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SMT: Strange Journey Redux


Jedi
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http://www.siliconera.com/2017/03/26/shin-megami-tensei-deep-strange-journey-announced-3ds-japan-fall-2017/ 

So wasn't expecting this, Strange Journey is a very interesting mainline SMT game, however this is only confirmed for Japan so far. Hopefully we get a confirmation of a localization.

The Original came out in 2009, and was more marketed towards the western audience (having an American MC among other things, it was referenced a few times in IV, with stuff such as the Black Samurai armor, and as a side note, some SMT fans are like "Finally a new hardcore SMT game" despite the fact that IV:A's Apocalypse mode was pretty hardcore lol, but they are mostly doing it for memes at this point.

Quote

During Atlus’ New Titles Announcements Special Spring 2017 live stream, the company revealed Shin Megami Tensei: Deep Strange Journey, the upcoming refined version of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

While Atlus didn’t go into any specifics, Shin Megami Tensei: Deep Strange Journey will be use the 2009 RPG as a base with extra new content to give it a fresh new feeling as well as some features to make it easier to play. The game will also let you save whenever you want while exploring dungeons. More details will be revealed in the near future.

Additionally, the game adds a mysterious new character (pictured above) named Alex (CV: Megumi Han) as a mysterious new character who is after the protagonist’s life and comes with a new ending route.

Edited by Jedi
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To be honest, I wasn't much of a fan of the original despite owning it; I haven't even finished it yet. That said, I would like to give this one a chance if we were to get a localization.

As for fans talking about a hard SMT game, a majority of them are all difficult and unforgiving in their own ways. Hell, I'm halfway into DDS, and I've been wiped out just because one of my attacks missed. And, DDS isn't (technically) even a part of the SMT franchise. or is it?

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Oh no, Yukiko's gone rogue!

Sounds interesting. Of all the mainline SMT games + spinoffs, I didn't think they'd go for a Strange Journey remake, although I may be biased because Strange Journey is my least favorite mainline SMT game and also because I want a proper remake of SMT I + II. Hopefully they do include some major quality of life improvements like they did with the Devil Survivor 3DS games. If Overclocked and Record Breaker are any indication, I'll probably end up liking it way more than the original, at least.

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I just hope the remake doesn't ruin the atmosphere, it was very aggressive and intimidating, even the music reflected it. One of the main strengths of SMT games is their atmosphere (which I feel 2 and IV:A's mid/late game do very poorly compared to every other SMT but I digress.)

Edited by Jedi
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Acually the protagonist was japanese in the... japanese version, they made it an american in the american version which was the logical thing to do though.
Which made things hilariously awkward when I named him Hiroyuki Tadano. :p

To be honest, it's not my favorite SMT, that's not saying much: I just wasn't very satisfied with the endings, the overly patriotic messages, as well as the 'human are awesome( except then they're not but shh)', and the things about the gameplay that made me cringe... my goodness a lot of things in this game really love to restrict you. I still shudder while thinking about the skills.

And I don't really like the musics, I know they are glorious and gives a fantastic ambiance, but I just don't like them.

And it doesn't mean I won't try to get it. I remember just how much the game hated me... fun time.

Eh, one of the comment said "Damn, it's true, Atlus remakes really are "old game with a new waifu and their story". " I couldn't help but let out a giggle at that.
I'm not sure what to make out of her... and her design. It kind of break the ambiance. She is after your life apparently.
A new ending... huh ? Wonder what it will be about. If it's an Anarchy ending, I'm taking it, just saying.

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she looks so different comapared to the rest of the characters...

Anyway, I first played this game last year, after I managed to find it on a gamestop. I really liked it, even if I prefer Nocturne and IV. I don't know if i'll be getting this one, though. I only got the Law ending, so maybe I could beat the others in this version, if I got it.

Edited by Nobody
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Darn it! I got the game last year and I stopped after meeting Jack's Squad, with plans to eventually pick it back up. Now they release an update version? Attention all Atlus fans, if the 3DS successor has backwards compatibility, do not buy any Atlus 3DS games that you were considering getting but held off on! Wait for Etrian Odyssey Told Like You Never Heard It Before: The Kalpa Woman! And then wait until it goes on sale for $9.99!

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50 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Darn it! I got the game last year and I stopped after meeting Jack's Squad, with plans to eventually pick it back up. Now they release an update version? Attention all Atlus fans, if the 3DS successor has backwards compatibility, do not buy any Atlus 3DS games that you were considering getting but held off on! Wait for Etrian Odyssey Told Like You Never Heard It Before: The Kalpa Woman! And then wait until it goes on sale for $9.99!

game is probably only coming to the west in like a year, if it's even being localized.

