Sue
2019
There's a lot I could say about this game, so I guess I will say what's on my mind. By the way, this will be talking a lot about postgame because that's a big deal with these games.
First off, some might be wondering about the story of this game. The story in Disgaea games tend to be really goofy, oftentimes cheesy as hell, and this game isn't much different. They're less one-note than a few characters from 3 and I came to like them. The cast of characters in this game is probably my favorite of them all, simply because I remember more than four of them. Yes, while the classic trio is great, most other characters in the original fell flat, and there were a good few. Characters like Emizel have good unique abilities too so it's not like all of them are made obsolete to other classes, unlike a certain game in the series which had one class above the rest, making the use of anything else pointless. (That game was 1, with the Majin class) I like that this game brought back Flonne and Axel, but I don't remember Flonne being that stupid (although the difference isn't that big) and I don't remember Axel being whatever he is in this game. Those were both my favorite characters in their respective games, but that's not to say I disliked them here since they did have some funny moments.
This game also introduced HD sprites to the series. 3 was the first game on PS3, and this was the second. 3 got a LOT of flack for not updating its style to fit new hardware, but this game actually did that, so that's cool. If you play the games in order, chances are you will enjoy 3, but I digress. You'll see the HD style with this, Dimension 2/D2, and 5. There's even a joke here about a certain character being stuck in the old style, and you can get her up to date, kind of reminded me of Culex in Super Mario RPG. 6 brought things to full 3D which is extremely divisive and if you want my two cents I think it works but it ruins a key part of what makes these games charming. I did make a review on 7, so I've already talked about that.
Gameplay, as usual, was very good, but not perfect. Diagonal throwing is still a thing in this game, and I got used to that, it's kind of fun. This game also made Magichange useful, and if you don't know what that is, it basically lets you morph a monster into a weapon for someone else to use a few turns per battle. Evilities are here too, and monsters get some use out of them due to having two extra slots rather than one. These are basically passives, but they can make or break a fight in some cases. By the end, I had a Tyrant Valvatorez with an 80% stat increase just by existing. There's also one that adds a 10% increase to evasion per step taken in a turn, which can easily go up to 100% evasion, which doesn't mean you dodge absolutely everything but it could be seriously helpful later on.
So if the gameplay isn't perfect, what are the issues? Well, my main issue was how heavy this game was on RNG, for the postgame at least. So I beat the game, what next? Innocents, which are basically extra passives you throw onto an item. You can get most of them normally, but in the case of certain ones like the Professional and the Guardian, you will need to do a little thing called Reverse Pirating. Basically, after clearing 20 floors inside the Item World (where you go to boost and level up items) you get to reverse pirate inside of it. You can do this a maximum of 5 times, once per 20 floors cleared. I used this to get certain innocents, but it took a few resets for the proper ones to show up. Then, after boosting my innocents to a decent enough level, I wanted to max them. How did I do that? The Puppy Paw Stick, an item which lets you take an item from an enemy sometimes. There's a unit that can become an NPC through a skill, so you'll want to abuse that to duplicate - that'll come a bit later though. To even get this item you either need to get 200 item spheres or do the sane man's method of capturing level 1000 Nekomatas and hunting their treasure. Before you get this damned item, you will probably obtain a lot of ship parts. It took me like 3 hours to get this item and that was not a fun part of the grind. After enough duplicating, I wanted to get the best item in the game, the Trapezohedron. First, I had to unlock the Land of Carnage, which required more ship parts. They didn't take too long to get, but as a middle finger, there's like 3 you can get for each part and you're supposed to get one specifically. I had to clear some stages too, but that's not based on luck and was fairly easy. For the next step, I basically just took an item I got from miscellaneous stuff, went to its item world (inside the Land of Carnage) and kept resetting the bonus gauge until there was a legendary Arcadia. This took maybe around an hour, I don't know the exact time. So then after that, I leveled up the Arcadia and got a Trapezohedron. While leveling it, I had to exit out every 10th floor using a Mr. Gency's Exit, which is a pretty valuable resource. I did this to get into the Innocent Town each time, and on top of that the Dark Assembly had to be available for me to upgrade item stats like movement and attack range, which just added yet another aspect of RNG even if it never took that long. In comparison, 5 lets you screw around in the item world for pretty much as many floors as you want, not just 100, and so all of this stuff is a hell of a lot more convenient.
On the topic of stuff 5 does better, let me tell you about Chara World. It's like the Item World, but for individual characters. I tried not to use it too much in this game because it SUCKS. It's basically the Item World but with a bunch of blocks that you can break for the chance to raise aptitudes - yes, even MORE RNG, and I don't feel like explaining what aptitudes are but they're something you'll want if you have good items. I made it a habit to mostly ignore the blocks, and I did this a lot to get more Gency's Exits. (Again, valuable resource) In 5, they made this into a board game, which may sound lame, but it's a whole lot more refreshing and you'll probably spend less time in it overall. 5 also has easy ways to break into the millions, with subclasses and eventually extracts. Extracts are kind of in 4 with serums, but they disappear upon reincarnation, and you may need to reincarnate a lot to max aptitudes, so you will have to do this as an absolutely final step. From what I've seen it's kind of a pain in the ass to do too, like for extracts in 5 all you have to do is get some and use it on 4 units at once for max effect. I didn't end up using serums since I only beat base Baal and I don't know if they're even necessary. Another thing 5 does better is that it gives you way more evility slots, allowing for all kinds of weird builds. In 4, you can just throw on one (or two in the case of monsters) and be done with it; usually there's a definitive one that'll work in most cases. In 5 there is just a lot more that you can do with it. Obviously it's the game that came after, so upgrades should be expected. I did play it before this one, though, so that's something to note, but I also beat all of 1 after 5 and I don't recall the RNG being this bad.
