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Dio Brando

Metal Snake Reviews:Shin Megami Tensei IV

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Note:Metal Snake was my first name on this site and I used it as a branding for my review series to I hope people won't get confused as to why it says Metal Snake while my name is Smash Mega Koopa.

 

 

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Well I have three games to talk about for my Year-in review so I guess I should start reviewing Shin Megami Tensei IV since it's still fresh in my mind as I'm still playing it even as I'm typing now.

Released for the Nintendo 3DS in July 16th-2013 in North America and October 30th 2014 in Europe,Shin Megami Tensei IV is the fourth entry in the mainline series of the Megami Tensei franchise and while there was a 4 year gab between it and SMT Strange Journey on the DS,it's been actually 10 years since the release of SMT 3 Nocturne in Japan as Atlus was busy expanding upon other branches of the Megami Tensei franchise like Devil Summoner and Persona

 

 

You start at a medivel Kingdom called the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado as you've just been recently accepted among the ranks of the Samurai,a special squad specialized in exterminating demons.As you go on with your missions you,along with your crew that consist of:Jonathan,Walter and Isabeau,will be tasked to explore the city under the firmament called Tokyo(as in actual post-apocalyptic modern Japan Tokyo) and this where your journey of shocking discoveries and world-changing decisions begin.

In the mainline Shin Megami Tensei series your decisions can lead you towards three alignments:Law,Chaos and Neutral.The main focus is mostly around the never-ending war between Law and Chaos though while Neutral is a side that you must shape by yourself and your decisions.Each side has it's pros and cons and it's not really portrayed in your typical Good Vs Evil or Light Vs Darkness conflicts.It's more about what you morally align yourself with and which path you want the world to take.Your choices can affect the outcome of some events into the game as you can either choose to go through one of the boss battles you'll encounter or choose to avoid it altogether it all depends on the situation you'll be thrown in.Most of your choices will give you alignment points towards either Law or Chaos and if you want to be neutral you gotta find a way to maintain the right balance with your choices so when the time comes for the two major alignment splits in the game you'll be sure on which alignment you want to go with.

 

 

Without spoiling much,I absolutely adore this system and it's not because it gives you multiple endings cuz that's a given.It's because of how well it's executed here.As I said above,Law and Chaos are not your typical Good Vs Evil conflict.Each side has it's different shades of grey and while going through one of the three might give you your desired outcome,said outcome might not be the best course of action for everyone involved in the conflict and you might take some extreme,and I do mean EXTREME,actions depending on your alignment.In a way Law and Chaos are two exaggerated extremes of how our world operates.

 

 

Law aim for a paradise on Earth cleansed of all impurities with a peace that would last eternally,but the methods they go for are so extreme to the point that it leads to a world of dictatorship,discrimination and too much authority where judgement is passed down swiftly and mercilessly.Chaos aim for a world of complete freedom and free will where the current structures of authority will no longer apply and everyone can do anything they want as long as they have the will and power,but in doing so it casts the world into complete anarchy where the weak is enslaved by the strong and a never-ending war that would eventually cast the world into destruction.Neutral is the best of the three in which you forge your own path by taking the best aspects of both worlds,but it's the hardest route to get and it's filled with the most struggle and suffering as it takes a lot of effort to rebuild the world into a balanced state.It's a really intruiging and thought-provoking story that resonated very well with me especially with the recent events going on in the world and it's by far the best execution of this system within the series compared to the previous entries and the characters are well written in their way of representing the alignments.I'll leave it at that cuz if I kept talking about the themes and messages in any Megami Tensei game I'll be here for hours.

 

 

Now on to the actual gameplay:

If you've already played any Megami tensei game within the main series or the Persona series then you're basically set and ready to start because for the most part it works the same way only with a couple of differences.
SMTIV bring back the Press Turn system that was introduced in SMT3 Nocturne(and was sort of adapted into Persona but with few differences)in which you have turns based on how many party members(in this case you and your demons) you have and when you attack an enemy's weakness,you get an extra turn added to your press turn gauge.If your attack missed you lose one turn from your gauge and if your enemy nullifies or deflect the spell or physical attack you did on it your lose all your turns,basically both you and your enemies have the same advantages and disadvantages offered by this system.What SMTIV added however is a status called "Smirk" in which if you exploit a weakness or get a critical hit you "Smirk" which increases the evasion and critical hit ratio of your character or the demon that exploited said weaknessgot a crit.Keep in mind though as I said above your enemy can do the same too.It sounds a bit complicated when I say it like this but trust me it's pretty simple and as I said before if you're familiar with a game within the main series or Persona you can adapt into this and start out fine.

Now for the meet and potato of every Megami Tensei game:The demons.

There are over 400 demons to collect in this game both through demon negotiation and fusion although the majority of them is obtained through fusion.

