by player1 » Mon Aug 14, 2023 9:40 pm
Now, I can quickly go over first DDS game, since I for some reason didn't touch the second one.
I think the whole lore of the world and world design is great. The Junkyard is awesome to look at and it feels pretty unique.
The concept of the whole thing being simulation and real world being the same shitty place was if not mind-blowing, but damn good one. I think the catch there is that at the end of the first game you destroy the whole digital world, seeing this whole epic ending with falling down Serph, everything disappearing, shit like that. I bet at release it was really cool. Also, the whole "cannibalistic" aspect of the game was great. I think aesthetically it was perfect. It's something really close to mainline while still being its own thing.
Also, I think protagonist's demon form is great. Number one out of all playable models in the whole megaten. It's a real male fantasy.
So that's all for all other branches other than my favourite one, I guess? Well, remind me if I'm wrong, whatever.
So, here comes Persona/DevilSummoner. Man, I don't think I can write that much about it all, but I surely love it.
First of all, let me tell you that SMTif...
SUCKS ASS, FUCK THIS SHITTY GAME, but it was the title that settled that SMT could be something more than a postapocalyptic story. Even though that dungeon-wise it doesn't really differ from other SMT games on the surface, somehow gimmicks (or let's say the major gimmick of Sloth iirc?) make this game memorable. Yeah, I can't not mention the infamous world of sloth with walking in circles until god destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. Also, I hate final bosses in SMT games, for being too OP for autistic me. And Hazama in true route? COME ON, I'M NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH. Aside from that, the game does a lot of things: 1) Made the main setting school and the main antagonist school shooter. It makes the whole plot feels less despairing, instead of GREAT FLOOD of mainline and all real nasty stuff going on in the new world. 2) Introduce guardian system, which is proto-personas. I don't think I'm a fan of this system. I think it's pretty barebones and now you're forced to rely on RNG to get skills. It wouldn't be that much of a problem if not it being an early MegaTen title with strong reliance on insta-kill spells. 3) Make a separate branch where SMT 1 didn't happen. Although it's a mainline game, it doesn't feature all these classic elements such as alignment system and... I guess that's all classic to it. I didn't enjoy it, but I liked it.
Experimentations didn't end with if... and a short time after, the holy nation of Japan saw the first entry in Devil Summoner series.
Okay. This game is my favourite in the series. I love how it looks, how it sounds, how tame it looks compared to all we've seen prior to that. Of course, all the praise goes to more polished PSP version. Wasn't it the first fully 3D megaten? I dunno. This is the real start of something different in the series. Now, we, proud hero, live a normal life of a normal young adult and it happens that white-haired priest niggerman got us killed. I mean, how does that sound for a premise? Yep, you're gonna die at the start of the game. And by some chance local devil summoner got killed too and your magical trip to hell is canceled and now you're back to the land of the living! But now in the body of devil summoner Kyouji Kuzunoha! I think that characters are, in a way, too flat, even though it's only the earliest title in the franchise, but man, the only redeeming quality of them is them being better than p5 cast. Oh, and actual Kyouji being the best mofo out there. It's not really that much, but I guess it was the first game in the series with sidequests, I guess if not then the first in the series to feature sidequests with dungeons. Of course, it seems that they're not important and you can skip them and shorten your way to avenge niggerman, but damn. It's just too funny when there is a demon infestation in local university and instead of going there, you're going to exorcise local nazi spirit or whatnot because grandma told you that she will pay you 50k yen (hey, Tetsu!). Even Rei Reiho is gonna question your decision. HOWEVER, the main reason to love the game is the reason to hate it - the dungeons. They're cool, not gonna lie, majority of them aren't even hard, BUT DAMN, SOMETIMES, LIKE B7F(?) of Ancient Tomb being insufferable, warp maze is a hell. Also, this marks the second appearance of guardians or some sort of thing like that. But now it's your trusty partner Rei who's gonna host 1 out of 3 "guardian spirits" in her which will give her certain skills with level ups. Also, I can't not to mention the fucking plot twist that happens nearly by the end of the game which is, in my opinion, is so fucking good, considering the fate of that character in the following games
so after teaming up with Kyouji's spirit in astral world and beating niggerman for second time, Kyouji says something like "heh since your body is here and it's mine body, get the fuck outta here" and we see the familiar cutscene with Charon telling us that welp, it's time to go to hell. After successfully getting our ass out of the depth of hell itself, Charon being amused by our willpower lets us to return to Kyouji's body, since he was separated from it for too long and can't enter it. Kyouji isn't really pleasant about the news that we got out of there and want to take the body back, but Charon btfo this faggot and Kyouji accepts his fate of being a lesser devil summoner than random guy from the streets. Thus forever snatching other people's bodies. And the irony at the moment is that he takes the body of a local vampire gangster, who was beaten by the MC and remains in this body till the end of the game.
