Shin Megami Tensei MMOG coming to America

[Falconeer]

Maybe Itto you included the grind in your daily dose of fun. Maybe it was totally ok and relaxing for you to stroll around the save point and healing cave for hours gathering XP and levels without advancing the story before going to the next boss/area. Seriously, that was the only way to me, and it was kinda corroborated by a couple of FAQs.

[Ard]

Oh yeah. Hama and Mudo, fuck you.

 

At least in DDS they made it so Hama wasn't a death spell so you only ever had to have Void Death on your characters instead of eating up slots on both.  Both those spells caused me more game overs in P3 than anything else.  I never got far enough into Nocturne for them to be an issue.  I'm not going back to try to tackle that again until I finish up DDS2 and the FES epilogue story.  Which, at the rate I finish games at, won't be until well after P4 comes out.  I have such a love/hate relationship with this series.

[Hindenburg]

Fuck grinding. Had enough of that in DDS getting to 90 to beat Hitoshura, didn't have the stomach to do it again for Satan in DDS2. Nocturne I just made a lot of demon sandwiches and kept retrying for 10 minutes until the skill set i wanted popped up. Very shitty mechanic, should just let us pick what damn skills we want.

But yeah, now that you insist on it, i do remember grinding a few times, although i can't remember for what, exactly.

To each his own, though. Can't understand how people managed to like P3, absolutely hated the fatigue and time constraints around that game.
---

Ard. In nocturne, if the main char dies at any time, it's game over. So fucking awesome when the enemy starts rocking mudoon and hamaon, let me tell you.

[Ard]

Ard. In nocturne, if the main char dies at any time, it's game over. So fucking awesome when the enemy starts rocking mudoon and hamaon, let me tell you.

It's the same case in P3, thus my comment about many game overs, unless you happen to be sitting on a few of the item that eats the death for you, can't remember the name.  They were a pain in the butt to farm either the item or the gems for it though.  I think I had only 2-3 left when I beat the game, most of which were eaten by random encounters.

[Ard]

quote is not modify, will i ever learn?

[Falconeer]

They got me for closed beta, but I am under the impression lots of invites are being sent out. Check your spam folders.
No NDA is in effect.

[Ard]

They got me for closed beta, but I am under the impression lots of invites are being sent out. Check your spam folders.
No NDA is in effect.

Got mine, will be around tonight in all likelyhood.

[schild]

Just finished installing, suckas.

Protip: Finish the tutorial.

[schild]

Protip 2: When you get to the wisps, use AGI, not rush. Also, lol so slow.

[Ard]

In as a girly manchild named Ard.

[TheCastle]

MegaTen offers numerous unique features:
* Strategic Real-time Fighting System - Choose between attacking, parrying and defending in real time.

Let's break down these "unique" features:

1) Strategic real-time fighting. Didn't FFXI do this?

not really.
shield blocks, parry, guard all proc from a skill value on your character.

The only possible way I can say that FFXI did do this is with Hasso and Seigan two abilities you can use when playing as or subbing samurai. Hasso means increased attack, strength and attack speed, at the cost of raised spell casting, offensive stance essentially. Or you have the ability to use seigan instead that simply allows you to anticipate or counter attack when being attacked when using an ability called third eye, defensive stance essentially. Only works when using big 2 hand weapons...

Other than that situational set up that only comes into play very late in the game for anyone but samurai FFXI has nothing where you do what is described.

However, Age of Conan has block button and attack buttons. I would be more inclined to say AOC has this feature hehe..

However, watching the video I saw nothing of the sort going on. Perhaps the character was using ranged weapon so none of this came into play??

[Falconeer]

In as a girly girl named Lefteye. But it's kinda pointless I'm afraid. The social tools are clunky and buggy and as usual I don't think you can add people while they are offline and /tells tend to fail a lot with unknown errors. I'll try contacting you though.

About the game? I can't be fair, visual style is a joy if you are a SMT junkie (as I am) and the gameplay you are probably used to if you are into the series. I am totally biased in liking it.

