Atlus So I'm playing SMT: Nocturne

[TheLostOne]

Actually, I find specialists to be easier to create and a more fun way to play anyway. Sure you can make a demon will all the elemental spells, but like having ones around that are really good at one or two.

They are easier to make because of the skill inheritance system. You just have to make sure your demon type can easily inherit the kind of skills you want to specialize.

 

[deuxhero]

The skills themselves have some form of tiering (I recall there being at least one rather useless passive that had an insane rate of carry over) but the demons do not have a preference IIRC.

They definitely do, especially in P3, as OM said. Igor even tells you about different inheritance types. The effect is present in Nocturne too, I remember one time it took me an hour of re-rolls to fuse Orthrus that wouldn't inherit any Agi spells, even though he had plenty of other skills to choose from. That's not just an isolated case, either.

Like I said, p3 introduced them. Nocturne only "no opposite affinity moves" and "must have this body part to inherit" rules

Agi, being a low level single target magic, is just really high on the priority to be inherited (Atlus is a dick like that). It isn't unique to Orthrus.

See this FAQ

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/582958-shin ... faqs/23739

 

[Moray]

I'm playing it on PCXS2 and it runs perfectly. The FPS occasionally sporadically dips into the low 50's but as a whole it stays around 60 in 3072x3072. People constantly baw about PS2 emulation, but it's really not that hard provided you're not trying to run it on an ancient PC. You should try it out. As I understand, it's a pretty easy game to get running on it.

Do you happen to have a download link to the iso file you're using? I have PCXS2 (0.9.6, I believe), but can't for the life of me find an iso of Nocturne (I think my internet-fu is weak) and I've actually wanted to play this game for a little while now.

 

[CrimHead]

I believe it was off tpb. The only one on tpb. Right now it seems there are only 2 seeders, unfortunately. Better to wait a while than to not play it at all though.

 

[spekkio]

@Moray:
Try equipping the ring...

 

[Reject_666_6]

Fuck yeah, SMT3 is an amazing game. Right now I'm looking into which game of the series to try next. I'm torn between Devil Summoner 1 or 2 (not Devil Survivor) and Strange Journey. Any opinions on these two?

I know Summoner is a bit different from the main series, but I prefer playing on my PS2 than on Desmume (don't have a DS) and I want to stay away from the Persona games.

 

[Crooked Bee]

You surely don't mean the first two Devil Summoners; those are for PS1 iirc. As for the PS2 ones, the second one is p. good despite being too action-ey for my tastes. The first one is also fun though, so suit yourself.

Still, Strange Journey would be the best choice imo. Turn based > anything else. And Desmume is very easy to use.
Then again, I have a thing for dungeon crawlers, so I'm very biased in this regard.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

DS has real time fights. I liked it, but you'll probably want to see one or two videos before torrenting it.

Devil Summoner is a p. cool guy, eh fights in teh nude and doesn't afraid of anything

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Do the Devil Summoner games work on PSCXCET2? Last I checked they weren't, but they seem interesting.

I liked Nocturne, but the almost puzzle-like approach you generally had to take to boss battles put me off. I stopped at the entrance to the Obelisk, which, by all accounts, is a bullet I'm glad to have dodged. Should really fire it up again sometime, not sure why even the better JRPGs get boring for me halfway through.

 

[KalosKagathos]

Do the Devil Summoner games work on PSCXCET2? Last I checked they weren't, but they seem interesting.

They do. They can lag heavily in areas with a lot of NPCs, but combat is fine.

As for their quality, they're firmly in the "good for what they are" camp. Combat is kinda rubbish (second game went to great lengths to fix it, but it still wasn't quite enough), but it's not offensively bad, just mediocre.

What the games have going for them is atmosphere. The first one is like a mix of a 30's pulp detective story and a corny 70's anime series. One moment you're investigating a missing person, next thing you know you're fighting a possessed transformer battleship. Doesn't take itself seriously at all and is guaranteed to have you grinning like an idiot for most of its duration.

