Atlus Shin Megami Tensei IV 3DS (beating MaroonSkein to the punch!)

[Martius]

On NA eshop SMT4 and other Atlus games are usually part of requiring sale. There wasnt much of them so far for EU but since Atlus digital library is getting bigger that could change. There should be occasion to buy it cheaper. I just fear initial price could be high. Few months ago Atlus released Conception 2 only digitally with standard retail price.

 

[TheGreatOne]

EU Q3 2014[5] (eShop only)

(eShop only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQUVfo_kBMU&t=33m45s

I'm now officially boycotting Atlus. Until they release the next game I want to buy.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Well that's incredibly gay.

 

[evdk]

I don't buy physical games anyway. Probably gonna wait for a price drop though - a few weeks of additional wait won't kill me at this time.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I just realized that some people idiots have probably preordered and paid for physical copies of SMT4 already. I wonder how they feel about it.

 

[TheGreatOne]

Gamer's guide to inflation

60 dollars will get you
1994: A big cardboard box that contains the game, a long manual, additional, often humorous, booklets which contain information about the lore of the game world and set you in the right mood to play the game and related trinkets like a cloth map
2000: The game in a thick plastic case with a manual that tells you the controls and might have couple of jokes in it
2006: The game in a thin plastic case with a CD key leaflet (with a picture of a controller in it showing you what each button does) and on disc DRM
2012: Parts of the game in digital form, to get the complete experience you need to buy the DLC
2018: Digital copy of a game that's in beta stage, no promises that developers will ever actually finish it

As long as most consumers will accept lowered standards, they'll become the industry standard. The problem with DRM and digital only is longevity. What if you want to play the game you bought 20 years ago, but you deleted it from your hard drive/memory stick to make space when you weren't playing it? Those download servers will go down as soon as they stop being profitable. You can still play that Atari 2600 cartridge you bought back in 1977 with out problems.
Of course it's not a problem when you pirate games, but when I pay money for a game, I want something concrete for my money, not just air. I don't want that some corporation rents me the right to play the game I "buy". If I buy a game it should be mine to sell forward and use as much as I like, with out limitations on how many times I can install it, where can I play it (=playing the game over at a friend's house and so on) and how long I'll be able to play it (again, those download servers that won't likely survive as long as physical copies)

 

[Martius]

Well, Atlus usually throws ups some bonuses to first batch of physical like cd with part of soundtrack, game guide or art from game. Of course thats in Japan and USA. Releases in Europe had nothing of that.

 

[Morality Games]

Blame your own sputtering console market. And communism.

 

[Martius]

Looks like Europe will be finally able to try last mainline title soon. Price is even pretty good which is bug surprise for me.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I was expecting that they'd jew us out with a full priced game, but this is at least some consolation.

Here is a news article about it.

 

[Gentle Player]

Just started playing this after getting back into SMT. Some of the mechanics are nice; I really like the Demon Whisper system and the app choices, and the ability to manually choose skills through fusion is great, especially after that bonkers SJ system. I hate that phy skills again cost MP and not HP though, and I hope that they will return to HP for future games.

I really wanted to post just so that I could throw a bitch fit about the voice acting, however. It's not bad per se, the main characters are alright but nothing special, though a lot of the demon voices are cringe-worthy. Whoever was in charge of audio design doesn't have a bloody clue though. Voice-acting can be used to great effect to enhance a game, but this isn't done by throwing out fucking obnoxious soundbytes every 30 seconds. After playing for a while they literally gave me a headache and I had to take painkillers, and I'm pretty sure I know the reason why: shopping - every time I switch menu the faggot shopkeeper has to repeat his same annoying fucking line. Using a terminal - I'm hit with a barrage of "THIS IS X TERMINAL; WHAT SHALL WE DO; INITIATING TRAVEL; WE'RE HERE!" Everytime anything remotely progression related happens the fucking woman has to pipe up "THE QUEST IS GOING WELL". The absolute worst though is the fusion menu, the UI of which is utterly atrocious, but that pales in comparison with the horror of Mido. Naturally one spends a lot of time dicking around in the fusion menu in these games, and every time I press a damn button "WHAT WILL YOU DOOOOOOOO?!" Fuck. Off.

At first I just muted the game whenever I went into fusion, but I finally snapped and just lowered all voices volume to zero so I don't have to deal with the irritant of mashing X in anticipation of another god forsaken quip. Knowing my luck I'll miss out on some excellent voice acted scenes later in the game, but it's worth it so that I can play in peace.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

The game totally sucks, sad but true, Atlus has embraced the decline just like everyone else.

 

[Morality Games]

The game totally sucks, sad but true, Atlus has embraced the decline just like everyone else.

It's a little easy, but main series titles are supposed to be.

Persona Q is supposed to be difficult.

 

[Jasede]

You considered SMT 1, 2 and 3 to be 'easy'?

 

[Morality Games]

You considered SMT 1, 2 and 3 to be 'easy'?

There was a big time gap between those games and Shin Megami Tensei IV. During that time, it has become standard for franchises with spin-offs to make the main series titles easier than those spin offs.

It's what you would intuitively expect. Main series titles typically draw the most sales, and therefore the most general audiences. Spin offs develop fringe mechanics into core systems to cater to very specific tastes that are usually willing to indulge (or even welcome) a steeper learning curve.

