Magnetite returns.

[some idiot]

I don't know what's going to happen in the story and I DON'T CARE.

I hope this mechanic makes a return in a mainline SMT game. I binged a lot of oldschool games from SNES era and it added an extra layer of pressure of difficulty in the old games, and I want new players to suffer what I suffered. PLEASE, ATLUS

[BlurRed]

What's magnetite exactly ?

[some idiot]

Originally posted by BlurRed:

What's magnetite exactly ?

MAG is a mechanic that's been in the series since the first Megami Tensei, but was dropped since Nocturne.

It was a resource that drained as you walked around with demons in the active party.
It was a way of stopping players from blasting through dungeons too easily by having high leveled demons take more MAG as you explore the first person sections (which was a majority of gameplay).

It was also the currency in the Last Bible games, so I might be reading too much into things.

[Unmotivated]

Originally posted by BlurRed:

What's magnetite exactly ?

Basically a mechsnic limiting your demons activity during explorations.

Strong demons being active meant draining a a lot of Magnetite. Having too little magnetite means that these demons aren't going to be available in the bigger battles you need them in.

Considering you get up to 3 human party members though, at least in the first SMT game, losing out on a few demons wasn't as much of a problem then as it would be now. It made choosing how often you use your demons a powerful consideration.

[SilentShadow]

Didn't know what it was until I saw this post. Tbh I think SP management is good enough for pressure in combat. I'm currently playing through P3R on merciless and how that game has it set up is pretty solid. And if we are being realistic, I'm sure MP/SP management is all they'll really do since it's proved effective and fun enough.

[RionAgrias]

Magla is the name of said material as notified by Gallica's ability to recognize said "Magla" better than the Travelling Boy.

[Moon Rabbit]

Magnetite wasn't fun and thus removed. Good riddance. You want to limit your demon usage do it on your own, don't force me to do it.

[Unmotivated]

Originally posted by Moon Rabbit:

Magnetite wasn't fun and thus removed. Good riddance. You want to limit your demon usage do it on your own, don't force me to do it.

God forbid a game have resource management. 🙄 the games Magnetite is featured in give you 3 fixed party members already. The demons are made as very powerful additions and their reliance on magnetite was only removed once the combat system became relliant on their presence due to a single human party member, not due to some contrived annoyance to the player.

Magnetite is designed as a limitation. That's it's entire purpose as a mechanic, and you are complaining about it working as intended. That's like saying that limiting ammo in Resident Evil is a stupid and unfun system because it prevents you from shooting zombies. That IS INDEED the point, "fun" or not.

[Moon Rabbit]

Originally posted by Motivated:

Originally posted by Moon Rabbit:

Magnetite wasn't fun and thus removed. Good riddance. You want to limit your demon usage do it on your own, don't force me to do it.

God forbid a game have resource management. 🙄 the games Magnetite is featured in give you 3 fixed party members already. The demons are made as very powerful additions and their reliance on magnetite was only removed once the combat system became relliant on their presence due to a single human party member, not due to some contrived annoyance to the player.

Magnetite is designed as a limitation. That's it's entire purpose as a mechanic, and you are complaining about it working as intended. That's like saying that limiting ammo in Resident Evil is a stupid and unfun system because it prevents you from shooting zombies. That IS INDEED the point, "fun" or not.

God forbid any of that ♥♥♥♥ is fun. I don't need to know why it exists. I know what a limitation is. My point is WHY? And Atlus asked themselves that and found it arbitrary and pointless and a fun blocker.

Not every game needs to have arbitrary limitations to feign challenge. You already have inventory limits, turn limits, crafting limits, level limits. RPGs are full of limitations already. Having to watch a meter just for moving with a party is idiotic. The fights are the challenge. Magnetite as a fuel source just to have a functional party, wasn't FUN. You can limit yourself if you really need to.

Limited ammo in a survival horror game isn't close to the same. That's the genre. And even then many have difficulty settings to make the management more enjoyable if you don't like it. Some even unlock infinite ammo as a reward.

