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Well I asked about JRPGs with great stories in the FF megathread but I decided to ask the same question on all the boards I frequent. The two games most commonly said in every iteration of the topic were Persona 3 and 4. So naturally I decided to get Persona 2. I decided on this because: 1. Some die-hard fans said that, as much as 3 and 4 were being recommended, 2 was better in the plot department. 2. A guy on the Gamefaqs Xenogears board even recommended the game for having the same "feel" as Gears. 3. Perhaps the flimsiest reasoning yet but I just have a strong attachment to the PS1. I grew up with it more than any other console and so I just had to put my faith in one of its premier JRPG titles. Xenogears was once just another popular PS1 JRPG to me as well and now it is one of my all time favorite video games. I know there's a PSP version of innocent Sin available but I don't own a PSP and I can't play that crap anyway because of my eyesight. I bought the Japanese version and I'll just use a translation patch. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I am kinda missing the whole ton of extra music apparently included in the PSP version but I can buy the soundtrack for that. So yeah, I'm a total newbie to the series and I wanted to ask more informed people's opinions on this. 1. I'm a gamer of perhaps average ability at best. I have trouble with Final Fantasy games most of the time. I've heard conflicting things on the difficulty level of the SMT games but that's the main series I think. What is Persona 2's general difficulty level? 2. How does it stack up to 3 and 4? Are those two more well knowna nd brought up more because they're a ton better or just because they're newer?
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May 1, 2013 07:13
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Thanks for the insight and tips guys. I might hold off on playing P2 till after Xenoblade simply because I am a Xeno-series fanatic and I'm dying to see what Blade has to offer. One more quick question about Innocent Sin though - how's the music? As I said I might get the 6CD boxset OST but I won't bother if it isn't anything special. If it's a helpful reference point for you to know my taste in JRPG soundtracks, my favorite OST ever is Motoi Sakuraba's Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean.
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May 1, 2013 19:02
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Okay so I lied earlier and I actually have one more question. Would you all recommended Digital Devil Saga? Of the SMT games suggested to me, DDS was next to Persona in terms of how interested in it I was from what I was told.
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May 2, 2013 07:09
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Pardon my interruption everyone, I have a quick question. Or maybe not so quick, I dunno. I've been a JRPG fanatic all my life but recently I've gotten addicted to WRPG's because I like roleplaying and I like being able to make choices and effect the plot. I had SMT recommended to me by a few people elsewhere because of this. I know there are supposed to be Paths in some of the SMT games with Law vs. Chaos or something but is that just the main SMT games or does it cross over into Persona and the other spinoffs? Do I alter the storyline and stuff depending on my choices in all the SMT games? Or is it not even a choice by choice basis and more like you pick a side at the start and then just continue down that route?
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May 24, 2015 18:47
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So I'm a filthy goddam liar and professed to be starting this series years ago but never did. But I finally remembered my gaming obligations and I am ordering Persona 2. What can I say? I'm a classics whore. Older = better. Also I'm always suspicious when people recommend a sequel without saying anything about what came before. "P3 and P4 are the greatest games ever!" Me: What about P1 and P2:? "I don't loving know. Who cares." I had the same thing with Mass Effect. Nobody ever talked about 1 so I was intensely curious about it. Turns out everyone was right to only talk about 2 and forget 1 but whatever. So for some reason I have Persona 2 Innocent Sin's soundtrack. Like, the actual OST. I don't even remember where I bought it. I've never listened to it because someone told me that the P2 soundtracks have spoilers in them. I'm just wondering , most people seem to think Eternal Punishment was better. Is the music better in EP than IS? Should I get that OST too?
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Nov 17, 2015 16:17
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Well I actually did talk to people about that and they said adamantly not to play it and just start with 2.
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Nov 17, 2015 16:38
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Well it's also on PSP so I can pick it up with 2:IS if you guys think it's worth it.
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Nov 17, 2015 16:42
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I didn't know SMT1 had been released in the West.
