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If you've been wanting to play DDS but haven't had any luck finding it, karma has in fact smiled upon you (assuming you have a PS3). For like ten bucks each you can get DDS and DDS2 over PSN, which is a super sweet deal because these games own. Also, the combined soundtrack for them (DDS Integral as noted by Dragonatrix) is so goddamn great, if you ever find yourself in a situation to purchase it do because it's four discs of absolutely amazing music. Lord Ephraim posted:I wanted to finish these games, but I can only handle so many backattack -> multitarget instant death spells -> 2 hours of progress lost so many times before rage quiting. That's SMT for you. I don't know, DDS is probably the most generous game in the entire series on that front. If you know enemies are going to be assholes and spam mamudo/mahama you can punish that incredibly strongly. And if you go two hours without saving in an SMT game, you did bring that on yourself a bit. Feinne fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Aug 25, 2014 |
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Aug 25, 2014 16:46
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asymmetrical posted:Does this game stand alone or do I need to know about any other Megaten games to keep up? Totally standalone, excepting the nearly impossible bonus boss which is a character from a previous game.
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Aug 25, 2014 17:27
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Void skills, by the way, are why Hama and Mudo aren't really that much of an issue in this game as long as you know they're coming. You can just get someone Void Dark and then roll that up an their efforts to Mamudo you will turn into nothing but sadness on their part.
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Aug 26, 2014 01:00
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theshim posted:We've time to go before we get to the really good stuff, but even early on DDS has some spectacular music. Hunting - Compulsion and Svadhisthana are both great. Yeah, I've mentioned it before but I really can't gush enough about the music of DDS. It is so good.
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Aug 26, 2014 03:08
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Dragonatrix, since they basically amount to trivia and I'm pretty sure the names never come up in the plot would you mind it if I briefly discussed the Atma marks as we see them (so Serph's, Argilla's, Heat's, and Harley's for now)?
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Aug 26, 2014 07:23
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Alright, so those black marks on everyone are called Atma. The Atma marks always tie into someone's Avatar form and always have a mouth in them. Serph's Atma is the Watercrown. It's a crown with a droplet of water flowing down at the bottom and a mouth in the middle. Serph's an ice character, so of course his Atma is water themed. Argilla's Atma is the Seismic Wave. It's actually sort of weird which is why I always forget the name of hers. It's got a mouth and it's got little waves of lines and that's about as much as you get from it. Again, Argilla is earth themed. Heat's Atma is the Fireball. It's a fuckin' fireball with a big gaping maw on it, because Heat is our fire character. Harley's Atma is the Burning Stake. It's a fire burning in front of a vaguely human figure, with the mouth being inside the flames.
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Aug 26, 2014 15:39
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Night10194 posted:If you get surprised, you come into battle as a sissy human with your guns and need to spend time transforming. You could also try to fight with your guns, but my memories of playing the game myself tell me that is a terrible idea. There are some reasons you might want to be in human form but generally it's not so good, no.
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Aug 27, 2014 01:38
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Hunt11 posted:Should be fun reading this lp, especially as has been mentioned the archived one has lost too many images to really read and understand any of the story. I don't know, not getting what went on in DDS and DDS2 even if you played them isn't exactly uncommon.
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Aug 27, 2014 23:13
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I won't spoil the names of their Atma for now, but I will summarize what you could read in the screenshots in case you don't want to squint. Jinana leads the Maribel. She's the lady with the very unfortunate Atma placement. Mick the Slug leads the Solids. He's the big fat black guy. Lupa leads the Wolves. He's the black guy with red hair because why not. Varin Omega leads the Brutes. He's the really angry lookin' dude with blue hair. Much like Harley, the only way we actually know the names of their Atma will be the music tracks that accompany them.
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Aug 28, 2014 03:41
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Night10194 posted:Ah, the Mantra Grid. The reason I never finished this game. I can't stand grinding and that thing expects you to grind like a motherfucker. I will say that if you're not married to giving a poo poo about having some of the really expensive ones on more than at most one character that does cut down the total cost quite a bit. It's the really crazy poo poo that costs the really big bucks.
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Aug 28, 2014 07:14
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BFC posted:^ It just sounds really similar because the same person did the music for this and for those games.
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Aug 28, 2014 16:16
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GodofDiscord posted:Not really. After the scene back at base and before going to Maribel territory, if you talk to an NPC at the Karma Temple place, he'll give you the name of Jinana's atma. Just thought I'd point this out since I'm playing the game too. Oh, no offense taken. I'm certain they all must actually be named given they're trivia questions in DDS2. It was just sort of a joke really because INTEGRAL is definitely the easiest way to know the Atma of the bosses.
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Aug 29, 2014 15:32
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TKMobile posted:So wait, can random mooks band together and call themselves a new tribe? Do they need to conquer a piece of territory first, or...how exactly does that work if it's not spoilerage? No, if they were to try something so presumptuous the Karma Temple would order everyone to annihilate them.