Shin Megami Tensei is an odd example though, since Persona is like 2.5x larger than the main series now.

 

[Avellion]

You considered SMT 1, 2 and 3 to be 'easy'?

Given how overpowered guns were in SMT1 and 2. I would say those two are easy. Didnt even need to summon demons, just spray and prayprey.

Nocturne wasnt that bad either (on hard mode), but at least I did die several times in that one. Once I got past Dante and his "lololol I instakill all your guys with my crits (and I crit all the time)", bosses became a cakewalk, due to how overpowered buffs and debuffs are. 2x Fog Breath+2x War Cry meant bosses missed with most of their attacks and when they did hit, they barely did any damage and to set this up was not difficult either considering how easy it is to abuse Press Turns. What is worse is that most bosses had absolutely nothing to counter your buffs and debuffs with either, so they became about as threatening as a punching bag.

 

[Jasede]

 

[Martius]

It's a little easy, but main series titles are supposed to be.

Persona Q is supposed to be difficult.

Strange, I thought there is article about it on kotaku. Its supposed to be so hard to take away gamers pride

 

[Morality Games]

It's a little easy, but main series titles are supposed to be.

Persona Q is supposed to be difficult.

Strange, I thought there is article about it on kotaku. Its supposed to be so hard to take away gamers pride.

Key word there might be Kotaku. Shin Megami Tensei IV is probably hard to the general audiences that read Kotaku.

I suppose some aspects of it are challenging, but they're not 100% in the right places. First, there's the usual Megami Tensei bs where if you get caught with your pants down the enemy drowns you with crit after crit of multi-target damaging spells and your whole party dies before you even get a chance to respond. Opposition in boss fights can be stiff, but since you can save anywhere and have a free/low cost respawn immediately before the fight anyway, there's not a whole lot of encouragement to change your strategy.

Resource management is sort of tricky, but annoying rather than fun. Stuff is expensive and you need access points to make it out of the dungeon to reach the free recovery (you'll be restored to life with your pre-fight health and mana). Enemy respawn and prevalence can make it hard to get to the boss while maintaining your health and mana. So, you have to fight down --> fight back for the experience points and then run back to the boss while avoiding enemies so you can fight him at full strength.

A game that starts challenging your patience does so to make up for shortfalls in challenging your tactics and imagination, although I can't say this is unique to JRPGs or even Atlus.

Probably the worst thing is that combat seems weighted too much around critical hits, even more so than usual in Shin Megami Tensei. Even once you discover the ideal strategy for beating a boss, you'll probably rolling the dice over and over again to make it work if they get too many critical hits and you get too few. That endows the combat with aspects of a lottery. This is not at all desirable.

These things aside, Shin Megami Tensei IV is still a good JRPG for the same reasons Megami Tensei games are fun: fusion, cyberpunk + horror fantasy themes and aesthetics (post-apocalyptic cyberpunk in this case), and measured amounts of tactical challenge.

 

[Martius]

Key word there might be Kotaku. Shin Megami Tensei IV is probably hard to the general audiences that read Kotaku.

Oh, I know. It was just pretty funny to read it first time. I would think that someone who is importing games from Japan had at least some level of skill and knowledge to beat them. From what I know just beginning can be little harsh since you are thrown alone into fights with multiple demons (Usually you get at least pixie as first demons, here its not the case). I nearly finished Strange Journey. I doubt SMT4 is much harder (if it is at all) than that game. Its a shame that Europe had to wait so long for it.

 

[Avellion]

Probably the worst thing is that combat seems weighted too much around critical hits, even more so than usual in Shin Megami Tensei. Even once you discover the ideal strategy for beating a boss, you'll probably rolling the dice over and over again to make it work if they get too many critical hits and you get too few. That endows the combat with aspects of a lottery. This is not at all desirable.

I assume you are referring to the Smirk System in particular over this, where critical hits would frequently result in smirking.

Which is what made one of the earliest bosses in the game, the Minotaur easily the toughest boss in the game, harder than any final boss for sure. Guy would crit you, then smirk, then AoE, crit some more within that AoE, kill most of your party.

 

[Gentle Player]

Through divine providence I was able to beat a level 75 domain demon at level 31, on a first attempt and without expecting the fucker, and with all of my party left alive to boot. My reward for this effort was... 1.2k exp, the same amount I get from one-shotting a group of level 25 demons with Heat Wave.

 

[Nikaido]

European release pushed back to November. I don't even. It's a digital only release. They're not adding more translations to the game or anything (English only release). WHAT THE FUCK? How is that even possible. What could possibly delay this shit. It's just a 1:1 copy of the american game which was already released billion years ago.

 

[Humppaleka]

It can't be to procure more hype for it, because I pretty much even forgot this is even coming because it's taking so long. Also they aren't advertising it that much or anything. One can only wonder.

 

[Martius]

To make it more funny pr manager of Atlus USA is not aware of that, there is supposed to be official information about that later this week. Maybe someone in Japan is reasonable for that decision? It just sounds stupid since it will compete with Q which will come in same month thanks to NIS. I wonder what people will buy, Persona game on 3ds few days after release in USA or SMT4 which was already delayed few times. I am going to buy both but people wont do that since they are pretty mad.
I wouldn't say Europe version will be identical. Remake of Devil Survivor wasn't translate into any additional language and yet it have new bugs which Ghostlight had to fix. I hope it wont happen with SMT4.