Topic: Shin Megami Tensei V Thread

Fionn: I AM CALLED FEE-ON MACOOMEIL

If there are not memes using this already, there should be. Like bro, i really support you with this early-Nineties anime vibe and you can't even say your name right. You go girl.

And then you're going to kick the snot out of my whole crew?!? But baby, I SUPPORTED YOU WTF

I just got to the second boss, and wasn't actually expecting it to end up this soon. I had a pretty good strat, but I need to upgrade my Zio spell to +1. I might also want to fuse a Demon that can use eletric abilities in the place of my mermaid for now, since I don't need ice.

@JasmineDragon As an Irishman, I am primed to cringe whenever I see any of our native names used in games or television, particularly if the localization is done by a US team 😂.
The Celtic character models are so good too but I'm definitely happy that only one of them was named in dialogue 😅

@Snaplocket MC is honestly so androgynous that they could flip the pronouns and everyone would think he was a fem mc. Some still do, lol, so I'm not too bothered about the option to play as a girl, since it would change almost nothing.

IV: Apocalypse's story wasn't "special," but it also wasn't terrible. What it did do was help flesh out the cast, setting, and keep you motivated throughout your adventure.

Although it has its moments. I'll NEVER forget that bit where you find out that Flynn has been replaced by Shesha, and it proceeds to murder Asahi in front of you, for example. Brutal moments like this add up for me.

Although, on the whole, IV probably has the best story of any of the games I've played to date. As my first SMT game, it also made a big impression. Finding out the origin of those little red pills being used to pacify demons, for example, was truly stunning, as was learning Hikaru's true role in the narrative. The game is pretty dark af throughout in a way I really enjoyed.

I've never played a Shin Megami Tensei game and due to the lack of physical games at this time of the year this year (I was going to buy Advance Wars), I have been considering this one, but am in two minds, just because I'm not really sure what the game play is like, even though I read a few reviews.

Is it similar to Monster Hunter? I did read there are platform elements in the game and it's a sort of open world which suggests a lot of exploration. It does look good but the reviews seem to be explaining what the game is not rather than what it is.

@zool I have only played like 5 hours of the game, but it is not even remotely like monster hunter. For me the closest i am getting is Pokemon but talking enemys into joining you, a turn based battle system and a bit of a higher difficulty as well as some exploration, those seem to be the core mechanics lol. Unless the game formula changes heavily later, which i don't know the game is not really a plattforming game.

Since there are so many people on here who are longtime veterans, they might sell the game better though.

Personally, i am enjoying myself the most here with all the daemon gathering and thinking about how to beat the enemies, hope that helps a little

@zool, it's a JRPG.

• Exploration is like Xenoblade. Huge areas to explore (with a largely linear story progression) with enemies roaming the map, including a few super strong ones you'll have to avoid at first.
• Battle is turn based like Dragon Quest, Pokemon, or Octopath Traveler. It's unique hook is that if you hit weaknesses or land a critical hit you earn an extra turn for your team, while if you miss or hit an enemy with an attack they're immune to you'll lose a turn. The system is in place for enemy attacks too, so depending on how well prepared you are for an encounter you can cause them to lose turns, or they can earn attacks by hitting your weaknesses.
• Building your party is sort of like Pokemon, as you have to recruit the monsters (called demons here) out in the field to join you (though unlike Pokemon the "trainer" partakes in combat too and it's game over if he does, even if everyone else on your team is still alive). Demons become relatively useless early on (unlike Pokemon you're not likely to keep any early ones all the way to mid game, let alone end game), so you'll want to fuze them into more powerful demons once they learn all their moves (which can be transferred to the new demon), or recruit more powerful demons roaming the world once that happens.

Eh, Saying that it's like pokemon is a bit insulting to the game, given that SMT came way before Pokemon. Pokemon is actually inspired by SMT.

Lol but they want to know what sort of game it is like and it is just like a brutally hard Pokemon. Pokemon may have been inspired by SMT, but that is irrelevant in the context of what is being answered here.