Going back to what 4 does right, additional content is one. I don't remember much of 5's DLC, and it removed certain cameos like Gig, Ash and Marona. I liked those, and I liked the nurse class that got replaced by the zombie maid. These have not appeared since (unless you count Dimension 2 which I do intend to play), which is a shame because Gig was particularly useful to me, and he just kicks ass in general. You can unlock Kurtis and Krichevskoy (Laharl's dad), which also haven't been seen since. 5 does have more DLC characters overall and there are scenarios for most of them, I just don't remember them much, and the Netherbattle Tournament from 4 gave them a few extra scenes too, which isn't present in 5. Absent is also any additional side modes, stuff like Axel Mode or Time Leap. Notably, 4 has both Time Leap and the Fuka and Desco show, and there's even a chapter detailing Fenrich. I didn't really like how Time Leap ended, but it gave me a bit more to do and the new base was neat. You can change your main base into any level or base in the game too, which you can't do in 5 for some reason, but 5 does let you edit a character's colors to whatever you want and I reaaaally like that.
Once I beat Baal, I felt accomplished. So many hours passed, and everything led up to the moment. It didn't even feel that long, I went from around 1 million in stats to about 30 after making the ultimate gear and duplicating it several times. I'm aware that the Carnage version exists, and there's a rematch too, but I'm not doing that shit - 5's already made me. I beat the guy himself, and to me, that's a game done to completion.
My recommendation? Save dealing with Baal for Disgaea 5, and do it in 7 too if you want since that one's a total pushover. All the story content still took me about 50 hours and I'm a somewhat fast reader. If you want to unlock (just about) everything immediately, enter X Y B X Y B A on the title screen. There's not much of a downside to using it.
Despite everything, this game kicks ass. Specifically mine. Sometimes I'm a masochist when it comes to games, I dunno.
First off, some might be wondering about the story of this game. The story in Disgaea games tend to be really goofy, oftentimes cheesy as hell, and this game isn't much different. They're less one-note than a few characters from 3 and I came to like them. The cast of characters in this game is probably my favorite of them all, simply because I remember more than four of them. Yes, while the classic trio is great, most other characters in the original fell flat, and there were a good few. Characters like Emizel have good unique abilities too so it's not like all of them are made obsolete to other classes, unlike a certain game in the series which had one class above the rest, making the use of anything else pointless. (That game was 1, with the Majin class) I like that this game brought back Flonne and Axel, but I don't remember Flonne being that stupid (although the difference isn't that big) and I don't remember Axel being whatever he is in this game. Those were both my favorite characters in their respective games, but that's not to say I disliked them here since they did have some funny moments.
This game also introduced HD sprites to the series. 3 was the first game on PS3, and this was the second. 3 got a LOT of flack for not updating its style to fit new hardware, but this game actually did that, so that's cool. If you play the games in order, chances are you will enjoy 3, but I digress. You'll see the HD style with this, Dimension 2/D2, and 5. There's even a joke here about a certain character being stuck in the old style, and you can get her up to date, kind of reminded me of Culex in Super Mario RPG. 6 brought things to full 3D which is extremely divisive and if you want my two cents I think it works but it ruins a key part of what makes these games charming. I did make a review on 7, so I've already talked about that.
Gameplay, as usual, was very good, but not perfect. Diagonal throwing is still a thing in this game, and I got used to that, it's kind of fun. This game also made Magichange useful, and if you don't know what that is, it basically lets you morph a monster into a weapon for someone else to use a few turns per battle. Evilities are here too, and monsters get some use out of them due to having two extra slots rather than one. These are basically passives, but they can make or break a fight in some cases. By the end, I had a Tyrant Valvatorez with an 80% stat increase just by existing. There's also one that adds a 10% increase to evasion per step taken in a turn, which can easily go up to 100% evasion, which doesn't mean you dodge absolutely everything but it could be seriously helpful later on.
