zwanzig_zwoelf
Graverobber Foundation
Just finished this one and thought I'd share a few thoughts on what I liked/disliked about the game and a few tips for those who plan to beat this one once the translation patch comes out (it's excellent btw). I'll spare myself the trouble of explaining what is a SRPG and what MegaTen games are about.
Fans will prolly enjoy the idea of mixing Fire Emblem with the favorite MegaTen stuff (difficulty that does not feel like an insult to your intelligence, demon recruitment with some funny dialogue, fusing dogs with hawt fairies and so on), but without wasting hours on reading the endless stream of small talk found in Devil Survivor games.
As far as SRPGs go this one is not too shabby and I enjoyed it a lot, but it's not without its fair share of minor flaws that can stack and hinder one's enjoyment of the game, sometimes to the point of burnout, but it's a common problem with almost every MegaTen game, eh?
Be warned: this post may be spoiler-ish, so if you want to be surprised, then stop reading right now.
TL;DR: Majin Tensei 2 is gr8 despite some tedious moments and a must play for a MegaTen fan who wants an SRPG fix but cannot stand the weaboo cancer in Devil Survivor.
Fans will prolly enjoy the idea of mixing Fire Emblem with the favorite MegaTen stuff (difficulty that does not feel like an insult to your intelligence, demon recruitment with some funny dialogue, fusing dogs with hawt fairies and so on), but without wasting hours on reading the endless stream of small talk found in Devil Survivor games.
As far as SRPGs go this one is not too shabby and I enjoyed it a lot, but it's not without its fair share of minor flaws that can stack and hinder one's enjoyment of the game, sometimes to the point of burnout, but it's a common problem with almost every MegaTen game, eh?
Be warned: this post may be spoiler-ish, so if you want to be surprised, then stop reading right now.
So, the stuff I liked:
- The player character is not silent, which makes talking to demons feel a bit more natural and there's some genuinely funny dialogue. If you're not a fan of these, you can just bribe 'em w/ $$$/MAG/items;
- You can manage the equipment of all of your allies, including demons, which makes running back and forth between the shops a bit less necessary, as you can just offload your old equipment to them. Also giving bows to certain demons is satisfying as fuck;
- Some of the maps can stomp your ass pretty good if you don't pay attention to the demon types / terrain. Just wait till you reach Ginza;
- Demon Fusion... ahem, Remix Fusion in the middle of the battle. Can be a very powerful tool in the right hands;
- Great soundtrack w/ a few arranged tracks from the original Majin Tensei (although I prefer the original versions a lot more);
- Some great demon artwork where a large portion of designs are pretty different to the Kazuma Kaneko's vision.
- Long-ass enemy turns -- there's minor delay between enemy actions, and it gets very noticeable when there are dozens of demons on the map, which makes you turn off the battle animations and use the speedup function in the emulator, which makes you miss out on some awesome artwork;
- Filler -- some of the chapters feel like they are designed to drag out the playtime and I bet if 10-20% of them were left on the cutting room floor the game would only benefit from it.
- Pay attention to the affinity & terrain;
- Get a few MHDs (demons of Dragon King class) as soon as you can;
- Let underleveled units land final blows to get them back on track;
- Let ranged units attack first then use the melee units to avoid wasting time;
- Remix demons regularly (use Rag's shop to obtain the spirits to upgrade 'em), otherwise they'll eventually stop getting stat bonuses upon ranking up (apart from +2 to max hp or smth) and eventually become near-useless, but don't worry about it too much, as they can serve you for a long time w/o issues. As a good example, I had a machete rape squad comprised of Tanki, Brownie and Momunofu from almost the very beginning that only got obliterated somewhere in the second half of the game.
TL;DR: Majin Tensei 2 is gr8 despite some tedious moments and a must play for a MegaTen fan who wants an SRPG fix but cannot stand the weaboo cancer in Devil Survivor.