Shu_Watch
2021
One of the worst SMT games, worst Megaten games I've ever played. Do not buy this at full price or you'll be doing a disservice to your wallet.
Story
This story sucks ass. This isn't even in comparison to Persona, I dislike most persona stories. This is in comparison to previous SMT games, to SMT 2 and SJ. It only barely beats out IV because at least this game is mostly original (not fully though, Atlus doesn't do original stories anymore) compared to IV where 80% of the plot and premise were just lifted from SMT 1/2. Not that this game does anything interesting with its new ideas of course.
Rant aside, the story tries to be minimalistic like le epic Nocturne but worse. In Nocturne you were stranded in an unfamiliar broken world with no real way to keep in touch with your friends so it made sense that you didn't see them that much. In SMT V you can literally go back to modern Tokyo whenever you want(not a spoiler it's in the beginning hours of the game + trailers), you and your friends have functioning Comms systems in the Netherworld and you're part of the same Demon Fighting organisation, there is literally no reason to go 15+ hours without characters and story(yes this actually happens halfway through the game). Add lazily written characters and reveals, side quests that contradict the rules the main story sets up(lookin at you Bull God/Demeter quest chain) and multiple plot convenience/stupidity moments and you have yourself one of the worst SMT stories to date
Characters
Disappointing. Every character except Dazai is paper thin. This is because the story barely exists so you barely ever see any of these characters besides Dazai, and when you do see him he spouts the same lines about his inferiority complex over and over and over and over again. He has a cool dynamic with Abdiel though so that + his minor development make him the best character easily. They fumble the ball hard with him at the end though, shit is mad fucking goofy. Yuzuru and Miyazu are an enigma because if you remove them from the game, 98% of it would be the exact same. The tiny bit of relevance Miyazu has to the story is relegated to a side quest that is easily missable. Tao is a blantantly undercooked reference to Yuko from Nocturne as well as Megami Tensei in general. Sahori had good ideas but were badly executed. Yakumo is cool because he's the first asshole neutral rep but you hardly see him so it doesn't matter + his motives and his actions are contradictory.
Onto the Godly side. They did jack shit with Zeus, Odin, Vasuki, Hayataro and Nuwa. At least Khonsu has a side quest chain that is somehow more interesting than the main plot, the other characters get jack shit. The other gods get nothing, Hayataro joins your party on chaos but the mf is level 40 when you're level 80(this is because Hayataro was a remnant of a mount system that was planned to be in the game), Nuwa exists purely for sex appeal. It's a common thread in this game how female characters don't have agency of their own and only exist to further the goals of their male counterparts. One exception is Amanozako who exists to continue the Atlus propoganda of getting their customers into pedophilia. Imagine a toddler like figure repeatedly telling you that you're her soulmate. That's all Amanozako does. It's disgusting
Gameplay
Game is very fun. Love the new animations for the skills, love the unique skills, love the variety in builds you can do(ailment builds on MC are viable now).
Exploration is a mixed bag, I love the verticality in some areas and the platforming but since the MC can only climb special blocks that are lazily tacked onto the world, platforming options can feel a bit limited. I'm impressed with how much jumping you can do to get to things without using the blocks. Some areas can be pretty garbage with this verticality though like area 3 and some parts of area 4. Area 3 felt like a huge puzzle that I didn't mind doing at first but return trips for quests and Miman got annoying + since flying enemies always aggro you, you're pretty much always being chased by something.
Abscesses are a cool idea but not executed well. The result is a fuckin Assassin's Creed tier map where you have to go clear out the viewpoints (abscesses) in order to clear the map and figure out how to get to your goal
Game consists of 4 areas and 2 dungeons, I'd rank em like this
4>1>2>D1>3>D2
Music
Great music as always by Kozuka but I can't help but feel it's not as impressive or memorable as IV's. There are a lot of good tracks like Bethel representative, "Humans, demons and..." and the full moon/new moon mix of the World of Shadows theme but I think the problem is a lack of consistency in terms of style. There are a lot of different genres in this ost and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it means this game doesn't really have a strong musical identity.
Visuals
I emulated this game and it looked pretty nice honestly. Cutscenes had some god tier direction, lots of really cool moments. I took lots of screenshots
Conclusion
Good gameplay, good music, horrendous story and characters. People who've only played Nocturne and IV will tell you that this is how SMT has always been. Do not listen to them. SMT can be much more than this and it's actually pathetic that SMT games from 1994 and 2009 are still owning modern Atlus writing.
Story
This story sucks ass. This isn't even in comparison to Persona, I dislike most persona stories. This is in comparison to previous SMT games, to SMT 2 and SJ. It only barely beats out IV because at least this game is mostly original (not fully though, Atlus doesn't do original stories anymore) compared to IV where 80% of the plot and premise were just lifted from SMT 1/2. Not that this game does anything interesting with its new ideas of course.
Rant aside, the story tries to be minimalistic like le epic Nocturne but worse. In Nocturne you were stranded in an unfamiliar broken world with no real way to keep in touch with your friends so it made sense that you didn't see them that much. In SMT V you can literally go back to modern Tokyo whenever you want(not a spoiler it's in the beginning hours of the game + trailers), you and your friends have functioning Comms systems in the Netherworld and you're part of the same Demon Fighting organisation, there is literally no reason to go 15+ hours without characters and story(yes this actually happens halfway through the game). Add lazily written characters and reveals, side quests that contradict the rules the main story sets up(lookin at you Bull God/Demeter quest chain) and multiple plot convenience/stupidity moments and you have yourself one of the worst SMT stories to date
Characters
Disappointing. Every character except Dazai is paper thin. This is because the story barely exists so you barely ever see any of these characters besides Dazai, and when you do see him he spouts the same lines about his inferiority complex over and over and over and over again. He has a cool dynamic with Abdiel though so that + his minor development make him the best character easily. They fumble the ball hard with him at the end though, shit is mad fucking goofy. Yuzuru and Miyazu are an enigma because if you remove them from the game, 98% of it would be the exact same. The tiny bit of relevance Miyazu has to the story is relegated to a side quest that is easily missable. Tao is a blantantly undercooked reference to Yuko from Nocturne as well as Megami Tensei in general. Sahori had good ideas but were badly executed. Yakumo is cool because he's the first asshole neutral rep but you hardly see him so it doesn't matter + his motives and his actions are contradictory.
