Thanks for your reply!! So it was with the PS1 soundtrack then. I'm glad I didn't dream it, haha.
Perhaps I play SMT 1. Let's see what the others have to say before.
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Shin Megami Tensei |OT| Choose a new Reason
- Thread starter HylianSeven
- Start date
Thanks for your reply!! So it was with the PS1 soundtrack then. I'm glad I didn't dream it, haha.
Perhaps I play SMT 1. Let's see what the others have to say before.
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I'm one of the few people that actually likes Lone Prayer, even though it's so short and repetitive.
That said, yes, the original music is quite good.
To answer your original question though, I would say SMT1 or Persona 1.
Well I'm currently playing SMT1 and it has a crazy amount of random battles so if you're okay with that, definitely give it another shot. It's equal measures bleak and charming, the game has aged really well though I think. The dungeon designs are crazy though, you'll definitely be using a walkthrough at some stage during this game but it's not too bad once you find your footing and use the Mapping system. It has amazing atmosphere and battles are more simplistic than what came later obviously because it being the first one and all but it's still fun to play. I'm really enjoying it and playing it every evening, it's a great night time game.
Persona 1's PSX soundtrack is clearly superior but I am probably the only advocate that P1's PSP OST is good for the most part, it is bad for P1 though and doesn't really fit the game's story or atmosphere. Characters in this game are pretty underrated as well, I think. I found the battle system surprisingly decent after everybody seems to hate on it. It's pretty similar to mainline SMTs but on a grid instead and the PSP version's battles are fast enough. Exploration is a fun part of the game as well for me. Dungeon crawling in this game is very similar to Soul Hacker's, which is why I like this game's gameplay a fair bit.
I'll always say that Persona 2: IS is a masterpiece in terms of story, characters (take a while to grow on you but by the end they really do) and music but battle system is probably the weakest MegaTen game I've played in that aspect. I actually liked the demon/Persona negotiation system in this game though. Dungeon design is a bit under par as well. I powered through with the bad parts and thought it was well worth it for what else the game offers. It's definitely a game that requires patience though. Random battles are very frequent as well. I enjoyed exploring the game's overworld and just immersing myself in the game interacting with all of the NPCs.
I don't know how I'd rate these games against each other, they all have their own faults but the positive aspects of them really raise them all up for me. All three of them at the very least have great atmosphere, music and characters though, so it's really up to you which mood you're in.
I actually really like the turn order display and I love fusion skills, but it's so easy to cheese in that game. I guess for fusion skills to return you'd really need for every character to be able to change Persona, but they might be able to do something with it.
The NPCs are also great, yeah, their dialogue updates quite a lot and is often more plot-relevant than some of the inane stuff NPCs might otherwise say. Plus, Time Count!
I'd recommend going SMT1 > P1> P2IS too. I think SMTI is the one that's aged the best without counting the P1 PSP port's improvements and it's so important to the series that you'll probably appreciate later games much more after it.
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P1 is a criminally overlooked game with incredible atmosphere and interesting characters. It's also much faster and generally playable than the clunky and slow P2. MAKE SURE YOU PLAY WITH A GUIDE IN HAND THOUGH, as the canon, longer route in the game requires that you answer correctly a few questions that pop up at certain points, HylianSeven will probably want to take not of that too (hope it's not too late).
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P1 is a criminally overlooked game with incredible atmosphere and interesting characters. It's also much faster and generally playable than the clunky and slow P2. MAKE SURE YOU PLAY WITH A GUIDE IN HAND THOUGH, as the canon, longer route in the game requires that you answer correctly a few questions that pop up at certain points, HylianSeven will probably want to take not of that too (hope it's not too late).
So I started playing SMT 1 in the end.
I've read we should distribute stats for strength and stamina. Only for the protagonist? Or for the allies as well? What stats should allies have?
I give the allies the same names of SMT IV. Otherwise I didn't know how to call them.
I've read we should distribute stats for strength and stamina. Only for the protagonist? Or for the allies as well? What stats should allies have?
