Shin Megami Tensei Series

Well, then original plot is the way to go then isn't it?

So, guess what? I started a liveblog of the first game.

Pretty good work there! Also, I'm considering a doing a liveblog of Persona4, anyone interested?

^ Do iiiiiit. And decide how much choice readers get into Souji/MC's social life.

Alright give it a couple weeks, and I'll be on it like bees on coffee.

Speaking of Let's Plays, anyone here seen the Giant Bomb let's play of P4. If not you should do so.

For my experiences with the series, I have only beaten P4 and P3. Loved both, but I would say that P4 is my favorite. I tried De Su, but I lost access to a DS since then. I am in the middle of Nocturne...which is not going well. For some reason, I lose the will to play after about 30 minutes. I haven't even gotten the book yet.

P3 - Beaten, currently doing Perfect Social Link run

P4 - Beaten and replaying, now utilising time for Social Links and FISHING

DeSu - Beaten all paths, now trying to fuse awesome demons and checking dialogue options

SJ - Got Law Ending, Chaos or Neutral next

DDS 2 - Stopped playing a while ago

SMT - FUUUUU-

SMT 2 - *ran out of MAG**curse up a storm*

So Yeah

P3 - Beaten. Good Ending

P4 - Beaten. True Ending

P2:IS - Made it to just after the school dungeon with the soul-sucking masks which ends with Scorpio and Leo showing up, then stopped playing.

P2:EP - Made it to that bar where the girl's little sister was taken. Then stopped playing.

P1 (PSP) - Currently in Deva Yuga.

DS: RK vs Souless Army - Made it to some warehouse (I think? It's been a while), then stopped playing.

SMT - Currently attempting to figure out where I'm supposed to go.

IMAGINE - Made it up to when I have to be level 25 to get my DB thing, then gave up in frustration.

edited 22nd May '10 8:46:15 PM by LizardBite

P3 and P4: Beaten.  ^*

P1P: Beat the SEBEC route. Got through one dungeon in the Snow Queen route and got bored. Will maybe finish eventually. (I also played the PSX Persona 1. The localization is awesome.)

Innocent Sin: Playing sporadically, not enjoying all that much but waiting for the plot to pick up. Currently stuck on stupid Belphegor.

Devil Survivor: Beat Atsuro's and Naoya's routes. I'd beat some more but it would invalidate all my grinding for Lucifer... I hate you, Lucifer.

SMT: Not actually a very good game by modern standards, it turns out. Abandoned.

Nocturne: In sporadic progress. Just got the first Candelabrum.

Strange Journey: Beat Neutral path.

edited 22nd May '10 9:23:27 PM by Comonad

P3 and P4 - beaten (true ending and one of the bad endings for p4)

ds:rkVSsa - beaten

devil survivors - beaten, got yuzu's ending and then atsuro's, trying to get naoya's and then haru/gins ending)

strange journey - currently going through the chaos path, ignoring any enemies with bomb.

nocturne - going neutral first, stuck at the last fight with the spectre (i only have debuffs and a magic type mc)

DDS 1 - finished. DDS 2 - stuck in a god forsaken teleport maze with lots and lots of status spells actually affecting me all of a sudden.

SMT 1 - neutral path, no clue where the hell i am atm.

P 2 IS - roughly about 3 quarters in and for now ive abandoned it for some inexplicable reason.

i dont know why people always complain about instant death spells; ive only ever gotten a game over from them once or twice out of all these games. the much more goddamned annoying move imho is bites the dust in strange journey (and no im not counting nocturne, it would take precognition to foresee what bosses use what type of instant death spell)

It's probably a matter of luck. I've been done in by mudo and hama skills several times since the last time I've posted, and it's annoying to lose all that progress in Tartarus from bad luck.

