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[TintoConCasera]

true. i can play the game on Switch today. i'm sure it'll be playable through emulation soon on PC but to do that legally i'd need to already own a switch and the game.

we've been hearing cries of people wanting Persona 5 on Switch/PC for years now. if i didn't buy it on PS4 and sat about waiting for a PC/Switch port then i wouldn't have played one of my favourite games of all time!

so i guess i will just stop worrying and go play SMTV on my Switch right now

You are truly a thinking man, guess I'll just do the same.

Btw, to those who are playing... Which is your favorite track so far? For me it's one of the ones used for challenge quests bosses, I think it first plays when fighting Pazuzu at the mermaid pond.

 

[nightmare-slain]

Played it for about 10 hours and got wrecked by a boss.
Will play more once the weekend is over.

It should be mentioned SMTIV and Apocalypse are different games.

i realise that now lol. i thought Apocalypse was just an expansion or something for IV. my mistake!

 

[ANDS]

fuck off. seriously. lol

i just go buy a Switch to play this game and now there is a hint that it might come to PC? lol. well, i didn't buy it just for SMTV...i need to play BOTW2 and i will probably go back to Animal Crossing but i will be a bit pissed if SMTV comes to PC (but i'll fucking buy it again)

edit: nvm. in my rage i didn't see PS4. i can't see them bringing this to PS4. maybe they tested the game on PS4/PC or thought about releasing it for PS4/PC? but then...it is Atlus who released Persona 4 on PS2 in 2008 when the PS3 was already out lol.

The majority of people still have a PS4 and if a game releases on the PS4 its pretty much guaranteed to run on the PS5, so it is unsurprising that is what ATLUS is targeting (if they bother bringing the game elsewhere).

 

[Kamina]

As someone who never played a SMT or Persona game, is this a good entry game?

 

[Danjin44]

As someone who never played a SMT or Persona game, is this a good entry game?

They are much more similar to FF or Tales games that you don't need to play past entry to enjoy current one.

 

[NahaNago]

Just got through purchasing it from gamestop. That was my third stop since walmart and target didn't carry it. I'll play later since I need to get some sleep before going to work.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

By the time this is out on PC, if it's really planned, I will be ready for another playthrough I reckon.

 

[cireza]

Started the game. Wow, it sure is rough looking. Really blurry, lots of shimmering. This is going to be painful :/

 

[Guilty_AI]

By the time this is out on PC, if it's really planned, I will be ready for another playthrough I reckon.

it was in the nvidia leak if that gives you any hope

 

[Jsisto]

Yea this game looks amazing, I don’t get the criticism. At the risk of sounding lIke an old man, I take a lot of issue with people being armchair game analysts when I grew up in the era of truly bad looking 3D that aged like trash. Gaming graphics and performance could not advance one bit more than where we’re at now and it would be fine and perfectly able to convey the creators vision. This game looks great and it oozes style.

 

[TheDuskwalker]

 

[Danjin44]

 

[TheDuskwalker]

 

[Krathoon]

FedEx is saying it is out for delivery. It better deliver soon.

 

[Barakov]

Copy just arrived. See you on the flip side, Gaf.

 

[Krathoon]

You didn't get the steelbook version.

 

[plushyp]

What is the story:gameplay ratio like?

 

[Danjin44]

What is the story:gameplay ratio like?

I would say based on reviews, it much closer to Nocturne. Basically this much more focus on atmosphere and the world more than character driven story.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

 

[Krathoon]

 

[TintoConCasera]

What is the story:gameplay ratio like?

33 hours in, so far it 95% gameplay, 5% story stuff.

The game is about exploring a devastated Tokio, finding items, quest and stuff while you build your demon team.

The story appears rarely, but when it does it has a lot of weight and meaning. Kinda like Nocturne.

 

[Krathoon]

 

[Northeastmonk]

33 hours in, so far it 95% gameplay, 5% story stuff.

The game is about exploring a devastated Tokio, finding items, quest and stuff while you build your demon team.

The story appears rarely, but when it does it has a lot of weight and meaning. Kinda like Nocturne.

What’s the longest you’ve spent on a boss so far? Considering you’re playing on hard mode.

 

[BadBurger]

And here I am thinking this might be ome of the prettiest games on the Switch.

Heh, neogaf.gif - but I was being a little too hasty, it starts looking a lot better once I left the kind of introductory zone.

Every time I fail to entice a demon to join me, and instead they laugh and summon a new friend then beat my ass to death, I die a little inside. I'm getting better at figuring them out though!

 

[Danjin44]

33 hours in, so far it 95% gameplay, 5% story stuff.

The game is about exploring a devastated Tokio, finding items, quest and stuff while you build your demon team.

