I’m excited for Vengeance too. I’m interested to see what Atlus does with the end game for the new path since the original reeked of “we did this during lockdown”. The two actual dungeons were either bad or dire and the actual ending was over before it began. Fingers crossed!
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I’ve got SMT VeeVee preordered. I’m just super excited to chill with that game in at least 60fps. Love the music and atmosphere.
I didn’t mind the minimal story telling in the original to a degree but would like to see these characters and their ‘reasons’ fleshed out a bit more.
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I saw this clip before playing Persona 4G so I knew what to expect going into that game
However, no one warned me that it is just as bad if not worse in Persona 3!! Why do they love this trope so much?? I have tears in my eyes from laughing. There have been three separate references to people collapsing in the last 10 minutes of game time 
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Looks like Kaneko has officially left Atlus. I’m going to assume creating game experiences incorporating the “the latest technologies” just means Crypto/NFT nonsense. Kind of sad given how influential he was.
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honestly tragic
I’ve been on the fence about buying this one again, but even just seeing the first half of the 50 changes listed in this video is pushing me toward it.
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I was really hoping they’d tweak the Path of Creation more… I know people without Switches might want to play it as “pure” to the original as possible but I’m not sure I like the method of shoving all the new story content over to Path of Vengeance
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Yeah, it makes me wish they’d just put Vengeance out as an expansion for Switch independent of buying the whole game again.
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That video has really pushed me towards double dipping. Lots of great changes and I’m really glad that the new route is just selectable and not something unlocked at the end of another play through.
I played SMTV during a summer and now that the sun is finally out in the UK, that video made me really nostalgic for when I played it.
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Yeah I’m in a weird position with this game now. Like I want to try out the Path of Creation because it would be nice to see this running on something that isn’t a Switch. But I did beat that game twice already and put a lot of hours into it.
I’m still checking it out - but I oddly feel obligated to play creation before chaos.
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i considered doing the ng+ after the first time but the only reason to do so would’ve been to beat shiva and see a different cutscene at the end i guess? kind of knew something like this was coming anyway
Public service announcement: There’s a new trailer for Vengeance and it’s complete spoiler heck. Sure looks good though.
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So how do people here feel about the Labyrinth of Amala in Nocturne?
For context: Nocturne was first released in Japan with the regular slew of endings related to the Reasons. Then they put out Maniax, the Atlus Enhanced Version ™️ which is what got localized as Nocturne here. This added the Labyrinth of Amala dungeon and the True Demon Ending. After this there was a Maniax Chronicle Edition which replaced DMC Dante with Raidou Kuzunoha. This is what the HD Remaster is based on.
When I played this game back in the day I never finished the Labyrinth so I’m trying it out this time. It sure is a slog IMO! Totally interrupts the flow of the game with really really really long gimmick dungeons. The main reward for doing this is more context on the story and the aforementioned True Demon Ending which the internet crowd seems to think is the best thing ever. However I’m really struggling to get through it, it’s a lot of extra hours of play! The main game is so tight and beautiful that when I get into these aimless sections I just feel like I lose all interest.
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The True Demon Ending itself is neat, but getting there is mostly a drag. I agree that it hurts the pacing of the game and is fairly frustrating. It seems more suitable to being post-game content but there’s not really a way to make it make sense post game.
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I don’t recall enjoying the dungeon at all. I mean the cutscenes are neat and that’s about it.
But honestly it’s mostly par for the course for a lot of those Atlus games. Strange Journey had a pretty brutal dungeon in Redux, SMT IV’s neutral ending required a bit of grinding, and Persona 3 and 4’s expansion content dungeons aren’t anything to write home about.
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I’m fairly indifferent to it. The maze gimmicks wear thin by the time you reach the fourth section, for sure and feel more like a battle of attrition but you’re also not wedded to doing it all at a specific time other than the first section if I remember correctly. The whole thing feels a bit more like a free roaming, grid-based dungeon RPG too whereas the rest of the game feels like a traditional JRPG. I think it’s neat.
Whilst I do agree that it breaks the pace of the main game I do feel that it’s also an opportunity to do something else outside of the critical path and there’s some fun puzzles and bosses there. I don’t hate it but the last time I played it I recall looking at map guides for a few floors because progression felt tedious.
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I somewhat agree/somewhat disagree. I found that there are pretty natural lulls in Nocturne that felt like they were signaling me to go do the Labyrinth of Amala, so I didn’t feel as though it was a major interruption.
To me, Nocturne would feel pretty incomplete without the dungeon. In particular, the boss fights in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kalpa feel pretty essential to what Nocturne is and is trying to do, both narratively and from a gameplay perspective.
As for the actual dungeon itself - I would kinda dread re-doing the first and second kalpas on another playthrough. The second Kalpa in particular I remember being extremely long and arduous. I remember the later Kalpas being tighter and much less of a slog, largely because they switch from long dungeon-crawling sections to short dungeon-crawling sections with a boss.
The True Demon Ending is there. I think the hype is mostly because it is a mark of pride. Narratively, it’s closer to a “bad” ending than what you’d expect to be a “true” ending of a megaten game. I don’t really like it and wish it didn’t exist. It’s a cop out. The game asks you to engage with a variety of philosophies presented before you and choose, punishing you (the regular Demon Ending) for failing to engage with any of them. But now there’s a new “true” ending that allows you to completely sidestep the same philosophies and you get new content for it? Lame.
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If any IC people are on the fence about getting the updated SMT V just note that it’s now endorsed by Slipknot. Because??? Did not expect this at all.
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