[Falconeer]

This game share as many things with Age of Conan as I do with a puma.

[Ard]

This game share as many things with Age of Conan as I do with a puma.

Yeah, oddly enough however, it feels a lot like Mabinogi with pets, although the combat, at least at the beginning, is a lot more forgiving than Mabinogi.  Which for me, isn't a bad thing.  That and it's SMT...  I can't believe I'm currently fiending for a grind game.

[Hindenburg]

O hai, beta keys.

[Falconeer]

Aw my head. Too many options, too many skills (expertise) to train, too many pets (demons) to get. What I am supposed to do to NOT gimpi myself?
Why am I worrying about it while I wouldn't do it in a western MMORPG?

Because Asians games are crazy and because SMT is known to be nasty.
I'd love a beginner guide, but right now is there any other protip I can get? Including a reassuring: "Don't worry, you can't gimp yourself".

Right now I am training the simple attack and talk, but what about taunt and threaten? And what about the demons? I am leveling my wounded cerberus, but should I aim for a better one? Which one is a better one? How am I supposed to know which one is a better one? So far, my lev 1 cerbersu is much better than my level 4 pixie leader.

Not that I was expecting anything else, but I foresee uncanny amounts of grind.

[Ard]

Because Asians games are crazy and because SMT is known to be nasty.
I'd love a beginner guide, but right now is there any other protip I can get? Including a reassuring: "Don't worry, you can't gimp yourself".

Right now I am training the simple attack and talk, but what about taunt and threaten? And what about the demons? I am leveling my wounded cerberus, but should I aim for a better one? Which one is a better one? How am I supposed to know which one is a better one? So far, my lev 1 cerbersu is much better than my level 4 pixie leader.

Protip:  You can't gimp yourself.  They're going to wipe your character anyhow.  Muck around with things with impunity.
Protip 2:  If you're not playing this to level up pets and trying to combine them into the ultimate critter, you're playing the wrong game.

As far as skills go, open them up (double click on one), and see what unlocks in them further down their trees.  Talk is by far the most useful one out of the box for the conversation skills, because it unlocks all the bribe skills.  Taunt and Threaten add in combat effects later on.  Some critters respond better to Taunt or Threaten though from what I understand.

Basically, the main key to not gimping yourself overall is to pick a weapon type, and make sure you only spend stat points in attributes that work for that weapon.  Strength for melee, Speed for guns, Magic for Magic.  Intelligence adds mp, Vitality adds hp, and Luck adds a bunch of random stuff (crit+, increased drops, 1 or 2 things I'm forgetting).  But also realize that you get an increasing number of stat points as you level, and that as they go up, they start costing more.  So the initial set of stats spread around some to boost up hp or mp isn't going to murder you.

This game is more or less a straight rip of Mabinogi, so knowing how combat works matters more than levels in a lot of cases, and with the added pain of also needing to know damage type vulnerabilities per monster family as standard for SMT.  Basically, if you learn when and how to Guard/Counter/Dodge properly, you'll be mostly un-killable.  The combat is alot more forgiving than in Mabinogi, but things can still rip you a new one. 

If you want an easier time to start with, use a gun, the shots do knockback effects and make it harder for you to get hit.  Kiting is also your friend as a caster or gun user, since things will sometimes bounce between you and your pet, giving you time to run away and heal.  Problem with going caster or gun is that it also doesn't really train you on learning how to block damage, but you do have to learn a few other things, like staggering your attacks with your pet's attack to push things back away from you further.

As far as the skills go, unlock everything that has to do with your chosen weapon type, and also guard, counterattack, and dodge.  Level them all.  To initially level all magic types other than destruction, you need to buy the single use spell items from the magic shop of the appropriate type (healing/buff/debuff), and use them until you hit rank 1 and can get the spell instead.

