Game Pimpage: Shin Megami Tensei

[xyzzysqrl]

Hey kids!

Do you like your Japanese RPGs -completely balls-out murderously unforgiving-?
Do you like Pokemon, but also like studying religion and mythology?
Do you want to fuse party members together to make new, improved party members?
Do you enjoy post-apocalyptic landscapes, bleak worlds full of death, and struggling to make a difference in a land gone wrong?
Have you ever wanted to rip someone apart using only your teeth?

Good news! You're creepy!

... I mean. Good news! They make Playstation 2 games for that! Also a DS game! And they've been re-released, so the time is right to not spend six billion dollars and your right kidney on eBay! Here's a rundown of the games that have dropped under $30.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is technically the third game in the main-line SMT series, but that's okay because it stands fully alone. It is about exploring the wasteland of post-apoc Tokyo after demons enter the world, slowly becoming a demon yourself as you try to find a philosophical Reason to survive, which will serve as a template for you to remake the world. Power? Complete law and order? Complete chaos? Wipe it all and start over? Up to you!

Digital Devil Saga and Digital Devil Saga 2 are slightly different. (Don't read the DDS2 page unless you want BIG HONKING SPOILERS.) The world is -over-. Gone. Gang members are trying to survive, but most life no longer exists. There's rumors of a place called "Nirvana" where you can gain anything you want, and of course everyone is fighting to get there. The Digital Devil Saga series is based more heavily on Indian mythology and Hindu allusions than the usual Judeochristian mythology of the SMT series.

Also, did I mention that your gang survives by eating the flesh of anything weaker than them? That's not particularly part of the mythology bit, it's just awesome.

Perhaps this too is not your thing. Would you like to be a high school student instead?

Persona 3: FES is about living your day to day life as a high school student. Make friends. Develop social connections. Live in a dorm. Shoot yourself in the head. Unleash the creatures living inside you to fend off darkness. You're a very EMO high school student, yes. But anyway. Persona 3 FES is probably the single best place to start in the SMT games. It's the cheapest, it's the least murderous, and it's the most like a "normal" JRPG. I do hope you like text, though!

Finally, the newest game in the series and just BARELY squeaking in under the $30 cutoff point is Devil Survivor. This one's a Final Fantasy Tactics style strategy-RPG for the DS. It still uses the battle system from Nocturne, and... eh, you don't care about that. It's the story of three students trapped in the center of a city locked down and infested with demons as they try to escape and... failing that, try like superheroes to save the lives of every single person in the city with them. I'm playing this right now and kinda loving it.

Basically, yeah. If you've ever wanted to call up gods and goddesses to do your bidding, if you want to wield ultimate power or reshape the world... Give these games a try. I like to shill stuff I enjoy, and these have never been cheaper. Play them so we can talk about it.

Comments

[seawasp]

Hm. Sounds like "Nocturne" could be a sort of deep-background justification for some of the big boss enemies in the later Persona stuff. Too dark sounding for me to play, though. Darkest thing I think I ever played was Parasite Eve.

You leave out Persona 4, which kicks much ass indeed. And you don't even shoot yourself in the head.

You also leave out that Persona 3FES is actually TWO games in one, sorta. Also, you're not an emo student, you just LOOK like one. Unless you WANT to be Emo. The way I played the main character (who I called "Xavier Ross" because he sorta reminded me of one of my projected writing characters with that name), he was far from emo.

[swordianmaster.livejournal.com]

Persona 4 is far less forgiving than Persona 3, but really, if you want an easy stepoff point into the level of brutal JRPG system manipulation that is MegaTen, Devil Survivor provides something a little more forgiving still.

Also, I think Xyzzy was going for the "under $30" watermark, which Persona 4 most definitely is not.

[bossgoji.livejournal.com]

What? I found P4 WAY easier than 3, mainly due to the lack of level-grinding and the ability to actually CONTROL your party members.

[swordianmaster.livejournal.com]

Remember! All I've played is DS. :B I am super-durr.

[xyzzysqrl]

I leave out Persona 4 because, yeah. $40 right now.

I still lust after it, though. Sigh.

[seawasp]

$31 from Amazon from a reputable seller.

It is very very good. And even has a couple direct intersections with the prior Persona 3.

What's even cooler is that current trend indicates that Persona *5* may still be for the PS2, which is good because we don't have a PS3 yet.

I'm trying to decide which next-Gen system I should get. We just got a Wii (for my son), and I'm not sure whether I should do a PS3 or an XBox, or wait for whatever that ludicrously cool system MicroSloth was advertising comes out.

