Topic: Shin Megami Tensei V Thread

Played for just over 1:40 minutes today (according to in game counter). Still at the first proper save point (I'd go out & explore, come back, go out again, etc.) and have a full team now (Nahobino, Pixie, Slime, & Petra) with the MC at level 7 & everyone else level 5 I believe.

Aesthetically it looks interesting, though everything feels just a bit constantly choppy roaming around the overworld (probably because I just finished playing a couple games on my laptop at a pretty consistent 60FPS, so I'll have to get used to mostly hitting 30), though of course this isn't a problem in combat. Definitely more tense than your typical JRPG (magic seems to be your biggest path to success, though that MP drains quickly).

Yep, @JaxonH knows whats up.

@GameOtaku Mermaid, Angel, Azumi. The Mermaid might be a problem, though, since the Hydra breathes fire.

@Ralizah
Isn’t the Mermaid water attribute? Should’nt she be more helpful?

@GameOtaku She's weak to fire.

Although I just beat the Hydra... barely. All of my demons were dead, and Nahobino was near death, but I beat it. Hard mode is awesome. It's like I'm always one mistake away from death, even when going up against normal enemies.

Have a post-boss save file, but I'm considering going back and optimizing my run against the hydra so that some of my demons can benefit from the xp gain as well. We'll see.

I am rocking almost an identical team, only rather than Azumi I am using the demon you get from picking a side in that early side quest.

@Pizzamorg Ah yes, I also had Apsaras as a back-up. I actually encountered Leanan Sidhe first, but wasn't fully comfortable with her approach. Glad I chose the way I did, because, even being weak to fire, Apsaras is a good ice magic damage dealer. I just used some fire dampeners.

I actually went the other way I don’t know how to use spoiler tags here so just SPOILER WARNING AHEAD: but when she explained Apsaras forces her followers to worship her and it was basically a cult, it made that original scene you see make more sense so I picked Leanan’s side instead, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with her ideals, either. Honestly though, she hasn’t been particularly useful yet. She is my highest level demon I think, but beyond that, she hasn’t been that useful.

I have some questions about all the symbols for resistances and the like.

I see what appears to be, from left to right, physical, fire, ice, electricity, wind, light and dark.

But then below that my fairy says Wk to some swirly loopy symbol. Furthermore, the half lit shield below Wind means half defense against it? Or full? And the exclamation below dark means....what exactly? Can't be weak, because it says "Wk" right below all the resistances with that loopy swirly symbol.

Then, on skill potential, there's 4 additional symbols tacked on, which seem to be a moon, a skull, a heart (curing symbol, I know that one) and the turquoise magatsuhi symbol.

Just hoping someone could help make sense of all this and what the menu is trying to tell me here.

I can’t answer the bottom half, but through my own experimentation. A full shield means you entirely block an attack of that element type, fully negating it. A part shield is just resistance, so you still take damage but less.

The wiggly lines you are referring to are Force abilities, I believe. Pixie unlocks one when they level up.

Also, as far as I know exclamation mark does denote weakness. I haven’t seen an element with WK under it yet, so don’t know what that means.

Also, I am about four hours in. This game is okay, but I just despise the save system/difficulty pacing. Losing loads of progress every time you die is punishing, tedious and antiquated. Especially since the difficulty spikes all over the place in this game. I am starting to think I might just play the whole thing on Safety. Safety isn’t really fun either, as you basically do not need to engage with the mechanics but I feel that the lesser evil than losing huge chunks of progress almost constantly.

Like if you really wanted this design, please give me ways to save more often - like directly from the menu or something.

Bahaha. Took a few tries, a couple of different demons, and a different strategy, but I managed to get past the Hydra having only lost two demons. I'll take it.

@JaxonH It's indicating Pixie is weak to spells that inflict Panic.

Half shield means she resists an element. Exclamation points indicates a weakness to an element.

The skill potentials Pixie is strong with are Force (element), Recovery, and Support spells. This means that she makes more effective use of these abilities. The skull is ailment, and the -1 indicates she's less effective at using abilities that inflict ailments.

@Ralizah
Ah. Thanks. I wish the game had a help menu that explained all of that. Otherwise how do you know what's what. Aside from just matching symbols.

I'm Level 8, but am still near the first Layline save point thing. Haven't even gone to Tokyo Tower. Just been exploring this area to the fullest. Ran into some moon enemies, and thankfully had spyglass, killed two of them and got HUNDREDS of XP as a reward. I was like woah! I desperately needed it too, because I was just barely breaking even spending macca to heal up from the fights, never really getting ahead.

Now I have 4 demons in the party- Pixie, Onmoraki, Preta and Slime, all Level 5-7. Just bought 5 Spyglasses, a Life Stone and some medicine to stock up for the journey ahead.