If i were you i'd just finish the ds version

Edited by Nobody
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I am not an Atlus fan by any means, but I do not recommend the original SMT: Strange Journey at all.

8.5 out of 10 and Editor's Choice from IGN?
More like "Why is there so much grinding? Damn, wasted $30..." out of 10. 

Later on I found out that fusing demons is mandatory to reduce grinding, not just an optional thing. So I told my brother that and handed the game to him. Even he found it too grindy and didn't finish it, which is saying something because he has much more patience than me. I had more fun with Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

I will say, however, that the menus were very clean and fast, and the game had a killer Game Over screen.

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1 hour ago, Zera said:

Later on I found out that fusing demons is mandatory to reduce grinding, not just an optional thing. So I told my brother that and handed the game to him. Even he found it too grindy and didn't finish it, which is saying something because he has much more patience than me. I had more fun with Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

Demon fusion is always at times a chore in SMT, but you don't have to do it all that often. If you make good demons, they can go a long distance. For instance I have an Angel (and also a Vodynik) with 3 elements that I'm still using in Eridanus (5 big dungeons in- an Angel is from the 1st) thanks to Demon Co-op attacks. If you're able to make triple element (single target is fine) casters with different weaknesses, have some group healing on someone, and then top it off with a source of Raku or Taru buffs/debuffs, you're good to go. A source of MP restoration like Drain would be nice too, and maybe carry one phys demon, and get recarm on any demon- you don't need to bother getting on one that actually fights though.

I always give myself headaches over deciding what to fuse, given compendium summoning isn't cheap so I want to use each demon as wisely as possible. I do wish the SJ system was as easy as the SMTIV one, but I can deal. Nocturne's is worse if you don't bother looking up who learns what in advance, given the time it takes to level a demon.

(And on that note here is an easy kinda lategame fusion favorite of mine from SMT Nocturne: Recruit a Titania in Yoyogi Park, fuse it with an element to delevel it to an Oberon and add a sacrifice that gives it several levels. Then, once the Oberon levels up once more and learns its skills, use another element and turn it back into a Titania. The resulting Titania will have Ziodyne, Tornado, and Glacial Blast for a decent offense, plus your choice Diarahan/Mediarahan/Prayer for healing. Whatever elements/sacrifices you used can pass on additional good skills. Natural Death and Expel immunity plus resistance to all the magical elements make it durable. It can last you to the end.)

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9 hours ago, Nobody said:

she looks so different comapared to the rest of the characters...

Expect everyone to get massive redesigns, I don't think Kaneko is coming back anytime soon.

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Say what you want about the new character, she has a great butt.

 

Looking forward to this, I'll get it if/when Atlus releases it over here. The battle theme still sounds great.

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Strange Journey was interesting choice, I curious to see where this is going. Speaking of atmosphere, while a dark atmosphere is interesting, I hope they don't try to make Strange Journey "edgier". I always believed that an atmosphere that is excessively dark hurts a the story a lot. It makes the player apathetic towards the story. Nocturne sorta plays with it. It's got a great atmosphere for an apocalyptic world, but there are times that I couldn't bring myself to care the characters or the fate of the world. Maybe it was the reason why the True Demon Ending was so interesting. 

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5 minutes ago, Water Mage said:

Strange Journey was interesting choice, I curious to see where this is going. Speaking of atmosphere, while a dark atmosphere is interesting, I hope they don't try to make Strange Journey "edgier". I always believed that an atmosphere that is excessively dark hurts a the story a lot. It makes the player apathetic towards the story. Nocturne sorta plays with it. It's got a great atmosphere for an apocalyptic world, but there are times that I couldn't bring myself to care the characters or the fate of the world. Maybe it was the reason why the True Demon Ending was so interesting. 

Strange Journey is one of the darkest SMT already, i'm more worried about them making it lighter, much like how SMT4:A went much lighter (probably due to people complaining that SMT4 wasn't like Persona), and overall hurt its plot for the kind of tale that SMT usually tells, the hard earned light at the tunnel was replaced by "friendship this, friendship that" like a later Persona game except not executed anywhere near as well, and I fear Deeper Strange Journey will follow that same route.

SMT is supposed to be dark, just a general fyi. 

Edited by Jedi
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6 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Strange Journey is one of the darkest SMT already, i'm more worried about them making it lighter, much like how SMT4:A went much lighter (probably due to people complaining that SMT4 wasn't like Persona), and overall hurt its plot for the kind of tale that SMT usually tells, the hard earned light at the tunnel was replaced by "friendship this, friendship that" like a Persona game, and I fear Deeper Strange Journey will follow that same route.

