Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey

It's official: SMT: Strange Journey is a first-person SMT RPG for DS, using the demon sprite art from Devil Survivor and the Etrian Odyssey engine, with what looks like a futuristic sci-fi setting

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...

Stage is the Strange Dimension (Schwarz Verse) at the South Pole and the goal to check out Schwarz Verse as a member of a team (You play as an elite soldier from Japan)

Characters: Captain Goa, Jimenez(American), Zelenin(Russian)

Also:

Main character is a soldier born in Japan

You can communicate with demons, as well as merge them

The system is in 1st person view (upper screen)with map display (lower screen)

Over 300 demons available

Sounds intriguing, but all of the image links are taking me to photobucket's homepage.

Yeah all your links must've been too long. The forum software snipped out part of the middle and replaced it with ellipses.

Hmmm

I'll try this

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...
?action=view&current=29138_1248228469758_122_373lo.jpg

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...
?action=view&current=32160_1248228578904_122_977lo-1.jpg

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...
?action=view&current=29412_1248228732522_122_115lo.jpg

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...
?action=view&current=32316_1248228801900_122_831lo.jpg

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/f...
?action=view&current=29488_1248228886983_122_1187lo.jpg

Just copy and paste it and if you need to, backspace a spot at where it says ?action

Huh. That's interesting. Adult characters. As in, not little kids with cat ears.

IMAGE(http://www.rpgamer.com/games/megten/devilsurvivor/art/devilsurvivor3.jpg)

Yes, you.

US release date's been announced: http://www.atlus.com/strangejourney/

3/10, pretty quick all things considered. I'm looking forward to this one. Etrian Odyssey (though, minus the map making, I think. :/) + SMT is almost as genius as Peanut Butter + Chocolate.

Ferret's still alive?

Yeah, just a lot less noisy these days. I do plenty of lurking, but not so much posting or (sniff) gaming.

SMT world + Etrian Odyssey gameplay = yes

Website is functional now. Some stuff still hidden to be slowly revealed over the next few weeks, but what there is so far looks awesome: http://www.atlus.com/strangejourney/...

Random oddness: SMT:SJ has the distinction of being one of very few M-rated DS titles that I can think of or remember. (Though there may be plenty of Japanese ones with equivalent ratings that we never see, I guess.)

ExitPursuedByBear wrote:

SMT world + Etrian Odyssey gameplay = yes

Quite like the art design, too. Mass Effect with an anime twist.

I'm guessing I'm probably the only one on the forum that picked this up today.

Lard wrote:

I'm guessing I'm probably the only one on the forum that picked this up today.

Not necessarily. There were some people buzzing about it in the JRPG catch-all thread and in this week's Week Ahead article on the front page.

As you play, post your thoughts here or in the JRPG thread. I'm curious to hear some hands-on impressions, and I know there are some players waiting for others' thoughts before taking the plunge themselves.

I picked it up today. And spent my lunch hour playing it.

I'm very happy with it so far and look forward to quitting time like I haven't for a game in a long, long time.

Pretty interested in trying this, as well as that other sci-fi jRPG with all them spaceships.* Can't remember what it's called. I like the idea of a dungeon crawler, since the wandering-the-city motif of Devil Survivor and The World Ends with You just got boring to me after a while.

This is very strange. I count myself as a jRPG hater but some of them just grab my attention. I think the thin line is between combat focused games with intriguing mechanics versus story focused hit-the-A-button type games.

* Checked the jRPG thread: Infinite Space.

So far so good.

It's got a real Lovecraft (Mountains of Madness)/The Thing vibe to it, due to the Antarctic setting.

Not very far in, and trying not to get sucked in because I have two quizzes tomorrow

Definitely on my to-buy list, but I'm still playing through Devil Survivor and I don't like splitting up my hand-held game time across games. Will probably pick it up next month.

