Support NeoGAF

[Hobbun]

Nope, not interested in this bullshit game design. This is 2016; games have checkpoints and autosaves so you don't have to open their slow-ass menus and save constantly. I didn't bother to do it because I never for a second thought that a modern game would work that way.

Fuck, the least they could do would be to say that that's how it's going to be. Throw a line into the tutorial, "Make sure you save often because we've decided not to do autosaves like all other games, PS fuck you". I honestly can't remember the last game that expected me to load a manual save on death. It probably would have been a PS2 game, or an ancient PC game or something.

You know, I had edited my original response as I had gotten into an aspect that was off-topic and not needed.

But with this reply, this is just silly. Bullshit design because you have to open the menu and manually choose save? Really crying for you.

Some gamers have gotten so fucking lazy and spoiled now expecting check points and auto-saves.

I guess I’m just a dinosaur.

 

[clay_ghost]

You know, I had edited my original response as I had gotten into an aspect that was off-topic and not needed.

But with this reply, this is just silly. Bullshit design because you have to open the menu and manually choose save? Really crying for you.

Some gamers have gotten so fucking lazy and spoiled now expecting check points and auto-saves.

I guess I’m just a dinosaur.

The BS design is having to go back to tiki for new skills and weapons.
I was actually thinking how nice that the save everywhere features is too.

 

[Vertti]

It says something that I was supposed to have something to eat but couldn't stop playing for two more hours.

I think the battle system is really addicting. You're always getting something new, is it more skills, a new weapon or something else. It makes you keep going.

There are some nitpicks like the needless backtracking for new Carnages, loading times etc. but so far I've liked SMT#FE more than I thought. And that's after all this praise the game has gotten.

Still lot to go. Hopefully the game keeps being as good as the first 10 hours have been.

 

[massoluk]

You know, I had edited my original response as I had gotten into an aspect that was off-topic and not needed.

But with this reply, this is just silly. Bullshit design because you have to open the menu and manually choose save? Really crying for you.

Some gamers have gotten so fucking lazy and spoiled now expecting check points and auto-saves.

I guess I’m just a dinosaur.

Hey, I like this game. But this is a relic of the past, it was bullshit in the 2 Xenoblade games, it was bullshit in modern Persona and SMT. An autosave slot should be expected this day and age.

 

[matrix-cat]

Some gamers have gotten so fucking lazy and spoiled now expecting check points and auto-saves.

Like I said, all games I've played in recent memory have had checkpoints and autosaves. Losing over an hour of progress because I died is something I literally have not experienced in a video game in probably over a decade. The idea that a game is going to work that way never even crosses my mind any more; hence why I don't bother manually saving every five minutes and haven't done so in years, particularly in a game where the menu is so slow to open and close like this one.

But no, I suppose it's much more reasonable that I should manually save 500 times over the course of my playthrough, stopping to do it after every trivial milestone, rather than the game performing this busywork for me in the background. Curse this laziness of mine.

 

[Dreamgazer]

Well, I think I might be dumping this game. I just got laid out by a Savage Enemy encounter in the Chapter 3 dungeon, and apparently when you die in this game you just have to load your last save. Mine is back in the Chapter 2 intermission. That's like an hour of text I'm going to have to button through alone to get back where I was, to say nothing of all the leveling I did in the dungeon. I was just about to use the Smoke Ball or whatever it is to escape the battle but they took out my last two guys in the same turn.

Fuck me, how do you make a game without checkpoints or autosaves in this day and age? When it dumped me back to the title menu to load my save I just stared at the screen in disbelief for like a minute before turning my Wii U straight off. Maybe I'll get back to it in a few days when I've cooled off, but Jesus I don't want to go through all that bullshit all over again. Guess I'll be saving every five minutes from now on.

The game is worth it to overlook that flaw.
You've learned your lesson now, as many of us have, so just save more often.
I just save every time I'm at Tiki's or if I see a savage/rare enemy pop up.

Alternatively, play on easy.
When you game over, it'll offer you the "friendly" difficulty option and ability to instantly restart the same battle (won't help you if you're stuck at a boss...)

 

[Hobbun]

Hey, I like this game. But this is a relic of the past, it was bullshit in the 2 Xenoblade games, it was bullshit in modern Persona and SMT. An autosave slot should be expected this day and age.

Like I said, all games I've played in recent memory have had checkpoints and autosaves. Losing over an hour of progress because I died is something I literally have not experienced in a video game in probably over a decade. The idea that a game is going to work that way never even crosses my mind any more; hence why I don't bother manually saving every five minutes and haven't done so in years, particularly in a game where the menu is so slow to open and close like this one.