Onto the Godly side. They did jack shit with Zeus, Odin, Vasuki, Hayataro and Nuwa. At least Khonsu has a side quest chain that is somehow more interesting than the main plot, the other characters get jack shit. The other gods get nothing, Hayataro joins your party on chaos but the mf is level 40 when you're level 80(this is because Hayataro was a remnant of a mount system that was planned to be in the game), Nuwa exists purely for sex appeal. It's a common thread in this game how female characters don't have agency of their own and only exist to further the goals of their male counterparts. One exception is Amanozako who exists to continue the Atlus propoganda of getting their customers into pedophilia. Imagine a toddler like figure repeatedly telling you that you're her soulmate. That's all Amanozako does. It's disgusting
Gameplay
Game is very fun. Love the new animations for the skills, love the unique skills, love the variety in builds you can do(ailment builds on MC are viable now).
Exploration is a mixed bag, I love the verticality in some areas and the platforming but since the MC can only climb special blocks that are lazily tacked onto the world, platforming options can feel a bit limited. I'm impressed with how much jumping you can do to get to things without using the blocks. Some areas can be pretty garbage with this verticality though like area 3 and some parts of area 4. Area 3 felt like a huge puzzle that I didn't mind doing at first but return trips for quests and Miman got annoying + since flying enemies always aggro you, you're pretty much always being chased by something.
Abscesses are a cool idea but not executed well. The result is a fuckin Assassin's Creed tier map where you have to go clear out the viewpoints (abscesses) in order to clear the map and figure out how to get to your goal
Game consists of 4 areas and 2 dungeons, I'd rank em like this
4>1>2>D1>3>D2
Music
Great music as always by Kozuka but I can't help but feel it's not as impressive or memorable as IV's. There are a lot of good tracks like Bethel representative, "Humans, demons and..." and the full moon/new moon mix of the World of Shadows theme but I think the problem is a lack of consistency in terms of style. There are a lot of different genres in this ost and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it means this game doesn't really have a strong musical identity.
Visuals
I emulated this game and it looked pretty nice honestly. Cutscenes had some god tier direction, lots of really cool moments. I took lots of screenshots
Conclusion
Good gameplay, good music, horrendous story and characters. People who've only played Nocturne and IV will tell you that this is how SMT has always been. Do not listen to them. SMT can be much more than this and it's actually pathetic that SMT games from 1994 and 2009 are still owning modern Atlus writing.
Pretty fun action game for Kamen Rider fans with lots of form and rider variety. If only the game wasn't super easy but oh well
Beat it 3 days ago at like 3 am and had to take some time to process the kino I experienced. Played on a Switch and performance was really great. I always thought that while the first Caligula was pretty good, it wasn't the best it could've been even with the Overdose remake. When I found out they were making a sequel I knew this would be its chance to improve on what they've learnt and really fulfil the potential the game's concept had and they definitely did. This is the fabled adult cast JRPG people want and its a bit sad how it'll fly under the radars of many.
Premise
The game follows a similar premise as the first. You're a high schooler going about life normally when one day you notices a hole in the sky( wow this is Chicken Little ). After that, through a series of events including getting your body hijacked after stepping on a weird train( wow this is Den-O ), you discover that the world you're in, Redo, is fake and is maintained by a virtuadoll, Regret and her band of Musicians. With the help of a friend and another virtuadoll(χ, daughter of μ from the last game) who hijacks your body, you form the Go-Home Club to get back to reality.
Story and Connection to the first game
The story here is a lot better than the first game. In Overdose the story was pretty much just there so that the game could have a reason to expand on the characters and could be a bit formulaic at times. Here though, the quality of the story has improved a lot and not at the expense of the characters either. Caligula 2 breaks out of any formulas the first game had and does its own thing at its own pace and its really great. The only downside of this is that when you get near the end of the game it doesn't actually feel like you're almost done until the final dungeon starts
I hate comparing these games to Persona but the most apt comparison I can think of is P1/2 where you should play 1 before 2 for the best experience but if you don't you'll still have a good time. Caligula 2 was made with newcomers and returning fans in mind so whenever the game talks about something from the previous game it usually comes with an explanation. That said a paragraph of text is not the same as actually experiencing the first game so I'd still recommend playing it.
Characters
Unlike the first game where the residents of Mobius were anyone who was troubled and liked μ's music, the residents of Redo have specific regrets that they can't get over, usually ones quite serious. This is reflected pretty well in your party which comprises of many people who put up a front to avoid talking about their regret.
The Affinity and Character Episode system return from the first game where fighting with your party would increase your affinity with them and this unlocks ranks for the Character Episodes where you get to know more about your party members and eventually discover their regret.
Something cool about the characters is that if you pay attention to their Catharsis Effect designs you're able to figure out some of their deal before they tell you. With some characters its more obvious while with others you might need to think for a bit after they tell you their regret.
Music
Vocal tracks are standouts again, beautifully composed by many famous Japanese guest artists, and this time they get music videos too that are really well animated. These MVs play throughout the game on certain screens and also during battle. When you enter battle, you're surrounded by a circular display of the MV, which combined with the songs masterfully sung by Regret's VA, Arisa Kori, make you feel like you're trapped in a mini domain of the Musicians. Personal highlights are Swap Out, Miss Conductor and XXXX/XX/XX.
