NeonZ
Member
Don't try to start negotiations in the beginning when there's still more than one demon alive.
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Shin Megami Tensei IV |OT| The Dark Souls of Persona
- Thread starter Volcynika
- Start date
Don't try to start negotiations in the beginning when there's still more than one demon alive.
Immaculate
Banned
I thought people where really exaggerating about the early difficult but I guess not lol
...this actually sounds like a good idea. Slipped my mind. Thanks
I died on the second fight I got in. "What have I gotten myself into" was my initial thought. After the second boss it gets easier, but your still gonna have that one monster who exploits a weakness and almost kills you from time to time.
Splash Wave
Member
The game gets *really* easy once you get a handle on the flow of the game, in my opinion. I got the Neutral ending and the entire latter half was still a cakewalk.
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
I got them. It makes filling the compendium and crafting uber monsters much much faster. It becomes like a game unto itself.
I don't know what was worse attempting to get locked into neutral or having to do all those quests afterwards.
Other than that, fantastic game all around.
MetalGuardian
Banned
According to the June Downloads thread, this game is on sale for $24.99 until Monday. I am SO tempted to buy it, because I've been wanting to play it since it has come out... but I absolutely suck at difficult and complex RPGs, so I can see myself giving up on the game rather quickly despite loving the premise.
How reasonable doable would it be to beat this game without resorting to a guide or other Internet help, considering I've never played a SMT game before?
How reasonable doable would it be to beat this game without resorting to a guide or other Internet help, considering I've never played a SMT game before?
The game itself is pretty straight forward (save for the awful and confusing overworld map) so I don't think you will run into any problems regarding where to go and what to do as long as you pay some attention to what people are telling you to do during the story line.
The difficulty in the beginning is rather steep, especially for people new to the series but it gets easier after a while and there's also an easy mode if you really can't deal with it.
MetalGuardian
Banned
Easy mode? Hooray!
Awesome. $25 seems like a great deal, then. I just hope it's accurate... I haven't been able to find information on the sale anywhere online other than the June downloads thread, and I haven't had a chance to check it on my 3DS yet.
Correct.
Wow. That makes no sense at all. I think that just killed my entire motivation to play through this on master because I made a reincarnation save when I first played through it and now I want a proper playthrough without any items or levels from my initial Chaos clear.
MetalGuardian
Banned
Downloading now! I'm ready for the pain.
Immaculate
Banned
yeah it was those training missions really killing me. recruiting demons is HARD. but since im already pretty familar with the battle system since i played p3/p4 it was smooth sailing after that sorta. the only problems i had were with orthrus and hooded guy boss with two level 10 demons even though i was level 8/9 for both. Is it time for me to upgrade my armor? and whats a quick way to make macca?( i have 1115 macca tab for charon)
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
There really isn't a quick way to make Macca for you right now. Methods open up later, but for now, just gather and sell relics and hope for high value item drops.
Immaculate
Banned
ok cool cool. Guess I'll just run around and grind a bit while looking for stuff thanks
Get the 5 story DLC (Clipped Wings 1&2, For the Past for the Future, Ancient of the Sun and Eternal Youth). They fill some gaps in the story pretty nicely.
Are any of the Story DLC's worth it like Clipped Wings and such? I was down to get all of them with my 5 bucks, but it seems I might need a bit more than that because of Maskado. Are all the DLC marked as story important and worth the money? Wanna make sure I get the best DLC before the 50% off prices go away.
Story-wise, Clipped-Wings 1&2 and Masakado are the more interesting.
If you're looking for the challenge, Ancient one of the sun is probably the one you want.
Be aware that you can't beat Masakado's DLC if you don't complete the Eternal Youth one.
Barrylocke
Member
I've been playing this game for awhile with the recent sale. I just opened up the path to Ikebukuro, and I've gotta say, I've been really enjoying myself. The city street style of dungeons, if you want to call them that, is actually pretty fun. I love a good dungeon crawler, but this way of roaming around is pretty unique (non of the other SMT games nail the streets quite in this way from what I've played).