So if the gameplay isn't perfect, what are the issues? Well, my main issue was how heavy this game was on RNG, for the postgame at least. So I beat the game, what next? Innocents, which are basically extra passives you throw onto an item. You can get most of them normally, but in the case of certain ones like the Professional and the Guardian, you will need to do a little thing called Reverse Pirating. Basically, after clearing 20 floors inside the Item World (where you go to boost and level up items) you get to reverse pirate inside of it. You can do this a maximum of 5 times, once per 20 floors cleared. I used this to get certain innocents, but it took a few resets for the proper ones to show up. Then, after boosting my innocents to a decent enough level, I wanted to max them. How did I do that? The Puppy Paw Stick, an item which lets you take an item from an enemy sometimes. There's a unit that can become an NPC through a skill, so you'll want to abuse that to duplicate - that'll come a bit later though. To even get this item you either need to get 200 item spheres or do the sane man's method of capturing level 1000 Nekomatas and hunting their treasure. Before you get this damned item, you will probably obtain a lot of ship parts. It took me like 3 hours to get this item and that was not a fun part of the grind. After enough duplicating, I wanted to get the best item in the game, the Trapezohedron. First, I had to unlock the Land of Carnage, which required more ship parts. They didn't take too long to get, but as a middle finger, there's like 3 you can get for each part and you're supposed to get one specifically. I had to clear some stages too, but that's not based on luck and was fairly easy. For the next step, I basically just took an item I got from miscellaneous stuff, went to its item world (inside the Land of Carnage) and kept resetting the bonus gauge until there was a legendary Arcadia. This took maybe around an hour, I don't know the exact time. So then after that, I leveled up the Arcadia and got a Trapezohedron. While leveling it, I had to exit out every 10th floor using a Mr. Gency's Exit, which is a pretty valuable resource. I did this to get into the Innocent Town each time, and on top of that the Dark Assembly had to be available for me to upgrade item stats like movement and attack range, which just added yet another aspect of RNG even if it never took that long. In comparison, 5 lets you screw around in the item world for pretty much as many floors as you want, not just 100, and so all of this stuff is a hell of a lot more convenient.
On the topic of stuff 5 does better, let me tell you about Chara World. It's like the Item World, but for individual characters. I tried not to use it too much in this game because it SUCKS. It's basically the Item World but with a bunch of blocks that you can break for the chance to raise aptitudes - yes, even MORE RNG, and I don't feel like explaining what aptitudes are but they're something you'll want if you have good items. I made it a habit to mostly ignore the blocks, and I did this a lot to get more Gency's Exits. (Again, valuable resource) In 5, they made this into a board game, which may sound lame, but it's a whole lot more refreshing and you'll probably spend less time in it overall. 5 also has easy ways to break into the millions, with subclasses and eventually extracts. Extracts are kind of in 4 with serums, but they disappear upon reincarnation, and you may need to reincarnate a lot to max aptitudes, so you will have to do this as an absolutely final step. From what I've seen it's kind of a pain in the ass to do too, like for extracts in 5 all you have to do is get some and use it on 4 units at once for max effect. I didn't end up using serums since I only beat base Baal and I don't know if they're even necessary. Another thing 5 does better is that it gives you way more evility slots, allowing for all kinds of weird builds. In 4, you can just throw on one (or two in the case of monsters) and be done with it; usually there's a definitive one that'll work in most cases. In 5 there is just a lot more that you can do with it. Obviously it's the game that came after, so upgrades should be expected. I did play it before this one, though, so that's something to note, but I also beat all of 1 after 5 and I don't recall the RNG being this bad.
Going back to what 4 does right, additional content is one. I don't remember much of 5's DLC, and it removed certain cameos like Gig, Ash and Marona. I liked those, and I liked the nurse class that got replaced by the zombie maid. These have not appeared since (unless you count Dimension 2 which I do intend to play), which is a shame because Gig was particularly useful to me, and he just kicks ass in general. You can unlock Kurtis and Krichevskoy (Laharl's dad), which also haven't been seen since. 5 does have more DLC characters overall and there are scenarios for most of them, I just don't remember them much, and the Netherbattle Tournament from 4 gave them a few extra scenes too, which isn't present in 5. Absent is also any additional side modes, stuff like Axel Mode or Time Leap. Notably, 4 has both Time Leap and the Fuka and Desco show, and there's even a chapter detailing Fenrich. I didn't really like how Time Leap ended, but it gave me a bit more to do and the new base was neat. You can change your main base into any level or base in the game too, which you can't do in 5 for some reason, but 5 does let you edit a character's colors to whatever you want and I reaaaally like that.
Once I beat Baal, I felt accomplished. So many hours passed, and everything led up to the moment. It didn't even feel that long, I went from around 1 million in stats to about 30 after making the ultimate gear and duplicating it several times. I'm aware that the Carnage version exists, and there's a rematch too, but I'm not doing that shit - 5's already made me. I beat the guy himself, and to me, that's a game done to completion.
My recommendation? Save dealing with Baal for Disgaea 5, and do it in 7 too if you want since that one's a total pushover. All the story content still took me about 50 hours and I'm a somewhat fast reader. If you want to unlock (just about) everything immediately, enter X Y B X Y B A on the title screen. There's not much of a downside to using it.
Despite everything, this game kicks ass. Specifically mine. Sometimes I'm a masochist when it comes to games, I dunno.
2018
bro i swear people will come up to the comments of a review i like and shit on it and every time that happens they have this as a 5 star. i know a guy that keeps getting followed by random people with 5 star ratings for this game and they haven't liked any review of his. this vexes me.
