What are you playing?

[rabidtictac]

I've been on an SMT playing spree. I still have to play a bunch more to give my thoughts on the ones I hadn't played until recently. But I will say that the more SMT games I play, the more I appreciate Strange Journey. Strange Journey is hard as balls, but its world feels complete and cohesive, not to mention relentlessly moody, in a way that even other SMT games fail to match. Well, other games than Nocturne and DDS.

I've been playing SMT IV and that game... It's not even that the game is hard so much as it has massive balance issues. Every single character in combat is super fragile in a way that makes no sense. There's no defense stat, no way to increase your defense nor any way to add vitality. Even pathetically weak enemies can stomp you if they get a full round on you at the start of combat. The Smirk status effect is broken too. Characters under "smirk" cannot be hit by their elemental weaknesses and they always hit + crit when they attack. The effect wears off after they perform one attack, but if they smirk during your turn, that's a full round where they can't be harmed.

Revival is annoying in SMT IV. This underworld cunt takes all your money (well, a ton of it) and then revives you right before where you died, which is stupid since you can save anywhere. You'll save infinitely more money if you just reset when you die.

I also hate how every new SMT game has to fuck with summoning. Just give me the persona 3/nocturne style summoning where I select from a list and see my options. Stop trying to "recommend" fusions to me or clutter up my screen with bullshit that prevents me from looking at all possible fusions. Stop hiding fusions if they're above my level.

The new status effects are all annoying and hard to cure. Bonus points for the best one, "lost," where your demon is literally blown out of your party by a fuckoff wind and you have to get into random encounters over and over until you reunite with it. Enjoy doing that if it happens to your best demon in a tough area.

[Kugelfisch]

Sounds fun.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I've actually gotten myself Strange Journey Recux and Devil Survivor Soy Breaker. The former already has a great atmosphere, but I feel kinda wanna check out the latter, just to see how SMT does Tactical RPGs.

The new status effects are all annoying and hard to cure. Bonus points for the best one, "lost," where your demon is literally blown out of your party by a fuckoff wind and you have to get into random encounters over and over until you reunite with it. Enjoy doing that if it happens to your best demon in a tough area.

"Remember Gau from FF6? Remember that gimmick of his you have to indulge in if you want him to learn new attacks? Now imagine that happening against your will and without any benefits."

I've got an invite to Tom Clancy Ghostmenz Recorder Breakdance Closed Beta Boys.

Did anyone ever tell Ubisoft that's it's kinda tasteless to have a game start with "Tom Clancy's Ghost" ?

[rabidtictac]

I've actually gotten myself Strange Journey Recux and Devil Survivor Soy Breaker. The former already has a great atmosphere, but I feel kinda wanna check out the latter, just to see how SMT does Tactical RPGs.

The new status effects are all annoying and hard to cure. Bonus points for the best one, "lost," where your demon is literally blown out of your party by a fuckoff wind and you have to get into random encounters over and over until you reunite with it. Enjoy doing that if it happens to your best demon in a tough area.

"Remember Gau from FF6? Remember that gimmick of his you have to indulge in if you want him to learn new attacks? Now imagine that happening against your will and without any benefits."

I've got an invite to Tom Clancy Ghostmenz Recorder Breakdance Closed Beta Boys.

Did anyone ever tell Ubisoft that's it's kinda tasteless to have a game start with "Tom Clancy's Ghost" ?

Yeah, Devil Survivor 2 is another of the ones I've been messing around with. It feels like classic SMT mixed with final fantasy tactics and a bunch of weebshit. Still less cancerous than persona 4, from what I've played.

Really, the more SMT games I play, the more I find myself coming around to the idea that Strange Journey is one of the best ones. I do want to try Soul Hackers though.

[Kugelfisch]

Did anyone ever tell Ubisoft that's it's kinda tasteless to have a game start with "Tom Clancy's Ghost" ?

I mean, it's accurate, right?