The story appears rarely, but when it does it has a lot of weight and meaning. Kinda like Nocturne.

Unfortunately because of this SMT never going to be as popular as Persona for mainstream audience but the way I see it, if the price of "popularity" is for SMT become more like Persona then I rather see SMT stays niche.......its not worth it.

 

[TintoConCasera]

What’s the longest you’ve spent on a boss so far? Considering you’re playing on hard mode.

Time? 30 minutes. That's just the fight I won, and not the previously failed ones. I'm not the best tho, I'm sure it can be done in less time but still, bosses take a lot of damage and hit very hard. (Last one I fought insta-killed me in one phys skill strike because I forgot to Tarunda)

Thats a ton of chakra drops just to keep the fight going, so you better save all of them for the big bosses.

Heh, neogaf.gif - but I was being a little too hasty, it starts looking a lot better once I left the kind of introductory zone.

Every time I fail to entice a demon to join me, and instead they laugh and summon a new friend then beat my ass to death, I die a little inside. I'm getting better at figuring them out though!

Yeah I can agree... The starting area prior to the devastated Tokio looks kinda rough and doesn't play very nice, but once things start rolling it gets much better.

Unfortunately because of this SMT never going to be as popular as Persona for mainstream audience but the way I see it, if the price of "popularity" is for SMT become more like Persona then I rather see SMT stays niche.......its not worth it.

Yeah I like it how it is... Having the mainline games being more niche allow us to have a hard game and one that just does what it wants instead of trying to appeal to everyone.

 

[Jsisto]

God damn, this gameplay loop is so addicting, 6 hours gone by like nothing, so much for my plans for today.

 

[Danjin44]

God damn, this gameplay loop is so addicting, 6 hours gone by like nothing, so much for my plans for today.

Yeah, gameplay loop for SMT games is highly addictive, there is good reason why Press Turn is my all time favourite combat system in any RPG.

 

[Shaqazooloo]

Might be a bad idea, but I'm starting on hard difficulty, see how long it takes to for me to lower the it down to normal.

So far I've only played the opening section, It's surprisingly big and decent to run around in and find things. Seems this game is taking stuff from III and IV with magatsuhi returning. Leveling up is quite interesting now, it's a mix of getting random stats and the usual adding 1 point to a stat. Enjoying my time so far, will probably spend a few hours grinding for beginning areas.

 

[Danjin44]

Might be a bad idea, but I'm starting on hard difficulty, see how long it takes to for me to lower the it down to normal.

But let me remind you if you go from hard to normal, you wont able go back to hard without restarting the game.

 

[Northeastmonk]

If you decide to skip a handful of subquests, does it matter? Say you just want to grind for exp instead of talking to a bunch of random demons for their subquests. They don’t appear to be adding a whole lot except I’m curious about their reward. It’s like running into an NPC where you’re almost certain the reward is some generic item you could have bought at the store instead of taking time to go wherever the NPC tells you. Not trying to nit pick too much.

 

[Krathoon]

They never put a manual with these games. At least put a mini art book or something.

 

[cireza]

Yea this game looks amazing, I don’t get the criticism. At the risk of sounding lIke an old man, I take a lot of issue with people being armchair game analysts when I grew up in the era of truly bad looking 3D that aged like trash. Gaming graphics and performance could not advance one bit more than where we’re at now and it would be fine and perfectly able to convey the creators vision. This game looks great and it oozes style.

It is fine for you to be satisfied with the results, but it does not mean in any way that there isn't a problem here. Everyone is not blinded with excitement.

It is not about wishing for better graphics. I find it totally useless myself. However, having a clean picture and good enough framerate is important. This is what makes games comfortable.

I am playing on Lite and it is super blurry and framerate is pretty low. For a game that requires constant camera rotations to search in the scenery, it is extremely annoying.

UE was definitely a bad choice for the console, as always in my opinion. Obviously, they have other plans for the game in the future, otherwise they would not have chosen this engine.

 

[BadBurger]

Do one's demons skills automatically increase in level, or must I do something with them in the shadow realm?