I love this freaking game so much. It's like... survive. Just survive. Any way possible, by any means necessary, survive. Do what you have to do, but figure it out any way you can. That's the game. It encourages slow, deliberate gameplay, never careless, never rushing through. Every encounter could spell your Doom, especially when trying to coax an enemy to join you. I struggled so hard with Onmoraki, kept passing turns, talking again, messing up, dang near wiped my whole party before finally recruiting. Made me really appreciate getting him.

Maybe it's just because I'm coming fresh from Nocturne, but I actually think this game does a much better job at giving you all the information you need. I guess if you've never played an SMT game, it might not be great I can't really say but I feel like here I have all the necessary foundation information I need and most things I can just figure out for myself.

Some of the more confusing stuff for me is where things are deviated from. Like it seems evolutions are gone, for example. So I'm not sure if my Pixie is worth keeping like it was in Nocturne or if she's just a nod at the franchise and can be used as fusion fodder. I also have no idea if things like ritual fusions are in this game and whether I should be saving my fusions to the right cycle of the moon.

@Pizzamorg Pretty much every post-Nocturne SMT game explains itself better than Nocturne does, lol. The cryptic nature of that game is a part of its charm for long time players.

Although it's also true that your first SMT game is almost always going to be the hardest one for you, since most of the games share similar battle and fusion mechanics.

https://www.polygon.com/guides/22776733/shin-megami-tensei-v-...

Seems like the full moon increases fusion accidents and makes demons unwilling to talk to you. I wouldn't be surprised if they brought back the mechanic where the full moon makes it more likely that you get rare items from certain chests as well, although I haven't encountered this yet.

I don't think sacrificial fusions are in this one.

@JaxonH It's weird, because I recall the 3DS entries having a lot of tutorial information tucked away inside the app.

And yeah, the mechanics and difficulty combine to create an experience where every encounter is meaningful and you often have to think outside of the box to survive through ingenious use of items and abilities. It's part of why I love SMT so much. Also, the tight, balanced combat, which is primarily what edges it out over Persona for me.

And the gameplay loop of figuring out how to beat tough bosses is intoxicating, of course. The transition from a boss creaming you in two turns to learning how to game its patterns and smash its face in is wonderful.

My favorite aspect of this entry, though, is the way they've allowed the demons to fully come into their own. There's so much personality in the writing, the battle animations, etc. Every type of demon feels like it has a unique personality. The attention to detail is so loving.

Friendly advice before you hit Tokyo Tower: make sure you have a few demons that know ice magic.

Oh, good, I have a couple.... @Ralizah Just getting to the tower now

Has anyone heard of this person? She says that SMT V will also coming to pc and playstation. I don't care but Nintendo didn't provide support in the making of the game? It's been two days since it came out and it's annoying to see such things about a game that I've been waiting for a long time. I hope it's not true

Why would you not want more people to get to play this?

@Ralizah
I just got Bufu on a level up. Thanks for the heads up. I feel myself getting addicted to the “gotta catch em all” mentality. Every single new enemy I see, I want to recruit into my party. And I love the different designs and the animations and the personality… it’s so well done.

I am honestly far more sucked into this game after two hours than I ever was with Persona. I’m not saying I like this franchise more than Persona (although I must admit, at the rate it’s going I very well might by the time I’m done with it), but it just does a better job of hooking you in a shorter amount of time, and the hook feels stronger. The main addictive force in Persona was the dialog and narrative. And that’s a perfectly legitimate tool to engage the player- the use of Story is as old as time itself. But gameplay has always hooked me with a greater intensity then story ever has. It’s why I play video games rather than watch movies or read books. I like story, and I still appreciate it, and even SMT has engaged me with its story premise. But gameplay truly is king, at least for me. And that would explain why this game is resonating with me more than Persona ever has (though just to be clear, I love Persona and still think it’s one of the best JRPG series there is). It just feels like SMT is more my speed. And that’s crazy to say, because up until this point I’ve always considered myself a Persona > SMT kinda guy.

I feel like despite being hyped for SMTV, I wasn’t nearly as excited as you were, or some others I’ve seen. But now? I get it. I totally get it. This may be premature, but… SMTV feels like the best JRPG I’ve played in recent memory. Maybe ever. I just love it!

SPOILERS AHEAD: For those who get to Nuwa, she is unbeatable. You only need to get her down to like 40 percent and the fight ends, so hopefully that takes some of the weight off for you all.

Also a thing of note, as I don’t think this was the case in Nocturne - some demons have abilities unique to them, so not everything is infusion fodder if you like an ability a demon has. I like the idea of actually being able to hold onto a monster.