Shin Megami Tensei Series

I think I may be coming up with these guesses about SMT because I recently reread one of my favorite Western comics, Grant Morrison's New X-Men, and in that book the conflict between humans and mutants in the Marvel Universe is framed as something very similar to the Law/Chaos war in SMT, as a mechanical drama without end or potential for change. What's interesting about this comic is that Morrison introduced a Greater-Scope Villain character by the name of Sublime (whose extremely tl;dr history you can read here), who is very strongly implied to be egging the conflict on for his own benefit; in his Evil Speech Of Evil he describes it as a "meaningless shadowplay" where he's holding the puppets. So this is obviously a total coincidence but recently I haven't been able to help but look for clues that a similar character might be at work in SMT.

edited 3rd Sep '15 7:10:02 PM by HamburgerTime

Yeah, the first Raidou was ass. Making acquiring a demon the equivalent of a quicktime event was poorly thought out.

It wasn't ass, it's just I'm not used to game designers making sequel that actually takes what was wrong with the original and fixing it without making bigger problems in the process.

I've unlocked Albion with Nemechi! He was another I wanted. I'm a few levels away from being strong enough at this point, but I can see him in the menu. He's so cute! His little Zoas are there with him!

You know, if Shin Megami Tensei IV took place in the UK instead of Japan, Albion might've been the one to form a dome over the land to protect it from the ICBMs.

I want to see Albion return in another main game.

edited 4th Sep '15 4:08:56 PM by dragonfire5000

That could be an interesting plot point if they ever wanted to return to 4's world. Other regions must have guardian deities. Maybe some of them protected their country too.

The war was worldwide, so he still could've done that. Manitou maybe could've helped the US now that I think about it.

The US is pretty big though. I could see it protecting the Northeastern part of the country but not the whole thing.

Albion is also notable as one of the few beings from an invented mythology to semi-regularly show up, along with Nyarly. He technically existed before, but he was heavily adapted by William Blake.

Sort of. He's based on the Cerne Abbas giant, isn't he? Designwise, I mean.

Originally, Albion was a figure in British legend that traced the foundation of the country back to Greco-Roman times. He was a giant living on the island who was killed by Hercules, but he left behind a line of slightly-smaller giant descendants, including the Gogmagogs, which is why those turn into Albions in Nocturne. These in turn were wiped out by the island's first human settlers, who were Invading Refugees from the Trojan War led by a guy named Brutus, who became the first King of the Britons (there's no evidence that he actually existed, by the way).

Albion was adapted by the poet William Blake to serve as the first human character in his own invented mythology. His offspring are the Four Zoas, also seen in Nocturne. They're also on his sprite in SH but I don't think they do anything.

edited 4th Sep '15 4:31:53 PM by HamburgerTime

He's also a fucking asshole in Nocturne. I'm stuck on that boss fight right now actually.

Ignore any elemental weaknesses. Multihit physical moves like Deadly Fury are your friend for that fight.

Beat the Prison level in Digital Devil Saga 2. That Jailer was actually pretty scary, but he became a lot less so when inflicted with explosive diarrhea.

Also did I miss something? When did Roland get the ability to turn into a demon? I thought they executed the only person who they'd gotten to turn into one.

A word of warning: the Karma Temple is nothing, nothing compared to DDS2's final dungeon. It is enormous.

the final dungeon of dds2 is a little under a half the game in length tbh.

Moth13: After he went insane from hunger and lost his sanity they killed the guy, yeah. Roland infects himself with the demon virus offscreen and also gave himself a splash of orange out of peer pressure.

Said guy is implied to be Lupa.

...'s previous incarnation.

So one thing I found interesting about that anti-SMTIV essay is that despite saying the game is too "kiddified" compared to Nocturne and SJ, it actually praises what you'd think would be the two most obvious targets in this regard: the Anti-Frustration Features and the extremely optimistic Neutral ending. In fact, one of the chief criticisms is that getting the latter is actually too hard, saying that getting Neutral should be a triumph, not a slog. This is, incidentally, one of the few things I agree with.

I love the anti-frustration features too. Letting you choose skills for fusions alone probably shaved ten hours off the playtime.

Hear-hear.

i kind of dislike the ability to save everywhere, but considering an ambush (which is not under your control whenever you enter a red encounter) can kill you exceedingly quickly because of the lack of defence stat, im damn glad they included it.

In a game on a portable system, I think being able to save anywhere is kinda required.

i think a quick save ala etrian odyssey would suffice.

Being able to save anywhere is cool and fun imo.