The non vocal tracks got an upgrade too. In the first game the OST was decent but not really that memorable but now there are so many great tracks like Rampage, Black Shadow, Regret, Catharsis - Signs/Starting and many others. Special shoutout
to Regret and Rampage though. Regret is such a great and intense theme used for the start menu that I did not expect at all and Rampage is a generic battle theme that's used maybe twice but its just so energetic and stylish that it feels wasted in that role.
Gameplay Part 1(Overview)
You explore dungeons, kill NPCs and defeat bosses like usual, except this game actually has a budget so the dungeons are pretty well designed, even if you don't compare them to the copy paste hallways of Caligula 1 they hold up quite well on their own. Dungeons are great to look at and each have their own gimmick/puzzle that isn't super difficult to figure out meaning progression is pretty smooth.
Combat is turn based but with a twist. Like the first game you set up your character's actions and adjust their timing using the Imaginary Chain system which allows you to preview a few seconds of the fight to see what moves the enemy will make. Adjusting the timing of your attacks lets you dodge enemies and allows you to fine tune the flow so that you deal as much damage as possible. What's cool is that if someone is in your way while you're attacking a target, they also get damaged but this goes both ways so you should be careful
Gameplay Part 2 (new things)
A major change from the first game is that you can't stack 3 actions per character anymore. Instead you get one action per character with somewhat long cool downs. This is meant to push you into using the new χ Jack system which lets the vocaloid living in you interrupt Regret's songs as well as enemy actions to sing her own covers which can have different effects on your party such as increased attack, critical rate, accuracy or defense alongside reducing your cooldown time for actions. Its pretty cool to use χ jack to turn around a desperate moment where you're barely hanging on or to complement an absolute thrashing you may be giving a boss. Either way its a fun system and you get points to upgrade it by defeating bosses and doing Group Quests.
Another new addition to gameplay are graphical effects that play on the floor. It doesn't sound like much but the combat camera in this game is top-down so the devs decided to add information in a stylish manner. When you strike an enemy from its back you get a special green animation with the words "Back Attack", when you use certain skills you get a different animation with their names playing. Its a small addition but combined with the MV displays it makes battles a lot cooler to look at.
Unfortunately despite all the cool new things combat adds as well as old things it improved on, the game is still pretty easy outside of the first two bosses. It's very easy to break bosses by filling their risk meter till it breaks(causes them to take more damage), using a X-Jack (to increase your own damage and reduce cooldown time) and slamming them with powerful skills. If you're playing on Normal definitely fight bosses at Hard or above then swap back to Normal.
Conclusion
Very good game and a worthy sequel to the first that improves on what it set up and stands well on its own. An almost flawless JRPG and my personal Game of The Year (not that there was much competition besides Metroid Dread).
Premise
The game follows a similar premise as the first. You're a high schooler going about life normally when one day you notices a hole in the sky( wow this is Chicken Little ). After that, through a series of events including getting your body hijacked after stepping on a weird train( wow this is Den-O ), you discover that the world you're in, Redo, is fake and is maintained by a virtuadoll, Regret and her band of Musicians. With the help of a friend and another virtuadoll(χ, daughter of μ from the last game) who hijacks your body, you form the Go-Home Club to get back to reality.
Story and Connection to the first game
The story here is a lot better than the first game. In Overdose the story was pretty much just there so that the game could have a reason to expand on the characters and could be a bit formulaic at times. Here though, the quality of the story has improved a lot and not at the expense of the characters either. Caligula 2 breaks out of any formulas the first game had and does its own thing at its own pace and its really great. The only downside of this is that when you get near the end of the game it doesn't actually feel like you're almost done until the final dungeon starts
I hate comparing these games to Persona but the most apt comparison I can think of is P1/2 where you should play 1 before 2 for the best experience but if you don't you'll still have a good time. Caligula 2 was made with newcomers and returning fans in mind so whenever the game talks about something from the previous game it usually comes with an explanation. That said a paragraph of text is not the same as actually experiencing the first game so I'd still recommend playing it.
Characters
Unlike the first game where the residents of Mobius were anyone who was troubled and liked μ's music, the residents of Redo have specific regrets that they can't get over, usually ones quite serious. This is reflected pretty well in your party which comprises of many people who put up a front to avoid talking about their regret.
The Affinity and Character Episode system return from the first game where fighting with your party would increase your affinity with them and this unlocks ranks for the Character Episodes where you get to know more about your party members and eventually discover their regret.
Something cool about the characters is that if you pay attention to their Catharsis Effect designs you're able to figure out some of their deal before they tell you. With some characters its more obvious while with others you might need to think for a bit after they tell you their regret.
Music
Vocal tracks are standouts again, beautifully composed by many famous Japanese guest artists, and this time they get music videos too that are really well animated. These MVs play throughout the game on certain screens and also during battle. When you enter battle, you're surrounded by a circular display of the MV, which combined with the songs masterfully sung by Regret's VA, Arisa Kori, make you feel like you're trapped in a mini domain of the Musicians. Personal highlights are Swap Out, Miss Conductor and XXXX/XX/XX.
The non vocal tracks got an upgrade too. In the first game the OST was decent but not really that memorable but now there are so many great tracks like Rampage, Black Shadow, Regret, Catharsis - Signs/Starting and many others. Special shoutout
to Regret and Rampage though. Regret is such a great and intense theme used for the start menu that I did not expect at all and Rampage is a generic battle theme that's used maybe twice but its just so energetic and stylish that it feels wasted in that role.
Gameplay Part 1(Overview)
You explore dungeons, kill NPCs and defeat bosses like usual, except this game actually has a budget so the dungeons are pretty well designed, even if you don't compare them to the copy paste hallways of Caligula 1 they hold up quite well on their own. Dungeons are great to look at and each have their own gimmick/puzzle that isn't super difficult to figure out meaning progression is pretty smooth.
