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

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Any tips for a complete newbie to the series?

I am focusing my stats in Dex/Agi/Luk with a splash of Mag for good measure. Can I really leave Str at base and be fine?

Also, any tips for recruiting demons? I'm still doing the tutorial, but I have tried to recruit the little Platypus/Porcupine thing like, times. The dialogue is always different (which is great!), but there is no clear way to answer these questions.

And finally, are there any apps that are much better to get early on? I don't want to spend my app points on something that isn't of much use to me right now...
 
When did Amazon's shipping get so slow? They just shipped my game out yesterday...

Even with free super saver shipping, they've atleast always shipped on release day. I bet my order shows up banged up as well.
 

Sleepy

Member
Also, any tips for recruiting demons? I'm still doing the tutorial, but I have tried to recruit the little Platypus/Porcupine thing like, times. The dialogue is always different (which is great!), but there is no clear way to answer these questions.

I asked this earlier but I think it got buried. I believe that demon is level 6 while you may be 3-4 when you first see it. There may be a level disparity where you cannot recruit to far above your current class.

Oh, and see my post above for a battle tip (I think it is correct).

I still have no idea how Smirk works.
 

NeonZ

Member
Also, any tips for recruiting demons? I'm still doing the tutorial, but I have tried to recruit the little Platypus/Porcupine thing like, times. The dialogue is always different (which is great!), but there is no clear way to answer these questions.

You mean Chagrin, I guess? It's definitely the most annoying early demon to negotiate with.

First you need to match his level (6), otherwise it won't join you even if the negotiation is succesful. After that, don't say things that could inspire it to attack you. It seems to be the early demon that most often picks things out of context to attempt to kill you. I've had some luck with the question where he calls the protagonist an old man. By saying that I'm not old, he joined me twice (once even without any gifts afterwards!). Another time, it just left without attacking me. So, that answer seems to please it at least.
 

Ourobolus

Banned
I still have no idea how Smirk works.
Smirk has a chance to trigger when you either:

-Land a critical
-Exploit a weakness
-Nullify/Repel an enemy attack

When a character smirks, it gains huge boosts to evasion, attack, and defense (I think someone stated it's like having 3x Tarukaja/Rakukaja/Sukukaja).
 

duckroll

Member
This game is really amazing. I'm past Ueno now and the game is really opening up. This is probably the best game Atlus has made since SMT3, and possibly even better than that. It's the sort of JRPG I've been craving for but somehow doesn't get made much anymore. The good old days of the PS1 and PS2, turn based battles with tons of content and a large scope, lots of areas to explore, tons of quests and items, all wrapped in great art direction and music, with tons of polish. God damn. Thank you based Atlus.
 
What did you guys name your main character?

That was actually a tough decision. I almost always want to use the default name in games like this, but they said it would be tied to my Street Passes (not sure how, haven't unlocked that yet) and it was always annoying getting traded Pokemon from kids named Ash when I was a kid so I went with my real name.
 

Volcynika

Member
This game is really amazing. I'm past Ueno now and the game is really opening up. This is probably the best game Atlus has made since SMT3, and possibly even better than that. It's the sort of JRPG I've been craving for but somehow doesn't get made much anymore. The good old days of the PS1 and PS2, turn based battles with tons of content and a large scope, lots of areas to explore, tons of quests and items, all wrapped in great art direction and music, with tons of polish. God damn. Thank you based Atlus.

How many hours have you put into it so far?
 
How exactly does the game calculate the amount of XP you receive after battle? Because I thought my XP quickly scaled back in Naraku as the protagonist's level rose, but now I'm exploring the second (or third, depending on how you count) region in Tokyo, I could swear I'm appropriately leveled (a bit higher than most of the demons around here), and each encounter is giving me ridiculous XP - probably enough to level up every ten battles.
 
What Lv are you at this area, i'm around 21 and feel that its a bit low, was wondering if i'm underleveled?

I was also about that level when I got there or maybe like level 22

edit: I guess I'm actually like two parts later than that and I'm at level 29 now. Just arrived in the next town.
 

GeekyDad

Member
Just putting this out there, as we discussed it a bit in that aforementioned status-effect thread:

It seems Luck does affect your chances to Smirk when hitting a weakness/crit, so in addition to being beneficial to magic users for status effects, you also have an increased chance to Smirk, which in this game seems pretty damn important.
 

Sleepy

Member
Should I fuse demon as soon as I get the app? or should I wait a bit.