But no, I suppose it's much more reasonable that I should manually save 500 times over the course of my playthrough, stopping to do it after every trivial milestone, rather than the game performing this busywork for me in the background. Curse this laziness of mine.

Have we really come to this? Where having to save our game is a hassle?

For me, saving on my own is just second nature. Even with games that have auto-saves, I still make my own save. And I do multiple.

I would have figured being able to save anywhere would be a good enough feature. But like I said, I guess I’m just a dinosaur.

However, this is off-topic and the last I’m going to say on it.

 

[matrix-cat]

Alternatively, play on easy.
When you game over, it'll offer you the "friendly" difficulty option and ability to instantly restart the same battle (won't help you if you're stuck at a boss...)

Wait, if I take the lower difficulty can I skip straight back to where I was? Or I guess that's only if I'd already been playing on Easy, right? I got excited for a moment there

Eh, I'll probably come back to it in a few days once the anger's worn off, and obviously start saving more often.

 

[Dreamgazer]

Wait, if I take the lower difficulty can I skip straight back to where I was? Or I guess that's only if I'd already been playing on Easy, right? I got excited for a moment there

Eh, I'll probably come back to it in a few days once the anger's worn off, and obviously start saving more often.

You can only restart a battle if you've already been playing on easy/friendly.
I only use it when I want to auto-battle through arenas.

The (initial) anger lasted only for 5-10 minutes for me. The game is too fun.

-----------------------------
What I want from the game is a skip session animation option.
It can be really tedious at end game.

 

[Movalpolos]

Yeah I definitely had to get in the habit of playing a PS2 game again with the save system. It's good that you can do it anywhere, but for people that didn't grow up in that era I could see it being a huge turn-off.
Autosave is considered basic functionality at this point and rightfully so.

 

[James Scott]

When Nintendo announced this collaboration I was secretly hoping for it to be basically a 1st party persona game, and I'm glad I partially got my wish.
The cast are a bunch of fun characters in a modern Japanese setting that have to go dungeon crawling every once in awhile.
There doesn't seem to any social links, however, but there are still story and character development driven side quests.
I'm very pleased by the dungeon crawling, though, and as a fan of persona 4 it's pretty great to see just how much better it is from a gameplay perspective.
There are no more random battles; while you see the enemies while in the dungeons they were always a bit too quick to outrun most of the time. The sword slash disables them so you can run away. The dungeons feel a bit more puzzle focused but nothing too hard like persona Q. An improvement over Persona 4's dungeons for sure.
The combat feels fantastic as well. The session system is the best SMT has had to offer thus far despite still feeling like a SMT battle system. The difficulty is just right as well, haven't felt the need to lower the difficulty yet and haven't had to grind much either.
Growth is another positive aspect. You're always leveling up something. The weapon levels up giving you new abilitits, your character grows normally through level ups, and you also get items from enemies that allow you to get unique abilities and new weapons. It's a great system overall.
Hope any RPG fan gives this a shot, it's a really high quality turn based RPG for consoles and it's not like you're getting another one of these this year

 

[foxuzamaki]

GUYS! I finally got my special edition ;_; it's not as big as I thougut it would be, the packaging, haven't took it out of its package yet

 

[Movalpolos]

When Nintendo announced this collaboration I was secretly hoping for it to be basically a 1st party persona game, and I'm glad I partially got my wish.
The cast are a bunch of fun characters in a modern Japanese setting that have to go dungeon crawling every once in awhile.
There doesn't seem to any social links, however, but there are still story and character development driven side quests.
I'm very pleased by the dungeon crawling, though, and as a fan of persona 4 it's pretty great to see just how much better it is from a gameplay perspective.
There are no more random battles; while you see the enemies while in the dungeons they were always a bit too quick to outrun most of the time. The sword slash disables them so you can run away. The dungeons feel a bit more puzzle focused but nothing too hard like persona Q. An improvement over Persona 4's dungeons for sure.
The combat feels fantastic as well. The session system is the best SMT has had to offer thus far despite still feeling like a SMT battle system. The difficulty is just right as well, haven't felt the need to lower the difficulty yet and haven't had to grind much either.
Growth is another positive aspect. You're always leveling up something. The weapon levels up giving you new abilitits, your character grows normally through level ups, and you also get items from enemies that allow you to get unique abilities and new weapons. It's a great system overall.
Hope any RPG fan gives this a shot, it's a really high quality turn based RPG for consoles and it's not like you're getting another one of these this year

It's not for "consoles" though. It's for Wii U only.

