Does it pick up in pace?

[Vince ✟]

So I'm currently grinding around Tokyo Tower so i can prepare for the first fight. I'm curious though, as I have never played a SMT game before. I am finding the variety of demons to be wholly insane and make zero sense at all. If you have ever played a game such as Zigguraut and thought (why am I fighting carrots?) I have the same feeling here. I attribute it to the Japanese ideas and understand, as I have played a few Kojima games also.

My main question is; Will the Story of the game ever pick up in pace and begin to make sense or does it go slow and just expect me to sorta make sense of things as I go along? Because "meow meow" WarGods are cute, and I like seeing my Angel heal the group, but it feels like an xp grind already with only like 3 inserts of any storyline to this point in the game, and most of that has made zero sense.

[Maal]

The game doesn't really require grinding unless you rushed things. XP has heavy diminishing return, if you do sidequest along the way you'll be high enough.

Party composition is of much greater importance than your level, getting the right attacks and resistances.

About the story, the old storyline is pretty slow. I do think that the story pick up later, but SMT games are always more about abandoning you somewhere and letting you figure it out, hiding the story behind npc chat and side quest with the ocasional break for main story stuff here and there.

[mimizukari]

There's NO grind required, ever. and the more you level up a demon the harder it is to level them up later unless you get a surplus of grimoires. The new demon huant system does make demons last a decent amount longer than they used to due to motivation systems, but do side quests and after using a spyglass on each boss think about the team you need to beat the boss and FUSE. Your old demons skills will go into the new one and essentially you'll have evolving demons throughout your story. (essentially don't take mermaid to level 30 and expect her to still be relevant, you should be using level 30 ice mobs with her transferred skills, etc)

storyline is fine, I liked it a lot, if you aren't aware of overall SMT lore then it might take a bit longer to get grounded in it but all the pieces you need are there, though creation is often seen as the weaker story I still liked it a lot. Started vengeance now though and it seems like story is a lot more heavily involved.

[JCKLNTRN]

A lot of staple demons in the series come from the Ars Goetia (which is essentially a demon summoning manual).

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by MD:

So I'm currently grinding around Tokyo Tower so i can prepare for the first fight. I'm curious though, as I have never played a SMT game before. I am finding the variety of demons to be wholly insane and make zero sense at all. If you have ever played a game such as Zigguraut and thought (why am I fighting carrots?) I have the same feeling here. I attribute it to the Japanese ideas and understand, as I have played a few Kojima games also.

My main question is; Will the Story of the game ever pick up in pace and begin to make sense or does it go slow and just expect me to sorta make sense of things as I go along? Because "meow meow" WarGods are cute, and I like seeing my Angel heal the group, but it feels like an xp grind already with only like 3 inserts of any storyline to this point in the game, and most of that has made zero sense.

Okay I'll be honest here:

a) I actually also found the first map grindy (in the original and so too in Vengance). Quests are somehow not enough so you can fight the final boss of the area. After that, I only had to grind a little before the end but by then you have more options.

b) The story picks up and gives you something like a motivation but don't expect something close to Persona or a decent story. Most of the time you have to save the world (or betray it) just because. The game also has an annyoing tenedency to not make sense in some parts and some characters react ... let's say "stupid".

It picks up but if you don't like the base, it's rather unlikely that you'll like what's to come. It just gets more "epic" (in terms of scale as you fight with demigods/gods and the like later on) and the battles staty challenging in a good way.

[nephalim]

The story definitely picks up and there are lots of great boss fights but there are still long stretches of slow burn exploration in between

[Slime]

Go to a different page on the stats screen to see some lore for each demon. Maybe that helps.

The story starts making sense after you beat the first map.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Swimfan:

a) I actually also found the first map grindy (in the original and so too in Vengance). Quests are somehow not enough so you can fight the final boss of the area. After that, I only had to grind a little before the end but by then you have more options.

.... how? I beat hydra at level 10 with base demons (unleveled, no training) on hard, as well as naamah on vengeance hard at level 18 with just 2 units that know patra and a bunch of demons in stock to be charm fodder when necessary/etc. the first area LITERALLY requires no grind if you know what you're doing, you could just jump from boss to boss only doing the bare minimum. Any grind is optional and is because your team is otherwise incapable of handling the boss with their resistances/skill pool/etc.

So really all you need to do is the quests in the area if you want an XP boost or some extra items but otherwise it's not grindy at all.

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by mimizukari:

Originally posted by Swimfan:

a) I actually also found the first map grindy (in the original and so too in Vengance). Quests are somehow not enough so you can fight the final boss of the area. After that, I only had to grind a little before the end but by then you have more options.

.... how? I beat hydra at level 10 with base demons (unleveled, no training) on hard, as well as naamah on vengeance hard at level 18 with just 2 units that know patra and a bunch of demons in stock to be charm fodder when necessary/etc. the first area LITERALLY requires no grind if you know what you're doing, you could just jump from boss to boss only doing the bare minimum. Any grind is optional and is because your team is otherwise incapable of handling the boss with their resistances/skill pool/etc.

So really all you need to do is the quests in the area if you want an XP boost or some extra items but otherwise it's not grindy at all.

I wanted to stay in level with the enemies (bosses) because of the originals tendency to cap damage (like the original SMT5 had) - found out yesterday that this isn't the case anymore so thankfully being 2-3 levels below a boss isn't gimping your characters anymore ... small loss in stats aside.

[Vince ✟]

Yea I went in on Hydra with the wrong party. Thanks for the comments. I was hoping for an epic story. It's OK though, the gameplay is fun enough that I'm enjoying it as a game with easy "pick up for a 30 min session" vibes.

It's fun. Not what I thought I was buying, but fun still. Cheers!

I do appreciate the time commenting. Thank you.

[Logge1002]

Until the Tokyo tower fight it starts of slow but vengeance Canon goes insane later. Already 30h into vengeance canon (and having finished the original) I can tell you to stick with the game. It’s an amazing story