Shin Megami Tensei IV - 3DS

Utnayan

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I just picked this up on Amazon and was playing it last night, I am completely hooked.

The atmosphere is incredible, 3D effects are good, great sound track, decent enough voice acting for a 3DS game, and the gameplay of recruiting pokemon style demons and the class structure system is addicting. Basically this is Pokemon Meets Dark Souls Junior as far as difficulty. (You can tone down the difficulty after you die twice and are resurected by the Styx River Ferryman.)

You basically recruit demons (Good and bad) to fight for you. You control 4 at a time while you play through quests in the game world. There is a deeper structure to the core of it all, including a computer you get in the game which you can buy "Apps" on, which give you character bonuses. These need to be strategic decisions when you pick these apps. For instance, you can pick an app called negotiation which allows you to gain money from demons when you recruit them, etc. There are a lot of these. You also combine demons together into different combinations using a fusion mechanic. All demons have different powers, and the demons you fight all have different weaknesses and resistances.

I haven't played any of the other games in the series, nor have I played Persona 4 or others that they reference.

A game play video showing the first 60 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs7SV4K5bEc

^^ Skip to about 25 minutes in if you want to see actual gameplay - the first 25 minutes or so is showing the lay of the land, shops, back story, etc.

If you are interested in this game here are a few tips.

1) Do not purchase the game on the E-Shop. While convenient, you are paying the same price for the game should you order the boxed version, but losing out on all the goodies. For the same price, you get the cartridge, the CD sound track, and a very good mini strategy guide.

2) If you own Fire Emblem Awakenings and you purchase this game as well, register them both to your Nintendo Club account and you will receive $30 bucks in e-Shop credit immediately. (I guess this has to be done before August 31st) So basically you will get a free game out of the deal on the eShop. (Both games are good and considered system sellers)

There is a 3DS thread here somewhere so hopefully I didn't miss it. Although I feel this game requires it's own thread. I am about 2 hours in so far but it was one of the first games since Bioshock Infinite that I cannot put down, and aside from soem dabbling in Animal Crossing and Fire emblem, I am having this game trump my video game time on all my other platforms.
 

Man0warr

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Just for some more information - Persona games are easier spinoffs of the original SMT games that add stuff like relationships and a day/night cycle and calendar system. SMT games are generally much more difficult and stick to the core gameplay systems. Persona 4 Golden is a pretty damn good game though.

SMT 4 has added a lot of things to make it easier than usual SMT games if you wish. Along with general improvements to Demon Fusion and being able to pass on skills when you fuse them (This is usually a Persona only thing), in addition to being able to take skills for your Main Character from your demons when they learn their final skills.

I'm about level 30 and just finished Ikebukuro - going 3 MAG/1 AGI/1 LUK with my MC and loading him up with elemental spells.

Game is definitely worth it, especially if you have Fire Emblem Awakenings. Then you can register both and get a code for $30 E-Shop credit that you can apply to the Wii U or 3DS (they don't share credit balances, so choose wisely - may change with an upcoming update that adds Nintendo Network ID system to 3DS).

Do not purchase the game on the E-Shop. While convenient, you are paying the same price for the game should you order the boxed version, but losing out on all the goodies. For the same price, you get the cartridge, the CD sound track, and a very good mini strategy guide.
Only if you get a first run printed version, the 2nd wave won't have that stuff.
 

Utnayan

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Only if you get a first run printed version, the 2nd wave won't have that stuff.
Oh, didn't know that. Needless to say I didn't even check when I ordered it on Amazon. When the game came I was a little shocked and then checked to see if there were any other versions. I got lucky there. The book is fantastic. I originally didn't do the eshop purely for space reasons on my 3DS. So I also ordered a 32 Gb card and a USB reader to transfer. I didn't know much about the 3DS until I bought one purely for Animal Crossing and to play on the plane rides to my honeymoon and back. After some research I also foudn you can buy those class 10 cards and once installed, speeds up the load times considerably on eshop content. Night and day difference actually.

Anyway, great game. I'll probably need some tips. Right about how I am pouring Str, Dex, and Luck into my main character. Concentrating on Melee. I hope I am doing it right.
 

Tenks

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You probably want to focus on MAG at least for this game. Since so few enemies are weak to physical damage types you really want to just get a variety of magical damage types on your MC to exploit the press turn system. The physical damage in this game seems pretty bad compared to magical damage. The only time it is worth it to focus on physical types in the SMT games is if they do significantly more flat damage than the magical types. I haven't found that to be the case here.
 

hodj

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Its good. I screwed up my stats a little early on being unsure if I wanted to go magic or physical, got to level 14, decided I wanted to go pure magic, rerolled, have been playing off and on since. Its good.