Also, should I buy the first DLC map?


Smirk has a chance to trigger when you either:

-Land a critical
-Exploit a weakness
-Nullify/Repel an enemy attack

When a character smirks, it gains huge boosts to evasion, attack, and defense (I think someone stated it's like having 3x Tarukaja/Rakukaja/Sukukaja).


Thanks. And for some reason I have been pointing points in Luck. Glad to see it does something.
 

duckroll

Member
What Lv are you at this area, i'm around 21 and feel that its a bit low, was wondering if i'm underleveled?

I'm lvl19, but I'm like 18 exp away from lvl20. I don't really feel that levels are very representative of how strong a character or party is. Skill set, stats, and equipment play a much larger role.
 
Ah I see, good to see I'm not under levelled then, I saw the demons were around Lv 25 which made me think that way.

You should be just fine as long as you have healers or are near one of the
terminals
. I didn't really get too overwhelmed in that area, unless i was encountering a demon for the first time and chose the wrong Magic attack that they were impervious to.
 

pahamrick

Member
I'm lvl19, but I'm like 18 exp away from lvl20. I don't really feel that levels are very representative of how strong a character or party is. Skill set, stats, and equipment play a much larger role.

Truth. I was way over-leveled when I first got to Shinjuku (29) because I had no idea where to go and kept getting into fights where I was wiping the enemies on the first try thanks to exploiting weaknesses I knew and was gaining a level pretty much every few fights. I'm still getting over 1000xp on most of the battles even at 32.

So I fight the
Shinjuku terminal guardian
thinking it'll be a cake walk, and he ends up killing my whole team in 2 turns.
 

demonkaze

Member
Truth. I was way over-leveled when I first got to Shinjuku (29) because I had no idea where to go and kept getting into fights where I was wiping the enemies on the first try thanks to exploiting weaknesses I knew and was gaining a level pretty much every few fights. I'm still getting over 1000xp on most of the battles even at 32.

So I fight the Shinjuku terminal guardian thinking it'll be a cake walk, and he ends up killing my whole team in 2 turns.

Stuck on this
guardian
myself, funny enough I've had no problem with any of the other bosses so far.
 

pahamrick

Member
Stuck on this guardian myself, funny enough I've had no problem with any of the other bosses so far.

I couldn't seem to find any weakness with any of the abilities I had, managed to finally beat him because I fused a demon that had the ability to negate physical and gun attacks on the entire party for one turn. It took a few tries until he stopped killing that demon on the first turn, but eventually was able to get it where I could cast that every turn and it kept me alive long enough to kill him.
 

Soulhouf

Member
This game is really amazing. I'm past Ueno now and the game is really opening up. This is probably the best game Atlus has made since SMT3, and possibly even better than that. It's the sort of JRPG I've been craving for but somehow doesn't get made much anymore. The good old days of the PS1 and PS2, turn based battles with tons of content and a large scope, lots of areas to explore, tons of quests and items, all wrapped in great art direction and music, with tons of polish. God damn. Thank you based Atlus.

This.

I was so worried based on the infos I read and remained worried in the beginning.
But now everything came together and the game is already my GOTY.

Yes, thank you based Atlus.
 

demonkaze

Member
This.

I was so worried based on the infos I read and remained worried in the beginning.
But now everything came together and the game is already my GOTY.

Yes, thank you based Atlus.

I agree completely, I loved Nocturne and this is better for me, couldn't be happier. I really haven't played an RPG like this in so long.
 

ultron87

Member
Does the Fusion Exp Boost App just slightly increase the XP the rest of the party gets when you fuse something or does it make the thing you fused better? If it is the first thing that sounds fairly useless.
 

Ourobolus

Banned
It is a fantastic game. So far my only real qualms are:

- The facial expressions. Seriously, what the fuck? Isabeau's "surprised face" looks like she's smiling whenever something awful is happening, and Walter/Navarre...well, anything other than Walter's normal look is just awful.
- The initial difficulty seems really high compared to Nocturne. It's the same in the sense that if the enemy ambushes you you can wipe easily, but even if you get into a regular fight and trade blows, the enemies do like 1/3 of your initial health with a single strike (and sometimes they get 2 strikes, and criticals!). Even in Nocturne it wasn't that high.

Now that I'm past that initial difficulty it's evened out a bit, but still, damn.

Still an awesome game though. Those two points are pretty minor.
 
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