Current Events > Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne isn't that hard.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Try playing an older NES or SNES RPG with little to no QoL features.

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just because a game isn't as difficult as another game, it doesn't mean that it can't also be difficult.

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g0ldie posted...

just because a game isn't as difficult as another game, it doesn't mean that it can't also be difficult.

The only hard thing about it is you get a game over if your main character dies and a lot of enemies love instant death spells.

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Compared to the more popular games at the time like Final Fantasy, yeah it is hard.

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There are only three real instances where it's so hard that it's unfair:

1. The tutorial battles where it's just you vs. some Pretas, whose Feral Claw has a high chance of getting a crit, and given how the game's battle system works, you could end up getting a Game Over right before you even have a chance to save, meaing having to go through the opening cutscene and gameplay all over again.
2. The Matador, who unlike the other Fiends after him is forced and unavoidable. He has some very nasty tricks if you're not prepared (and most first-time players aren't). But once you make the preparations for him (Force-resistance/immunity on you and your demons, and getting Ame-no-Uzume, the earliest demon who knows Media, and Rakukaja and Sukukaja), he becomes a cakewalk.
3. Trumpeter, the final Fiend, mainly due to his gimmick of either fully healing anyone in the battle, including himself; or instantly killing one of your party members or the MC. You have to keep count of his turns and keep a weakened demon around, to swap in when he's about to use one of those two skills, lest you end up having him fully heal himself and undo all your heard work, or instakill the MC which is an auto-Game Over.

Other than enemy ambushes and/or them getting off one of the instakill skills on the MC, the game is pretty manageable.

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sure after you figure out the kinks you can manage so i kinda agree it's not insanely hard just like dark souls
but this series secret boss are pain in the ass to defeat and demi fiend boss fight in DDS is insane i lost count on my number of game over on that fight back in the day and i only won that fight once >_> to add insult the whole time the music that was playing was the normal battle them from this game to him we were just another random monster encounter >_<

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gikos posted...

sure after you figure out the kinks you can manage so i kinda agree it's not insanely hard just like dark souls
but this series secret boss are pain in the ass to defeat and demi fiend boss fight in DDS is insane i lost count on my number of game over on that fight back in the day and i only won that fight once >_> to add insult the whole time the music that was playing was the normal battle them from this game to him we were just another random monster encounter >_<

Never thought about it that way but that's hilarious.

It's not hard, just obnoxious.

Bosses all have ways to cheese your way through. That said, some (a certain toot-toot boy comes to mind) cam be cheap as hell.

Enemies are the same. None are really hard, it mostly just depends on whether you get unlucky enough for them to ambush you and spam all of their worst abilities on the demifiend and ko you turn 1 before you can react.

Then there's the issue with the encounter rate. Which is too damn high.

Not hard. Just a game of "cheese or get cheesed"

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well yeah it's an smt game so it's really simple and easy

you just set up buffs and debuffs turn 1 and the enemy basically can't do shit, with their damage being reduced by 75%, their accuracy plummeting to the low teens or worse, and they also take double the damage
then you just spam your weakness button and get overly compensated for the most simple as fuck rpg mechanic and basically never lose

the series screws people over if they simply don't try to abuse any of the broken inherent mechanics the series has, and is painfully easy and repetitive for anyone that's actually good at the game

also i don't know why people say "just get uzume" when uzume is usually three or four levels above me by the time i actually get to matador
i can instead just be smart and just abuse how broken buffs and debuffs are so the only threatening turn is maybe the very first one

yeah most people who play this game don't understand that buffs and debuffs are the main mechanics of this game i figure this is due to other rpgs not putting a lot of weight into the buff/debuff mechanics and people are too used to ignoring them thinking they are a waste of time

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It's a very high-risk high-reward battle system. Enemies can abuse buffs/debuffs and press-turn weaknesses too (although in Nocturne specifically their AI is usually kinda dumb doing it)

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The only thing with buffs/debuffs is that after about half-way, enemies start using Dekaja/Dekunda regularly.

luigi13579 posted...

The only thing with buffs/debuffs is that after about half-way, enemies start using Dekaja/Dekunda regularly.

They're still very worth engaging in: most enemies don't use them automatically, and even when they do, it can buy you some breathing space.

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ElatedVenusaur posted...

They're still very worth engaging in: most enemies don't use them automatically, and even when they do, it can buy you some breathing space.

Yeah, definitely keep using them. It's just a pain.

luigi13579 posted...

The only thing with buffs/debuffs is that after about half-way, enemies start using Dekaja/Dekunda regularly.

it's not that common enough to matter because a majority bosses simply do not have one of even both of those skills (this includes fiends and most reason bosses)
ai is really dumb in this game, and if buffs don't work you can usually just bank on debuffs instead because just war cry and fog breath alone destroy the game's difficulty so you don't need to fully stack if the game won't let you
forcing the enemy to waste a turn cleansing is a huge deal (especially against rigid ai like dante) because they are either jokes because their stats suck or jokes because they're being stalled

buffs and debuffs are historically really damn good, and when you abuse how effortlessly broken press turn is and how ridiculous the rewards are it's very hard to lose in this series unless your mc gets sniped somehow or you get into a really unlucky smirk scenario or something

Illuminoius posted...

it's not that common enough to matter because a majority bosses simply do not have one of even both of those skills (this includes fiends and most reason bosses)
ai is really dumb in this game, and if buffs don't work you can usually just bank on debuffs instead because just war cry and fog breath alone destroy the game's difficulty so you don't need to fully stack if the game won't let you
forcing the enemy to waste a turn cleansing is a huge deal (especially against rigid ai like dante) because they are either jokes because their stats suck or jokes because they're being stalled

buffs and debuffs are historically really damn good, and when you abuse how effortlessly broken press turn is and how ridiculous the rewards are it's very hard to lose in this series unless your mc gets sniped somehow or you get into a really unlucky smirk scenario or something

This is likely why they changed it to the Persona system in SMT5; the regular ones are single-target with the Ma- versions being party-wide, and they only last for a few turns before wearing off.

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