I do understand your point, but here's my problem:

The interesting thing about SMT games is the fact that you can decide the fate of the world. But it's kinda hard to do it when you can't bring yourself to care about the world or the people in it. That was my problem with Nocture actually, you had practically no allies, and everyone was either out to get you, went crazy or was just using you. So deciding the fate of the world really doesn't feel meaningful. And sure games like Persona 4 may go overboard with the whole "friendship" thing, but at the very least, you care about the world and the people in it. It gives the player reason to keep going. To make an effort to change.

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10 hours ago, Zera said:

I am not an Atlus fan by any means, but I do not recommend the original SMT: Strange Journey at all.

8.5 out of 10 and Editor's Choice from IGN?
More like "Why is there so much grinding? Damn, wasted $30..." out of 10. 

Later on I found out that fusing demons is mandatory to reduce grinding, not just an optional thing. So I told my brother that and handed the game to him. Even he found it too grindy and didn't finish it, which is saying something because he has much more patience than me. I had more fun with Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

I will say, however, that the menus were very clean and fast, and the game had a killer Game Over screen.

...That's like, one of the pillars of SMT gameplay. I haven't touched an SMT game and I know that regularly fusing demons is expected of you.

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21 minutes ago, Water Mage said:

I do understand your point, but here's my problem:

The interesting thing about SMT games is the fact that you can decide the fate of the world. But it's kinda hard to do it when you can't bring yourself to care about the world or the people in it. That was my problem with Nocture actually, you had practically no allies, and everyone was either out to get you, went crazy or was just using you. So deciding the fate of the world really doesn't feel meaningful. And sure games like Persona 4 may go overboard with the whole "friendship" thing, but at the very least, you care about the world and the people in it. It gives the player reason to keep going. To make an effort to change.

I'm not going to really defend Nocturne as I haven't played it, I've played 1, 2, SJ, 4 and 4:A of the mainlines, and I also feel 1, SJ & 4 got the atmosphere perfect in their own ways, the ruined worlds, the interesting ways you have to interact with the world, and just that sense of loneliness as you travel through dungeons, makes it all the more tragic and you just want to change the fate of the few remaining people.

SMT is for people who tend to like post-apocalyptic stories, I'll blame Fallout 1 & 2, along with The History of Trunks DBZ Special for giving me a like of these scenarios. It has an entirely different feeling from Persona, which is why I feel Persona should drop the "SMT" part of its title nowadays because they are very clearly 2 different series, it might make the fanbase a bit less harsh towards each other. Its also dragging SMT into Persona territory now since Persona has that moniker, people expect mainline SMT to be similar to Persona in tone, see a decent chunk of SMT4 reviews and you'll see people lambast it for not having social links among other things. 

Edit: Persona 5 finally dropped it I just remembered oops, point still stands however because of the mentioned SMT4 complaints in comparison to Persona 3 & 4

Also lastly, SMT is much more about ideology than characters, characters usually represent ideology, and what happens when some take said ideologies to their extreme. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that.

Edited by Jedi
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15 hours ago, Zera said:

Later on I found out that fusing demons is mandatory to reduce grinding, not just an optional thing. So I told my brother that and handed the game to him. Even he found it too grindy and didn't finish it, which is saying something because he has much more patience than me. I had more fun with Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

I will say, however, that the menus were very clean and fast, and the game had a killer Game Over screen.

Fusing demons is like, one of the big pillars in SMT games. And it's an SMT game, you either delve deeper into demon fusions, break the game or grind in order no to get your ass whooped. and you can still get your ass whooped by some surprise encounter. Bomb status anyone?

And since that is coming from the guy who said that "luck" was a bad video mechanic, I'll say you didn't try that hard.

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11 hours ago, Jedi said:

Expect everyone to get massive redesigns, I don't think Kaneko is coming back anytime soon.

Is there a particular reason why? Did Kaneko leave the company, or...?

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7 minutes ago, AzureSen said:

Is there a particular reason why? Did Kaneko leave the company, or...?

We haven't seen him in quite some time, it just seems like he passed the torch. Its more a hunch than anything. 

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On 3/27/2017 at 8:20 AM, Jedi said:

Strange Journey is one of the darkest SMT already, i'm more worried about them making it lighter, much like how SMT4:A went much lighter (probably due to people complaining that SMT4 wasn't like Persona), and overall hurt its plot for the kind of tale that SMT usually tells, the hard earned light at the tunnel was replaced by "friendship this, friendship that" like a later Persona game except not executed anywhere near as well, and I fear Deeper Strange Journey will follow that same route.

SMT is supposed to be dark, just a general fyi. 

i mean i think the problem you're describing is schmaltz, not tone itself

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