Shin Megami Tensei Series

Heck, forget Fenrir for a moment: I hope that in a game about VENGEANCE and SNAKES, we get Jormungandr/Midgardsormr.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Apr 23rd 2024 at 8:08:04 AM

Longtime series artist Kazuma Kaneko has officially left Atlus.

For a Blockchain/NFT company.

Edited by Memers on Apr 23rd 2024 at 9:28:01 AM

Very big oof.

What are they even offering? Blockchain NFT stuff aren't exactly in vogue RN.

Apprently Japan has a lot more faith in it while it’s busted here.

Okay, why? What does blockchain/NFT stuff offer there?

A wider range of people that have never touched grass and are willing to blow life savings on anything with their waifu on it?

This is secondhand info on the why so take it with a grain of salt, but it’s the hopes of seeing the economic boom they once had and hoping that new technology might be the means to see it realized.

From the 80s?

But like most of the tech that Japan had produced were practical and had uses. What part of block chain and NFT stuff is so long term profit besides "easy money from rich collectors for things that cost very little from the company to make."

Honestly, I worry with how FF VII Rebirth sold poorly that, and now this, that companies like Atlus and Square will invest more in NFT stuff and get burned.

Altus isn’t investing into it like Squeenix or the Company Kaneko joins.

People already mock the idea Squeenix having unrealistic expectations that lead Rebirth to underperform.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Apr 23rd 2024 at 10:22:47 AM

It still sold less than XVI which is certainly a legit concern for Square even if there are factors like it being a sequel.

Japan used to be ahead of the curve by nearly every metric that matters. Economics, societal development, social mobility, economic opportunity, technological innovation and adoption, you name it. Then all of a sudden they weren't. Saw a summation to the effect of "Japan's been living in the 80s since the late 60s" and it's weirdly apt. Their companies are ossified and slow to adapt new tech or new ideas, in part because promotions are frequently based on seniority instead of merit, ability or training. It's also really hard to get a startup off the ground there, which has been the model for tech acceleration since before Japan started stagnating.

To give a random example of the effects of this: many Japanese companies, including hospitals, still use fax machines instead of email to communicate with each other. Fax machines!

Blockchain nonsense appeals to a certain kind of Serious Person as a panacea. It has the tech mystique (the promise of making lots of money and "disrupting" existing markets (be aware that disruption is largely a myth)), and it can be applied to everything under the sun. The fact that it's always a strictly worse solution to solved problems when it isn't a Greater Fool scam doesn't occur.

tl;dr version: blockchain makes the line go up and Japan's line has been flat for a long time.

In other words it's another symptom of the Lost Decades.

I'd flip it to say that NFT craze and the Lost Decade are both symptoms of the same issues, instead. But yeah.

So with how much Snakes are emphasized in Vengeance, I learned today that Gozu-Tennoh(aka Syncretized Susanoo) was married…..to a multi headed snake god that had 8 dragon kids with.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Apr 23rd 2024 at 4:57:56 AM

Is the consort in question Harisaijou? I know that Harisaijou is sometimes associated with Kushinadahime, and she is also said to be the daughter of a nagaraja

Yup.

Fenrir's video is up:

Fenrir will have a unique conversation with his dad, Loki.

Also, next demon is Kaya-no-hime.

Do you guys think some of the modern redesigns for characters like Odin or Koga Saburo, fit the Superhero Gods trope in their aesthetic, if not always in action?

Odin no, Koga Saburo and Yamato Takeru yes.

Kaya-no-hime's video is up. Not really anything new in this video.

Next demon is Gremlin.

Alright, I feel like once you get over the hump of having to do the Hinako/Jungo/Shiva mission with only the Hero and Al Saiduq Al Saiduq's Day 7 is one of the easier ones because you don't have to fight Yamato at the Tsuutenkaku and Saiduq himself is a very solid, extremely well-rounded unit. His Day 8 on the other hand I felt was tougher than the others, since Ronaldo, Joe, and the other demon tamers at the "Dream's End" mission all have very solidly put-together teams and a lot of Shield Alls, you have to fight the harder version of Polaris, and Yamato, while not the same juggernaut he is on Day 7, actually takes advantage of the upgraded Terminal map layout to stymie you with chokepoints and constant HP/MP reduction while the Alcor battle doesn't do anything special in that regard. Yamato's combo of Dual Shadow + Megidolaon + Magic Yin can really work against him against a team strong enough to tank more than one hit of that since doesn't have a means of restoring MP independant of spending his own like he does on Day 7.

I level ground a little bit more this time so that I could fuse demons like Sraosha, Garuda, and Lucifer Frost in the Lv. 68-69 range and had a noticiceable easier time against Polaris than my previous run-throughs. Looks like Lv. 65-66 is the sweet spot if you want a challenge.

The funny bit's that she's voiced by Yukiko's Japanese VA, so things have gone full circle.

I mentioned it a while back, but Konohana Sakuya being in Vengeance makes Ouyamatsumi's line about how the Nahobino should marry into the Kunitsukami funnier to me, considering Konohana Sakuya is his daughter.

So that's two Social Links confirmed for this game.