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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey The Official Thread of Minion and Demonica

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
lol at Jack Frost's negotiation.

One of the questions he ask is "What am I?" and if you answer "A company mascot" he joins your party instantly.
 

C-Jo

Member
Mine shipped today from Amazon.ca, but I think I'm going to wait for my DSi XL to show up before I break into it.
 
Nekobo said:
Ohh, thanks. Since some sites list it as an exclusive GS pre-order bonus, didn't think it'd be included in the game's packaging. I guess that means everybody gets it? If so, that's awesome.

I'll put up the poster next to my P4 poster. :)
Can anyone with a copy from Amazon confirm that they also received the poster on the backside of their cover art? I was pondering returning my Amazon copy so I could get the Gamestop poster. But if everyone got the poster, I can start playing tonight! Thanks!
 

NichM

Banned
Reluctant-Hero said:
Can anyone with a copy from Amazon confirm that they also received the poster on the backside of their cover art? I was pondering returning my Amazon copy so I could get the Gamestop poster. But if everyone got the poster, I can start playing tonight! Thanks!

No, the poster is still GameStop-exclusive. It's just packaged in with the game so that it won't get lost/stolen.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
daycru said:
I'm a casual RPG fan who's looking for a new DS game. Would I be able to wrap my head around this?
The concepts are really easy (and there are a wealth of help screens just in case), but the game itself can be fairly challenging.
 
Great, my copy ordered from GameStop.com went directly from preorder to backorder, despite the fact that it's still listed as shipping within 24 hours, I preordered in January, and they already charged me for it three days ago.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Alas, mine did not arrive today. UPS finally realized that they attempted delivery in THE WRONG STATE and have rerouted my package. Tomorrow, if I'm lucky.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Archie said:
lol at Jack Frost's negotiation.

One of the questions he ask is "What am I?" and if you answer "A company mascot" he joins your party instantly.

Bwahahahah. Brilliant!
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
Few more impressions (about 5 hours in, and I'm going to try to be conservative with spoilers):

*The game is not hard if you prepare. I beat the first boss,
Morax
, on my first try, but it was a close one. You will get caught off guard (usually by a status ailment) and eventually die. Thankfully there are save and heal points within the dungeons so death isn't a huge deal. I've did twice so far and have lost, at most, 20 minutes of game time.

*Your suit gets 10 "blocks" that you can allocate to upgrades (I'm assuming you get more as the game progresses). The upgrades include things such as
being able to negotiate on a full moon, getting extra macca from negotiations, having your HP slowly regen while walking on the map
and so forth.

*Battling demons is pretty cool because of the analysis system. When you first meet a demon, he is only a blue blob. The first time you beat him, your comp recognizes what demon it is and so forth. The more time you beat a demon, the higher your analysis exp gets and you eventually learn his weaknesses and stuff. When the analysis exp maxes out and you have that demon in your party, you get a demon source which lets you fuse a specific skill to a potential demon. I think it is a one use only (so you could only use Jack Frost's demon source once), but I'm not certain.

*I think everybody in your party gets exp, even if they aren't active. I haven't verified this, though.

*I was really worried since the game takes place in Antarctica, that the backgrounds would be boring. Thankfully that is not the case. The first level starts out pretty ho hum but then it gets all kind of fucked up. Things start mixing up about half way through the first "zone" and they get crazier.

*Negotiation responses are somewhat random. You will have an idea of what to say to woo a demon, but the answers will not work 100% of the time. I'm not a fan of this, but I can see why it is implemented so that people don't run to GameFAQs to get every demon on the first try.

I'm pretty sure I'm just regurgitating old info from the JPN thread, but I'm loving the game so much that I have to sing its praise!
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Archie said:
lol at Jack Frost's negotiation.

