Board 8 > Shin Megami Tensei V Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

I never played Apocalypse but IV is a great game. It's dragged down by being on a handheld but it has a lot of improvements over Nocturne despite that one being a stronger overall package. I'm hoping 5 combines the best aspects of both, and from what I'm seeing in some of these reviews, it sounds like it does.

SMT2 also absolutely slaps. It holds up better than you'd think for a SNES JRPG. Part of this is due to Nocturne also lacking a bunch of QOL and so 2 compares a bit more favorably, but I would still recommend playing the fan translation. The aesthetic is impeccable and it's got the coolest lore in the series. I would kill for a modern remake of this game, it truly deserves it.

Strange Journey is quasi-mainline because it was considered to be before IV was released. It's a bit more exhausting due to the Etrian Odyssey-esque nature but it's still worth playing especially if you love the dungeon crawler aspect.

Part of what is great about the series (and Megaten as a whole) is the variety. Each of these games is excelling at different things and there's a chance you can find different stuff you like in each. Even SMT1 is doing some unique things even if it's ultimately outclassed by every other game. SMTV sounds like it's going to be the best entry point yet but like SMT4 I don't expect it to obsolete the others, so we will probably get similar differences in opinion.

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am i going to be buying two switch games in one year? who would have thought.

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the 3DS remake of Strange Journey has a lot of nice QoL additions that makes it a bit less exhausting

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Aww, SMT5 is technically eligible for Target's B2G1 deal, but pre-orders are sold out. Gonna see if it'll be back in stock on release day and try to get it for $40.

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Going to start Devil Survivor Overclocked (3DS) soon.

What difficulty should I play? Normal or Easy?

I don't play many SRPGs, but for what it's worth, I beat Fire Emblem Awakening and Conquest on Hard.

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I don't remember it being a particularly challenging game for the most part. You should be fine on Normal. The final boss on certain routes can be challenging, though.
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plasmabeam posted...

Going to start Devil Survivor Overclocked (3DS) soon.

What difficulty should I play? Normal or Easy?

I don't play many SRPGs, but for what it's worth, I beat Fire Emblem Awakening and Conquest on Hard.

Also not a SRPG guy but from what I remember it's comparable to Persona's difficulty. Mostly fine, you will occasionally get owned by RNG or a bad team comp, and there are some big difficulty spikes on certain bosses.

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It's not too difficult, but the balance is kind of wonky and some bosses have gimmicks to them. If you've played other smt/atlus games you'd probably have a decent idea of what to expect.

main issue I can think of is building your stats, since if you mess up badly enough it's kind of hard to fix it in a short amount of time since repeatable battles are more for learning skills than getting exp and leveling up. I'd probably suggest a more magic oriented build overall so you can divide up the elements among multiple characters to cover all your bases in attacking enemy weaknesses, while there isn't really enough useful physical attacks to split between the mc and other characters. But you would still want to try to have high enough stats in other areas so if you run into problems you can swap out your skills for something else.

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Good to know. Thanks guys!

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I'm so glad I had zero investment in getting this at launch until a week ago because I'm chomping at the bit with just 1 day left.

Also glad I didn't buy Nocturne HD and burn out (mainly because I heard they fucked it up).

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The Japanese version but that was all patched by the US release

Fun platinum!

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Anyone who preordered the steelbook on Amazon get their order delayed? I got an email saying they might miss the promised date but that I'd still get the item. Still no estimated date in my orders.

I only ordered the game last Friday so that may be why. Still annoying.

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I pre-ordered it and got that e-mail, but it shipped yesterday and is set to arrive tomorrow. Already at the usual carrier facility that I get packages from

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I will pick up from Best Buy when they open tomorrow

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Gamefly is sending it to me. Hooray for locking a game for a customer.

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I got a notification from Amazon saying my vanilla preorder is out for delivery. One day early hype!

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Hmm

Well if it doesn't ship tomorrow I suppose I'll be trying my luck with retail roulette

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Why isn't it unlocking?

Switch games always unlock based on EST WTF.

EDIT: looks like Atlus said they're unlocked this one based on PST.

Because...fuck it I guess??

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Amazon delivered early (pretty weird after receiving that e-mail that it might be late) so I got two and a half hours in tonight.

Already have fusion unlocked, so I'm working on filling what I can of the compendium right now. Also saw a Mitama when exploring, but was unable to do anything to it.

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bought all the sidequest DLC



oh baby

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anyway I really enjoy that the game rewards exploration

there's 200 of these little red guys called Miman hidden around and every 5 you find earns you items in the shop

and treasure chests can be in areas that requires a bit of platforming

it actually feels like Atlus looked at Dragon Quest XI and tried to borrow elements from that with its world map design


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and I also love how every demon on the world map is to scale and there's a few here and there that are completely massive and you just have to sneak past them for now because you're not strong enough to defeat them yet.

