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Momomo posted:I felt P3 had the better story and characters, but P4 told its story and characters better. P4 had lame characters like Yukiko, Rise and Naoto, but it didn't make you wait three months for anything of substance to happen at one point in the game. Honestly after thinking about it I really don't like any characters from P3 except for Akihiko, Mitsuru, or Shinjiro. I guess Junpei isn't that bad but Aigis, Koromaru, Ken, and the other girls whose names escape me at the moment are all some kind of combination of completely unnecessary trope or just useless for the narrative past a certain point. I think the overall story arcs in both games are decent enough, and I like both about equally myself despite the occasional pacing problem (which I guess is necessary in both games to catch up with/finish your npc social links).
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Mar 14, 2012 02:24
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I consider Devil Survivor series the best of the SMT spinoffs, for what it's worth.
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Mar 14, 2012 02:30
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I liked Persona 3, but I honestly was a bit disappointed in the plot/cast. I was fresh off of a full P2 run though, which is probably why. P2 is by far my favorite SMT story and cast. P4 is coming up soon in my queue though!
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Mar 14, 2012 02:39
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Pureauthor posted:I consider Devil Survivor series the best of the SMT spinoffs, for what it's worth. So do I. I'm a big SRPG enthusiast so it might not be worth much, however.
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Mar 14, 2012 02:57
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Which one of the MegaTen games is the best varies from person to person, but the people I've talked to tend to gravitate to either Nocturne or to one of the Personas, usually 2 (as a full package, meaning both games) or 4. I have to side with Pureauthor in preferring the Devil Survivor games above the others, though.
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Mar 14, 2012 03:45
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Persona 4 has pretty much been my favorite since getting into this series last year. The actual quality of a story isn't worth much when you're taking your sweet-rear end time to tell it. P3 was riddled with pacing issues while P4 threw you right into the thick of things. Not to slam Persona 3 or anything. Once people start to realize what's happening around them, it picks up in quality really quick.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:05
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Honestly, Strange Journey I think has been my favorite SMT out there. The exploration, the story, the choices, I love it all! I really like Devil Survivor and Nocturne, but it's just that sense of exploration and actual choices that makes SJ so neat!
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Mar 14, 2012 04:14
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They're all good. Asking which of them is my favorite is like asking which of your children is your favorite. To me, anyway.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:18
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TheLoser posted:P3 was riddled with pacing issues while P4 threw you right into the thick of things. What kind of pacing issues? You knew from the beginning that things would only "happen" once every month. It made me look forward to them while at the same time worry if I'd be prepared enough, at least. I liked it that way.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:21
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Speedball posted:They're all good. Asking which of them is my favorite is like asking which of your children is your favorite. To me, anyway. So you love them all, but secretly you love one more than the others and wish a certain game you know which one would get a REAL job.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:23
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Speedball posted:They're all good. Asking which of them is my favorite is like asking which of your children is your favorite. To me, anyway. You know you want to say Nocturne. Join us.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:23
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Digital Devil Saga (Together) are my favorite SMT games. The gameplay is a lot of fun, I love the mantra system and how much it allows for customization, team attacks were done right only in these games, the human and demon forms are a good way to add a sense of difficulty without making it stupid (Aside from ambushes, of course), the music is wonderful, the characters are great, the plot moves well and the voice-acting is superb (Steve Blum and Crispin Freeman, y'all). It's also got one of the most difficult secret bosses in the history of games. Totally buying both games when they hit PSN. Aside from ambushes being stupid, the annoying grinding that sort of comes with mantra, and press turns still being pretty broken, it's pretty much a perfect game. It managed to improve on Nocturne's combat system and not make press turns as stupid as they were in that. Also it shafted the demon interaction system as well, which makes playing the main SMT games a large loving chore. Sure, the novelty of conversations has some charm for a while, but there's only so many times I can give money to a floating manta shark or woo a lady in a dress before I get sick of having to do this for every recruitment.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:24
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I'm partway through Nocturne right now and it is very good. I'm holding out on saying it's the best though. That giant tower dungeon with Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos absolutely killed any momentum I had for a while. If it doesn't have any more dungeons that are that tedious it could beat out Persona 4 for my favorite SMT game. The thing that's impressed me most has got to be the story. Breath of Fire 5 is the only other game I've played that's managed to tell so much of a story while saying so little.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:34
