JRPG Catch-All

That does look nice. Maybe that will be my first go at a SMT game.

Is SMT the new Final Fantasy? I love Persona 4 and I find myself wanting to go back to Devil Survivor for the 3DS.

shoptroll wrote:
grobstein wrote:

I am psyched. I have never played a mainline SMT game. The visuals look very pretty.

Same here. I've got Nocturne sitting on the shelf but I'm too afraid it's going to chew me up and spit me back out if I start it. Very curious about this one.

Hehe yeah, same here. And I need to pick back up my aborted early run of Digital Devil Saga 1/2. GTASC had me put it down and I never picked it back up.

Apparently Yasumi Matsuno's (who was the writer and designer of Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and parts of the Ogre series) new game Crimson Shroud is coming out the 13th of December on the 3DS eshop. I don't know much about it except that it supposedly takes elements of tabletop role playing games in the sense that it uses dice roles for combat and to decide which path the story takes, and that originally it was part of a compilation of four smaller games called Gulid01 which also included Liberation Maiden. I'm really excited for this one since as far as I know this is the first new game he's worked on as a designer since FF XII. Although you could make a case for Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together being a whole new game, as from my understanding that was a from the ground up remake of every thing but the plot.

DSGamer wrote:

Is SMT the new Final Fantasy? I love Persona 4 and I find myself wanting to go back to Devil Survivor for the 3DS.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the new Final Fantasy"; Shin Megami Tensei has been around since '92 ('96 in North America). But it's certainly my Final Fantasy in the sense that it's my favorite JRPG franchise and the likelihood that I'll purchase something goes up simply if the name is attached.

For me I think the Atlus development means more to me than the SMT name.

Hmm. True. I did buy Catherine and Trauma Team because of the developer alone.

SixteenBlue wrote:

For me I think the Atlus development means more to me than the SMT name.

I came to the party way late with this whole JRPG and Atlus thing, so I'm probably in the same boat.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Is SMT the new Final Fantasy? I love Persona 4 and I find myself wanting to go back to Devil Survivor for the 3DS.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the new Final Fantasy"; Shin Megami Tensei has been around since '92 ('96 in North America). But it's certainly my Final Fantasy in the sense that it's my favorite JRPG franchise and the likelihood that I'll purchase something goes up simply if the name is attached. :)

I took "new Final Fantasy" to mean the new "Series that defined / represents the genre". Like, "orange is the new black".

ClockworkHouse wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Is SMT the new Final Fantasy? I love Persona 4 and I find myself wanting to go back to Devil Survivor for the 3DS.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the new Final Fantasy"; Shin Megami Tensei has been around since '92 ('96 in North America). But it's certainly my Final Fantasy in the sense that it's my favorite JRPG franchise and the likelihood that I'll purchase something goes up simply if the name is attached. :)

I just mean that they have a family of games that are somewhat related, have related themes, design and ideas and seem to be more relevant currently. That's what I mean by "new Final Fantasy". They've taken over that status as the pre-eminent RPG franchise it seems.

shoptroll wrote:
grobstein wrote:

I am psyched. I have never played a mainline SMT game. The visuals look very pretty.

Same here. I've got Nocturne sitting on the shelf but I'm too afraid it's going to chew me up and spit me back out if I start it. Very curious about this one.

What are you waiting for!? That game is nothing but awesomeness!

Yeah, it can be tough, but it's also quite rewarding, seriously. So much win!

(fanboy moment over)

But seriously, do it.

I think SMT is still fairly niche. Definitely not the defining JRPG series.

Atlus also developed Etrian Odyssey, right?

Yeah, Atlus has taken the role in my gaming interests that Square-Enix once held.

Even as a publisher they get automatic interest from me.

DSGamer wrote:

I just mean that they have a family of games that are somewhat related, have related themes, design and ideas and seem to be more relevant currently. That's what I mean by "new Final Fantasy". They've taken over that status as the pre-eminent RPG franchise it seems.

Around here, I'd say that's true. The people in this thread, and maybe on the forums in general, are certainly more excited about Megami Tensei stuff than anything Final Fantasy. Sadly, I don't think that's true elsewhere.

(Also, I was wrong about some dates up there. The first Megami Tensei game was published in September of '87, making it a few months older than Final Fantasy.)

SixteenBlue wrote:

Atlus also developed Etrian Odyssey, right?

Yep. And Radiant Historia among others.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

I just mean that they have a family of games that are somewhat related, have related themes, design and ideas and seem to be more relevant currently. That's what I mean by "new Final Fantasy". They've taken over that status as the pre-eminent RPG franchise it seems.

Around here, I'd say that's true. The people in this thread, and maybe on the forums in general, are certainly more excited about Megami Tensei stuff than anything Final Fantasy. Sadly, I don't think that's true elsewhere.

(Also, I was wrong about some dates up there. The first Megami Tensei game was published in September of '87, making it a few months older than Final Fantasy.)

SixteenBlue wrote:

Atlus also developed Etrian Odyssey, right?

Yep. And Radiant Historia among others.

Oh really, that's an Atlus game? Awesome. That's hopefully arriving in my mailbox today (or some day soon, at least).

Farscry wrote:

Yeah, Atlus has taken the role in my gaming interests that Square-Enix once held.

I think that's true for a large number of people. This generation really walloped S-E's creative output*, and in return XSeed and Atlus rose to prominence.

