The Shin Megami Tensei/Persona Thread

[Zero Day Defense]

You know, something I'm surprised about re: P5S is how nobody (players, I mean) talk about how Alice decided to get revenge for getting NTR'd in high school by NTR'ing every woman in Shibuya.

Matador taught me to actually use buffs and debuffs in JRPGs lol.

That's weird, I had to grind a little to get Tarunda so that I could ensure that the Troll that pops up after you pick up the 1000-yen bill doesn't wipe my entire party with a Berserk.

It's only finally that I've gotten to Matador and it might just be that I'm underleveled and under-resourced because even if I go through the cycle of debuffing him he's wiping my party when he gets to his turn. But I really don't like grinding, even if I am playing on Hard.

One second you're doing great. The next, that damn bull is smirking.

And the next, he hits you with an enemy-exclusive Mega-level skill that wipes your entire party, and you learn what Walter meant when he said "I'll end it thus".

Then again, Medusa is the same way (and without any Mega-level skills or ill-suited party members), and perhaps even worse since she's more or less right at the heels of Minotaur. I guess nobody talks about Medusa because Minotaur's design is straight wicked.

 

[Rotollo 2]

Nocturne's difficulty is weird to me, RNG is a factor but usually a battle so far is either really bullshit or feels piss easy. I mean just got to mattador and he kicked my ass at first but using Debuffs along with the wind magatama made him slightly challenging on the 5 time. Now that the labrynth of amala is open for grinding and the demonic compendium is open for business it feels like fights wont be that restrictive anymore.

in fact, i have a rule to never give demons any macca (unless im REALLY desperate) when they ask and focus more on giving them items.

I have more macca than I know what to do with on normal mode so I kinda treat demons like they are whores

Completed the Assembly of Nihilo dungeon, think I'm off to Kabukicho iirc. Too bad they didn't add Kiryu now that Sega owns Atlus lol.

Featuring Ichiban from the ryu ga gotoku series

 

[Islamic Creampie]

Matador is definitely the big roadblock it seems. I'm up to Kabukicho Prison now and I've steamrolled every boss since. Evasion de/buffs are just way too powerful. I'm just auto battling through every random fight. I'm sure it gets harder, but so far even the other Fiends I've faced have been a joke.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

Matador is definitely the big roadblock it seems. I'm up to Kabukicho Prison now and I've steamrolled every boss since. Evasion de/buffs are just way too powerful. I'm just auto battling through every random fight. I'm sure it gets harder, but so far even the other Fiends I've faced have been a joke.

Matador is a bitch that comes out of nowhere and forces you to learn how to play.

There's another boss later that can completely bullshit you with RNG (you'll probably know if it happens) but aside from that the rest of the game is pretty easy up to the final bosses.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

I'm finally sitting through SMT4 (just neutered the black samurai..stupid hoe) and wondering if Apocalypse is worth a plathrough?

if you want more SMT4 than yes.

 

[Nobunaga]

What kind of retard struggles with matador? The game beats you over the head about using buffs/debuffs as early as the specter fight

 

[Zero Day Defense]

What kind of retard struggles with matador?

The kind of retard that struggles with getting to Matador without getting wiped in the first place.

Alternatively, the kind of retard who insists on playing on Hard.

 

[Shining Wit]

Matador is a bitch that comes out of nowhere and forces you to learn how to play.

There's another boss later that can completely bullshit you with RNG (you'll probably know if it happens) but aside from that the rest of the game is pretty easy up to the final bosses.

Never happened to me though

 

[Zero Day Defense]

You guys may have already talked about this one, but I found this in the MegaTen subreddit:

If that's Yoyogi Park, though, I don't recall that Incubus saying that. They might have changed it after some backlash I was unaware of.

