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Shin Megami Tensei V |OT| Persona heartless version.

CGiRanger

Banned
Was wondering what language are people playing with? Japanese or English? And has anyone had any comparison feedback on the two and which they prefer?
 

Amin_Parker

Member
Was wondering what language are people playing with? Japanese or English? And has anyone had any comparison feedback on the two and which they prefer?
I am playing the game in English language. The English sub is very good. Unfortunately I could not find an option for Japanese in the settings but maybe its there somewhere and I'm overlooking it by accident.
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Jsisto

Member
Am I doing something wrong or are physical attacks pretty useless, at least at the early point of the game I'm in. (Haven't left the desert)Almost nothing seems to be weak to them so you only seem to get a benefit if you combine it with the magatsushi skill.
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Am I doing something wrong or are physical attacks pretty useless, at least at the early point of the game I'm in. (Haven't left the desert)Almost nothing seems to be weak to them so you only seem to get a benefit if you combine it with the magatsushi skill.
It’s all about weaknesses and that’s for the most part magic. I’ve put the last couple levels in Magic. I’ve only focused on strength if I don’t want to consume MP to down an enemy. Once you hit a hard enemy, figure out the weakness and then pour all your attacks, demons, skills, and etc into hammering as much damage from that weakness.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Am I doing something wrong or are physical attacks pretty useless, at least at the early point of the game I'm in. (Haven't left the desert)Almost nothing seems to be weak to them so you only seem to get a benefit if you combine it with the magatsushi skill.
Good physical attackers Demons usually in mid and late games, I would don't rely on them early on. Unfortunately my copy doesn't arrive until 16th, but I'm guessing in 5th game physical attacks are not as over powered as it was in Nocturne
 
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Jsisto

Member
It’s all about weaknesses and that’s for the most part that’s magic. I’ve put the last couple levels in Magic. I’ve only focused on strength if I don’t want to consume MP to down an enemy. Once you hit a hard enemy, figure out the weakness and then pour all your attacks, demons, skills, and etc into hammering as much damage from that weakness.
Are there element based physical attacks later on? Just seems like demons with strong magic stat are far more beneficial overall. I remember there were elemental physical attacks in Tokyo mirage sessions that balanced things out.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Are there element based physical attacks later on? Just seems like demons with strong magic stat are far more beneficial overall. I remember there were elemental physical attacks in Tokyo mirage sessions that balanced things out.
I’m not very far in SMTV, but from what I know there is something later on that will scale with strength, so it wouldn’t be bad to keep it up during leveling.
It’s still safe to level up your strength stat, though. It may even be better. You eventually gain access to “Dracostrike” skills, which are elemental attacks that scale with your physical strength. Each has a name corresponding to its element type (e.g. Wind Dracostrike). You still need to match weaknesses appropriately. However, Dracostrike skills can also critically hit — without using up your Magatsuhi gauge — since they’re also physical attacks. That’s a lot of extra damage if you can line everything up properly.
 
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ranmafan

Member
Was super surprised to find my US copy I ordered from Amazon US arrived today to me in Japan. Was expecting not to get it until Thursday. Gives me a nice Sunday to play a lot of it!
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
In all honesty, I really like the game. Gameplay is probably the best for me in the SMT series (though I like 3’s world and environment more). Love the open world exploration and hunting various quests and searching for the Mimin.

My issues are the performance of this game (frame drops, stutter, laginess) and the camera.
 

Nico_D

Member
Really on the fence about this game and can’t make up my mind. I’m a JRPG vet so can handle hard jrpg combat but not sure if this is worth a purchase.

Loved Persona 4 and 5, and enjoyed the combat (thought that even the random enemies were creative and fun) but really enjoyed exploring the cities and the plots of those games.

Is this game pure grind or does it have a real plot and some interesting exploration? I enjoy the Dark Soups games so can handle a game without much plot if both the gameplay and exploration environments are phenomenal but don’t think just a good combat mechanics is enough for me.

What do you guys think?