. Yeah, good shit, good shit.
Coming up next - MEGAMI IBUNROKU PERSONA. THE GAME THAT STARTED MEGAMI TENSEI FRANCHISE, BUT AFTER 3.
So, after DS they decided to create a new separate branch focusing mainly on high schoolers and canonising SMT if... for this universe. So, personas are a logical continuation of guardian mechanic from if... which is cool. Now the "demon" isn't a 1 of 6 niggas in a row, but a continuation of protagonist that can be easily swapped at will. Plot-wise, it's same old "protagonists will save the world from the great evil: the game", but I can't really hate something like that. It's just a pleasant world to be in. I just can't hate quirky characters of this game, the whole events and memes from localization such as SUPER KANDORI. It's just way too charming. Also, it's cool when the devs explore, I guess, less "mature" themes and make the game about teenagers, well, a balanced game about teenagers. It still tackles themes such as self-confidence, love and shit like that, but the whole isolation of Maki and how she battles with it by escapism is great shit. Now, for the actual gameplay. I didn't play PS1 version, will never play it I'm afraid, but PSP has great gameplay. One of the most unique battle systems in JRPGs, it's just good tactical experience. Honorable mention should be getting soundtrack. It's THE BEST OF THE BEST OF ALL SOUNDTRACKS OF MEGATEN. Nothing can compare to how great it is. Now, for the dungeon part. It's a hit or miss. The SEBEC route is a fine walk. Nothing really fucked up. But man, Snow Queen Quest route? I lost my shit. I think SQQ can be compared to the frustration I've experienced in some latter dungeons of DevilSummoner, but here, thankfully, it's not THE main route, although it considered canon. SEBEC is a fine improvement over DevilSummoner, no cap frfrfr.
All in all, I'm getting too tired from writing all that crap and gonna continue later... TO BE CONTINUED
Now, I can quickly go over first DDS game, since I for some reason didn't touch the second one.
I think the whole lore of the world and world design is great. The Junkyard is awesome to look at and it feels pretty unique. [img]https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/f/f0/Junkyard_DDS1.jpg[/img]
The concept of the whole thing being simulation and real world being the same shitty place was if not mind-blowing, but damn good one. I think the catch there is that at the end of the first game you destroy the whole digital world, seeing this whole epic ending with falling down Serph, everything disappearing, shit like that. I bet at release it was really cool. Also, the whole "cannibalistic" aspect of the game was great. I think aesthetically it was perfect. It's something really close to mainline while still being its own thing.
Also, I think protagonist's demon form is great. Number one out of all playable models in the whole megaten. It's a real male fantasy.
[img]https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/a/a9/Dds-varna.png[/img]
So that's all for all other branches other than my favourite one, I guess? Well, remind me if I'm wrong, whatever.
So, here comes Persona/DevilSummoner. Man, I don't think I can write that much about it all, but I surely love it.
First of all, let me tell you that SMTif... [img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQwYbxZqZfYDsoFEjGHgEtS88cjplvBxF5F13Hq3_SfNCXGL5kccZzxRdqpyagPPu5Xaic&usqp=CAU[/img]
SUCKS ASS, FUCK THIS SHITTY GAME, but it was the title that settled that SMT could be something more than a postapocalyptic story. Even though that dungeon-wise it doesn't really differ from other SMT games on the surface, somehow gimmicks (or let's say the major gimmick of Sloth iirc?) make this game memorable. Yeah, I can't not mention the infamous world of sloth with walking in circles until god destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. Also, I hate final bosses in SMT games, for being too OP for autistic me. And Hazama in true route? COME ON, I'M NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH. Aside from that, the game does a lot of things: 1) Made the main setting school and the main antagonist school shooter. It makes the whole plot feels less despairing, instead of GREAT FLOOD of mainline and all real nasty stuff going on in the new world. 2) Introduce guardian system, which is proto-personas. I don't think I'm a fan of this system. I think it's pretty barebones and now you're forced to rely on RNG to get skills. It wouldn't be that much of a problem if not it being an early MegaTen title with strong reliance on insta-kill spells. 3) Make a separate branch where SMT 1 didn't happen. Although it's a mainline game, it doesn't feature all these classic elements such as alignment system and... I guess that's all classic to it. I didn't enjoy it, but I liked it.
Experimentations didn't end with if... and a short time after, the holy nation of Japan saw the first entry in Devil Summoner series.
