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Atlus Shin Megami Tensei V - It's been hurting my OCD.

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
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Location
The Khanate
Yes, instant teleportation to a save point completely removed that threat and aspect of resource management which I do miss. I am not a challenge run type of guy, but once I eventually do a second playthrough, I'll likely impose some restrictions on myself. Low level in combination of no warping, perhaps.

Not done with the game yet, but I am taking a short break before I get to the grind for the superbosses.
 

dacencora

Guest
Yes, instant teleportation to a save point completely removed that threat and aspect of resource management which I do miss. I am not a challenge run type of guy, but once I eventually do a second playthrough, I'll likely impose some restrictions on myself. Low level in combination of no warping, perhaps.

Not done with the game yet, but I am taking a short break before I get to the grind for the superbosses.
It’s still there to a degree. If you make it to a boss area and your resources are depleted you teleport back, but the moon cycle is quick enough that you might be facing against the same encounters on your trip back to the boss. The ability to dodge the encounters definitely removes a lot of the resource attrition, however.
 

Gastrick

Cipher
Joined
Aug 1, 2020
Messages
1,704
The crux of the matter is what one thinks of random encounters. Specially coupled with puzzles inside dungeons that force you to walk around (sometimes backtracking) to solve them while being bombarded by encounters you are not in the mood to engage.



I find it an utterly bad concept and I'm glad to see it go. If one likes it though, then Nocturne will be more favorably received.
Whether you face forewarned random encounters or on-stage enemies, the result is the same. Fighting different enemies at random intervals. Mostly all games have some way of making it so you cannot run away, this game is the rare exception.
I don't think it's the same. Giving the player the option to take encounters at his own discretion makes for a different experience than throwing shit randomly at him. Specially so when he's not inclined to fight at a given moment.
They did a bad job implementing it in this game and it is a perfect example of why developers of non-random-encounter RPGs make running away infeasible or use some other method to make you fight the encounters. You pretty much have a save anywhere, a heal anywhere, a shop anywhere and a fuse anywhere. It ruins resource management and the impact is only lessened in this game by how difficult each encounter can be. You can also reach each boss with nothing in your way, making the entire game be about improving your team enough to win against bosses (and other elements like exploration). The part of making it alive through a tough area to get to the end is missing.
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,778
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Persona 5 is a good example of visible enemies that do attrition / resource management well, at least early game (by the third dungeon you're swimming in SP recoverables and it goes downhill).

Perhaps what SMT5 needed was more "corridors" that forced you to fight.
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
I am very critical of P5 but it definitely handled that aspect well. I remember having to really gauge if I could keep going forward or if I should go back and heal/save.
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
Patron
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,578
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Germany
Cleared the game on HARD (73 hours, no SUPER BOSSES).

Some points of interest
  • Soundtrack is a very mixed bag this time around. The dungeon soundtracks are very weak, and some of the battle themes (Hydra), and remixes (SMT5 Demi-Fiend remix) are just random noise. The overworld themes are absolutely fantastic though.
  • Dungeons are absolute ass and unfun. Just cut them already if you really feel the need to include them just because it's a series "trademark". The overworld exploration aspect without the minimap felt so so much better.
  • Story was just an afterthought, though I have to say that it kinda picked up in the later stages of the game, like SMT4A. Yet, some characters feel very underdeveloped, which was kinda annoying. The pacing at the beginning of the game was also very weird. It was not bad, just weird.
  • Yakumo WAS NOT THE FUCKING MAIN CHARACTER of the game.
  • Doi's Ultraman designs for the main characters are not good, and I do hope that he will not continue to Doi'fy other demons of the series.
  • Definitely the best and most balanced gameplay of the SMT series so far. Game's definitely a 9/10. And it was worth the wait.
  • SMT4 = SMT5 = SJ > SMT3 > SMT2 > SMT4A > SMT1 > IF
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Nearly at the end, spoiler question -

Purple leyline "Mysterious Entrance" where you beat Vasuki
- it says cannot enter at current level, what level do I need to be?

