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Persona/SMT Discussion | The clock is ticking. Who will survive? [Devil Survival On!]
cj iwakura
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
Strategic on-the-go pocky fusion, now available!
In recent news, it appears the game that's considered the best Devil Summoner game(as well as one of the best SMT spinoffs) is being fan-translated by the team responsible for Innocent Sin's English patch.
http://gemini.aerdan.org/forums/index.php?topic=137.0
I bet this will take a while, but it's a start.
General
Genre: J-Rpg
Version: NTSC/JP
Publisher: Atlus
Platform: Playstation
No. of Players: 1
No. of Discs: 2
Status
Translation: ?%
Hacking: ?%
Complete: ?%
Short Story Description
If you're a MegaTen freak just skip this part: you'll love the game anyway, no matter what I say about it.
You're a member of the Spookies, a group of hackers investigating on Algon Soft and its newest, suspicious product: the Paradigm X, a virtual world where its users' souls are mysteriously vanishing.
While doing your stuff, your best friend (or should I call her a girlfriend?), Hitomi, is attacked by a supernatural entity known as Nemissa. The two become a single being, and you are the only one who knows exactly what's wrong with her (everybody else will just pretend she's acting weird).
Will you be able to stop Algon Soft, restore your friend back to normal, and fight hordes of demons while you're at it? Oh yeah, and you also have a weird gun computer, a "GUMP", to kill things with through a nice yet weird summoning system.
Misc Information
This project started about 8 months ago, a few weeks before the Innocent Sin beta testing. It has been sitting there for most of those 8 months, until a few weeks ago, when Tom and I decided to give it the spotlight once again.
I don't have a status report yet, but the game feels a lot smaller than Innocent Sin in terms of text. On the other hand the hacking will probably be as annoying as IS's because of the idiocy of a Saturn game forced to work on the Playstation hardware making it still behave as if it was running on the Saturn. The fact that TOSE handled the porting makes it even worse, especially because TOSE is the company who converted the whole FF4-5-6-CT compilation to the Playstation (and later to the GBA/DS). From what I can see from their code, they sure didn't know shit about the target hardware and in fact the result is a terrible mess, harder to hack than the average game.
Oh, and the sequel to an obscure GBC game was recently fan translated as well.
Should be worth checking out, for Gilder's sake if nothing else.
Until then, there's always the new school.
Out now, so go get your summon on, comrade.
Or hey, get it free if you have photoshop skills, see this thread.
It was mentioned in the older thread that the whole of the extensive Shin Megami Tensei catalogue can be difficult to follow for an outsider.
So, I figure they would appreciate a primer on the origins of SMT and its many, many spin-offs.
The Core Series (NES / SNES / Sega CD / GBA / PSX / PS2 / etc.)
[Shin Megami Tensei I, II, and III: Nocturne, respectively]
The introductory to SMT proper, both in the eastern and western markets, since Nocturne was the first exposure to the core series provided to US gamers.
Core SMT are basically traditional RPGs, with a heavy focus on dungeon crawling and interaction with demons to join them to your side. Character interaction takes a back seat, but there's usually some people to interact with amidst the demonic horde.
The first two games were ported to everything shy of the Atari 2600, but have yet to see an official release. They've been fan translated, so there's always that.
There hasn't been a new entry in the series since Nocturne, unless you count the 'expansion' which replaced Dante with Raidou Kuzunoha from Devil Summoner 3.
Persona (PS1 / PS2)
Persona / Persona 2: Innocent Sin / Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Persona 3 / Persona 3 : FES / Persona 4
More story driven than the core series counterparts, each of the Persona games generally focus around a key cast of characters up against some sort of world-destroying force.
Instead of conversating with demons for recruitment, talking with demons in a Persona game is usually to summon more powerful Persona, or in the case of 3 and 4, making friends to strengthen their associated Arcana.
Devil Summoner (PS1 / Saturn / PS2)
Devil Summoner / Soul Hackers
Raidou Kuzunoha VS The Soulless Army / Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon
Devil Summoner isn't all that different from core SMT in concept. Talking with demons and summoning them to fight for you. I haven't played much of the original two, but they're dungeon crawlers similar to SMT I & II, with similarly dark plots. III is more light-hearted, but IV seems to have darker things in store.
