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

[Grunker]

Its a jrpg for fuck's sake.
Who expects good storytelling from those?

Well, there are grown men on this forum who will defend the writing of Troubleshooter, so...

 

[Nathir]

I meant your MC being the super special being just because of a chance encounter and fusion is bad storytelling.

So do you want

A: Your character is the super special being for another reason (Like... you just start as Odin or some shit?)

B: Your character isn't a super special being and therefore has no influence on the plot because Odin goes and does everything while you watch?

I don't think either of those would qualify as good storytelling. It sounds like you want some personal character driven story like a survival horror or something about a little girl escaping/fighting a monster and nobody ever knows or cares because she wasn't special and neither was the monster. Fuck that noise. I want to go punch gods.

I want a game where your character isn't the super special awesome one just because a demon randomly sees him and fuses with him at the start. And as a result you are the only one that can defeat the last boss, who you don't see or interact with in any way but he reveals in the final fight his plans were always to be defeated by the MC because it's the only way to escape the Mandala system. Why would it even be a good thing and why is it important? Who cares.

You are focusing too much on specifics it's not about what I want to happen, all I would want is a story that at the very least doesn't make me cringe at every moment while playing. THe whole story feels jumbled and stitched together with multiple separate parts. Protecting Tokyo with Tsukoyomi and Aogami could be 1 separate story. Then the whole school subplot with the bullied girl, that goes nowhere and could have been cut out in its entirety easily without any significant impact to the main story could also be easily made into its own thing. The last act with the race for the throne could (should?) be the focus since the start. Battling against the Qadištu as the main villains till the end would also be much better. Why do we need lucifer at the end? Come to think of it, where do Lilith and co. go after Tiamat is summoned? Why don't they appear at the end? Why can Mastema just control Tiamat?

There just isn't any real flow of events or progression that would make sense. Or reasonable character motivations and development. It feels like multiple writers were writing separate parts that got stuck together in the end.

 

[Nathir]

Its a jrpg for fuck's sake.
Who expects good storytelling from those?

Well, if a game commits to having multiple hours of cutscenes and many different characters it shows the story must have been a concern for them. Is it unreasonable to want soemthing decent? The older SMT games at the very worst had passable stories, with minimal weeb cringe.

 

[dutchwench]

That's because the people who made early SMT games are basically a different race compared to the people working at Atlus right now. I mean, the old devs were clearly into the setting ever since Megami Tensei, and that is, as we all know, a book adaptation. The writer has a bilingual Twitter account nowadays and I don't recall him ever praising the games really so he never played some special role in the games' development, but the influence is tangible, perceptible. Ever since MT ended, Kouji Okada and Kazuma Kaneko became the brains of the franchise, coming up with crazy stuff inspired by both Japanese pop culture, lit-pilled brainiac stuff and the audacity not to pull any punches and rely on controversial ideas and subjects.
Now that they're no longer at Atlus... just who is going to cook the kind of SMT you liked? The restaurant still exists, but the chefs are all different. You aren't ever tasting that omelette you liked and it's time to let go.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

Battling against the Qadištu as the main villains till the end would also be much better. Why do we need lucifer at the end?

Franchise wise this would be like ending DBZ at the Saiyin Saga with Vegeta escaping in the pod and just wrapping it up there. You know there's bigger plotlines coming and more powerful entities at work but, who cares?

 

[Yuber]

That's because the people who made early SMT games are basically a different race compared to the people working at Atlus right now.

I can see that, SMT 5 is so "Anime". God I hated the new story scenes in Vengeance. Will only replay Canon of Creation at least less cringe scenes.

