Shin Megami Tensei Series

You might as well wait until Record Breaker since it's an update with a story set after the canon ending of the original with a new set of Invaders.

So Hinako and Keita came out now. Looks like Spica uses Mooks and Ronaldo makes Keita submit and Hinako.

edited 19th Dec '14 3:50:26 PM by OmegaRadiance

Definitely get Soul Hackers though, it's really good and it plays like the main SMT series but with a few noticable but likable differences. I should finish it at some point.

Oh, hey, the Sky Pillar really exists. I somehow didn't know that.

it'd be nice if break record elaborated on yamato's meritocracy a bit more.

previously i'd thought the game was playing up egalitarianism vs meritocracy but thinking on it, its more like egalitarianism type A vs egalitarianism type B, given that the meritocracy that yamato creates theoretically enforces promotion and success entirely and solely on merit; it doesnt necessarily place everyone on an equal playing field, but theoretically it gives everyone a chance to succeed and climb up the ladder.

course, all we see in the ending is someone failing to live up to the standards of a meritocracy, and being abandoned for it. we never got to see someone incapable of living up to the standards, so eh. it could actually not be egalitarian even in that sense.

The only time I can think they were being abandoned was that man trying to use his former connections and position to get food instead of working, and both a JP's member and doctor won't listen to someone who won't contribute.

thats what i was talking about.

he failed to live up to the meritocracy because he didnt try. he hid away and refused to help, and then expected help in spite of that, attempting to use connections to further push the issue.

its a perfect representation of a meritocracy; if you do not put in the effort, you will lose out.

but thats pretty much as deep into that new world order as we get. we never get to see the consequences for people actually incapable of succeeding. what happens to the elderly, or the sickly? the handicapped who find their options incredibly limited, possibly to stuff they're not proficient at?

do they get leniency? are they abandoned? are they cared for, but stuck at the very bottom of the totem pole with no hope of improvement in life? are they enlisted into a program to train or help them get into the system and possibly climb up?

we're not given a clue. and i'd like to see that. it might turn that ending from one of my favourites to a lot more grey, but i think its the kind of elaboration that these endings need. just a wider window into that world compared to the fairly narrow one we view from in most endings.

I got the feeling they just got abandoned. *shrug* Probably just me projecting, but that seems like the most likely to me in a world system based, at least in theory, on how strong you are.

Also I got Soul Hackers. Fifteen dollars is a good deal, and I doubt I could get a physical copy for that price right now. SMT games tend to be up there in price.

edited 21st Dec '14 9:21:30 PM by AceofSpades

You'll have tons of fun with Soul Hackers, it plays similar enough to main series SMT but it has it's own twists to the battle system that it's alot of fun. The protagonist dying is still Game Over no matter what though, but it could be worse.

It could be any party member dying triggering a game over.

Those do exist. I've played them.

Interesting bit of trivia: based on the categories at the Wikia, the game with the least demons in the series is Raidou 1, while SMTIV and the two most recent Devil Children games seem about neck-and-deck for most.

a meritocracy is not smt's idea of social darwinism. how successful you are is based on what you earn which is not necessarily tied to how strong you are.

ive always felt yamato's meritocracy was one of the closest ideals to the real world, because at least in the first world, we do theoretically work in a meritocracy, albeit a flawed one that also cannot gaurantee success based entirely on effort. essentially the biggest change yamato forces on the world is that he uses the power of top dog alien to fundamentally change the way the world works (he implicitly (and ronaldo explicitly) suggests that mind control is going to be needed for these ideals to work) in order to prevent the pitfalls of real life meritocracy, as well as to bring it to every aspect of the way the world works.

and of course, considering yamato's reaction to one of his underlings failing is not to pull a You Have Failed Me and fire him or anything, but to admonish himself to putting incapable people in position to partake in tasks beyond their abilily and then send that underling back to do the job he was doing successfully before; i get the feeling people who try and fail might be treated differently than someone who never tries and then expects unconditional help.

edited 22nd Dec '14 1:18:58 AM by Tarsen

Plus if that little boy is anything to go by, even those who are stronger and higher up in society will protect the weaker ones under thm just as he does when he puts himself in danger to protect all the people under him while they escape to get help. As long as they are willing to contribute they will have a place in the Meritocracy, even if they can't give much.

SO I finally got Shin Megami Tensei IV...

...Ya know, I was kinda expecting this, but holy shit this starts way more ominously than this series' spin off games And I find it funnny how we get scene that is basically "This is this ending character, this is this ending character, this is probably something important or third ending character"

Welcome to mainline SMT. Enjoy the ride.

"Casualry" "Luxuror"... What a weird and blatant class names

"No matter what happens, we will always be friends" suuuure dude, I totally see where this is going xP

edited 22nd Dec '14 10:03:18 AM by SpookyMask

It would be impossible not to see it.

I forgot to add sarcastic "not" in that sentence

Oh. Fair enough.

Speaking of which, time for me to get back to this.

So I had a random idea for some SMT spinoff game or something: a Perspective Flip where you play as one of the demon mooks and choose which humans you want to side with. I was thinking something like you'd start off as a Pixie or Jack Frost or one of the other iconic not-boss demons, then create a party using your negotiation skills and be able to fuse yourself with them once you reach a "party level" or something. Your race and appearance can make impressions to humans and affect whether they'll want to recruit you depending on if they're Messian or Gaean or what have you.

...Add this to the list of random game pitches right off my head.

Interesting. That sounds like something I'd want to play.

And of course in the end you have to kill off Pyro Jack and/or Jack Ripper, who you've known since the beginning of the game.

I would buy that day one its such a idea.

Otherarrow, What about the Jack Frosts?

Friekugel and Masakados get. I'm ready to fight Noah under optimal conditions.

On another note, what's the easiest way to fuse Beelzebub at level 85? I'm kinda planning on using him both for the Labyrinth of Amala as well as to sacrifice for Metatron, also for the Labyrinth of Amala.

An angle I'd like to see explored in a future game: Izanami's statement in IV that something is corrupting the Death Gods. Makes you wonder if Pluto really was the Pluto, converted into a horrible abomination by the angels.