Personally I prefer SMT character grind to Persona's social link grind and pretty excessive visual novel style. I rather play more than read in my jrpgs
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Personally I prefer SMT character grind to Persona's social link grind and pretty excessive visual novel style. I rather play more than read in my jrpgs
I enjoyed S.link when it was first introduced in Persona 3, it was new and exciting but by the time we reached P5 I was really getting tired of it, it felt like filler episode of anime that doesn't move the main plot forward, it just felt tidious.
 

Krathoon

Gold Member
It cracks me up how the main character is such a pretty boy. This is pretty typical for SMT and Persona games. It is a Japanese thing. That is why Final Fantasy 7 made fun of it by having Cloud dress up as a woman.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
this is my first main SMT game. i did think i would enjoy it but wasn't 100% sure. i'm hooked on it. it's one of those games i need to force myself to stop playing and if i don't play it i keep thinking about it. there is somethings i'm confused about but the gameplay is really good. i was worried because it's a lot of combat and in persona i never took it too seriously but it's so satisfying. any performance issues i've long forgotten about. yeah the resolution is low and so is the framerate but it's not stopping me enjoying it in the slightest.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Really on the fence about this game and can’t make up my mind. I’m a JRPG vet so can handle hard jrpg combat but not sure if this is worth a purchase.

Loved Persona 4 and 5, and enjoyed the combat (thought that even the random enemies were creative and fun) but really enjoyed exploring the cities and the plots of those games.

Is this game pure grind or does it have a real plot and some interesting exploration? I enjoy the Dark Soups games so can handle a game without much plot if both the gameplay and exploration environments are phenomenal but don’t think just a good combat mechanics is enough for me.

What do you guys think?
i think you would enjoy it.

if you liked the persona combat then you'll like this. in persona your party is your friends (ryuji, ann, morgana, etc) and they have control of their own personas/demons. in SMTV the party is you (nahobino) and you need to recruit demons (like you do in persona by talking to them) to join your party. the rest of your combat options are similar: skill (attack/magic), items, guard, escape, pass. the overall battle mechanics are a bit different. SMTV has magatshuhi which is like a critical bonus meter that fills up. you try hitting demon weakness to get an extra turn. there is a moon phase but i don't quite understand that yet. i tried recruiting a demon but it said i couldn't because of the moon. i need to learn what that is all about.

there is a plot but it's not in your face like Persona where you can spend hours reading. the beginning sets it up and you'll get cut scenes here and there. you won't also be able to spend time with your friends and you can't boost your relationship with them. the whole social sim thing that persona has going on isn't in SMT. most of the game is combat. it's more like Dark Souls in how it tells the story.

the map isn't open world so you can't just go off exploring wherever you want. you follow the paths but still i think it's fun exploring the world. the game encourages you to go looking in every corner. you could just run from marker to marker but if you take your time exploring you'll be rewarded. example: i was going to head straight to the marker to progress story but thought i'll go up that path and see what's there. i discovered a cave (never seen it on the map) and inside i got a side quest.

if i were to sum it up the game feels like a mix of persona, nier automata/astral chain, botw, and dark souls. i love all those games so i'm loving SMTV :)
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
How is it like Dark Souls?
I agree, let’s stop calling every game that’s difficult “Souls” games and SMT has been around longer than any Souls games and always been known for it’s difficulty.

Not mention that SMT has entirely different combat system and gameplay loop.
 

Croga

Member
Does it have cheap deaths like a Souls game?

I wouldn't say cheap in the same sense, but a player built party with a lot of elemental weaknesses can get trashed if you aren't careful.

Every enemy (including standard "trash" mobs) will happily exploit any weaknesses you have on any demon in your party (if they have the abilities/skills to do so) to give themselves many extra press turns which could cause a wipe without a single turn for you if the enemy group is large enough.

The death scenario that most people feel is cheapest in this series is more then likely getting hit by insta death Light or Dark spells, which work both for you and for the enemies as per everything in the game. If the main character gets insta gibbed, game over, even with a full party. (You can get survive with 1hp endure skills however)

These cheap deaths are also completely avoidable though by inherited resistances, so for me personally, I get LIght / dark resistance on the main character as fast as I fucking can in this game lol.

