Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne

[Ein]

Let's see if anything goes horribly wrong this time shall we?

Ah yes Nocturne. Fun game. Challenging too. You generally have to break the game or else the game breaks you.

Or just be prepared so that you don't die horribly.

There are many things to keep in mind.

Generally you want to have a party with a diverse set of skills and resistances to exploit enemy weaknesses to maximize the number of actions per player phase.

Hitting an enemy with their weakness or dealing a critical hit will make that action cost half a turn.

You get one Press Turn for each active party member so you can have a maximum of 8 Press Turns by exploiting enemy weaknesses and critical hits. You can have a party member Pass which cost half a Press Turn.

Demons also repel, void, and resist attacks.

Repel reflects the attack. Void negates the attack. Resist cuts damage in half.

If you hit an enemy with an attack they can repel or void it will cost a whole Press Turn.

If the enemy dodges an attack it also costs you a Press Turn.

Obviously this works both ways and you can benefit from this to minimize the amount of actions the enemy can have so having a diverse party helps immensely.

List of attack types:

Physical

Magical

- Force (Wind)

- Fire

- Electricity

- Ice

Almighty - Deals damage that ignores any resistance and buffs but still affected by Repel. There are both physical and magical Almighty skills and there are enemies that repel physical/magical attacks.

Attacking isn't everything in Nocturne.

You will want to buff your party and debuff your enemy.

Buff skills end with the suffix -kaja and debuff skills end with the suffix -nda.

You generally want at least one party member with a few of these skills. Keep in mind that you can apply the effect of a buff or debuff up to four times or stages. Keep these skills spread out amongst your party to utilize them more efficiently. Buffs and debuffs always affect the whole party/enemy.

List of buffs:

Tarukaja - Boosts physical attack by one stage.

Rakukaja - Boosts defense by one stage.

Makakaja - Boosts magical attack by one stage.

Sukukaja - Boosts aim and dodge rate by one stage.

Dekaja - Negates any -kaja skills the enemy has applied.

List of debuffs:

Tarunda - Reduces physical and magical attack by one stage.

Rakunda - Reduces defense by stage.

Sukunda - Reduces aim and dodge rate by one stage.

Taunt - Reduces defense by two stages. Increases physical attack by two stages. Affected by Dekunda but does not negate the attack buff.

Fog Breathe - Reduces aim and dodge rate by two stages. Affected by Dekunda.

War Cry - Reduces physical and magical attack by two stages. Affected by Dekunda.

Debilitate - Reduces overall battle performance by one stage. Affected by Dekunda.

Dekunda - Negates any -nda skills applied to the party.

I might be missing some. Sukukaja, Sukunda, and Fog Breathe in particular are incredibly helpful because you want to minimize the amount of actions the enemy has by dodging their attacks.

Like any RPG there are also status ailments.

Nerve/Mind/Curse/Death/Expel

There are different types of Nerve, Mind, and Curse skills so I won't go over them.

Death and Expel in particular are extremely deadly. Why? Because these generally have insta-kill skills and if the main character is killed it's a game over no matter what.

Well then. I will end this post here and update later.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Ein Silver Rose

[Ein]

I take the role of the main character who falls asleep on the subway on the way to see his teacher who has been hospitalized. Just an average kid who's a good student with an interest in the occult. But this all changes when he has a dream in which his teacher, Yuka Takao, speaks to him of the coming end of the world. She asks for my name: Ein Rose

I wake up and walk out to the subway station scared and confused. I get a call from my friend, Isamu Niita, who's wondering where I am. I tell him I'll be at the hospital soon. I buy a drink from the near by vending machine but I don't get anything from the drinks listed. Odd...

Apparently a riot occurred in Yoyogi Park and some people were killed. Strange...

While making my way to the hospital I speak with a man who saw a foreigner in red carrying a huge sword on his back. Wait. Why didn't he call the authorities?!

Actually what am I doing in Tokyo, Japan in the first place?! Bah!

I feel like figuring out what happened at Yoyogi Park though so I head over to the Eastern entrance of the park and meet a man named Hijiri. He's reporter doing reporter stuff. I get a call from my friend, Chiaki Hayasaki, she's wondering where I am and tell her I'll be at the hospital soon.

Hijiri gives some magazine about the occult and some junk. And off I go.