Speaking of Tom & Jerry's Spookyboyz Breakdance, I've put a couple more hours into it.
The good:

• If you liked Ben & Jerry's Bolivia Bros. Cookie Crumble you'll like Snapline as well.
• Missions aren't as straight forward anymore. Once you reached the hub the game deactivates the mission markers as well. You can turn them back on if you want but it's more fun to find the spot by the mission description and the information you have. If you don't have good enough information you may have to ask some randos.
• It's now basically a looter shooter. Stuff has a gear score but it's far from something like The Division 2. So you'll have a reason to eventually swap out your current weapon, unlike with the predecessor where one weapon of a kind is either basically the best or suits you so well that it becomes pointless to pick up the others.
• That means that enemies have a gear score as well. There are areas you just can't fuck with the dudes running around. But it's a great reason to actually ghost and sneak your way in unseen instead of just sniping everyone.
• Since you don't have your boys with you anymore, you don't get to SyncShot motherfuckers all the time. There are drones that basically serve that function but they are limited in number instead of a cooldown and while you can craft them, you can only do so at a camp site and you'll need the parts as well. So no more taking out a group of four dudes for free.
• Weapon damage matters even for enemies that aren't alerted. In the first game it only mattered if they were alerted, otherwise basically anything was a one shot kill. That made pistols crazy overpowered as they were super silent and them dealing low damage wasn't really relevant when any bullet kills anyway.

The bad:

• It's now basically a looter shooter. While collecting stuff pretty much happens automatically and you have no carry limit, you'll likely still have to find specific stuff eventually and thus waste your time finding it.
• Gearscore feels a bit arbitrary. While the weapons have concrete numbers, armour doesn't and the gearscore number is the only thing to go by and seems to be the only thing that matters. Your character's gear score is the average of the scores of your entire gear so it seems a bit like they could've left out score on clothes entirely.
• The setting of a tropical island is fine but Bolivia was way more interesting to me.

The ugly:

• Controls feel a bit unresponsive at times. Getting your dude to lie down quickly when you're not currently moving feels awkward.
• The menu system is a total clusterfuck. It may be a beta but I doubt they'll completely overhaul it.
• Adding to the clunkyness is stupid shit like me having to google how to use the binoculars. You have six slots for items. One is always your signature class item, one is always bandages. You can't change those at all. The upper two are for throwables, the lower two for consumables. You have to put the binoculars into a consumable slot. That makes no fucking sense. Plus the slots aren't labeled or anything so when I wanted to switch out the flashbangs for the binoculars it didn't show in the list because it's a throwable slot but the lack of a label just left me confused why the binoculars that I had in my inventory won't fucking show up to equip in what I assumed was a gear slot.
• Seriously, the menu is a total clusterfuck. I can't stress that enough! Missions are all in one page along with investigations. But clues you find show up at the relevant mission on a little field on the side of it.
• There is some wonky buggery going on but it all looks like shit that could easily get fixed in the month they still have so I won't harp on about those. But they are there and they are annoying. Mostly shit like scrolling through a multiple choice window being slow and unresponsive, sometimes selecting a choice not working, leaving me still unsure if Space or E is the correct button to select something.

So far it's pretty alright except for the menu.

[Guest]

I've actually gotten myself Strange Journey Recux and Devil Survivor Soy Breaker. The former already has a great atmosphere, but I feel kinda wanna check out the latter, just to see how SMT does Tactical RPGs.

The new status effects are all annoying and hard to cure. Bonus points for the best one, "lost," where your demon is literally blown out of your party by a fuckoff wind and you have to get into random encounters over and over until you reunite with it. Enjoy doing that if it happens to your best demon in a tough area.

"Remember Gau from FF6? Remember that gimmick of his you have to indulge in if you want him to learn new attacks? Now imagine that happening against your will and without any benefits."

I've got an invite to Tom Clancy Ghostmenz Recorder Breakdance Closed Beta Boys.

Did anyone ever tell Ubisoft that's it's kinda tasteless to have a game start with "Tom Clancy's Ghost" ?

Yeah, Devil Survivor 2 is another of the ones I've been messing around with. It feels like classic SMT mixed with final fantasy tactics and a bunch of weebshit. Still less cancerous than persona 4, from what I've played.

Really, the more SMT games I play, the more I find myself coming around to the idea that Strange Journey is one of the best ones. I do want to try Soul Hackers though.

I thought SH was fine but I'm shit st games and its been a while, I don't recall too many specifics. Nemissa a cute.

[Guest]

Gears 5 looks suitably woke.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I might get Soy Hackers as well, since it's pretty darn cheap to buy.

