SMT: Nocturne

[Chaotic_Heretic]

The TDE ending is NOT allying with the villian.

Spoiler

it is about breaking the lotus eater cycle that the scumbag so-called "god" puts all humans in. It is a chanve at true freedom.

Also the TDE ending cinematic is cool as fuck.

i also experienced glitches while emulating nocturne, but fiddling with the settings (and paranoia of keeping multiple backups kf savestates /memory cards) saved me.

IITC, you have to fix the float rounding to "extreme" wherever that option os there and disable most fancy graphics and load save from memcard (not savestate) to get over the freezes whenever they occur.

Also other than nocturne just play strange journey and maybe digital devil saga 1 and 2 (dds has its dose of animu BUT it isn't as bad as devil survivor)

 

[Nathir]

Chad Demon summoners vs. the virgin Persona summoners:

Spoiler

 

[Suicidal]

I've decided that the next RPG I play (after I finish my current one) is going to be this.

I have a question:

Since I've never played a single SMT game before, is it a good idea to start this with the hardtype mod right away?

I'm usually very patient and willing to study the game mechanics if the game is good - will I get my shit pushed in regardless? How difficult is it compared to the unmodded game?

 

[Deflowerer]

I've decided that the next RPG I play (after I finish my current one) is going to be this.

I have a question:

Since I've never played a single SMT game before, is it a good idea to start this with the hardtype mod right away?

I'm usually very patient and willing to study the game mechanics if the game is good - will I get my shit pushed in regardless? How difficult is it compared to the unmodded game?

Original version on hard will be a satisfying challenge enough.

 

[Silva]

Agree with Deflowerer . Play vanilla on hard. It already gets enough irritating moments by itself. Going for the hack straight you risk dropping the game in frustration.

Also, I wouldn't recommend the True Demon Ending for a first time, because it includes doing the most obnoxiously irritating dungeon delving in the entire game, which is the Kalpas 3 4 and 5 of the Amala Labyrinth. If you hate fetch quests, wait until you see this. I know I almost dropped the game myself. Instead, just go with the default reasons plot, as it offers a more enjoyable endgame progression.

Edit: oh, and if the Dante character also bothers you, take this version here. I also found it's translation of items and powers more coherent: https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/8u8wna/smtiiichronicles_edition_translation_v112/ (just remember it has a glitch for the True Demon Ending. So only get it if you're sure you won't seek it)

 

[Suicidal]

Alright guys, I'll try unmodded hard first, thanks. If I feel that it's too easy I'll restart with the mod.

 

[Deflowerer]

Alright guys, I'll try unmodded hard first, thanks. If I feel that it's too easy I'll restart with the mod.

Prepare to get raped by the first encounter.

 

[Silva]

Alright guys, I'll try unmodded hard first, thanks. If I feel that it's too easy I'll restart with the mod.

Prepare to get raped by the first encounter.

One word: Matador.

 

[Average Manatee]

Playing HardType now and I don't think it would be good for a first time playthrough. It does great things to how some skills work and overall balance but also radically increases the difficulty of random encounters. Especially random encounters on full moon, you can get Matador as a random encounter in the first Kalpa. Yeah, immediately after beating Matador you get to fight him as a random encounter (in my case when I was limping back to the terminal with a half-dead team). It gets worse from there, basically any encounter on full moon is near boss-level with enemies possessing 999 HP or more. Actual bosses aren't too bad so far (I think Matador is actually toned down slightly due to how his moveset works now).

Maybe HardType on Normal would be equal to Vanilla's Hard, which would be an appropriate level of difficulty. Still wouldn't recommend it though, vanilla is a perfectly fine game and it's hard to appreciate mod changes when you haven't even played the original.

 

[Jasede]

The game is very hard on Hard so you're gonna have a good time without that mod.
Honestly, of all games to make a hard mode mod for, why'd they pick this one?

 

[deuxhero]

I only got up to beating Matador in it, but in a lot of places it wasn't much harder but DID give some much needed rebalancing.

 

[Average Manatee]

Post-Matador is a difficulty spike. Lack of compendium (and sacrifice I believe?) is probably why the modder held off on going overboard on the pre-Matador difficulty enhancements, since if you fuck up on fusions it becomes difficult to go back and figure out what to get to fix it.

I beat the Ikebukuro trio 1st go and Matador 2nd go, but just random encounters in Ikebukuro can chew me up to the point where I load a savegame since going back to the healer and paying for resurrection isn't worth it.