 

[Maya Amano]

You guys may have already talked about this one, but I found this in the MegaTen subreddit:

View attachment 2227892
If that's Yoyogi Park, though, I don't recall that Incubus saying that. They might have changed it after some backlash I was unaware of.

oh no, they actually changed some lines around. People were going around saying it's a "more faithful translation" just because the protagonist's answers are now just yes/no questions too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLO9NK2zkY

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

this is another scene they changed up

 

[Trashfire Garbagefuck]

You guys may have already talked about this one, but I found this in the MegaTen subreddit:

View attachment 2227892
If that's Yoyogi Park, though, I don't recall that Incubus saying that. They might have changed it after some backlash I was unaware of.

This could have just been a lazy bare bones port, but they went the extra mile and worked to make the game run worse and fuck up the translation. Fifty bucks for this trash and and seventy if you want Dante again and a few battle themes from other games. Great job Atlus.

 

[HeyYou]

oh no, they actually changed some lines around. People were going around saying it's a "more faithful translation" just because the protagonist's answers are now just yes/no questions too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLO9NK2zkY

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

this is another scene they changed up

>We're tired of people dunking on us
>Absolute unit
>Simping
Jesus Christ they shoved as many memes as possible into this remaster. At some point, it becomes incredibly obnoxious.

 

[Rotollo 2]

November 11th 2021

Shin Megami Tensei V Releasing on November 11, 2021, Story and Gameplay Details Leaked - Persona Central

Information has been leaked for Shin Megami Tensei V, including its November 11, 2021 release date and its story.

personacentral.com

 

[Chiri]

November 11th 2021

Shin Megami Tensei V Releasing on November 11, 2021, Story and Gameplay Details Leaked - Persona Central

Information has been leaked for Shin Megami Tensei V, including its November 11, 2021 release date and its story.

personacentral.com

It's certainly believable content to have leaked out early but I'm waiting for some concrete evidence that it actually happened to believe it myself.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

What Strikers gets wrong about musou combat is that characters movesets are all over the place, especially Joker's.

Spoiler: Dynasty Warriors mechanics

First, I have to explain part of what makes musou combat work. The Dynasty Warriors games started off as a fighting game. The sequels then changed to having multiple enemies on screen. The goal of most Dynasty warriors games was to find a way to take out the officers while keeping the peons from overwhelming you. Thus, movesets, regardless of characters, had this pattern (button inputs are based off the PS controller):

/\ Special attack, used to be guard break, but by 4 was some kind character specific move like magic or buff spell.
[ ] /\ Launch a single enemy into the air to juggle him.
[ ] [ ] /\ From 4 onward, combo move with small area of effect ending in a stun.
[ ] [ ] [ ] /\ Area of effect that knocks enemies away. Liu Bei, Sun Jian/Quan, Yuan Shao, Dong Zhuo, Ma Chao, and Jiang Wei were exceptions, with no area of effect, but still had knockback.
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] /\ Launch a single enemy up into the air and follow up with an air attack.
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] /\ Character specific attack that typically involved either a shockwave or follow up attack.
Run [ ] Light running swipe.
Run /\ Harder hitting running swipe. By 6, it made the horse jump.
X [ ] Basic jump attack.
X /\ From 5 onwards, character specific that could be an aerial combo or a ground pound.
O Back in the PS2 era, a long, powerful string of attacks. Later games have it act more like a powerful magic attack.
L1 Block and re-center camera.

While there is variation in how characters executed their movesets, the player generally had a general idea of what button inputs do what if they're playing someone that's not their main.

Why did I spend so much time talking about Dynasty Warriors? Because I need a contrast it with what Strikers is doing. Strikers button inputs aren't all that effective at crowd control or isolating officers from peons. The way to stun an officer shadow is with stagger meter mechanics, but spell access is all over the place.* For Haru's Psi spell, it's [ ] [ ] /\, but for most characters, it's [ ] [ ] [ ] /\. For Sophia's Rakunda, it's [ ] [ ] /\, but for Ann and Yusuke, it's [ ] /\. Ryuji doesn't even cast Tarukaja in this way, nor does Haru cast heat riser. This problem is most noticeable with Joker, who can't have a consistent spell list. Thus, outside of [ ] [ ] [ ] /\ which casts his Persona's element spell (even healing at very low amounts for Sarasvati and presumably others that have the healing element), he can be casting support spells or physical attack spells that might not be exactly what you're looking for. So, the player can either flail about trying to find the right spells through button inputs or just use R1 to cast the spell and use up SP. Going back to the Dynasty Warriors input list, how about certain inputs ALWAYS perform the same thing regardless of character? For example, [ ] /\ should ALWAYS cast a support spell when applicable, [ ] [ ] /\ cast the single spell (agi, bufu, zio, etc.) while [ ] [ ] [ ] /\ ALWAYS cast the ma element spell.

