Abscess in 4th region, can be found bottom-right of the map across a bridge.
Shin Megami Tensei V |OT| Da'at Hair
- Thread starter SubvertedTrope
- Start date
- OT
You shouldn't need to clear areas, just fight them as you are exploring or doing side quests. If they start running away from you, don't bother fighting them unless you want to recruit. For the Mitamas, their weakness is random, you can use the spyglass from the shop to find out what it is.
Welcome to the club. 💀 I'm definitely noticing puzzle elements more than I ever have in the series, and it's satisfying to really exploit all the systems to succeed. Especially due to the limits on the number of items you can carry. I've come up with the weirdest strategies, but never had to grind.
You can look up any demon's lore in the Compendium, if you were unaware. That's what it's pulling from.
I ended up ignoring a lot of the lore before, especially when there were so many demons (with many just being fusion fodder), so I really appreciate how they've approached it here.
Aw, thank you. It's from an old and weird PS2 game called Shadow of Memories. I like the kitty resisting the smooches. :) The perfect expression.
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Yeah, it's cool. I read them all in my first couple of MegaTen games but don't anymore, so having them to read during loading was a good call.
I just wish the longer ones would give me a few more seconds to read them! I could skim them but not read them in any meaningful way where I was paying real attention with the short cutoff lol.
Amen!
Can't wait to get back on tomorrow, it is very addictive.
True, it:s just annoying whenever screens like this don't give you a prompt so you can finish reading.
Artemis is strong but doesn't seem too OP yet. I'm actually using other demons more because I'm already a phys attacker. I'm gonna say not worth the $5 if you're looking for something to carry you through the game.
Hell Biker actually did more in the Lahmu fight.
Hell Biker actually did more in the Lahmu fight.
Finally got my steel book thanks Best Buy
the opening was so cool !
good lord does this game run like complete butt though the pop in is insane & I'm sure I'm gonna still love it but docked is just atrocious.
going between this & Scarlet Nexus is kinda a wild ride.
the opening was so cool !
good lord does this game run like complete butt though the pop in is insane & I'm sure I'm gonna still love it but docked is just atrocious.
going between this & Scarlet Nexus is kinda a wild ride.
The games platforming and exploration is such a welcome surprise. I'm kind of amazed how well they've nailed it so far.
Only about an hour in, but it feels much better than the two IV's. I was also expecting performance to be waaay worse from the complaints I've seen. A little shimmery on my 4K TV, but mostly decent. Frame rate stuff hasn't been too noticeable so far.
That Lahmu rematch was unexpectedly hard. His first phase was fairly non-threatening. It just consumed a lot of MP fighting it. It's second phase opening with an strong almighty attack and then dizzying my remaining party was considerably harder to deal with. I eventually figured it out but man, that was annoying considering how long that fight can take.
Alright, second boss at the Diet Building is kicking my ass (hard difficulty) even with Pyro Jack and Aitvaras for Fire damage.
Don't know if it's better to have Naho strike their weakness or charge Aramasa with buffs for damage. Even with all the damage the boss is tanking hits so hard.
Don't know if it's better to have Naho strike their weakness or charge Aramasa with buffs for damage. Even with all the damage the boss is tanking hits so hard.
Also I think I did something lawful and now I'm spinning clockwise so I need to correct myself big time. I don't wanna be a fascist.
(2nd region) I think it was not eating Indun's apple in the Loki quest. I thought it might be a trick or something. Lucifer forgive me.
(2nd region) I think it was not eating Indun's apple in the Loki quest. I thought it might be a trick or something. Lucifer forgive me.
I accidentally bought Force Proficiency II thinking it was for Physical attacks. I dunno how I made that mistake. Good thing Glory seems to come pretty quickly.
why are they lvl 99...do i have to come back to this im 72
Finally hit the fourth region.
I'm kinda meh on parts of the story at this point. It's sort of janky in some ways. Presentation is weaker than previous games too. They need better cutscene direction. And animation in some cases, like why is Kochimizu's generic talking animation so awkward and overdone.
On a different note though, THE FOURTH REGION MUSIC OMG
I'm kinda meh on parts of the story at this point. It's sort of janky in some ways. Presentation is weaker than previous games too. They need better cutscene direction. And animation in some cases, like why is Kochimizu's generic talking animation so awkward and overdone.
On a different note though, THE FOURTH REGION MUSIC OMG
Apparently you only need to get her to half HP, in which case I was literally a fraction of HP before she got me, and I am more prepared now. . Should have it in the bag tomorrow.
