Topic: The Megami Tensei Thread

Very impressed with what they have shown. I must admit I did laugh a little at seeing the protag zipping around the overworld Naruto style but the mobility on display looks fun. I was hoping they would expand on IV's exploration elements and it appears they've done that and more. As people are speculating I wonder how closely related this is to Nocturne or if they are just using it for inspiration. Either way V is looking lovely.

I don't how to feel about the UI that was obviously taken straight out from SMTxFE crossover.
It certainly looks good on its own right, I loved that game on Wii U, but now in a mainline SMT title... it looks kinda lazy from Atlus, if you know what I mean.

Even more so, if anyone remembers SMTxFE had really bright, colorful world and presentation which of course was reflected in its UI. And now having the same shiny gleeful icons doesn't look right to me in a much darker and gritty SMT5 world.

@anynamereally I mean, it’s not exactly the same UI. It’s more just a similar layout. The UI itself is themed more around the game’s aesthetic. Plus, they probably went with something similar to Tokyo Mirage Sessions, given it was the only modern SMT game on a console with technically one screen.

I think I will skip SMT V as it looks pretty much the same game as Nocturne and I really disliked nearly everything about it unfortunately

@slowdive I will try to resume my problems with the game.

Firstly the setting does nothing for me and the characters are dull but that is by far the lesser of the issues.
The game imo is very flawed in many ways like one hit ko on the demi-fiend (aggravated by the fact there are many skils with insta-death), item management and demon summoning tagged to just the demi-fiend.
Than we pass to core gameplay where the demi-fiend levels up at a pace way faster than demons so every 10 levels or so you have to fuse and therefore loose some skils you liked (and if they have not added you to choose 2/3 to keep I don't think I would have even played it past the few hours), this also makes that you cannot be attached with any demons and that is a big no for me as it is one the most important parts in a JRPG.
Finally you can screw yourself for ignoring magatama skils early on and you cannot go back (in my case I ignored focus that I now realize I should not and that makes my life way harder on a particular boss)

On the eshop, it confirms that Nintendo published SMTV. Pretty much what I thought would be the case given "Simultaneous Worldwide Release".

The new fusion animation is interesting. Didn't expect femefiend to start playing an organ, lol. Was it always the player character playing it? I just assumed someone was playing it in the background for atmosphere.

Looks like Mido is out. My headcanon is that the naked chick who ran the healing springs in Nocturne got promoted to the Cathedral of Shadows in V. Different outfit, but the same lack of modesty.

@Grumblevolcano Pretty much what I expected, lol. I expect Nintendo is heavily involved with several aspects of this game in order to successfully facilitate the worldwide launch.

Say what you want about Nintendo, but they've done a brilliant job encouraging this series to grow.

@Balta666 If you're not enjoying the core gameplay loop of Nocturne, then you definitely won't enjoy V.

At least you gave the series a fair shot!

I'm currently playing through Shin Megami Tensei IV, but I've yet to start on Apocalypse. Have demons been able to strengthen their skills (like Flynn would after a round of demon whisper), signified by the + numbers next to certain skills? I noticed in the footage yesterday, one of the demons had a boosted Agi skill.

Damn is that what Angel looks like on the bottom right? I dig it

@Grumblevolcano I see SEGA as the publisher still on the Nintendo website page. Also Atlus at the bottom right of the box art would confirm they self-published it like all the other SMT and Persona games. I don't doubt they helped with localization though given the worldwide launch

@edhe It's likely skill affinities, which were introduced in IV: Apocalypse, I believe. Any demon can use any skill, but they made it where demons are better at using some skills than others. Skill affinities can go into the negative values as well. This forces the player to make more strategic choices with team building instead of sticking all of their elemental skills on the same demon, for example, and makes the demons less interchangable overall. It just makes sense that a King Frost would be able to cast higher-damage ice spells, but would struggle with Agidyne, for example.

@Snaplocket Isn't the "Game over if MC dies" thing something that's in every main SMT game? I think it's even in Persona as well..

@Snaplocket That's probably going to end up being one of those "only unlocked after reaching New Game+" perks if other SMT and Persona games are any indication

@VoidofLight It's also in Persona but after reaching New Game+ in some games they do give you the option to disable instant Game Overs if the protagonist dies, which lets you revive yourself and restore all your HP/MP to your current party. But again, New Game+ feature only even if P4G's PC port for example actually added that as a feature to the main playthrough

@Snaplocket I mean IV and Apocalypse sure but DDS is like 17 years old lol

@Snaplocket Again, if other games are any indication I'm not expecting it to appear in the main game but rather as a New Game+ perk. Typically the reason it's stayed this way for so long is actually addressed in the games themselves for thematic purposes so I'm not expecting it to change here

I can kind of see how it could be annoying, but if they let you save at any time, then I'm honestly fine with it. I'll just need to save frequently, so I don't lose hours of grinding.

@VoidofLight We probably need to get a look at the UI in English to see what features are there. I imagine there will be proper save points within dungeons but the area that was demonstrated in the Treehouse looked like it was fairly open in a sort of free-roaming structure so I'd be surprised if you couldn't manually save anywhere there

Yeah, Atlus has largely moved away from fixed save points in their games. Maybe in dungeons, but requiring it everywhere is PS2-era game design, lol. They even added an emergency save option to Nocturne HD.

@Snaplocket To be fair, weren't you also expecting the combat to be action-based or something?