 

[foxuzamaki]

It's not for "consoles" though. It's for Wii U only.

While that's true I believe that fans of these type of games usually own both nintendo and Sony consoles

 

[DeuceGamer]

Really enjoying the game. I do have a question though. How does everyone decide which skills to keep? I'm afraid that I'll end up with the wrong skills and have trouble towards the end of the game. Currently trying to keep a wide range of skills and if I have to lose one I try to delete the same element/type in favor of the stronger skill. Example: Delete weak Fire attack in place of the medium Fire attack. That said, it's not always possible and not sure if there is a good way to know which are needed later in the game.

 

[Saint Gregory]

While that's true I believe that fans of these type of games usually own both nintendo and Sony consoles

Yeah, if you're a fan of JRPGs it's kind of necessary now.

Really enjoying the game. I do have a question though. How does everyone decide which skills to keep? I'm afraid that I'll end up with the wrong skills and have trouble towards the end of the game. Currently trying to keep a wide range of skills and if I have to lose one I try to delete the same element/type in favor of the stronger skill. Example: Delete weak Fire attack in place of the medium Fire attack. That said, it's not always possible and not sure if there is a good way to know which are needed later in the game.

Don't fret over it too much, later in the game you'll unlock the ability to relearn any ability you choose to drop now if you felt it was a mistake. I've leveled some of the early weapons in a single battle due to the amount of mastery you get by that part of the game.

There's no point in keeping the lowered power element attacks. I kind of wish that the game auto leveled those like it does some of the sessions.

 

[dragn]

i think you can upgrades weapon later and get skills back

 

[Shin-chan]

They need to patch in an option to skip the session animation. It's bad enough with around 6 attacks but coupled with dual skills even a standard encounter can last forever just watching attack animations.

I think it's pretty stupid that savage encounters literally just one shot any character without ridiculously high hp. The effort you have to put into killing them just isn't worth the reward.

 

[mrmickfran]

Would it be crazy if I said that

Session > Press Turn

 

[CrichtonKicks]

They need to patch in an option to skip the session animation. It's bad enough with around 6 attacks but coupled with dual skills even a standard encounter can last forever just watching attack animations.

I think it's pretty stupid that savage encounters literally just one shot any character without ridiculously high hp. The effort you have to put into killing them just isn't worth the reward.

Dual arts can be skipped.

 

[Shin-chan]

Would it be crazy if I said that

Session > Press Turn

Maybe? I really like it but it's not balanced in this game at all. When you can combo an enemy 20 times without them getting a chance to counter it's just silly. This seems to have made them make enemy damage output very high as well to compensate. They're all just glass cannons because of how easy it is to one shot anything.

It needs some work but it could be better, although I find press turn more strategic (I.e you need to be careful you don't lose all your turns as well as taking advantage of the ones you're given, while also limiting the enemy's ability to exploit the system). Press turn is also really old now. It will be interesting to see if they use it in Persona 5 and how it's developed.

 

[DeuceGamer]

Yeah, if you're a fan of JRPGs it's kind of necessary now.

Don't fret over it too much, later in the game you'll unlock the ability to relearn any ability you choose to drop now if you felt it was a mistake. I've leveled some of the early weapons in a single battle due to the amount of mastery you get by that part of the game.

There's no point in keeping the lowered power element attacks. I kind of wish that the game auto leveled those like it does some of the sessions.

Nice! I was a little nervous I'd throw some overpowered skill away that was needed for something.

The game seems to continue to pull me in further and further. I expected the game to be good, but it's far surpassed my expectations already.

 

[aBarreras]

It's not for "consoles" though. It's for Wii U only.

i didnt know the wii u was a handheld, what the fuck is this shit?

 

[Hobbun]

Don't fret over it too much, later in the game you'll unlock the ability to relearn any ability you choose to drop now if you felt it was a mistake. I've leveled some of the early weapons in a single battle due to the amount of mastery you get by that part of the game.

That’s really good to hear, because I was having some of the same issues in deciding what to keep.

 

[Shin-chan]

Dual arts can be skipped.

Sure but those are at most a seventh of the animations that play. It's a little ridiculous.

 

[UmbraeCruxis]

Maybe? I really like it but it's not balanced in this game at all. When you can combo an enemy 20 times without them getting a chance to counter it's just silly. This seems to have made them make enemy damage output very high as well to compensate. They're all just glass cannons because of how easy it is to one shot anything.

It needs some work but it could be better, although I find press turn more strategic (I.e you need to be careful you don't lose all your turns as well as taking advantage of the ones you're given, while also limiting the enemy's ability to exploit the system). Press turn is also really old now. It will be interesting to see if they use it in Persona 5 and how it's developed.