Also, re. Khonsu:

Killed Amon, dude took the wings and went away, seems like that's not the end of it? Where do I find him again?

EDIT: well, found the answer for Khonsu -
talk to Miyazu @ Fairy village
 
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Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
I finished 'Golden Apple' quest long ago and still, there is no Idun to fuse, wtf? Is this a bug or there are some additional requirements?
Special fusions don't show up in the list until you have at least one of the ingredient demons in your compendium.

Just beat Shiva. Did a few hours of grinding and fusing before that and went in with a lvl 99 party. That was a fun and rhythmic fight, excellent battle theme too. A good appetizer for the true anal rape that is DF. This isn't a fight you can turtle. I will likely have to create even more specialized demons.
 

Bohrain

Liturgist
Patron
Joined
Aug 10, 2016
Messages
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norf
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Demifiend can be cheesed to an extend by constantly swapping in a demon with null/drain phys since he'll do a physical attack against it every time you do it.
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
Nearly at the end, spoiler question -

Purple leyline "Mysterious Entrance" where you beat Vasuki
- it says cannot enter at current level, what level do I need to be?

Also, re. Khonsu:

Killed Amon, dude took the wings and went away, seems like that's not the end of it? Where do I find him again?

EDIT: well, found the answer for Khonsu -
talk to Miyazu @ Fairy village
I think it required level 80 at least, second hardest fight in the game . Dont try to do that now ! I did it early before finishing the main story and if you can do that you roll over anything the game pit you against in two rounds(except demi fiend dlc)...Dlc maybe made things too easy, you get so much macca , tomes and gospel its very easy to min max an invincible team.
Still had probably more fun than playing anything else this year i think.
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
I did the final boss at appropriate level, then reloaded and got to grinding for the extra bosses.
Can you tell me what you need to fuse abaddon ? Cant find that info anywhere on web .Randomly fusing my uber compendium demon just require too much macco grind now.
 

Puukko

Arcane
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The Khanate

TheSoul

Scholar
Joined
Jun 15, 2018
Messages
155
First impressions after making it to the second netherworld area (a lot of comparisons to nocturne are made)
  • Combat Changes are mostly good. Once you realize the game's trying to focus more on attrition than a quick burst of combat like 4, the design decisions made more sense to me. Only decision I'm not a fan of is limiting skill slots and some of the special skills being noticeably better than others.
  • Still baffled over being unable to carry over improvements from previous games. You can only register 1 demon or all of them, no inbetween. Autocombat now requires you to click ok, breaking the flow too often for me. You can't zoom out the camera, items are a bitch to cycle through, etc.
  • Art for demons is actually pretty good. I like the designs much more this time around. I hate all the character designs though, especially MC and that fucker he fused with. It's ugly, out of place, and embarrassing to see ingame (you even naruto run). It's the exact opposite problem I had with 4, where I liked all the designs, even the samurai, but all the new demons looked fucking awful.
  • Writing feels rushed, especially with how you enter the netherworld the first time. It's still too early for me to say, so I'll just say I'm less than impressed right now. Even nocturne had more interesting and defined characters at the beginning to me.
  • Atlus played way too much xenoblade while making this game. Making the overworlds big deserts was a huge mistake, and all the random junk farming for macca gets tedious real fast. The only thing to really do in here is collect glory or run up to every vending machine, as the overworld doesn't have anything to say like nocturne did. This made the game feel unfinished when all you explore are buildings, sand, and random cars. I was interested when you get to explore the school, since it's finally something different, but then half of the paths just get blocked. It also hurts the game's difficulty when you can just fasttravel anywhere instantly. I stopped caring about losing demons and mp conservation since all you have to do is hit L and they give you a lot of opportunities for free healing. Compared to Nocturne's overworld, it and 5 end up feeling like completely different worlds despite looking very similar.
  • The soundtrack is really, really weak. It sounds unfinished, with most of the tracks just being ambience without any style like previous games. Even the battle tracks don't hit right, and it's the most disappointing aspect to me. I ended up just listening to nocturne/metal in the background because it all sounded so underwhelming.