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Nov 17, 2015 19:48
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So my first real foray into the SMT series is going well. 11 hours into Strange Journey, on the third Sector now. I did play Innocent Sin for a goo while too but man...it was not fun. If only that game's soundtrack could be transplanted into SJ, everything be perfect. Although, oddly, SJ is making me want to start up P2 again and try to finish it... It's not like I hated the characters or anything, it just felt so tedious and pointless. Maybe I'll try again later. Anyway, as I said, I loved the music in Persona 2. I even have a CD boxset I bought a while ago. Music is a vital part of a good gaming experience IMO. I'm just curious since this comes up fairly often in the FF thread, which SMT games have the best soundtracks?
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Dec 25, 2016 22:17
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CottonWolf posted:e: I do have some fondness for Strange Journey's weird orchestral stuff though. I certainly never thought that it was a weak soundtrack. I like the battle theme, it's just the dungeon music that has been entirely "eh" to me. I have a lot of game to go, though. As I said, it was mainly in comparison to P2 that it was kinda letting me down. P2 had nonstop great music. Goddammit, I went to just check out some of the great music on YT and what do I stumble upon? "Maya's Death." NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Dec 25, 2016 |
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Dec 25, 2016 22:51
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Another preference-based question. I started this series partly because I like alignments and multiple endings and that kinda good stuff. The idea there is a big moral question underlying each game in the (main) series also intrigued me. Just wondering which game you guys feel handled it best?
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Dec 26, 2016 03:57
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Tae posted:Do not play devil survivor unless you love NPCs randomly game overing you because half the missions are basically escort Wiki tells me the Devil Survivor games are tactical RPGs? I've never played one before. I guess everyone has to start somewhere. I will still probably leave it for after Nocturne, Persona 3 and 4 and...uh...well, maybe it'll come after that, unless those Raidou games are good.
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Dec 26, 2016 04:38
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Tallgeese posted:Devil Survivor handles it best, with Strange Journey coming close. Raidou 2 brings up the rear but it's not actually LNC. Oh I'm sure Neutral or whatever is supposed to be the right answer every time. Still, it's new and different and that's a good motivation for playing a game, at least to me. Glad to see someone else sticking up for SJ, though. Part of why I chose it as my first SMT game is based on someone telling me I wouldn't be disappointed by its alignment system.
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Dec 26, 2016 04:41
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Tallgeese posted:Raidou 2 has a similar problem in that it makes two of the alignments look reasonable, and the third... not so much. But again, it's not LNC. I would look at that if you liked how Strange Journey handled it. Do you mean I should look at Nocturne and its "Reasons" instead?
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Dec 26, 2016 04:54
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Tallgeese posted:No, I meant Raidou 2, this one: Oh. Dummy me, I completely misread what you were saying. But yeah, thanks for the suggestion. I'll add this to my list. I'm gonna have a lot of things to play for a while it seems .(this is a good thing) Problem is just deciding what order to play them all in...
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Dec 26, 2016 05:01
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Just "finished" Sector E. I was a little worried because someone in this thread or maybe the minor SMT tangent in the FF thread said Ouroboros is tough and I just happened to talk to this one NPC Demon who said I could never beat it. So I was looking over my pitiful team of demons who I just use enough to level them up so I can get their Sources and I was thinking I was in no way ready for a really hard boss fight. Then before I could probably get my rear end kicke,d Arthur to the rescue and now I gotta go back to C when I get up later. I dunno, they keep talking about everything almost being over but I still don't have a clue what's going on. I'm also only Level 40. Do these games typically get you to max level unlike say FF where you can quite handily finish the games while at half that? Also the music in this game is great, it was just the first two sectors that sucked. Since then, it's been a lot of goodness.