What difficulty are you playing it on? I found it pretty strategic and just a lot more fun than the press system honestly.

 

[diaspora]

It's not for "consoles" though. It's for Wii U only.

Is the Wii U a PC or something, what?

 

[Shin-chan]

What difficulty are you playing it on? I found it pretty strategic and just a lot more fun than the press system honestly.

Hard mode. And so far the best strategy has been to rush everything down before they're able to wipe me.

I'm about to fight the boss of chapter 4.

 

[TangerineCloud]

Sigh. The power went out as I was watching the cutscenes just after the

Spoiler

Lon'Qu

fight. Fuck that.

Stuff like this is why auto-save/checkpoints are helpful.

 

[lt519]

The glass cannon thing is only half true. Early in the game you have a fixed party but later on you can at least set up your party so you don't have any weaknesses against particular enemies. I mostly played with Tsubasa/Istuki and the best third party member for that particular dungeon. Unless they had axes in which case I'd put in Mamori for Tsubasa. That way only really Istuki was ever really vulnerable to sessions.

Then it was a game of eliminate the enemies that could exploit Istuki's weaknesses first. Which you mostly could do in one turn (hence the half truth).

A lot of it is just a chess match and maneuvering and setting your party up in an optimal way. Which is why the game dragged for me a bit, after figuring out the right strategy normal encounters got boring. I'd look forward to the first few encounters of each new dungeon area but then skip all the fights after that. Still some of the best jRPG boss fights I've had the pleasure of playing.

 

[Sölf]

Well, I did 4 side stories and a few side quests., Only Touma's and Tsubasa's side story are still available. I will at least try both (Tsubasa's is 47, which is a bit high) and else I will do them after leveling in the chapter 5 dungeon. But god, I love the duo arts. And now I already got 4. <3

Question:
Since the rare enemies seem to change in later dungeons, where is another good part to farm them? At least I already have a ??? drop from a nother "Enemy from an unknown land", which would mean a second rare enemy.

 

[TangerineCloud]

Well, I did 4 side stories and a few side quests., Only Touma's and Tsubasa's side story are still available. I will at least try both (Tsubasa's is 47, which is a bit high) and else I will do them after leveling in the chapter 5 dungeon. But god, I love the duo arts. And now I already got 4. <3

Question:
Since the rare enemies seem to change in later dungeons, where is another good part to farm them? At least I already have a ??? drop from a nother "Enemy from an unknown land", which would mean a second rare enemy.

Have you encountered the rare UFO enemy yet?

 

[Sölf]

Have you encountered the rare UFO enemy yet?

Only the first one that appears in (at least) the first 3 dungeons.

 

[TangerineCloud]

Only the first one that appears in (at least) the first 3 dungeons.

Ah, okay, so I don't think you would have encountered this guy yet. As far as I know, the UFO is the only other rare enemy. Could be wrong though.

Here's where you can farm/find them.

 

[Dreamgazer]

Well, I did 4 side stories and a few side quests., Only Touma's and Tsubasa's side story are still available. I will at least try both (Tsubasa's is 47, which is a bit high) and else I will do them after leveling in the chapter 5 dungeon. But god, I love the duo arts. And now I already got 4. <3

Question:
Since the rare enemies seem to change in later dungeons, where is another good part to farm them? At least I already have a ??? drop from a nother "Enemy from an unknown land", which would mean a second rare enemy.

For the UFO Jellyfish rare enemy, go to Daiba Studio:
1. In the room where there are 10 LCD monitors on the wall + Mamori episode titles, make it so the blue "sponsored by..." screen is on the top left monitor. You can force this to happen by "failing" the puzzle (enter random door.)

2. Once the blue "sponsored by" screen is on the top left, make your way to the top left door in the puzzle section. You'll enter an extra area.

3. In the extra area, there is a small ledge with a treasure chest that you have to climb up a ladder to get to.

4. Use attract spray + yoshi's attract rare enemy skill. Every 3-4 step will be a rare enemy but no savage enemy should appear. I farmed about 17 of the rare items in two attract spray use.

edit: b10 like a fool

 

[Sölf]

Ah, okay, so I don't think you would have encountered this guy yet. As far as I know, the UFO is the only other rare enemy. Could be wrong though.

Here's where you can farm/find them.

Ah, thanks. I didn't even encounter a single rare in there. At least in Daitou TV station I saw some, even if I didn't fight them.