The difficulty doesn't seem to have quite reach the point of being "way too easy" like I've heard other people say, although now that I've unlocked more skill slots, I feel like it's making its way there. I decided to try something interesting and do an Agility+Luck focused build. I'm swimming in items now, and I have decent chances for criticals, especially with multi-hit and attack all weapons and guns. Between that and my status bullets and weapons, my Flynn is kind of a technical fighter, keep the enemy at bay and hitting weakpoints (he has 3 out of 4 elements equipped). It's fun to be the leader but not necessarily the strongest.
Awhile back, I remember reading a post on SIliconera where one of the writers was defending the game, which has apparently been getting some flack for being lifeless and boring. After having played as far as I have, I have to disagree with those folks as well. Tokyo's people and incidents have really helped to paint a picture about what the city has been going through and what its inhabitants have to face now. Granted, I will admit that if you look away from the citizens and inhabitants of Tokyo and look at your core party, there's not a lot to be excited about. After the team left Naraku, the party members have really not had much to add to the tale, to the point that they could not be there at all and not much would be lost. I know with time, we'll start seeing our favorite alignments of law neutral and chaos start manifesting in the team more, but for now, they really just feel like tagalongs.
Speaking of NPCs though, how about that Nozomi. She wins the "best minor NPC award" in this game so far. Perhaps being voiced by Laura Bailey has that effect? Granted, I kinda wanted her to stand in the corner when I did the sidequest against Asura. Asura nulled gun attacks and Nozomi loved to shoot him. Smirks were had and I almost lost that fight.
The difficulty doesn't seem to have quite reach the point of being "way too easy" like I've heard other people say, although now that I've unlocked more skill slots, I feel like it's making its way there. I decided to try something interesting and do an Agility+Luck focused build. I'm swimming in items now, and I have decent chances for criticals, especially with multi-hit and attack all weapons and guns. Between that and my status bullets and weapons, my Flynn is kind of a technical fighter, keep the enemy at bay and hitting weakpoints (he has 3 out of 4 elements equipped). It's fun to be the leader but not necessarily the strongest.
Awhile back, I remember reading a post on SIliconera where one of the writers was defending the game, which has apparently been getting some flack for being lifeless and boring. After having played as far as I have, I have to disagree with those folks as well. Tokyo's people and incidents have really helped to paint a picture about what the city has been going through and what its inhabitants have to face now. Granted, I will admit that if you look away from the citizens and inhabitants of Tokyo and look at your core party, there's not a lot to be excited about. After the team left Naraku, the party members have really not had much to add to the tale, to the point that they could not be there at all and not much would be lost. I know with time, we'll start seeing our favorite alignments of law neutral and chaos start manifesting in the team more, but for now, they really just feel like tagalongs.
Speaking of NPCs though, how about that Nozomi. She wins the "best minor NPC award" in this game so far. Perhaps being voiced by Laura Bailey has that effect? Granted, I kinda wanted her to stand in the corner when I did the sidequest against Asura. Asura nulled gun attacks and Nozomi loved to shoot him. Smirks were had and I almost lost that fight.
This game is the cheapest it's ever been on Amazon at $19.99 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C1ZBFTW/?tag=neogaf0e-20
cj_iwakura
Member
I was thinking about how much I want to play this on a console, then it hit me...
Wouldn't this be perfect on the Wii U?
Wouldn't this be perfect on the Wii U?
A lot of things would be perfect on Wii U... here's hoping SMT x FE turns out good! Although it will probably be more of a FE style game (but I'm okay with that)
You mean the same thing ported to the Wii U? Or the same core game but with console-adequate graphics? And why Wii U and not any other home console?
ActStriker
Member
I guess with the GamePad pretty much be Burrows?
Barrylocke
Member
I recently liberated Ikebukuro from demonic influence. I don't think I mentioned it in my first impressions post, and it's an SMT game so this is ideally a given, but the music in this game is so friggen good. If it turns out that Meguro is going to back off of the series (which seems to be the trend, he's been doing less main composing it seems) then I think the games are in good hands.
