Abel Braveheart

Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse: Great game, I'd say better than SMT IV. There is a better plot, better battle system (smirk isn't broken, less BS bosses) and better characters. The control over partners and their actual usefulness (from >0 to really helpful) is really good and man, can I say how much I (no homo) love Hallelujah? Easily one of my favorite characters in the SMT IV games (Walter is second) because he's both kind, adorable but kicks so much demon butt that he because my goddess and carried my body into YHVH, The game is longer, better and more enjoyable than regular SMT IV. The only thing I'll say about SMT IV:A that is worse than SMT IV is the wayyyy over priced MP costs (I'm looking at you Mediarama and Mediarahan) and the amount of weaknesses and resistances that demons have (less exploitable, makes builds, especially physical, less effective), as well as a slightly slower paced early game. But hey, at least the bosses are a lot more fair and less luck-based (getting walter on Minotaur is reset-worthy). But what do I know? I played on Conflict (normal) difficultly and got unintentionally overleveled (I don't exactly know what "run" is), which my brother says makes me a scrub at the game and he's played a few more SMT games than I, so I guess I might be a wee misguided.

Mine: (Video games) Skyward Sword isn't that bad Chrono Trigger isn't the god of video games LoZ is kinda boring OoT is VERY boring and I had about 1 fun moment in the whole game Sonic and the Black Knight isn't that bad and was quite fun. Mario games have been declining in the fun factor and fast over the past few years. SSBM is boring to play and seeing the same like 5 characters in competitive is really boring. Xenoblade and the other RPGs where everything has like +100k health are so boring at face value I don't want to play them. Mario party is boring and sucks now that it's promoting teamwork. (General) Overleveling and grinding when optional is fine and I tend to do it often (mostly by coincidence), but when forced it sucks. I play things on normal mode, and people who think that you should judge a game's difficulty based on their hardmode is dumb. A, "You play on anything less than hardmode means you're a baby and you hate challenge" way of thinking is infuriating and makes you sound like a douche. Console vs. PC debate is dumb, just play yer games. Bosses and areas in game that make you go through trial and error in order to make it is generally just poor design Platforming games are not very fun

I'd personally start out with Devil Survivor, but there's some things to note if ya do so. Devil Survivor is quite easy but there'll be some missions that'll be random and quite dumb spikes in difficulty. Kishins are great demons, and tyrants are great as well, so it's very possible to keep tyrants and Kishins as your demons until you be upgrade them. In Devil Survivor 1, two people can die if you're not careful and in order to save one, you'll have to go through a good bit of stuff before hand to do. Don't let Keisuke ride his justice craze and keep him away from the murderous gangster, and let Mari kill the Vampire dude, and remember to get her handbag before hand and let Kaido take it to her. They're both extremely good party members, so losing them'll suck big-time. As for Devil Survivor 2, it's much easier for people to die, so I'd recommend pick your 4-5 favorites and let the rest die, if only for rescuing some of them'll be a real big pain. I'd recommend saving Jungo, Joe and one of either Fumi or Otome for yer picks, but save whoever you want. But yeah, same rules apply for DeSu 2 as for DeSu 1; it's a little harder, but it'll never get too bad as long as you keep up in levels. Strange Journey is a good one, but make sure you're prepared to use a guide unless you want some grey hairs. The dungeons suck (4 and 5 can go rot in hell) and it's 1st person so it can be pretty jarring of a transition. It's pretty good if you want a challenge, but some of it's challenge is a little unfair *cough* the bosses *cough* but in order to tolerate the game, I'd seriously recommend a guide. Decent challenge along with that and just have a good time with it, as it'll get ya used to getting your butt-kicked and making you try again; something that's almost a tradition in SMT and to some extent Persona. SMT IV is probably the 2nd best one to start with, as it's not too hard but it's not too easy either and offers a good challenge to newcomers and some casuals of the series. The start of the game is a bit of a crawl, and the Minotaur fight can easily make you have to reset if you get the wrong partner (seriously, if you see Walter as your partner, reset: it'll save you time) and remember to always try to hit a weakness (no duh), but there's a certain OP mechanic. Smirking: it'll make your next attack do loads more damage, it'll make you crit if it's physical, gives a defense boost, makes you basically untouchable and makes you immune to crits (I think). This is done by hitting weaknesses and critting, so abuse it: the bosses will instill the fear of smirking because they'll pound you with it. The bosses are no joke and have multiple press turns because fair fights are overrated. Press turns are the amount of things you can do that turn. Attacking something'll make your press turn go down by 1 and passing makes it a half-press turn, which is the same as a normal press turn except if you try to pass again it'll be fizzled out. Hitting weaknesses or critting only makes your press turn go down by half, basically getting another free action. And these can stack: if say your entire party hit a weakness, then you'll have 4 half-press turns, getting an entire another round of combat. Hitting a null, drain or reflect will cause the attacker's press turns to go down by 2 and the enemy'll smirk. It correlates to the amount of demons you have, so if your entire team except you got wiped, you'll only have 1 action. And after you've played a few SMT games I recommend you try Persona 3 or 4 out, as the knowledge of previous games makes your time MUCH more enjoyable. I know from personal experience: I tried to play Persona 4 first, but I lost interest and played DeSu 1 and 2, Strange Journey and SMT IV instead. Then I came back and had a blast playing, so I'd recommend saving it for later. Sorry I had ya read all of this, just kinda wanted to get somethin' off my chest. Cheers, Abel

Question: Do you need to set randomize unique classes in order to get soldiers to be able to promote into a general? Because I tried to promote my soldier (I nightmared it in) but no matter the promotion item - knight crest, earth seal, I even tried heaven seal and it didn't work.