Combat is turn based but with a twist. Like the first game you set up your character's actions and adjust their timing using the Imaginary Chain system which allows you to preview a few seconds of the fight to see what moves the enemy will make. Adjusting the timing of your attacks lets you dodge enemies and allows you to fine tune the flow so that you deal as much damage as possible. What's cool is that if someone is in your way while you're attacking a target, they also get damaged but this goes both ways so you should be careful
Gameplay Part 2 (new things)
A major change from the first game is that you can't stack 3 actions per character anymore. Instead you get one action per character with somewhat long cool downs. This is meant to push you into using the new χ Jack system which lets the vocaloid living in you interrupt Regret's songs as well as enemy actions to sing her own covers which can have different effects on your party such as increased attack, critical rate, accuracy or defense alongside reducing your cooldown time for actions. Its pretty cool to use χ jack to turn around a desperate moment where you're barely hanging on or to complement an absolute thrashing you may be giving a boss. Either way its a fun system and you get points to upgrade it by defeating bosses and doing Group Quests.
Another new addition to gameplay are graphical effects that play on the floor. It doesn't sound like much but the combat camera in this game is top-down so the devs decided to add information in a stylish manner. When you strike an enemy from its back you get a special green animation with the words "Back Attack", when you use certain skills you get a different animation with their names playing. Its a small addition but combined with the MV displays it makes battles a lot cooler to look at.
Unfortunately despite all the cool new things combat adds as well as old things it improved on, the game is still pretty easy outside of the first two bosses. It's very easy to break bosses by filling their risk meter till it breaks(causes them to take more damage), using a X-Jack (to increase your own damage and reduce cooldown time) and slamming them with powerful skills. If you're playing on Normal definitely fight bosses at Hard or above then swap back to Normal.
Conclusion
Very good game and a worthy sequel to the first that improves on what it set up and stands well on its own. An almost flawless JRPG and my personal Game of The Year (not that there was much competition besides Metroid Dread).
This happened to my friend spooks
2005
"Rolling eyes fall, ruling dies out"
I still don't get the lyrics for Receive You but hey it's a good song from a good game.
Speaking of the game, Yakuza 1 is pretty good. Combat didn't really age that much besides the weird lock on which I was told I'd get used to and thankfully I did get used to it after a few hours.
Story was pretty good, the relationship between Date, Kiryu and Haruka was great. I usually don't like videogame children but Haruka was okay.
Music is really good. Lots of bangers like Funk Goes On, Service Games 2005, Scarlet Scar, Intelligence for Violence, Id and atmospheric tracks like Unrest and For Who's Sake.
The atmosphere was something I didn't expect going in. I expected a somewhat serious story that had a bunch of wacky stuff but no the story is mostly serious and any shenanigans are done in side quests. The track Unrest helps make the city of Kamurocho feel dangerous even though you can very easily own random enemies.
The Kamurocho map is really great. The taxis make it easy to get where you want if you don't feel like walking but if you do walk you can see all kinds of stuff. It's really great how knowledge of the map in this game can carry over to future games because they build and improve upon this one while staying recognizable.
Conclusion
Good game and the best starting point for Yakuza
I still don't get the lyrics for Receive You but hey it's a good song from a good game.
Speaking of the game, Yakuza 1 is pretty good. Combat didn't really age that much besides the weird lock on which I was told I'd get used to and thankfully I did get used to it after a few hours.
Story was pretty good, the relationship between Date, Kiryu and Haruka was great. I usually don't like videogame children but Haruka was okay.
Music is really good. Lots of bangers like Funk Goes On, Service Games 2005, Scarlet Scar, Intelligence for Violence, Id and atmospheric tracks like Unrest and For Who's Sake.
The atmosphere was something I didn't expect going in. I expected a somewhat serious story that had a bunch of wacky stuff but no the story is mostly serious and any shenanigans are done in side quests. The track Unrest helps make the city of Kamurocho feel dangerous even though you can very easily own random enemies.
The Kamurocho map is really great. The taxis make it easy to get where you want if you don't feel like walking but if you do walk you can see all kinds of stuff. It's really great how knowledge of the map in this game can carry over to future games because they build and improve upon this one while staying recognizable.
Conclusion
Good game and the best starting point for Yakuza
Spoilers in the Alignment section, be warned. Rest are fine though.
The first SMT game many people including me played. As an intro game it's decent but if you've played other games in the SMT series there's no reason for you to play IV. Before I rip this game a new one let me talk about the things I did enjoy in it.
What I enjoyed
- OST is very good. Lots of memorable tracks
- The prologue of the game in Mikado is pretty good. Good introduction of characters and set up of the story.
- The side quests flesh out the world really well and the rewards are pretty good too.
- The new White Ending is super based.
- The stuff with the redpills and the perpetual reactor was cool.
What I didn't like
Story
The majority of the story is just stolen from SMT 1 and 2 but mangled up. This isn't a homage type situation where the game is paying respect to what came before, IV literally reuses multiple plot points and a character but somehow it does them worse. Most people playing IV didn't play 1 and 2 so this goes over their heads.
Even on its own merits, the IV story is not good. After the prologue literally nothing of importance happens for like 10 hours. It's like
Prologue -> 10 hours of nothing -> alignment stuff towards the end of the game -> game ends
Alignment
IV has the worst depiction of alignments in the series by far. Every game since SMT 1 has developed the alignments or tried something new in its place.
SMT 1 - first in the series and builds upon the alignments from MT2
SMT 2 - Vastly build on Law and Chaos at the cost of neutral not getting a lot
SMT if - no alignments but the story changes based on your partner.
SMT 3 - no alignments, you get something similar but new in the form of Reasons.
SMT SJ - Brings back alignments but makes the alignment reps except neutral relatable and understandable.