It's all about building your team for what you are facing. You might die to a boss to just see what he has skill and resistance wise, then rebuild a team to go again.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
if that's cause i mentioned dark souls....i don't even think dark souls is difficult. it just requires more patience/strategy and doesn't hold your hand which people mistake for difficulty. Compared to Persona then SMT is like that. You can breeze through Persona with little effort but SMT will require you to put more effort into it. Also i was thinking more in terms of combat/story ratio and how the story is told. the story isn't in your face like persona but is told in little bits at a time or requires you to dig deep to find stuff out.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
if that's cause i mentioned dark souls....i don't even think dark souls is difficult. it just requires more patience/strategy and doesn't hold your hand which people mistake for difficulty. Compared to Persona then SMT is like that. You can breeze through Persona with little effort but SMT will require you to put more effort into it. Also i was thinking more in terms of combat/story ratio and how the story is told. the story isn't in your face like persona but is told in little bits at a time or requires you to dig deep to find stuff out.
I get all that but still SMT has been around long before Demon’s Souls, so saying SMT is “soul-like” doesn’t really make sense.

SMT has always been SMT.
 
Never played any SMT games before, some parts of this I really like, but other parts are not what I was expecting at all.

When you first get transported to the future/demon-world, I was expecting that to be a temporary cut-scene and that I would get returned to the modern-day school setting once I hit a checkpoint or something; but that was 3 hours ago now.. erm.. is this running around open-world bit what the game "is"?

Voice acting is great, combat mechanics are deep and interesting, visual presentation and character designs are chef-kiss. Music is fucking awful, when it just cuts into that battle music it feels like someone accidentally sat on the TV remote and changed the channel. Open world stuff is really let down by the frame-rate feeling like shit with the high input lag.

I'll stick with it, still holding out hope i'll get returned to the "current world" stuff..
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
It is a game that leans on learning from dying. The game mechanics are more unforgiving.

So basically a Souls ripoff?

Danjin44 Danjin44 you fucking lied to me bruv, and to think I was this ready to give it all up and get SMTV, but if they just doing some Souls clone, fuck it...I"M OUT!

The music is not Persona good (plays a Persona track in SMTV)

"just nasty, what is this 90's jazz pop shit? da fuck"

Dan - "Well that track is actually from Persona"

me - " ok..but you didn't let me finish doe, what is this track that has taken over my soul, I bet its from Persona and SMTV had to COPY IT"
 
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EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
I get all that but still SMT has been around long before Demon’s Souls, so saying SMT is “soul-like” doesn’t really make sense.

SMT has always been SMT.

Agreed. For those of us old enough to remember, SMT has always been a hard series and sorta started a lot of that with RPGs, though I don't think either is directly copying each other, it indeed predates Souls series
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
So basically a Souls ripoff?

Danjin44 Danjin44 you fucking lied to me bruv, and to think I was this ready to give it all up and get SMTV, but if they just doing some Souls clone, fuck it...I"M OUT!
Oh yes Atlus had time machine and saw there going to be Souls game and so they ripoff Souls before there was such thing as souls game.
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Oh yes Atlus had time machine and saw there going to be Souls game and so they ripoff Souls before there was such thing as souls game.

I want them to do HD versions of those old ass Disney games that was hard as fuck for no damn reason and someone states they are copying Souls with remakes lol

The best is when its a old game or series and someone states something odd like that. I heard one recently where someone stated BF2042 was copying Call Of Duty having big maps and vehicles and such lol So when you hear it, you can't help but to give a deep lolz

Krathoon Krathoon Agreed. I feel its the best teacher. When I was a kid and first played JRPGs, they were so hard and I kept dying and It forced me to learn why I was dying and what i needed to to avoid it etc.
 
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BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
Does it have cheap deaths like a Souls game?

Like all JRPGs, sometimes luck goes against you. That typically means your cheeks are getting clapped in this game. So if you consider that cheap, then yes.

Good news is there are ample possibilities to save so even a cheap death from a roll of the dice shouldn't cost you too much time/progress. Just reload, maybe adjust your party appropriately, and within a few minutes you're back in the fight.
 
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