The second one starts the same way as the first (Raidou slipping on a banana peel at a crucial moment is the running gag of the first chapter), but swiftly becomes a whole lot more serious and closer to SMT I and II: alignments are back, Louis Cypher is snooping around, minor philosoraptory abounds. While nowhere near as lulzy as the first one, it does a great job at getting the creepy-rural-village-with-a-dark-secret setting right. Also, it probably has the best generic boss battle theme in the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjK8njx4fb4

EDIT:

See this FAQ

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/582958-shin ... faqs/23739

Thanks, I stand corrected.

 

[CrimHead]

Do any of the games have comparable fusion systems? I love this shit.

 

[Reject_666_6]

By the way, everybody who's using PCSX2 should get the latest version of 0.9.7. It's only a beta version, but compatibility has increased and there are more options for speedhacks and tweaking performance.

 

[CrimHead]

Using it, and yes, the speedhacks work wonderfully. Boosted my FPS by 15%

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Do any of the games have comparable fusion systems? I love this shit.

Most (all?) of the post-nocturne SMT games have some kind of fusion system that is very similar. Demon lists change, skill sets vary a bit. Some special fusions change (Nocturne is the only one to have sacrifice fusions I believe, others replace it with their own special fusion mechanic). Overall they stick to what worked right in SMT3, though the changes tend to ward off some of the more fun to exploit fusion tricks that you can abuse in SMT3.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

The skills themselves have some form of tiering (I recall there being at least one rather useless passive that had an insane rate of carry over) but the demons do not have a preference IIRC.

They definitely do, especially in P3, as OM said. Igor even tells you about different inheritance types. The effect is present in Nocturne too, I remember one time it took me an hour of re-rolls to fuse Orthrus that wouldn't inherit any Agi spells, even though he had plenty of other skills to choose from. That's not just an isolated case, either.

Like I said, p3 introduced them. Nocturne only "no opposite affinity moves" and "must have this body part to inherit" rules

Agi, being a low level single target magic, is just really high on the priority to be inherited (Atlus is a dick like that). It isn't unique to Orthrus.

See this FAQ

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/582958-shin ... faqs/23739

Wasn't too sure if I should I trust this so I did my own test. Keep in mind, your link is a fan guide (in fact, one whose last update was August of '04, before the English version was even released). It isn't necessarily 100% correct. Out of 100 trials with a Chatterskull demon that had the ability to inherit both Zio and Feral Bite (both level 1 skills according to this FAQ), it took Zio 72 times and Feral Bite 59 times, or about 22% more often. Chatterskull is a caster demon which would presumably prefer magic attacks over physical attacks if there was an affinity system, but I can't really be sure either way.

 

[CrimHead]

I just faced Dante in the third Kalpa and man am I glad I had Endure on the MC... It actually came down to him getting a stream of criticals on my main character that, were it not for the aforementioned skill, would have killed him instead of leaving him at 1 health. I even had my Dionysus cast Prayer the previous round, so Dante brought me from max health (in the 400's) to 1... But on the previous round I cast focus, so when Dante's final blow landed, Retaliate allowed me to hit him back for some 700 damage

Killed him

 

[deuxhero]

Do any of the games have comparable fusion systems? I love this shit.

Most (all?) of the post-nocturne SMT games have some kind of fusion system that is very similar. Demon lists change, skill sets vary a bit. Some special fusions change (Nocturne is the only one to have sacrifice fusions I believe, others replace it with their own special fusion mechanic). Overall they stick to what worked right in SMT3, though the changes tend to ward off some of the more fun to exploit fusion tricks that you can abuse in SMT3.

The DDS pair don't. I have no experience with Demikids to say if it does or not and want none.

The skills themselves have some form of tiering (I recall there being at least one rather useless passive that had an insane rate of carry over) but the demons do not have a preference IIRC.

They definitely do, especially in P3, as OM said. Igor even tells you about different inheritance types. The effect is present in Nocturne too, I remember one time it took me an hour of re-rolls to fuse Orthrus that wouldn't inherit any Agi spells, even though he had plenty of other skills to choose from. That's not just an isolated case, either.

