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Atlus Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (3DS) Blasphemy Edition

Dorarnae

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Messages
721
added content isn't anything special to be honest
I don't even think the added content is that good, btw.
How annoying are the new characters? Strange Journey is gud when it comes to combat/fusion/dungeons, but when it comes to characters and dialog it's mediocre at best and really bad at worst. It was pretty jarring when elite soldiers and scientists were acting like retarded schoolchildren.
Alex is the daughter of Lucifer. That is everything you need to know about it.

pretty much. there are a few things that are nice but overall, I was not impress with the new dungeon.

How was the hardest difficulty? As compared to SMTIV: A?

I haven't played SMT4:A, but if it's like SMT4 then strange journey is harder. they made Deep easier though with a few new things. and from what I understand the highest difficulty is only available after you clear the game once.(I hate that shit, really annoyed me with SMT4).
 

Bohrain

Liturgist
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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
:necro:

Recently finished SMT IV, now been playing Apocalypse. Really liked IV, godlike soundtrack, good atmosphere and overall very good combat system. Being able to fuse while deciding all the inherited moves and save everywhere is something every game in the series should have. On the other hand the RNG fucked you over real bad in negotiations, but I can understand that they couldn't skew things too much towards the player's favor. Played the game on normal so I wouldn't consider myself as an authority when it came to difficulty, but once you got party mana regen and a demon with tetracarn and majarakarn most of the boss fights became trivial. Seraph was one of the few bosses that forced me to fuse a proper counter to him and I really struggled against Medusa. Writing had a good sweet spot in terms of quantity where it wasn't super minimalistic, but not Persona level of inane chatter. The mystery aspect of the world was really neat and the moments like the team discovering guns next to the Sky tower terminal, first time seeing Tokyo and reverse hill were memorable.Though the game would've probably been better without the cookie cutter law/chaos divide, since it makes zero sense for Jonathan and Walter to want to fuse with their respective demons when they were just shown in person what sort of hellscapes their dumb extreme ideologies will lead to. And some things that were probably just meant as SMT I homages probably felt loose strings to people who weren't aware of them, like Yuriko/Lilith being the leader of Gaeans, Stephen being around and Tokyo being nuked. And off course some of the quality of life things like map without visible names and unclear pathing aren't something I'm going to miss.

Apocalypse gives me mixed feelings. On one hand the combat system is the best iteration of press turn system I've seen so far (excluding companions) and the preferred element thing made making all-purpose demons much harder, which is a welcome change. On the other hand, even though ailments are a lot better than before, using them consistently still doesn't feel as optimal as just focusing on weaknesses and buffs/debuffs. The game feels pretty linear and quick-paced in a way that makes it feel short, but on the other hand I wouldn't want to spend as much time on the same places as in IV anyway. The writing being more character centric sort of makes sense, since the first game already introduced the world so thoroughly, but I pretty much dislike every single companion and only find the antagonists and Dagda interesting. I wouldn't have minded a more plot-heavy game, but the experience ought to be more enjoyable if the writing was better and you had few, but well fleshed out companions. World map being easier to navigate feel a bit too little too late, but enemies being more easy to avoid and negotiations being easier are welcome changes. I'm probably at over half point of the game by now, but I hope they use similar combat and fusion mechanics for SMT V and forget everything else about Apocalypse.
 

Puukko

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Jul 23, 2015
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Aha, didn't notice this thread getting bumped recently. I just finished IV and the post above reflects my sentiments pretty well. Started up IV:A right after and based on the first 10 minutes... man, talk about a shift in tone. Well, as long as the combat and music are good, I'll get by.

I'm quite certain SJ will be up my alley the most out of these 3DS SMTs but I'm saving that for once I'm done with this game.
 

Duraframe300

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
6,395
SMT always had waifus tho, going all the way back to Digital Devil Story. Lots of people seem to think that SMT is somehow a sublime series because they played Nocturne, and maybe Strange Journey, without realizing that those two games are the exception and not the rule.

Don’t forget that the series started with tentacle rape and a high school setting.
 
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Bohrain

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Aug 10, 2016
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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Had to format my drive, didn't remember to back up my save for IV:A. Got to the point where I'm supposed to enter the final dungeon, but honestly felt pretty burned out at that point. The power of friendship bullshit really irritated me, it outright feels that whoever came up with it hasn't played any of the mainline games.
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
Finished the game. I already covered most of my thoughts on the random JRPG thread and wrote a proper review elsewhere so I'll keep this brief. I ended up liking the story and characters more than expected. The divine powers were Saturday morning cartoon tier villains, which doesn't mean I think they were bad, just a bit one sided but served their function. Navarre and Gaston turned out to be cool dudes. I still went with the massacre ending with Toki as my waifu, Asahi didn't make the cut (heh) and Nozomi was really just good for the tits. As far as I'm concerned, being the new Creator God with a goth fertility goddess to repopulate the universe with is pretty much the perfect ending. I checked out the bonds ending afterwards and yeah, I wouldn't pick that even on NG+.

The game improved on the vast majority of IV's faults, enough so that I'd rank it a bit higher than IV. Improved combat, consistent difficulty, actually navigable world map, QoL changes and a huge compendium. Didn't touch the DLC because after 70+ hours and that slog of a final dungeon, I was okay with putting the game down. SJR is up next, curious to see how it compares.
 

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