TLDR
Gameplay is carrying much more than usual, everything else seems to be a step backwards. Outside of combat it plays like Nocturne but for people who didn't like Nocturne.
 

dacencora

Guest
as the overworld doesn't have anything to say like nocturne did

I'm at roughly the same part as you, and while some of your points I agree with, this one really made me "WTF am I reading?" because there are tons of secrets* and lots of demons that say funny/interesting things in the overworld. I find the sidequests to be more fun/more memorable than IV, as well. Overall, I think that IV still has the superior combat (unique abilities and affinities aside), but that V is much more fun to run around and do stuff in.

*Yeah yeah, it would be better without a minimap.
 

TheSoul

Scholar
Joined
Jun 15, 2018
Messages
155
as the overworld doesn't have anything to say like nocturne did

I'm at roughly the same part as you, and while some of your points I agree with, this one really made me "WTF am I reading?" because there are tons of secrets* and lots of demons that say funny/interesting things in the overworld. I find the sidequests to be more fun/more memorable than IV, as well. Overall, I think that IV still has the superior combat (unique abilities and affinities aside), but that V is much more fun to run around and do stuff in.

*Yeah yeah, it would be better without a minimap.

When I say that, I mean the quests and exploration feel more like it was done for the game to have gameplay than build off the atmosphere. The open world and all the design decisions I felt had to accompany this holds smt5 back more than it helps the game. Nocturne had a lot of moments that made me feel like we were in a dead world, with the lost souls and manikins. Strange Journey made the team outsiders in a foreign world, with you being unable to explore half the maps at first, needing to identify enemies, and these decisions made the game feel like a desperate struggle vs the unknown. Both made me afraid of this world and what was in it.

5 doesn't feel like a struggle until you fight a boss, and you just get told where to go with quest markers. I'm not worried about what lies beyond when I'm exploring, I'm just running and trying to find the next warp point. The tone feels completely different from what we're told to when we play the game. The quests are just there. You help mermaid, fuck up a demon, and collect x items from an enemy. Maybe i was missing something. Honestly preferred 4's, because it sets up how fucked tokyo is.
 

dacencora

Guest
5 doesn't feel like a struggle until you fight a boss, and you just get told where to go with quest markers

Oh yes, absolutely, the survival-like trepidation is certainly weaker here. I still think it's there a little bit, but much weaker than other SMTs. Though, to be frank, Strange Journey and Nocturne do that the best. IV wasn't that good with that either with save anywhere. I really like the combat in IV and loved the game whenever I was in combat, but I thought the rest of the game was rather weak. Combat is the most important element in an RPG so it's still a good RPG, but overall I think V is stronger than IV in every aspect except the combat, and even there, the lack of affinities in IV was odd to me, and I am glad to see its return in V.
 
Joined
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Pink Pony Planet
Holy Chimera: A monster with the heads of a lion and a male goat and the tail of a snake. It was originally a holy beast representative of the seasons, but in the midst of being taken into Greek myth, it was looked down upon as a ferocious monster.


DRAGON'S DOGMA REFERENCE?????
latest
 

catgode

Novice
Joined
Jul 7, 2021
Messages
13
nliJJNf.jpeg

I'm convinced redditards are braindamaged and suck Nocturne's dick so hard because having to use buffs is peak strategy for them. Does the difficulty pick up from where I am? So far most of the fights I've had people hype up were easy. Hydra took me a few tries, Loup Garou needed like three, everything else goes down in two max.

I'm pretty sure my honeymoon phase is wearing out, if it didn't end outright. Random encounters are background noise now, I can spam Estoma for borderline free and completely ignore everything. In SMT4, you needed to hit an enemy with your overworld attack. And I'm pretty sure in general Estoma only worked if the encounter was lower level, so you had to fight till your level outmatched enemies in the area. Here? It's just a big "fuck off" button that completely disables encounters. If I somehow *do* end up in a fight, Trafuri is dirt cheap, so are Smoke Balls.