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Aug 29, 2014 16:20
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The Watercrown posted:I don't think the game actually explains how tribes are formed, but the Embryon are stated as being relatively new, so I'd assume it's possible, despite Feinne's insistence that the Karma Temple would stamp it out. There is also a very strong, but simple argument that supports the formation of new tribes, but it's DDS2 spoilers, so I don't think I can talk about it... It's hard to explain why I disagree with you without going into spoilers for this game and the sequel but the Karma Temple definitely formed the six tribes and forming a new one without the Karma Temple's blessing is not a thing that would happen normally. As I think about things it's actually much more possible now than it was earlier but again spoilers. I'll also admit to the last time I played this being a few years back, so I'll freely admit just not remembering some of what happens (hard not to since a LOT of poo poo happens in these games). Feinne fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Aug 29, 2014 |
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Aug 29, 2014 18:28
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So, Bat. Bat's Atma is the Sonic Wave. It's hard to see but it's a bat flying out of a mouth with sound waves coming out of it. It's the Sonic Wave because he's a loving bat.
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Sep 1, 2014 02:48
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Arcade Rabbit posted:Oh my gosh you guys I think Bat might be wolf themed. Bat is by FAR the most blatant of the Atma. By a huge margin.
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Sep 1, 2014 16:09
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Without spoiling things that story does make Gale's presence make MUCH more sense.
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Sep 4, 2014 00:28
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So now we've fought Jinana, let's talk about her Atma, the Aurora. The Aurora looks like a burst of light over a horizon with the standard huge gaping maw in the middle of it. Jinana has a heavy Expel theme, what with her fun Seraph Lore trick, which fits with her having a light-themed Atma. Jinana's really cool and it's a shame she's not that important in the grand scheme of things, because it means we don't ever really get to find out much about her. Also that Hunting-Comrades track that this fight debuts is really loving strong, maybe second only to the music associated with the final boss. First movement superiority imo.
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Sep 5, 2014 03:18
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W.T. Fits posted:Pretty much. Bat is basically Starscream. Except he actually succeeded in screwing over his leader, and he's nowhere near as fun to watch make an rear end of himself. He's also really annoying in one of the later fights. Not like hard, but the fight stretches out way longer than it has any right to due to the combination of gimmicks we've already seen and his exciting new gimmick he'll get later. The worst fight is one that overstays its welcome.
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Sep 5, 2014 07:04
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The best part is why Heat's such a prick. Though, we won't be discovering that this game.
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Sep 8, 2014 03:07
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Green Intern posted:Same old, Same old: lost his favorite sled when he was a kid, never got over it. Spoilers man, spoilers.
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Sep 8, 2014 03:20
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So, a couple of things. First, Gale's Atma. Gale's Atma is the Twister, and it's a tornado with a mouth on the edge. Gale's a wind character, so that's hardly a surprise. Curse also came up, but Dragonatrix missed an important aspect of the ailment: Should an opponent attempt to use a Mudo skill on you while you are Cursed, it will always hit. Forewarned is forearmed.
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Sep 8, 2014 04:30
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Fun Cielo accent fact: In Persona 3 there is a soda called Cielo Mist that's flavor text references something like refreshing Jamaican flavor or something similar.
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Sep 8, 2014 14:49
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Though by 'the game' that's just Digital Devil Saga as a whole. There's a lot of poo poo from this game that won't really start making sense until DDS2.
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Sep 8, 2014 16:50
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FredMSloniker posted:Yeah, like-- And that's the magic of DDS' plot. Honestly it'd almost be easier to list off the things that AREN'T going to turn out to be important or relevant again later in the game/next game.
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Sep 9, 2014 06:40
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I'm just going to have to quote this post (much) later, when it's no longer a spoiler, and explain myself.
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Yeah, Coordinate 136 is just one of many areas you'll want to re-read the update for once we're close to the end of DDS2 and you understand what the gently caress any of this stuff means.
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Sep 10, 2014 07:19
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theshim posted:Okay, Coordinate 136 was the farthest I got when I played some of DDS way back, so from here it's all new. And the Hiphop Bros were amazing. Also, is it just me, or does our princess picture look almost exactly like Sera? It sure does look just like Sera in a pretty pretty princess dress. The narration over the intercom is also being voiced by Sera's voice actress, Wendee Lee.
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Sep 10, 2014 19:20
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KataraniSword posted:This really deserves to be a mini-update of its own. You can't get the full DDS experience without it. Yeah you really ca 
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Sep 10, 2014 22:39
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So, we've got two new Atma to discuss after this update: Cielo's Atma is the Rainbow Arch. It's a rainbow atop a cloud with a mouth on it. It's a rather interesting choice, and is more an allusion to Cielo's ability to fly than his affinity for lightning. There IS a lightning themed Atma, but it'll be quite some time before we see it. Mick the Slug's Atma is the Solar Eclipse. It's a black circle with a mouth in the side. I'm going to be honest, the best rationalization of it to me is that it's a fat joke. He doesn't use dark skills or anything. Cielo's Ailment weakness is extremely tragic, though there are ways to actually gain advantage from it.
