are so daft that if you have certain skills, it pushes Desperate Hit out completely in their favour, possibly because of the "Weak" power of the individual hits. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

In other news, I killed Matador and Black Rider today after getting very lucky with the RNG rolls. I suspect Pale Rider is going to be a pain to spawn though, and I still have to fight White Rider, Trumpeter and Chemtrail after I'm done with his sickly butt.

Also, I did my first run on Law without consulting any guides or looking at this thread and missed a bunch of endgame quests, including the Law-exclusive unlocks. I also messed up my build, which is annoying. I have my MC at near 200 St and sub-300 Ma that I've set up as a Ma nuker. I assumed, at the beginning, that I'd be using his regular attack a lot because MP recovery in this game is crazy expensive if you're not using the MP recovery apps (that I didn't know about). I wasted a slot in each of my demons for Energy Drain too, so the compendium is useless for some of them.

 

[Shengar]

How much money do you guys usually need to create such crazy demons?

 

[Soulhouf]

Yeah, I looked into getting Desperate Hit on him and it was a bust. The rules for inheritance on Fusion-Lite are so daft that if you have certain skills, it pushes Desperate Hit out completely in their favour, possibly because of the "Weak" power of the individual hits. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Did you know that when that attack hits 4 or 5 times (40% chance) it does the largest amount of damage compared to any other skill in the game excluding the DLC?
Not to mention that it's an almighty attack, so you don't worry anymore of resistance (except the very last DLC boss) and the fact that it's multi hit makes it more likely to lend critical hits which makes it insane.
It's true that the damage varies a lot but the average amount is already very high.

I'm currently working on a competent gun based demon with Desperate Hits -Not Demonee Ho, otherwise it's too easy- and I'm pretty confident that he will be the strongest demon I've ever made.

How much money do you guys usually need to create such crazy demons?

When you already finished the game 9 times, macca is no longer a problem since you sell everything you find and you don't have anything else to buy.

 

[Shengar]

Damnit, just got back into the game after months of hiatus and got my ass kicked by Beelzebub. What's the strategy against this, overgrown, megidolaon spamming fly?

 

[NeonZ]

Damnit, just got back into the game after months of hiatus and got my ass kicked by Beelzebub. What's the strategy against this, overgrown, megidolaon spamming fly?

Is your party immune against all of his non-Megidolaon attacks? That's one of the things that triggers Megidolaon spamming.

Either way, Beelzebub is completely optional (not even necessary for the neutral ending).

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

How much money do you guys usually need to create such crazy demons?

Creating them usually costs in the order of ~100,000 Macca, depending on what abilities you want on it and how far ranging you have to go for the abilities.

The thing is that unless you did what Soulhouf did, you're going to need the money-making and EXP DLC to make it viable. The EXP especially is a big issue because demons, especially low level ones, will require ridiculous amounts of EXP to level beyond a certain point (in the order of millions of EXP). I think this is a deliberate thing to make sure that you're switching to new demons constantly in-game as the old ones stop being viable.

So yeah, leave this stuff for the post game.

Damnit, just got back into the game after months of hiatus and got my ass kicked by Beelzebub. What's the strategy against this, overgrown, megidolaon spamming fly?

Doping. Use it early, followed by Salvation / Mediaharan and a defense buff. The only way to survive Almighty spam is to tank and hope for the best. He has no weaknesses, but if you can find something that repels/absorbs gun/elec (not all though, since that can trigger Almighty spam mode), you cut down his press turns on other stuff.

 

[jay]

Enemies have infinite MP, right? So you can't Energy Drain them until they can't do anything?

I fought the boss who heals itself for 4k HP when he is low on health for about 20 minutes and Energy Drain stopped working yet he always had MP to continue healing. I'm pretty confident at least some enemies have infinite MP, or rather finite MP but it costs them nothing to use skills or something.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I fought the boss who heals itself for 4k HP when he is low on health for about 20 minutes and Energy Drain stopped working yet he always had MP to continue healing. I'm pretty confident at least some enemies have infinite MP, or rather finite MP but it costs them nothing to use skills or something.

This and the fact that they sometimes have skills as wild Pokémon demons that aren't available to you as allies. Dormath's money-stealing beam, for instance.

 

[CSX]

Been awhile since i checked in. Any of yall new players did #TeamLuck or was I the only one crazy enough to do that lol?

 

[Bladenic]

The original/alternate designs for the Samurai were so much cooler. I much prefer the all black outfits, and Flynn, Isabeau, and Walter all looked way more badass in their original designs. I kind of prefer Afro Jonathan to grown up Ken Jonathan though.

 

[Shengar]

Is your party immune against all of his non-Megidolaon attacks? That's one of the things that triggers Megidolaon spamming.

Either way, Beelzebub is completely optional (not even necessary for the neutral ending).

Nah, my MC is susceptible to his Heaven's Bow. Also my Vishnu don't nullify his Phys attack. But for gun, all of my team except MC is immune to it.