Most of my issues with this game probably could've been circumvented by me being smarter and setting markers and getting help with fusions, but there's one thing I learned about this game, and it's my main gripe: there's simply not as much documentation of this game as there is SMT1. 1 gets several translations, including one for the PSX version; this game has only one version translated. 1 has a guide with maps and a list of enemies for each area; 2 has a good guide, but with no maps or enemy list (I used separate maps, made only a few years ago). It took me ages to fuse Anubis because I was on Law and was inclined to fuse something specific. The Fusion Calculator also straight-up lied to me along the way and also doesn't show every result.
The story... Yeah it's good, was a little less exciting than I had expected though. I'd put it above 1's. I feel that while it's better than IV's, the latter presented its story better. No shit though, it's a much newer game. While I do think IV is my least favorite of the new trilogy, it's a solid game. I bring it up mainly because the first two SMT titles heavily inspired it, and I think the result was great.
That's about all I have to say about this game. Maybe someday the PSX port will be translated, then I would likely give it a 4/5.
Actually, something else I should add is that the translation is real buggy. Negotiation was especially bad in many cases, with even some sprites glitching out during it. It was done around 2004 by Aeon Genesis, who I heard had a Chaos bias for the original translation of 1 and took way too many years to translate If. I respect Aeon Genesis for the Cave Story translation, but I think this game in particular should get a retranslation. Again, PSX please
The story... Yeah it's good, was a little less exciting than I had expected though. I'd put it above 1's. I feel that while it's better than IV's, the latter presented its story better. No shit though, it's a much newer game. While I do think IV is my least favorite of the new trilogy, it's a solid game. I bring it up mainly because the first two SMT titles heavily inspired it, and I think the result was great.
That's about all I have to say about this game. Maybe someday the PSX port will be translated, then I would likely give it a 4/5.
Actually, something else I should add is that the translation is real buggy. Negotiation was especially bad in many cases, with even some sprites glitching out during it. It was done around 2004 by Aeon Genesis, who I heard had a Chaos bias for the original translation of 1 and took way too many years to translate If. I respect Aeon Genesis for the Cave Story translation, but I think this game in particular should get a retranslation. Again, PSX please
RAYMOND FREE IN BOXES DM FOR MORE INFO!!
1992
(PSX version played)
This game goes hard on 4x speedup
This game threw a lot of shit at me, but for the record I did use a guide. It wasn't too bad, although things did feel real sluggish, even for dungeon crawler standards. I suppose the combat was faster than Nocturne's and V's, but after trying SMT2 on SFC, even the text feels slower than usual. The same applies to the PSX version of 2 for some reason. I meant more the general game anyway so I'll get into that.
I didn't have much of a problem with the bosses until the one in the Mind dungeon, the spider. I didn't have the best team so I had to go all the way back, find the place where weaker demons were hanging out, get those, then fuse certain demons. I ended up getting Estoma which was really helpful, and a few others I threw out rather quickly. Try to make it a habit to get Estoma and Traport ASAP in the classic SMT titles. The boss itself wasn't that hard honestly, but setting up my team was a bit of a pain without the Compendium. I'll get used to it.
The game simply does so much crazy shit. You start off as a normal guy having a crazy dream. You head out, and you're greeted with some more crazy shit. I don't want to spoil much, but there's a point where you meet Alice, she asks you to kill yourself and then she cries when you don't, so you face a super strong boss, escape from it, then later seal it in a jar. All in one dungeon. That's not even addressing the other thing that happens. Eventually you get to Tokyo Destinyland, a clear Disneyland knockoff that's cool visually and conceptually but kind of ass to navigate. I saw a screenshot of the SFC version and damn, every dungeon looks real samey in that one. Pretty sure they improved on that with 2. This is one of the last dungeons in the game, too. Really, the experience of Shin Megami Tensei is the main thing to enjoy about it. It's hard to explain exactly what it is, but it'd make a killer OVA.
Combat kind of sucked but that's something most should and likely do know about the first few SMT titles. Not once did I make a team to counter an enemy's weakness; if they can be stunned or charmed, that's a weakness. Otherwise, just go full power. MAG also isn't too important of a stat for your MC, but it's an option. It simply doesn't do much since he can't even use magic. Neither can the protag in 2, but you'll need 10 there because SMT2 still has some bullshit and to progress the game you'll need that later on. Luck is really only good for the protag, and you'll be getting a lot of it in Destinyland (10 points exactly, through incenses alone) so level it up a few times if you want, you don't really have to though. Honestly, stat spread doesn't matter too much, but if you want my opinion, go for STR, VIT and SPD, with a bit of INT/WIS. Try to get STR and SPD to 40 ASAP. For the Heroine I suggest SPD and MAG. SPD matters even more for her because of Zio spam; make sure she goes before the enemy. That's really what you need to know for most of the fights. There are a few exceptions of course, but if you save up your gems, get the Hinokagutsuchi. Even if you haven't, there's a few gems in the final dungeon. I chose to cheat it in because I'm a cheap bastard but there's a particular sword you're supposed to keep for the whole game, which I did keep, I was off a few gems though.