One of the questions he ask is "What am I?" and if you answer "A company mascot" he joins your party instantly.
*claps*
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Good to hear about the liberal save point placement, but I'm disappointed about the negotiation. How do you have an idea of what to say? Various clues or mostly just trial-and-error?
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
Just died a third time to a boss. Poison sucks. >:eek:

Chairman Yang said:
Good to hear about the liberal save point placement, but I'm disappointed about the negotiation. How do you have an idea of what to say? Various clues or mostly just trial-and-error?
There are clues. The pixie family is very vain so if you complement them on subjects like their looks and fashion trends (seriously) you are more likely to win them over.

Edit: But at the same time, if you try to flirt with a female demon, she might think you are a creep and shun you. That is what I primarily mean by random factor.

Volcynika said:
Does the MC have a canon name?
Nope. I named my MC Dude Bro.
 
Nekobo said:
I picked up my pre-order from GameStop, but they didn't have the poster. :/ That was pretty much the only reason why I bothered pre-ordering it, since the game costs about the same on amazon. Blargh.

Did anyone get their poster with the game?

Yeah, and I didn't bother pre-ordering and I still got it.
 
So is this game demonic like the past SMT games?

I admit, I never got into SMT because of the demonic themes. But if it's more like Persona where it's not really about demons than I can be cool with that.

I don't like the idea of playing as a demon-possessed character. Is Strange Journey like that?
 

stupei

Member
I'm sick and still have to go in to work anyway, but I picked this up on the way home so I figure it all evens out into a pretty great day. :D
 

matmanx1

Member
2 hours or so of playtime tonight and I like what I see so far. Reminds me of the best elements of the dungeon crawls in the Mega Ten series with all of the demon negotiation and alignment system intact. This time around though they play up the technology aspect with you having this amazing combat suit that has the ability to grow and adapt as you battle (level up!) and even memory for app installation.

The music so far is ominous and reminds me of Demon's Souls and the tone is pretty dark. And of course the Antartic setting just makes things all the more bleak and lonely feeling. It's just you and your team in the middle of this anomaly and all sorts of f*cked up things are happening. Pretty much it's your wits and your suit (Demonica) who will get you out of this alive (maybe?). The premise is excellent!
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
btw guys I could be wrong about the negotiation thing. I was trying it on a few demons and the same answers seemed to stick every time. I'm fairly certain there is some random factor, but the moon phase and my alignment could also change things (I know that the closer things are to a full moon, the harder it is to talk with demons). I'll need to further investigate. If someone who know demon negotiations better than myself could clarify things, that would be awesome.

TheFLYINGManga_Ka said:
So is this game demonic like the past SMT games?

I admit, I never got into SMT because of the demonic themes. But if it's more like Persona where it's not really about demons than I can be cool with that.

I don't like the idea of playing as a demon-possessed character. Is Strange Journey like that?
There is still a ton of occult stuff and it is very prominent in the game. As far as I can tell, the plot is pretty much going to be
into God vs Lucifer ala nearly every other mainline SMT game
. But your main character is not a demon. He is a space marine.

If you are really weary of the demonic themes, I wouldn't recommend the game to you.
 

Teknoman

Member
TheFLYINGManga_Ka said:
So is this game demonic like the past SMT games?

I admit, I never got into SMT because of the demonic themes. But if it's more like Persona where it's not really about demons than I can be cool with that.

I don't like the idea of playing as a demon-possessed character. Is Strange Journey like that?

Well really, in any SMT main series game, you arent really demon possessed, and in the case of SMT III, you can choose to go against all other demons.
 
I wandered in to an HMV to pick up a CD and saw that they had Strange Journey in stock. I grabbed it even though I've got this pre-ordered at EB since they're taking two or three extra days to get me the game. I'll just shift the pre-order to Super Street Fighter 4 or 3D Dot Heroes and let someone else nab that copy.

Hey Nich, props on the packaging. It's nice to see that even with your shift to bilingual packaging to get yourself out of that import niche with retailers you guys didn't cheap out the way pretty much every other publisher does. It's appreciated.
 

keanerie

Member
Just FYI for any Bay Area GAFers (not that it matters since the store is closed), but my local GameStop in San Francisco on Powell St. had plenty of copies in stock, even for non-preorders. Guessing it's at most other branches in the region.
 

frogg609

Member
Got mine todayfrom Amazon (no poster :(). The soundtrack is odd in that it's all wav files, and not an audio disc.

