Best RPG You Never Heard Of, Nocturne, Rated for PS3.

[sturryz]

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=33406&Title=Shin%20Megami%20Tensei%3A%20Nocturne&searchkeyword=Shin%20Megami%20Tensei%20Nocturne%20%28Limited%20Edition%29

Welp, there goes my week. Might come out today on psn so keep your eyes open.



Wish I had money at the moment

It's basically Pokémon for more hardcore RPG fans.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Well, it won't be out in Europe (Atlus already confirmed that on Reddit) but I still have a working PS2 copy anyway. It's my favourite game of all time and I'd highly recommend it to any RPG fans who haven't tried it yet.

Might start it up again, actually. Go for the Musubi ending.

Also, this intro is better

 

[shrekfan246]

Considering how big Shin Megami Tensei has become following Persona, I highly doubt that anymore. Especially on this particular website, where the userbase seems to specialize in "games which are just obscure enough that the general public won't have heard of them, but everyone else will".

Anyway, I like portions of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, but I've watched about 12-15 hours of Nocturne and it seems far too dependent on luck for my tastes. I don't dig normal random enemy encounters where you can get a game over because the enemy used an instant-kill attack on your main character. Neat that they might finally be putting it on the PSN, though.

 

[scorptatious]

Son of a *****. This always seems to happen with me. I learn about an older game that sounds interesting to me, I either have to buy a physical copy or (in the case of PC games) buy it for full price. Then I find it's probably going to be on the PSN or ( again,in the case of the PC game) there's a sale that sells the game for free or at least half price.

I have the worst luck.

Ah well. I've played the game and it was pretty awesome.

Considering how big Shin Megami Tensei has become following Persona, I highly doubt that anymore. Especially on this particular website, where the userbase seems to specialize in "games which are just obscure enough that the general public won't have heard of them, but everyone else will".

Anyway, I like portions of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, but I've watched about 12-15 hours of Nocturne and it seems far too dependent on luck for my tastes. I don't dig normal random enemy encounters where you can get a game over because the enemy used an instant-kill attack on your main character. Neat that they might finally be putting it on the PSN, though.

Too be fair, that happens in the Persona games as well. In my experience on Normal, a lot of my deaths in Nocturne were due to either doing stupid moves on my part or not being prepared. I won't deny that some of my deaths were due to bad luck, but I don't think the game is that reliant on it.

 

[shrekfan246]

Considering how big Shin Megami Tensei has become following Persona, I highly doubt that anymore. Especially on this particular website, where the userbase seems to specialize in "games which are just obscure enough that the general public won't have heard of them, but everyone else will".

Anyway, I like portions of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, but I've watched about 12-15 hours of Nocturne and it seems far too dependent on luck for my tastes. I don't dig normal random enemy encounters where you can get a game over because the enemy used an instant-kill attack on your main character. Neat that they might finally be putting it on the PSN, though.

Too be fair, that happens in the Persona games as well. In my experience on Normal, a lot of my deaths in Nocturne were due to either doing stupid moves on my part or not being prepared. I won't deny that some of my deaths were due to bad luck, but I don't think the game is that reliant on it.

Well, that's one of the reasons I'm not particularly keen on Persona or Persona 2, either.

It still has a chance of happening in 3 or 4, but (particularly in 3 Portable and 4 Golden, the versions I play) there are a lot of mechanics in place to counteract it.

At least in what I saw of Nocturne, basically all deaths (of which there were quite a few) outside of boss fights were caused by Hama, Mudo, Stone, or Sleep, and there was no safeguard in play to protect the MC. It could've partially been the player's fault, but if it was then it seems like problems I'd be liable to encounter as well. I've got no problems with hard games in general, but there's a certain ratio of difficulty:fairness that I enjoy which Nocturne just seems to tip out of balance.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Oh God, I remember this game. Literally one of the best games, period.

But alas, it looks like Atlus is going to try to promote an old game and try to make as much money as possible from it, until its teets are tender and as durable as dust. (like what they're doing to Persona right now)

...Eh, they make good games, unlike EA. So they get a pass.

 

[anthony87]

Considering how big Shin Megami Tensei has become following Persona, I highly doubt that anymore. Especially on this particular website, where the userbase seems to specialize in "games which are just obscure enough that the general public won't have heard of them, but everyone else will".

Anyway, I like portions of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, but I've watched about 12-15 hours of Nocturne and it seems far too dependent on luck for my tastes. I don't dig normal random enemy encounters where you can get a game over because the enemy used an instant-kill attack on your main character. Neat that they might finally be putting it on the PSN, though.

Too be fair, that happens in the Persona games as well. In my experience on Normal, a lot of my deaths in Nocturne were due to either doing stupid moves on my part or not being prepared. I won't deny that some of my deaths were due to bad luck, but I don't think the game is that reliant on it.

Well, that's one of the reasons I'm not particularly keen on Persona or Persona 2, either.

