Megaten megathread

2501

whatsarobot Man I’ve tried to get into Soul Hackers over and over again because textually and aesthetically it really is super cool, but the actual game mechanics are so arcane and unintuitive and just not fun. Every time I try I again I feel like I’m doing it wrong, and then I just get bored and lose interest entirely. Wish the 3DS version had been less of a port and more of a remake tbh.

IV is also one of my fav games of the 2010s and especially one of my fav game soundtracks. Ryota Kozuka’s droning electronica is so startlingly grim and nightmarish compared to Shoji Meguro’s rock style it made me really wish for a future game that doubles down on horror elements with (somewhat) less numbery abstract gameplay, bigger deeper 3D environments and more graphic imagery channeling the series’ already evident Devilman and Berserk influences. Like some kind of psychedelic horror Xenoblade with Atlus’s catchy strategic hooks and Kozuka’s indelibly creepy industrial acid rock(?) tunes. That’d be my dream MegaTen.

Also, I dream of an SMT set in New York turned into an RPG overworld map just as lovingly detailed (and destroyed) as Atlus’s Tokyo.

LeFish

2501 SMT IV soundtrack is also one of my favourites. I still remember the wowee that I had when the boss battle music kicked in.

Syzygy

whatsarobot

Is there a more aesthetically beautiful-looking game than Nocturne? I think maybe not!

Maybe killer7, but not coincidentally it shares a similar style.

Nocturne was one of the first games I played after a hiatus from console games lasting a couple years, love it to death. Same with the DDS duology and the defunct Megaten Online. Too bad about Raidou because aesthetically it should be just my thing.

whatsarobot

Syzygy Goooood call. I do also love Killer7 for style reasons, and they are similar.

LeFish Heck yes. Awesome soundtrack. If you ever get a chance, try listening to it while walking around real-life Tokyo at night. That is a trip.

Here’s my pick for single best SMT music track (also great for walkin’ around in Tokyo at night):

BY THE WAY, what is everyone thinking about the status and supposed existence of SMT V? Will we see it this year? Next year? Is it secretly just Persona 6, as I fear it will be? I’m guessing it’ll lean waaaay more in the direction of SMT IV Final/Apocalypse (lame anime) than in the direction of Nocturne (so cool).

Is everyone else optimistic, even cautiously so? Or what?

sabertoothalex

christoffing I also really never got the impression that it was! I always saw SJ heralded as the most hardcore SMT game, with the fandom using it as some ultimate example for how Brutal And Cool the series is(the series has a weird reputation for this kind of this unfortunately). It’s great though, loved the DS version and want to try the 3DS version eventually. The last game Kaneko was super involved in!

whatsarobot Soul Hackers to me is just the ultimate vibe game. I love the aesthetics, love it thematically, love the characters. The art gallery in that game is just incredible. I wish the 3DS version went a little further with options to just make it more palatable nowadays, it would be such an easy recommendation.

Syzygy I’ve been playing the first Raidou and I might agree with you. It’s definitely cool so far but I find it to be really muddy looking in a way none of the other PS2 SMT games are, and the combat sorta feels like a few good ideas not executed on well enough. Still early though but my initial impressions are pretty mixed. What do you think about it?

whatsarobot I doubt SMTV is coming this year anymore and I’m not really worried about it turning into Persona 6. The last trailer they showed felt very, very purposely trying to evoke Nocturne, and I think that points to them still keeping it distinctly mainline. I do think they will probably take UI notes from P5 though and we’ll have something similarly stylish but maybe more restrained.

christoffing

whatsarobot Oh was that was Apocalypse was? I never bothered to play it cause no-one explained to me how it was different from the original SMT IV, which I on the other hand really liked and didn’t overdo the anime thing I thought!

Syzygy

I still haven’t played one minute of SMT4 or its sequels so I’m not in any hurry, lol

Though if not SMT5, what else is Atlus doing? Their only other announced new game is Project Re Fantasy, which is supposedly nearing completion. That’s directed by the Persona 3-5 director, who previously said he’s stepping down from the Persona series, so I expect Persona 6 will be at least slightly delayed by onboarding new staff.

marlfuchs2

Auberji

oh I guess to add to my minimal post “what applies to enemies, applies to you”. You can be hecked up too.

whatsarobot

christoffing To clarify just a little: I think SMT IV Final/Apocalypse was an attempt to sand down all the rough, prickly edges of SMT IV and make it palatable for Persona fans. A sensible business strategy!