The final dungeon itself... kind of sucked. Not the best music either, but the SFC version has a way better song. Mainly, I had to go through about 16 floors total, due to being Neutral. Without backtracking too much, that's two sets of 8 floors, with numerous traps and bosses. Use your best items because it's not fun going back to the main floor. Encounters are rather crazy too, but this is why I suggested Traport and Estoma.
Overall, it's a very interesting game. Lots of crazy twists and turns. There is something of a problem with the older games in general though: people need to know what they're getting into. The average person should not start with this game. Hell, even starting with Nocturne is a bit bold. IV and V kind of helped make the series easier to enter. I don't mind the games being hard, personally, but there has to be at least a few people who tried this game as their first and quit. You have to be READY for this one, or in other words just enjoy the series already or be into boomer shit. I guess it could be called an acquired taste. Basically, unless you've got balls, don't start with this.
Pascal is a king
This game goes hard on 4x speedup
This game threw a lot of shit at me, but for the record I did use a guide. It wasn't too bad, although things did feel real sluggish, even for dungeon crawler standards. I suppose the combat was faster than Nocturne's and V's, but after trying SMT2 on SFC, even the text feels slower than usual. The same applies to the PSX version of 2 for some reason. I meant more the general game anyway so I'll get into that.
I didn't have much of a problem with the bosses until the one in the Mind dungeon, the spider. I didn't have the best team so I had to go all the way back, find the place where weaker demons were hanging out, get those, then fuse certain demons. I ended up getting Estoma which was really helpful, and a few others I threw out rather quickly. Try to make it a habit to get Estoma and Traport ASAP in the classic SMT titles. The boss itself wasn't that hard honestly, but setting up my team was a bit of a pain without the Compendium. I'll get used to it.
The game simply does so much crazy shit. You start off as a normal guy having a crazy dream. You head out, and you're greeted with some more crazy shit. I don't want to spoil much, but there's a point where you meet Alice, she asks you to kill yourself and then she cries when you don't, so you face a super strong boss, escape from it, then later seal it in a jar. All in one dungeon. That's not even addressing the other thing that happens. Eventually you get to Tokyo Destinyland, a clear Disneyland knockoff that's cool visually and conceptually but kind of ass to navigate. I saw a screenshot of the SFC version and damn, every dungeon looks real samey in that one. Pretty sure they improved on that with 2. This is one of the last dungeons in the game, too. Really, the experience of Shin Megami Tensei is the main thing to enjoy about it. It's hard to explain exactly what it is, but it'd make a killer OVA.
Combat kind of sucked but that's something most should and likely do know about the first few SMT titles. Not once did I make a team to counter an enemy's weakness; if they can be stunned or charmed, that's a weakness. Otherwise, just go full power. MAG also isn't too important of a stat for your MC, but it's an option. It simply doesn't do much since he can't even use magic. Neither can the protag in 2, but you'll need 10 there because SMT2 still has some bullshit and to progress the game you'll need that later on. Luck is really only good for the protag, and you'll be getting a lot of it in Destinyland (10 points exactly, through incenses alone) so level it up a few times if you want, you don't really have to though. Honestly, stat spread doesn't matter too much, but if you want my opinion, go for STR, VIT and SPD, with a bit of INT/WIS. Try to get STR and SPD to 40 ASAP. For the Heroine I suggest SPD and MAG. SPD matters even more for her because of Zio spam; make sure she goes before the enemy. That's really what you need to know for most of the fights. There are a few exceptions of course, but if you save up your gems, get the Hinokagutsuchi. Even if you haven't, there's a few gems in the final dungeon. I chose to cheat it in because I'm a cheap bastard but there's a particular sword you're supposed to keep for the whole game, which I did keep, I was off a few gems though.
The final dungeon itself... kind of sucked. Not the best music either, but the SFC version has a way better song. Mainly, I had to go through about 16 floors total, due to being Neutral. Without backtracking too much, that's two sets of 8 floors, with numerous traps and bosses. Use your best items because it's not fun going back to the main floor. Encounters are rather crazy too, but this is why I suggested Traport and Estoma.
Overall, it's a very interesting game. Lots of crazy twists and turns. There is something of a problem with the older games in general though: people need to know what they're getting into. The average person should not start with this game. Hell, even starting with Nocturne is a bit bold. IV and V kind of helped make the series easier to enter. I don't mind the games being hard, personally, but there has to be at least a few people who tried this game as their first and quit. You have to be READY for this one, or in other words just enjoy the series already or be into boomer shit. I guess it could be called an acquired taste. Basically, unless you've got balls, don't start with this.
Pascal is a king
2024
This game won and there's nothing me nor anyone else can do about it. To me, there's not much reason to hate this solely because of the comedic factor. There is comedic value to be found in the uprising of this weird ass game, and I think more should be simply be laughing at the fat Pikachu bear drop kicking random humans and shooting a minigun. The fact TPC was called into "taking action" should be proof of which side is complaining more, but I say let games exist.