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Dec 29, 2016 14:26
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Dragonatrix posted:If you've been paying the slightest bit of attention at all, you probably noticed that every Sector equates to one of the cardinal sins. Antlia is wrath, Bootes is lust, Carina is gluttony, Delphinus is despair (though to be 100% fair here, Delphinus IS the most subtle and clever by far). Eridanus is the 2nd most obvious being pride/vainglory; this is apparent from the instant you enter it. Carina gets the prize for number 1 being obvious from the opening cutscene of the entire game and then outright telling you as much when you meet Horkos. Thanks, Carina! Dragonatrix posted:In the original list of sins, there are 8 and they are pride, sloth, vainglory, greed, gluttony, wrath, lust and despair. Later on, Pope Gregory I combined pride and vainglory into one thing as he did despair and sloth. He also added envy. Very informative, thank you. I had of course already picked up on the Sins theme(although I honestly had no clue what D was until now) but it's a bit strange that, despite the superficial trappings and Horkos and maybe Morax,, each boss doesn't strike me as all that representative of their world/sin. Mitra for instance struck me as just plain arrogant. His weird experiments on humans were entirely pointless acts of cruelty that he said were "helping" the humans. And Asura just yammered on about polluting the world and how order sucks and everything was way better back when a single muscly man with a blunt or pointy object could rule the world. I dunno, all I got is that Mastema is cool and helpful and I like him and gently caress Jimenez.
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Dec 29, 2016 21:49
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Dragonatrix posted:Mitra was lusting after knowledge. He was gathering information for the sake of gathering information. Bootes is one of the more straightforward ones, really. That's true. I guess I shouldn't default to lust = sex. Before this one poor mook is turned into a monster you have to talk to a bunch of demons and hear how they performed all sorts of hosed up experiments on people with no real care for the results. quote:And this is 100% the right thing, and one of the many, many things that SJ gets wrong. It makes a really good case for Law (hurray!) and does so by giving you one really likable person... and completely ignoring Chaos outside of Jack's Squad. You can see the problem here, I'm sure. Yeah I had already picked up on this. As you say, not subtle but I mean, you have to pick the side that makes the best argument to you. I can't stand Jimenez and Zelenin is nice enough. The problem with Jimenez - or Hudson from Aliens as I like to think of him - is that he's just kind of a little punk. I thought Chaos was strongman survival of the fittest type. You can easily make a charismatic figure whose all about power in a game literally built around power fantasy. But Jimenez is just...well, he's not that. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Dec 29, 2016 |
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Dec 29, 2016 22:27
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Speaking of SMTI, would you guys suggest me trying out I and II? I hear SMT2 brought up a decent amount given its age and the fact it was never officially localized. And on that note, is the fan translation good?
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Dec 30, 2016 01:33
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Ouroboros 2 was a sign of things to come I guess. Man I was stuck on that fight forever. My demon mill strategy of constantly fusing new demons, using them enough to get their Sources and then ditching them, no longer seems viable. I need a team and a back-up team that can do more than exploit elemental weaknesses. I was totally hosed because of her constant barrage of status effects and my only remedy for them being items. Apart from trying and failing to do the same thing over and over again, I did learn a few key bits of info. Don't buff or debuff more than 3 times or else the boss will reset everything. Also for future, make sure I have War Cry or something else to lower the boss' attack power. (that was how I finally won. I kept "buying" demons and fusing them randomly to see if I could get a useful creation. Finally I got one with War Cry and simply having that used once at the start of the fight made it so much more manageable) But yeah, I need to be smarter about how I "craft" my demons and no more just randomly fusing them into something new because yay higher levels and stats. What good is this new demon with 32 Magic if it's Neutral and the rest of us are Law? Speaking of alignments, apparently Chaos has more plot to it and also a far easier final boss. What a load of crap.
