Topic: The Megami Tensei Thread

I just hope this is less repetitive than V. SMT V is good, but I just kinda dropped it after a while because everything just felt a bit repetitive, with areas that were hard for me to really navigate.

I still say wait a year. Luckily for me I have not cracked the cellophane on SMT V yet. (summer project) If summoners 2 doesn't get ported after a year/year and a half, I will honestly be shocked.

@Ryu_Niiyama
One can only hope.

All I know is, I have a SteamDeck coming "After Q2" so I'm guestimating August, give or take. The game is releasing on Steam, and I'm sure it'll be compatible as Persona 4 Golden is.

I'll grab it in the Holiday Sale this yr for $29.99. If it comes to Switch later, I'll grab it for the OLED, but if not, at least PC saves the day. I can't play JRPGs on the TV only. Just can't do it. I've tried and tried, and can't think of a single JRPG I bothered to finish that was TV only, barring Xenoblade Chronicles X (I was SUPER addicted to that game though, a rare exception).

FPS and shooters? Ya no problem. I can do TV only (I don't prefer it, but I can do it). Play sessions tend to be shorter and you don't have to remember narrative. But if it's an RPG, it's hybrid or bust. Simple as that.

@JaxonH I prefer them on the tv (and gaming in general), but I'm back to commuting to the office (super not happy about this) so I'm back to packing a lunch and the switch. I suppose it will make me appreciate TV play more.

I just don't see how it could run on switch, given how good it looks graphically. They'd have to really really downgrade the game if they want to make it run on the switch itself, unless they pull a cloud version.

@Ryu_Niiyama
If that's your preference I'm sure it will. I always like coming home and docking the Switch after work and playing on the TV (which, I love, I just hate being chained to it without any option to play portably if/when desired).

Summer is gonna be packed as is though. Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes and Mario Strikers this July, probably Splatoon 3 in August and Xenoblade 3 in September. And who knows when Bayonetta 3 drops). So we're not exactly in a drought. Which makes it easier to wait if need be.

I don't normally just wanna post a thing I saw on Twitter but this is too perfect:

At first it was easy to just say Playstation gives money to them for mainline Persona, but now I don't know why anything

@VoidofLight
??

Game didn't look that impressive visually. Bout the same as any other 8th gen AA game. There was no vast open world, or insane realism with raytracing or anything else.

Plenty of games that look just as good if not better have come to Switch as native ports and ran just fine. It's not like they wouldn't scale down for Switch appropriately- 720p at 30fps at lower settings- that alone would likely get the game close to running well.

@JaxonH I'm not knocking the hybrid nature of the switch...it's essentially all I've ever wanted a handheld capable console to be (light, comfortable with a large screen and no 3d) and I've worked enough overnight jobs that without handheld gaming (switch especially) I would never see end credits. But my vision is crap so I prefer to game where I can see (and have the best av setup). Yeah no kidding on summer...and think we aren't near the E3 announcements yet!!!!

@JaxonH Looks to be on the scale of SMT V, and SMT V barely ran on the switch. It was moreso blurry and had a pretty terrible framerate.

What level of performance do you need for a turn-based RPG though?

I suppose a steady 30fps in the overworld would have been nice to have, but it's not like there's much precision platforming going on.

@VoidofLight
SMTV ran fine. It may not have been perfect but few Switch games are. I had no issues with SMTV on Switch and would gladly take that level of fidelity and performance.

Eh... the frame drops bugged me when playing SMT V, and so did the really low resolution. I get it doesn't bother gameplay, but it really brings down the aesthetic. If Soul Hackers 2 can run on Switch, the main reason why they aren't bringing it to switch could just be because they wanted to go for a specific aesthetic without making many compromises. The art style itself seems to be a really big sticking point for the game's reveal.

I do wonder if that formed part of their decision making here. SMT V wasn't what you'd look at as hardware pushing, but with how much it made the Switch chug and all the stuff they were doing to disguise things like all the oppressive, ugly, filters over everything, maybe they just don't want to have to do that to one of their games again.

Honestly, what we saw in the trailer looks about on par with something like Tokyo Mirage Sessions or Persona 5. Small environments and generic enemy models in the overworld. Not to mention the game seems to use 2D art instead of 3D models for several NPCs. Maybe dungeons or overworld environments get more involved in the full game, but, from what they've shown off, there's no way this is as or more demanding than SMT V, which featured large, complex environments, to-scale demons stomping around these environments, etc.

If they're going to exclude Switch, I wish they'd at least make it something ambitious enough to justify the exclusion. While image quality and performance will obviously be improved, this looks like a downgrade from SMT V in a number of respects.

But hey, at least worldwide releases seem to be the norm now. No more waiting months for a localization after the game releases in Japan.

EDIT: Rewatching the trailer yet again, I do have to say, I'm a little disappointed about the aesthetic and gameplay changes from Soul Hackers. The battling looks VERY Persona-esque insofar as your demons don't seem to actually be your party when in battle. And the aesthetic went from classic cyberpunk with a heavy dose of mysticism in Soul Hackers to something more sanitized and generic like Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

Definitely still grabbing the game, but my initial excitement has cooled off a bit.

@Ralizah Disappointed about the Switch exclusion and 100% agree on what you just said. The dungeons look plain and the overworld seems like a slightly better version of NEO TWEWY. Just look at that yamata no orochi on the trailier, looks absolutely horrible. Yeah its too early to tell but I don't think it's as demanding and big as SMT V. Gonna get it on the PS4 when the price drops on a sale but it should have been a day 1 physical on the Switch. Barely get to play on the TV and I haven't even finished P5R yet.

Those with only a Switch shouldn't be too worried.

I mean, it's just going to be another game a bit like Persona 5 but boring and soulless, right?

I feel like it’s unfair to judge it, given that there’s only been a singular trailer that doesn’t show all that much. All I know is that it’ll be another game from Atlus people will port beg for, like Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5/5Royal. I guess I don’t get how the game is different either, since I’ve only been exposed to SMT and Persona.

And ppl should be voicing their demand for a port. Nothing wrong with that. I've noticed a trend of condescension toward those who voice their consumer demand, almost as if to shame them out of doing so in hopes of deplatforming any effort that could result in more versions releasing.

Besides which, I see no reason this game couldn't theoretically run on Switch. Here's a comparison with SMTV

It looks like the demon models are ripped straight outta SMTV, just with cel shaded skins.