Well, this is what I've played so far. I wouldn't really recommend spend good money on any of these games though (maybe 10$ as much), but well I'll just leave a brief comment and judge yourself.
Dragon Quest VII remake: A prettier port, the same game with less grindy features. Monster classes are quirky and have fun abilities, yet unnecessary to invest time on since the game is so damn easy, so you can do well with only the boring-ass human classes. Never had a single battle that challenged my blobby crew of guys with monster classes.
Fire emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia: I also beat fates conquest and awakening. And I think shadow of valentia offers a superior experience although is a bit easier in comparison, despite of yielding a fair challenge for anyone. Overall It's more simple, but sometimes less is more . There are fewer classes and weapons don't wear out, also the romantic and emotional engagements were drastically toned down. The third person dungeon exploration is a bit amusing too.
SMT IV: To put it mildly, I think the last main Megaten released is lukewarm at best. Devs butchered several cool things we saw in Nocturne: There are not moon-like phases, nor cursed fusion paths, physical skills require mana instead of HP, you can't use your demons for social purposes, fused demons don't inherit bonus stats and growth... And I can go on but I guess u already have the idea. Moreover, dungeons are freaking boring and a pain in the ass to navigate through, I dunno how those guys from Atlus got away with doing dungeon designs so bad such as these. Narrative is meh, atmosphere seems interesting at first but ended up as shallow as everything else.
If u are only here for the sake of a challenge, look no further, this game is not harder than Nocturne; but is also not fond of
handholding either. So rest assured to gladly expect that SMT IV will deliver ur ass handed to you without issues if you think u can steamroll across the entire playthrough by using a team composition worthy of someone with serious brain damage (No weakness coverage, no emergency measures, not well though defensive/offensive rotations, no sustain etc.).
SMT IV Apocalypse: Haven't beaten it yet, only stuff I liked is that now demons have skill affinities (i.e. some demons hits harder and spend less mana casting fire spells, others with ice, wind or heal more with dia spells etc.), mudo/hama skills do damage and only one shot when smirking, and now u have more control over the smirk mechanics too... nice
But, I left the game standby after beating frost king in fairy forest. Sorry dudes, but I couldn't stand: the annoying ghost jade dagger minigame thing, the teeny childhood friend who has the hots for Nanashi that keeps yabbling obvious stuffs without realizing we just saw the very scene alongside her, that dagba guy goin' through his edgy phase, the over descriptive text like It was directly copy pasted from the script without taking into account the information input given by scenery and sounds. But above all that, the excessive beelining of story progression, I know SMT IV was like that too, but crap, It went overboard with it. I'll give it another try later, hope it'll get better.
Devil Survivor 1 & 2: well, after playing more than
60 hours
each and got bored enough to write a
thread this long about them. And what I have to say, well, Don't get deceived by Its Jrpg tactics facade, these two are just a pair of bland visual novels.
The strategy value pretty much revolves around powerleveling until you or anyone of you team deal min three digit number damage on ur foes. And nope, there's not middle point, either you grind ur ass off until become OP for current challenge or u face demise by current boss own cheap tactics. And about those tactics, It only varies on which skill they will spam galore without retaliation: phys, fire, ice, curse, poison, wind, shock?. Doesn't matter, you just have to wear the proper immunity and blow up on them multi strikes or holy dances.
Storywise? I admit the first one have some interesting things goin' on across the plot. But the second one? Jesus christos men, what a retarded and corny story It has! the premise is not that bad tho'.