But in so doing, it took a manic, punk rock nightmare of a game in which themes of class-based warfare and historic/ethnic conflicts took center stage, and introduced a cartoonish blue comic relief ghost, a cute anime girl who calls the protagonist “onii-chan,” smartphones as plot devices, and Matsuko Deluxe.

It’s not a sequel. It’s set during the events of SMT IV, but told from the point of view of a teenaged fan boy of the protagonist from SMT IV. It’s a tonal mess. Soundtrack slaps, though, and the battle system is more well-balanced and smoother than SMT IV.

2501

christoffing Apocalypse was horrible amd embarrassing in the setting/writing department but it was also developed by the B-team and not the guys directly responsible for IV and V so I have some hope. Atlus didn’t try to add waifus, J-pop and a new Objectively Correct Ending to the Nocturne remaster so that also gives me a little hope that maybe they’ve chilled out on trying to make every single other game they release into Persona.

beets

Should I play one of the mainline SMT games? I’ve beaten 3 Persona games but fusing demons is likely my least favourite part of Persona which I hear they’re all about. Are there any where SMT games where you’re not constantly adjusting your party becuase I’m a freak for the battle system.
What’s the core loop of the games like? Strange Journey has always interested me so I’d likely start with that or maybe Nocturne. I have a 3DS, PS2 and Switch so hardware isn’t a problem.

Syzygy

beets
The modern SMT battle system both originates in and was already perfect in Nocturne. I wouldn’t call it “constant” by any means, though if you just dislike the party management itself, I can’t be sure how you’ll feel about it. Digital Devil Saga has the least of that while still playing like SMT: you have a set party of characters instead of recruiting demons, though you still manage their growth.

On a range of grid-based dungeon crawler to JRPG:
Strange Journey <-> Nocturne <-> DDS

LeFish

beets You’d probably like the Digital Devil Saga duology on PS2. They’re both structured like more traditional JRPGs in that your party members are fixed and that their growth is, MC aside is pretty much fixed too. The only decision you really have to make is which skills to learn / keep / dump when you level up.

whatsarobot

Syzygy All I can add to Syzygy’s excellent summary is that SMT IV is similar to Nocture, but more fast-paced and less willing to leave you lost about where to go next. Maybe give it a look.

christoffing

whatsarobot It’s been a while since I played it, but I seem to recall IV being much nicer in terms of skills on the player character, which made party composition matter a little less.

Auberji

christoffing You got a reasonable number of nul/reflect skills and you could freely transfer stuff around rather than them being RNG like earlier entries.

Syzygy

They have definitely done QoL in the character management over time, for the better since usually it wasn’t even that you were restricted from making certain changes, but that you had to repeatedly back in and out of menus to get them to randomly show up.

christoffing

I think what I was thinking off was the way you had a bunch of otherwise equal, and powerful, weapons for different damage types on the MC, which meant they could always be trusted to fill any holes in your party’s offense kinda on the fly. I never felt like I was completely screwed for exploiting weaknesses. Might be remembering this wrong, of course!

Syzygy

Objectively Correct Ending

Much as I like the True Demon ending and everything that leads up to it, I do feel it takes away from the ambiguous ideal of Musubi / Shijima / Yosuga endings in the original release, something at least a little different than Law / Chaos. Though it always had Neutral / Demon, those endings seem to make fun of your indecision while True Demon is almost masturbatory in celebrating your choice.

2501

Syzygy Actually didn’t realize that adding “True Endings” for re-releases was something they’ve been doing since Maniax! I was under the assumption that it was part of the more recent trend that gave us things like the Strange Journey remaster which dummied out all the Kaneko art and added a new Cute Girl Character who was vital to the new ending that cheapens all the previous ones

yeso

I agree wrt the true demon ending, which is a minor bummer since the extra amala network stuff is cool.

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