From the Quest Boss theme, to the melancholy yet oddly hopeful theme of Tokyo, almost all of this music is a treat. Even the underground shelter/town themes are awesome. Just when I thought they couldn't outdo themselves with Shinjuku's theme, the game went and tossed Ikebukuro's theme in my face. Very surprising for a district that comes off as pretty unlively without the Ashura-kai around. Ryouta Kozuka and the rest of the Atlus Sound Team did really good with this one, which will probably find its way on my playlist when the game is finished.
As for the game itself, I just reached the top of the Kagome Tower, about to free the 3rd masked man. I imagine I'm at or near the halfway point. I also have a pretty good idea on who the masked men could be, though time will tell on that front.
Atlus is notoriously frugal when it comes to their games. I haven't been keeping up with recent gen dev costs, but I wouldn't be surprised if developing for the Wii U is cheaper than the other 2. Of course, by that logic, the PS3 would make a lot of sense too. We all know Atlus is no stranger to developing for last gen consoles well after the next gen has arrived.
From the Quest Boss theme, to the melancholy yet oddly hopeful theme of Tokyo, almost all of this music is a treat. Even the underground shelter/town themes are awesome. Just when I thought they couldn't outdo themselves with Shinjuku's theme, the game went and tossed Ikebukuro's theme in my face. Very surprising for a district that comes off as pretty unlively without the Ashura-kai around. Ryouta Kozuka and the rest of the Atlus Sound Team did really good with this one, which will probably find its way on my playlist when the game is finished.
As for the game itself, I just reached the top of the Kagome Tower, about to free the 3rd masked man. I imagine I'm at or near the halfway point. I also have a pretty good idea on who the masked men could be, though time will tell on that front.
Atlus is notoriously frugal when it comes to their games. I haven't been keeping up with recent gen dev costs, but I wouldn't be surprised if developing for the Wii U is cheaper than the other 2. Of course, by that logic, the PS3 would make a lot of sense too. We all know Atlus is no stranger to developing for last gen consoles well after the next gen has arrived.
bobawesome
Member
I'd much rather be playing it on anything than the 3DS at this point. After 100+ hours I just can't find it in myself to do a third play through because of the screen.
cj_iwakura
Member
Spieler Eins
Member
edit: wrong thread, crap (still waiting for EU release)
bemusedchunk
Banned
Just started this over the weekend after wrapping up ALBW.
You guys aren't kidding when you said shit is real tough in the beginning - ended up dying a good 6-7 times in a row just trying to persuade this demon to join me.
Things have gotten better. At first I didn't want to knock down the difficulty - but eventually I did. Once you start getting a cache of demons to use, the entire game and your options open up. I'm still pretty squishy...
I may be oversimplifying/generalizing this, but I really see this as Pokemon with demons - with some cool functionality like transferring/teaching skills and fusing with other demons to create new demons. However, am I wrong in making this comparison?
The only other SMT game I've played before was a few hours into P4G.
You guys aren't kidding when you said shit is real tough in the beginning - ended up dying a good 6-7 times in a row just trying to persuade this demon to join me.
Things have gotten better. At first I didn't want to knock down the difficulty - but eventually I did. Once you start getting a cache of demons to use, the entire game and your options open up. I'm still pretty squishy...
I may be oversimplifying/generalizing this, but I really see this as Pokemon with demons - with some cool functionality like transferring/teaching skills and fusing with other demons to create new demons. However, am I wrong in making this comparison?
The only other SMT game I've played before was a few hours into P4G.
It'll stay that way until the end. It's part of a design choice that I don't agree with. They did away with a defensive stat (Vitality) to make the battles go over faster for both parties. That leads to you being able to literally one shot some bosses. On the other hand that can also lead you to getting your entire party one-turned if you get caught in an ambush.
'Pokemon is MT with, uh, Pokemon' is the more accurate description. Megami Tensei preceded Pokemon as far as I know.
As someone else said, SMT was first by about 9 years. That said, demons are far more expendable up until end-game where you get the tools to fully optimize your favorite demons.
