Never Played this Series, Help?

[Survival Gamer]

Would someone be willing to share information about this game?

I have played a lot of RPGs going back to the first Final Fantasy and I recently got Persona 5 on a 50% sale without having ever played a game in the series. Also made by Atlus which is why I am asking in this forum.

Long story short, I hate Persona 5. I spend 75% of my time clicking dialogue boxes like I am playing a visual novel.

Is this game also that way? Or do you actually get to do things, quests, and so on.

Does it hold your hand like Persona 5 where jumping and grappling hook and so on are based on trigger points only and bad invisibility sneak?

I am looking for a deep turn based RPG.

[Topzchi]

vanilla shin megami tensei v
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei_V

enchanted re-release
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei_V:_Vengeance

you dont have to read alot in smt games, its all about the gameplay, battling, collecting demons and fusing them and then repeat.

story is there for those who want it but dont get your hopes up. in smt 5 its not really memorable.

persona = story heavy game with more dialogue and memorable characters plus a little of dungeon crawling.
shin megami tensei = opposite from persona.

game doesnt hold your hand after first tutorial battle, you will die and you will die alot in this game, expecially in boss battles if this is your first SMT game but thats just the learning curve but after tens of hours you will start to learn and then the game really kicks in but...

..the game has its learning curve, but in the end its pretty simple turn based jrpg although you do have to use every tool the game gives you and even then the little mistake can be fatal in worst case of scenarios.

even that smt games are great i would still recommened more the 𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗱𝘆𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘆 game series from atlus if you are looking for a deep turn based rpg with alot of difficulty and just because they are my personal favourite overall.

[Blunette]

The game is Press-Turn based, where you have one action for every member of your party. Hitting an enemy weakness instead uses 'half' of that turn, which can stretch your actions up to 8 maximum instead of 4 maximum. However, the enemies get the exact same bonus, which means if they hit YOU for super effective damage, THEY get the extra actions. Which means you probably die. If you remember the Persona gameplay style, that's your basic Megaten and this game runs with that. Just not the One More/Knockdown system and instead just 'oh noes it is triple Megidoloan time'.

This is not the series for daily life dating sim elements. There is a lot of dialogue, yes, but this is the game where all your demon allies are expendable and you're probably gonna have to kill all your friends by the end. That being said these games let you have an alignment (Law/Chaos/Neutral) that can determine your ending route, so the dialogue somewhat matters (even if the plot is not the strong suit here). You have a mostly open world to run around in (split into 4 separate zones) with their own quests to do, and you're often given a choice between two mutually exclusive quests (that will likely have each giver want you to kill the other one because Macca is Macca baby). This is much more combat-focused than Persona and it wears that on it's sleeve. Fusing and Abusing is the name of the game.

As for platforming, well, you're gonna have some, especially if you want to get all the collectibles and whatnot. Usually it's either finding a Rail or just jumping on a specific block, or dealing with your basic dungeon shenanigans like gusts/doors. There's no random encounters (some scripted ones), but instead you can run around or attack the demons on the field to try to gain initiative in the fight (though if they have much higher Agility than yours, you might get sucker-punched regardless).

Oh, right, also unlike Persona 5, your friends/demons will not jump in front of the proverbial bullet for you. Your protagonist drops, game over, back to the title screen with you. Welcome to SMT~. But seriously, I do hope you have a good time, and if this doesn't sound that great, well, you can wait for a sale.

Nice to me-hee-t you, ho.

[Survival Gamer]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

vanilla shin megami tensei v
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei_V

enchanted re-release
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei_V:_Vengeance

you dont have to read alot in smt games, its all about the gameplay, battling, collecting demons and fusing them and then repeat.

story is there for those who want it but dont get your hopes up. in smt 5 its not really memorable.

persona = story heavy game with more dialogue and memorable characters plus a little of dungeon crawling.
shin megami tensei = opposite from persona.

game doesnt hold your hand after first tutorial battle, you will die and you will die alot in this game, expecially in boss battles if this is your first SMT game but thats just the learning curve but after tens of hours you will start to learn and then the game really kicks in but...

..the game has its learning curve, but in the end its pretty simple turn based jrpg although you do have to use every tool the game gives you and even then the little mistake can be fatal in worst case of scenarios.

even that smt games are great i would still recommened more the 𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗱𝘆𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘆 game series from atlus if you are looking for a deep turn based rpg with alot of difficulty and just because they are my personal favourite overall.

Thanks for the responses. This is the kind of information I was looking for. Difficulty is fine and I did play the Etrian Odyssey games. Enjoyed them except for the very grindy endgame content. It sounds like this series is more up my alley than the Persona games.

[Yuga-Suggah]

So, MegaTen as a series, which includes Persona, spans a great deal of the JRPG landscape. Personally, I think the series has a lot of design arcs to it. The NES games have its own flavor, and is probably the most grindy of the bunch. SNES really started the DjRPG genre. I kinda feel like the PS1 era is very simular to the SNES era. PS2 really started the interest of SMT outside Japan. And the 3DS and current era SMT kind fits together.

The series mostly focuses on challenging but not impossible fights. The themeing is far more important than story. Making great monsters to fight hard(ish) fights is the goal of the game. Me personally, when Japanese high schools are mentioned, I snooze a little. But the game itself is very strong with the story only getting the way every so often. III and IV have better stories for sure, but the gameplay I think is much stronger here.

As for grinding, it depends. I feel like the DLC is still kind of a punch in the gut, so I would get them on sale if you really liked the game. If I had a choice to buy DLC, I would buy the lvl up and the macca up. I still don't like grinding, and the mitamas do very well at saving some grinding time, rather than just giving you lvl ups and money to beat the game too fast. Turn them on when you need a boost, turn them off when you dont. If you don't mind to do some small 10 minute grinding, you don't need the DLC.

[N33T_1337]

Originally posted by Survival Gamer:

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

vanilla shin megami tensei v
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei_V

enchanted re-release
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei_V:_Vengeance

you dont have to read alot in smt games, its all about the gameplay, battling, collecting demons and fusing them and then repeat.

story is there for those who want it but dont get your hopes up. in smt 5 its not really memorable.

persona = story heavy game with more dialogue and memorable characters plus a little of dungeon crawling.
shin megami tensei = opposite from persona.

game doesnt hold your hand after first tutorial battle, you will die and you will die alot in this game, expecially in boss battles if this is your first SMT game but thats just the learning curve but after tens of hours you will start to learn and then the game really kicks in but...

..the game has its learning curve, but in the end its pretty simple turn based jrpg although you do have to use every tool the game gives you and even then the little mistake can be fatal in worst case of scenarios.

even that smt games are great i would still recommened more the 𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗱𝘆𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘆 game series from atlus if you are looking for a deep turn based rpg with alot of difficulty and just because they are my personal favourite overall.

Thanks for the responses. This is the kind of information I was looking for. Difficulty is fine and I did play the Etrian Odyssey games. Enjoyed them except for the very grindy endgame content. It sounds like this series is more up my alley than the Persona games.

If you played EO then you'd also like SMT Strange Journey well.