@Solaine thank you, it does.

@Snaplocket It's actually confirmed that Pokemon took inspiration from SMT. SMT was also a massive thing in Japan for a while, but never reached Pokemon's level of iconic, and never really got recognized until recently outside of Japan.

What came first doesn't really matter. Despite being the longest-running monster-collecting JRPG series by a country mile, there were other RPGs before Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei released that allowed the player to recruit monsters they encountered in the field.

Games all kind of borrow from one-another. It's how genres grow and improve.

@zool Anyway, yeah, if we're doing comparisons: it's kinda like Pokemon, except instead of animals you're recruiting supernatural creatures from different mythological traditions, up to and including classical gods. The story is minimalistic, but there's a strong emphasis on dark fantasy elements. Level design is Xenoblade-esque. The side-quests are pretty decent as well, and contain the majority of the worldbuilding and narrative development throughout.

The music is awesome, too.

For years my go-to description of SMT has been "basically demonic Pokemon". People understand that and it gives them a good reference point. If they like the sound of "basically demonic Pokemon" we can proceed to discussing the games in depth, if they hate the sound of that then we're done.

@Snaplocket The world may never know, but I personally find it hard to believe no one on the Pokemon dev team played MegaTen before designing Pokemon. It's true that the series is relatively obscure to the general Western public, but we're talking about a team of video game developers from Japan. I think it's fair to assume they are and were familiar with a lot of contemporary Japanese video games that never found mainstream popularity in the West.

And while the games are definitely not identical twins, there is a pretty good family resemblance.

I'm not saying Pokemon "copied" MegaTen, but I would bet it was an influence.

Ya, it really doesn't matter who "did it first". I see no relevance for such arguments.

I hear the same thing when Monster Hunter is brought up, when referring to other games in the "MH-like genre". Oftentimes it's, "but Monster Hunter didn't create the genre, this unknown obscure no-name game did it first". And it's like... who cares. People are familiar with the genre thanks to Monster Hunter. It's the game which popularized the genre. Similar to how Castlevania helped popularize Metroidvanias long after Metroid did it, yet it's still in the name "Metroid-VANIA".

Pokemon is what popularized the genre. So it's an apt comparison for reference to ensure the the concept is communicated in a way people are most likely to comprehend. Though the phrase, "monster collecting genre" also seems to be quite common.

@CactusMan I remember that mission, but in the dragons defense, he did ask if you were ready 😂

So uh.. seems like SMT V is connected to Nocturne after all. I just made it to the Tokyo Diet Building, and stumbled upon one of the save terminals from Nocturne. I only know this because my friend played a little for me on stream. My question is now, should I drop the game, and play Nocturne before continuing, or should I keep on going? I don't know how heavily the plot of the game will rely on Nocturne, or if this is just a slight reference to say they're connected.

@VoidofLight It doesn't. Everything you need to know about the story (what little there is) is all in this game. There are lots of little references to Nocturne probably for the same reason SMT IV/IV:A had lots of little references to SMT I and II: because it's a spiritual successor of sorts.

@Ralizah Ah, alright!

@Snaplocket Yep. What matters is the scope and construction of an experience. Nobody expects much from a Mario story. Hell, SMT III even gets more of a pass despite having even less in the way of explicit storytelling because it's constructed like a sort of mystery you're supposed to figure out through the course of the game.

There's little sense of mystery to SMT V's main plot, which is what hurts it most.

What I liked about SMT V’s story, personally, is that it just feels like you’re going through arcs of a wider shounen anime series. It has real Jujutsu Kaisen vibes, which itself is probably heavily inspired by anime like Bleach and Atlus titles in general. Like anyone who says the story is bad isn’t wrong necessarily, but I just kinda liked how unashamedly “anime” it all was, for a lack of a better term. It ain’t high art, it is pure junk food, but it is the kind of junk food I really vibe with.