Just take in the absurdity and laugh, it's an absurd year we've entered
Just take in the absurdity and laugh, it's an absurd year we've entered
2020
This review contains spoilers
Summary of my thoughts the mystery behind Mari's death is corny as fuck because it just feels like it's supposed to make you feel bad in some edgy way, like yeah almost the whole game you get these crazy ass visions and then you find out it was somehow death by stairs except the actual death might've been through hanging which makes more sense but is also fucking stupid in all honesty this game would've been better if it was just a bizarre game with bizarre stuff and kids facing the most bizarre shit you've seen, Mari's twist could've been shortened and changed significantly and it probably would've had a big impact anyway, something that is more "she died and sunny's failed to move on properly" or something like that" really feels to me like they tried to capture the melancholy of Mother 3 but even if you know that game's twists it doesn't feel like it's a stark contrast to the rest of the game, and I get that's what Omori is going for but whiplash and jumpscares every 5 minutes isn't how to do that
I will say that I do like the idea of Headspace and the whole thing with you opening the door to the real world, and I do like Mari as well. Music's rockin. I don't know what to rate it, I didn't even beat it I just read into the twists like an idiot, got spoiled but realized it was probably better that I did
I will say that I do like the idea of Headspace and the whole thing with you opening the door to the real world, and I do like Mari as well. Music's rockin. I don't know what to rate it, I didn't even beat it I just read into the twists like an idiot, got spoiled but realized it was probably better that I did
anime tits (and the lack thereof)
2021
This review contains spoilers
(Note: Replayed on emulator because it runs better, still kind of rough on Ryujinx)
Okay so I actually managed to beat the game after holding off on it for god knows how long and while I don't think it's a 5/5 it's pretty close. Just a really solid video game. Story was interesting when it wasn't doing goofy shit, ATLUS please remember what the sense of direction for SMT is supposed to be. It's not like scenes such as the Lahmu one and the Dazai one would be that out of place for SMT1 or SMTif but this is neither of those, this is a spiritual successor to Nocturne. I think Hayataro being on the box really says everything. Dude says three lines and then enters your party at level 40. It was actually confirmed several times that he was supposed to have a bigger role, like a dog Nahobino could travel on before being relegated to a different role... and then being relegated to a smaller role. Khonsu gets a really good side quest but why is he on there, he's not really a part of the main story. I thought the ideas were interesting, but the execution was weak, basically, especially with the chaos guys, Yuzuru and whoever the other one was, I can't even be assed to remember his name. Hayataro is also a part of their business. I got the chaos ending so I'd know how underdeveloped it was. I liked Tao but her resurrection was a little weird, this is SMT but I don't even know what happened, like did some god just resurrect her or something? In that case why didn't Odin do it for his dead half, or whatever they called it? Again I am probably missing something there. Dazai and Abdiel were fine enough I suppose, I liked what they represented and if I were to guess they most likely have the best ending. (I know True Neutral's and it's pretty stupid)
Locations are also somewhat lame. They were fun to explore for the most part, but I had to turn off the audio because of those fucking Anzu in Chiyoda. Not only that, but Anzu are auto-aggro, and they have a pretty big hitbox. On my first playthrough I went Hard, so these fucked me over so many times. It was better on Normal and I learned how to avoid them, but when the area itself isn't that great, they make things worse. In fact that entire area is just bad to explore, and the castle was the last middle finger. Cool area, not too confusing, just really, really annoying. I just spent at least ten hours running around fallen skyscrapers and bridges with an uninformative map doing side quests and cleaning up Ishtar's shit and you're telling me I need to fight two more bosses and do a janky fan maze? Yes ATLUS, I'll bend over for the 4PM session.
Minato was a pretty good area, though. You don't know much about the game, so when you see Lucifer show up to announce God as dead, you know shit's up, and then you're met with the Hydra who's got one of the best cutscenes and a pretty good fight to boot. He's a good introduction to the game, and I think everything up to Lahmu (2) keeps up the pace. I don't have much else to say about the area, but it does everything it's supposed to do and was fun to navigate, unlike a certain area later which I've already gotten into. Only getting the Return Pillar after Hydra was also a good choice, and I think SMTV did early game right. There's a lack of options, but it doesn't feel the same as how Nocturne did it, which is probably a good thing seeing as Nocturne's early game is kind of lame in my opinion. Not like IV's which was one of the best parts of the game. (I'm not the type who thinks the rest sucked, since Blasted/Infernal Tokyo was pretty cool)
Shinagawa was pretty good too. I don't have much to say about it either, but I enjoyed the King Frost fight and Lahmu was also a rather fun boss, I've also already pointed out my issues with the latter. I don't remember an awful lot about what was going on, but the school was neat to explore too. I recall there being this one warehouse and it was slightly annoying but only because I was going for Miman. Take it from me: you don't need them. The best you get are Talismans which you obtain entirely once you get about 100 or so Miman. Avoid the shitty ones - the ultimate reward is a Balm set which is good but may not be worth your time.