 

[Haplo]

Currently level 34 in Da'at Shinagawa.
Combo of Basilisk + Matador + Loa is fun. Basilisk aoe poisons (or gives another ailment, Loa doubles affliction chance), Matador does a Bloody Glee + Basilisk Deathly Affliction crit chance boosted Critical Wave (or aoe Force if enemies Weak)... aaand many standard encounters end in Press Turn 2 (Loa also doubles Matador's chance to instakill on Crits and Weakness). Loa can also instakill if enemies are Weak to Dark.
Boosted Matador's level and Luck (has like 50 Luck now) to maximize crit and instant kill chances (probably wasteful in the grand scheme of things, but so fun for now!).
Basilisk and Nahobino also have Poison Chaser for a very solid attack versus tougher cookies. And Loa can Seal pretty well too (or just call Daisojou for his Preach with Loa affliction boost active).
So yeah, status effects and instant kills are fun!
...at least if you are not the one on the receiving end.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

I loved Loa for a good portion of the game. I used him with Succubus, personally, whose negotiation buff kept her in my party until the endgame.

 

[MakenBro]

Come to think of it, where do Lilith and co. go after Tiamat is summoned? Why don't they appear at the end?

Because they sacrifice themselves to resurrect Tiamat and awake Yoko's power.

Why can Mastema just control Tiamat?

Mastema could turn people into angels in SJ and create a time paradox in IV, controlling demons is part of his myth.

 

[Terra]

Finally finished my Creation route (and first playthrough of SMT V) run today.

Overall I really enjoyed it. I liked the Demon Haunt feature and it worked well alongside those petrified statues to provide a quicker/lazy way to boost up demon stats.

Lacking a world map like in Nocturne or even IV definitely made the game feel a bit smaller in scale, though I definitely enjoyed exploring each of locations more in V.

Playing on Hard, difficulty felt just about about right, with a bit of a spike in the last area Taito when you first arrive, as the key holders were quite a bit above you in terms of levels. Gameplay was solid & enjoyable throughout, enjoyed the Magatsuhi mechanic (though the crits for all was 90% of what I used) and enjoyed the spiced up Magatsuhi-infused red demon battles quite a bit too, especially early on.

Not sure if I'll move straight onto the Vengeance route or take a break, it's taken a good while to reach the end after all. Solid entry to the series based on the Creation route alone though.

Spoiler

Got the destoy the throne ending, final boss Tsukuyomi was a bit eh, went back and killed Shiva afterwards but I guess I'd already gone past the ending lock in point as it didn't change my ending subsequently and I don't think I missed any other requirements for the secret ending so that'll have to wait for a subsequent run.

Story had some weird choices that didn't go anywhere and/or had aspects that I feel were underutilised; it would have been interesting if that school girl had become a Nahobino with Lahmu, but no, they just just died. The death scene was well done though and I guess it served its narrative purpose in that regard.

Tao became a goddess for reasons I'm not quite sure of, I don't think she's a Nahobino like the protagonist at least. Didn't really feel like it was explained what was going on there.

The other prominent students never really got cool Nahobino forms or any combat apperances that I recall except the very endgame fusion bit, I guess. Would have liked to see a bit more from them, like how IV's samurai were combat guest characters during portions of IV. Maybe this is improved/different in the Vengeance route, but overall it felt like a bit of a missed opportunity. There were a few neat twists I didn't really see coming like with Khonsu's relationship with the Miyazu, but aside from tying up some early game dialogue there wasn't much of consequence.

 

[MakenBro]

A new demon navigator will be added to Vengeance, a twitter poll will decide which one will it be among those 31 demons.
https://personacentral.com/smt-vv-demon-navi-vote/

 

[HoboForEternity]

A new demon navigator will be added to Vengeance, a twitter poll will decide which one will it be among those 31 demons.
https://personacentral.com/smt-vv-demon-navi-vote/

The only answer is mara

 

[Abu Antar]

Give me Hell Biker. (Or his bike.)

 

[Jermu]

pretty obviously going to be either mara, jack frost or maybe mothman. I would prefer oni or hell biker

oni is probably the most funniest demon in general and useful is most of smt games

edit. browsed through twitter replies, with a quick look cumhair & mothman was mentioned the most