Also reached the final chapter (minus postgame I guess) of Yokio Doreamonu Ex-Aid. So the smartphones and their internet really are magic, and those mechas the setting has for some reason actually showed up. Plus some twists, some clumsily hinted at hours ago, while others came out of nowhere.
All bosses after that fog witch have been a lot easier than before. Maybe it's because I got better, or I've broken the game with lulzy Elements (Auto-regen? HP drain on every hit? Why not?).
When I start New Game Plus, I'll probably just jump right into the hardest difficulty. If that should prove too difficult, I can probably just turn Sword Waifu into her Super Saiyan mode which you unlock together with all costumes.

Overall, I'd say Sword Waifu is the best allrounder in the game. If you're ever unsure who to pick, she's always a good choice. Her ranged attack is also probably the best in the game. Sure, there are other waifus who shoot a shitload of projectiles at once, but she can do it faster because her casting animation is effectively non-existant. She also easily has the best EX Skill, since hers freezes any enemy for its duration, including bosses, completely cancelling any attack they were gonna do in the process.
Karate Waifu is probably the next best choice. Almost all of her attacks are so fast and responsive, and the only one that isn't hits like a truck instead. It's a bit lame that her weapon has the fewest amount of slots, but you don't really need an elaborate setup to let her hit-stun mini-bosses into oblivion. Her ranged attack sucks balls, but it's not like you'd ever need with her.
Staff Waifu is great for trap-heavy dungeons and bosses, since her force field let her no-sell hits. Other than that, she's basically a slower Sword Waifu.
Wing Waifu is also a slower Sword Waifu, but she's amazing if all you wanna do is air dash (which isn't really a bad tactic thanks to all dem i-frames). Also covers a big area with her EX Skill.
Sword Husbando is a bit better than I initally thought. His EX Skill kills almost everything, and although he's more of a physical bloke, his ranged attack is actually pretty decent thanks to its wide hitbox and ability to slice through foes.
Hammer Husbando is also a slower Sword Waifu, except he shoots only one projectile while on the move, which can be handy in a few spots.
Main Husbando has a crappy ranged attack, but I like how his charge attack hits pretty much everything around him.
Gun Husbando is a bit lulzy because he effectivel breaks those shielded enemies. Those are usually immune against ranged attacks until you break the shield, but since his gun's base attacks don't actually count as ranged, you can safely ploink away at them from a distance.
And then there's Deus Vult Husbando of course, who's basically genderswap Sword Waifu.

[AdorableOtter]

SJR is probably the best SMT when it comes to overall quality. Story is okay (except for that cringey failure of new character), combat is actually well made/balanced for the first time, opera style music actually fits well (thank Allah they stopped re-using old materials) and various QoL improvements are quite noticeable.

I personally think SMT2 is the best SMT game purely for story(plot twists are pretty good)/atmosphere/music/power glove but that game is totally breakable (that's not always a bad thing though) and somewhat grindy (non-issue with emulator + auto battle), thus SJR is probably better game objectively speaking.

I might get Soy Hackers as well, since it's pretty darn cheap to buy.

IMHO, SH tend to be overrated by western SMT PERSONA fans because it's more HaremAnime-like (WAIFUU!!!!!!) and easy, also you can qualify as a true certified mainline SMT player even though it's a spin-off of a spin-off. I beat the game once but, like that guest poster, I don't remember anything except for the fact this game is easy and totally forgettable. Considering I still remember the plots of SMT1 and 2, SH most likely sucks story-wise and that's bad. Story should be more of a strength in SMT games.

Also, SH is actually not that well received in weebland partly because original Devil Summoner was better game with good story (something really bad happens to you as always), really good music

, good art design, good atmosphere, interesting setting (basically super natural detective story) and totally broken game balance as always.

Unfortunately, main writer and composer for SMT series left the company and ATLUS decided to not continue (the original) Devil Summoner as a series even though that game has a half cliff-hanger ending. All the other Devil Summoner games (SH,Raidou, etc) are actually Devil Summoner in name only. Betrayal.

You really shouldn't be reading this if you wanna enjoy SH though. Foget It8-)

[Guest]

Devil Summoner had a kino TV drama. How can Soy Hackers even compete?