Shin Megami Tensei/Megaten Games

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Trynant

Manic Brawler
Jan 31, 2002
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You think JRPGs suck?

Well you might be right, but hey, the Shin Megami Tensei games might suck a little less!

Basically you find demons, fuse them together to make more demons, and hack and slash your way through dungeons to level up and find more demons. There may or may not be high school sim gameplay involved depending on the game.

Also, they tend to be somewhat hard.

Also, basically the PS2 games are the best.

Persona 3!
[m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzHpCOPsVbo[/m]

Persona 4!
[m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUTQKMRLYQ[/m]

Nocturne (and yes Dante from DMC is in it)!
[m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXqkRu1aKcE[/m]

A bunch of other games!

DISCUSS THE AWESOMENESS
 

Trynant

Manic Brawler
Jan 31, 2002
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XIII is an exception.

I'd contest that Persona 3/4 are better than the Dragon Quest games, those random new JRPGs like Lost Odyssey and Resonance of Fate, and a bunch of other crap. And I hear Nocturne is supposed to be awesome.

But yeah, saying a game is better than most JRPGs is like saying a restaurant has better food than Burger King.
 

UBerserker

old EPIC GAMES
Jan 20, 2008
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The only good Jrpg series, screw the rest, screw the haters.

Also screw the Persona and Devil Survivor ****, Nocturne/Strange Journey/Soul Hackers/DDS1&2/old Megaten games are the awesome stuff.
Also Atlus is dead apparently.

Final Fantasy XIII.

that abomination of a game has got the Sony Platinum Award (JP)
 
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UBerserker

old EPIC GAMES
Jan 20, 2008
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So it's basically a clone of Jade Cocoon, but suckier?

Megaten predates both Jade Cocoon and Pokemon in concept by so many years. And it's better than both.
Only JRPG players who like easy difficulties don't like Megaten stuff.

This is a very good series except the Persona branch (not Persona 2 though) which just sucks.

EDIT: Jade Cocoon 1 was great too, I give you that. The sequel was a terrible joke though.
 
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Trynant

Manic Brawler
Jan 31, 2002
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I have not played Nocturne yet and that makes me sad.

How can you know what Jade Cocoon is and not know Megaten?

Also Persona 3 and 4 are fun, even if they don't have the awesomeness that is the main series.

And sometimes I feel Strange Journey is Pokemon for adults.
 

Trynant

Manic Brawler
Jan 31, 2002
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Bumping this due to acquiring Nocturne for Christmas.

HOLY MOFOKIN BAWLS THIS GAME IS SHIZNIT

Basically this game is getting my praise for being a turn-based JRPG and actually being legitimately challenging and quite often very hard.

Imagine Persona 3/4. Imagine it without the anime life-sim and more dungeon-crawling. Imagine instead of being a highschooler with highschool party members, you're a demon who was formerly a highschooler who recruits the very demons you fight into your party and then fuses them into more demons.

And then add Dante.

It's a good game.
 

SleepyHe4d

fap fap fap
Jan 20, 2008
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Bumping this due to acquiring Nocturne for Christmas.

HOLY MOFOKIN BAWLS THIS GAME IS SHIZNIT

Basically this game is getting my praise for being a turn-based JRPG and actually being legitimately challenging and quite often very hard.

Imagine Persona 3/4. Imagine it without the anime life-sim and more dungeon-crawling. Imagine instead of being a highschooler with highschool party members, you're a demon who was formerly a highschooler who recruits the very demons you fight into your party and then fuses them into more demons.

And then add Dante.

It's a good game.

So basically it's like Bleach? LAWL.
 

PainAmplifier

Evil by Example
I only have one of the Shin Megami series of games, Raido Vs the Soulless Army.

And the best thing I can say about it, is that it doesn't suck nearly as much as the Final Fantasy games have been lately. It's not a bad game at all, but it is very much a "J"RPG, in that it does use many of the typical Japanese tropes and cliches. If anything the SMT series is just maintaining the level of quality that it started with, while other franchises/studios have gone downhill.

In my experience, most JRPG's have been moving too far towards being 'Visual Novels' and not so much about being 'games' anymore. And they are hardly paying more than lip service to the whole 'Role-Playing' part of that as well. Most JRPG's are lean very heavily towards being leveling treadmill games with a story to watch when not grinding for more levels or gold.

Good RPG's are very hard to find these days. Demon's Souls is probably the most recent one I would whole heartedly recommend. It's not the old style but it does get the 'feel' just right.

Perhaps the biggest change from the older games has been the shift from turn based 2D RPG to 3D Action-RPG for just about every game out there. I can't blame 3D for the woes that have befallen RPG's, but rather I do blame the business/publishing climate that focused on consoles and the casual/mass market.
 

Trynant

Manic Brawler
Jan 31, 2002
2,019
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Feed. Off. Your. Tears.

Bumping because why not. Ignore this if you don't like turn-based RPGs whatsoever.

Have been playing Nocturne off and on the past few months; I'm almost to the end. While obsessing over the series I found out some nifty things. Fun fact about the Megaten series: they are hard.

You might say, "Oh silly <insert derogatory name here>, JRPGs aren't hard. They are boring grindfests and all you have to do is level up your character to outmatch the content!" And oh how you would be wrong!