In SMT IV Chaos and Neutral focus on nothing new at all. The chaos ending is the same old "fight to live, live to fight" stuff, and it's a shame because chaos was introduced in IV with an interesting angle of spreading knowledge. Neutral literally took the whole helping Masakado regain his strength thing from SMT 2. Law is inconsistent, the higher ups want Mikado to learn and grow in their absence by making them study technology from Tokyo but they also want to maintain the status quo for some reason.
It's actually baffling to me how badly Isabeau was handled as a neutral rep. She's indecisive and unsure for a good chunk of the game. We could've gotten a good arc about her learning to be confident and stand on her own, it wouldn't even be that hard to insert something like that into the story. It would fit perfectly into the alternate Tokyos section, we could've seen Isabeau's reaction to how Law and Chaos affect the world and what her indecisiveness could lead to. Instead we get a headless chicken. I know IV likes copying SMT 1 but it didn't need to copy the helpless woman as a neutral rep.
Characters
The set up for them in the prologue is nice but after that they turn into generic alignment heroes. Walter starts off as a bro character and stays that way for the whole game except towards the end where he has his "What if rich people... bad?!?!" moment which was a bit stereotypical but hey at least they did something with him. Jonathan starts off as someone you might think is a goody two shoes but it's clear that he doesn't fully agree with the rules and the law and is willing to bend them if necessary. After the prologue he's just a regular nice guy. Isabeau starts off as someone who seems composed and competent but by the end of the game she's reduced to this helpless girl who can't make any decisions on her own and has to rely on the MC. Navarre literally disappears after the prologue and you never see him again unless you do the relevant side quest. Basically everyone sucks after the prologue except Walter who gets a tiny amount of development which is probably why he's a fan favourite. Pretty bad situation especially compared to Strange Journey which had good characters with understandable motives and actions.
Gameplay
Dungeons suck. In fact there are almost no dungeons in this game except for the domains(which are bland and suck ass), the reactor and the final 2 dungeons. Instead of dungeons IV just has these areas that are designed to look like real life locations like parks and buildings. They look nice for a 3DS game and their design does fit the type of place it's supposed to be but ya know, an SMT with almost no dungeons is just weird.
Combat is fun but gets easy after the prologue before ramping up a bit for the final bosses.
Conclusion
Game sucks, has almost no identity of it's own and nearly everything in it has been done better by other games in the SMT series. Listen to the ost and move on
The first SMT game many people including me played. As an intro game it's decent but if you've played other games in the SMT series there's no reason for you to play IV. Before I rip this game a new one let me talk about the things I did enjoy in it.
What I enjoyed
- OST is very good. Lots of memorable tracks
- The prologue of the game in Mikado is pretty good. Good introduction of characters and set up of the story.
- The side quests flesh out the world really well and the rewards are pretty good too.
- The new White Ending is super based.
- The stuff with the redpills and the perpetual reactor was cool.
What I didn't like
Story
The majority of the story is just stolen from SMT 1 and 2 but mangled up. This isn't a homage type situation where the game is paying respect to what came before, IV literally reuses multiple plot points and a character but somehow it does them worse. Most people playing IV didn't play 1 and 2 so this goes over their heads.
Even on its own merits, the IV story is not good. After the prologue literally nothing of importance happens for like 10 hours. It's like
Prologue -> 10 hours of nothing -> alignment stuff towards the end of the game -> game ends
Alignment
IV has the worst depiction of alignments in the series by far. Every game since SMT 1 has developed the alignments or tried something new in its place.
SMT 1 - first in the series and builds upon the alignments from MT2
SMT 2 - Vastly build on Law and Chaos at the cost of neutral not getting a lot
SMT if - no alignments but the story changes based on your partner.
SMT 3 - no alignments, you get something similar but new in the form of Reasons.
SMT SJ - Brings back alignments but makes the alignment reps except neutral relatable and understandable.
In SMT IV Chaos and Neutral focus on nothing new at all. The chaos ending is the same old "fight to live, live to fight" stuff, and it's a shame because chaos was introduced in IV with an interesting angle of spreading knowledge. Neutral literally took the whole helping Masakado regain his strength thing from SMT 2. Law is inconsistent, the higher ups want Mikado to learn and grow in their absence by making them study technology from Tokyo but they also want to maintain the status quo for some reason.
It's actually baffling to me how badly Isabeau was handled as a neutral rep. She's indecisive and unsure for a good chunk of the game. We could've gotten a good arc about her learning to be confident and stand on her own, it wouldn't even be that hard to insert something like that into the story. It would fit perfectly into the alternate Tokyos section, we could've seen Isabeau's reaction to how Law and Chaos affect the world and what her indecisiveness could lead to. Instead we get a headless chicken. I know IV likes copying SMT 1 but it didn't need to copy the helpless woman as a neutral rep.
Characters
The set up for them in the prologue is nice but after that they turn into generic alignment heroes. Walter starts off as a bro character and stays that way for the whole game except towards the end where he has his "What if rich people... bad?!?!" moment which was a bit stereotypical but hey at least they did something with him. Jonathan starts off as someone you might think is a goody two shoes but it's clear that he doesn't fully agree with the rules and the law and is willing to bend them if necessary. After the prologue he's just a regular nice guy. Isabeau starts off as someone who seems composed and competent but by the end of the game she's reduced to this helpless girl who can't make any decisions on her own and has to rely on the MC. Navarre literally disappears after the prologue and you never see him again unless you do the relevant side quest. Basically everyone sucks after the prologue except Walter who gets a tiny amount of development which is probably why he's a fan favourite. Pretty bad situation especially compared to Strange Journey which had good characters with understandable motives and actions.
Gameplay
Dungeons suck. In fact there are almost no dungeons in this game except for the domains(which are bland and suck ass), the reactor and the final 2 dungeons. Instead of dungeons IV just has these areas that are designed to look like real life locations like parks and buildings. They look nice for a 3DS game and their design does fit the type of place it's supposed to be but ya know, an SMT with almost no dungeons is just weird.
