Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

[Yuri-G]

Yea I don't really like RTS games myself, since I'm terrible at them (I've died during the *tutorial* stages of some), but it's the only thing I can think of that's close to Odin Sphere in terms of graphics.

I actually used to own Nocturne, but I ended up trading it in (to pay for drugs and) because I got stuck in some shopping mall after some ghost-rider like boss. It was either trade in Nocturne or spend hours grinding in that mall, I kinda regret not at least keeping the game til later I don't think I'll buy it, I really should force myself through a megaten game I actually own before I go out and buy new ones.

if you ever play it again let me know, I'll help with any of the shit where you get stuck. I did so much research on trying to get through the game with minimal grinding, and it worked, although I probably could have just grinded instead of cross-referencing boss stats with fusion charts and whatever else lol. would have taken the same amount of time.

but yeah I'm a Nocturne expert, it's one of my favorite games and definitely my favorite SMT game. imo it is the most well-balanced RPG ever. but that's what I like about SMT games, they tend to be hard enough that random battles can easily kill you, but easy enough that using the right skills and strategies can make them almost a breeze. almost.

[Atreides]

Appreciate it, I'll mull over the purchase a little more I guess lol. I have no willpower

Chances are I won't end up playing it for a while even if I do get it, although there's a good chance that my next game will be Persona 4 or Suikoden, both on your recommendation.

Would you say Devil Survivor is more of a "lite" option for someone to get into the SMT series? Just wonderin

[Zieara]

Well, I just ordered Devil survivor. and now from reading this thread really want to pick up Eternal Poison.

Been loving Atlus since I got P1 for ps1 all those years ago. Must've played through that thing ten times <3

[Yuri-G]

I haven't played enough of it to say for sure but it definitely doesn't seem to be as heavy of a game as the DDS games or Nocturne. it's not easy, but it's not as punishing as those are I think. and the story isn't exactly an episode of Rainbow Brite, but it's not quite as dark (so far) as those are either.

[Julian]

Fuck, TOO MANY GAMES TO PLAY

[Kaisha]

Been playing Devil Summoner over the past couple days, not too far in, but that's due to me farming currency to get some good demons over the Auction since I got shit to work with for my teams, and my leaders just end up dying.

One thing I've been wondering though, what's with enemy leaders always deflecting attacks to their other members? I've had fights where I couldn't touch a leader at all because he kept guarding, and all my members just attacked the others instead. When I hit guard, all I get is lesser damage taken.....

Liking the story so far (aside from that dumbass ditzy chick, who I'll gladly let die if the game ever gives me an option), are the other games in the SMT like this at all?
(story-wise, not gameplay)

[Qalbert]

I got DDS2 at gamestop for 14.99 over xmas break.

[Yuri-G]

I fucking hate you. no offense

although it appears there was a reprint with a different cover, so I guess it's not as expensive as it once was. 14.99 is still fantastic though.

btw atreides, I take back what I said about this game being SMT-lite. I haven't gotten far enough in the story to really comment on it but the battles are brutal if you're not well-prepared, and sometimes even if you are. I'm only a couple battles in so maybe it evens out later but so far I've had some really shocking defeats come out of nowhere when a really strong enemy decided to use an auto-critical ability and decimate my leader with back-to-back critical strikes. fuuuuuck. and the A.I. seems fairly decent, they actually go after my leader when they can get to him. that's something I haven't seen too often in SRPGs.

as far as the question about targeting the leader but hitting other enemies, I believe that would be from the skill Hero Aid, which seems to basically function like cover. I haven't run into it yet since I always kill the other guys for XP/macca first, but I've seen the skill and the description states that they will take lethal hits in place of the leader.

[Qalbert]

To be fair I had to drive 20ish miles to the gamestop that had it.

[Kaisha]

How the hell are you able to stay alive in the game Yuri? I either barely scrape by a mission, or breeze through it.

Been focusing on auction house more to grab more random crap guys for cheap and fusing them together for something better, and at the rate the game is progressing, it almost seems mandatory to have a good cache of extra monsters to summon mid-battle to replace dead ones. I need to work my ass off on backup healers since all the ones I got are weak-ass pixies (which are almost always one-two shotted), and it takes ages to get enough of that stuff that allows you to transfer an ability from master to demons.

