Mmmmmm, played an hour or so and beat the ritual.
First impressions:
- At first the presention and production are just such a step back from Nocturne for me. The production is very inconsistent. You have 3d dungeons with 3d main character, but with first person battles featuring sprites, but during dialogue the sprites disappear and you end up having talking heads, and there's anime cutscenes on that top of all that. In terms of presentation, it doesn't feel like SMT aside from the first person battles, and the art design. But once you play the game, you start to adjust and get used to it. Then the more you play, the more it's less on my mind. For one thing:
- Battle animations are stellar. Use a zan spell and your enemies will wrap around the battlefield as if caught in a tornado. Use a multi hit physical attack? Oh man, they look like hit HARD.
- Another thing, the game looks great on the 3ds screen. It doesn't look impressive at all in videos, but when you're playing it on your 3ds, it looks great.
- I completed the first dungeon ritual. I had one "game over" so far. I'm using "'s because it's impossible to have game overs in SMT4. When your party is wiped out, you end up going to limbo where the dead wait to be carried off to the Land of the Dead. A character offers to revive you - for a macca fee. Don't have enough money? It goes on your tab. If your mc dies in battle, you don't get a game over. This resulted in me just cruising through battles even if the mc dies once I had a full party. This, in combination with the ability to save anywhere, could put off some more hardcore SMT fans. Right now I'm not at the point where I really don't mind, but as it is, you cannot get a game over. I've basically been playing on autopilot so far and it's not really challenging to a vet like me, but I'm sure it'll pick up soon. It's not like the hospital was tough in SMT3 so it's logical to have some reservations.
- For that reason, I think this is probably the most nub friendly SMT I've played, at least so far, and I've played 1, 2, 3, all Persona's, DDS 1+2, Dev Sur 1, and both Raidou's. This isn't a bad thing, and it's not "easy" either. I was one shotted by a demon just one level above me.
- The negotiation system so far is really great. Each demon has their personality and it doesn't feel like they have stock quotes like in the past. A lot of funny dialogue has popped up, like suggesting I'm a demon pimp, or when I told the new fairy type demon Neara (sp) that I wanted her and she saw through me and blurted that the only reason was so I could fuse her with another demon. Another demon ran off thinking he'd be emergency food because I told him I just wanted to have him as back up just in case. The script is full of personality for the demons and I haven't seen demons this alive since Persona 2.
- Music is surprisingly stellar.
- Dungeon design is standard 3d SMT with a twist. I'm really liking the dungeon design here.