Combat is fun but gets easy after the prologue before ramping up a bit for the final bosses.
Conclusion
Game sucks, has almost no identity of it's own and nearly everything in it has been done better by other games in the SMT series. Listen to the ost and move on
No this game isn't transphobic or fatphobic, if you say this or if someone has told you this then they haven't beaten the game and it shows. Anyway,
Overview
The story of the game is about a bunch of people trapped in a virtual world named Möbius (a maths concept about a one sided shape) by a virtuadoll (virtual idol) named μ. Your character is part of the Go-Home Club, a group of high schoolers who also know the world is fake and want to get out. In your way are the Musicians, a group of people who know the world is fake and want to keep everyone in it. They do this by writing songs for μ to sing, her songs brainwash the residents of Möbius and keep them dependent on it and these songs are used as the dungeon themes.
Characters
When you name your character and choose their gender, you're asked a few questions that make it clear that people forced into Möbius are ones that have experienced terrible things in the real world, be they minor or major. The people you meet in game seem fine when you interact with them but if you take time to increase your affinity with them (haha persona), you can dive deep into their traumas and help them recover.
You increase affinity by beating enemies with your party and doing this unlocks ranks for what is basically social links for each GHC member. There wasn't a single bad social link in the game. Even the worse ones like Naruko who's basically White Girl Syndrome incarnate are entertaining.
The issues the party members have can range from "hm that doesn't seem like that big of an issue" to "wow that guys fucked" and the writing + voice acting manage to portray it in a relatable way. It's nice to watch the characters stop coping over their issues and start making steps to actually fix them.
Something I really loved about the social links (named Character Episodes here) is that unlike Persona 4 and 5, if you say something stupid or jokey during a serious moment, the game will punish you by cancelling the link right there. You can't continue it unless you reload a save or unless you spend big amounts of skill points to fix it. Getting all the way to rank 9 successfully rewards you with a character's Ultimate skill which are usually pretty OP.
Music
Sex incarnate. Chances are if you've seen another Caligula review they've hyped up the music and let me tell you, it really deserves the hype. The OST itself is okay, a few standout tracks but mostly okay and was done by SMT veteran Tsukasa Masuko.
The real highlight are the dungeon/boss themes. The dungeon songs are actually played in canon which is cool because like I said earlier they're used to keep the residents of Mobius dependant on it. Each dungeon has a unique song as well as an instrumental version that plays when you aren't in battle and a remix that plays when you fight the boss of the dungeon.
These songs were composed by famous Japanese guest artists and their efforts combined with the excellent performances by μ's VA create one of the best collection of character songs in video games ever. Her performance is so good, it's hard to tell that it's the same person singing all these songs sometimes.
Some highlights I'd recommend listening to regardless of whether you play the game or not are CosmoxQueen, Distorted Happiness, Cradle, Suicide Prototype and Orbit. Writing this made me go to Spotify and start listening to the music again (you should too)
Gameplay
It's a turn based jrpg but with some cool twists. You can have up to 4 members in a party and each character can have 3 actions per turn. Combat is based around a system called the Imaginary Chain that shows you how the actions you choose will play out as well as what the enemy will do alongside a percentage that shows how likely your attacks are to be successful. You're supposed to adjust the timing of your attacks to maximize your damage, dodge enemy attacks as well as support your teammates by following up on what they do.
There are a lot of cool systems but the game is too easy for you to need to use all of them. Playing on hard does help give some of the bosses actual challenge but it also makes dungeon encounters more tedious than they need to be. What I did was swap between easy and hard when I was exploring a dungeon and when I'm doing a boss respectively.
Dungeons are meh, just a bunch of corridors with some occasional nice puzzles. Music and combat are great though so it shouldn't be a big issue.
Changes made in Overdose
Overdose added social links for the villains too and honestly I'd rank some of them over the GHC ones.
It also added the ability to play alongside the villains. It's not a typical route split though, early on in the game the main villain finds you and asks you to join her side since you're the powerhouse of your team as well as the leader. She knows better than to force or blackmail you though so instead if you agree to hear her out she lets you operate with the Musicians under a codename and a costume that doesn't reveal your identity, that way you can help both sides until you decide who you really support. Getting the good or bad ending is based on a decision you make before the final boss so there's no need to worry about accidentally locking yourself to a route.
In theory all this is great and l do like the new segments with the villains alongside new social links that they get, but the execution is sorta lacking. Every few dungeons the story stops for the villain segments which are just redoing past dungeons but with the villains. But besides that the ability to play with the Musicians along with their new social links ensures that every character in the game is fleshed out pretty well.
Overdose Changes part 2
Besides that Overdose also massively revamped the UI for gameplay and regular dialog. The gameplay UI is far superior to the original and the new camera angles are really good at letting you see the action. The general aesthetic is worse than the vita version though. It works perfectly but it lacks a bit of character.
Overdose also has different lighting since it's basically the original game moved into Unreal Engine 4 and the new lighting is worse. Not a terrible issue, but some areas can be really bright and the new lighting is actually worse at showing of details on character models compared to the Vita lighting which was cooler in color tone and fit the pale art style more.
Overdose also added new characters for both the GHC as well as the Musicians and they're integrated very well. I didn't even know they weren't in the original game until a friend told me. They come with new social links to do as well as a mini story that connects them and it's very well done. I was honestly more invested in this side story than I was in the main story, which I don't mind since this is a character based game. Sadly for some reason this side story doesn't get a satisfying conclusion at all. If you get the best ending possible it just sorta ends with minimal conclusion and this bummed me out.
