Topic: Shin Megami Tensei V Thread

@GameOtaku I tought we we´re talking bout level 96 Shivas.

I haven't finished the game yet, and this isn't specific to SMT V, but I wish Atlus would do away with kicking you to the title screen after dying, or at least add autosaves. I'm not sure if the reason they still have it in their JRPGs to make them feel more "hardcore", but it just feels like an outdated mechanic that punishes players for forgetting to save more than anything. And either way, punishing players by removing an excessive amount of progress feels like such artificial difficulty and bad game design that was a byproduct of the arcade era. Nowadays plenty of developers have found ways of making their games feel difficult without losing progress being the main punishment. Just compare something like Celeste to the original Mario Bros. The individual obstacles in Mario Bros are actually really easy, the only reason why the game can feel difficult is because of the amount of time it takes to get back to where you were if you make a couple of minor errors. I think if you've proven you can get past an obstacle in a game, forcing you to do it again is unnecessary in most cases. Celeste does a great job at this, making each obstacles feel difficult, but once you've overcome it you don't have to do it again. It's a game with no Game Overs but still proves these types of games can have a perfectly balanced difficulty. In JRPGs there can be some exceptions, like when resource management across multiple battles comes into play, but in general I think it's better to focus on the challenge of the individual battles rather than the punishment from failure.

Anyway, rant over, like I said this isn't something against SMT V in particular, just some thoughts I've had for a while on Atlus' death system. Despite this Atlus still has the majority of my favourite turn based JRPGs so it's not like it has never turned me away from playing any of their games or anything. SMT V is still a lot of fun so far and I'm looking forward to playing more.

@Rob3008

If you are still looking for a copy then ShopTo currently have UK copies for £39.85.

Someone called me a SMT V hater because I said the game looked a bit blurry and the frame rate wasn't great.

@VoidofLight Say ten Hail Beezlebubs and your transgressions against almighty Atlus shall be forgiven, my child.

@Snaplocket It was someone agreeing with you in the Legends thread.

@DomGC It's just the resolution, since the game is pushing the system's limits. You also have a red filter over the second region, which doesn't really help things all that much.

@DomGC I feel like they needed to probably do different landscapes for the regions instead of just having them all sandy, and change depending on filter instead.

Forgot to say here but I beat this game a few days ago.
My playthrough took 101 hours and I very much enjoyed it. Amazing game honestly, one of the best releases this year easily along with Monster Hunter Rise.

SMT V finally cleared 1mil units.

Didn't even realise there was an SMT V thread, but ah well. I've gotten to the last region, the approach to the Temple of Eternity. So far it's been a great experience. The combat is very smooth (even though I'm on Safe lol), the graphics are superb, it runs well, and the music tracks are mostly bangers.

One strange thing I could mention is that the storytelling is pretty bad in SMT V. There's almost no connection between what happens in the cutscenes and what happens during gameplay. Apparently there was a "bigger focus" on characters, but they take a backseat anyway!

@TheJGG Yep, the storytelling and character development in general are both pretty bad, even by SMT standards. It's a shame, since this entry did so many things right.

For that reason, SMT IV and SMT IV: Apocalypse on 3DS are still the standard-bearers of this series for me. Both games feature satisfying and dark narratives with sometimes shocking plot twists and reasonably well-developed characters.

They tried to go for more of a Nocturne-esque vibe with SMT V, but the plot structure and storytelling style don't really allow for that to happen.

@Ralizah Glad it's not just me then. SMT V's not the first game I've played with this issue, after all. It doesn't mean the whole game's bad at all, but it hurts the immersion of the game all the same.

I imagine one way this could have been avoided is if Dazai and Atsuta were playable party members. It would have diluted the demon fusion system but ah well. Same thing with Tao. Her and Sahori's deaths would have been so much more meaningful if they had been fleshed out more. Instead they mean nothing to me. Even though Tao comes back as some goddess. In that vein... what happened to Atsuta's sister? She was in the game for five seconds at the start and then just disappeared.

@TheJGG Miyazu crops up again in a late-game side-quest chain. A lot of the content that would have been integrated into the main plotline in previous games is instead used in sidequests. If you don't do the sidequests, you're actually missing a ton of this game's storytelling.

I don't actually mind that approach to narrative. Nocturne would have been so much more interesting if it had real sidequests like SMT V does. I just don't think the way the game is structured facilitates that sort of storytelling style.

Dazai and Atsuta didn't need to be playable, they just needed to be integrated more into the main plot like SMT IV's cast was. Or excised altogether. To be honest, had this game just been your protagonist wandering the wastes of Da'at on his lonesome, slowly piecing together what had happened to the world, it would have fixed my issues with the game on a narrative level. That's the approach Nocturne took, and it worked really well.

Anyway, I absolutely loved the game. It's only behind The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles as my favorite release of 2021. In many ways, it's my dream monster-collecting JRPG. But that doesn't mean I'm blind to its flaws, either.