Character Creation for SMTVI?

[TheShadowHatter]

Usually when I ever bring up a discussion about character creation for certain game series, people don't seem to happy about it for some reason. I'm curious how people would feel about the feature in this game series though. I'm honestly shocked we DON'T get character creation in these games, given how we get to name our protagonist and make choices to align ourselves with certain endings. Not to mention, at least for this game specifically, our Nahobino shows literally ZERO emotion in the entire game. He always has the same straight face and eyes of a cold blooded killer. There's also the fact that, in games like Mass Effect, Commander Shepard is STILL an ICONIC character with his male/female version, even though you can create your own characters in that game. So with that said you could still have an iconic default character and still have character creation while marketing your iconic default character.

So with that said, maybe it's because I miss playing SMT: Imagine, but I wish SMT series would adopt character creation in this series, starting with SMTVI and moving forward, or hell I'd take at least ONE game it really doesn't need to be the rest of the series moving forward. I love the art style of these games and it would be cool to create my own character or even self-insert myself in it with that nice art style. Just figured I'd throw this topic out there to promote discussion over the idea, and as a form of feedback to the devs if they even read these forums.

[TheShadowHatter]

Originally posted by Artur:

Would be cool if Atlus could do it with the next installment, but then we'd have a problem representing the character in future games like the demi-fiend.

I feel like you can still do it like how Mass Effect did Shepard. I bet if there was another Mass Effect game and you met Shepard as a boss or npc or something people would still be stoked on him because he's still iconic even though you can replace him as a created character. They could also do a cool thing like maybe just making a separate series or a spin-off SMT where you make your character and each new game you could transfer your save. I miss games that let you do that back in the day it was pretty sweet.

[Xelane]

The main issues are probably that:

A: It would take time and resources and wouldn't really add to the experience. They already cut a lot of content in the initial release of 5, imagine how much more would need to be cut if they had to dedicate manhours to customizing voice, hair, and other surface-level characteristics that don't really matter.

and B: You wouldn't be able to re-use the Nahobino as a future guest character like Demi-Fiend. I suspect future games will have him as side-content or DLC the same way Demi-Fiend has been since 3.

[TheShadowHatter]

A is purely based on opinion. To you they don't matter, but to people who enjoy games with character creation it would matter to them. It would add to the experience for them. Idk anything about "cut content" but I do know that Vengaence ADDED content the base game didn't have, so content doesn't seem to be much of an issue if they add it in later.

B I already explained ad naseum so I'm just going to say "Mass Effect" and leave it at that lol if you want the detailed response you can read through the thread but I don't want to keep repeating it.

Either way both are subjective points. If you don't see value in it that's fine, but others do.

[SkaaTerminator]

I mean Shin Megami Tensei NINE kind of had something like that where you can choose the gender and later on choose outfits and hair styles for your character, but for new outfits you have to visit a specific town to get a different outfit, and if you want to go back to a specific outfit you had to go back to that town to get it.

The thing is though that game flopped really hard since it is japanese exclusive and It was locked to the xbox. I really would like to have at least an english menu patch because the rts sections are something that's preventing me from continuing on playing the game, but there are no guides on SMT NINE except for videos of playthroughs.

[Xelane]

Originally posted by TheShadowHatter:

A is purely based on opinion. To you they don't matter, but to people who enjoy games with character creation it would matter to them. It would add to the experience for them. Idk anything about "cut content" but I do know that Vengaence ADDED content the base game didn't have, so content doesn't seem to be much of an issue if they add it in later.

I don't see it that way. It is a fact that they would have had to dedicate man-hours to implementing the feature you're asking about. Doing so might have meant not including certain elements to the product we have now, in favor of something purely cosmetic that doesn't effect gameplay or the story being told. I don't think the juice would be worth the squeeze.

Originally posted by TheShadowHatter:

B I already explained ad naseum so I'm just going to say "Mass Effect" and leave it at that lol if you want the detailed response you can read through the thread but I don't want to keep repeating it.

I don't think you really addressed the main contention. Moving forward, the Nahobino, as-is, will be a character that can be identified or recognized in future games, just like Demi-Fiend. There wouldn't be any ambiguity as to whether the superboss of SMTVI or whatever is the Nahobino because he has a specific design.

[TheShadowHatter]

Originally posted by X:

I mean Shin Megami Tensei NINE kind of had something like that where you can choose the gender and later on choose outfits and hair styles for your character, but for new outfits you have to visit a specific town to get a different outfit, and if you want to go back to a specific outfit you had to go back to that town to get it.

The thing is though that game flopped really hard since it is japanese exclusive and It was locked to the xbox. I really would like to have at least an english menu patch because the rts sections are something that's preventing me from continuing on playing the game, but there are no guides on SMT NINE except for videos of playthroughs.

That's interesting and it would be cool if they remastered the game to give it another chance here in the west.

Originally posted by Xelane:

I don't see it that way. It is a fact that they would have had to dedicate man-hours to implementing the feature you're asking about. Doing so might have meant not including certain elements to the product we have now, in favor of something purely cosmetic that doesn't effect gameplay or the story being told. I don't think the juice would be worth the squeeze.

That's your opinion but I don't quite agree. At the end of the day it's not really going to take an immense amount of time to simply add cosmetics to the game and allow you to change your character's skin color and hair color/style considering the character's already a blank slate so most of the work is already done anyways (Nahobino rarely gets called by pronouns and is mostly referred to his title anyways so they don't even have to waste time with addressing any pronouns in the dialogue).

Originally posted by Xelane:

I don't think you really addressed the main contention. Moving forward, the Nahobino, as-is, will be a character that can be identified or recognized in future games, just like Demi-Fiend. There wouldn't be any ambiguity as to whether the superboss of SMTVI or whatever is the Nahobino because he has a specific design.

Like I said, I'm just going to say Mass Effect and leave it at that. Commander Shepard existing and people still loving that character already addresses this issue you guys bring up and it isn't an issue at all in that game.

[SkaaTerminator]

Originally posted by TheShadowHatter:

That's interesting and it would be cool if they remastered the game to give it another chance here in the west.

You see that would be cool but it isn’t just simply choose a gender and then the story path is the same. When you choose a gender the story path is different because of the four characters switching roles, If you choose the male protagonist Baraki is your friend and Sumire is Emi’s classmate, later on Baraki becomes a fully grown adult and Sumire ages up to 18 and becomes the chaos representative, vice versa in the female path.

Mubiora and Miranda have different roles too, Miranda is your partner and law representative in the Male path and vice versa with Mubiora in the Female path.

Also the nine alignment system (hence why it’s called smt nine),it is not just law neutral chaos like the other games it goes full DND and does the full alignment system with each alignment having it’s own battle theme, dark law having my favorite battle theme.

While the narrative is relatively the same the four main characters roles change and a simple remaster would take a lot of dedication to become a reality, even after 22 years the game hasn’t had an English patch because
1. The game is obscure
2. The game flopped
3. The Nine Alignment system
4. The game’s combat system and negotiation system is unique to the rest of the mainline games

[SKINLESSHEAD]

Nah.

[Topzchi]

NO.

/thread.

[TheShadowHatter]

Originally posted by X:

-snip-

Yeah that's a lot of work I'm not surprised there's not an English patch. Still definitely should be worth Atlus' time to try and bring it back.

[Orbister]

NO.

[Jacktodd93]

you all make good points but at the end of the day the devs get the final say on the matter it sucks but it is reality call me a realist if you want but i see things the way they are portrayed and the obvious