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Dec 31, 2016 08:19
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Dragonatrix posted:The thing about SJ is that it handles mechanics in a strange and stupid way. A lot of weaknesses exist exclusively for you, the player, to utilise to get Co-Ops for extra damage. The game hands you demons you will never encounter in the wild with weaknesses that are completely irrelevant. Mayahuel is "weak" to Physical, for example... but takes 50% damage from it (he also gives the secret best Source). For the most part, a weakness... on your demons... is completely irrelevant if it's not an Instant Death one, or maybe an ailment, because they tie into a mechanic that only exists for the player. Well until such time as I have an easy supply of whatever item heals the entire party for full, I will probably have to stick to demons for healing. Ouroboros was such a bitch because she did nothing but attacks that hit my whole party. I was trying to use my party mainly for damage but there was no way I could heal and take off status effects with just items. I'm just about to attack the Jack's Squad HQ and so far Sector F has been a joke so I have several new Sources to choose from. One of them even had Luster Candy on it and I've heard it's pretty much the best ability in the game. Or one of them. Tired Moritz posted:won't lie, I'm starting to feel like playing Strange Journey again and I'm not sure if that's your intention. Yep, I am just stockpiling Sources for when I need them. If I run into a really hard boss again which I'm sure I will, I'll hopefully have all the tools I need to defeat them. DalaranJ posted:I think a massive landfill is pretty good as far as a reference to humanities' sloth goes. The teleporter puzzle wasn't so bad. I mean, it was bad, but I blundered my way through it in no time. I guess I'm just lucky. And yep, I am trying to get ready for a long, frustrating road ahead as I delve into this series.I actually have been told SJ is on the easy side when it comes to SMT titles. What is the hardest? Nocturne or something? No wait, I think it was DDS1 that was supposed to have the most legendarily bullshit superboss in JRPG history.
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Dec 31, 2016 19:37
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Dragonatrix posted:Normal Beads you can buy from Carina, and they're a full HP heal already. And items always go first (second if someone's guarding, which is yet again a player only mechanic). Bead Chains you'll be able to buy from midway through Fornax. Soma and their upgraded version you won't ever get an easy supply of. I have that ring. I had to use it for Ouroboros. I have plenty of Beads, I haven't looked to see if I have Bead Chains to buy yet. If I do, that'll help. Still, I wish there was a way to protect my monsters from status effects too. As I said, the problem with items was I was stuck doing one thing ata time. So for example in one of my many loses to Ourobors, one of my demons was Muted, and the other two were Stoned. I could only cure one of them at a time. That was a turn or two or three without healing and just letting her wail on me.
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Dec 31, 2016 19:55
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I'm on the final dungeon of Strange Journey. The "Three Wise Man" showing up to "explain everything" didn't explain poo poo. Would I have any idea who they are or who their opponent Louisa is if I had played the other games?
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Jan 2, 2017 22:47
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HGH posted:Try saying LouisaFerre out loud multiple times really fast. That might help? ... I forgot she even had a last name.
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Jan 2, 2017 23:16
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ImpAtom posted:To answer your question Lucifer appears in a lot of SMT games, usually under a hilariously thin psuedonym (Louis Cypher for example.) and as a blond-haired man or woman who is unassuming and yet infinite suspicious. He's a pretty lovely devil in this I guess. I mean, "Louisa" has shown up a handful of times and said one or two thing sand then left. Very persuasive, very high effort. I thought he was top Chaos guy? I was kinda wondering about why, in a series featuring multiple religious beings, Judao-Christian entities like YHWH and Lucifer are at the top of the two alignments.
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Jan 2, 2017 23:49
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Speaking of Nocturne, while I'm in an "SMT mood" should I play that next or maybe give Persona 3 a go?Infinity Gaia posted:If you're into the idea that all SMT games take place within the same multiverse, Apocalypse KINDA explains why the Judeo-Christian gods are the top of the foodchain. I want to play SMTIV and SMTIV:A and the Devil Survivor remakes so badly but I can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on a 3DS. I figure a new, not terrible PC is a better investment of my preciously limited money. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Jan 3, 2017 |
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Jan 3, 2017 01:03
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Brother Entropy posted:do you want to jrpg in a ruined world full of rear end in a top hat demons or make friends with animes Heh, a friend of mine who has played pretty much every SMT game just showed me this.  So I guess the question is do I want to hang with assholes or some cool people, maybe some waifus even? Or is that just PS4? I dunno,I dig this alignment stuff and Nocturne apparently has a cool take on it. Maybe I'll just start up both games and see which interests me more.