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dude789 posted:I'm partway through Nocturne right now and it is very good. I'm holding out on saying it's the best though. That giant tower dungeon with Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos absolutely killed any momentum I had for a while. If it doesn't have any more dungeons that are that tedious it could beat out Persona 4 for my favorite SMT game. The thing that's impressed me most has got to be the story. Breath of Fire 5 is the only other game I've played that's managed to tell so much of a story while saying so little. I can't say that the dungeons don't get less tedious, but they do get more varied. The Kalpas are still pretty tedious, though, but that's probably the point.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:37
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My favorite SMT spin off is either DDS2 or Persona 4, but I might just like DDS2 for the best soundtrack of the series... and that crazy ending, and I even liked the ending dungeon, as annoying as it was.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:39
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Azure_Horizon posted:I can't say that the dungeons don't get less tedious, but they do get more varied. The Kalpas are still pretty tedious, though, but that's probably the point. I didn't mind the Kalpas that much it feels like they have good treasure and have enough teeth to keep you on your toes. The tower just felt completely unending and the enemies gave almost no experience and had mediocre treasure so there was very little sense of progression. The enemies were also pretty tame, I don't remember struggling with the enemies at all (although I did die once because of a Dormina-Eternal Rest combo from a Succubus.)
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Mar 14, 2012 04:43
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dude789 posted:I didn't mind the Kalpas that much it feels like they have good treasure and have enough teeth to keep you on your toes. The tower just felt completely unending and the enemies gave almost no experience and had mediocre treasure so there was very little sense of progression. The enemies were also pretty tame, I don't remember struggling with the enemies at all (although I did die once because of a Dormina-Eternal Rest combo from a Succubus.) Yeah, I remember that dungeon. Future ones are a little more interesting mostly because of consistent difficulty. My favorite, though, are the tunnels. Do them without using a Lightoma. The visual effect is so loving worth it. And probably why I can't find any other MegaTen game as awesome, simply because no other main has a full body tattoo that glows. 
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Mar 14, 2012 04:50
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Krad posted:What kind of pacing issues? You knew from the beginning that things would only "happen" once every month. It made me look forward to them while at the same time worry if I'd be prepared enough, at least. I liked it that way. It becomes incredibly formulaic. When half of your game's main plot is "Gee this horrible demon hour sure is weird and a pretty big problem, I guess killing these specific monsters every month will help???", and the only dungeon in the game is Tartarus, it's hard to stay motivated or invested in anything that's happening. It doesn't help that the rest of the plot barely moves at all until September or whenever either, and the school events are major letdowns (Don't they hype something up like a culture festival and it's cancelled due to weather? Great stuff). Perfect Potato fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Mar 14, 2012 |
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Mar 14, 2012 04:54
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YggiDee posted:So you love them all, but secretly you love one more than the others and wish a certain game you know which one would get a REAL job. Oh, come on now. Everyone knows that MegaTen If is the disappointment of the house. No use dancing around it. It leeched everything it could from its big brother 2, and its little brother Persona surpassed it in every way.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:59
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KataraniSword posted:Oh, come on now. Everyone knows that MegaTen If is the disappointment of the house. No use dancing around it. It leeched everything it could from its big brother 2, and its little brother Persona surpassed it in every way. Mark danced crazily!
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Mar 14, 2012 05:05
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KataraniSword posted:Oh, come on now. Everyone knows that MegaTen If is the disappointment of the house. No use dancing around it. It leeched everything it could from its big brother 2, and its little brother Persona surpassed it in every way. You're forgetting about the dead fetus known as NINE. He never even had a chance at life, poor little guy...
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Mar 14, 2012 05:05
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Perfect Potato posted:It becomes incredibly formulaic. When half of your game's main plot is "Gee this horrible demon hour sure is weird and a pretty big problem, I guess killing these specific monsters every month will help???", and the only dungeon in the game is Tartarus, it's hard to stay motivated or invested in anything that's happening. It doesn't help that the rest of the plot barely moves at all until September or whenever either, and the school events are major letdowns (Don't they hype something up like a culture festival and it's cancelled due to weather? Great stuff). I don't know man, the impromptu stand up comedy routine with Kenji is one of the best scenes in the game.
