Shin Megami Tensei Series

I hate Escort Missions. I was at the part of Devil Survivor where the group has to stop Midori, I beat all the demons, and then backup with Beldr arrives, and while I'm hauling ass towards the exit, one of the demons attacks Midori, she dies, and everything goes kaput. Very irritating.

I guess my main problem is that I'm not healing as often as I should. That, and teams of Jack Frosts and Pyro Jacks continuing to spam Charm. Very frustrating to see your hard work go to waste like that.

edited 26th May '10 11:37:44 AM by ComicX6

Speaking of Devil Survivor, is there a way to restore SP during a fight?

Blood Wine. It's the ability that Divine demons get. There's also a race ability that restores your SP after each "round", but I can't remember it off the top of my head.

Also Victory Cry, Mana Aid, and Drain. Drain is pretty useful.

Torment liveblog is still hiatusing. You can vandalize my contributor page if you want something to do.

Tyrant Race's Tyranny restore MP at the end of each battle. Which makes King Frost, Hecate, Astaroth and Loki useful throughout the game.

If the Escort Mission annoys you, use the Avatar's Racial Skill, Switch, for switching places with the NP Cs.

Lux-Pain Lulzblog

So, I have a few questions. I've only played (and cleared, without the bonus boss) Devil Survivor, and have SMT:Nocturne.

• Is the story of the mainline games connected, or can I pick any of them standalone?
• How does it fare, difficulty wise, against DS?
• Should I play this game or get one from the persona series?

I think that there is some connection between the mainline games. In fact I think SMT 2 might be a direct sequel to SMT 1(I might be wrong). Other than that you shouldn't worry. They are all pretty self-contained.

The connection between most of the games is pretty vague - more on the Continuity Nod level than anything else.

Nocturne is a lot harder than DS, from what I've gathered.

Whether to play Nocturne or Persona depends on what kind of game you want. Nocturne is mostly dungeon-crawling, and it's pretty hard. New-school Persona (which is probably what you mean) is easier (though P3's still pretty challenging on Normal mode), and it's about half dungeon-crawling and half Social Linking (short Dating Sim-like segments, really addictive).

edited 26th May '10 4:26:57 PM by Comonad

Torment liveblog is still hiatusing. You can vandalize my contributor page if you want something to do.

In regards to the DS games: which one should I get- Devil Survivor or Strange Journey?

Ooh, that's a tough one. I've had most enjoyment out of Devil Survivor thus far, but I certainly can see the charm of Strange Journey. They're fairly different games, though, and that makes it somewhat easier to chose. If you like games like Final Fantasy Tactics games, Devil survivor will be fun for you, but Strange Journey is more of that original console RPG flavor, albeit in first person. It's worth mentioning that at least DS has a rather high Goddamned Bats percentage, haven't really gotten far enough in SJ to see if it has the same problems.

edited 26th May '10 4:57:09 PM by slowzombie

Liveblog | Deadblog

I just finished Yuzu route.

I feel like a horrible, horrible person to the point where I stopped thinking about it and simply skipped through the dialog so I can go through the next run saving everyone and making the world a happy place.

Just a few steps short of crying myself to sleep tonight. ;_;

The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.

Alot of people suggest doing Yuzu's route first, and it makes sense in a new game plus sort of way, but it's obvious that that route is the "You fail" route.

Anywho, I love me some megaten, and I've played quite a few games in the series

Shin Megami Tensei-Beaten with the neutral ending

SMT 2: Not that far honestly

Persona (PSX): Beat the main quest, remember, no snow queen for America on this version

Persona 2 Innocent Sin: Not too far, may start over. I adore the music in this one, best songs in a non-Meguro Megaten

Persona 3: Journey and Answer

Persona 4: Which might be my favorite, and yes, beaten

Nocturne: Made some distance

Digital Devil Saga: Some distance

Devil Summoner, Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Soulless Army: finished a chapter

Devil Survivor: Got all the endings, but I haven't beaten the bonus boss yet

Strange Journey: Almost done, and I'm LAW

so yeah. I personally prefer Strange Journey to Devil Survivor, though Devil Survivor is better for a quick fix. I think fusion in the series is done best in SJ, with things like being able to fuse anywhere, any time, and the game listing all the special fusion options (Persona does this for fusions that require 4+)

My megaten pipe dreams include a Persona in America, and SMT 1, 2, and maybe even if... remade using Strange Journey's interface and such

Taking a break from FE1, for the FE8 draft instead

My experience with SMT series involves playing Persona 3 & 4, playing a couple of hours into the first Devil Summoner game(he NEVER takes his hat off) and watching a friend of mine play DDS 1 & 2 and a couple of hours into Nocturne. DDS kinda bugs me in that the character NEVER seem to change facial expressions. also, the plot of Nocturne(that I've seen, at least) bugs me as being a bit too over the top. At least DDS waited until the second game for the plot to start going crazy... Nocturne does it in the first hour!