I arrive at the hospital and Chiaki is waiting for me upset due to my tardiness. I guess she really wants to see Takao soon...

Chiaki points out that there isn't anyone in the hospital. That's rather unsettling...

She takes my magazine to pass the time and now I have to go look for Isamu and Takao. *sigh*

Off to the elevator and the second floor. Oh look another vending machine! ...And I get something that isn't listed on the vending machine again. ATLUS should really check on these vending machines. How else will people purchase Jack Frost Coffee?

I find Isamu in a room on the 2nd floor and he's rather nervous seeing as there isn't anyone around. We decide to to meet up with Chiaki and she's been busy reading the magazine I gave her. She's mentions stuff about it and Isamu gives me an employee's ID card so I can go explore the hospital basement because obviously nothing bad will happen.

To the basement I go! ID used some steps forward and I walk into a room.

Oh god... There's purple curtains and what pentagrams everywhere... In the middle of the room a bed is stained with blood.

I don't want to be down here anymore. But because I'm the main character I need to do more exploring.

Next room. But before I open the door I feel a powerful presence. I head in anyway. What can possibly go wrong?

Some guy is in the room. Calls himself Hikawa and summons a demon to kill me. I knew something would possibly go wrong! Luckily Takao shows up and saves my arse. Now I have to go meet her atop the hospital rooftop. What is with Japan and rooftops?

Well time to head to the elevator and what the hell are an old woman and young blonde boy dressed as though they are in a funeral doing down here?

The old woman speaks to me saying her young master is interested in me. Okay...

They disappear and I'm cool with that. To the rooftop!

At the rooftop Takao is waiting for me and she tells me some story related stuff. Like how the world will end and how only the humans inside the hospital will survive and how she will become the Maiden who will shape the new world all thanks to the Conception. Wait What?!

*Conception occurs*

Uh... So bright...

A voice calls out to me and asks to to see my heart. The voice tells me I have no Reason and how I will not be able to shape a new world without a reason. Coolio?

Now I see the old woman and young boy again. Except this time I'm kinda dying...

They offer to help me so that I may survive in the Vortex World. Well that's rather nice what do I have to do-What the hell is that weird insect thing? NO! Get it away from me!

The old woman holds me down as the young boy releases the Magatama burrowing itself inside me. He tells me it will make me a demon and I can do nothing to stop him.

I awaken in a room... Transformed... I bear the brands caused by ingesting the Magatama but with it I will survive in this so called Vortex World.

I return to the room Hikawa was in and to my surprise Hijiri is there. He notices that I've changed. He also asks me whether I've seen any demons... I can't say I have.

I save and walk towards the elevator to get out of the basement but as I approach the elevator I sense a strange power. I move forward and I am transported to a strange realm.

A voice tells me to show him the power of a demon. And so I face a test...

Current stats:

HP: 30

MP: 10

Stats: All 2

Magatama ingested Marogareh, stat boosts: STR/VIT +2 MAG/AG/LU +1

Skills: None

Just a few easy battles with some weak enemies while my favorite battle theme in the game plays during these battles.

I level up twice pump my STR by 2 but no STR boost when Marogareh rages inside. : (

Oh yeah. When you level up the Magatama you currently have ingested may rage within you. If you let it continue it may heal you, heal the party, cause a status ailment, curse, or boost a stat by one depending on the Magatama. Marogareh might boost your STR when you level up so when it happens it's pretty nice.

I return to the second floor and try to head over to the annex in the hospital when I meet a Pixie. She asks if I'm looking for something as she is looking for a demon to help her get to Yoyogi Park. I agree of course since she's cute and a Pixie. Now I gotta look for a card to open up the door leading to the annex. There's a room where some Petras are wholed up and they have said card needed. Time for a battle.

Three Petras. they are weak to Electricity and the Pixie happens to know Zio. The Petras go down quickly and I get the card. Now to head to the annex.

On my way there I recruit a Kodama. A little spirit and it knows Zan and Dia so it'll help.

Some exploration later I end up in the basement again and open up a door so I can get to the save point easier.

Some more exploration later I reach an area where the first boss, Forneus, resides. I save and heal up before the fight and I have a Shikigami with me. A paper spirit of some kind and it knows Zio and Beseech which helps recruit demons easier.

Forneus

HP: 500

MP: 200

Macca: 2000

EXP: 150

A very easy boss so long as you exploit its Electricity weakness. And I have two Zio users. Electricity skills also have a chance to stun the enemy and if does all physical attacks deal a critical hit which means more turns to deal damage.

