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Going back to Nocturne from SMTV is a little rough. I'm so used to certain things I can't do anymore, like not knowing what skills demons/magatama will learn ahead of time, as well as not being able to just move characters freely between the party in the menu, having to mess around with Summon and Return instead. Same thing with not being able to see what skills do in the stat menu, meaning you can't tell what the next ability they'll learn actually does until you learn it, even if you can see its name. I know what most SMT skills do already but if I didn't that would be pretty annoying (and it's still a little annoying if it's a skill that isn't in a lot of SMT games like Kinspeak). I also forgot that in the older games some demons can evolve like Pokemon. I know there's something special super late in the game if you keep that first Pixie around, I let her evolve into High Pixie though, and I think I remember people saying that was fine and still counts. I'm also not sure how to distribute my stats, I think I remember hearing strength is the meta in Nocturne but I don't know if that means I should ignore magic entirely, or how much to put in other stats like Luck. I'm also paralyzed when it comes to magatamas, I still have the first one on because I don't know what skills the other ones teach and I hate that, especially since you can only learn skills on a level up, so I'm worried about "wasting" level ups and I won't be able to learn skills later.
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Mar 3, 2022 18:10
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Twelve by Pies posted:Going back to Nocturne from SMTV is a little rough. I'm so used to certain things I can't do anymore, like not knowing what skills demons/magatama will learn ahead of time, as well as not being able to just move characters freely between the party in the menu, having to mess around with Summon and Return instead. Same thing with not being able to see what skills do in the stat menu, meaning you can't tell what the next ability they'll learn actually does until you learn it, even if you can see its name. I know what most SMT skills do already but if I didn't that would be pretty annoying (and it's still a little annoying if it's a skill that isn't in a lot of SMT games like Kinspeak). 1 With Pixie you just need to not Delete whatever demon she is fused with. So if you use High Pixie to fuse into [Demon A] and then by the etime you get to the last level of the optional dungeon [Demon A] has become [[Demon Z] that's still fine. Just never lose whatever Pixie was fused into. 2. I went through my last run completely ignoring Str and Vit. I think ti's entirely feasible to ignore whole stats and this isn't some impossible challenge either. It makes things harder but you won't gently caress yourself over is my point. Unless you want to fight the optional "true" final boss which you only get in True Demon route in which case absolutely do not ignore Str. 3. I've never collected all the Magatamas. It might not be possible to learn all the skills by the time you hit 99 if you wanna learn every skill off every one of them but assuming that isn't your goal, you should be fine. Average level at the end of the game is 70-80 I think so plenty of time to learn more skills if you need to. There are Magatmas you only get at the final stretch of the final dungeon anyway.
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Mar 3, 2022 18:39
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Twelve by Pies posted:I know there's something special super late in the game if you keep that first Pixie around, I let her evolve into High Pixie though, and I think I remember people saying that was fine and still counts. You can fuse her and the resulting demon will still count, you can do this any number of times and it will still count. Just don't discard that demon from your stock. (You can tell which one it is because it's always at the #1 top most spot on the demon list.) I think Nocturne is the only game in the series that has Pokemon style evolution but someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Honestly it's not terrible to look at a GameFAQs page about magatama skills since they are pretty opaque what each one has and what level you learn them. Magic can be good for AOE attacks in the early and mid-game but trails off at the end and demi-fiend's best attacks at the endgame are strength based. You want to be equipping the magatamas like Essences in SMTV to change the demi-fiend's resistances in boss fights, even if they might give you skills you don't want on leveling up. You don't need to worry about wasting level ups or whatever unless you are level 99 maybe.
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Mar 3, 2022 18:43
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I played the PS2 version blind last year using purely Magic and Vit and was still able to clear TDE, albeit I had to do a grip of grinding and fusing to prepare properly for it. Anything is viable!
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Mar 3, 2022 18:45
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Demons also evolve in SMTIVA, can't remember about SMTIV. Notably in IVA Angel will evolve all the way through the Divine ranks right back to a superpowered Angel. I think they did this because it's just not possible to recruit Divine demons in IVA, you have to fuse them.
