Can you repost the image? I can't see it Also, the familiar voices are kinda distracting. Yeah, thanks for that new app, Lightning! Hey, stop acting like such a douche, Akihiko! Don't get angry with him, Chrom, he doesn't know what he's saying.
As long as you know how MegaTen works and place it based on that and not on say... Persona or Devil Survivor you should really like the story and cast. Most reviewers went in expecting something like the Persona franchise and that's why the story often gets knocked. I love the plot and characters, my only beef with the game is that since they adopted the "teach your fused demons whatever their parent demons had" you fall a bit into Materia Syndrome where by end game it's really about making sure your party has certain moves and not really about having the demons because they can become interchangeable. It's my biggest gripe with the gameplay besides the DLC. As for story, it's quite possibly the darkest entry in the franchise, the one only gripe I have is that depending on which path you fall into, it feels like you get the abridged version of what happened to all the characters you didn't side with. On the one hand, it makes replaying the game more worthwhile, but on the other hand it really makes the writing after the alignment lock feel a bit disjointed. I have to post this for you. It won't make any sense now but later you'll laugh.
Thanks a bunch I'll keep all that in mind. Now, what is your general (spoiler-free) opinion on the game? The reviewers seem pretty divided on it, but I think you mentioned somewhere it was good and I generally know I can trust your gaming opinions.
Actually getting the Neutral ending is really easy if understand a few mechanics. Basically Neutral options are very rare so everything is either law or chaos choices and thus you have to keep balancing your answers because the threshold for the neutral ending is really small. There is an NPC you'll start running into the bar that will describe your character and tell you which alignment you are based on his description. If you want a real easy way to get the Neutral path (SPOILER) Just always choose the first option when given a choice, it actually evens up by the end so you'll eventually wind up neutral. Also avoid missions that can alter your alignment like the tournaments. The game does eventually get nastier. The first real boss of the game is considered by most to be a wake-up call boss and if not him the boss right after them is pretty nasty as well. The game does eventually get easier if you keep the right abilities and make the right demons.
I'm really digging it, though. I feel bad for starting it without having finished Strange Journey, but I will get there someday Also, I try to avoid spoilers, but I heard that the neutral ending is frustratingly difficult to get, which is a bummer to me, because I always take that ending because I just know Chaos and Law are going to be ultra bleak, if it's like any other SMT game, and I just can't have that. Do you have any tips on that? Or on the game in general, because I expect a difficulty spike (I was fooled with Strange Journey, thinking it'd be easier. But then I reached sector Eridanus. Ugh).
Yep, hey you can't do post-apocalyptic worlds without Snake Pliskin.
And holy crap, Kurt Russell is the barman.
That's intentional, the characters names in katakana contain the same place holder names for the original neutral, chaos, and law path heroes from SMT1. Isabeau and Navarre on the other hand are clever shout-outs to the film Ladyhawke.
Just started it and came out from Naraku. I'm loving that I can save anywhere. Still, I really don't have as much time on my hands as I'd like right now, so I'll probably be going through the game really slowly. The beginning was very familiar, though, with all the creepy criptic stuff. Plus, the heroes seem to be direct callbacks to the cast of SMT I.
It is different, but eventually starts to feel familiar. The game is more accessible than previous entries and brought in some mechanics from Devil Survivor. Where are you in the game?