I did buy the digital version, I didn't care about the extra stuff, and I prefer to not have to deal with the cartridges. The 3ds has some really decent JRPGs right now. This, Fire Emblem, and Etrian Oddyssey 4 are all good buys and worth while.
 

Jabberwhacky

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total noob Q but how do you register the eShop version of this game? I bought a physical copy of FE:A and I did the survey/ registered it, but I can't find anything about SMT4. I bought it second, but I haven't gotten any free credit.
 

hodj

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Bet you haven't linked your 3ds account to your club nintendo account so you're gonna have to email Nintendo to get it fixed now.
 

Man0warr

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total noob Q but how do you register the eShop version of this game? I bought a physical copy of FE:A and I did the survey/ registered it, but I can't find anything about SMT4. I bought it second, but I haven't gotten any free credit.
I bought FE:A digitally and it registered automatically - I assume you have to link your E-Shop to your Club Nintendo account first for that to happen though. So you may have to call Nintendo.

As soon as I registered my physical copy of SMT4, I got a popup on the website alerting me of a new code to redeem for credit.
 

Utnayan

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total noob Q but how do you register the eShop version of this game? I bought a physical copy of FE:A and I did the survey/ registered it, but I can't find anything about SMT4. I bought it second, but I haven't gotten any free credit.
1) Check to see if SMT4 has a survey to take in your to do list on the site.
2) If not, make sure your 3DS is linked to your Nintendo Club account.
3) This is going to sound like I have an ass for a brain, but I was looking all over the site wondering why Fire Emblem wasn't registered because I thought i had purchased it digitally. When I remembered I had bought the physical copy after seeing a box and saying, Oh my God am I an idiot. (That was really retarded. I blame the grey goose.)

4) Call - Email Nintendo.
 

Needless

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I regret not going magic based for the MC... the fact that you can get +8 heals and shit makes him infinitely better as a mage/healer than a physical user
frown.png

either way, fun game.. kinda burned myself out though.. i find the overworld map incredibly poorly done.. but thats about my only gripe with it so far
 

Utnayan

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I regret not going magic based for the MC... the fact that you can get +8 heals and shit makes him infinitely better as a mage/healer than a physical user
frown.png

either way, fun game.. kinda burned myself out though.. i find the overworld map incredibly poorly done.. but thats about my only gripe with it so far
So I started sinking into Str and dex, but after seeing how awesome magic is I started to shift. Around level 3-4 I started putting a ton more into magic. I should't suffer for that too much should I?
 

hodj

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Nah if you did like I did and went to like level 10+ before you settled on a build I"d suggest rerolling but if you only did it the first few levels you should be fine.

STR is useless but you don't know that unless someone tells you. If you do a physical/gun build, just dump 3 into Dex each level and then 1 in agi and 1 in luck.
 

Utnayan

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Nah if you did like I did and went to like level 10+ before you settled on a build I"d suggest rerolling but if you only did it the first few levels you should be fine.

STR is useless but you don't know that unless someone tells you. If you do a physical/gun build, just dump 3 into Dex each level and then 1 in agi and 1 in luck.
Ok. Yeah I was thinking of going guns on my next play through in NG+.

How do I know if I am evil, good, or neutral? Is that dictated through in game decisions? Or did I not see something in the beginning?
 

hodj

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You can look it (law/chaos/neutral status) up in the tavern I believe. I just got back to where I was and a little further (beat Medusa where before I stopped right outside the area you fight her in) so I haven't actually checked to see if this is true or not, but its what I've read. Might have to get to a certain point in the story first. I'm not sure.
 

Utnayan

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So I am stuck on the Minotaur boss. (Fairly early in)

If I had to guess, I need to make sure I just keep my streaks alive. He is weak to ice, so I may just have to go recruit 3 other demons with Ice spells? If I cast these over and over I get, what seems to be, an endless supply of turns but only one other demon in my pool so I die.

Am I on the right track in that I just need to recruit better? Or are there better ways to go about killing this thing?
 

hodj

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Load up with bufu, its best to also make sure you've ranked up your bufu a bit too by leveling demons with bufu, save right before you go in, hope you don't get the douche team mate who will sometimes cause Minotaur to smirk by hitting him with agi, spam bufu. Some tricks, get the Naga, first turn throw bufu when his attack comes back a second time, buff the entire party with his + attack spell, have an extra bufu casting character in reserve, otherwise spam minotaur with bufu. It may take you a couple tries, especially if you're lower level, but its doable by like level 7 or 8 if you get some lucky smirks with your dudes.

Medusa, who is next, is weak to zan, so you can start working on a zan team now as well. If you plan it right you can merge bufu and zan casting demons into demons that will allow you to cast both spells. Big help if you go that route.