Spin-Offs
Digital Devil Saga (PS2)
(1 & 2, respectively)
Mix a traditional RPG with Hinduist themes and cannibalism gameplay, and you have DDS.
Similar to Persona in that there's no demonic recruitment, but a heavy focus on a core cast of characters.
Instead of summoning demons to fight for them, the DDS cast become them, and eat all the rest.
DemiKids / Devil Children (GBA)
[Dark and Light Versions, respectively]
While SMT is commonly referred to as 'Pokemon from hell', DemiKids is the closest thing to it. Play as one of two junior Devil Summoners, and go recruit demons to fight for you through conversation and bribery. It's basically SMT lite, but that's hardly a bad thing.
(Who knows why we got this and not the SMT I & II ports.)
Revelations: The Demon Slayer / Last Bible (GBC)
The only US SMT I've never played. I guess it's basically Shin Megami Tensei: Dragon Warrior.
It's supposedly very good.
Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine (PC DL)
Takes place between the events of SMT I & II. Play as a Devil Buster, side with either the fine Messians or the cultish Gaians, join up with others along the way, kill and/or recruit demons, profit.
The thread for the PA Clan, BlackSun, is here. Be warned, only a handful of us still play it, but you're bound to find someone willing to help you out if you give it a shot.
It can be extremely tedious, but the atmosphere and story make up for it.
Etc.
(Other spinoffs never released in the US)
Shin Megami Tensei: If... (SNES / PS1)
A side-story to core SMT which takes place in a school, more or less.
Shin Megami Tensei: NINE (Xbox)
A mediocre attempt at making an SMT MMO(Imagine that) on the Xbox, which never panned out, so it's just a mediocre single player game.
Jack Bros. (Virtual Boy)
I believe this release predated Persona, hilariously enough.
Majin Tensei (SNES)
SMT + Fire Emblem = Profit?
Could be worse.
There's no small amount of games for new MegaTenists to track down.
So until a new core SMT is announced for next-gen...
Wait, wrong summoner.
cj iwakura on
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Posts
And responding to the last page of the last thread, The Answer is not that bad.
Q1. There's an epilogue to Persona 3 in the FES release, called The Answer. I really liked Persona 3! Should I play this?
A1. No.
-Elizabeth dates (this is the main selling point, they're that good) and more fetch quest requests
-Aigis social link, and some existing social link locations get shuffled around to make maxing them all out possible
-New events for maxed out links after the end(and maybe during the game?)
-Assorted new events (walking Koromaru for example)
-New Persona
You begin playing The Answer. It is a videogame about schoolgirls fighting..
Robots are involved....
.....
It is painful to play.
YOUR DILIGENCE HAS INCREASED!
YOUR COURAGE HAS INCREASED!
There is a healthy chunk of added content to the regular P3 game.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Seriously cj, why don't you just buy it? I got my copy for 2 bucks, it can't be that expensive. Just buy it already so you can say you've played them all.
Compared to P3? Pretty bad.
Compared to the worst the JRPG genre has to offer? Not even close.
I enjoyed it, but I recognize that there's alot of stupid shit in the game you need to wade through and not everyone is going to be as patient with the game as I was.
I can't tell you how thankful I was in the original that they never expanded on the whole "Yukari being a maid" thing. Then FES came along. I stopped playing before I got to that point but I've seen pictures. I will never understand this maid fetish that Japan is crazy about.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
After sitting through the 30 minutes or so of unskippable dialogue, I was killed in what was supposed to be an unloseable battle.
I don't play the Answer.
There's a thread on it somewhere in the MMO section, I'll toss it in sooner or later.
It's my favorite spin off.
It's another amazing game that would have never been given a chance in the US if not for Pokemon.
Think about all the titles that never would have come out here if not for the pokemon tailcoat riding. Monster Hunter, DQM, this, Demikids. That's a few thousand hours of my life I'd have back.