Poor TWEWY, the actual best RPG of the year. Anyway, guess I'll vote for... Arise out of these, even though that wasn't as good as I was hoping either.ALERT
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The mocap actors way overdid it for a lot of characters, yeah. I know a fair few people brought that up for FF7R - but it didn't bother me there as the game was lighthearted enough - but here it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Re: cutscenes, I'm not sure why they play zero music over some of them (also why do flying angels in cutscenes make fighter jet noises lol? - the sfx in the world proper is often so good that it makes no sense how poorly it's handled in cutscenes). It comes off unfinished as opposed to a stylistic decision.
Overall, I kind of hated the story and cast (or well, actively disliked them). Combat is still great, but a downgrade from 4A, and roaming about is so not worth losing environmental variety and overall pacing over the course of the entire game. Lots of weird things they got rid of that I'll compile a list of later. Good amount of optional bosses, though I wouldn't have minded less if their quests were more interesting/involved.
Looking at the credits, it's mostly Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Etrian Odyssey folks. Sits on the same tier as TMS for me, 7/10, relatively huge personal disappointment. Won't bother going for another ending at this point.
I kind of wonder how development went, because at least with the writing team, this is at times incredibly haphazardly thrown together and poorly structured in a way that is unlike them. I know they had to literally pull every other Team Maniax staff member into the fold to finish the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if they sorta took everything they had done and said fuck it, this is the game now, because there are areas that are big and empty, characters that feel like they have no point to exist, etc.
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Okay, yeah, I want to complain/ask/muse about some of this story stuff.
Why is Tao a god seemingly entirely randomly? I looked up Panagia (and it was not what I expected lol) and I can't figure out any reason for this. It seems like it came out of basically nowhere and there's nothing else in the story I've seen that explains these apparently different rules for her. I guess it could be referencing the Assumption, but it seems to have no purpose in being inserted into the plot.
Yuzuru having Kochimizu's Knowledge is absurdly contrived, as is Dazai having Abdiel's. Should have had a couple lines about how the Knowledge is dilute throughout humanity and finding any human that has part of that demon's would allow them to access all of it and become a Nahobino. It's a problem that could have been avoided with ease but instead they just left it there.
I'm not feeling this idea that the "throne of God" is just a place that somehow imparts power rather than it being in the god themselves. Apocalypse did the same thing and I felt it was kinda janky there too. It's not like a big deal though just something that kinda puts me off a bit because I feel as though the "rules" for how it works imply something above the gods that's just never touched on or relevant in any other way.
Curious about where some of this stuff will go. The scientists in the Bethel med lab mentioned that Proto-fiends have been both mass-produced and deployed throughout Japan's history to protect it. Absolutely nothing in the story had even hinted at that before.
There's something going on with the Miman, like they're what happens if you attempted to create a Nahobino while the Condemnation was still active or something.
As a less important point, is Aogami supposed to be possessing the protagonist any time he isn't physically standing next to him, including when the protagonist just looks normal? Like he talks to him in the lab from seemingly nowhere, so he must be, but I don't believe this was ever actually explained, so it's just sort of oddly assumed even though every time we've seen them "merged" they have the supernatural look.
Yuzuru having Kochimizu's Knowledge is absurdly contrived, as is Dazai having Abdiel's. Should have had a couple lines about how the Knowledge is dilute throughout humanity and finding any human that has part of that demon's would allow them to access all of it and become a Nahobino. It's a problem that could have been avoided with ease but instead they just left it there.
I'm not feeling this idea that the "throne of God" is just a place that somehow imparts power rather than it being in the god themselves. Apocalypse did the same thing and I felt it was kinda janky there too. It's not like a big deal though just something that kinda puts me off a bit because I feel as though the "rules" for how it works imply something above the gods that's just never touched on or relevant in any other way.
Curious about where some of this stuff will go. The scientists in the Bethel med lab mentioned that Proto-fiends have been both mass-produced and deployed throughout Japan's history to protect it. Absolutely nothing in the story had even hinted at that before.
There's something going on with the Miman, like they're what happens if you attempted to create a Nahobino while the Condemnation was still active or something.
As a less important point, is Aogami supposed to be possessing the protagonist any time he isn't physically standing next to him, including when the protagonist just looks normal? Like he talks to him in the lab from seemingly nowhere, so he must be, but I don't believe this was ever actually explained, so it's just sort of oddly assumed even though every time we've seen them "merged" they have the supernatural look.