 

[L'Montes]

Alright guys, I'll try unmodded hard first, thanks. If I feel that it's too easy I'll restart with the mod.

Prepare to get raped by the first encounter.

One word: Matador.

Matador is the wake-up call for a lot of people. Your need to grasp the combat system before that is... not so great (most encounters aren't that bad). I think a lot of people rage a bit later when you get Girimehkala as a common enemy, because if you don't have a plan or pick-up on the physical reflect, you're hosed. You won't have time to rebuild a physical-only Demi-fiend by design, and so you might be stuck fusing new demons if you planned your roster poorly.

 

[Dorarnae]

the game isn't that bad, you just need the right resist and stuff against some boss and you can use items to increase encounter rate to lvl up faster. sure the game has a couple surprise the first time you play, but after the first time if you replay the game it's not that bad actually.

 

[Puukko]

Playing this after DDS1+2 as my first "real" SMT and having a blast. It takes a few hours for the game to click once you have all the mechanics available to you but after that it's no less addicting than the DDS series was. Funnily enough, the level design is a step up - in those games, you were navigating mazes furnished to look like believable environments, while in this game it's the other way around. It's not a huge difference, but I think DDS1 in particular was a step down despite being a newer game than this. I do like the variety introduced by having actual demons to recruit and fuse, you really do want to catch em all, or at least most of them to see what you can fuse. I just made it to the metro tunnels which is apparently a long and difficult dungeon and I need a couple more levels to recruit these samurai fellas to replace this filler blob I have. Luckily I've got a Baphomet with media and mana gain.

 

[Jasede]

It's a very good game! Glad you get to experience it.They're making a new Nocturne by the looks of it so be excited for that.

I hope you're not playing on hard. While very satisfying and fun, hard mode feels like a grind in this one.

 

[Puukko]

Yeah nah I'm sticking to normal. Played DDS2 on hard and it... wasn't for the most part, save for the optional end game bosses.

 

[Silva]

I do like the variety introduced by having actual demons to recruit and fuse, you really do want to catch em all, or at least most of them to see what you can fuse

I found Nocturne made me care the most for my demons of all games I've played in series (P3, P5, DDS1). Don't know if it's due to the game atmosphere of isolation or something. In other games they felt more like these tools I used and discarded at will.

 

[Deflowerer]

It's a very good game! Glad you get to experience it.They're making a new Nocturne by the looks of it so be excited for that.

I hope you're not playing on hard. While very satisfying and fun, hard mode feels like a grind in this one.

They won't be making a new Nocturne ever again. That part of Atlus is gone.

 

[Puukko]

Haha, man. I've got buffs out the ass to the point where it'd be easier to say which one of my demons isn't a buffer. Fighting these "strong" Onis in the tunnels, I just humiliate them with non-stop buffs/debuffs and Daisoujou's hp/mana drain. I wonder what will be the next enemy to put me in my place, cuz I sure feel pretty damn strong right now.

Edit: Ongyo-ki gave me a bit of trouble but in the end it was just a battle of attrition.

 

[Puukko]

The way this game handles physical skill upgrades made me scratch my head a bit. You can get your first heavy-hitting single target physical skill (divine shot) at 45 or so while the first medium aoe skills take more than 10 levels after that and cost too much god damn HP. It's not until you're 70+ that you get hades blast. I can't imagine this being for balance reasons, as getting divine shot made bosses much easier for me as I could be critting w/ focus for 1700 at that level when bosses had 3000-4000 hp. I beat the third rider in 4 minutes compared to the 12 minutes or so that the previous one took.

Edit: nice, Sati changed one of her spells to wind cutter. That's a mega damage skill at 50 and exactly what I needed to fight Black Frost.

 

[Vorark]

Wait until you get Freikugel + Focus combo, does insane damage to single targets.

- Edit: Been years since I last played Nocturne, but Deathbound is alright for small groups of enemies since it can hit twice; it scales with VIT, I think. Deadly Fury only hits once but has higher crit rate which translates into more press turns. Gaea Rage isn't anything special but looks awesome in action.

 

[aweigh]

They're making a new Nocturne

Wait, what? Is this real? I been outta the loop.

 

[Vorark]

He probably means SMT V.

 

[Jasede]

Yes.
While folks are decidedly pessimistic after 4, the 5 trailer has a decidedly Nocturne style.