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Jan 3, 2017 09:53
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So I made it to the final boss of SJ. I lasted...oh, 30 seconds. Literally her first attack killed me. I'm Level 69 and I've been ready for this game to be over for a while now so I have had no mood for grinding or resource gathering. Big mistake I guess. I get to look forward to a nice day of both of those when I get up later. On the bright side, I have a ton of Sources I can now use because "you'll never know if you'll need it" stops mattering when you get to the final boss. Also I guess Gore was the Neutral representative. Weird.
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Jan 4, 2017 14:09
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This is kinda random but try as I might I can't really justify buying a 3DS and then having it modded so I can play it on a bigger screen. But I really want to play SMTIV and its sequel and also the Devil Survivor remakes.... Someone told me that with the Switch coming out, I can expect these games to come to Virtual Console or to get ports to the Switch. How likely is this? It would help me quite a lot if it's at all likely....
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Jan 4, 2017 22:19
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Alder posted:Wouldn't the 3DS be cheaper than the Switch though? It's way too early to make any predictions too. Typically I'll wait until everything is cheap then pick up new games at discounts. Buying the 3DS be simple and relatively cheap enough. It's the modding that bumps it up to unjustifiable levels for me.(I can't play a game on the little-rear end screen.) $500+ for a handheld? I don't know why PSP and Vita are so easy to get on my TV but the 3DS isn't. Or why Atlus put the Persona remakes on PSP/Vita but the SMT games on 3DS. All I know is it made my life far more annoying.
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Jan 4, 2017 22:48
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Brother Entropy posted:why do you need to mod it, the 3ds screens are fine No handheld screen is big enough. My eyesight is pretty poo poo.
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Jan 4, 2017 23:00
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irlZaphod posted:Have you tried glasses? They won't help. I've been legally blind since I was 4. Anywho, that is Strange Journey down. Aleph wasn't so bad once I got some proper equipment and leveled up a bit. I can't help but feel the Seraph I was given was kind of a huge crutch but gently caress it. Between Seraph and Hachiman spamming Big Bang and my Amaterasu using Debilitate and then healing while I threw Chakra restoratives around, I claimed victory. I do want to pat myself on the back for my Source farming precautions though because I gave Amaterasu Enduring Soul to auto-revive her in case she ever dies and guess what happened. But yeah, pretty happy ending it looks like. Very enjoyable game. I need to do NG+ someday. I'll be starting Nocturne later today.
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Jan 5, 2017 12:31
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:How do you play games if you don't mind me asking It's no problem. I play them on my 32 in TV and by leaning in really, really close to read. I still have to do that even on a big screen so a tiny handheld screen is out of the question.
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Jan 5, 2017 13:34
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Tortolia posted:Nice job. Thank you for the tips. I do have a couple questions now I think on it. With SJ, I actively avoided using a FAQ as much as possible. Someone told me that isn't possible with Nocturne and that I will absolutely need a map or something for some dungeons. Is this true? Second, how is this game on "multi-attacks"? I swear, Aleph and Gore were huge dicks because they had these huge physical attacks that were random. Sometime they were spread out among your whole party, sometimes they hit only one character and they were guaranteed to die because of it. That was kind of irritating and just wondering if Nocturne has anything similar. I was also already warned elsewhere that the final boss has an insta-kill move that is impossible to block and trying to do so will only make them use the insta-kill on their first turn. Although, now I think on it, is there only one final boss in this game? I heard Nocturne has several endings, would have figured it'd have different final bosses like SJ does. (although it's the same final boss for 2/3 routes in SJ)
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Jan 5, 2017 14:09
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thorsilver posted:Just in case my post got lost at the end of the last page, and also to add actual details: you can get a New 3DS and use custom firmware with NTR CFW and stream live gameplay from your 3DS to your computer without using a capture card. It takes a bit of setup but apparently it works quite well, I'm planning to set this up myself later this week. Go to http://3ds.guide/ to install custom firmware, then you can use this guide here to setup NTR: https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-3ds-screen-recording-without-a-capture-card-ntr-cfw-method.423445/ See, I don't know anything about this kind of stuff. Can anyone who does tell me if the router recommendations mean I'll have to buy one of those high-end routers I've sen that go for $100-200? If that's the case, I might as well get the "professional" physical modification. In the meantime though, Nocturne is crazy fun. The rock music seems a bit out of place though.