It still has a chance of happening in 3 or 4, but (particularly in 3 Portable and 4 Golden, the versions I play) there are a lot of mechanics in place to counteract it.

At least in what I saw of Nocturne, basically all deaths (of which there were quite a few) outside of boss fights were caused by Hama, Mudo, Stone, or Sleep, and there was no safeguard in play to protect the MC. It could've partially been the player's fault, but if it was then it seems like problems I'd be liable to encounter as well. I've got no problems with hard games in general, but there's a certain ratio of difficulty:fairness that I enjoy which Nocturne just seems to tip out of balance.

Well there's items and passive abilities that can protect you from the instant kill stuff provided you know about it beforehand. Trial and error and all that jazz.

.....And then there's Mot. Fuck that guy.

 

[4RM3D]

I remember playing this game on the PS2 years ago. But because of game breaking bugs, I could never finish it.

 

[Rariow]

Having gotten into Shin Megami Tensei with a bang recently through Persona 4, which is an absolutely phenomenal game and having, in the two months since then, managed to play The Journey campaign of Persona 3 FES (which I found to be, understandably, less polished in both mechanics and storytelling but still fantastic) and the first Devil Survivor (which I enjoyed greatly), this seems like a good jumping-off point into more complex Shin Megami Tensei games.

 

[scorptatious]

Considering how big Shin Megami Tensei has become following Persona, I highly doubt that anymore. Especially on this particular website, where the userbase seems to specialize in "games which are just obscure enough that the general public won't have heard of them, but everyone else will".

Anyway, I like portions of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, but I've watched about 12-15 hours of Nocturne and it seems far too dependent on luck for my tastes. I don't dig normal random enemy encounters where you can get a game over because the enemy used an instant-kill attack on your main character. Neat that they might finally be putting it on the PSN, though.

Too be fair, that happens in the Persona games as well. In my experience on Normal, a lot of my deaths in Nocturne were due to either doing stupid moves on my part or not being prepared. I won't deny that some of my deaths were due to bad luck, but I don't think the game is that reliant on it.

Well, that's one of the reasons I'm not particularly keen on Persona or Persona 2, either.

It still has a chance of happening in 3 or 4, but (particularly in 3 Portable and 4 Golden, the versions I play) there are a lot of mechanics in place to counteract it.

At least in what I saw of Nocturne, basically all deaths (of which there were quite a few) outside of boss fights were caused by Hama, Mudo, Stone, or Sleep, and there was no safeguard in play to protect the MC. It could've partially been the player's fault, but if it was then it seems like problems I'd be liable to encounter as well. I've got no problems with hard games in general, but there's a certain ratio of difficulty:fairness that I enjoy which Nocturne just seems to tip out of balance.

There are actually quite a few safe guards for the MC. You can equip magatamas that resist/nullify insta-death skills and ailments. You can learn skills that nullify dark and light spells. And you can fuse a demon relatively early in the game that knows tetraja, which, when cast, affects the whole party and lasts until the enemy uses a dark/light spell. You can also find and make tetraja rocks that pretty much do the same thing.

The game is pretty big on preparation, and even then, I found that the save points aren't spaced that far apart, so it doesn't feel like I lost too much time if I mess up.

EDIT: UNLESS you're going through the optional dungeon. Where there are no save points and it has a couple of nasty enemy mobs and bosses. At the very least, it gives you a way to jump straight back to the kalpa you were on.

 

[otakon17]

I have to disagree with you on "Best RPG" in your post.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=33406&Title=Shin%20Megami%20Tensei%3A%20Nocturne&searchkeyword=Shin%20Megami%20Tensei%20Nocturne%20%28Limited%20Edition%29

Welp, there goes my week. Might come out today on psn so keep your eyes open.



Wish I had money at the moment

It's basically Pokémon for more hardcore RPG fans.

If you mean "more hardcore" as in the masochistic. The games difficulty is less a learning curve and more a cliff. Four thousand miles tall covered in razor blades and grease that suddenly goes 90 degrees outward at the two thousand mile mark and doesn't start climbing again until you can no longer see the base of the cliff.

That game is so up to luck it's just not fun.

 

[lacktheknack]

Goddammit, everyone knows about Shin Megami Tensei.

I had the briefest hope that this was referring to the epic supernatural hall-of-fame winner "Nocturne",

<spoiler=Images>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Nocturnegamecover.jpg

http://cdn.bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Nocturne4.jpg

http://cdn.bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Nocturne2.jpg

http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/2/6/8/8/282688-nocturn_004.jpg

http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/2/6/8/5/282685-nocturn_001.jpg

...that everyone should track down and play. I only played the first part, and I have so many fond memories. I want to play the other three parts, but the game is gone.

 

[Eve Charm]

Ah damn guess my copies of this are going to go down in value. Still a good game tho.

I'd still give best rpg never heard of to Dragon force tho x.x

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Ah damn guess my copies of this are going to go down in value. Still a good game tho.