People told me Taito was going to be a bad experience but I actually really liked it. I did use the Mitama DLC to level up though so maybe I cheesed it too much, after all things did become rather easy, but I got Murakumo on my side, I wasn't about to feel weak in endgame with that shit. It's kind of weird how they drop you into a place with enemies way above your initial level but they aren't exactly the toughest enemies, not to mention you can instakill a few of them with Hama/Mudo spells. If you aren't carrying those by endgame, genuinely what are you doing. The bosses mostly went down with ease, but no shit, I was way overleveled and just felt like beating the game. I actually modded Lucifer to be slightly harder (level 90) so it was a lame fight, I didn't know the strategy so I simply spammed moves he resisted until he died.
All that aside, it's just fun, especially on a replay. There's a reason the skip button exists, and it feels good to know the routes to blast through everything. I haven't finished NG+, but when I do I'll take care of Shiva and Demi-fiend.
Prepare yourselves, superbosses. I've got a save editor, but no time or shame.
Okay so I actually managed to beat the game after holding off on it for god knows how long and while I don't think it's a 5/5 it's pretty close. Just a really solid video game. Story was interesting when it wasn't doing goofy shit, ATLUS please remember what the sense of direction for SMT is supposed to be. It's not like scenes such as the Lahmu one and the Dazai one would be that out of place for SMT1 or SMTif but this is neither of those, this is a spiritual successor to Nocturne. I think Hayataro being on the box really says everything. Dude says three lines and then enters your party at level 40. It was actually confirmed several times that he was supposed to have a bigger role, like a dog Nahobino could travel on before being relegated to a different role... and then being relegated to a smaller role. Khonsu gets a really good side quest but why is he on there, he's not really a part of the main story. I thought the ideas were interesting, but the execution was weak, basically, especially with the chaos guys, Yuzuru and whoever the other one was, I can't even be assed to remember his name. Hayataro is also a part of their business. I got the chaos ending so I'd know how underdeveloped it was. I liked Tao but her resurrection was a little weird, this is SMT but I don't even know what happened, like did some god just resurrect her or something? In that case why didn't Odin do it for his dead half, or whatever they called it? Again I am probably missing something there. Dazai and Abdiel were fine enough I suppose, I liked what they represented and if I were to guess they most likely have the best ending. (I know True Neutral's and it's pretty stupid)
Locations are also somewhat lame. They were fun to explore for the most part, but I had to turn off the audio because of those fucking Anzu in Chiyoda. Not only that, but Anzu are auto-aggro, and they have a pretty big hitbox. On my first playthrough I went Hard, so these fucked me over so many times. It was better on Normal and I learned how to avoid them, but when the area itself isn't that great, they make things worse. In fact that entire area is just bad to explore, and the castle was the last middle finger. Cool area, not too confusing, just really, really annoying. I just spent at least ten hours running around fallen skyscrapers and bridges with an uninformative map doing side quests and cleaning up Ishtar's shit and you're telling me I need to fight two more bosses and do a janky fan maze? Yes ATLUS, I'll bend over for the 4PM session.
Minato was a pretty good area, though. You don't know much about the game, so when you see Lucifer show up to announce God as dead, you know shit's up, and then you're met with the Hydra who's got one of the best cutscenes and a pretty good fight to boot. He's a good introduction to the game, and I think everything up to Lahmu (2) keeps up the pace. I don't have much else to say about the area, but it does everything it's supposed to do and was fun to navigate, unlike a certain area later which I've already gotten into. Only getting the Return Pillar after Hydra was also a good choice, and I think SMTV did early game right. There's a lack of options, but it doesn't feel the same as how Nocturne did it, which is probably a good thing seeing as Nocturne's early game is kind of lame in my opinion. Not like IV's which was one of the best parts of the game. (I'm not the type who thinks the rest sucked, since Blasted/Infernal Tokyo was pretty cool)
Shinagawa was pretty good too. I don't have much to say about it either, but I enjoyed the King Frost fight and Lahmu was also a rather fun boss, I've also already pointed out my issues with the latter. I don't remember an awful lot about what was going on, but the school was neat to explore too. I recall there being this one warehouse and it was slightly annoying but only because I was going for Miman. Take it from me: you don't need them. The best you get are Talismans which you obtain entirely once you get about 100 or so Miman. Avoid the shitty ones - the ultimate reward is a Balm set which is good but may not be worth your time.
People told me Taito was going to be a bad experience but I actually really liked it. I did use the Mitama DLC to level up though so maybe I cheesed it too much, after all things did become rather easy, but I got Murakumo on my side, I wasn't about to feel weak in endgame with that shit. It's kind of weird how they drop you into a place with enemies way above your initial level but they aren't exactly the toughest enemies, not to mention you can instakill a few of them with Hama/Mudo spells. If you aren't carrying those by endgame, genuinely what are you doing. The bosses mostly went down with ease, but no shit, I was way overleveled and just felt like beating the game. I actually modded Lucifer to be slightly harder (level 90) so it was a lame fight, I didn't know the strategy so I simply spammed moves he resisted until he died.
All that aside, it's just fun, especially on a replay. There's a reason the skip button exists, and it feels good to know the routes to blast through everything. I haven't finished NG+, but when I do I'll take care of Shiva and Demi-fiend.
Prepare yourselves, superbosses. I've got a save editor, but no time or shame.