Another problem is how the camera orients itself. In DW, the block button would re-center the camera behind you, so if it got too hectic, the player can reorient very quickly. In Strikers, it's R3 to auto-lock onto the biggest threat, which makes the camera stick to that big enemy. What if I want to kill the small fry that's not right next to the officer? Turn auto lock off? Fight it? I've done both because Strikers doesn't have a block button. Since characters can be KOd in a few good hits, being able to see what you want to see is important.

Third, the crisis state. In musou games, if the player's health is in the red, the special attack gauge would fill up automatically, so even if you're about to die, you can still be a serious threat by kiting damage to officers. The Showtime gauge, in contrast, fills with baton passes and just attacking. What if you're taking hits and can't get away? Pause and bring up the item menu? Cast healing spells? Both break up the flow of combat and the item menu feels like cheating sometimes even though I only used it because of an emergency. Speaking of items, in musou games, healing, permanent stat increases and buff items were drops, usually from officers, so as to not disrupt the flow of combat. Strikers sort of does it with masks, but nothing else. If you run out of SP, you have to rely on button input spells even though sometimes you need on-demand spells.

So what kind of game is Strikers trying to be? Based on how enemies need to be staggered, it's trying to be FFVII Remake mechanically. If so, less enemies with higher stats would actually be conductive to the type of game it's trying to be. Because there are so many enemies on screen, it encourages button mashing while regular attacks do dick damage and not much flinching instead of evading and hitting enemy weaknesses without spamming R1.

*I'm not including R1 persona access because the game clearly disincentivizes you from spamming it with SP cost.

 

[Peru oso donas]

November 11th 2021

Shin Megami Tensei V Releasing on November 11, 2021, Story and Gameplay Details Leaked - Persona Central

Information has been leaked for Shin Megami Tensei V, including its November 11, 2021 release date and its story.

personacentral.com

This really is Nocturne 2 huh. Also if that date doesn't get pushed back then this game is going to bleed money considering the pokemon gen 4 remakes comes out a week later. Seeing this and the state of the Nocturne remaster i really think Atlus wants to kill mainline to milk Persona 24/7.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

You guys may have already talked about this one, but I found this in the MegaTen subreddit:

View attachment 2227892
If that's Yoyogi Park, though, I don't recall that Incubus saying that. They might have changed it after some backlash I was unaware of.

they had simping in persona 5 strikers as well.

i fucking hate our translator's.

 

[Zero Day Defense]

Both break up the flow of combat and the item menu feels like cheating sometimes even though I only used it because of an emergency

This was why I immediately wrote off Strikers when it came out, and I only "accepted" it when I actually played through it. Sure, I suppose that the game is still very difficult on Hard even if you can do this, but I couldn't completely shake off the feeling of "cheating" in doing this.

Speaking of restoratives, there's far too much of a variety of them.

they had simping in persona 5 strikers as well.

They... did?

I immediately figured Alice's whole deal was reverse NTRing an entire female population by pretending to give men access to her OnlyFans in order to steal their Desires so they would simp for her, and I completely miss-- am I just filtering out the cringe unconsciously?

What, was it somewhere else?

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

They... did?

I immediately figured Alice's whole deal was reverse NTRing an entire female population by pretending to give men access to her OnlyFans in order to steal their Desires so they would simp for her, and I completely miss-- am I just filtering out the cringe unconsciously?

What, was it somewhere else?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-PUuoQ_QFk

timestamp 0:46

 

[Grey Donovan]

Localization teams really love taking reckless liberties with their work. I think the overwhelming success of Persona 5 has gone to Atlus’s head across the board.