 

[nightmare-slain]

played a bit this morning. started on normal. i'm familiar with the combat a little because of playing Persona but i still feel like i could die at any time! my pixie demon keeps getting KO'd and i can't afford revivals so have been running back to the leyline thing. if you have never played a SMT/Persona game maybe best going to easy difficulty.

maybe i'm playing wrong but i was thinking i would just try get demons i like the look of. so far have only faced the monkey (?) and mud (?) demons lol. i feel like i need to have a full party because the stupid Pixie is always dying so difficult to level up.

i know i'm still very early in but i'm enjoying it! it's definitely not Persona (not that i was expecting it to be). the way i'd try describe it is imagine if a Persona 5 palace was turned into an entire game. it feels like a palace but on a way bigger scale. the map is not open world. it's quite linear (at least so far) but you want to explore every inch of it. In BOTW i wanted to explore everywhere to find Korok seeds. in this it's the same except you're looking for Miiman (?).

the story seems like it takes a back seat but the beginning quickly sets the mood. it's dark, depressing, and mysterious. persona on the other hand could be dark but it is more upbeat. also persona there is A LOT of text/story. but i get the feeling the vast majority of SMT will be gameplay with the odd cutscene here and there. i don't know why but the gameplay reminds me a lot of Nier Automata/Astral Chain. i think if you like those games you'll enjoy this.

performance...i noticed a couple frame drops mostly when moving through menus but nothing crazy. exploring the world and combat performance feels fine. loading times i think are reasonable. i wish it was a little quicker but it's fine. i'm playing on cartridge so maybe if you have it installed on the switch it will be a bit faster? resolution is definitely blurry and there is pop in. but i'm quite happy with it. haven't played it docked yet.

 

[BadBurger]

played a bit this morning. started on normal. i'm familiar with the combat a little because of playing Persona but i still feel like i could die at any time! my pixie demon keeps getting KO'd and i can't afford revivals so have been running back to the leyline thing. if you have never played a SMT/Persona game maybe best going to easy difficulty.

maybe i'm playing wrong but i was thinking i would just try get demons i like the look of. so far have only faced the monkey (?) and mud (?) demons lol. i feel like i need to have a full party because the stupid Pixie is always dying so difficult to level up.

i know i'm still very early in but i'm enjoying it! it's definitely not Persona (not that i was expecting it to be). the way i'd try describe it is imagine if a Persona 5 palace was turned into an entire game. it feels like a palace but on a way bigger scale. the map is not open world. it's quite linear (at least so far) but you want to explore every inch of it. In BOTW i wanted to explore everywhere to find Korok seeds. in this it's the same except you're looking for Miiman (?).

the story seems like it takes a back seat but the beginning quickly sets the mood. it's dark, depressing, and mysterious. persona on the other hand could be dark but it is more upbeat. also persona there is A LOT of text/story. but i get the feeling the vast majority of SMT will be gameplay with the odd cutscene here and there. i don't know why but the gameplay reminds me a lot of Nier Automata/Astral Chain. i think if you like those games you'll enjoy this.

performance...i noticed a couple frame drops mostly when moving through menus but nothing crazy. exploring the world and combat performance feels fine. loading times i think are reasonable. i wish it was a little quicker but it's fine. i'm playing on cartridge so maybe if you have it installed on the switch it will be a bit faster? resolution is definitely blurry and there is pop in. but i'm quite happy with it. haven't played it docked yet.

Yes it's rough early on depending upon how lucky one gets with initiative and what not. Once you build a full team of demons and can start to grind near ley fonts (or whatever they're called - the save points) it starts to balance out. But there's always that chance you'll bite off more than you can chew or luck just goes against you, and I like that. The dificulty reminds me a bit of Final Fantasy Tactics in all these ways. Loving it myself. So good luck there mang, hope it starts to click for you too.

As far as the visuals go, yea it's ugly in ways, but can also be quite pretty at times. Someone else in this thread mentioned that them going with the UE probably means they have ambitions beyond the Switch, but unfortunately also means it's going to struggle on this console.

 

[N30RYU]

SMTV is the Breath of the Wild and MGS5 of the Zelda and MG franchises... for the good and the bad

 

[cireza]

demons i like the look of

SMT is not a game about making pretty teams. It is purely about strategy. You will have to change demons all the time, updating depending on the situation. You will have to adjust your weaknesses and resistances, as well as the entire party, before every boss. At least this how SMT has always been, and so far from what I have seen, it checks out.

 

[N30RYU]

SMT is not a game about making pretty teams. It is purely about strategy. You will have to change demons all the time, updating depending on the situation. You will have to adjust your weaknesses and resistances, as well as the entire party, before every boss. At least this how SMT has always been, and so far from what I have seen, it checks out.

If he doesn't change demons, the bosses will obliterate him from existence.

A weaker demon with element resistant is 100 times better that one with elemental weakness since like the player, enemies will attack again everytime they activate a weak status.

 

[nightmare-slain]

SMT is not a game about making pretty teams. It is purely about strategy. You will have to change demons all the time, updating depending on the situation. You will have to adjust your weaknesses and resistances, as well as the entire party, before every boss. At least this how SMT has always been, and so far from what I have seen, it checks out.

like i said i had the feeling that was the wrong way to go about it. it's just something i done in pokemon games. i'd always catch the ones i thought looked cool. kinda done the same in Persona games. maybe it doesn't matter too much in those games but this is my first SMT game so yeah this is a lesson learnt I will just use any demons I can get. The only demon i have so far is the Pixie but yeah cause i thought the mud/monkey (dont know they names) demons looked silly i thought i don't want them! lol.

