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What is the easiest mainline SMT game for you?
- Thread starter Baphomet
- Start date
Strange Journey's also mainline, FYI. (Not that I'd ever list it among the easiest... :P)
My answer would probably be either IV or IV-A. Given Apocalypse's annoying finale, though, I'll go with IV. Everything past the Minotaur is mostly fairly smooth sailing if you know what you're doing.
My answer would probably be either IV or IV-A. Given Apocalypse's annoying finale, though, I'll go with IV. Everything past the Minotaur is mostly fairly smooth sailing if you know what you're doing.
OP
OP
SMT 2 is pretty easy when you consider how powerful is Aleph. May be even easier if you follow either Law or Chaos route and you recruit their demons "champions".
IVA. Even though late game bosses hit hard, if you've stayed on top of fusion you're super powerful. the hardest thing about the end of IVA is that maze, which is no joke
In SMT1 once you got everyone guns that hit all enemies and tags em with stun or charm or sleep, it's mostly over. Just remember to use tarukaja a lot on the final bosses and you're done.
SMT4 wins for me, but its difficulty curve is weird.
First 3 hours are hard, then the game is a breeze all the way until the very end of the game where it suddenly gets tricky again.
First 3 hours are hard, then the game is a breeze all the way until the very end of the game where it suddenly gets tricky again.
I've not played I or II, but of the other four I found IV and IVA the easiest after the initial acclimation period which was pretty tough at first. You have so many demons thrown at you and are constantly fusing new ones that it's hard not to create some badass demons or at the very least have access to whatever you need should a particular fight prove extra challenging and require a different strategy/party makeup. There's just so many QoL features that really take a lot of the stress and tedium out of the process that are there in older games that can make things harder simply because you have to do more or deal with more for simple actions.
Apocalypse has its shares of challenging bosses from beginning to end. The final boss is particularly legendary.
IV vanilla is brain dead after Minotaur, except for Beelzebub which is optional. Also, use every incense you get on your character and watch him be as strong as a lv99 when you reach lv50. It's crazy how unbalanced this game was.
Never played more than minutes of the first 2 tho.
Matador is not nearly as hard as some other bosses later in the game imo. I mean, he's kind of a tutorial boss that teaches the player evasion and accuracy are important, while some later bosses will be tough even after you learned all the lessons.
IV vanilla is brain dead after Minotaur, except for Beelzebub which is optional. Also, use every incense you get on your character and watch him be as strong as a lv99 when you reach lv50. It's crazy how unbalanced this game was.
Never played more than minutes of the first 2 tho.
Matador is not nearly as hard as some other bosses later in the game imo. I mean, he's kind of a tutorial boss that teaches the player evasion and accuracy are important, while some later bosses will be tough even after you learned all the lessons.
Matador is basically a tutorial boss, he's hard the first time when you don't know what to do. Nocturne has other bosses that are hard even when you're fully prepared.
I don't remember the entirety of SMT IV but I distinctly remember you could clear like every enemy mob by just using almighty spells. So probably that.
Nocturne isn't that hard unless it's your first SMT, I'd say it's evenly balanced overall. I made a good Daisoujou early on that carried me along the game. Hell I beat Beelzebub with just Demifiend and Daisoujou.
Apocalypse is harder than Nocturne and IV. Bosses were a real challenge in that one. And I had to drop the difficulty to easy to beat the final boss, even then he was a freaking challenge.
Nocturne isn't that hard unless it's your first SMT, I'd say it's evenly balanced overall. I made a good Daisoujou early on that carried me along the game. Hell I beat Beelzebub with just Demifiend and Daisoujou.
Apocalypse is harder than Nocturne and IV. Bosses were a real challenge in that one. And I had to drop the difficulty to easy to beat the final boss, even then he was a freaking challenge.
I guess that's the part I don't really agree, hes the only one who killed me more than once and after him there's not really any boss (besides beelzebub, fuck that guy and maybe Trumpeter) who made me sweat a bit. For most of them, I could go in with not much prep and be OK. That's on normal difficulty were I played at least.
Meanwhile with SMT4 I didn't get far enough on normal for it to become a walkover like everyone says it does, I pretty much chickened out to easy early on lol.
4 is pretty unbalanced. Once you get out of the linear intro segments, it's really easy to gain XP & LVs very quickly just by going to different side areas.
IV probably, although honestly outside of unlucky random encounters that totally blindside you Nocturne's reputation is a bit overblown imo. Matador is difficult if you haven't fully grasped the importance of buffs/debuffs and the turn system, but if you can get over that hump it's pretty smooth sailing!
I didn't play 1 or 2, but each one is quirky in their own way.
IV is astronomically brutal and gets easier as it goes.
IV Apocalypse is easy breezy until the endgame.
Strange Journey is pretty easy until the midgame where luck takes the wheel. I flat out couldn't beat this game.
Even though I haven't beat Nocturne, I vote it for easiest. So far it's been a breeze with my physical build. I bet it gets harder, ofc, but unless it gets to a nonsensical level like IV Apocalypse where I was literally at level 99 and was stuck on the final boss for hours, it'll prob be easier as a whole.
IV is astronomically brutal and gets easier as it goes.
IV Apocalypse is easy breezy until the endgame.
Strange Journey is pretty easy until the midgame where luck takes the wheel. I flat out couldn't beat this game.
Even though I haven't beat Nocturne, I vote it for easiest. So far it's been a breeze with my physical build. I bet it gets harder, ofc, but unless it gets to a nonsensical level like IV Apocalypse where I was literally at level 99 and was stuck on the final boss for hours, it'll prob be easier as a whole.
I'm going with 2, because I was able to achieve the holy grail of being able to safely get through the majority of late game random encounters with brain dead autobattle.
(IIRC, locking enemies with guns and zio/bufu still required manually entering each turn)
(the trick is that you need a melee weapon that targets all and inflicts something that locks down the enemy; I prefer the Majou-sen because Ice is less likely to be resisted in late game from what I remember)
For the stuff that trick doesn't work against? *coughGirimehkalacough* It turns out that in 2, using Mudoon against something weak to Death almost always hits. Like, I'm not entirely sure that I can recall any misses off the top of my head right now.
(IIRC, locking enemies with guns and zio/bufu still required manually entering each turn)
(the trick is that you need a melee weapon that targets all and inflicts something that locks down the enemy; I prefer the Majou-sen because Ice is less likely to be resisted in late game from what I remember)
For the stuff that trick doesn't work against? *coughGirimehkalacough* It turns out that in 2, using Mudoon against something weak to Death almost always hits. Like, I'm not entirely sure that I can recall any misses off the top of my head right now.
this's what i remember. i thought the game was okay, but don't remember being challenged in any way...
This is also true of 1, at least with high magic characters iirc.
I've only played 3, 4, and SJ, and I'd say SMTIV was the easiest overall. SJ wasn't too bad until one of the last bosses forced me to grind.
Granted, I felt like I had more party wipes in SMTIV, and the encounter rate felt higher than it has ever been. Minotaur is hard because of awful AI giving him Smirk. I beat almost all of the later bosses first try, though. I was actually surprised what a pushover the two-phase bosses were.
Nocturne, on the other hand, had me dying on the first attempts at bosses. And I found some of the later bosses in the TDE run pretty rough.
Granted, I felt like I had more party wipes in SMTIV, and the encounter rate felt higher than it has ever been. Minotaur is hard because of awful AI giving him Smirk. I beat almost all of the later bosses first try, though. I was actually surprised what a pushover the two-phase bosses were.
Nocturne, on the other hand, had me dying on the first attempts at bosses. And I found some of the later bosses in the TDE run pretty rough.