These games put bosses in that will kick your level 99 character's asses. Atlus knows that some of you ****ers are crazy and will spend days making the perfect characters. To reward your time sink, they put things like this in their games (possibly spoilers btw):

Beelzebub from Nocturne
Beelzebub slightly edges his Heavenly counterpart Metatron, who can be found at the end of the 5th and Final Kalpa of the Labyrinth of Amala, one of the hardest bonus dungeons in gaming history. Beelzebub resides at the end of the 4th, and there are a few things which make him even more of a challenge then your average MegaTen boss (which are comparable to most of the bosses on this list). First off, the only way to get to him is through a "cursed" hallway that significantly drains your party's healthy with each step. And in which random encounters still happen. Luckily, this game warns you before opening the door that leads to the boss fight that you can "sense a strong power" coming from beyond: your cue to heal up. Secondly, you need immunity to death. An absolute must on the Demi-Fiend, since if he dies its game-over then and there. But you're also going to want it on your demon party because of Beelzebub's signature attack, Death Flies, which instantly kills anyone not immune to death 100% of the time. If you're immune, it just deals an ungodly high amount of damage instead. And he will spam it, frequently, and after buffing himself to boot. And it's not as if his other attacks are any better: he has one of the strongest physical attacks in the game, loves to abuse Maziodyne and Megidolaon and backs it up with a tremendously high defense guarding that equally high HP (spam those debuffs like there's no tomorrow). On the plus side, he looks really cool and his theme music is totally awesome.

Beelzebub kill video.

Elizabeth from Persona 3: FES
Combine a franchise known for its difficult with Atlus, a company that admits to getting off on the tears of players, and these sort of nightmares are the result. In the unassuming Elizabeth's own words, she "may make my living as an elevator attendant, but [she] knows several affective ways of inflicting pain." ...Elizabeth will automatically 1-hit kill you if the Persona you're using Nulls, Absorbs or reflects her attacks (she does cycle her attacks in a set pattern, which means you can switch to a resistant if not immune persona each time). Also, she gets two attacks in a row to your every one. And her attacks hurt. A LOT. One of which will require you to use the "immune to damage for one attack" skill to avoid dying every time it comes up in the cycle. And when she gets down to below 50% health for the first time, she will heal herself to full. After that, everytime she dips below 9,000 she will do it again. Your strongest attacks won't crack 900, so you'd better have the two Personas needed for the 9,999 damage "Armageddon" fusion spell to strike the killing blow. Finally, you must fight her solo. If you bring a party, she will quickly become 100% immune to all damage. And she rests at the end of the bonus dungeon, where the monsters themselves are often level 98 or so and can pose a massive threat. Enjoy.

Elizabeth kill videos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Aaaaand the Demi-Fiend (Hito-Shura) from Digital Devil Saga
In one of the coolest crossover-twists in gaming, the uber-difficult bonus boss of the first Digital Devil Saga (accessible only on a New Cycle) is the player-character from Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. If you've played Nocturne (and you should), you already know just how hardcore and badass the Demi-Fiend is. But then you meet him in Digital Devil Saga, and have your definition of hardcore forever re-written. There's two things about the Demi-Fiend that make him so infuriating. One is his just out-and-out power. Nearly every one of his attacks, in addition to hurting like hell, will inflict a crippling status effect on your party. And while for most of the game that hasn't been a problem as you most likely have learned the Void skill set, the Demi-Fiend isn't having any of it. If you come into the battle with any skill equipped that nulls, absorbs or reflects *anything* (with one key exception), he kills you on turn one guaranteed. The other is his ultimate ability, "Gaea Rage." He will use Gaea rage either after a certain amount of turns have past or after you kill every other of his demon flunkies (he summons six distinct ones in a loop), and it inflicts over 7,000 points of damage to each character in a game where the HP cap is 999. How do you survive? Well, you can (and should) have every level and stat 100% maxed out, but you will still need an unholy amount of luck. The only way top live through the onslaught is the Null Sleep ability which, rather than making you immune to the sleep status, makes you immune to damage while asleep. When casting Gaea Rage as part of the demon cycling, one of his minions will always cast a sleep spell on your party first. PRAY that one of your party members succumbs, or it's game over. And of course, even if you can contend with all that, his minions will still be hurling buffs and debuffs like there's no-tomorrow (and instantly removing any you cast), tossing about highly effective all-party instant death spells, and HEALING HIM TO FULL HEALTH if you take too long to kill him. And to add insult to injury? The music for the battle is Nocturne's RANDOM ENCOUNTER THEME. That's right, your badass party of demons is nothing more than a random encounter to the Demi-Fiend.

Demi-Fiend kill videos: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 aaaand 6

Quotes are from here.
 

UBerserker

old EPIC GAMES
Jan 20, 2008
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Putting Beelzebub on the same tier as Liz or DemiFiend is just wrong. Satan from DDS2 is serious business instead.

Nocturne doesn't have any real super hard bosses. They are all pretty easy except the few who flat out cheat.
Enjoy the Diet Building I guess. Coolest jrpg dungeon I have ever seen.
Oh now that I remember I have Samael in my avy and he's the big boss of the Diet Building.

EDIT: In Nocturne don't pick up Gaea Rage for the DemiFiend, get Deadly Fury and Freikugel instead.
 
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