SMT/Persona: General Discussion (P4 Arena, P4 Golden, P5, SMT: IV, Etc.)

[Gilgamesh]

Figured I might as well make a thread and see if there are some Shin Megami Tensei fans among us here. I've been a pretty big fan of the series for a few years. Persona 4 Nocturne is still my all-time favorite game in the franchise, but I've liked or loved every one of them that I've played, and I've gone all the way back to the SNES ones.

Games are continuing to come out at a nice and steady pace too. Devil Survivor Overclocked is on the way for 3DS, and an unknown "Shin Megami Tensei" game and an unknown "Persona" game are also announced to be in the works for 3DS. A PSP enhanced port of Persona 2: Innocent Sin is coming out soon in Japan. Meanwhile, Persona 5 should be entering main development soon.

[Chaos Greyblood]

There's been some developments, that's certain. I liked the 2 older SMT games from SNES, Persona 3 and I'm waiting for the patch on Soul Hackers to be finished so that I can play the game.

There's also an MMORPG if you're interested. How long has it been since I last played it...?

[Uberchoco]

I'm Playing Strange Journey for the DS at the moment and loving it. The combat system is cool and agile (oh yes, I love agile combat systems) as always, the dual screens are really useful and conversations with demons are incredibly fun to do. Be it hitting on demonic women who will answer badly no matter how you talk to them, being trolled by Archangels who ask for 103110 Macca at levels below 10 or spewing nonsense to monkey-like demons to get a Revival Bead in exchange makes the game real fun.

And no matter what people say, the Demonica suit's design is awesome.

[Marth]

I really enjoyed the two SNES SMT games. Though, what happened to Beth in the second one was a 'NOOOOOOOO!' moment.

Beth... =(

[Gilgamesh]

There's been some developments, that's certain. I liked the 2 older SMT games from SNES, Persona 3 and I'm waiting for the patch on Soul Hackers to be finished so that I can play the game.

There's also an MMORPG if you're interested. How long has it been since I last played it...?

I haven't played the Imagine MMO since it came out. I got to around Level 25 and lost interest. I heard they have made tons of additions and improvements to it since then, but I have a bit of a hard time getting into it. As I have said elsewhere, though, it may just be because MMORPGs are not generally my thing. For those that do like them, though, I heard that Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine is a much better game now than it was when it came out, and I thought it was decent enough back then.

And for those that haven't played the console PS2 games yet, I highly recommend them. Persona 3 and Persona 4 are the most well known, but if those games aren't your thing, then perhaps the likes of Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga are? I think they are all really good games, and some of them are drastically different than others.

[Chaos Greyblood]

I think I should try to find Nocturne sometime myself, but with money wags the dog in my case.

[Certis Baliano]

I recently loaded up my old save file in Nocturne, completed the graveyard challenges and started the Hard mode with half an extra turn.

However, even with that bonus, it's still hard as heck.

[Grant]

Of course, this is Atlus we're talking about. The company that gets its own page on TVTropes for hard bosses. All those happy memories of screaming in rage at the Matador, cowering from Shadow Yukiko and crying over Maya*. I've been hoping that Atlus will return to the style of Persona 2 for a while now.

*Poor, poor Maya.

[04satsujinki40]

*currently playing P3P and FES*

* just bought the SMT:Persona game that happened to arrive today*

*also plays SMT IMAGINE occasionally*

[Chaos Greyblood]

With the coming Persona 2 games getting to the US as properly as they should have, maybe there's a bit of hope for the older games, since Atlus has caught up with the fact that we do actually like their games and the franchise in general.

And I have no PSP either.

[Grant]

The older ones might simply be a bit too old. That and Atlus is moving away from the 'God is evil' themes of the earlier ones.

[Chaos Greyblood]

What about the older Devil Summoner games? I'd like to take them for a spin.

[Gilgamesh]

The older ones might simply be a bit too old. That and Atlus is moving away from the 'God is evil' themes of the earlier ones.