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

I think that's part of Nocturne's appeal, though. And it's part of what makes the plot so hardcore.

"Bam. The world is over. You're half-demon. Everything is trying to kill you. DEAL WITH IT."

...seriously, when you consider both the plot and the gameplay, Nocturne is possibly the most hardcore game in existence.

Torment liveblog is still hiatusing. You can vandalize my contributor page if you want something to do.

...what? sure you just arent paying attention? some of their expressions can be a little hard to pick up up geez the only times they never change expressions is in the first game when they dont have emotions...even serph is clearly changing facial expressions.

De Su, midori, jesus christ ive never hated a character so much for being so utterly stupid. is it just me or is she the instigator of the most escort missions, a lot of them just plain annoying?

at least haru's were either easy or somewhat interesting. people tend to complain about yuzu complaining but given the situation she's the only one that acts normally and she's certainly less annoying than a certain fuckwit who convieniently forgets the fact she's the reason keisuke went knight templar in the first place so she could team up with another certain douche to be a pair of pricks and lock me out of whats his name's ending. bleh. also always considered yuzu's ending to not be that bad and be closer to chaos ending than the actual chaos ending.

dont really see whats over the top in nocturne.

the world ends. at this point, its not really a big deal, cant fault them for doing it differently and saying "thats not the point" and then we pretty much get little plot for like 40 hours untill everythings set up for shit to happen. how is that overthetop?

different. yes. ott? no. and if your complaint about everyone having the same facial expression was aimed at nocturne id agree.

edited 27th May '10 2:45:44 AM by Tarsen

Whew, beat that Escort Mission, finally. Came down to the wire at the end there, since I should've stalled until the civilians got out of there instead of subjecting them to Beldr's Vampire Mist.

For now I'm just going to level grind a bit so I can gain some levels and buy more demons for fusion material before advancing the story any more. King Frost's Tyranny is indeed useful for MP restoration, and Kazoki-Hime-whatever just learned Recarm, so that'll be a big help in the future.

Still hate the swarms of Jack Frosts and Pyro Jacks. Goddamn Bats.

Fairies and their Charm Racial Skill. Sure, it's not the Megami's Affection skill, but early on...

Been replaying DeSu and went for Naoya's Ending.

Still going through Strange Journey's New Game Plus. Just got to Sector B.

Lux-Pain Lulzblog

I dunno. Maybe it was because I had just come from playing Persona 3 where there was a ton of easily distinguishable and memorable facial expressions on the character portraits. But I just don't remember seeing any in DDS. I still think they were good games, it just bugs me is all.

also...a cat named Schrodinger? really now...

edited 27th May '10 7:28:09 AM by Blissey1

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

ok i know nothing of schroedingers cat all i know is that its a name you never ever give cats. but whats the big problem with it?

bleh, direct link to the wikipedia article doesn't seem to work. just go look up "Schrodinger's cat" there. but make sure to prepare for a mind screw first.

edited 27th May '10 9:47:01 AM by Blissey1

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

Yuzu's ending isn't a badly done ending, but that doesn't change the fact that it's the "you suck" ending to me. My favorite is Gin/Haru's honestly, and then Atsuro's

Taking a break from FE1, for the FE8 draft instead

Eh, not so mindscrewy if you realize that the entire point of the thought experiment is that the simultaneously dead and alive cat is a ridiculous idea - it was an argument against the model that made it turn up. Not that quantum physics isn't enough of a mind screw on its own, of course.

Edit: Oh yeah, Megaten. I haven't seen all the endings, but I like the idea of Atsuro's the most. Let's actually make use of all these demons, instead of just getting rid of them.

edited 27th May '10 10:17:30 AM by Comonad

Torment liveblog is still hiatusing. You can vandalize my contributor page if you want something to do.

Just got Metatron! YEAH! Still doesn't make up for how bad Yuzu's route made me feel.

Now just to complete Asturo and Naoya's individual routes... and keep everyone alive. Darn it, game, I never thought I'd actually care about flat 2D pictures.

EDIT: Going from the endings I've gotten, I still like the Law ending with Amane most because I get to score with her since it doesn't ignore the entire series of events with the naive thought that ordinary life is always better and basically allows you to maintain peace and prosperity.

edited 27th May '10 1:07:43 PM by Ramus

The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.

Naoya's ending is badass. However, I can see how Atlus can bring out a possible sequel to Atsuro's or Gin/Haru's ending.

Lux-Pain Lulzblog

Any of the endings are sequel worthy, it just depends on how idealistic or cynical they're feeling. Yuzu's ending, especially, new MC must restore humanity back to peace by fighting demons and either taking control, destroying, removing, etc.

Also, one problem with Asturo's ending (though I admit I'm pulling this from bits people have mentioned)... Demons, living things with sentient thought, to be used as tools? Slavery much?

The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.