Pets in SMT games are a changing and situational experience.  Do not expect to sit with the same pet forever.  It's also fairly easy to level one up fast once you can kill things higher level than them.  Killing things like level 10ish cu sith's will level a pixie every kill for a few in a row.   The Wounded Cerebrus and the Brave Garm are both really overpowered compared to other pets you can get right now, mostly because they have a buttload of skills unlocked to start.  I don't believe you get to keep the Cerebrus though, so I'm not sure if it's even worth leveling, and it also has an xp gain penalty that kinda discourages it.

In the area outside Home III, watch out for Inugami's (sorta a cross between a dog and a chinese dragon), they're one of the few things that will rape damn near everyone, since they're pretty much only vulnerable to electricity unless your stats way overpower theirs.  You can get a pet that can do elec damage by fusioning one of the red pixies (fu pao or something), and a kudoma.  Creates something that looks like an earth elemental.  The main quest line eventually tells you all this in no uncertain terms around Act 3, I'm only including it to point out how things can vary on the fly.

[Falconeer]

Ok, for some stupid reason I approached it the MMORPG way, while forgetting it's MegaTen. I reverted back to Nocturne mode and it all makes much more sense now. And definitely much more interesting, compelling and addictive.
Only drawback is the /shout chat: apparently everyone plays it like Pokemon from hell, but well... to a degree that's what it is.

Question I am too lazy to get a reply on my own: is there any form of PvP? Even arena-like would be better than nothing.

EDIT: Triple fusion = 

[Ard]

Ok, for some stupid reason I approached it the MMORPG way, while forgetting it's MegaTen. I reverted back to Nocturne mode and it all makes much more sense now. And definitely much more interesting, compelling and addictive.
Only drawback is the /shout chat: apparently everyone plays it like Pokemon from hell, but well... to a degree that's what it is.

Yeah, it's basically a multiplayer version of any given SMT game.  And as a warning, from what I've read, Hama and Mudo do exactly what you'd expect them to do from playing anything other than DDS.  I expect to see many tears as people rage-quit this game.  On the upside, it does appear that your pets can learn and use recarm if you're dead, so it's not an instant game over.

Question I am too lazy to get a reply on my own: is there any form of PvP? Even arena-like would be better than nothing.

Now we're out of territory where I know anything.  Finding any information in english on this game is hard.  Almost everything I wrote is based on what little I've played the last two days.

EDIT: Triple fusion = 

Haven't even looked at this yet, since it appears to need a group, so I have no clue how it works.

edit:  oh, and on the grind.  You level fast in dungeons, but if they're anything like the ones in Mabinogi, anything beyond the beginner level ones likely won't be able to be done solo.  I went from 8 to 11 in the starter one they send you to do in Act 2 or 3.  Died once due to pet related stupidity regarding mabufu.  Tons of mobs, lots of loot, and a boss at the end.  Good times.

[Lantyssa]

The game feels a lot more forgiving than Mabinogi, and with a pet to back you up, that much better.  I'm going to start a crazy breeding program.

[Hindenburg]

They put naked snake as a trainer 
Kinda sad that this half decade old game has a way better tutorial than most AAA mmo's.

Playing an homonimous manly girlchild.

[Falconeer]

EDIT: Triple fusion = 

Haven't even looked at this yet, since it appears to need a group, so I have no clue how it works.

Triple Fusion is basically this:
 
+  +  = 

whereas you need 3 people to do it and everyone has to contribute one demon and get paid in exchange. You can't do it by yourself, that's the point. Brilliant.

[Falconeer]

A guide!

[Ard]

The game feels a lot more forgiving than Mabinogi, and with a pet to back you up, that much better.  I'm going to start a crazy breeding program.

It gets up to Mabinogi levels of pain eventually, or at least, that's what it feels like now to me.  But it's harder for me to judge here since I've been using a gun and haven't had to throw up guard or counterattack very often.  The Inugami's you have to fight for Act 3 can beat you down pretty fast at level 11ish if you're not prepared, and they tend to run in packs, and aggro pretty aggressively.