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Mar 14, 2012 05:06
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Perfect Potato posted:It becomes incredibly formulaic. When half of your game's main plot is "Gee this horrible demon hour sure is weird and a pretty big problem, I guess killing these specific monsters every month will help???", and the only dungeon in the game is Tartarus, it's hard to stay motivated or invested in anything that's happening. It doesn't help that the rest of the plot barely moves at all until September or whenever either, and the school events are major letdowns (Don't they hype something up like a culture festival and it's cancelled due to weather? Great stuff). This is a big problem with P3/P4: There's not enough going on with the plot, you're stuck doing the same thing over and over and over (FIGHT GIANT SHADOWS/SAVE MISSING PEOPLE), and it takes far too long to get answers. KataraniSword posted:Oh, come on now. Everyone knows that MegaTen If is the disappointment of the house. No use dancing around it. It leeched everything it could from its big brother 2, and its little brother Persona surpassed it in every way. Dogbutt posted:You're forgetting about the dead fetus known as NINE. He never even had a chance at life, poor little guy... I think NINE has the edge as The Worst. If... is certainly bad, but I can almost see it working as an expansion pack for people who just wanted more first person dungeon crawling action. It'd need to get rid of the "kill yourself to get stronger  " system and the World of Sloth, but it could still work as a game. NINE is unsalvageable though.
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Mar 14, 2012 05:20
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TurnipFritter posted:This is a big problem with P3/P4: There's not enough going on with the plot, you're stuck doing the same thing over and over and over (FIGHT GIANT SHADOWS/SAVE MISSING PEOPLE), and it takes far too long to get answers. On top of that, actual things happening occurs at the pace of molasses. And the general point of the game is hammered into you so many times that it becomes dull and boring (you're NOT ME! in P4, and SHADOWS SHADOWS SHADOWS in P3). Conciseness could have saved the plot of both of those games. One thing P2 (both games) did a lot better than those two games was that character arcs were all varied and interesting, and backstory/the point of the game was given to you in layers, rather than being immediately obvious most of the time. Both P3/P4 have ~a big twist~ that I felt was put there just to move the antagonist around multiple times, which I also disliked. Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Mar 14, 2012 |
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Mar 14, 2012 05:26
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I'd easily rank Nocturne as my favourite SMT game. The tone alone sells it for me, by volumes. The brutal gameplay (compared to other rpgs released at the time) and minimalist storyline were icing on the cake, but the tone... man, and the crazy visuals and great soundtrack just helped to set the mood. Strange Journey would be second, though. I haven't played SMT1 or 2, so it's the closest "other game" I've played to Nocturne and I loved every minute of it (didn't even mind grinding out some of the more notorious sectors--at least they had great music/visuals and a rad boss). The two Digital Devil Sagas and Devil Survivors are also great, and I'm hard-pressed to decide which I like more. (I'd probably say DDS1 was the best of this bunch). I've played part-way through both Persona 3 and 4, but I've never been hooked like I have in other games. Like Azure Horizon says, the day-to-day pacing kills a lot of momentum. I'll get around to finishing them eventually, but they've never commanded my attention like Nocturne or Strange Journey.
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Mar 14, 2012 05:32
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Krad posted:What kind of pacing issues? You knew from the beginning that things would only "happen" once every month. It made me look forward to them while at the same time worry if I'd be prepared enough, at least. I liked it that way. Most of the first half of the game consisted of the team going "Hey, a tower! Let's go climb it!" and then beating up shadows every thirty days. They don't really question what's happening or why this started when the main character suddenly shows up. The game doesn't even start the whole grand story until you beat the last shadow to appear. Not to mention there's absolutely nothing to do in December other than talk about cults and climb more of Tartarus. By then I maxed almost all of my social links and was just sitting back and waiting for the game to continue. Again, once it all actually kicks into high gear, I love it all.