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Mar 3, 2022 18:47
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In Training posted:I played the PS2 version blind last year using purely Magic and Vit and was still able to clear TDE, albeit I had to do a grip of grinding and fusing to prepare properly for it. Anything is viable! Did you get Pierce on another demon? I also did a Blind Magic run and tried it but the fact is that the TDE final boss' gimmick is heavily RNG or luck-based so if you are doing no damage to him with Magic attacks, the fight goes on longer and longer and he has way more opportunities to finally nail you with a really bad RNG. I know it's possible to beat him without strength, I've seen it done, but beating FF1 with a Solo White Mage is also possible. Some things just aren't really fun or a good idea. That's why I gave up and grinded up like 10+ levels, dumping all my points into Str, after like several 20 minute+ long fights where I always eventually died to a bad RNG Root of Evil. P.S. "Almighty Resistance" should never be a thing. It's almost a contradiction in terms. Almighty's value is precisely because it gets through everything. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Mar 3, 2022 |
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Mar 3, 2022 18:52
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That's because it's not really meant to be "Almighty" as most would understand the concept. It's more like "All-Purpose" in the sense of being good for general use.
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Mar 3, 2022 19:02
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NikkolasKing posted:3. I've never collected all the Magatamas. It might not be possible to learn all the skills by the time you hit 99 if you wanna learn every skill off every one of them but assuming that isn't your goal, you should be fine. Average level at the end of the game is 70-80 I think so plenty of time to learn more skills if you need to. There are Magatmas you only get at the final stretch of the final dungeon anyway. Doesn't even matter, because level doesn't cap at 99. The number displayed on the stat screen does, but you can still level up complete with stat points and learning new skills long after.
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Mar 3, 2022 19:37
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NikkolasKing posted:P.S. I'm fine with it for the Mitamas in SMTV because it forces you to engage with their gimmick, and if you get high enough level you can one shot them even through the resist anyway. I was also fine with it for Beldr in Devil Survivor because it made sense from the lore perspective, that was kind of his thing. But yeah I'm not fond of almighty resistance otherwise.
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Mar 3, 2022 20:05
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Lotus Aura posted:Doesn't even matter, because level doesn't cap at 99. The number displayed on the stat screen does, but you can still level up complete with stat points and learning new skills long after. Holy poo poo I never knew that. That has to be some kind of bug, right? I wonder what mad person figured this out,. I took forever to grind up to level 96 or whatever for Metatron in my first run, I can't imagine doing a lot more.
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Mar 3, 2022 20:09
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Lotus Aura posted:Doesn't even matter, because level doesn't cap at 99. The number displayed on the stat screen does, but you can still level up complete with stat points and learning new skills long after.
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Mar 3, 2022 21:37
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Neeksy posted:When going after the TDE it's pretty likely you'll pass this cap, mostly because you're trying to get the money for fusions for high-level demons or trying to get them to learn their skills, etc. why would you grind for TDE
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Mar 3, 2022 23:25
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I probably should have rephrased intent, I just wanted to be able to fuse some of the final demons and fill out as much of compendium as I could, it just coincided with me doing a TDE run.
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Mar 3, 2022 23:28
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cheetah7071 posted:why would you grind for TDE If you want to make demons with pierce you have to be at least lv95, which would probably require a bit of grinding. It isn't necessary, but that's a possible reason.
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Mar 4, 2022 00:55
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NikkolasKing posted:Demons also evolve in SMTIVA, can't remember about SMTIV. IV definitely has evolution because there is a demon early on that can completely trivialize a really tough fight (I think it was Minotaur) if you evolve it
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Mar 4, 2022 16:17
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:IV definitely has evolution because there is a demon early on that can completely trivialize a really tough fight (I think it was Minotaur) if you evolve it I believe you're thinking of evolving Gremlin into Raiju for the Medusa fight. In those games Jack Frost evolves into Wendigo, which makes sense but it just feels super wrong.
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Mar 4, 2022 17:19
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Yoyogi Park makes me think of that weird 90s cartoon Yo Yogi! where Yogi Bear and friends were in high school. Anyway it's kind of weird that the Demi-Fiend got a weird bug inserted into him because "This needs to happen so you can survive in this world" but Chiaki appears to be a bug-free non-demon person (and I assume Isamu too). Or maybe he was just incredibly weak as a human and Chiaki isn't. I've gotten to the Amala Network and I'm still rolling with a bunch of early game demons, I haven't gotten into fusion yet because I'm like "Oh I need to learn all these skills before I fuse them away" although there doesn't appear to be a compendium in this game. One important question, though. There doesn't seem to be a way to view stat buffs/debuffs in battle. This makes it annoying to know if anyone is buffed/debuffed but more importantly it means I don't know how they work in this game. What I mean is, in SMTV being able to see them means that you know what the limit is (+2 or -2) and how they interact with each other (using a -1 skill on an enemy that is +1 resets them to neutral). None of that info is given to the player in Nocturne, so my questions are, are buffs/debuffs a simple "has/does not have" binary, or can they gain higher levels if you cast them multiple times? Also does casting a debuff on an enemy that's buffed itself just cause it to go back to neutral, or flip it from "buffed" to "debuffed"?