 

[James Scott]

The save system is pretty rough. A straight up game over after a death. Should at least auto save after each floor or something. Lost like an hour of progress so far because I hadn't saved recently and I died to a savage enemy (also the power went out a bit later)
Lack of headphone support is baffling as well. It's embarrassing to play at times with loud anime moaning and no off TV play means I need to focus on the game instead of grinding while listening to a podcast or something

 

[Dreamgazer]

Ah, thanks. I didn't even encounter a single rare in there. At least in Daitou TV station I saw some, even if I didn't fight them.

The Daitou TV ones are too annoying to track down.
And if you try to go for them in the high level dungeons, they'll also be harder to kill.

 

[Draxal]

It helps if you have Kiria with Megido or Flux as well to kill the guys quickly.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

You know, I had edited my original response as I had gotten into an aspect that was off-topic and not needed.

But with this reply, this is just silly. Bullshit design because you have to open the menu and manually choose save? Really crying for you.

Some gamers have gotten so fucking lazy and spoiled now expecting check points and auto-saves.

I guess I’m just a dinosaur.

If you can save anywhere, there's no reason to not have autosaves and checkpoints. Letting you lose hours of playtime on a whim in an RPG is bad design when it's a very easy thing for the developer to create. I still haven't gotten around to playing this yet, but there is really no reason at all that any RPG releasing now doesn't at least come with auto saves, checkpoints, or at least the option to restart any battle that game over syou.

 

[Dreamgazer]

It helps if you have Kiria with Megido or Flux as well to kill the guys quickly.

Kiria with Almighty Skills.
Itsuki with Thunder Skills.
Ellie with Thunder Skills.

 

[Dee Dee]

Sigh. The power went out as I was watching the cutscenes just after the

Spoiler

Lon'Qu

fight. Fuck that.

Stuff like this is why auto-save/checkpoints are helpful.

I just pressed this Spoiler without thinking. ._.

It's cool though, I loved them in Awakening. Which chapter is that fight in?

Currently starting chapter 4, I can only hope the whole setting results in finally recruiting Yashiro to the team!

 

[TangerineCloud]

I just pressed this Spoiler without thinking. ._.

It's cool though, I loved them in Awakening. Which chapter is that fight in?

Currently starting chapter 4, I can only hope the whole setting results in finally recruiting Yashiro to the team!

Haha, sorry.

It occurs in a side story for a character you probably haven't recruited yet. He doesn't have a huge role, but it's still cool to see him. He was one of my favorites in Awakening as well.

 

[EndlessSky]

Just tried to do tsubasa's lvl 47 side quest. Very weird they make that available so soon when I'm only around level 31. Completely impossible at this level lol

 

[Dreamgazer]

Just tried to do tsubasa's lvl 47 side quest. Very weird they make that available so soon when I'm only around level 31. Completely impossible at this level lol

Charm/Stun everything (kiria 1 SP attack) + attack mirror solves everything.
Too easy to charm in this game...heck...that Kiria attack is my "time to get serious" trump card.

Otherwise, that battle can be hard regardless of level.

I would probably tell you to wait till level 41 or so though.

 

[random25]

Finally got to start! Finished the prologue and I almost got Tsubasa killed in the boss fight lol. Gotta shake off that RPG rust.

 

[massoluk]

They need to patch in an option to skip the session animation. It's bad enough with around 6 attacks but coupled with dual skills even a standard encounter can last forever just watching attack animations.

I think it's pretty stupid that savage encounters literally just one shot any character without ridiculously high hp. The effort you have to put into killing them just isn't worth the reward.

Yeah, I just skip savage encounters. There are just not risk vs rewards there, just risk. No performa material, no dress, just more money (which I'm showered with).

 

[-Horizon-]

Kiria

Spoiler

in the cat outfit

is adorable as heck >///<

 

[UmbraeCruxis]

Yeah, I just skip savage encounters. There are just not risk vs rewards there, just risk. No performa material, no dress, just more money (which I'm showered with).

There is. It's just not immediately obvious for a bit. There's definitely a point to it though.

 

[Saint Gregory]

Charm/Stun everything (kiria 1 SP attack) + attack mirror solves everything.
Too easy to charm in this game...heck...that Kiria attack is my "time to get serious" trump card.

Otherwise, that battle can be hard regardless of level.

I would probably tell you to wait till level 41 or so though.

Yeah, I don't have many complaints about the battle system in this game but inflicting status ailments on the enemies is way too easy. It felt like they tried to fix a lot of frustrating issues from previous SMT/Persona games like status attacks being almost useless and magic refilling items not being helpful/available enough and just took things too far.