There was a problem with the soundtrack CD bundled in with this game. To replace it, go to Atlus' site (www.atlus.com/strangejourneycd). The instructions from their mailing list are below (it came through as an image):

IMAGE(http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll59/adam_greenbrier/strangejourney_replacementcd_instru.jpg)

Ugh. I'm slammed with JRPG games between Infinite Space and Resonance of Fate. It's hard to pass up a SMT game, but we'll see when I find time to get to it.

I've got a copy on the way from Gamefly. Hoping to put some time into it this weekend. JRPGs are usually hit or miss with me, but I'm looking forward to this one.

Atlus sent a set of codes out to everyone on their mailing list that "unlock some of the useful, otherwise inaccessible demons locked away in SJ". They are:

"Left hand freeze Right hand shock"

"Prophecy of wind"

"Thick red skin"

"Soothing ice"

I just barely started this last night and can already tell I'm going to enjoy this game. The writing and subsequent localization seems to hold to Atlus's typically high standards. It would be nice to get a little more detail on the character portraits but that's nitpicking. I haven't really experienced enough combat to know whether I will continue to like the game after 40 hours, but that's not something to worry about now.

As an aside I was so glad to find an option to turn text speed to instant display I nearly peed myself.

I am now 38 hours in and the game is still awesome. The story is filled with epic moments that really make you think about the outcome of decisions you make along the way. The demon fusion mechanics are great and amazingly the combat has not gotten old yet.

There have been some unfortunate bumps in the road where the gameplay gets in the way and the pacing fails. In particular there was a particular section where you need to navigate an obnoxious teleporter maze. I gave up after spending hours on it and referred to a walkthrough to make it out. That was an extremely frustrating couple of hours as I was making no progress beyond building up money. I had already outleveled the opposition so I was barely gaining experience. I am glad things picked up again immediately after that section.

Really, though I can't say enough good things about the story. While the characters are pretty broadly defined they clearly represent poles of human behavior and their actions serve to illuminate the positives and negatives of different ways of thinking about the world. It's quite amazing that the story still has me wondering what is going to happen next this far in.

Apparently I missed a price drop to $20 this weekend on Amazon. Had this thing on my wish list forever after playing SMT:DS as my first SMT game. Ah well, I'll get it soon enough I guess.

So I finally got this from Amazon for $17 the other day. It's back up to $18 and change now.

Still comes with the soundtrack CD. Think they already replaced mine or do I still need to go to that website above? EDIT: Nope looks like data. But I'll just convert the wavs to mp3s I guess anyway, it's not like I ever use an actual CD anymore.

Anyway I was reading some FAQs the last couple days while I waited for shipping. Apparently there is a password thing where I can get demons from other players? Is that like free demons or do I still have to have something first? I did see that it limits them to stuff at your level or something, but this sounds like it could really make the game easier.

So anybody got any passwords?

I didn't jump on that sale and regretted it. Glad to see it's still cheap. I need to get on this when my pile is smaller.

Stele wrote:

Anyway I was reading some FAQs the last couple days while I waited for shipping. Apparently there is a password thing where I can get demons from other players? Is that like free demons or do I still have to have something first? I did see that it limits them to stuff at your level or something, but this sounds like it could really make the game easier.

So anybody got any passwords? :D

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Atlus sent a set of codes out to everyone on their mailing list that "unlock some of the useful, otherwise inaccessible demons locked away in SJ". They are:

"Left hand freeze Right hand shock"

"Prophecy of wind"

"Thick red skin"

"Soothing ice"

This what you're looking for?

[b]Hah I guess so. I saw a couple other basic ones listed in some FAQs, that were actual words, not the normal jumble of things.