Haven't gotten to play it tonight, been working way too much today.
 
I never played any of SMT or Persona games so would this one be a good one to start with? ( IIRC SMT and Personas are different kinds of games )

Or should I start at an earlier one?
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
I think I might have a better idea about how negotiation works. I believe that there are certain questions that you can answer correctly every time, and there are some with a random element. The questions that pertain to a demon's personality you should be able to get right every time (as an example, there is a demon that prides herself on being an old woman, so if you complement her on her age you always seem to get the right response) and there are some questions with a random factor. These questions are primarily "come closer so I can tell you a secret/hear you" etc. I believe that the moon phase and alignment affect these questions. Once again, I could be wrong, but that is what I'm guessing.

Melhisedek said:
I never played any of SMT or Persona games so would this one be a good one to start with? ( IIRC SMT and Personas are different kinds of games )

Or should I start at an earlier one?
This game is a great starting point.
 
Managed to get this from Future Shop. Only played for a little over an hour so far -- I think. Awesome game.

The level 7 creature you fight at the Blue Jet was pretty tough since I only had a pixie and one of those kid demons, and we were all level 2-3. Had to use a medicine every turn, and the Demon Co-op saved my ass.

There's a demon in a big room south of the Blue Jet that tells you to search the wall to find something. I don't think I found the right wall, because I didn't find anything else to interact with in that room.

And I can't figure out what to say to the Foul Slime to get it to join my team.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
ScrabbleDude said:
And I can't figure out what to say to the Foul Slime to get it to join my team.
You can't convince dark alignment demons to join you. Those have to be fused.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
Oh man I just figured out you can use the Demon Compendium to resummon old demons for some Macca. Things just got more awesome!
 

7Th

Member
Archie said:
Oh man I just figured out you can use the Demon Compendium to resummon old demons for some Macca. Things just got more awesome!

Is this your first Megaten game? :V
 

NichM

Banned
Archie said:
Oh man I just figured out you can use the Demon Compendium to resummon old demons for some Macca. Things just got more awesome!

Be sure to register your demons before fusing them away, speaking of which. It's easy to forget, but it's important if you don't want to lose the extra skills from fusion/experience from leveling them up.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Well, at least Amazon/UPS were quick to realize that I do not, in fact, live in PA. My re-routed copy arrived a few minutes ago. Massive 90 page manual. Damn.
 

Nekobo

Member
This game is portable crack. I think I might to start leaving my DS at home or else I'll sit in my car all day instead of stepping into the office.
 
jaundicejuice said:
HMV in downtown Vancouver had copies in today.
I might do the same as you then. I remember it took EB Games 10 days after release to get in Persona PSP, and judging by this thread, both HMV and Future Shop have the game, but I haven't got a call about my preorder. Thanks for the heads up.
 

Lard

Banned
ScrabbleDude said:
Managed to get this from Future Shop. Only played for a little over an hour so far -- I think. Awesome game.

The level 7 creature you fight at the Blue Jet was pretty tough since I only had a pixie and one of those kid demons, and we were all level 2-3. Had to use a medicine every turn, and the Demon Co-op saved my ass.

I ended up
just recruiting three demons for that fight. I used fire, had Pixie heal and the other two did Demon Co-op. Worked like a charm.
 
Just grabbed it at Gamestop a few hours ago, haven't gotten to start it yet (will probably do so while doing my laundry later today.)

I didn't get a poster! :lol
 

Mechar

Neo Member
charlequin said:
Just grabbed it at Gamestop a few hours ago, haven't gotten to start it yet (will probably do so while doing my laundry later today.)

I didn't get a poster! :lol
Check behind the cover art on the case. It should be there.
 

Holmes

Member
fuuu, gotta get this game... no time or money. End of the school year and all.

I did have lots of fun on my Japanese import though. Hoping Atlus's translation is good. :)
 
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