[xyzzysqrl]

I have the Xbox 360. I -love- my Xbox 360. But I'd be lying if I said there weren't a few PS3 games (Disgaea 3, notably) that I lust over. It is a difficulty.

Add that to the DS being -the- home of all the really good RPGs coming out, and I'm having serious whack-a-mole issues with buying stuff lately...

[seawasp]

Can the Wii handle DS games?

[xyzzysqrl]

No. There's currently no "Play this on your TV" plugin for the DS/Wii, like there was with the GBA/Gamecube.

The Wii -can- download DS game demos and wirelessly toss them to the DS, but that's about it. I don't foresee any such add-on, either, given that the DS's thing is the touchscreen.

[seawasp]

How is the new Star Ocean compared to SO 2 and 3? Is it good enough to be worthy of tipping my decision towards the 360?

[xyzzysqrl]

Haven't played it yet. Tales of Vesperia, though, -is- probably good enough to sway you. And... er. If you like discount strat-RPGs, it's good for those too.

[xyzzysqrl]

Also (I envy your edit function), yeah. Nocturne is fairly dark and bleak. But it -does- have Dante from Devil May Cry, Death on a flaming motorcycle, and plastic mannequin people who are very confused. So it's not ALL grimdarkwaugh. It's just... mostly that way.

[seawasp]

All you need to do is buy a permanent account and edit will be yours!

[xyzzysqrl]

I am not -that- married to Livejournal. Also, look back up there at the post. I'm scrimping for games under $30, I can't afford Permajournal.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

It's the killer app that made me go for paid accounts. (You don't have to be permanent, just paid.)

[seawasp]

Surely your...close friends... have items they don't need that you could sell on eBay.

[masstreble.livejournal.com]

Edit is a pay-only power? You've got to be kidding.

[xyzzysqrl]

You have to pay to change your mind around HERE, buddy.

[seawasp]

Edit for COMMENTS is a pay-only. You can edit your POSTS without that.

Now, I want the edit for OTHER people's posts. :)

[hat-of-nikitich.livejournal.com]

As part of a discount deal, I picked up Persona 3 last summer ...I think? I still haven't played it, because my last JRPG was Ar Tonelico and now I am scared. (Also, Ar Tonelico is easyeasyeasy, and the Persona games have always terrified me with their learning curve.)

But I do want to shoot myself in the head and manifest various parts of my psyche in terrifying ways!

[xyzzysqrl]

Persona 3 has a -way- gentler learning curve than any of the previous Personae. (Although if you can get access to FES, that's the Really Preferred Version.) It will still stomp your delicate bits if you don't pay attention, but... well. It's not absolutely killer.

[hat-of-nikitich.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this is good to know. I do, in fact, have FES!

[seawasp]

FES is also the one that gives you the Extra Storyline, so it's win-win-win all the way. I bought Persona 3 AND Persona 3 FES, so Atlus pwnz0rs my soul.

[seawasp]

I don't see any of the Personas I've played as particularly brutal. Some of them are a bit GRINDY, as in, to make sure I'm ready to beat up the current Big Bad I may want to spend more time than I like beating up things in a dungeon, but I haven't noticed them being that much more nasty than most other RPGs.

(The winner of the "Gentlest RPG I've Ever Enjoyed Playing" award undoubtedly goes to "Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis", where in most cases even if you get your ass handed to you in the dungeon, you just wake up in the infirmary and you still have all the stuff you collected, too!)

[relee.livejournal.com]

I played translated ROMs of the earlier SMT games, but they were buggy. Also the music alone was so disturbing that they left me completely unhinged. I don't know why I downloaded the soundtrack of that game. It haunts me.

I do like the setting, though. I was so disappointed by SMT:Online, you know? I mean, not only is it SMT, but they set it in Shinjuku, and remade it as Shinjuku Babylon, an enormous badass tower that should not be yet is, and everybody wears Shinjuku fashions and too much eyeliner and what am I telling you all this for you played it too. XD



I did not know that about the Digital Devil Saga. That's rad. And considerable.


Obviously I already have P3F though I still haven't gone back and played the FES content yet. 150 hours of the original content was an awful lot of my life used up. XD


I've been following Devil Survivor, since I'm on ATLUS' semi-secret mailing list for ultrafans, though I really don't think I want to play it. It just seems like such a horrible situation. You have a death clock that tells you when people are going to die, so it's a constant rush to save people, and the game is designed so that you can't save everyone, right? It just seems like such a terrible situation to be in, with characters I'm not sure I can relate to. But you're playing it, how does it 'feel'?

