SMTV Vengeance unsorted quick thoughts
Finished this, played Canon of Vengeance.
Did not play the original on Switch.
seems okay...
SMT seems like a series where the big roadblock bosses are closer to puzzles than slugfests. If you know what weaknesses to target and which to cover on your team, the balance flips incredibly quickly due to how the Press Turn system works. It also means that almost every first shot on a major boss is going to wreck you because you don't have that information yet.
MVP Demons:
- Konohana Sakuya - party HP/MP heal plus Heat Riser
- Cleopatra - enemy-wide atk/def debuff
- Nahobeeho - 10-hit ice attack was nice
- Beelzebub - two-stage Debilitate
- Yoshitsune - Hassou Tobi carried me through the midgame
- Shiva - Almighty plus DEF debuff
- Panagia - Dekunda + party heat riser
I don't actually like Mad Gasser but I think he's funny
As I explored in my brief series of posts "The End is Nigh - Thoughts on Final Dungeons", really rare for a JRPG specifically to have a fun or satisfying final dungeon. They must inevitably serve as gauntlets / grinding locations to make sure you can fight the lass boss and so they always feel like a damn slog.
SMTV is no exception, making you go through the same fucking shitty square corridors for an hour in its final dungeon. Now I ain't got anything against square corridors; I've been playing dungeon crawlers lately like Wizardry and Kowloon High-School Chronicle and having a great time. But those games are just as much about navigating and learning a set dungeon as they are about combat or what have you. SMTV's more conventional viewpoint and gameplay make any proper "dungeons" in the game super boring and tiring.
I might have brought up Persona 5's more varied and interesting dungeons, but Metaphor has proven that team's just as guilty of making shitty dull dungeons. I dunno.
Limiting your skill slots via the Miracles is what I considered the most frustrating element by far. Any time I got to a new map zone, I ran around the entire thing to find Abscesses to get more Miracles before doing literally anything else because I just desperately needed to fill out my skills. It feels like you're being artificially held back and punished for engaging with the fusion system until the late game, because all you're getting out of it is like, 1-2 skills at most. Sucks.
Story is more interesting on a meta-textual level rather than necessarily on its own merits. It's extremely funny to have Tao and Yoko hanging out the entire game and constantly butting in unprompted with their increasingly intense ideologies. Even Tao starts stepping in with, "Let me guess what you're going to say Yoko, you're going to wonder if it was the right thing for us to do the Law option". Comical.
We're in the post apocalypse lady! We have bigger problems!
I'm also playing this not long after Metaphor, which really could have used some of the energy from this game. The characterization isn't very deep, but the demons are wacky (and have actual fucking designs) and everyone has at least an ideology. Metaphor could have really benefited from both of these things; its allegedly charismatic villain would be a second-rate Chaos rep here.
This is a problem all over the place, but I notice it in particular with Japanese games (or perhaps I'm just thinking about Dark Souls and such in particular): for all the emphasis put on Law vs Chaos and the clashing of ideologies, the only really meaningful difference other than what bosses you fight is a 30 second cutscene after the credits. I guess the moment of choosing between the two is meant to be the actual important bit and not every game can or should have Obsidian-style ending slides, but it's just kind of a let down when it's been shoved in my face all game long.
Demi-Fiend was a hard wall and I wasn't quite willing to spend the time to custom tailor a team. I did however go to fight Satan, which to my understanding is a new addition with Vengeance. That was a colossal slog, but I was able to get it done with my broad slate of endgame demons, and the reward you get for it (other than unlocking Super Duper Mega Hard mode for NG+) is increasing the level cap to 150.
Once I was rocking a 150 Nahobino and a few demons in the 100-110 range, Demi-Fiend was doable because I could suddenly just out-beatstick him. He ain't gonna hit me with his party nuke when he's got to spend every turn resummoning his dudes. Some might say I cheated not only the game but myself, but I'd say I simply used Ashina Sword Style.
get fucked asshole
Solid enough game. I don't think I'll necessarily be lining up for a hypothetical Shin Megami Tensei 6, but I'd at least keep more of an eye out for it. Or, well, for its inevitable updated rerelease. See you again.
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