Conclusion
Good story, great characters and music alongside great gameplay make this a must play for anyone who can tolerate slightly janky low budget games. Every now and then I get a sudden urge to return to this game, it's world, music and characters. It's just that good. Even if you didn't like the game you have to admit that it's proof of potential for something really good, I've been playing the sequel recently and I think it's lived up to that potential, I have to beat it first to know for sure lol.
Overview
The story of the game is about a bunch of people trapped in a virtual world named Möbius (a maths concept about a one sided shape) by a virtuadoll (virtual idol) named μ. Your character is part of the Go-Home Club, a group of high schoolers who also know the world is fake and want to get out. In your way are the Musicians, a group of people who know the world is fake and want to keep everyone in it. They do this by writing songs for μ to sing, her songs brainwash the residents of Möbius and keep them dependent on it and these songs are used as the dungeon themes.
Characters
When you name your character and choose their gender, you're asked a few questions that make it clear that people forced into Möbius are ones that have experienced terrible things in the real world, be they minor or major. The people you meet in game seem fine when you interact with them but if you take time to increase your affinity with them (haha persona), you can dive deep into their traumas and help them recover.
You increase affinity by beating enemies with your party and doing this unlocks ranks for what is basically social links for each GHC member. There wasn't a single bad social link in the game. Even the worse ones like Naruko who's basically White Girl Syndrome incarnate are entertaining.
The issues the party members have can range from "hm that doesn't seem like that big of an issue" to "wow that guys fucked" and the writing + voice acting manage to portray it in a relatable way. It's nice to watch the characters stop coping over their issues and start making steps to actually fix them.
Something I really loved about the social links (named Character Episodes here) is that unlike Persona 4 and 5, if you say something stupid or jokey during a serious moment, the game will punish you by cancelling the link right there. You can't continue it unless you reload a save or unless you spend big amounts of skill points to fix it. Getting all the way to rank 9 successfully rewards you with a character's Ultimate skill which are usually pretty OP.
Music
Sex incarnate. Chances are if you've seen another Caligula review they've hyped up the music and let me tell you, it really deserves the hype. The OST itself is okay, a few standout tracks but mostly okay and was done by SMT veteran Tsukasa Masuko.
The real highlight are the dungeon/boss themes. The dungeon songs are actually played in canon which is cool because like I said earlier they're used to keep the residents of Mobius dependant on it. Each dungeon has a unique song as well as an instrumental version that plays when you aren't in battle and a remix that plays when you fight the boss of the dungeon.
These songs were composed by famous Japanese guest artists and their efforts combined with the excellent performances by μ's VA create one of the best collection of character songs in video games ever. Her performance is so good, it's hard to tell that it's the same person singing all these songs sometimes.
Some highlights I'd recommend listening to regardless of whether you play the game or not are CosmoxQueen, Distorted Happiness, Cradle, Suicide Prototype and Orbit. Writing this made me go to Spotify and start listening to the music again (you should too)
Gameplay
It's a turn based jrpg but with some cool twists. You can have up to 4 members in a party and each character can have 3 actions per turn. Combat is based around a system called the Imaginary Chain that shows you how the actions you choose will play out as well as what the enemy will do alongside a percentage that shows how likely your attacks are to be successful. You're supposed to adjust the timing of your attacks to maximize your damage, dodge enemy attacks as well as support your teammates by following up on what they do.
There are a lot of cool systems but the game is too easy for you to need to use all of them. Playing on hard does help give some of the bosses actual challenge but it also makes dungeon encounters more tedious than they need to be. What I did was swap between easy and hard when I was exploring a dungeon and when I'm doing a boss respectively.
Dungeons are meh, just a bunch of corridors with some occasional nice puzzles. Music and combat are great though so it shouldn't be a big issue.
Changes made in Overdose
Overdose added social links for the villains too and honestly I'd rank some of them over the GHC ones.
It also added the ability to play alongside the villains. It's not a typical route split though, early on in the game the main villain finds you and asks you to join her side since you're the powerhouse of your team as well as the leader. She knows better than to force or blackmail you though so instead if you agree to hear her out she lets you operate with the Musicians under a codename and a costume that doesn't reveal your identity, that way you can help both sides until you decide who you really support. Getting the good or bad ending is based on a decision you make before the final boss so there's no need to worry about accidentally locking yourself to a route.
In theory all this is great and l do like the new segments with the villains alongside new social links that they get, but the execution is sorta lacking. Every few dungeons the story stops for the villain segments which are just redoing past dungeons but with the villains. But besides that the ability to play with the Musicians along with their new social links ensures that every character in the game is fleshed out pretty well.
Overdose Changes part 2
Besides that Overdose also massively revamped the UI for gameplay and regular dialog. The gameplay UI is far superior to the original and the new camera angles are really good at letting you see the action. The general aesthetic is worse than the vita version though. It works perfectly but it lacks a bit of character.
Overdose also has different lighting since it's basically the original game moved into Unreal Engine 4 and the new lighting is worse. Not a terrible issue, but some areas can be really bright and the new lighting is actually worse at showing of details on character models compared to the Vita lighting which was cooler in color tone and fit the pale art style more.
Overdose also added new characters for both the GHC as well as the Musicians and they're integrated very well. I didn't even know they weren't in the original game until a friend told me. They come with new social links to do as well as a mini story that connects them and it's very well done. I was honestly more invested in this side story than I was in the main story, which I don't mind since this is a character based game. Sadly for some reason this side story doesn't get a satisfying conclusion at all. If you get the best ending possible it just sorta ends with minimal conclusion and this bummed me out.
Conclusion
Good story, great characters and music alongside great gameplay make this a must play for anyone who can tolerate slightly janky low budget games. Every now and then I get a sudden urge to return to this game, it's world, music and characters. It's just that good. Even if you didn't like the game you have to admit that it's proof of potential for something really good, I've been playing the sequel recently and I think it's lived up to that potential, I have to beat it first to know for sure lol.