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Mar 5, 2022 08:32
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Twelve by Pies posted:Yoyogi Park makes me think of that weird 90s cartoon Yo Yogi! where Yogi Bear and friends were in high school. I think the implication there is that Chiaki and Isamu are having a worse time in the Vortex World than DF. The game has a compendium. I think you unlock it at Ikebukuro, which is still a dungeon or so to go. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. Buffs/debuffs stack up to 4 times and don't wear off over time. Unfortunately there's no way to view what's active in Nocturne until you cast something already at the limit and it says something like "limit reached" They are additive, so if you're buffed to +1 and an enemy debuffs, you go to 0 instead of -1. Also if this is your first time playing Nocturne and you don't know what's coming, I recommend keeping an eye out for Sukukaja and try to keep that on one of your demons. Wrex Ruckus fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Mar 5, 2022 |
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Mar 5, 2022 16:16
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Don't worry, I know about Matador.  I've played Nocturne before, but I stopped when I got to the puzzle game where you push blocks around as Pyro Jack. I forget how far in that is but it isn't that far. I do know it's at least after the big tower place where you meet Dante/Raidou.
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Mar 5, 2022 17:22
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For the optional super boss and the DLC super boss, should I be on ~level 96 if I’m playing on Normal? Or can I do it on a lower level? I’m at 89 rn and have a lot of level 80+ demons but I don’t know if that will be enough. I know I was supposed to beat the one boss before getting to the throne but I figure unlocking the fusion now will make it easier to get the true neutral ending later. I was thinking about doing the Chaos and Law routes followed by a Newborn Hard run where I’d get the true neutral ending but I guess you lose the route-specific miracles on Newborn which is stupid. I want to do a Hard run that is actually somewhat challenging without throwing out all the stuff I did on previous playthroughs but Newborn doesn’t sound very good.
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Mar 5, 2022 18:02
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:For the optional super boss and the DLC super boss, should I be on ~level 96 if I’m playing on Normal? Or can I do it on a lower level? I’m at 89 rn and have a lot of level 80+ demons but I don’t know if that will be enough. For Shiva you want to be 90ish and for the Demi-fiend you want to be 99.
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Mar 5, 2022 18:20
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Got the castle in SMTV, finally a different looking dungeon. The decayed Tokyo open world became stale real quick. This game's OST is so loving good btw. People never shut up about Persona 5s ost but this is as good imo and lots of different styles of sounds.
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Mar 5, 2022 18:56
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It's funny that the "normal battle" theme which is apparently associated with Demi-Fiend in other games like DDS is the one I've heard the second least. It's played almost nowhere in any of the areas I've been to (I'm in Ikebukuro). The one that starts out with the piano is by far the most common battle music.
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Mar 7, 2022 00:00
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to be fair, Town Battle is extremely good
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Mar 7, 2022 00:10
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Absolutely my favorite normal battle theme in Nocturne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oOTSWmyP2E I believe it's a remix of a song from another SMT game but oh well. It rules. Some serious Motoi Sakuraba vibes.
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Mar 7, 2022 00:20
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I've never played a Shin Megami Tensei game. What's the best one in the 3DS eShop for a newcomer to the series?
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Mar 7, 2022 03:46
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C-Euro posted:I've never played a Shin Megami Tensei game. What's the best one in the 3DS eShop for a newcomer to the series? Tough question. You have so many great choices but where to start..... My first SMT was Strange Journey, and its far superior remake Strange Journey Redux is on the 3DS. I think it's one of the best SMT gams but it's also in the old school SMT style of first person dungeon exploration. It also doesn't have the Press Turn battle system, the hallmark of modern SMT game. Still, I enjoyed the gameplay, music, characters, and story. It's just gonna be different going on from here. I guess Shin Megami Tenei IV is a good place to start in that it focuses on the series' main ideas of Law vs. Chaos, features the Press Turn battle system, and also has some amazing music. Now I don't like SMTIV much but a lot of folks do. (I find its pseudo-sequel SMTIV Apocalypse better in every regard but it really will offer a totally different tone to other SMT games) Between SJR and SMTIV, I think SJR is a much better game, but SMTIV might be a better intro to SMT, if that makes sense.
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Mar 7, 2022 04:03
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SMTIV was my first SMT game and I found it very easy to understand although the beginning of the game is quite difficult. Although I’ve heard that’s also a staple of the series.