* Or at least their Japanese division. Eidos/IO/Crystal Dynamics are doing really well right now on the PC/Consoles. I think it's also very telling that the Asian divisions are cranking out a ton of stuff on iOS/Android lately.

I love Atlus a lot. But I am warming up to Xseed and other smaller translator groups as well.

SixteenBlue wrote:

Oh really, that's an Atlus game? Awesome. That's hopefully arriving in my mailbox today (or some day soon, at least).

Yeah, that sucker's been almost a week. That's got me concerned.

Also, not using UPS for shipping anymore. For as much as it cost this is insufficiently slow.

ccesarano wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

Oh really, that's an Atlus game? Awesome. That's hopefully arriving in my mailbox today (or some day soon, at least).

Yeah, that sucker's been almost a week. That's got me concerned.

Also, not using UPS for shipping anymore. For as much as it cost this is insufficiently slow.

You would prefer it be slower?

I remember watching the first trailer for Persona 3 with my friend and then us making a spur-of-the-moment road trip looking to get a copy of Nocturne (which ended in failure haha).

Garden Ninja wrote:
ccesarano wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

Oh really, that's an Atlus game? Awesome. That's hopefully arriving in my mailbox today (or some day soon, at least).

Yeah, that sucker's been almost a week. That's got me concerned.

Also, not using UPS for shipping anymore. For as much as it cost this is insufficiently slow.

You would prefer it be slower?

...shut up...

Grumble mumble stupid English...

So I'm about 4.5 hours into The Last Story as of tonight, and while my initial first hour impression was "eh" it's starting to sink its teeth into my soft, fluffy flesh. I feel I'm being unfair as I try to compare certain aspects to Xenoblade, though. I feel like Xenoblade definitely had a better budget, as a number of the animations and presentation of cut-scenes just seemed more polished. But whereas Xenoblade is mostly a single player MMO, The Last Story is a sort of tactical cover-based action RPG.

I like it.

I'll get into more detail later.

Rumor has it Square-Enix has trademarked the phrase "All the Bravest" and registered allthebravest.com.

It kind of has to be part of a Bravely Default localization, doesn't it? Please?

edit: link

Timetable is about right, game has been out in Japan for about a month. Actually, almost 2.

ccesarano wrote:

So I'm about 4.5 hours into The Last Story as of tonight, and while my initial first hour impression was "eh" it's starting to sink its teeth into my soft, fluffy flesh. I feel I'm being unfair as I try to compare certain aspects to Xenoblade, though. I feel like Xenoblade definitely had a better budget, as a number of the animations and presentation of cut-scenes just seemed more polished. But whereas Xenoblade is mostly a single player MMO, The Last Story is a sort of tactical cover-based action RPG.

This was my experience also. I think i would have enjoyed Last Story a lot more if I hadn't just played Xenoblade. But if you can look past some of the polish the game really is fantastic.

Oh I have no doubt, and if I was the sort of person that required that much polish in all of my games I wouldn't be playing on the Wii. I haven't gotten to where the story gets really interesting yet, but the gameplay has sold itself on me. I like how they're really starting to tie elements together in a way that matters, which is where the other comparison to Xenoblade comes in: in Xenoblade, it feels like you have very little control over the actual proceedings of battle. You can try and set your AI team mates up using specific kinds of attacks and then other abilities, and Shulk has special abilities himself, but it all seems very passive.

The logic The Last Story uses for the Gale ability is similar to a lot of what Xenoblade does (use this ability to inflict this status effect, then your AI team mate will use this ability to inflict THIS status effect, and THEN they're vulnerable!), but it allows more control and more efficient use of abilities. Command your team to cast a spell, Gale into the circle and then inflict a specific status. That's got potential, and what's more is I wouldn't have realized just how much if it weren't the key to that one boss fight on the ship.

I think my only complaint is sticking to cover seems a bit iffy. Sometimes Zael just rolls into cover. Other times he rolls out of cover instead of using Slash. It feels frustrating at times, but on the whole the game works pretty well. I'll just take it as a "Calm Down and Stick to Cover" thing, where I'll take my time more.

I think I need some clarification on what you guys mean by polish in this case. I still have Xenoblade Chronicles sitting at about 25 hours, and part of the reason I quit is because the design felt unchecked by reason and unnecessarily bloated. Maybe the graphics were a bit smoother but it felt like they just took the kitchen sink approach and it ended up feeling totally unfocused. I'll take well designed gameplay systems over aesthetic polish til the day I die.

ccesarano, try messing with the control settings if you haven't. I strongly preferred manual mode with the Wii remote and nunchuk.

I dunno, the issue doesn't seem tied to the gamepad as much as contextual awareness. I think I'm hitting the cover button too early or not in the right spots. I've played Gears of War recently so that could be part of the reason.

As to "polish", it's all in superficial presentation. The cut-scenes have a sort of style to them in The Last Story that feels more archaic while Xenoblade feels more up to date. Could be character animations, could be how they "shoot" it, could be a number of things (I'm about as far as you are in Xenoblade, actually). But as I also said, it's not going to ruin things for me. After all, I grew up on Final Fantasy IV.

Started Terra's story in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and today I was given Jeanne D'Arc. Don't know much about it, but when I saw it was Level 5 I smiled.

KidDork wrote:

Started Terra's story in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and today I was given Jeanne D'Arc. Don't know much about it, but when I saw it was Level 5 I smiled.

You'll smile even more when you play it.