Like I said, p3 introduced them. Nocturne only "no opposite affinity moves" and "must have this body part to inherit" rules

Agi, being a low level single target magic, is just really high on the priority to be inherited (Atlus is a dick like that). It isn't unique to Orthrus.

See this FAQ

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/582958-shin ... faqs/23739

Wasn't too sure if I should I trust this so I did my own test. Keep in mind, your link is a fan guide (in fact, one whose last update was August of '04, before the English version was even released). It isn't necessarily 100% correct. Out of 100 trials with a Chatterskull demon that had the ability to inherit both Zio and Feral Bite (both level 1 skills according to this FAQ), it took Zio 72 times and Feral Bite 59 times, or about 22% more often. Chatterskull is a caster demon which would presumably prefer magic attacks over physical attacks if there was an affinity system, but I can't really be sure either way.

Exactly, low level magic has a high carry over rate. Try having both Agi and Agidyne inheirtable.

 

[CrimHead]

Just beat it. 82 hours.

Man...

What a fucking great game. The story was virtually nonexistant for the majority, but it really got amazing toward the end.

Destroy the universe with the power of Lucifer and go off to kill God? Yes plz.

Now I'm just wondering which Megami Tensei game I should play next. The fusion system on the Devil Summoner games looks nice, and very reminiscent of Nocturne's, but the Real Time with Pause combat looks... well, ew. Not diggin' that. Digital Devil Saga has no fusion system, but the same combat system as Nocturne, and Persona 3/4 are about 5000 degrees too cutesy weeaboo for me to handle. Fuck. Maybe Strange Journey? I hear it's pretty much SMT4. Fill me in here guise.

 

[KalosKagathos]

I'm afraid Persona 3 and 4 are your best bet if it's fusion you want. Make sure to turn off the voice overs, though.

 

[CrimHead]

After hearing there isn't full party control in P3 (the fuck? who thought this was a good idea?), I think I might skip to P4, then.

 

[KalosKagathos]

After hearing there isn't full party control in P3 (the fuck? who thought this was a good idea?), I think I might skip to P4, then.

The PSP version of P3 does have manual party control, but the game itself is still meh. The amount of XP you gain is strangely low, so there's a lot of grinding, especially before the final boss. Not to mention the bad writing, of which, unlike Nocturne, there's a lot.

But definitely try P4. Better boss design, status effects aren't a roulette wheel because of the addition of the Guard command, even the writing is decent. Probably the only offensively anime thing about it is Teddie (seriously, turn off the voice overs). I even prefer P4 to P2; must be because I like Jung more than Freud.



EDIT: Could anyone tell if The Answer part of P3 any good? I was so goddamn tired after finishing The Journey that I didn't even bother with it.

 

[Chateaubryan]

Even if P3 and P4 have approximately the same fusion system as Nocturne, the problem is that 3 of the 4 party slots are locked by the companions, who can't switch persona. Way to fuck up something good.

Go for Strange Journey or Eternal Punishment. They have more bearable plot than P3 and P4 and even if their fusion system is not as deep as Nocturne's, they compensate in other areas (even if Strange Journey is close to Nocturne in that regard). Strange Journey add a layer of "complexity" with the alignment system while Eternal Punishment has little additions (demon negociation, more side quests, spell combos, ect...) that makes up for the lack of fusions.

 

[KalosKagathos]

Even if P3 and P4 have approximately the same fusion system as Nocturne, the problem is that 3 of the 4 party slots are locked by the companions, who can't switch persona. Way to fuck up something good.

You can change companions themselves, you know.

 

[Chateaubryan]

Even if P3 and P4 have approximately the same fusion system as Nocturne, the problem is that 3 of the 4 party slots are locked by the companions, who can't switch persona. Way to fuck up something good.

You can change companions themselves, you know.

It's a rather weak consolation for not being able to customize them the way you did in Nocturne. For the most part, they are built the same way : one or two buff/debuff, one elemental/physical spell family and sometimes a little touch of something else.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Now I'm just wondering which Megami Tensei game I should play next.

Strange Journey, of course.