Also saw these on Kotaku from April 2010:

The base version of the Queen of the Faeries, Titania, has some powerful skills including Maziodyne and Mediarahan. But if you want something a little different, you might try out this special Titania, who trades what she has in multi-target damage and healing for more overall versatility: with Agidyne, Bufudyne, and Ziodyne, she can exploit three times the weaknesses, and if you're frowning at the lack of party-wide damage, well, is Megidolaon good enough for you? Call on this level 60 Neutral-Neutral demon with:

summon smt.queen

If you've got a Law party cooking and want a physical powerhouse, then Alciel, the Black Sun, may fit the bill. Another password-only demon, Alciel has some drawbacks-he's weak to physical and gun attacks, and you won't want to put him up against any Expel-users-but he has stamina and HP enough to survive the hits and the Counter skill to dish them right back. And that's when he's on the receiving end of damage; when he's dishing it out, his Hades Blast does heavy physical damage to the entire enemy party. Summon this level 61 Dark-Law demon with:

ALCARMOR

EDIT: And another group from 1Up:

The first special password demon in this batch is a custom Cabracan. The theme of this version is "tradeoffs": sure, Sukunda isn’t quite as good an agility debuff as Fog Breath, but wouldn’t you rather have the full-party full-heal Mediarahan in place of Mediarama? Similarly, all of this Cabracan’s agility gets a slight boost at the expense of its other stats, which are nerfed a bit. Call on this trusted Mayan amphibian with:

TRUSTIN SCALY
------- -----

[Note the dashes!]

Next, a three-in-one for players of all alignments. Wish you could start the game with a human partner instead of some demons? Plug in the alignment of your choice to get a like-minded member of the Strike Team on your side! The Demonica-N (or Demonica-L or Demonica-C) has a couple of useful Gun attacks; exactly which ones depend on your favored alignment. Neutral can hit multiple foes with one shot or reduce their defense; Law gets a chance to do strong damage to one foe or reduce agility; and Chaos can reduce a foe’s offense. Any one you choose will start at level 1, of course, but that’s because each variety comes with Watchful: They don’t even need to be in your active party to soak up the experience as you go. The password is simplicity itself; just choose one alignment and go.

Special Password+Law

Special Password+Neutral

Special Password+Chaos

And the piece de resistance: you’ve encountered him normally, you’ve faced off against his evil form, you fell in love with him as a superhero… now, Jack Frost joins the Strike Team. This exclusive password-only level 75 Fairy comes with Desperate Hit, an unblockable attack that deals strong damage to random enemies, and Breath, a top-tier Ice skill that lays waste to an enemy party. And he looks so cute doing this! Recruit your very own Demonee-ho with the following password:

You can't laugh OR cry now!

Ah here is a big list, has most of this stuff. Just copying the official staff ones here:

Demon - LV - Skills - Password
*Pixie 1 - Megidolaon, Mediarahan - Madoka Ueno
*Koppa Tengu - 5 - Bufu, Zio - Left hand freeze Right hand shock
*Mothman - 5 - Garu, Magaru, Dream Needle - Prophecy of wind
*Oni - 8 -Resist Fire, Resist Ice, Resist Elec, Resist Wind - Thick red skin
*Heqet - 10 - Recarm, Rampage - A toasty frog
*Nekomata - 22 - Agilao, Mega Claw, Retaliate - Mai Namba
*Silky - 23 - Bufula, Glacial Blast, Diarama, Media, Shooting Spree - Soothing ice
*Nue - 27 - Media, Mediarama, Mediarahan, Salvation, Samarecarm, Recarmdra - James Kuroki
*Ishtar - 51 - Amrita, Silent Prayer, Invitation - ISHTAR FIGHTS (line 1) TAMMUZ ANGELS (line 2)
*Hare of Inaba - 52 - Kamikaze, Diarahan, Sukukaja - X-X!HoI
*Prometheus - 57 - Charge, Madness Crush - Yu Namba
*Yatagarasu - 59 - Taunt, Tetrakarn, Makarakarn, Ambush, Mana Aid - HELP ME
*Titania - 60 - Agidyne, Bufudyne, Ziodyne, Megidolaon, Eternal Rest, Diarama - summon smt.queen
*Mara - 88 - Frolic, Riot Gun, Enduring Soul, Victory Cry, Gun Boost - Nich Maragos