Doping. Use it early, followed by Salvation / Mediaharan and a defense buff. The only way to survive Almighty spam is to tank and hope for the best. He has no weaknesses, but if you can find something that repels/absorbs gun/elec (not all though, since that can trigger Almighty spam mode), you cut down his press turns on other stuff.

I managed to beat him with a lot of Luster Candy and Debilitate. Though I must admit that doping could make the fight lot easier since my support, Amaterasu and my second damage dealer, Lilith fall down real quick especially when that overgrown fly casting Megidolaon in two succession.


=========

Finished all side quest, and still not champion.
WTF? Is this mean that I must finish my DLC quest too? (Clipped Wing part 1 and 2)

 

[Splash Wave]

My lust for Japanese cyberpunk has brought me back to this game--problem is, I've nearly forgotten how to play it (not that I did a very good job to begin with).

I know that I *just* arrived at Ueno Station, but I'm otherwise quite rusty. Can anyone provide me with some general tips for this stage of the game? I'm overwhelmed by all of the choices I now have. Are there any demons I should be on the lookout for? What's the best way to build up Macca?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Shengar]

I just realized that I've yet to take the Ginza photo quest. Finished it, the main quest proceed. This should be good enough

My lust for Japanese cyberpunk has brought me back to this game--problem is, I've nearly forgotten how to play it (not that I did a very good job to begin with).

I know that I *just* arrived at Ueno Station, but I'm otherwise quite rusty. Can anyone provide me with some general tips for this stage of the game? I'm overwhelmed by all of the choices I now have. Are there any demons I should be on the lookout for? What's the best way to build up Macca?

Thanks in advance!

I already forgot the general strategy for that area of the game at your level, but for Macca you can purchase the Scout app tree that eventually grant you Scout Bonus, where you will receive macca for successfull conversation. You can gain a lot of macca from this as the copendium at your level is quite expensive, and many demon for fusion gained from recruiting via conversation. Fundraise enable you to demand macca from demon, but personally I save that for later part of the game.

 

[Dresden]

My lust for Japanese cyberpunk has brought me back to this game--problem is, I've nearly forgotten how to play it (not that I did a very good job to begin with).

I know that I *just* arrived at Ueno Station, but I'm otherwise quite rusty. Can anyone provide me with some general tips for this stage of the game? I'm overwhelmed by all of the choices I now have. Are there any demons I should be on the lookout for? What's the best way to build up Macca?

Thanks in advance!

At that level, selling items - summon stones, for example, go for like 10k each iirc - is going to be your best bet. Limit your curative use and sell off excess for profit.

Get the app that restores your MP while walking.

 

[Korigama]

My lust for Japanese cyberpunk has brought me back to this game--problem is, I've nearly forgotten how to play it (not that I did a very good job to begin with).

I know that I *just* arrived at Ueno Station, but I'm otherwise quite rusty. Can anyone provide me with some general tips for this stage of the game? I'm overwhelmed by all of the choices I now have. Are there any demons I should be on the lookout for? What's the best way to build up Macca?

Thanks in advance!

I do a lot of relic excavating for most of my Macca (I also do a lot of fusing, so getting the compendium discount up to 50% off was also important). Quite late in the game now myself, but still haven't acquired Fundraiser. Stocked demons can be spoken to when encountered to not only avoid the need to fight if necessary, but can also occasionally yield Macca (and/or items, and/or HP/MP recovery).

Hm, been quite some time since I first arrived at Ueno, but general advice would be to usually have one or two demons from new areas stocked to keep travel more convenient for the reasons mentioned earlier, as well as to keep a good variety of demons to exploit and cover elemental weaknesses as needed. That said, don't feel the need to acquire every demon, and be certain to fuse off any that start to become less useful (pay close attention to prices before and after registration as well if choosing to update your compendium). Be sure to save regularly, as even a routine encounter can result in death if any reinforcements manage to pre-empt you (this can still happen even if your agility is 100+).

The black market shops occasionally have sales on both melee weapons and guns (but not ammo), in addition to armor and accessories. Not sure if anyone has figured out any specific pattern to when they occur.

At that level, selling items - summon stones, for example, go for like 10k each iirc - is going to be your best bet. Limit your curative use and sell off excess for profit.

Get the app that restores your MP while walking.

Also, this.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Pale Rider is a douchebag who sent me to the boatman, but I came back and killed that bastard dead. Got too trigger happy in the first round attacking when I should have been buffing/debuffing. Rookie mistake, but Black Rider and Matador had lulled me into a false sense of security.

Just wanted to share.

 

[Soulhouf]

Pale Rider is a douchebag who sent me to the boatman, but I came back and killed that bastard dead. Got too trigger happy in the first round attacking when I should have been buffing/debuffing. Rookie mistake, but Black Rider and Matador had lulled me into a false sense of security.