I give the allies the same names of SMT IV. Otherwise I didn't know how to call them.
I've been reading about recommended stat distribution for the MC and opinions are all over the place.
Is Snow Queen considered the cannon route?
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Isn't the general rule for SMT just to specialise, rather than trying to create an all rounder? I've not played SMT 1 but I assume it's like SJ/Soul Hackers, where the MC doesn't learn any magic skills.
Hero:
Put some points into int early on. It makes negotiations with demons a lot easier.
He doesn't use magic so ignore the mag stat.
Girl:
Mag, agi and luck. She's mainly a magic user and she has access to zio which stuns 98% of the enemies in the game, so increasing her agility is a good idea.
The rest is up to you.
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Yes, in most of the earlier SMT games the Protagonist can't learn magic.
It's kind of a dumb limitation IMO, and later games fixed it, but it is kind of annoying. Makes for only one real way to build the protagonist.
Personally I dumped my stats into Str and Agi (dodges everything, never misses, multi-hit) vast majority of the time for SMT 1 Protag so far. Once you learn how to ace the negotiations it becomes a bit of a breeze
When I'm done with SMT 1, does the stat allocation work the same way with SMT 2? I've never actually played it (shock, horror!) Might move straight into SMT 2 afterwards.
friendly, introduce yourself/praise/agree, give them everything they ask for.
When I'm done with SMT 1, does the stat allocation work the same way with SMT 2? I've never actually played it (shock, horror!) Might move straight into SMT 2 afterwards.
Yes. Just drop a bit of points into the magic stat (10, actually) to dance furiously.
Neat! Thanks. Dancing furiously sounds just like something you'd do in a cyberpunk apocalyptic landscape when fighting demons!
Really been in an SMT/Atlus game mood lately. Also been playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions as well (surprisingly good), once I finish that, I may as well try and finish Raidou 2 this time (my PS3 died and lost over 15 hours of gameplay last time I played it so...I was pissed). Can very well see me through to the end of the year all this Anniversary game time with MegaTen.
Really been in an SMT/Atlus game mood lately. Also been playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions as well (surprisingly good), once I finish that, I may as well try and finish Raidou 2 this time (my PS3 died and lost over 15 hours of gameplay last time I played it so...I was pissed). Can very well see me through to the end of the year all this Anniversary game time with MegaTen.
It's funny actually. For some reason SMT 2 & 3 feature some kind of humor about dancing (well, in 3 is more meta and subtle), which is something I wish returns to the main series.
It's parallel to the main story, so yes and no. It's resolved by someone else if the MC doesn't, much like SEBEC. That's how I see it, anyway.
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I finally beat Sleeping Table in Persona 3. That's the most amount of grinding I have ever had to do in any MegaTen game. I had to get Yukari to level 43 so she could use Mediarama. During all that I also got Personas with Marakukaja, Matarukaja, and Rakunda. Beat it pretty easily that way.
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There are A LOT of Persona fans that don't know what SMT is, and it's a damn shame. I really hope SMTV being on a home console (sort of) gets more people to try out mainline. I feel like with how Atlus is billing SMTV with that trailer reveal at a concert and all, that they might be selling that up as their next "Persona 5". They're in a really good position to knock it out of the park with SMTV.
I think SMTIV did a good job of making the core games approachable for new players, so hopefully V goes full on insanity.
Also, P6 needs to break down some walls like P3 did. One thing I loved about P3 was everything about it screamed 'this is the new age'. 4 and 5 were just more of the same when you really get down to it.
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Yeah, particularly P4. P5 though, I think that's another point toward SMT games having more mass appeal, as the gameplay in P5 was MUCH closer to SMT than P3 and P4 were. You have demons as enemies, negotiation, actual dungeons, etc.
I never understood the decision to have P3 and P4 only have randomly generated dungeons. It seem so nonsense to me.