[Unmotivated]

Originally posted by Moon Rabbit:

Originally posted by Motivated:

God forbid a game have resource management. 🙄 the games Magnetite is featured in give you 3 fixed party members already. The demons are made as very powerful additions and their reliance on magnetite was only removed once the combat system became relliant on their presence due to a single human party member, not due to some contrived annoyance to the player.

Magnetite is designed as a limitation. That's it's entire purpose as a mechanic, and you are complaining about it working as intended. That's like saying that limiting ammo in Resident Evil is a stupid and unfun system because it prevents you from shooting zombies. That IS INDEED the point, "fun" or not.

God forbid any of that ♥♥♥♥ is fun. I don't need to know why it exists. I know what a limitation is. My point is WHY? And Atlus asked themselves that and found it arbitrary and pointless and a fun blocker.

Not every game needs to have arbitrary limitations to feign challenge. You already have inventory limits, turn limits, crafting limits, level limits. RPGs are full of limitations already. Having to watch a meter just for moving with a party is idiotic. The fights are the challenge. Magnetite as a fuel source just to have a functional party, wasn't FUN. You can limit yourself if you really need to.

Limited ammo in a survival horror game isn't close to the same. That's the genre. And even then many have difficulty settings to make the management more enjoyable if you don't like it. Some even unlock infinite ammo as a reward.

It doesn't always have to be fun. It just has to make sense for the game, and Magnetite made sense for the prior gameplay loop. Demons would be blatantly overpowered if the best ones could be in the field all the time, which is why later games posed stricter limits on what demons you could fuse and create based on your own level.

Demons weren't meant as main party members back then, they were meant as helpful additions, and were treated as such by the limitations they were given, such as not being able to use items or normal equipment or even gaining XP.

It's different now not because the original loop wasn't fun in it's own right, but that they simply developed something more forgiving and streamlined. That had nothing to do with the game being more fun, in fact i'd argue the changes they made to the loop made it less fun because of how demons individual demons are now given less relevance over what their elements are due to the Press Turn system, which while an interesting and rewarding mechanic in it's own right, very much rewards spamming weaknesses and makes boss fights even less fun than they normally would be. Press Turn makes the game less strategic because if you aren't spamming elemental weaknesses, you are actively losing. SMT is the only franchise where pressing "Attack" is the dumbest thing you could do in general gameplay.

Every system has flaws and less savory elements, and their fun factor alone (which is entirely subjective of a standard to begin with.) Does not condemn their inclusion. The mechanic fits the game and world, and to me, that's what matters more than individual fun factor.

[Gintoki_S]

It is proven the MAG is not what we think on the Japanese Atlus streaming, they said the MAG is another unit/currency

[some idiot]

Originally posted by Gintoki_S:

It is proven the MAG is not what we think on the Japanese Atlus streaming, they said the MAG is another unit/currency

Ah, so it's like Last Bible's Mag

[gruglas]

Originally posted by some idiot:

I don't know what's going to happen in the story and I DON'T CARE.

I hope this mechanic makes a return in a mainline SMT game. I binged a lot of oldschool games from SNES era and it added an extra layer of pressure of difficulty in the old games, and I want new players to suffer what I suffered. PLEASE, ATLUS

one of the worst mechanics ever in an RPG, punish me for building a team. utterly baffling design choice.

[some idiot]

I personally don't think it's a bad design choice for the games it was in. You CAN for the most part have your strongest demons in the party and be fine as long as you're not meandering too much in the labyrinth dungeons.

With the balls high encounter rate in the older megaten pretty much guaranteed that you won't be on short supply of it because of it's frequent drop rate. And also chests giving a ♥♥♥♥ ton amount in dungeons as well. MAG really was a NON issue in the older megaten games.

As for the punishment, it's just a 1 hp tick of damage for the demons if you had zero MAG when you walked in the dungeons.


It IS my opinion and if you don't like Magnetite, then that's fine. I'm not gonna force anyone to play Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei like I did.