[xyzzysqrl]

Uh. Quickly, before I go off to sleep...

I dunno. I really liked SMT Online in a way, it was just -really hard-.

Devil Survivor is... interesting. You do have a death clock, and a steady stream of daily emails that tell you when and where events will take place. It's like The World Ends With You meets Early Edition. I don't know if the game -is- designed so you can save everyone... I'm led to believe the whole arc is a week long, and I'm on Day 5. So far? EVERYONE _LIVES_. So far, I have felt like I -can- keep on top of things. But... as I said, I've just started day five and the timing is getting tight. I don't know what path I'm on (there's seven endings supposedly) and I don't know if everyone CAN live. One of the cast has gone over all Light Yagami, there's a few people I've been purposely avoiding to focus on other members of the cast, and I don't know if I -want- some of these people to survive...

But so far?

EVERYONE. LIVES. GODDAMN IT.

And I will fight uphill to keep it that way.

As for the feeling... it's a bit variable. The cast is... varied. There are people I like and dislike. It's a bit grindy, but grinding -doesn't take time-, Free Battles are -free- and you do not have to worry about leveling up beyond a certain obvious range because when you hit the "right" level range you stop getting loads of experience and start getting just a little bit. So you can go: *grind grind "Ah-ha, right level" *story mission* *grind grind* "Ah-ha" *story mission* and it feels okay.

[waterotter.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm playing DS too, and I'm really liking how they've set the story up so that you actually feel like it's your efforts that determine if people survive or not. Despite basically being a pure menu-based RPG with no map to run around on and no inventory, I feel more invested in the story.

Also, as a ruleset geek, I'm finding the combat system a lot more interesting than, say, FFT.

[xyzzysqrl]

I'm enjoying it a LOT, yeah.

Between the timer, Laplace Mail (Mails that tell you the future, computer-generated and presumably sent out by Laplace's Mailer Daemon, for those of you Not Playing this game), and the map efforts, I really feel like I'm doing a LOT to save these people.

Which is good, because I am working my ASS off to do it.

[seawasp]

Well, damn you, now you're making me think about whether I want a DS.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Disregarding the "Mabinogi with half the features" aspect of SMT:Online, the real problem I had with it was the cardboard box dungeons. Mabinogi had them too, which was my main beef with THAT game. ^.^;;



Is Light Yagami a person? I'm not familiar with the reference.

By feeling, I was more wondering if it felt desperate and frustrating, like trying to push a boulder up a hill while simultaneously shooting eye lasers at nega-valkyries from DX-Hell? Or rather, trying to survive a natural disaster seems like it would be very stressful, does it feel like a horrible experience?

[xyzzysqrl]

Light Yagami's the main character of Death Note, who declares that he, personally -IS- the embodiment of justice and starts killing people. It is a worrying thing to do.

And... no, it's not really a horrible experience, or I wouldn't be playing it.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Oh that guy. I've never watched Death Note, except for a few minutes of one episode. So one guy has gone all 'I am the personification of Justice' on the other guys?

[xyzzysqrl]

Exactly.

But... y'know... I think I can bring him out of it. I've prevented him from becoming a murderer, all I need to do is be at the right place and the right time to keep him from getting assaulted by an angry mob.

*pleased* It feels good to go "I -can- do this, actually..." and then DO it.

[relee.livejournal.com]

You sound very satisfied. If chance brings it my way perhaps I too shall play this game.

[vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com]

Heh. Whenever I see 'SMT Online' (or SMT in general, for that matter), I keep thinking of the *other* SMT. Though the Brothers Grinn doing Shin Megami would be...interesting, at the very least... ;-)

[foxish.livejournal.com]

I could spray comments all over this--I don't have to explain to you my MegaTen obsession--but I'll keep my mouth mostly shut.

Except to say "I still don't have Avatar Tuner 2/Digital Devil Saga 2" and "but I do have the Jack Frost Raidou plushie".

[xyzzysqrl]

And I guess you're not -gonna-, because son of a bitch it just shot back to $140 what the CRAP.

I am seriously thinking of plucking a used copy, and grabbing Nocturne while it's cheap.

[foxish.livejournal.com]

Someone here at AC has a used copy for $70. It might come home with me. It ended up being really rare because of a bad print run, near as I can tell, and Play-Asia hasn't any plan to do a reprint run like they did with the first one.

I got Nocturne from P-A for $65.