Strategy:

Ein uses Lunge

Pixie uses Zio

Kodama Passes it's turn to Shikigami and attacks if Forneus is stunned.

Shikigami uses Zio

I attacked around six times during my turns and Forneus deals pitiful damage. After the battle I obtain the Wadatsumi Magatama. Awesomeface for it teaches me Fog Breathe at a certain level.

I go back to the save point before the boss, talk to a soul who gives me 850 Macca for beating Forneus for we made a bet and I won, get healed up by another soul, and save.

And my adventure through the Vortex World will continue later.

[Life]

Isn't the Shin Megami Tensei series stupidly hard?

[Aquilae]

They aren't stupidly hard, but they are challenging, and kinda cheap at times (Mudo on MC = game over). Buffs and debuffs in particular break this game, they make almost all the bosses a walk in the park, since they give you such a huge boost to offense and defence and drastically reduce their chances of hitting you. Bosses rarely null buffs, there's only one boss who nulls debuffs first turn, and a few who actually null buffs pretty frequently.

[Ein]

The Mudo (Death) and Hama (Expel) skills are the games way of saying... Some kind of insult I can't think at the moment. Yeah they suck but you can ingest certain Magatama that void those skills.

Buffs and debuffs definitely help quite a bit but against certain bosses they WILL kill you faster without them. Even if a boss can use Dekaja or Dekunda it's a great a idea to buff or debuff to make the boss waste a turn dealing with that.

Anyway.

Upon exiting the hospital I see a young woman dressed in black and an older gentleman in a wheelchair. They talk to me for a bit and I move on.

A certain individual shows up after I move on. Dressed in red carrying a large sword. I wonder who he could be?

I make my way to Yoyogi Park and recruit a Will-o-Wisp when it feared for its life and begged me to spare its life and in return it would help me. 'Kay.

Upon entering Yoyogi Park my Pixie friend begins to say her goodbyes but gets a feeling that I'd like her to stay with me. I do.

I say that I need her and she remarks, "I like the sound of that." *flirt*

Er... I didn't really mean it that way but okay.

Now. You can choose to depart with your Pixie at Yoyogi Park and you obtain the Ankh Magatama OR you can choose to keep her and gain access to a certain area much later in the game. You can buy the Ankh Magatama later and it teaches you some basic healing skills. It's definitely worth it to keep her since once she hits level 6 she evolves-I mean transforms into High Pixie. You can just recruit another Pixie for later and High Pixie can help out.

I explore Yoyogi Park and speak with a demon who mentions a hot lady. I meet with the hot lady who turns out to be the lady of the Spring.

Now you have to see her and pay heal up without using items and dealing with curses if your Magatama/the game trolls you. Not that bad really as the price is rather low at least in Normal mode.

I head South of Yoyogi Park and end up in Shibuya.

I head down some stairs where a Healing Spring, save spot (Terminal), Cathedral of Shadows, and Junk Shop are waiting for me.

In the Cathedral of Shadows I meet with some kind of clergyman who deals in the dark arts of fusing demons.

Now I have the ability to fuse two demons to create stringer demons. The fusion system in the game allows for a huge array of customization and I have no idea how it works but I manage. Generally fusing two demons will create a new demon who inherits some skills of the two demons used to create it. You can choose which skills you want by choosing to create said demon over and over until you get the skills you want when you do decide to go with the fusion. But there is a slight chance of something going awry and you get a completely different demon from what you wanted. If this happens you can just load your game again from the menu screen which is rather convenient.

Demons level up slower than you do and once they learn each of their skills their usefulness tends to degrade unless they transform. Even so keeping a demon that has learned each of its skills can the best choice depending on your fusion options and their strengths and weaknesses. One thing to keep in mind is that to fuse a new demon you must be the same level as it or else you will not be able to fuse it.

At the Junk Shop I meet with a peculiar demon. His name is Heeho and he's also a Jack Frost. He says he's trying to make some money to go on a journey to become just like the great king whoever he is. I honestly don't know.

He's selling two Magatama, Iyomante and Shiranui, which he caught not to long ago.

It will cost 5000 Macca to purchase both which isn't too bad now for buying Magatama believe me.