I kind of enjoyed them in P3. Every floor was a mystery, and they mixed it up enough to keep things interesting(the treasure floors, random good drops, The Reaper, etc).
In 4, it wasn't as good for some reason. Probably because they tried to blend gimmicks in with the roguelike formula and it didn't work.
I don't know if it's just me or maybe at the time it sounded like a cool idea, but I never had an issue with Tartarus. I always found it neat that its chaotic and randomized nature had an explanation in universe, and in general it added to the aura of mystery around it. Feeling in constant danger due to not being able to get used to the maps added to the tension too.
I think in part it was made that way so the game could be lengthy enough to last an in game year without having to design intricate dungeons and needing a bigger budget (3 and 4 seemed pretty low budget already). In P4 it comes off as just cutting corners to save money and time though.
I'm guessing the massive dislike comes from most people starting with 4 as well.
I think in part it was made that way so the game could be lengthy enough to last an in game year without having to design intricate dungeons and needing a bigger budget (3 and 4 seemed pretty low budget already). In P4 it comes off as just cutting corners to save money and time though.
I'm guessing the massive dislike comes from most people starting with 4 as well.
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I like the tension aspect of Tartarus, but at the same time it does feel pretty boring to just go through floor after floor of mostly the same thing. Especially when you get a bunch of floors where the stairs are literally right in front of you.
Yeah, the tension is a good way to describe the appeal. It also made the real world more welcoming, I always felt like it had a nice balance of keeping one engaging just long enough until you wanted to go back into the other.
I post in both and came to Persona from SMT though my avatar betrays that I'm husbando-loving garbage, and I feel guilty when I talk about Persona in here. I feel like SMT might come up a little in there though, people are often interested in checking out mainline and other spinoffs after they play Persona.
I remember enjoying Tartarus but since that was the first instance of balancing social links with dungeons I was probably more all over the place with how I spent time and created a satisfyingly diverse gameplay loop for myself. In P4 I would blitz through the dungeon in a day then do social links and maybe go back into the TV world for some dull fetch quests, so it felt like too much of one thing then too much of another.
I loved Mementos though. Loot, side quests, cool catbus and character interactions aside, it also meant that even though I still did dungeons in a day, I was splitting my time between social stuff, story dungeons, and a procedural dungeon. It's not much, but it meant I never got bored.
I participate in both the SMT and Persona communities, and there is most definitely cross-talk in both. Probably more of it here, though.
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Holy shit Shinjiro! I wonder where Ken went exactly.
Also I have suspected Ikutski of something but I'm not sure what exactly. It's too convenient how he disappeared after Shinjiro's death, or didn't hear Chidori taking Junpei to the roof. For a minute I thought maybe he was Takaya, as he always wears glasses and long sleeve shirts so we never see his tattoos, but looking at both portraits closer, I don't think that's it.
Also I have suspected Ikutski of something but I'm not sure what exactly. It's too convenient how he disappeared after Shinjiro's death, or didn't hear Chidori taking Junpei to the roof. For a minute I thought maybe he was Takaya, as he always wears glasses and long sleeve shirts so we never see his tattoos, but looking at both portraits closer, I don't think that's it.
Are there and months where nothing happens like during some of the summer months?
I didn't like Persona 3 and 4 very much. I gave up early because I couldn't understand the reason and necessity of Social Links. One of the things that had nonsense for me was getting personas through tarot cards after fights. I wasn't fan of the procedural dungeons but that wasn't a problem for me.
The reason I loved P5 was that it was very close to any SMT game. I felt that they took all the best of the latest Persona games together with SMT features and added then to a single game. I loved fighting against demons (shadows), negociations, static dungeons with different themes, same fighting mechanics of SMT,... I even understood why social links where that important.
I will try P3 or P4 again later. Now it's time for SMT 1. By the way, now I see this game with a different point of view, I understand what I'm doing, and why. I hope the game is easier this time.