It's not that one, you have to go even lower on the map, a little below the Bethel India region. You will even find a Leyline and the red monk near the bridge you have to run across. Though you can defeat these lvl 99 ones if you use ailments, I did at lvl 62.
Should I constantly be registering demons or should I be more tactical about it due to the price increases?
It's weird on hard, optional demons just feel like they have too much HP unless you're overleveled. I fused some good shit for a quest demon only to spend forever killing it even with abusing crits/weaknesses/debuffs. It gets monotonous. I'm not at the point where I can fuse some broken team comps yet so I hope it gets better.
Really feeling like money/exp is scarce in first two areas.
Really feeling like money/exp is scarce in first two areas.
Only 5 hours in but the time is flying by. Have to say I'm enjoying this open field approach a lot, the first area is pretty expensive and has several branching points to explore. Outside of straight dungeons like the older games, it's definitely better than the fields in IV. Being able to avoid enemies a lot easier also helps my enjoyment. Also the fast travel is actually fast which is nice too.
Technically the game looks pretty good, as do a lot of Switch games really, but the resolution and framerate hold it back. That said I think moving the game to internal memory (not an SD card) may optimize it a bit. A 4K/60 FPS version on PS5 with no extra touch ups for example would look and play great, but alas.
Other than that I know the UI sluggishness has been brought up. It's maybe a tad sluggish compared to some other games, but most noticeably it's just the visual transition into the menu that's the slowest part as the menu itself is usable before it completes. It's not slow enough to bother me much, but idk why they shipped the game with the menu like this, just seems weird and sloppy.
The game also seems to lack rumble...?
Some quibbles aside, it's fun so far.
Technically the game looks pretty good, as do a lot of Switch games really, but the resolution and framerate hold it back. That said I think moving the game to internal memory (not an SD card) may optimize it a bit. A 4K/60 FPS version on PS5 with no extra touch ups for example would look and play great, but alas.
Other than that I know the UI sluggishness has been brought up. It's maybe a tad sluggish compared to some other games, but most noticeably it's just the visual transition into the menu that's the slowest part as the menu itself is usable before it completes. It's not slow enough to bother me much, but idk why they shipped the game with the menu like this, just seems weird and sloppy.
The game also seems to lack rumble...?
Some quibbles aside, it's fun so far.
So I'm like...3 hours in ?
I'm loving the game I am but damn the performance is (on lite) ...not the best ? During combat/cutscenes it's great it's fine but that semi-open world ....jeez it's Idk I'm just gonna hope for some patch to maybe smooth it out? wishful thinking I know.
I'm loving the game I am but damn the performance is (on lite) ...not the best ? During combat/cutscenes it's great it's fine but that semi-open world ....jeez it's Idk I'm just gonna hope for some patch to maybe smooth it out? wishful thinking I know.
The difficulty spike in the fourth region is ridiculous lol. Suddenly everything is slaughtering me with critting Titanomachia and it's just instant KOs everywhere. I have to abuse ailments (thank goodness for my magic/luck build) and save after every battle until I can fuse stuff a little closer to their level.
Not finished the story yet but the writing absolutely feels haphazard in places in a way that is unlike the rest of the series. It's very strange. And disappointing.
The lack of music in cutscenes doesn't really bother me so much as the cinematography, choreography, and animation in them. It comes across as sort of amateurish and is lacking appropriate gravitas. Nocturne had noticeably better cutscene direction in a game that came out eighteen years ago.
Not finished the story yet but the writing absolutely feels haphazard in places in a way that is unlike the rest of the series. It's very strange. And disappointing.
Feels about on par for the series. I'm not what makes Nocturne writing any better honestly.
In the latest installment of ruin the game you're playing, spent a few hours over the past couple days getting to level 99 in the first area of the game. Now recruiting everything and chaining fusiions to create all the demons, this is sooooo much easier with reverse compendium fusion. You have a couple combos around 10K cost that get you level 60 demons so you can use those those to as a base to get higher ones for lower cost. So OP love it.
I really need Endure. Hard mode has been fantastic, other than 90% of my game overs being from getting one shot from full health with buffs or debuffs.
I may not go so extreme on my stats in future playthroughs, but I'm seeing this all magic build through to the end, haha.
I may not go so extreme on my stats in future playthroughs, but I'm seeing this all magic build through to the end, haha.
Beat the first boss in the second area after being stuck on it yesterday. After like getting one level and just playing smart, I was able to take it down despite me making a huge mistake towards the end that almost cascaded into failure. Such a great game so far.