I exit the underground area and go down some other stairs. Down here I explore a bit and come across some Mystical Chests. These things are rather annoying because the item inside depends on the phase of Kagutsuchi.

Oh yeah. Kagutsuchi acts very much like the moon going through phases which affects certain aspects of the game from demon fusion, the enemies, certain skills, and the Mystical Chests.

At Full Kagutsuchi the enemies become more aggressive. You have a harder time retreating from battle and you cannot recruit demons at Full Kagutsuchi.

To get the best item from a Mystical Chest you should open them at Full Kagutsuchi. They usually contain good item or gems. Sometimes they may contain some Incense that will boost a stat by one point and fully heal whoever it was used on.

Well in the current area I'm in I head to a club named The Inferno or something like that. Inside I find Chiaki who has somehow survived. She doesn't notice the change in my appearance. I mean, you'd think having a green neon brand all over your body would be cause for concern but Chiaki seems cool with it. She ends up leaving and-Hello! Who do we have here? A cat girl?! I like cat girls. : 3

I speak with her and she says she'll tell me a secret if I do something naughty to her.

Sounds purrrrfect! >: 3

Although the naughty bit is just me beating her up. *sadface*

After all of this I head back to the Terminal and see Hijiri messing with it. Turns out he managed to teleport to Shibuya using the Terminal... Why do the main characters in anything always have to do the hard work?

He tells me that he might be able to transfer me to Ginza to the South using the Terminal. Sounds good to me as I have nowhere else left to explore but that will be for another time.

[Ein]

Oh right. I gotta update this thang.

I have to make my way to Ginza using the Terminal but before that I create a few demons. A Lilim and Earthys.

Of course making it to Ginza isn't so simple as something occurs and I get trapped in the Amala Network.

Hijiri tries to help but he's having trouble communicating with me.

Now for a dungeon segment of some kind. This place isn't all to tough. The only annoying enemies are some Haunt enemy whose name I don't recall and the Elemental Aeros. The Haunt enemy has Stone Gaze and Berserk which will kill anyone who was petrified which is something you do not want happening to Demi-Fiend because game overs are bad. The Aeros uses Marin Karin which can inflict Charm status making the afflicted party member either not act or attack a party and whenever that happens I become a magnet for damage any friendly fire. REALLY annoying.

The Amala Network is just a bunch of corridors, (insert jab at FF13 here), go down the right ones and you advance. Go down the wrong one and you're sent to the beginning of that segment. There are some rooms called Anomaly that allow to communicate with Hijiri and he'll be able to get you access to the next area.

There are three Anomalies you have to get to. On the third you fight a boss. If you're an idiot like me you didn't explore the areas around the Anomalies for a save point and healing point. A Specter shows up and wonders whether you're there to kill it. Well sure why not? It gets mad and says it'll eat me.

BOSS TIME!

Specter (x6)

HP: 148

MP: 100

Macca: 160

EXP: 100

It resists all elemental attacks so I just punched it to death. It really isn't that tough of a boss. The more Specters you defeat then the weaker it will be when the remaining Specters combine together.

After defeating the Specter Hijiri manages to fix something making it possible for me to make it to Ginza. I walk down a corridor of light and am transported to a strange area.

I see a peep hole. Yes they call it that for some reason. Look through and to my somewhat surprise I see the young woman dressed in black and the old gentleman in a wheelchair again. The woman speak with me for a some time and I'm given the Candelabrum of Sovereignty. Nifty. After all that I finally make it to Ginza.

[Ein]

A second update?!

Now I'm at Ginza. It looks like a shopping district of sort.

Here we find a peculiar shop called Rag's Jewelry or something or other. Here you can trade the gems you've come across for items, Elementals, and Mitamas. The items are rare hard to find items you usually only find in Caches or Mystical Chest and junk. The only way to recruit Elementals are by trading for them at Rag's place or creating them via fusion. You can use Elementals to upgrade demons to a higher form of the same Family. Mitamas can only be obtained at Rag's or by fusing two Elementals together. You can fuse Mitamas with another demon and boost its stats. Like any fusion you can pass new skills to the demon as long as they have open skill slots. If you are familiar with fusion you can utilize the ability to create Elementals yourself and Mitamas to either upgrade and/or power up some demons while passing down skills you'd like.

