Shin Megami Tensei Series

Then he's looking proper.

Don't worry. I'm sure YHVH will be just as bad (or even worse) as per usual.

God Is Dead, actually.

So Metatron?

There's definitely an English dub (there was VA in the trailer) but it can probably be turned off.

Gematsu article collecting all the info on Nocturne HD

Livestream in 3 days to show off gameplay and the special edition will have a 106(!) page copy of Hijiri's magazine, a two-disc piano arrangement/"rare soundtrack" album, and an Amala aroma lamp(???).

Oh nice, Nocturne is getting a new easy mode.

I won't be able to watch the trailers until I get home tonight but I'll say this: I'm so glad we're finally getting info on V so that the concern trolling can end, and a Switch Nocturne port is the cherry on top.

One thing I'm hoping for but probably will not get is that you can select the gender of the main character, which is why they look so androgynous.

I also wonder if those little flying demons are an actual new demon in the series or if they're just meant to be "generic demons." Unless I'm completely mistaken and those are actual demons from previous games...

Nope, they're all new. I'd guess they'll be Imps or Gremlins or something.

We already have a Gremlin in the series, so "Imps" might be a better fit.

I'm definitely interested in the "The God you worship is dead" bit and how they work the story from there, assuming God is actually is dead at that point.

Given that Lucifer is right there in the promo I'm guessing this takes place in a Chaos world, and that new demon the protagonist pacts with is like Dagda.

I'm hoping that we'll start to see more information like characters and new demons some time soon. I'm not expecting it to be super soon, given the COVID-19 pandemic, but hopefully we'll get some details before the end of the year, at least.

Should I play the Shin Megami Tensei series? What should I start with?

I know next to nothing about this series, but I liked (simply liked) Persona 5 and I like Atlus as a company in general. Is the story linear? Does it continue on from the previous game?

🤔

x2

Assuming that they don't wait until after III comes out. Doubt they'd want V to overshadow III so I'm not expecting any news on V until after they release III.

Edited by Chariot on Jul 20th 2020 at 1:04:11 PM

The story in SMT games with branching paths are pretty linear up to a point where they telegraph that this is a branching point for one of the endings.

Most SMT games are generally standalone with exceptions like SMT: IV Apocalypse (sequel to IV) or the Raidou Kuzunoha duology.

Edited by Nouct on Jul 20th 2020 at 10:16:00 AM

It should be mentioned Apocalypse is a very loose sequel. As far as I know, it takes place in an alternate universe IV that doesn't completely align with anything in the IV we can play. The protagonists are also all new. (basically)

You could probably get away with skipping IV entirely and just playing Apocalypse.

But yeah, mostly just a lot of shared ideas and themes and characters with the asme name and basics but who aren't quite the same character. You can jump in anywhere and go anywhere. I started with Strange Journey which now has Strange Journey Redux, a way better, upgraded version. It's very much intended as an "old shcool' throwback. If you play Final Fantasy, consider SJ the Final Fantasy IX of SMT. It has first person dungeons which SMT had up until Nocturne (SMTIII) and just overall feels like a retro title. It's really damned good, though and has a lot of story and character improvements you won't see in earlier SMT games. It really is like FFIX in that regard, too.

Nocturne might be a good place to start as it's so primitive and a lot of people find it hard to "go back." They play the game with the better, more evolved battle system (the precise name for the SMT battle system is called "Press Turn") and then they just can't deal with its earlier incarnations. I can understand that so it makes sense to play Nocturne and then later games which are better and Nocturne is a perfectly good game in its own right.

If you liked Persona, my go to SMT recommendation is always gonna be SMTIV Apocalypse as it's very Persona but with SMT ideas and alignments and it overall just feels like the best of both worlds to me.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 20th 2020 at 10:25:57 AM

Speaking of Nocturne, I wonder if the remaster will have some quality-of-life changes, much like Strange Journey Redux did, especially being able to choose what skills to pass down when fusing demons.

Maybe if we're lucky, we'll see new demons in Nocturne. Not holding my breath on that one though.

As I mentioned in the other thread, the best starting place for the series right now is imo Devil Survivor 3DS. It's got branching paths, an equal look at the good and bad of both of the major cosmic factions, great music and it's a delightfully twisty story in its own right. It's also not soul crushingly difficult, which helps a lot.

Release! At last, release!

Does Protagonist-kun seems to have a very Ambiguous Gender this time or is it just me?

Oh no. Our protagonist is very deliberately androgynous, though I think that he's just a super effeminate male. They nearly always default to males anyway, so I assume that this guy is designed as he is to appeal to female fans who like that kind of thing.

Honestly I'm more interested in how ridiculously detailed that school uniform is

and if the flowers have like any significant meaning

Hail Satan, after all this time

I mentioned earlier that my hope is that you'll be allowed to select whether the protagonist is a boy or girl, hence the androgynous look. Though it's probably a lot more likely the protagonist is a very pretty boy.

I wonder what kind of demon/god/entity the thing reaching out to the protagonist is. I hope whoever it is, it ends up being as fun to be around as Dagda.

I wonder, assuming Satan is in V, if he'll be back as a Law demon. I liked what Apocalypse did with Satan, but I also want to see Satan and Lucifer fighting each other.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jul 20th 2020 at 10:42:57 AM

This has nothing to do with the new stuff but since Apoc Satan was mentioned

I mentioned earlier I wanted to do an Apoc difficulty run of Apocalypse but I was also thinking of making it an Anarchy Run since I've already gotten the Peace ending.

Given I already found the final boss ofApocalypse incredibly hard on War and with a full other team, is he just nigh impossible with only Flynn and Satan?

Satan is actually incredibly strong in the Anarchy route as a party member. I think he might be better than Flynn and the Samurai.