The reason I loved P5 was that it was very close to any SMT game. I felt that they took all the best of the latest Persona games together with SMT features and added then to a single game. I loved fighting against demons (shadows), negociations, static dungeons with different themes, same fighting mechanics of SMT,... I even understood why social links where that important.
I will try P3 or P4 again later. Now it's time for SMT 1. By the way, now I see this game with a different point of view, I understand what I'm doing, and why. I hope the game is easier this time.
That's persona 3s biggest weakness, the story pacing kinda drops off in the middle.
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Does it have any more droughts or am I already past that?
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Cool.
On another note, god DAMN the animation in the anime cutscenes is so terrible in this game. I mean look at this shit. Wtf is this?!
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Ikutski's tiny head and Mitsuru's T-Rex arms really sell the idea.
I just finished SMT 1 so here are my thoughts
- there are a lot of ways to break the game, which I avoided for the first ~90% of my playthrough, then when I finally succumbed it made the game 1000x easier, just total autopilot, which was a little unsatisfying.
-I love everything about it aesthetically. even the never ending blank wall dungeons. I love the music most of all but you'll probably end up muting it after 10-20 hours because you can only hear that *thunk* sound it uses for every battle hit so many times
-you're gonna need a guide once ina while. some of them don't use the same translations as the translated ROM I used so that was fun. SMT wiki has a good item list that you'll wanna keep open because the game never tells you what any item does, the names are rarely descriptive, and even when they are, they'll usually cut off a few characters before the end of the name due to space limitations.
-mostly the guide is necessary for the parts when to advance the plot you have to go to 1 specific square on the map and uh oh, you went to the square *beside* that one, and it's a 16-bit game so your character is extremely myopic and cannot see NPCs standing one unit in front of him. missing something like that and having to double back while dealing with random encounters is grueling
-as others have said, the random encounter rate is insane. I only found one demon in the entire game with Estoma (no random encounters spell) and so I kept it the whole game. and estoma really means NO random encounters so you have to make sure you've got plenty of magnetite (the stuff you use up by walking around) because you'll have no way to restock (10k is probably enough to get through any dungeon, even the massive final one).
-in the end it was worth it (to me) but I definitely went in wanting an "oldschool" "hardcore" etc etc experience
- there are a lot of ways to break the game, which I avoided for the first ~90% of my playthrough, then when I finally succumbed it made the game 1000x easier, just total autopilot, which was a little unsatisfying.
-I love everything about it aesthetically. even the never ending blank wall dungeons. I love the music most of all but you'll probably end up muting it after 10-20 hours because you can only hear that *thunk* sound it uses for every battle hit so many times
-you're gonna need a guide once ina while. some of them don't use the same translations as the translated ROM I used so that was fun. SMT wiki has a good item list that you'll wanna keep open because the game never tells you what any item does, the names are rarely descriptive, and even when they are, they'll usually cut off a few characters before the end of the name due to space limitations.
-mostly the guide is necessary for the parts when to advance the plot you have to go to 1 specific square on the map and uh oh, you went to the square *beside* that one, and it's a 16-bit game so your character is extremely myopic and cannot see NPCs standing one unit in front of him. missing something like that and having to double back while dealing with random encounters is grueling
-as others have said, the random encounter rate is insane. I only found one demon in the entire game with Estoma (no random encounters spell) and so I kept it the whole game. and estoma really means NO random encounters so you have to make sure you've got plenty of magnetite (the stuff you use up by walking around) because you'll have no way to restock (10k is probably enough to get through any dungeon, even the massive final one).
-in the end it was worth it (to me) but I definitely went in wanting an "oldschool" "hardcore" etc etc experience
This is why I always find it funny when people cite the lack of anime cutscenes in P3P as a negative. I do not miss them.
Does SMT1 have an in-game dungeon map? I remember watching gameplay and thinking I'd get lost without a guide, maybe I've gotten soft.
hmmmmmmm, I don't remember this, I always had to open the menu, go to the computer, then open the map
Oh yeah I forgot that you can only do that in the non SNES versions lol.