Been a while since I've played the original so I played the remake. Putting aside the fact it's a remake I just had more fun with the first Super Mario RPG. That could just be me, but I much prefer the traditional style of the latter. I was underleveled so fights in this one took a really, REALLY long time, at least way longer than generic enemies should. And it's weird I was underleveled, because I fought a lot of enemies and even grinded for around half an hour with the bonus EXP item... still ended up underleveled.
Cackletta's Soul is a weird difficulty spike and I had to rematch her on Easy to beat her because I was 5 levels under, went Stache most of the way (abandoned challenge, since it wasn't worth it) and was using the Triforce. If it wasn't for that fucking arm attack everything would've been fine. I remember when I was younger and figured out how to do that perfectly but I didn't feel like learning now, especially with the Mush Badge being nerfed; no training wheels this time bucko. It's like fighting Culex without the Lazy Shell, except I at least felt like doing that.
I honestly don't remember that many tracks from this game. Maybe they were just better in the original, I dunno. Popple and Fawful both had great themes back in the day and they're fine now, and I like the theme of the desert and the beach, but I don't remember anything else much. I know of quite a few tracks from SMRPG, though.
I'm sure many might be wondering, so I'll say it. I think this remake plays things too safe, even compared to the new remake of SMRPG. In the latter, there's rematches, and they aren't too exciting but they're there. There's added cutscenes, a chain mechanic, and of course there's also the Triple Moves. This game has some QoL, and it does look pretty nice, but looks and QoL are all it really has. Admittedly I have not played Bowser's Minions, nor do I plan to, but I haven't heard much good about it so I'll leave it out of this. It's supposed to be the other half but I'm here for Superstar Saga.
All in all this one's kind of just the original with new graphics. And that's fine, but more may have been possible on the Switch, and if this and the BiS remake were on there instead of the 3DS, maybe a particular event wouldn't have happened. Like you can already play this game on the 3DS with Virtual Console and the Ambassador Program, and for BiS it's even easier because the game is native to the DS. On Switch you can now play the original on the GBA app if you decided to get scammed. I don't even think the remakes are bad, they just do little to justify a purchase and most who played the originals were probably fine with how they looked. It kind of feels like this wasn't supposed to be the definitive version, but instead a redo of a game most probably played 10 years before at the latest.
Cackletta's Soul is a weird difficulty spike and I had to rematch her on Easy to beat her because I was 5 levels under, went Stache most of the way (abandoned challenge, since it wasn't worth it) and was using the Triforce. If it wasn't for that fucking arm attack everything would've been fine. I remember when I was younger and figured out how to do that perfectly but I didn't feel like learning now, especially with the Mush Badge being nerfed; no training wheels this time bucko. It's like fighting Culex without the Lazy Shell, except I at least felt like doing that.
I honestly don't remember that many tracks from this game. Maybe they were just better in the original, I dunno. Popple and Fawful both had great themes back in the day and they're fine now, and I like the theme of the desert and the beach, but I don't remember anything else much. I know of quite a few tracks from SMRPG, though.
I'm sure many might be wondering, so I'll say it. I think this remake plays things too safe, even compared to the new remake of SMRPG. In the latter, there's rematches, and they aren't too exciting but they're there. There's added cutscenes, a chain mechanic, and of course there's also the Triple Moves. This game has some QoL, and it does look pretty nice, but looks and QoL are all it really has. Admittedly I have not played Bowser's Minions, nor do I plan to, but I haven't heard much good about it so I'll leave it out of this. It's supposed to be the other half but I'm here for Superstar Saga.
All in all this one's kind of just the original with new graphics. And that's fine, but more may have been possible on the Switch, and if this and the BiS remake were on there instead of the 3DS, maybe a particular event wouldn't have happened. Like you can already play this game on the 3DS with Virtual Console and the Ambassador Program, and for BiS it's even easier because the game is native to the DS. On Switch you can now play the original on the GBA app if you decided to get scammed. I don't even think the remakes are bad, they just do little to justify a purchase and most who played the originals were probably fine with how they looked. It kind of feels like this wasn't supposed to be the definitive version, but instead a redo of a game most probably played 10 years before at the latest.
2020
2023
Longer review coming later but shit I love Super Mario RPG, and this remake does a pretty good job at keeping all the stuff I loved about the original. It's not the type of game that you play for anything complex; you play it because it's an RPG about Mario. For better or for worse it's not Paper Mario and it's not Mario & Luigi. I like that, though, so it benefits me. The original was a wonderful thing when it first released, and I'd say this one has some magic for those familiar with the game, and also those who aren't. The soundtrack remains great. Some tracks are inferior to their original versions but that's the risk you take with orchestral tracks. Booster Tower and Nimbus Land have really good rearrangements.
So yeah I like it, give it a play if you want another Mario RPG. Still waiting on SMRPG2, and so is the original director. Damn would it be awesome.
So yeah I like it, give it a play if you want another Mario RPG. Still waiting on SMRPG2, and so is the original director. Damn would it be awesome.
TBD
Keep saying it
Also just gonna add do not play the Switch version I do NOT want to see people giving this game shit reviews because of a mediocre port
XJ-9/10