 

[carlosrox]

Holy Mother of God the music and atmosphere in this. The music. The sounds. The art!

 

[TintoConCasera]

If you decide to skip a handful of subquests, does it matter? Say you just want to grind for exp instead of talking to a bunch of random demons for their subquests. They don’t appear to be adding a whole lot except I’m curious about their reward. It’s like running into an NPC where you’re almost certain the reward is some generic item you could have bought at the store instead of taking time to go wherever the NPC tells you. Not trying to nit pick too much.

Don't do that, the rewards for the subquest are very, very good. As some if not most are an item that gives a specific demons race a new magatsuhi skill.

Besides not all subquests are the classic filler or give me X of this object. Some make you take decisions and others are cool boss battles.

 

[cireza]

If he doesn't change demons, the bosses will obliterate him from existence.

A weaker demon with element resistant is 100 times better that one with elemental weakness since like the player, enemies will attack again everytime they activate a weak status.

This is pretty much exactly what I said.

 

[TintoConCasera]

For those interested, here are the levels for the DLC bosses.

Artemis, 40.
Cleopatra, 60.
Mephisto, 80.

 

[Metnut]

Really on the fence about this game and can’t make up my mind. I’m a JRPG vet so can handle hard jrpg combat but not sure if this is worth a purchase.

Loved Persona 4 and 5, and enjoyed the combat (thought that even the random enemies were creative and fun) but really enjoyed exploring the cities and the plots of those games.

Is this game pure grind or does it have a real plot and some interesting exploration? I enjoy the Dark Soups games so can handle a game without much plot if both the gameplay and exploration environments are phenomenal but don’t think just a good combat mechanics is enough for me.

What do you guys think?

 

[Danjin44]

Really on the fence about this game and can’t make up my mind. I’m a JRPG vet so can handle hard jrpg conbdt but not sure if this is worth a purchase.

Loved Persona 4 and 5, and enjoyed the combat (thought that even the random enemies were creative and fun) but really enjoyed exploring the cities and the plots of those games.

Is this game pure grind or does it have a real plot and some interesting exploration? I enjoy the Dark Soups games so can handle a game without much plot if both the gameplay and exploration environments are phenomenal but don’t think just a good combat mechanics is enough for me.

What do you guys think?

SMT has story and characters but the game is not character driven game, don't expect to "bond" with character here like you do in Persona games.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Really on the fence about this game and can’t make up my mind. I’m a JRPG vet so can handle hard jrpg combat but not sure if this is worth a purchase.

Loved Persona 4 and 5, and enjoyed the combat (thought that even the random enemies were creative and fun) but really enjoyed exploring the cities and the plots of those games.

Is this game pure grind or does it have a real plot and some interesting exploration? I enjoy the Dark Soups games so can handle a game without much plot if both the gameplay and exploration environments are phenomenal but don’t think just a good combat mechanics is enough for me.

What do you guys think?

Not a lot of story here but the exploration is pretty fun, being mostly large areas with lots of things to find on them, like minibosses, side quests, cool items and such.

 

[Punished Miku]

My copy is delayed until Wednesday. America is a lie.

 

[Danjin44]

My copy is delayed until Wednesday. America is a lie.

I feel your pain.

Not a lot of story here but the exploration is pretty fun, being mostly large areas with lots of things to find on them, like minibosses, side quests, cool items and such.

I would argue SMTV has way more exploration than P3-5.

 

[ANDS]

Really on the fence about this game and can’t make up my mind. I’m a JRPG vet so can handle hard jrpg combat but not sure if this is worth a purchase.

Loved Persona 4 and 5, and enjoyed the combat (thought that even the random enemies were creative and fun) but really enjoyed exploring the cities and the plots of those games.

Is this game pure grind or does it have a real plot and some interesting exploration? I enjoy the Dark Soups games so can handle a game without much plot if both the gameplay and exploration environments are phenomenal but don’t think just a good combat mechanics is enough for me.

What do you guys think?

You're probably not going to take to this game. I'm going to just say it. The only thing it shares with PERSONA is the same thing all Megami games share and that's the demon collecting and fusion. The exploration so far has been running around a sand filled TOKYO (and that doesn't look like it will change). The game also takes a step back in terms of characters and plot from SMTIV which had excellent world building and character development (relative to these games).

. . .the draw of this is exploring, finding new upgrades and secrets and exploiting combat. I'm about 15 hours in and the game isn't bad, but it is just battle after battle at the moment. Maybe this changes, but I doubt it.