Playthrough Topic (Hades)

[ganonfloyd]

I'm still surprised they're so expensive on 3DS now, that's wild.

are you excited to be into the series now so you can wonder when any info on smt v is gonna drop? its a great hobby

[Youef]

Yeah I mean at least I’ve been mentally prepared thanks to Berserk, GOT, and Hunter x Hunter.

[Maniac]

(Maniac do you know what happened to our Ahriman?)

he quit doing work for mangagamer and has disappeared from the face of the internet (at least as far as I can see) since completing his last freelance work that was released last december. I have no real way of contacting him anymore short of @-ing him on twitter and I don't know if he even uses that account anymore

[Arnaham]

I'm alive and still occasionally check this site, for some reason. I'm always amazed that it's still active.

I'd kind of like to play Nocturne again myself. I've been playing P5 Royal and that game doesn't hold up so well on a replay, I kind of hate the story knowing where it all goes in the end.

[Maniac]

ngl, I was actually worried. Hope you're doing well enough.

[Arnaham]

I was extremely depressed and didn't have any jobs for a couple months due to how abrupt that whole thing was, but now I've got better work than I did before, so I'm doing okay all things considered. I'm sure nobody's doing that well considering the state of the world, but hopefully you're all handling it alright.

[Random]

we livin'

[Youef]

Oh this was a pleasant surprise, really glad to hear from you dude. happy to see the name arnaham is still in use too

Do check out Nocturne. It's a worthy game. Never mind.

[Youef]

Ended up buying SMT IV and played maybe four hours of it so far.

I died quite often in the first area already, but I've noticed that dying in this game so far isn't quite as punishing as it was in Nocturne. Not only can I save anywhere, but saving is also a very fast process. I can also just restart the game and pick up where I left off if a battle is going very poorly in like under a minute. Also the game lets me go back to where I last left off if I have enough macca in the event that I do die, and I can continue fighting even if Flynn dies.

It was a bit of a shock to get one-shot by random enemies so frequently, but I'm starting to realize it isn't really as big of a deal to die in this game as it was in Nocturne. Maybe that'll somehow change in the future.

Glad to report that negotiating with demons is as obtuse as it ever was.

Good game so far. It's fun seeing all the new demons too.

[Maniac]

i can't wait for you to finish that game because only then can I say what I have to say about smt IV

[ganonfloyd]

yeah saving anywhere does a lot to make the game feel less frustrating compared to other ones

hope you dig it my dude i've put a dumb amount of hours into that game and its one of my all time favs at this point, i miss when it first came out and i had just quit my job at gamestop so i had nothing to do but play it for like 12 hour increments each day

[Youef]

i swear to god negotiating with these demons is a nightmare

I took a break to play Xenoblade Definitive, and that game is still super fun. I actually like the anime aesthetic of the artstyle in this version. It isn't so overt as it is in the second game, which I gave up on after like 6 hours in.

You Will Know Our Names is still a banger, but I like the original more than the arranged.

[Youef]

Now taking a break from Xenoblade. That game definitely holds up, but I need to play something else.

I got the feeling that Minotaur was this game's equivalent of Matador. He wrecked my party when I first went in. Granted half of them were sick and I didn't really care. I tried again after being healthy, but still lost pretty quickly. Then I thought about how I played Nocturne and decided to get some demons with buffs and debuffs. I really wanted Sukukaja and Sukunda, so I managed to fuse a Preta with Sukunda and Fortuna with Sukukaja. These helped, and having Bufu on Flynn helped me get some extra buffs and debuffs on the first turn.

Everything was going fine. He was hard and I felt like the battle could have gone either way, but I had some control over it. I think at some point he killed Preta, so I summoned out Pixie. No big deal, I was done with Sukunda anyways.

And then Walter casted Agi.

I thought this was just a meme, but holy shit that nearly ruined the entire battle. All of a sudden Minotaur smirks, gets two crits on Fortuna and Flynn, KOing both of them. Thankfully Pixie could use items, so I revived Flynn, summoned Apsaras, and used media on everyone. It was exceptionally close, yet I made it out okay. But seriously fuck you Walter.

Also shout-out to Oni who got a bunch of crits on Minotaur for me.

[Maniac]

i definitely died to minotaur at least once because of walter and probably everyone has either wiped to him or only narrowly averted a wipe because of him. it's the best feeling in the world

[Youef]

Cool, all done with SMTIV. I had a really great time with it. The press-turn system and fusion mechanics were much improved from Nocturne, and the sheer variety of demons kept things very interesting. I managed to get the Neutral ending by estimating which choices were Chaos and which were Law and kind of just going from there. I’m glad I got it for the sake of enjoying more content in this game. My final party consisted of Alice, Amaterasu, and Shiva. I also used Norn, Atropos, Asura, and Lorelei often during the midgame point. This game became much more manageable after Medusa.

A few issues here and there. Navigating Tokyo was a pain and definitely less intuitive than in Nocturne, but it wasn’t gamebreaking. The characterization was also rather weak, but I’m more interested in what the characters represent than the actual characters themselves in a game like this, so it isn’t a huge issue for me. Also the rarity of Fiend encounters was pretty disappointing.

I think I prefer Nocturne for its atmosphere, themes, and overall challenge, but I thought this game was really fun and might replay it in the future.

Not sure what’s next. Currently deciding between 4:A, Strange Journey, and Devil Survivor.

ok maniac now your turn