All this aside, get R:TDS. It's a fantastic game.
The music in Nakano is incredible and that alone makes the game worth it. The rest of the game is just your typical MMO, but it is free. For a free game it's not that bad. Just very grindy. Very.... very grindy.
Like the rest of SMT, really. :P
It would be a lot less tedious if they weren't so many 'congratulations, now go gain 10 levels which will take you three weeks and we'll continue!' missions.
I also like the story, but like the game, it takes a while to get going.
The soundtrack on the whole is really good. Probably because most of it are remixes of old SMT tunes.
Take a Cerberus into the Cathedral in Nocturne and you'll hear Imagine's Cathedral music.
When it gets ten signatures I will e-mail it to Atlus customer support. And they shall know my wrath.
Because internet petitions never fail.
I'll go back to playing Shenmue 3 now.
You saw the maid outfits. You saw the creep robot buttons. You saw the "high cut armor."
You think once you unleash this power, this petition, you can control it? You can bottle it back up?
Then again, P4 did have that gay sauna and strip club, so...
Gay Sauna was awesome. No, seriously, its probably the closest thing I've seen to a serious examination of sexuality in a mainstream videogame.
I'm not saying P5 is going to be bad, just warning against the evil of petitions. Fan-controlled P5 could be..... truly terrifying.
I'm pretty sure they all come with Elemental Boost on the weapon as a passive effect, so the only skills you need on a persona are Elemental Amp and Weapon Master. You can also get Elemental Amp from accessories.
Their damage potential is so absurd because Boost, Amp and Mastery stack.
AWESOME! The Sigfreid I've been swearing over now has Null Dark, Elec Amp, Heavy Master and Auto-Matarukaja. Things are gonna die.
I don't want to spend goddamn 3 fucking hours to make one fucking Persona, Atlus
I got shit to do
Will I get in trouble if I ask Chie out too? Like are there special cut-scenes for that shit?
IIRC, there's only one place in the game where there's any kind of confrontation, but I forget who it's between. Otherwise, no, you can get with every single girl without issue (although I suggest getting each one to rank 10 before starting another relationship)
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
There are specified dates where girls will interfere with each other, but they're always 100% on the same day from game to game and only happen if you accept dates that the girls themselves initiate by calling you or whatever.
Uh huh. That's a shame. I was half expecting subsequent hang outs with my dates to be filled with conflict and strife once they find out my MC is a two-timing bastard but I guess that wouldn't be conducive to solving the murder mystery :P
Actually that's a thought, does spending time after maxing my S.Link offer any benefits?
Also I'm trying to rank up the Sports team and Cultural club links before tackling other ones since I've read that they're the ones with separate stories for each of the 4 choices, so I might as well get them maxed before starting a new game+... which then makes me think... doesn't the S.Link progress get carried over on new game+?
Spending time with your maxed girlfriends doesn't really offer any benefits at all.
Also your social link progress doesn't carry over but you are still able to fuse the ultimate persona of a arcana without maxing it again.
Protagonist Captain Superpimp arrives in Inaba, dates everyone, and leaves a year later.
Heartbeat--Heartbreak.
Dating multiple girls in P4, aside from leaving them heartbroken shells as their first serious romantic encounter ends up being with a vicious two timing bastard, is generally pretty safe. There are a handful of times where you can get a reversed link if you're seeing two girls (which generally loses you 1-2 days of link progress), and you can get some unique dialogue if you run into certain characters when exploring old dungeons and you happen to be dating both of them. No negative in-game effects for the unique dungeon dialogues, they're pretty rare and some of them are actually pretty entertaining.
On top of that, P4 lays a pretty thick guilt trip on you for some of those s-links.
S-Link Spoilers:
"WAAAH WAAAH WAAH I'M SAD"
What do you do?
>> Comfort Rise (starts relationship)
>> Go kill kitten (no relationship)
Lovers and Sun essentially dare you to keep your friendship platonic, and the only two love interests who don't confess their undying love for you are Ai and Naoto, at least depending on what you say to them.