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Jan 5, 2017 22:44
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Then you could play SMTIV and Apocalypse on a nice big monitor -- along with a host of other great RPGs on 3DS.
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So I would definitely say I liked Strange Journey. However, to be blunt, it is more of a lukewarm like. Kinda like one of those TV shows you'll watch if it's on TV but you'd never buy the DVD's for it. But holy poo poo, two days of playing Nocturne and I am addicted. There's just so much happening in this game. So many mysterious figures and subplots and now my friend just decided she wants to take over the world. Like, I haven't seen Chiaki in god knows how many levels and hours and then bam, there she is, talking about making an ideal world where those she doesn't like get to be purged. What a bitch but talk about out of nowhere. Speaking of coming out of nowhere, while I'm sure a lot more will happen, I still think the Matador boss fight will probably end up being one of my favorite moments of the whole game. Due in no small part to this loving intense song but I also just really appreciate how "mundane" everything was but then I get sucked into a hell world and have to fight this crazy motherfucker. Taught me about playing the game better, too. And now he's on my team. I love this game. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Jan 7, 2017 |
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Jan 7, 2017 09:12
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So a poster on here suggested I pick either a Magic or Physical-focused Demifiend and stick with it all game.. I went with Mage because I love magic. I'm about Level 37 or so and have dumped all my points into Magic and then some Agility and then Vitality. I've done nothing with Strength or Luck. Yet someone is telling me now I should switch to physical because all the best Magatama for it are in the second half of the game. I'm not in the second half of the game yet obviously, this was just a forewarning intended to help me save myself. Does magic become less useful later on? Or is it "route-dependent"? quote:Also, if you plan to go down one specific ending, you'll want to switch your focus from Magic to Physical since Magatama with Physical skills come later. The only skill that appears early on for physical builds is Focus; KEEP IT IF YOU WANT TO SWITCH FROM MAGIC TO PHYSICAL. I apologize for the all-caps but I really needed to emphasize that.
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Jan 7, 2017 17:31
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Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm not really aiming for any ending. I want to make my choices and let chips fall where they may. Don't like spoilers much. However I have been warned the "Bad Ending' is very easy to stumble into. This is no ME2 where you have to aim for it and be determinedly lovely. So I dunno if I should accept spoilers if only to dodge that potential outcome....
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Jan 8, 2017 00:41
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Saagonsa posted:Yeah the only way to even possibly qualify for the bad ending is if you refuse to go with any of the alignments, and then answer wrong when given a yes/no question Well I am doing the Labyrinth as often as possible. I just finished the Second Kalpa and met the Knights. Once I get the next set of Candelabra so I can properly gain access to the Third Kalpa I'll be all over that. Same for fourth and I guess there's maybe a fifth? There are five doors. Apart from the awesome loot, EXP and Macca, I get lore from the Lady in Black so I definitely have to do it.
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Jan 8, 2017 01:22
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So I just completed the Obelisk in Nocturne. I thought it was a kind of lame dungeon to be honest but from what I hear, it marks the turning point in the game. Now things I say and do will actually matter towards my ending. To be frank, I felt with a bit more focus and direction, this might be one of the best JRPGs I ever played. So the fact it looks like I'm getting exactly that makes me very happy.
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Jan 9, 2017 07:37
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