Copies? Plural?!

I'll give you 100$ for one. Shin Megami Tensei IV got me hooked.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Well, that's one of the reasons I'm not particularly keen on Persona or Persona 2, either.

It still has a chance of happening in 3 or 4, but (particularly in 3 Portable and 4 Golden, the versions I play) there are a lot of mechanics in place to counteract it.

At least in what I saw of Nocturne, basically all deaths (of which there were quite a few) outside of boss fights were caused by Hama, Mudo, Stone, or Sleep, and there was no safeguard in play to protect the MC. It could've partially been the player's fault, but if it was then it seems like problems I'd be liable to encounter as well. I've got no problems with hard games in general, but there's a certain ratio of difficulty:fairness that I enjoy which Nocturne just seems to tip out of balance.

I actually found P3 and 4 way, way worse for it. I'm replaying Persona 4 right now, and got to floor 9 on the Bathhouse and came across these Magus enemies that have mazio. Since you have to have Yosuke in your team at this point and they got an Enemy Advantage I was dead before I even got a turn; a combination of mazio giving them extra turns and agilao killed my whole party. Below this floor, none of the enemies were even a threat, even in the case of an Enemy Advantage.

I wound up losing progress down to floor 3 and from level 23 to 19. P4 has no mid-dungeon saves so unless you remembered to pack a Goho-M the only way to save is to backtrack out of the dungeon. In Nocturne, the save points are really frequent (and often accompanied by heal stations, which are way cheaper than P4's fox in the early game), so even if you do die you don't lose much progress.

I died a total of about 8 times my first time through Nocturne, since the highly customisable party and MC make it easy to cover all of your weaknesses. By the time enemies start using insta-kill skills you can learn skills or equip magatama to nullify them completely which not only keeps you alive, but also costs the enemy their entire turn. If you just make sure you have demons that cover most bases, Nocturne becomes very, very easy.

Maybe that was just my experience, everyone's will be different. Nocturne was the first SMT game I played in full and, like I said, I only died a handful of times (and always against bosses, or this one room with damage floors in the bonus dungeon). On the other hand, I played P3 and 4 after already getting used to the series and find myself on the receiving end of at least one curbstomp battle per dungeon no matter how much I try to prepare. Maybe I just suck at them XD

 

[Eve Charm]

Ah damn guess my copies of this are going to go down in value. Still a good game tho.

Copies? Plural?!

I'll give you 100$ for one. Shin Megami Tensei IV got me hooked.

Heh I'd take you up on that offer but it looks like the game already had a massive Rerun probably a year or two ago. You can fetch a new copy now for 20 bucks easily on ebay. Guess that's why I got a *new* used copy at my store a while ago and picked it up cheap when we were getting rid of ps2 stuff.

Wonder if that's sega's doing all these atlus games are getting reprinted and thrown up in the stores.

 

[Fox12]

Dammit Atlus, be gentle! I JUST gave you money last week for P4.

 

[Jazoni89]

Ah damn guess my copies of this are going to go down in value. Still a good game tho.

I'd still give best rpg never heard of to Dragon force tho x.x

The European version Titled "Lucifer's Call" is common as muck, I own it.

In fact, I find that kinda strange that Shin Megami Tensei games over here aren't too rare (a few are somewhat Uncommon), but in America they are worth a lot of money each, and it's like the reverse with the Tales games over here.

...I wonder why?

 

[krazykidd]

I have to disagree with you on "Best RPG" in your post.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=33406&Title=Shin%20Megami%20Tensei%3A%20Nocturne&searchkeyword=Shin%20Megami%20Tensei%20Nocturne%20%28Limited%20Edition%29

Welp, there goes my week. Might come out today on psn so keep your eyes open.



Wish I had money at the moment

It's basically Pokémon for more hardcore RPG fans.

If you mean "more hardcore" as in the masochistic. The games difficulty is less a learning curve and more a cliff. Four thousand miles tall covered in razor blades and grease that suddenly goes 90 degrees outward at the two thousand mile mark and doesn't start climbing again until you can no longer see the base of the cliff.

That game is so up to luck it's just not fun.

If you have played any smt game at all before this one, you don't really need a learning curb. Also, the game is in tutorial mode up until the metador, so you can't really die ( at least on normal) until that point, and by then, you should know all you need to know to beat the game, at least on normal.

Also, i don't get the luck thing. What exactly is based on luck? Every once in a long while an enemy will use an insta kill light or dark skill. And unless you have a weakness to it , it more often than not , won't hit. And they don't use those at the begining of the game .

OT: As somone who beat the game on hard mode while doing the labyrinth, this game is awsome, but i'm never playing it again.

 

[T_ConX]

The game's not that hard. I mean, yeah, sure, it's harder than, say, Persona 3 or 4. It's one of those games where you have to actually prepare for boss fights, and that means more than 'The boss uses fire attacks so I better not have any one that's weak to fire'. It means you really have to rely on buff/debuff spells.