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Sep 12, 2014 03:24
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Montegoraon posted:I can't help but wonder. Did they decide to give one character a weakness to ailments and then come up with the one situation where that would be extremely useful, or did they design the situation first and then decide to give the player a tool to make it a little more manageable? I honestly think him being weak to ailments wasn't intended to be any worse than the other weaknesses. Honestly, it really isn't, but people perceive it as really poo poo and that he's the worst by a wide margin because of it. I'd imagine that's why he's weak against just Nerve in DDS2, which makes him crazy awesome in 2 to go along with him just in general being crazy awesome in 2.
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Sep 12, 2014 16:11
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Booky posted:I'm assuming there's a missing question mark for this bit? DDS1 and DDS2 both have pretty crazy encounter rates, it's part of why the final dungeon in DDS2 is one of the most painful gaming experiences known to man. Like I LOVE these games but holy gently caress that dungeon.
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Sep 12, 2014 21:09
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Elric posted:Would you rate it as worse than or better than the Desert of Death from Breathe of Fire 3? Well I mean the problem is twofold because DDS has some really complex dungeons with lots of teleporters and such that the map doesn't properly get across and th
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Sep 12, 2014 23:02
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Genaro posted:I'm kind of reminded of the Suikoden IV LP, a game with such a crazy encounter rate the LPer added a video of him trying to go from one location to another. In about 30 seconds of map-travel time, he spent many, many minutes in and out of battle screens. As long as you can keep yourself in Mantras the Atma Points for killing things are always pretty useful even after they're not giving enough Karma to meaningfully advance your pa No but seriously the random encounter rate is only really annoying in certain dungeons like Coordinate 136 and the very last one of DDS2. And that's allowing for the fact that it's VERY possible that 99% of the encounters in that dungeon will end before the enemies even get a turn if you didn't make a really stupid choice earlyish in that game and lock yourself out of something really loving awesome. Feinne fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Sep 13, 2014 |
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Sep 13, 2014 04:44
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Kemix posted:Well, isn't that a hoot. At least the random encounters can't get me he- It's really worth the price of admission for the PSN version. I'm going to spout some sort of heresy here and say I think DDS is better than Nocturne, even.
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Sep 14, 2014 06:24
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It's also why we have Raidou vs King Abbadon, which is the Best Game.
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Sep 14, 2014 16:13
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Drachir D Nalem posted:Any news on if they'll put those SMT games on the Vita or something? I don't have a PS3 and want to play these games on something else than an emulator. They're not on the Vita store right now sadly, though the whole Persona series is between the PSP ones and the Golden.
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Sep 14, 2014 18:30
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Montegoraon posted:We will. Not explicitly, like we hear the actual recording, but yes, the meaning will become obvious in DDS2. For some reason in my memories you can either hear or possibly just read a more complete version of the story but I suspect that's not true and the fact that I know what the story's about is making me think that.
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Sep 14, 2014 21:59
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PoptartsNinja posted:I agree. Oh my god that's so glorious I can't even. Cielo is the sort of weird greatbad in this game where his weakness is either meaningless or tragic, in retrospect I'd use him MUCH more than I did last time I played this. Then in DDS2 he's just 100% awesome and you should probably always use Cielo if that is an option. That above and beyond how loving awesome basically every scene that involves him is in that game. Every scene in DDS2 is either really confusing or really awesome or both. Feinne fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Sep 16, 2014 |
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Sep 16, 2014 02:01
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PoptartsNinja posted:I did Argilla and Serph too. The only problem is, I did Serph first so I didn't think to combine all of his human and berserk outfits into a single entrance like I did with the others. And Serph has to be gigantic to make the transition to Varuna properly. And WWE2k14 didn't have Argilla's hair. It's really amazing how relatively faithful a rendition of them WWE2k14 can manage. Dragonatrix posted:If I can and I know I can pull it off, or I know I can't but it'd be funny to see me flail miserably, yeah basically. Helps keep things more varied, just waltzing up to an optional boss super-early and still coming out with a win. King Frost is kind of a weird optional boss anyway, doing it right after coordinate 136 is as you demonstrated totally reasonable and it's probably at its peak of being difficult and interesting after the next dungeon. Any later than that and he's just a joke. Though that said I'm surprised you gave Serph the King Mantra there, it's so super niche.
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Sep 16, 2014 03:27
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Glazius posted:I'm guessing there are Cocytus-like spells for the other elements too? Are they also locked behind optional bosses? There are in fact not, as it turns out. Cocytus is a weird special case and is pretty great, though personally I'd not go so all-in for it.
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Sep 16, 2014 15:08
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