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Mar 7, 2022 04:19
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C-Euro posted:I've never played a Shin Megami Tensei game. What's the best one in the 3DS eShop for a newcomer to the series? Probably IV. Both the Devil Survivor games are good, but they are on their not a good taste of the gameplay for the rest of the series. Soul Hackers also serves as a nice meeting point between the more modern games and the classic series if you want to explore them. For Strange Journey I'd go for the original if I was you. They change a bunch aesthetically that makes the experience of just looking at it worse, and the gameplay changes make the game too easy to really be that fun. It also adds more talking, and that game already has more than enough people talking at you.
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Mar 7, 2022 04:31
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One thing that stands out to me about Nocturne is that whoever designed the maps sure did love Final Fantasy II. It is kind of a shame that Atlus couldn't get a loving PS2 game to run properly on the Switch. The slowdown during abilities is killing me. Game is still great though. I'm not really sure how Isamu survived getting his soul yanked out by Thor.
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Mar 7, 2022 09:16
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Gaius Marius posted:the gameplay changes make the game too easy to really be that fun. Shut the gently caress up
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Mar 7, 2022 13:37
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Twelve by Pies posted:One thing that stands out to me about Nocturne is that whoever designed the maps sure did love Final Fantasy II. had a spare stuffed in his hat.
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Mar 8, 2022 01:55
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So I'm toward the end of the game where you can choose between the three beliefs. I'm curious if I choose to "destroy the throne" so that "humanity" can decide it's fate, does that include common demons having a say too or just humans? I may be weird but I feel that "demons and humans should be equal."
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Mar 8, 2022 09:19
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punk rebel ecks posted:So I'm toward the end of the game where you can choose between the three beliefs. I'm curious if I choose to "destroy the throne" so that "humanity" can decide it's fate, does that include common demons having a say too or just humans? I may be weird but I feel that "demons and humans should be equal." So the ending you chose was Neutral, in the SMT approach of 'siding with humanity instead of gods or demons'. Abdiel is Law (aligning with the angels and God for an egalitarian view), the Prime Minister is Chaos (giving power to the mass of demons and letting them sort it out). Neutral goes... either very well or very badly for the common demons depending on what you think humanity's odds are. Mainline SMT alignments are rarely if ever moderate and considerate, it's a series that operates in extremes to such a degree that the debate is less 'which is best' and more 'which is least bad'. Something I do really like about SMTV in retrospect is that it twists and shakes up the 'faces' of the traditional alignments without changing what they fight for. Law traditionally always put itself forward as very high-and-mighty and sympathetic to those who welcome it, while Abdiel instead frames it more as a righteous crusade against the unworthy; Chaos is usually pretty brutal and cruel, but the Prime Minister drat near frames it as the diplomatic option; and Neutral is usually championed by a soft-spoken dissenting voice to the madness, but Shohei puts it as 'screw everyone but humanity'. Cleretic fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Mar 8, 2022 |
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Mar 8, 2022 11:30
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Cleretic posted:So the ending you chose was Neutral, in the SMT approach of 'siding with humanity instead of gods or demons'. Abdiel is Law (aligning with the angels and God for an egalitarian view), the Prime Minister is Chaos (giving power to the mass of demons and letting them sort it out). Neutral goes... either very well or very badly for the common demons depending on what you think humanity's odds are. Mainline SMT alignments are rarely if ever moderate and considerate, it's a series that operates in extremes to such a degree that the debate is less 'which is best' and more 'which is least bad'. Yeah that’s what confused me. I just want all the residents to have democracy. Which path is that?
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Mar 8, 2022 18:00
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None of the above
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Mar 8, 2022 19:04
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So I've decided to go with the neutral ending to destroy the throne. I really want "Democracy" for humans and demons alike. Chaos initially makes this feel like the correct route, but really it's more of a republic of kings than anything. At least taking the throne to take away their power lets humans and demons figure out what the best way to progress is. Is my way of thinking accurate or am I missing important plot/lore points?
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Mar 8, 2022 23:20
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punk rebel ecks posted:So I've decided to go with the neutral ending to destroy the throne. one key point you're missing is that demons like to kill humans so they aren't really going to see eye to eye with regards to the best way forward.
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Mar 8, 2022 23:32
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TurnipFritter posted:one key point you're missing is that demons like to kill humans so they aren't really going to see eye to eye with regards to the best way forward. So if the demons get their republic kingdom then they’re going to kill all the humans? How many humans are there?
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Mar 8, 2022 23:56
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As many as there are in real life more or less
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Mar 9, 2022 00:08
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