2010
Pretty good game. The way the story starts really draws you in and compels you to keep playing to find out what's up even during the meh moments which are rare. Sadly the way that it's resolved isn't great. It's teased and foreshadowed well enough but the way the game just throws a bunch of documents at you right before one of the final bosses (documents that I don't think actually said that much) just irked me a lot. The game tries to cover it up too by making the boss tell the MC to stop standing with his mouth open and get on with the fight.
Besides the twist stuff I like the story a lot, Father NieR has a lot of great scenes with Kaine and Emil and a lot of great dialogue during cutscenes and side quests that it makes it hard to believe that he was supposed to be a teenage boy. Route B adds some scenes and dialog which improve the story a lot imo even if some of them are literally just like reading a digital novel.
The gameplay was pretty good, each hit felt weighty and had impact. It isn't very challenging though and it pretty much becomes mindless once you get the Phoenix Spear. Even then it was still kinda fun cause of Grimoire Weiss' blood magic stuff which was great to look at and contrasted well with any background. That said by the time I got to Ending C I was sick of the gameplay and just watched Ending D on YouTube. You should not rush the game like I did even if you're really drawn into it. Take your time and you probably won't be burn out.
Music is great, a lot of memorable tracks such as Shadowlord, Shadowlord's Castle ~ Memory, Snow in Summer, The Incomplete Stone, Hills of Radiant Wind. If you don't play the game you should at least listen to these songs, maybe even the whole ost if you feel like it. It's that good.
There aren't many locations in game but they're all pretty memorable to me. The ominous Aerie, the lively Seafront, the video game references in Emil's Manor and the Underground Laboratory are some off the top of my head.
To sum it up, great music, great locations, good story, great characters. Easily would recommend this to anyone willing to spend time on it. Something I almost forgot to mention was the UI design in this game. It's like scribblings you'd make in a notebook and I love it
Besides the twist stuff I like the story a lot, Father NieR has a lot of great scenes with Kaine and Emil and a lot of great dialogue during cutscenes and side quests that it makes it hard to believe that he was supposed to be a teenage boy. Route B adds some scenes and dialog which improve the story a lot imo even if some of them are literally just like reading a digital novel.
The gameplay was pretty good, each hit felt weighty and had impact. It isn't very challenging though and it pretty much becomes mindless once you get the Phoenix Spear. Even then it was still kinda fun cause of Grimoire Weiss' blood magic stuff which was great to look at and contrasted well with any background. That said by the time I got to Ending C I was sick of the gameplay and just watched Ending D on YouTube. You should not rush the game like I did even if you're really drawn into it. Take your time and you probably won't be burn out.
Music is great, a lot of memorable tracks such as Shadowlord, Shadowlord's Castle ~ Memory, Snow in Summer, The Incomplete Stone, Hills of Radiant Wind. If you don't play the game you should at least listen to these songs, maybe even the whole ost if you feel like it. It's that good.
There aren't many locations in game but they're all pretty memorable to me. The ominous Aerie, the lively Seafront, the video game references in Emil's Manor and the Underground Laboratory are some off the top of my head.
To sum it up, great music, great locations, good story, great characters. Easily would recommend this to anyone willing to spend time on it. Something I almost forgot to mention was the UI design in this game. It's like scribblings you'd make in a notebook and I love it
2012
Cast interactions are good, music is good. Story is mid, gameplay is mid. The story does have its moments though, particularly towards the end. The ending of the game with Never More playing is kinda sad but I can never tell if I'm actually attached to these characters or if I think Never More is a sad song
2017
Started off interesting but my opinion of the game quickly dwindled. Boring story, boring gameplay, boring visuals, and mostly boring locations make this a terribly boring game. Seriously the entire game is a terrible mess of yellow and grey, I could hardly see myself during combat. This connects to my next issue with the game which is its terrible combat. People like to tout this game's combat as better than the OG NieR but both are literally just button mashing. At least OG NieR had weight to the animations. The locations in the game are fine, they're tolerable but compared to OG NieR they're not memorable at all besides the carnival and a bunch of them have nothing to do, look like ass and are small like the water place and the sandy places (don't even remember their names anymore). Music is fine but only like 2 memorable tracks. Story is starting to get interesting on route C but I have almost no interest in seeing it through because route A and B were boring outside of 2B ass. I know people say the game gets good in route C but a game should not take 20 hours to get good (I suppose this is my fault for doing side quests and trying to find something interesting in the world instead of bum rushing the story). NieR 1 didn't need 20 hours and Drakengard 1 didn't need 20 hours. This review might make me sound like some nostalgia boomer or something but I played NieR a few months ago and I thought it was a nice game but nothing more. This game is so incredibly mid that it makes the OG NieR look better in every aspect
Loved the characters, the writing, the world and at first the gameplay. On a second playthrough, the gameplay of the PSP version falls short. This is probably because the psp version changed up the original combat system and made it worse. If the OG system was there I'd rate it as 5/5 tbh. I can't think of any problems I had with the game.
I loved the characters and their bond, I loved all the things you could discover through talking to NPCs and I loved the banger story which had no downtime, filler or bad moments. There is also more to pick up from the game as on a second playthrough, all the hints, foreshadowing and clues become much more obvious and you realise that the game had been hinting at the big plot stuff for hours before it actually happened.
Conclusion, it was my second persona game and quite frankly is in my top 5 MegaTen games rn. A must play for anyone who enjoys MegaTen and good stories
I loved the characters and their bond, I loved all the things you could discover through talking to NPCs and I loved the banger story which had no downtime, filler or bad moments. There is also more to pick up from the game as on a second playthrough, all the hints, foreshadowing and clues become much more obvious and you realise that the game had been hinting at the big plot stuff for hours before it actually happened.
Conclusion, it was my second persona game and quite frankly is in my top 5 MegaTen games rn. A must play for anyone who enjoys MegaTen and good stories