There's a Cathedral of Shadows in Ginza and here we learn of Sacrificial fusion. Just like it sounds at Full Kagutsuchi you have the option to sacrifice one other demon when fusing a new demon. The demon created with sacrificial fusion gains experience points and a stat boost, probably from the level ups from the experience I never really notice, as well as being able to inherent more skills.

Not much at Ginza. There's Nyx's Lounge and she has some info to help you. Loki is there too as he's a jerk. I bet he appears later in the game as non-recruitable common enemy since he's of the Tyrant demon Family.

Nyx tells you of Gozuh-Tennoh at Ikebukuro who is opposing the Assembly of Nihilo an organization with a leader who he will shape the new world into a world of no suffering. Sounds nice until you realize the dude will do that by pretty getting rid of way of thinking or something like.

You have to make it to Ikebukuro via the Great Underpass of Ginza South of Ginza. Another dungeon. I do see some strange people here and follow them. Eventually I come across a refugee camp. Their leader at the camp says that they are Manikins created for the sole purpose of being drained of their Magutsuchi an energy that all demons crave and the energy needed to create the new world. Wait. Why would you create a creature that has feelings and the ability of self awareness meant to be used to be drained of life? That's rather counterproductive since they tend to try to escape their captors. Oh well.

There's a Junk Shop with a peculiar shop keeper. He finds me rather cute. Weird... He is selling three Magatamas that he finds disgusting since he doesn't like bugs.

He's selling the Ankh, Nifumi, and Kamudo Magatama. Ankh I could gotten earlier that would have been stupid. It teaches you basic healing skills. Nifumi is pretty awesome. It teaches you a rather powerful Force skill, Tornado, at level 17 which you should be nearing by now AND War Cry. Kamudo teaches you Focus which is a must if you are going with a physical build as it greatly boosts the attack power of your next physical attack.

I have to make my way through the underpass but a manikin will not allow to pass through a gate. I speak with another manikin who collects human items and he tends to leave the camp to do so. He'll help me out if I help him find a Bill. A greenish piece of paper with a portrait of a human. Cool.

I return to Ginza and raid Loki's room because he's a jerk and he happens to have a 1000 Yen bill. Sweet.

When I leave his room his guard has returned and he's mad.

Troll

HP: 850

MP: 150

Macca: 1000

EXP: 100

This guy might be dangerous. I've never known since I just have my Lilim use her sex appeal (Sexy Gaze) to immobilize him. Then I just punch him to death as he's distracted by my awesome Lilim.

Well then. Back to that one manikin.

I give him the Bill and he gives me a note to show to the gatekeeper. He will allow pass through the gate now.

I walk through a door past the gate when the flames of the Candelabrum of Sovereignty flicker wildly... Not good.

When this happens a powerful demon will challenge you and you can choose to fight it or not. In this case you are forced to fight this demon when you walk over a certain area.

A mysterious voice calls out to me saying we must fight and it transports me to a strange realm.

Before stands the Fiend known as Matador. He looks like a Spanish matador with the red cape, saber, and the outfit a matador would wear. Also his head a skull.

He claims that the holders of the Candelabrum are destined to battle to the death and the victor will claim the losers Candelabrum.

This guy... Yes this guy. If anyone has played this game they know that the Matador is THAT ONE boss who kicks your ass and is the games way of telling you to get your ass in gear.

Matador

HP: 1000

MP: 500

Macca: 700

EXP: 1200

Matador will always go first. He starts off the battle with Red Capote which counts as four Sukukaja buffs and then he'll attack normally or cast Mazan. Your chance to hit him is practically nothing unless you have someone using Sukukaja and you will need it. You also want to have a demon that voids Force. Even if you do the Matador can just attack normally and he was dealing around 45 damage each time he did... After dealing enough damage to him he starts using Taunt, Focus, and a skill that hits the entire party for a random number of times. You could try to debuff him but he has Dekunda so yeah... But it does force him to use Dekunda and Red Capote again and why haven't I been doing this?

I've lost to him three time already which is weird because it only took me two tries to beat him in my first file. First time I'm like "He can't possibly be that difficult" and I get to Mazan'd to death. Second time I come back a little stronger and angry.

Still haven't beaten him though so yeah.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Ein Silver Rose

[Original Alear]

Hey ESR,

I've never played Nocturne. Played Strange Journey, Devil Survivor, SMT 1 and 2, and a bit of Persona 2. How does Nocturne compare in terms of difficulty?