They never had a "God is evil" theme, they simply had a balance between Law and Chaos, and you got to pick who you sided with. They portrayed both sides with positives and negatives, and Shin Megami Tensei games still do that. Devil Summoner 2 for the PS2 came out very recently and it has a Law vs Chaos theme like the older games and even has good old Louis Cyphre in there. Devil Survivor for the DS also had a particular ending where you could go against God like in some of the really old games.

But SMT didn't always have heavy religious themes. It's just that some games do and some games don't. None of the Persona games ever really got too into that (well, haven't played P2 yet...) and whatnot. And as for wishing the SMT series would go back to it's roots a little bit, the recent Strange Journey game for the DS was as old-school SMT as you could imagine, so that might be right up your alley. And, again, if people haven't played Nocturne or Digital Devil Saga, those are both very good games that wind up getting into heavy religious stuff.

But not everyone likes those kinds of stories, so SMT has always made a point to do other types of things as well. Devil Summoner (at least, Radiou Devil Summoner games) generally don't go in that direction and there have always been some games that don't go all out into religion, specifically the recent (and very popular) Persona games. And even when SMT does get into religion, it's not always Christian stuff, as they deal heavily with all religions when it gets down to it.

So, yeah, even way back in the old classic days there were SMT games that didn't deal with those themes, but if you like those themes and the stories of Persona 3 or Persona 4 aren't for you, there are still games coming out nowadays that DO deal with those themes.

[04satsujinki40]

i want that P2 remake.

and how about Catherine? the SMT wiki says it's not related to SMT or something...

i wonder if it's related to Persona...

or maybe it's simply it's own universe.

[Grant]

What about the older Devil Summoner games? I'd like to take them for a spin.

Maybe Soul Hackers. I think the group that translated Innocent Sin is working on it, or at least they were. Not sure if they're still active.

They never had a "God is evil" theme, they simply had a balance between Law and Chaos, and you got to pick who you sided with. They portrayed both sides with positives and negatives, and Shin Megami Tensei games still do that. Devil Summoner 2 for the PS2 came out very recently and it has a Law vs Chaos theme like the older games and even has good old Louis Cyphre in there. Devil Survivor for the DS also had a particular ending where you could go against God like in some of the really old games.

The first two SMT games really felt like they were making Chaos much more attractive than Law, especially with how YHWH acts at the end.

i want that P2 remake.

and how about Catherine? the SMT wiki says it's not related to SMT or something...

i wonder if it's related to Persona...

or maybe it's simply it's own universe.

So far I've been avoiding details about Catherine so I have a fresh experience when it comes out in the U.S, but based on everything we knew before its release I suspect that it doesn't have any relation to SMT canon or Persona 3 canon. Just because Vincent has an appearance in P3P doesn't make him any more connected than Dante is to Nocturne.

[Gilgamesh]

Yeah, Catherine is unrelated to SMT or Persona. That's why I felt the need to make a separate topic for it, it's not really part of this series. Vincent does have a cameo in P3P, but it's non-canon. The actual game Catherine isn't even set in Japan, from what I understand, let alone in Iwatodai. The timeframe doesn't match up at all either, and if one version of P3 was going to be the canon one, it'd probably be FES rather than P3P.

The first two SMT games really felt like they were making Chaos much more attractive than Law, especially with how YHWH acts at the end.

Perhaps that's just your inner personal preference influencing you? ;)
heh heh heh

[04satsujinki40]

and if one version of P3 was going to be the canon one, it'd probably be FES rather than P3P.

FeMC is canon... ;_;

[Gilgamesh]

FeMC is canon... ;_;

"Canon" is a very loose and almost useless word when it comes to games with like this. What I meant was, for like... the world itself? Ehhh. Whatever. I can't think of a right way to word what I mean, so just take "Vincent isn't canon" as what I meant.

[Chaos Greyblood]

@Grant: There was been a lot of activity for Soul Hackers in the last few months. Fact is, they're pretty close to actually finishing the patch, so there are a few details they want to run and clean up some stuff. From there, it won't be long before we start playing Soul Hackers.

It looks like they may also target SMT:If.

[04satsujinki40]

so just take "Vincent isn't canon" as what I meant.

oh okay~ =]