Wow, this game is truly testing me on "Normal"

[Swimfan]

Before you type anything, this ISN'T a rant, I like the difficulty. There is no "but" here.
__________

I mean I got the occasional K.O.s because demons attacked first (although this mainly happened in earlier areas) and now I'm LV 54 and just beat the 4 Qadistu boss and changed into anime-shinobi.

Although I actually managed to beat that last boss I faced on my first try, I can not remember the last time a turn-based game actually made my pulse spike as my ressources were dwindling and I had to go through my roster to keep MP up. Overall the game is very "forgiving" in terms of difficulty because they hand you every tool you could ever need (even had and used a skill points respec I didn't know I even collected along the way) and recruiting new demons is always an option. Some fights (mostly the optional if you aren't over-leveled) and that last MSQ boss I mentioned above really test me :-) I really appriciate this! Turn-based games are so much fun .. as long as they test your strategy - which rarely happens sadly.

I mean I'm happy I played through the original on Switch and knew some of the systems/underlying systems before running headlong in trouble with some of the earlier bosses :-D haha

Anyone else getting tested?

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Edit:
Okay! I just finished my first playthrough of Vengance - took my like 45 hours (no rushing but obviously I didn't care to do absolutely everything).

I can now safely say that the content they added for Venagance is BY FAR the hardest. The finals boss of "Law route" was the best example:
2 of the 3 phases are new and while the first 2 were rather tricky/needed a good team comp and had you consider your strategy, the final fight - that was part of SMT5 already - was SO easy in comparisson .. I could just steamroll that fight compared to fight 1/2 ...

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

Hard broke me, normal is still very hard for me. I don't think it's a problem with the game itself, but rather myself. I think the combat just isn't for me and most of the skillsets of the demons are same-y or boring, but I play it for the story and Semi-Digimon-Feel :D Enjoying it more on normal though, it's not quite as easy to get pegged on there.

[borizb]

Originally posted by Swimfan:

Anyone else getting tested?

My patience is getting tested. My MC has resist dark, so halves dark damage and no insta kill, right? But when i hit Dormath's resistance, her counter attack goes off and insta kills me with dark damage.

And that's bs.

I also fought Gogmagog in Shinjuku and it wasn't very hard at same level, but after that i fought Vouivre boss at 10 levels below me near the fairy village and that poison + venom chaser really kicked my butt.
Also can't defeat Sukuna Sakura yet, as she completely heals hp/mp + -kaja maxes after every few turns and i don't do enough damage to reach 1400 within 8 press turns even if i crit constantly and the first demon with dekaja is 2 levels away still. So yeah.

Originally posted by Holy Fool Sehrael:

I play it for the story and Semi-Digimon-Feel :D Enjoying it more on normal though, it's not quite as easy to get pegged on there.

oof, considering SMT predates Digimon by a decade and has no meaningful story whatsoever, i take it that you're making a joke. Good one.

[Marosh]

Originally posted by Holy Fool Sehrael:

Hard broke me, normal is still very hard for me. I don't think it's a problem with the game itself, but rather myself. I think the combat just isn't for me and most of the skillsets of the demons are same-y or boring, but I play it for the story and Semi-Digimon-Feel :D Enjoying it more on normal though, it's not quite as easy to get pegged on there.

This game is a bit unfair so it is normal that hard breaks people and normal is still a challenge.

You don't really know what boss is comming. If he is immune to fire, deals heavy ice dmg and is weak to force, but your team deals mostly fire and has atleast one weak to ice, it's almost an insta reset for major fights. And if you don't have a backup team, it's grinding time. Dunno why they never repeated that what they did with the first boss. Giving some hints, maybe somewhere in the world. Maybe because a "correct" team wipes the floor with a boss? Also seeing a gameover as soon as your MC dies doesn't really help the balancing.

Veterans know kinda what elements a specific demon has but a new player? Not a chance without trial and error.

I don't mind, thou. For me, the SMT series was always more about collecting demons.

[Frostea]

Now you see why fans of megaten REALLY love the series. And that a well made turn based battle system can be very engaging.

[Part-Time Prick]

Hey, gonna drop a quick thing on you, because the game is stupid, feel free to ignore, but if you want new moves *from that form*, you need to Go back to the Tokyo Diet building and talk to a random ass researcher lmfao.

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by Holy Fool Sehrael:

Hard broke me, normal is still very hard for me. I don't think it's a problem with the game itself, but rather myself. I think the combat just isn't for me and most of the skillsets of the demons are same-y or boring, but I play it for the story and Semi-Digimon-Feel :D Enjoying it more on normal though, it's not quite as easy to get pegged on there.

You have to get used to this very specific type of combat.

More time than expected is spent in menus optimising your party which is fine because the time fighting outweighs it by a huge amount.

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by Part-Time Prick:

Hey, gonna drop a quick thing on you, because the game is stupid, feel free to ignore, but if you want new moves *from that form*, you need to Go back to the Tokyo Diet building and talk to a random ass researcher lmfao.

Interesting - what do you mean by "new moves"? :-O

Yeah, the game already feels like it's actively hiding some crucial information. Kinda happy (as I said) that I already knew the base system.

Originally posted by Marosh:

(...)

Agreed, they set up the first boss much better than anything after that.
The whole system - because it is basically "Soulsborne-Pokemon for adults" - hinges on trial&error which sadly can't be helped all that much without spoiling too much before fights/make fights much easier or heavily limit player options. It's not perfect but so far (LV 56 now in Veng. on Normal) I haven't yet met a boss that made me struggle way too hard since I kept my roster up to date and always had something worthwile to bring into battle (back-up was rarely a problem). Simply relying on 3 demons at a time simply isn't enough and I actually like that. Collecting them all is the fun "challenge" and helpful tool to get through the game at the same time.

[DankWestern]

Just curious to those participating and agreeing with OP, any experience in the previous titles, or is this your first foray into SMT?

[Eisen]

I should always remind myself to save everytime before talking to NPC

[cc]

welcome to smt, enjoy the wild ride

[nephalim]

I started on Hard and lol no way. That's just grindy and unfun. Normal feels challenging and perfect.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

I find the biggest problem is the lack of control over targeting, so you're luck and life is gambled on almost pure RNG in this game. RNG is the most lethal thing in this game, because of the general lack of control over the battle or who gets hit.

[BiskutMentega]

Vengeance is now a lot more easier compared to the regular version on switch.

But I remember the game is pretty easy on hard mode up until I fought with the werewolf.

[Chopsteak]

I played the original version and Normal mode was fun for me and it still is here too. Most of the times I died it was either carelessly running into an enemy and letting the enemy go to town first or something a different strategy could fix. (Matador a good example in this one.)

The hardest fight I had in the original that also makes me not want to try Hard is the fight with Shiva. I barely got through that fight on Normal after many attempts and I really do not want to see Shiva on Hard. Don't even mention Demi-Fiend as I didn't succeed there, hopefully this time I will.

Overall though I think the truly hardest time I have had in a SMT game was the beginning of 4. I started over a couple of times for that one but man was it worth, that game is great.

[Black Lamb, Rock Enjoyer]

Originally posted by The Seraph of Tomorrow:

I find the biggest problem is the lack of control over targeting, so you're luck and life is gambled on almost pure RNG in this game. RNG is the most lethal thing in this game, because of the general lack of control over the battle or who gets hit.

? Like early game, I agree. But once you get Taunt, its really just a matter of having the essence to NOT get your MC wombocomboed by weak element.