 

 

Demon negotiation works as follows:You can either negotiate with your enemies to:Join you,end the battle and leave you alone,persuade them to give you an item,fundraise so you can double your money although this is pretty risky or take some sidequests they offer to you.Think of it the same way some battles in games like Undertale work.Yes there is an element of RNG going on as each different respond differently from the others.Some might agree to your request,some would either take the money or items you just gave it to convince it and run away(firetrucking assholes) and some might outright end your turn and attack you if they didn't like your answers.Yeah it sound a bit frustrating but trust me it's nowhere near as hard or as much of a turn off as you might think cuz as you progress you'll obtain some tools that not only make negotiations easier,but also double the rewards a demon might give you or heck sometimes a demon you recruit would convince other demons to join you allowing you to get two demons through one negotiation.Although you get the majority of your demons through fusions

 

 

You fuse your demons through a place called the Cathedral of Shadows(it's basically the same idea as the Velvet Room if you're familiar with that) where you take the demons you collected and fuse them together to make better demons with better movesets and stats.Some demons can be fused through normal fusion while others might require specific demons to fuse especially the demons you defeat in boss battles as those become available for fusion immediately but require certain combination.If you're familiar with the Velvet Room in Persona it's basically the same although here the process is much more streamlined and easier to experiment with especially when it comes to inheriting moves.You can choose to give any sort of moves for the fused demon to inherit from the parents demons as long as it something it's capable of casting.
Your main character can also inherit spells from the demons you have as they level up through whispering as they offer you to inherit and select whatever move you want your main character to get from it

 

 

Now it goes without saying that if you played any Megami Tensei games like Persona 3 or Nocturne you'll know that this series is firetrucking hard and this game is no exception.Although don't be paranoid as it's not Dark Souls level of hard,if anything the difficulty in SMTIV is around the same as Persona 3 if not a bit easier considering how many ways you can break the game with halfway through as you expand your demon collection.You can have up to 3 demons with you in battle alongside your main character to make a party of 4 although you can swap your demons in and out any time in battle as long as your main character is alive.Speaking of which,it's not instant game over if your main character die like how it was in previous games like Nocturne,Persona 3 or Persona 4...etc.You only get a game over if all 4 party members died and even then you don't get booted instantly to the title screen,you're given the option to either use your 3DS play coins(Yes those play coins you spend on puzzle pieces in Mii Plaza xD) to get revived at the same place you died in before the battle,if you don't have play coins then a certain amount of your Macca(this game's equevilant's to Final Fantasy's gills) after you're revived.You can change the difficulty of the game at any time after dying a couple of times so in case the normal difficulty is a bit too much you can lower the difficulty down and have a little breather.

 

 

As I said a wall of text ago,you can pursue 3 different alignments,Law,Chaos and Neutral depending on your answers to the moral questions offered during either cutscenes or boss battles.in cutscenes your choices can change some of the outcomes like avoiding an entire boss battle or fighting a completely different boss.In boss battles,while some battle answers won't give you alignment points,if you gave the boss the right answer you either get a stats buff or the boss will get debuffed,same applies to you if you got the wrong answer so be careful whenever a boss posses a question to you mid-battle

 

 

If you haven't guessed by now from my constant posting about it or by the fact that I spent hours and hours trying to write this in a proper way.I firetrucking looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove Shin Megami Tensei IV.It was the very first Atlus game I've ever played and it was the game that changed the way I look at narratives in gaming entirely.For the first time in my gaming life,I found a game that speaks with me and resonate with some of the issues I've encountered in my life through clever writing with a bit of a subtle commentary that can be enjoyed should you go for an analytical look at it.Later my love and admiration for this game would lead me to discover yet two other games that resonated with me just as much but I'll leave those for the other two reviews I'll be writing after this.

 

 

This game alongside Persona 3 and 4 were the first time ever an actual message provided by a game ever hit me and resonated with me on so many levels.Not everyday you get presented with characters and worlds that you care so deeply about to the point that you actually feel what they're going through.I'm no longer that blind kid that gets easily wowed by  flashy visuals and cinematics that used to trick me in the past.Games can offer waaaaaay more than just this.The biggest reason I love the Megami Tensei franchise so much is that.........it feels like the people working behind it understand their audience and the world around them.And that's why I love and admire Atlus so much

I know I know I've written way too much about it but that's how much this game affected me and I hope that,while I'm not saying you should necessarily feel the same,you guys can see where I'm coming from and how much attachment I have with Shin Megami Tensei IV in the same vein everyone has that one thing they connect to and relate to in someway

Happy New Year Everyone,and here's to a glorious 2016

Edited by Smash Mega Koopa

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* sigh

 

 

 

Well an empty thread and only likes thrown(which at this point feels like petty likes) since I wrote about something that's not mainstream popular...........well what did I even expect

 

I don't necessarily want people to agree with me.I just want any sort of respond....anything

 

You can disagree with me,you can critique my way of writing and see if there is something I need to improve about my writing style......just something.....ANYTHING

 

I don't ask for likes or agreements.I wanna know what you guys have to say

 

 

I hate the feeling that I'm only talking to myself and it makes me feel unmotivated to write.I was going to write about Persona 3 and Persona 4 after this but now............might as well keep it to myself and stop reviewing stuff altogether

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