On a slightly related subject, the skill names are terrible. I can never remember what most of them do and there's no way to see a description on them when selecting personas in battle. As it is, I think I've finally memorized all the elemental ones, although I still occassionaly get bufu and garu mixed up.

thats...impressive. huh. i got dq spell names mixed up far more than i ever got smt spell names mixed up. but sometimes i really wonder where only some of the games actually give you a description of the move you're using

It really depends on the game. Mudo and Hama are non-threats in P4 (since your allies will take the hit for you and nobody uses it anyway) and Strange Journey (you null Light and there's plenty of Dark-resist armor). In P3, you're screwed when a random encounter suddenly throws out an instant-death spell unless you happen to have a Persona that resists it or a Homunculus.

Lack of skill descriptions is bad, but at least they fix it in P4. Until then, have fun figuring out what Auto-Mataru and the like do. (Casts Matarukaja! Thanks, that's so helpful.)

Thinking about grabbing Strange Journey, or hell, trying out Shin Megami Tensei I and II.

(...is that dude with the golden helmet the main character?)

edited 24th May '10 1:53:52 PM by TsundeRay

^On the cover of the SJ box? Yeah, but all the characters have those suits.

Good luck with SMT I and II. I hear they're more Nintendo Hard than the the rest of the series.

edited 24th May '10 2:06:49 PM by Customer

No so much of Nintendo Hard as misleading or don't even tell you what to do. The plots of the games are very out dated and make you wander in circles at times. The difficulty only really comes in from the fact that the wandering around chips down your team overtime leaving the inevitable to munch on your bones.

EDIT: Newer games? They don't suffer from this. At least for the most part.

edited 24th May '10 2:10:10 PM by Ramus

Even if you resist Curse and Expel, there's always a damned lucky demon hitting you with Stone. So try have an anti-Stone accessory as soon as possible.  ^*

I only had trouble with Stone during boss fights. Of course, Arachne refused to spawn for me so I could get the anti-Stone ring until I had already finished the boss fights in question.

The series has definitely improved since SMT 1. On the other hand, SMT 2 is the only one that lets you kill the Judeo-Christian god as part of gameplay.

Yeah, I've always disliked that about SMT 2, it seemed that no matter what you did, you had to punch out God. Come on, I'm christian, that does not sit well with me, regardless of who the game was aimed at. Sometimes it just feels like the earlier SMT makers were Naytheists.

I picked up Devil Survivor the other day. My first SMT game that I've played myself (I've watched playthroughs of Persona3 and Persona4, both great-looking games, though I liked 4 more due to the characters and found it rather charming). I named the hero Akira Kamiya, and so was amused to discover that I ended up violating the One-Steve Limit. I'm on the second day, and it's pretty engaging so far, though you really have to know what you're doing during the battles, especially since I'm still getting the hang of skill cracking and fusing demons. Any suggestions on good demons I should get for this part fo the game?

I think so far what's annoyed me the most are those teams of Jack Frosts who spam Charm and Dia, constantly undoing my hard work.

edited 24th May '10 4:26:46 PM by ComicX6

^^ As an atheist I can't really sympathize, but I can see why you are offended. You really should remember that Japan is less than 10% christian, so they're not to worried about offending people, besides, that depiction is a fairly exaggerated representation of the old testament god, if not the new testament god. Honestly though, I agree that the characterization is a bit offensive.

I'm torn between picking up Devil Survivor, Persona 4, or Persona 3 for the PSP next. New game, or better version of this game with an actual female protagonist? I have a feeling I would like this game much better if I could get more in touch with the protagonist, and that is difficult when he's hitting on girls on the beach.

^I would go with Devil Survivor, but that's probably due to my love of turn-based strategy.

It's still awesome.

@Ramus: Isn't beating up deities half the point of Megaten, though? Expecting any deity to be exempt seems like kind of a bad plan.

Of course, Jesus is exempt anyway.

edited 24th May '10 4:49:48 PM by Comonad

Of course, Jesus would beat the crap out of you, anyway