I'm convinced the game gives the player too much control *and* too much information. Spyglassing bosses on the first turn removes the element of discovery since you already know everything there is to know. Magatsuhi moves are beyond lame, for some reason even if you're fighting a badass sword-wielding physical attacker, their magatsuhi move just has to be an elemental AoE for some fucking reason (Cum Hail with a Maragion, are you serious???). Oh right, the reason is that you need to be able to cheese the move with a dampener. The most threatening big dick moves are just free turns for the player.

I literally never need to look at my demon's weaknesses. If they're weak to the magatsuhi move, I give no shits, because I use dampener. If they're weak to most attacks, I use dampener anyway for extra safety, or spam Guard and it's the same, since Guard prevents weaks and criticals. I've spent 0 minutes fusing my demons specifically for a boss fight. [EDIT: i do occasionally use an essence or two to get weakness-hitting attacks onto a demon, but that is at most. i guess just how it works with the essence fusion nowadays. still, usually id have to fuse new demons for resists/nulls, and that's just not the case here because of dampeners and guard anyway, so my point kinda stands?]

Buffs and debuffs are still king, Fairy Banquet and spamming debuffs made Lahmu a walking miserable joke.

Why are dampeners cheaper than shards? Seriously. 150 macca. Shards are, what, 300? 400?? What the fuck Fatlus. 3 dampeners is too much. Nerf that shit to 1 max.

Sorry for the rant, I just... just don't know. Why are people busting nuts over the difficulty? It's not hard. I don't feel in danger. In SMT4 at least I had to concentrate+megido the random mobs, here I just ignore them. I'm playing on Hard, I'm not braindead grinding, the only DLC I own is Return of the True Demon and I'm not even making any use of fiends at all (using a sprinkle of Daisoujou, and that's it atm, Hell Biker and Matador are kinda meh). No bullshit Cleopatra, no bullshit Artemis. Idunn is reportedly really strong, got her a bit ago, haven't used her much though. No Mitama DLC. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be playing drunk? Should I avoid doing any sidecontent to keep myself underleveled? Should I staple my balls to the wall? I even avoided getting the Knowledge of Tools miracle because I can tell it's busted and I found the game to be easy enough as it is.

I'm not good at video games. I'm not a veteran of the series by any means. Old RPGs scare my zoomer brain. I'm not doing any big brain strategies, most of my fusions are just me winging it to get a higher level demon.

Walked into the
Shohei
fight yesterday by accident. He ripped a new one in my MC with a physical attack. If I boot up the game tomorrow, do minimal prep, and manage to do him second try (first serious try), I think I'm just gonna turn the game off at the spot and start Nocturne. Or SJ:R. I have both. I'll get to see what the fuss is all about.

Internet lied to me again and I'm mad. Am I doing something wrong???
 
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Dishonoredbr

Liturgist
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,095
I finished the game yestarday and all i have to say is..

The gameplay , especialy the combat carries this game so hard. If the gameplay wasn't nearly as fun this game would be extremly forgetable because everything else is just kinda mid.

This game clearly wasn't 100% finished and lack focus. That's especialy true when you stop to think about everything involving the story , plot points and especialy characters like Yuzuru that give a vibe of ''This game clealy had a entire area or two cut''. 8/10 game but it could be much more honestly. It feel like the team behind SMT has a ton of raw talent but they're like headless chickens trying to make a semi-decent story and characters. I got that feeling playing SMT4 , SMT4Apocalpyse and SMTV just make me certain that something is wrong with Maniax/SMT team.

Also this game LOVES to suck Nocturne dick so much that make this game like less because of it.

''OOOOHH GUYS GUYS DO YOU REMEMBER NOCTURNE? WE ARE JUST LIKE NOCTURNE ? DO YOU MEMBER THE CONCEPTION? THE AMALA DRUMS? THE GAME IS JUST LIKE NOCTURNE , SO MUST BE GOOD yAH?''
 

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