SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI: STRANGE JOURNEY

I was forced to use the maps supplied on the wiki, as well as reading the directions, for the last forma. It's a relief after I managed to figured out what they're saying and went for the forma.

Right now, I'm before the boss. I lost the first time, so I'm going around, preparing my demons and skills. Apparently, the demons I have that can hit the boss's weakness lacks resistance or immunity to Mahama.

I actually just finished off that boss last night. Well, the first form, anyway. Nasty little bugger. Really, the only reason I won is because I've been abusing the password feature relentlessly. Save, fuse a critter, output its password, reset, input the password, summon. It's expensive, but the critters you get out of it are worth the effort.

^ Woo, managed to beat that particularly boss well, his 1st form via fusing in a Long with Fire Boost and Fire Breath, a Tonatiuh with a Fire Amp to boost its Maragidyne, have them team up with a fused Clotho (with a Agidyne) for repeated Demon Co-Ops while the MC stay as support since he's Law and the fielded demons are Chaos.

Yeah, have my MC stand back and throw in MP-recovery and Mahama-protection items.

On the other hand... Ouroboros' second form = FUCK YOU

...Holy crap, Asura was fricking easy. Then again, I did have the Frost Cannon equipped, and was using Frost Ace, Raksasha and Black Frost.

On Sector E now. They're milking the Disc-One Final Dungeon feel for all its worth, aren't they?

Just defeated Jimenez last night

You need demons that can reflect gunshots or the Bulletproof armor, having Luster Candy and Rakunda/Debiliate also helps matters. I did not have Rangda, so meh

I also defeated Mother Harlot even before facing Jimenez, I got one of the best weapons in the game on the Law Path as a result

So I finished off the Neutral ending this afternoon. And so, THOUGHTS;

The Neutral ending finishes off with the Schwarzweld report being shown to the entire world. Everyone on Earth knows not just about demons, but also about Lucifer (albeit in his prettyprettyprincess form) and probably Gaea and YHVH, too. Which leaves a *hell* of a thread hanging! What happens when people on Earth find out they've been screwed about by an all-powerful God who really just wants to use mind control rays on them? Or that Lucifer is, while still a dick, kind of the more reasonable of the two? And this being SMT, I'm unlikely to get answers to any of these questions. ^^;

BWAHAHAHAHAH, I finally had beaten Ouroboros' second form and now can explore Sector F! I love my Throne, while Lachesis is there for support and attack and a neutral demon (Grendel?) with high VIT to survive Disaster Cycle, before switching to Tonatiuh.

So exploring Fornax now, while seeing what other demons I can get when I take off the Sub-App that decreased accidental fusions to 0% (got a Zealot Dionysis as my first accident, pretty cool and got Frolic)

I am still getting beat down by Mem Aleph

Get Gibo Eyes: Sub app reward for completing the first black box mission, very useful against the final boss as it shifts weaknesses/defenses

I also got the password to summon Seth for completing the Books of Thoth quests, he has -dyne class spells and concentrate

Sonica you should complete the girl's mission in Fornax.

edited 21st Apr '10 3:44:17 PM by Ryan914

I somehow managed to become Lawful. Now my entire main team - including Black Frost - won't do co-op attacks with me.

Big "NO!".

There's an easy way to rectify that. There's a series of sidequests in Antila, wherein you're helping a Fairy start a village. One of the first couple involves bringing a Goblin, who'll then setup shop in the dungeon.

When you talk to him, every now and then he'll dig something up. You'll get two questions, with some fairly obvious Law and Chaos answers. Even better, you can repeat it as many times as you want, so you can tweak your alignment whenever you need to. ^^

Sounds awesome. But according to the wiki, the goblin doesn't show up until you finish the fifth quest in that line - is that right? I'm at the beginning of Eridanus, so I can only get up to the third.

Hrm. I could've sworn it showed up before #5, but I could be wrong. I know I used it before getting very far in the quest line, though.

^^^^^ You mean the 'Catch the rabbit' one? Already did it a while ago, once I fill out the map a bit.

Also, Tiamat = HATE. After Luster Candying myself and my demons, while wailing down on you with Ziodyne, Elec Shot and Pallas Athena's Mortal Jihad, you just had to, after several thousands of damages, use bloody, freakin' DIARAHAN ON YOURSELF.

• grumblesgrumbles, went to find or fuse a demon with Dekaja*

On the Neutral path, and Zelenin is kicking my ass. D=

Managed to defeat Tiamat in Sector F. Apparently, after beating that boss to a pulp enough, setting up Tetrakarn/Makakarn will cause that boss to use Diarahan. So, I had a demon with Dekaja to remove its buffs and gave it an random-hitting physical move for that fight. Tiamat goes done easily, especially after Luster Candying my party 4 times.

Now I'm looking for the boss in Sector G after unsealing the door by killing the demons, since Zelenin's singing unsettle me and not sure about killing Jack's Squad, despite them being a bunch of bastards.

just got to the 3rd sector, beat the god of toilets...

hey. why was the god of toilets a giant brown foot with a face?

my main character got pushed onto the chaos path (honestly im glad because all the demons i kept getting were chaos alligned. who would have thought that not trying to save norris and then killing him would change your allignment to chaos..? (i tried two times, same choices but norris uses last resort doesnt change your allignment, but killing him before he uses it does)

^ Well, you are somewhat showing that by choosing not to help him, you're showing a very Chaotic stance since it's his problem, while Neutral and Lawful would try to help.

Meanwhile, apparently I was very Lawful by the time I reach Sector H and Gore kicked my arse with a lucky KO shot. Now going around, reorganising my party for a rematch.

I sense that I'll feel bad by the time I get the Law Ending.

The wiki was lying. You seem to be able to talk to the goblin after the first quest in that line. I'm back to Neutral now, and cruising through Eridanus.

...got Maya down to red health with Luster Candy and my kickass Grand Tack/Acid Breath Kresnik. On the turn I probably would have killed her, she randomly stoned me with an Evil Vortex.

This is not a nice game.

Edit: Then she did it again.

Edit edit: And again. Does Evil Vortex have a higher stone chance for the protagonist than for demons or something? Rage.

edited 12th May '10 9:08:45 AM by Comonad

This is why I always have the anti-stone ring as my accessory.

Let's assume I've never played a game of this series before.. would it be feasible to begin by playing one of the two DS games? Will I understand the plot? Everytime I read about this, the game mechanics just sound so interesting...

I think starting with the DS games is fine. Out of the two, I'd think Devil Survivor (which is somewhat Turn-based Strategy with a standard SMT battle system for unit confrontations) would probably be the easier of the two. Strange Journey is more traditional to the original series.

The plots are usually not that convoluted, so I wouldn't worry about that. The series is usually praised for having mature stories.

This post was thumped by the Stick of Post Thumping

Wooo beat Maya.

Because Evil Vortex missed me altogether, of course.

^^ I'll think about it. For now I have a very limited budget so Shin Megami Tensei will have to wait. I'm also interested in knowing the amount of grinding.