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Mar 14, 2012 05:39
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Blind Sally posted:Strange Journey would be second, though. I haven't played SMT1 or 2, so it's the closest "other game" I've played to Nocturne and I loved every minute of it (didn't even mind grinding out some of the more notorious sectors--at least they had great music/visuals and a rad boss). Strange Journey is pretty much SMT1 with seventeen or eighteen extra years of game-design expertise under Atlus's belt; the plot is different, but the way the Law/Chaos motif plays out in SJ is pretty much a carbon copy of it. SMT1 had static demons, though - only humans gained experience, you had to make demons stronger solely through fusing. KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Mar 14, 2012 |
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Mar 14, 2012 05:41
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I think Strange Journey would make for a good (probably live action) TV show. This may or may not be because I think the same about Damnation Alley.
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Mar 14, 2012 05:46
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Light Gun Man posted:I think Strange Journey would make for a good (probably live action) TV show. It wouldn't, because it would be a genre show that would require a pretty ludicrous special effects budget. No network would be willing to pony up the cash for it.
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Mar 14, 2012 05:56
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I'm imagining it more as a Japanese-made tokusatsu show, with maybe not so great effects but still a serious tone.
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Mar 14, 2012 06:04
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Azure_Horizon posted:One thing P2 (both games) did a lot better than those two games was that character arcs were all varied and interesting, and backstory/the point of the game was given to you in layers, rather than being immediately obvious most of the time. Both P3/P4 have ~a big twist~ that I felt was put there just to move the antagonist around multiple times, which I also disliked. I tried to get into Persona 2, but I just couldn't. Everything just went to fast and seemed too complicated. I gotta say I prefer the slower pacing of Persona 3 and 4.
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Mar 14, 2012 06:26
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Nessa posted:I tried to get into Persona 2, but I just couldn't. Everything just went to fast and seemed too complicated. I gotta say I prefer the slower pacing of Persona 3 and 4. Which is a little funny because when you combine the games into a single cohesive whole (as you're intended to), it ends up being one of the longest JRPGs ever made. You'd think they could afford a little breathing room! I still think Persona 2 is awesome, though.
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Mar 14, 2012 06:30
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Nessa posted:I tried to get into Persona 2, but I just couldn't. Everything just went to fast and seemed too complicated. I gotta say I prefer the slower pacing of Persona 3 and 4. It's complicated, but once you get through both games you just go, "Ah ha!" and you realize why it's the best Persona game, when put together. Hell, even alone, I guess. Eternal Punishment is fantastic on its own.
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Mar 14, 2012 06:37
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http://andriasang.com/con0a5/p4_golden_battle_song/ Apparently P4G will have a new battle theme during standard battles and reach out to the truth saved for succesful ambushes on shadows.
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Mar 14, 2012 06:52
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Azure_Horizon posted:It's complicated, but once you get through both games you just go, "Ah ha!" and you realize why it's the best Persona game, when put together. they're annoying to play though. I finished the first... temple or whatever in innocent sin, but I haven't gone back because the gameplay's just so slow and boring; it's a shame, I really liked all of the story, but ughhhhhhh.
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Mar 14, 2012 06:55
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Dastardly posted:Apparently P4G will have a new battle theme during standard battles and reach out to the truth saved for succesful ambushes on shadows. So in other words it will still play Reach out to the truth during all standard battles. 
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Mar 14, 2012 06:58
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Cityinthesea posted:they're annoying to play though. I finished the first... temple or whatever in innocent sin, but I haven't gone back because the gameplay's just so slow and boring; it's a shame, I really liked all of the story, but ughhhhhhh. The PSP version is a bit faster. The only thing I disliked about the PSX version of Innocent Sin was the inability to remember Fusion Combos.
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Mar 14, 2012 07:07
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Azure_Horizon posted:The PSP version is a bit faster. The only thing I disliked about the PSX version of Innocent Sin was the inability to remember Fusion Combos. This is true, but the PSP version of IS had really bad load times. Luckily it seems EP will be better about that issue.
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Mar 14, 2012 08:03
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The PSP version is faster than the original but it's still so goddamn slow and there's random encounters every five steps and the final dungeon is just goes on forever and it's not difficult at all and... I love the plot and characters of P2 to death but I really dislike the gameplay. Nocturne for life.
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Mar 14, 2012 08:17
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WrightOfWay posted:The PSP version is faster than the original but it's still so goddamn slow and there's random encounters every five steps and the final dungeon is just goes on forever and it's not difficult at all and... That's the only thing P3 and 4 have over P2 is the gameplay. Everything else, though? A different level entirely.
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Mar 14, 2012 08:22
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