[img]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ds_duo_5085.jpg[/img]
Okay. This game is my favourite in the series. I love how it looks, how it sounds, how tame it looks compared to all we've seen prior to that. Of course, all the praise goes to more polished PSP version. Wasn't it the first fully 3D megaten? I dunno. This is the real start of something different in the series. Now, we, proud hero, live a normal life of a normal young adult and it happens that white-haired priest niggerman got us killed. I mean, how does that sound for a premise? Yep, you're gonna die at the start of the game. And by some chance local devil summoner got killed too and your magical trip to hell is canceled and now you're back to the land of the living! But now in the body of devil summoner Kyouji Kuzunoha! I think that characters are, in a way, too flat, even though it's only the earliest title in the franchise, but man, the only redeeming quality of them is them being better than p5 cast. Oh, and actual Kyouji being the best mofo out there. It's not really that much, but I guess it was the first game in the series with sidequests, I guess if not then the first in the series to feature sidequests with dungeons. Of course, it seems that they're not important and you can skip them and shorten your way to avenge niggerman, but damn. It's just too funny when there is a demon infestation in local university and instead of going there, you're going to exorcise local nazi spirit or whatnot because grandma told you that she will pay you 50k yen (hey, Tetsu!). Even Rei Reiho is gonna question your decision. HOWEVER, the main reason to love the game is the reason to hate it - the dungeons. They're cool, not gonna lie, majority of them aren't even hard, BUT DAMN, SOMETIMES, LIKE B7F(?) of Ancient Tomb being insufferable, warp maze is a hell. Also, this marks the second appearance of guardians or some sort of thing like that. But now it's your trusty partner Rei who's gonna host 1 out of 3 "guardian spirits" in her which will give her certain skills with level ups. Also, I can't not to mention the fucking plot twist that happens nearly by the end of the game which is, in my opinion, is so fucking good, considering the fate of that character in the following games [spoiler]so after teaming up with Kyouji's spirit in astral world and beating niggerman for second time, Kyouji says something like "heh since your body is here and it's mine body, get the fuck outta here" and we see the familiar cutscene with Charon telling us that welp, it's time to go to hell. After successfully getting our ass out of the depth of hell itself, Charon being amused by our willpower lets us to return to Kyouji's body, since he was separated from it for too long and can't enter it. Kyouji isn't really pleasant about the news that we got out of there and want to take the body back, but Charon btfo this faggot and Kyouji accepts his fate of being a lesser devil summoner than random guy from the streets. Thus forever snatching other people's bodies. And the irony at the moment is that he takes the body of a local vampire gangster, who was beaten by the MC and remains in this body till the end of the game.[/spoiler]. Yeah, good shit, good shit.
Coming up next - MEGAMI IBUNROKU PERSONA. THE GAME THAT STARTED MEGAMI TENSEI FRANCHISE, BUT AFTER 3.
[img]https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/strategywiki/images/5/57/Megami_Ibunroku_Persona_box.jpg[/img]
So, after DS they decided to create a new separate branch focusing mainly on high schoolers and canonising SMT if... for this universe. So, personas are a logical continuation of guardian mechanic from if... which is cool. Now the "demon" isn't a 1 of 6 niggas in a row, but a continuation of protagonist that can be easily swapped at will. Plot-wise, it's same old "protagonists will save the world from the great evil: the game", but I can't really hate something like that. It's just a pleasant world to be in. I just can't hate quirky characters of this game, the whole events and memes from localization such as SUPER KANDORI. It's just way too charming. Also, it's cool when the devs explore, I guess, less "mature" themes and make the game about teenagers, well, a balanced game about teenagers. It still tackles themes such as self-confidence, love and shit like that, but the whole isolation of Maki and how she battles with it by escapism is great shit. Now, for the actual gameplay. I didn't play PS1 version, will never play it I'm afraid, but PSP has great gameplay. One of the most unique battle systems in JRPGs, it's just good tactical experience. Honorable mention should be getting soundtrack. It's THE BEST OF THE BEST OF ALL SOUNDTRACKS OF MEGATEN. Nothing can compare to how great it is. Now, for the dungeon part. It's a hit or miss. The SEBEC route is a fine walk. Nothing really fucked up. But man, Snow Queen Quest route? I lost my shit. I think SQQ can be compared to the frustration I've experienced in some latter dungeons of DevilSummoner, but here, thankfully, it's not THE main route, although it considered canon. SEBEC is a fine improvement over DevilSummoner, no cap frfrfr.
All in all, I'm getting too tired from writing all that crap and gonna continue later... TO BE CONTINUED /rainbow