OP
OP
Honestly, that there is less of it. For me at least, that's a huge strength of Nocturne. I know others see it as a negative but the plot, the exposition, the cutscenes are so condensed but don't really leave you wanting more, in a good way (ish).
'Oh Isamu and Chiaki are barely there', did anyone really want to hear more from them, seriously? All the reason holders explain themselves very clearly, there's really not much more to be said.
Here, multiple times I was thinking 'cut to the chase please'.
Obvious question from a SMT first timer here, but are there any patterns to learn for demon negotiation beyond kind of guessing what the demon wants to hear? I know full moon is the best time to recruit them. Feels like there's nothing to learn about negotiating which feels kinda bad.
Honestly, I wasn't talking about Nocturne's writing specifically (just its cinematography and choreography), but I'll make the comparison because it's easy and why not.
Again, not finished V yet, but one of Nocturne's biggest strengths is its outstanding coherence. Nothing really feels out of place, mismatched, or has awkward switches in tone. You could argue it's a bit too minimalist in some respects but what's there is at least consistent.
V has all problems in all of these areas.
Tao's revival and position as a goddess, so far, seems entirely out of place and doesn't seem to have any relevance to anything larger going on. Bethel likes her but you could have deleted her from the plot and it would have required extremely minimal changes to anything going on on the larger scale with Bethel and the throne.
Sahori's whole story has far too little time spent on it for the level of emotional resonance you should feel for someone that was physically abused into becoming desperate and becoming corrupted by a demon as a result. Her death cutscene is incredibly cheesy instead of disturbing until it suddenly becomes super melancholy.
The way you suddenly go back to normal Tokyo after Minato is a wild switch in tone that feels incredibly deflating in the moment. The fact that "normal" Tokyo even exists to go back to makes the whole thing feel weirdly removed from the series' usual oppressive and world-ending stakes, even if they're technically there. In terms of framing, the plot literally shunts them into the background where "normal" people can't see them for the most part.
Some of the plot points seem extremely contrived. The demons specifically targeting the protagonist's school hasn't been explained yet and feels like it's just been forgotten, but maybe it will come back. Yuzuru and Dazai just happening to have Tsukoyomi and Abdiel's specific Knowledge is ridiculous. There are seven billion people on Earth at the time this game takes place. This could have been avoided by saying the Knowledge is dilute through humanity and they just had to find someone that had a trace of theirs and that whole issue would have been avoided. It would have taken like two or three lines.
The prime minister of Japan meeting these three kids specifically, alone, and not with the higher ranks of Bethel Japan that allegedly exist is just terrible YA style writing that's been creeping into the series since IV. They're kids. Even with the protagonist's unique status, the update about the current status of Bethel Japan and next steps felt like something that should have been in a proper meeting room with the kids off to the side looking intimidated by the whole affair.
Thus far, Dazai is the best-developed character by a huge margin and a shockingly good example of someone naturally being drawn to Law.
Sahori's whole story has far too little time spent on it for the level of emotional resonance you should feel for someone that was physically abused into becoming desperate and becoming corrupted by a demon as a result. Her death cutscene is incredibly cheesy instead of disturbing until it suddenly becomes super melancholy.
The way you suddenly go back to normal Tokyo after Minato is a wild switch in tone that feels incredibly deflating in the moment. The fact that "normal" Tokyo even exists to go back to makes the whole thing feel weirdly removed from the series' usual oppressive and world-ending stakes, even if they're technically there. In terms of framing, the plot literally shunts them into the background where "normal" people can't see them for the most part.
Some of the plot points seem extremely contrived. The demons specifically targeting the protagonist's school hasn't been explained yet and feels like it's just been forgotten, but maybe it will come back. Yuzuru and Dazai just happening to have Tsukoyomi and Abdiel's specific Knowledge is ridiculous. There are seven billion people on Earth at the time this game takes place. This could have been avoided by saying the Knowledge is dilute through humanity and they just had to find someone that had a trace of theirs and that whole issue would have been avoided. It would have taken like two or three lines.
The prime minister of Japan meeting these three kids specifically, alone, and not with the higher ranks of Bethel Japan that allegedly exist is just terrible YA style writing that's been creeping into the series since IV. They're kids. Even with the protagonist's unique status, the update about the current status of Bethel Japan and next steps felt like something that should have been in a proper meeting room with the kids off to the side looking intimidated by the whole affair.
Thus far, Dazai is the best-developed character by a huge margin and a shockingly good example of someone naturally being drawn to Law.
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Twenty hours deep and still only in the second region. Hard mode is going to make this a long playthrough.