[xopher]

Make Yuzu's group mainly healers and kite the mobs around if you can. Their pathing is kind of ridiculous. For instance in the "Snowman" battle, if you stay on the other side of that rectangular thing in the middle, the snowman mob will never figure out that he can go around it and will always act like he wants to go straight through it but can't.

Never engage with Yuzu unless the mob is weak and she can finish it off easily.

Liking the story so far (aside from that dumbass ditzy chick, who I'll gladly let die if the game ever gives me an option), are the other games in the SMT like this at all?
(story-wise, not gameplay)

Story-wise yes, but usually a bit darker(For instance in SMT3:Nocturne the game starts AFTER the world ends and everyone is dead or turned into a demon). Character-wise, no. These are the worst characters from any Megaten game. If the gameplay and story weren't so good, I would have quit because of the c haracters. They are truly awful.

[Yuri-G]

I haven't gotten past the Wendigo fight yet, but as long as you keep fusing new demons it shouldn't be too hard. I try to keep a variety of skills on my teams so they can abuse weaknesses.

what sucks is that sometimes you'll be attacking, go first, earn an extra turn by hitting a weakness... then the enemy will hit you with a critical or hit your weakness and steal your extra turn. fuck I hate it when that happens. would have been better off if I attacked after the enemy in that case.

overall I'd say the gameplay is very primitive for an SRPG - the battlefields are completely flat, the A.I. isn't that great, the direction your characters face doesn't affect gameplay, etc. I expected more from Atlus. but it's still worth a go if you like Megaten, definitely. and worth a try even if you don't.

[Haelian]

The game seemed tough to me at first but once I got the hang of using Fusion and Free Battles to level up new demons it got easier. It became almost too easy once I got a lot of demons with the Dance spells and started stacking up on Magic oriented demons. Physical ones just don't seem to be quite as useful, especially since the battle's usually over before I run out of mana with all of my demons.

I do wonder if the story is actually affected by the answers you choose. Haru has a huge crush on me and I can't tell if it's because of how I've chosen to answer or not.

[Zilong]

The game's overall difficulty really went down once you get a good fairy/femme/megami type with 25+ magic and holy dance/drain.

Physical Repels on endgame are fucking annoying though :/

Also, Recarm sets the target's order on right after the user's party, so you can use that to cheese fights, since being attacked pushes the target's turn further.

I had my main character at physical heavy melee, and during fights with a certain boss which the game told you to prepare for (but I didn't anyway, because apparently "you're gonna get raped with fire" wasn't enough of a warning of the boss's strength and weakness), I would just set him on suicide mission to lock the boss's turn with 2 recarming party to keep ressurrecting him everytime he dies.

Now on new game+, I really, really fucking wish this game has text skip.

[Ayn]

Sup guys I heard there were some SMT fans here.

TOO MANY GAMES TO PLAY

This.

So Devil Survivor is good huh? I'd actually put a ban on myself from buying anymore games until I finish at least a few of the ones I have. . but they're all RPGs, ha ha.

DDS1/2 is fun. For some reason, DDS2 was a lot more fun to me, I really liked the music a lot better.

Did anyone in here get into the Raidou games?

[Kaisha]

Now on new game+, I really, really fucking wish this game has text skip.

There's an option under Config that allows you to speed by text conversations by holding L&R. Beats tapping A/B to death.

[Zilong]

...fuck

guess it's a really shitty time to have a broken l button then...maybe I really should send this shit back to nintendo.

[Mayareira]

Definitely giving this a try after I beat Persona 4.

...sigh, still got to finish Digital Devil Saga.

[Zieara]

Thank you this thread.

Just picked up Devil Survivor last week, and bought Eternal Poison today. After beating those, I think the Digital Devil Saga games are next on the agenda to purchase!

ATLUS FTW

[Atreides]

pretty sure the $29.99 price on nocturne/DDS at amazon is all but dead, DDS was liek 100+ on there when I checked yesterday or the day before.

In semi-related news Gamestop has lowered the price on Persona 3 FES to 14.99 new/12.99 used