I have a love hate relationship with this game, I started playing this when I downloaded all SMT games on my 3DS. I played this game until I got to Tokyo and from there I stopped playing for a while, then I picked it up and transferred my save to Citra Emulator, here are my thoughts:
What I liked:
-The Story, it is very dark and gloomy and it is based on an invisible alignment counter that is influenced by your decisions and actions. If your alignment is positive you get Law Ending, if it is negative you get Chaos Ending. And if it is between -8 and 8 then you get Neutral Ending, more on that later...
-The Music, it is definitely my favorite SMT soundtrack in the entire series, they really went in to make 114 banger tracks. Every OST fits in it's own dark/happy/joke slot.
-Dungeon Crawling, every space in Tokyo has it's own apocalyptic features, and every near end game dungeon is amazing. All in all, the exploration aspect of this game is awesome, and it may be closed zone exploration, it is still packed with detail.
-The Characters and Dialog, this game nails the characters and dialog, every NPC feels like they are actually in this horrific apocalyptical utopia, everyone has their own story and their way of survival. The dialog is immersive and you can spend time going around talking to everyone without thinking you wasted time.
What I HATE about this game:
-Gameplay, it is really annoying sometimes to have to encounter an enemy every 5-10 seconds, even with estoma sword (ability that temporarily lets you instakill normal enemies without starting a battle) you still have to spam it when it runs out. Another poor gameplay design is Tokyo map and it's restrictions, I can say that 90% of people got lost exploring/doing main story, and either spent a lot of time figuring it out or looked it up, all they had to do was include a map pointer to direct player. The first dungeon is very difficult especially if you're new to SMT games, the first battle can one shot you. But after that the game becomes more easy if you level up and buy gear.
-Neutral Ending (one I got), Law and Chaos are pretty simple to get, you either side with the character who wants to preserve gods rule, or side with the character who wants to bring chaos and make a world where the strong rule. But for those who wanted the "good ending" they would have to either follow a guide, or get lucky and get 8 to -8 alignment points in the end. It is a lot of work to get the neutral ending, and even when you secure the path to neutrality, you still have to do 19 quests to advance and actually get the ending sequence. So if you really want to get the neutral ending you would have to like this game to some degree...
I think this game is a flawed masterpiece, with the remaster of SMT NOCTURNE, I have hope that they fully remake this game and fix all of it's issues. I can guarantee it will SELL like crazy if they manage to do that! In conclusion I think this is not a starter SMT game but a game for those who have patience and like dungeon crawling and dark story.
What I liked:
-The Story, it is very dark and gloomy and it is based on an invisible alignment counter that is influenced by your decisions and actions. If your alignment is positive you get Law Ending, if it is negative you get Chaos Ending. And if it is between -8 and 8 then you get Neutral Ending, more on that later...
-The Music, it is definitely my favorite SMT soundtrack in the entire series, they really went in to make 114 banger tracks. Every OST fits in it's own dark/happy/joke slot.
-Dungeon Crawling, every space in Tokyo has it's own apocalyptic features, and every near end game dungeon is amazing. All in all, the exploration aspect of this game is awesome, and it may be closed zone exploration, it is still packed with detail.
-The Characters and Dialog, this game nails the characters and dialog, every NPC feels like they are actually in this horrific apocalyptical utopia, everyone has their own story and their way of survival. The dialog is immersive and you can spend time going around talking to everyone without thinking you wasted time.
What I HATE about this game:
-Gameplay, it is really annoying sometimes to have to encounter an enemy every 5-10 seconds, even with estoma sword (ability that temporarily lets you instakill normal enemies without starting a battle) you still have to spam it when it runs out. Another poor gameplay design is Tokyo map and it's restrictions, I can say that 90% of people got lost exploring/doing main story, and either spent a lot of time figuring it out or looked it up, all they had to do was include a map pointer to direct player. The first dungeon is very difficult especially if you're new to SMT games, the first battle can one shot you. But after that the game becomes more easy if you level up and buy gear.
-Neutral Ending (one I got), Law and Chaos are pretty simple to get, you either side with the character who wants to preserve gods rule, or side with the character who wants to bring chaos and make a world where the strong rule. But for those who wanted the "good ending" they would have to either follow a guide, or get lucky and get 8 to -8 alignment points in the end. It is a lot of work to get the neutral ending, and even when you secure the path to neutrality, you still have to do 19 quests to advance and actually get the ending sequence. So if you really want to get the neutral ending you would have to like this game to some degree...
I think this game is a flawed masterpiece, with the remaster of SMT NOCTURNE, I have hope that they fully remake this game and fix all of it's issues. I can guarantee it will SELL like crazy if they manage to do that! In conclusion I think this is not a starter SMT game but a game for those who have patience and like dungeon crawling and dark story.