Pokemon is generally (not including doubles and triple battles) about creating well-rounded (in the sense that they can handle a variety of situations) individual party members that can stand on their own, and the team building is mostly about overall composition that allows you to demolish specific threats with individual party members and swap them out safely as needed.
SMT is more about optimizing your individual party members to an extreme for the occasion and making sure they can simultaneously work in concert to collectively overcome their shortcomings and out-damage the enemy team over time. The two are superficially similar, but how they emphasize team and monster customization are ultimately very different and become more apparent the longer you play both.
TL;DR metaphor: Pokemon is about making a fleet of naval vessels and SMT is gathering a crew to pilot one ship.
Question: I tried to kill a domain boss over at Shinjuku, but I don't know if I am supposed to be fighting it at this moment (I'm around lvl 26). I almost beat him, but I decided to restart the battle because I didn't want to waste a revival bead on Pyro Jack. He decimates my party if he gets the advantage.
bemusedchunk
Banned
Perfect. I'm not trying to state one is better than the other - just trying to make a connection since this is my first tried and true first person dungeon crawler.
That's not new. Nocturne is like that.
It's completely optional and you'll need the reward only much later in the game. So, no need to beat it right now.
At least in Nocturne you could usually do something about that (get Vitality/don't run around with mudo/hama weaknesses).
SMT IV is not a first person dungeon crawler. Hell, it doesn't even have 'dungeons' after Naraku.
bemusedchunk
Banned
I'm still in Naraku so I guess it still applies to me (for now).
Well the part about there being no dungeons is debatable but the game not being a first person dungeon crawler is a fact. You explore stuff in third person, whether the battles are in first or third person isn't relevant to the nomenclature of the genre.
Both of those are pretty major points when it's about not getting one turned by an ambush if you ask me.
And regarding insta kill weaknesses, you are naturally protected against one(hama) and you have access early to mudo protective armor. Later you can get better gear and accessories that protect you against that.
I was talking about hama/mudo in Nocturne as that game had some enemies that loved to do that when they got an ambush. At least you get to save everywhere in IV I suppose.
Vitality only rises your HP in Nocturne. The only difference is that in IV you don't have a control over it.
And regarding insta kill weaknesses, you are naturally protected against one(hama) and you have access early to mudo protective armor. Later you can get better gear and accessories that protect you against that.
IV is perhaps more punishing thanks to the smirk mechanics which add oil to the fire if the enemy manages to trigger it but that's it.
I got about 20 hours into this and put it down. I'm now looking to start over.
Question I have: I went with a magic build for my PC last time around. I'm interested in trying a physical build this time, just to have some differences. Is there a consensus as to whether being physically oriented is a viable option?
Question I have: I went with a magic build for my PC last time around. I'm interested in trying a physical build this time, just to have some differences. Is there a consensus as to whether being physically oriented is a viable option?
Guns are great, especially in end game. Physical weapons aren't that great. Make sure to go for Dx over St in any case. St doesn't scale well with anything.
Physical is viable, but equipment (guns, more specifically) is far more important for phys builds, so money is going to be spread even more thinly than it was as a mage.
On the plus side, once your luck stat is high enough you can basically crit everything.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Also decided to start this game over again after 10 or so hours when it first came out. Is any of the DLC worth owning? Silly question I know, but if any really impacts the game or is really excellent, I want to grab it.
It basically breaks the game, so if you just want to play the game for the story, go for it.
If you want to play the game as intended, then don't.
I think there are a few that can't be unlocked until you get to a certain part in the story.
Splash Wave
Member
They're cheats, essentially. At a certain point I downloaded the one for extra money because I was fusing a lot, and my poverty was creating a needless roadblock.
NeonZ
Member
Nah. Actually, it gets changed dialogue if you haven't gotten to the part of the story that the DLC is based on yet, with Flynn and Burroughs confused about what is even going on, especially the Ancient of Days and Sanat DLCs get a lot of dialogue changed if you haven't actually gotten to
Blasted Tokyo and Infernal Tokyo