Now, note, I don't consider this a bad thing.  This is more or less the reason I liked Mabinogi.  The learning curve on Mabinogi was just punishingly hard for new players.

[Falconeer]

No PvP at all. Bummer.

[Lantyssa]

I need more demon slots.  (I'm guessing it'll be a cash shop option. )  I know I could look at a guide, but I am loving the fusion aspect so I'm doing my own experiments.

It's even better than Pokemon or Mabinogi.  It's Pokemon + Mabinogi + SWG Creature Handler/Bio-Engineer.

[Ard]

I need more demon slots.  (I'm guessing it'll be a cash shop option. )  I know I could look at a guide, but I am loving the fusion aspect so I'm doing my own experiments.

It's even better than Pokemon or Mabinogi.  It's Pokemon + Mabinogi + SWG Creature Handler/Bio-Engineer.

I just like games where you have to not suck to do well, and where the game is built around empowering you to not suck without handing it to you on a platter like most diku based mmo's.

That, and unlike Mabinogi, I don't worry that the FBI are going to show up at my doorstep... 

[Falconeer]

I like it for all the aforementioned reasons. I felt the SWG tingle too, and the UO tamer just before that. Plus it's SMT.

But I have to stop playing, as it's pre-wipe beta. I can't survive wipes, especially a wipe that kill all my pets. I would cry.
So I'll force myself to stop now and pick it up again when the wipe menace will be lifted.

And seriously, what's wrong with PvP, maybe simple 1v1 arenas (a la Pokemon)? No game should ever ship without a way to bash the lights out of your brother.

[Ard]

But I have to stop playing, as it's pre-wipe beta. I can't survive wipes, especially a wipe that kill all my pets. I would cry.
So I'll force myself to stop now and pick it up again when the wipe menace will be lifted.

Yeah, I think I'm going to stop some time this weekend also, after I see a bit more, and maybe get to Shinjuku Babel to see how crafting works.  This kinda just seems like bad timing since Persona 4 comes out next week, and if that doesn't cannibalize a chunk of the player base, nothing will.  Wish they'd say how long they were planning on running the closed beta for though.

That said, I really like this game, and as long as I can keep a few of my friends playing it, I'll probably stick around.

[Lantyssa]

Have they said they're going to wipe?  A lot of these 'beta' free to play games never seem to have them.  I can understand waiting to make sure though.

[schild]

They said there will be a wipe at least before the open beta. Probably won't be after that though I'd imagine. The moment they open the item mall though, there's pretty much a blanket guarantee there won't be a wipe.

[Ard]

Have they said they're going to wipe?  A lot of these 'beta' free to play games never seem to have them.  I can understand waiting to make sure though.

The closed beta email invite straight up said they were going to wipe before open beta.  No guarentee on open beta yet, but this is Aeria, so one of the first things they'll do when open beta starts is open up the item mall.

Also, keep in mind that when we go from Closed Beta to Open Beta, we will have to wipe out all character data. Now is the time to experiment with the game and learn the ins and outs. We'll be giving away lots of free stuff in the game for you to try out!

[Lantyssa]

Ah.  I never got an e-mail.  I just downloaded the client, made an account with Aeria, and started playing.

[Ard]

Ah.  I never got an e-mail.  I just downloaded the client, made an account with Aeria, and started playing.

Wasn't trying to bash anyone.  Was just trying to point out that they made the stance on character wipes pretty clear.  I still think it's funny that they completely dropped the ball on actually making it a closed beta.  They even gave keys to filefront which apparently never served a purpose. 

[Ard]

I need more demon slots.  (I'm guessing it'll be a cash shop option. )

From what I'm reading, it looks like more unlock over time.  It sounds like you get a 7th slot at 25 when you get your DB License, which also lets you teleport between towns.  So I'd assume more slots unlock as you level up, like in some of the other SMT games.  Looks like it's 10 slots total, from the fusion screen.

Now, this of course doesn't mean SOME of them aren't in the cash shop...