Just wanted to share.

Matador and Red Rider are by far the most dangerous Fiends, simply because they start every turn debuffing/buffing before using Antichthon and other attacks.
It was the case in hard mode at least.

I only died to these guys, especially Matador whom I randomly stumbled upon 3 times when collecting relics in the Tennozu shelter.

 

[Korigama]

The atmosphere and world map theme in (late game spoilers)

Spoiler

Infernal Tokyo

feel like they're channeling the style and tone of '90s anime...I'm quite pleased with that.

 

[-tetsuo-]

So I am pretty deep into the game. I just

Spoiler

made "the choice" and sided with Walter, which is obviously chaos. I beat the tormentor just now,

about how much more game do I have you guys think?

 

[Caladrius]

So I am pretty deep into the game. I just

Spoiler

made "the choice" and sided with Walter, which is obviously chaos. I beat the tormentor just now,

about how much more game do I have you guys think?

Approximately 4-10 hours.

 

[Soulhouf]

So I am pretty deep into the game. I just

Spoiler

made "the choice" and sided with Walter, which is obviously chaos. I beat the tormentor just now,

about how much more game do I have you guys think?

Spoiler

You're not locked yet.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Sweet. Trying to knock this out before Bravely Default comes out. Such a great game.

 

[Korigama]

Managed to get locked to neutral on my first playthrough. Was happy to see

Spoiler

Isabeau

again.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Managed to get locked to neutral on my first playthrough. Was happy to see

Spoiler

Isabeau

again.

The alignment system in this game is frustrating. Mandatory story events can affect your alignment enough to change the ending completely, so you have to lean chaotic to get the chance to lock in Neutral.

In an update to my fiend hunting: Beat Chemtrail yesterday. Just waiting for White Rider to spawn.

 

[Splash Wave]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my request! I'm beginning to get re-acclimated to the game. It's still incredibly tough going, but I'm thoroughly addicted.

I see a lot of talk in regard to the three endings--if memory serves, does Neutral offer additional content? Does getting this ending just come down to making the right dialogue choices?

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my request! I'm beginning to get re-acclimated to the game. It's still incredibly tough going, but I'm thoroughly addicted.

I see a lot of talk in regard to the three endings--if memory serves, does Neutral offer additional content? Does getting this ending just come down to making the right dialogue choices?

Neutral does offer additional content, yes. There are a bunch of things that affect alignment, most of them presented as dialogue choices. Interestingly, a lot of the dialogue choices bosses give you don't affect it at all. Rule of thumb: if Walter and Jonathan are egging you on one way or another, it probably affects alignment.

Later in the game, you can gauge what your alignment currently is based on what a bloke at te pub says (Cynical Man).

 

[Soulhouf]

You can also tell your alignment based on the character(Walter/Isabeau/Jonathan) who talks in some story related scenes.

Like said earlier, the alignment doesn't really make sense because you usually need to make extremist choices to be neutral. In all the major choices through the game there aren't any way to have a neutral opinion.

 

[Splash Wave]

So is alignment left mostly to chance, then? Can I reverse my fortunes later? This sounds like an annoying thing to worry about.

If anyone can speak in vague terms about the content I'd be missing, that would be very much appreciated.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

So is alignment left mostly to chance, then? Can I reverse my fortunes later? This sounds like an annoying thing to worry about.

If anyone can speak in vague terms about the content I'd be missing, that would be very much appreciated.

It's not left to chance, it's just that to get the best ending, your character has to act like he has some kind of bipolar disorder.

As for the content, in Neutral, you get to play both the Chaos and Law final dungeons as well as a bunch of missions that are otherwise cut off from you.

 

[Korigama]

The alignment system in this game is frustrating. Mandatory story events can affect your alignment enough to change the ending completely, so you have to lean chaotic to get the chance to lock in Neutral.

Quite. I originally expected this to be quite a problem, since I was leaning pretty heavily toward law for a while earlier in the game.

So is alignment left mostly to chance, then? Can I reverse my fortunes later? This sounds like an annoying thing to worry about.

If anyone can speak in vague terms about the content I'd be missing, that would be very much appreciated.

Some sidequests also have choices that affect alignment, so this is one other thing to keep in mind. In order to keep track of your alignment, you can eventually check in with the Cynical Man in the Hunter's Association as mentioned, who tells you what the general perception is of you at the time ("hot-blooded" = Chaos, "a hard man to get a handle on" = Neutral, "very polite" = Law).

And yeah, expect a shorter game if you lean toward one extreme or the other once locked.

 

[Gazoinks]

Could someone give me some advice on

Spoiler

King Kenji

? The battle's really easy until the final phase. Then he uses that ability that gives my whole party every status effect and starts spamming Almighty spells. The Almighty wouldn't be that big of a deal if I could heal, but everyone's incapacitated by his super status ailments. Mamudoon is also annoying, but again not a big deal if my demons could actually act.