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ninkendo posted...

bought all the sidequest DLC



oh baby

FUCK
MY
LIFE

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Nocturne Demons are so badass and menacing, not to mention THAT THEME

Hey, MC sure looks like a girl from the back

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nah if they were a girl they'd be basically naked



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So how do you earn Glory besides the little red dudes?

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there's silver chests with 50 glory in them. I've found 2 or 3 of those so far.

also one of the 4 mitama types you can find also drops glory

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GameStop ended up having tons of steelbooks so I don't know what was up with the Amazon order unless I got lucky.

Immediately bought the True Demon DLC (and got owned by Matador) but not sure $12 is worth it for three individual demons. Still kinda curious how they are, if anyone bothered with them.

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I'll find out once I play far enough to unlock their quests

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Noob question, what is the main difference between SMT and the Persona games?

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SMT usually focuses more on gameplay and harsher dungeon crawling (not always, but Persona has implemented easier QoL in most cases). There's also a more spiritual/world view of Law/Balance/Chaos through ideology and philosophy. Persona tends to veer more into interpersonal connections and societal evils. Persona also heavily emphasizes the dating sim aspect, which SMT...rarely if ever does.

Do note there is way more in the minutia, but in general this is what I notice most.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wovh784sz9M

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq5tMAhh4Nw

another generations of japanese people playing the series commercial

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I wish they made this for a Sony console instead since Ive heard it can dip as low as like 17fps. I never used to care, but damn its just such a world of difference playing something at 60fps and then playing something that peaks at 30 and tanks all over the place if too much is happening

The game runs like butt and its really unfortunate. Especially with the sparkly sand covering the entire opening area, it's headache inducing.

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Switch hardware is a bummer for sure. Even more so once you realize that emulators are already capable of running these games (this one included!) at 60 fps, lol. So crazy to see emulation actually pass up hardware within its own lifetime.

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Part of me is convinced thats why DP remakes went back to sprite looking stuff because Sword/Shield chugged like ass in the wild area or whatever it was called again >_>

I don't think that's even a controversial theory. Remember that even LttP ran like garbo, and the DP remakes are being made by a mobile dev whose only console experience is assisting with CG cutscenes. No doubt it looks awful because it had to.

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I've never been bothered by low framerate until now. I heard/read all the complaints about dips, and I just wrote them off.

Having played a couple hours in docked mode... it is noticeably bad. It's not unplayable or anything, but yikes. Should've left this one in the oven for a bit longer?

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Even Breath of the Wild had framerate dips and chugged sometimes and that's Breath of the god damn Wild.

I don't necessarily think it's Nintendo's fault for not anticipating that console gaming getting a taste of that sweet 60fps would be the thing this gen, bit there's something a little weird in general with optimization on Switch.

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colliding posted...

I've never been bothered by low framerate until now. I heard/read all the complaints about dips, and I just wrote them off.

Having played a couple hours in docked mode... it is noticeably bad. It's not unplayable or anything, but yikes. Should've left this one in the oven for a bit longer?

If by that you meant waited for stronger hardware theyd be waiting quite a while on Nintendo >_>

Also I'm coming straight off of No More Heroes 3 so this is not ideal but I have seen much worse on switch lol

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Every Switch game runs like a dream in comparison to Deadly Premonition 2 last year

Luckily the open world framerate doesn't bother me at all. I thought it was far more noticeable during the cutscenes to open the game.

A lot of the character models seem to be beyond what you would expect for a Switch game so I'm sure a lot of the processing power went to those.

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butts

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Fuck man. It looks like my copy is getting to my place only in December. I will be gutted if the same thing happens with Elden Ring next year. Covid really really sucks.

Getting this physically shouldnt be too difficult so maybe try that instead if you can? I mean its not like the old days where P3 could only be found in a GameStop. SMT V is in Walmart stores which shows how much better recognition Atlus has gotten.

I live in Bhutan, a third world Asian country so I have to import my games all the way from the States or Thailand. Usually doesn't take much more than a day but lately there's been issues with cargo delivery in our country because of some bullshit covid protocol.

I always wonder what people who get attached to their demons in SMT do just grind one the entire way?

Part of the fun for me is completely nuking my party and fusing them all into new demons every time i level up

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Outside of Alice, I never keep anyone unless they are an endgame super duper Persona. Alice is just special.

Suicide teddy bears and house of dagger cards ftw

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oh enemies do the Earthbound thing and start running away from you once you're too strong


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