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Post by Ex on Sept 18, 2021 0:55:29 GMT -5
Resumed my play of Digital Devil Saga tonight. It's been a few months since I last played it, so took me a minute to get re-acclimated. I went online and read a plot synopsis up to the point I was at to remember the story. I re-read the user manual to remember the mechanics. And upon reloading I made it about 20 minutes before getting my entire party wiped out. But after an hour and a half I cleared the dungeon I'd quit at originally. Definitely feeling it again, 'cause DDS is even better than I remembered. I still don't prefer the encounter rate frequency, but I decided to put my big boy gamer pants on and just get over that. It's time to finish DDS.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 18, 2021 8:47:22 GMT -5
I'm still tempted to check it out sooner than later. But I hear DDS1-2 are like one huge game in a sense and directly tied together, so I wonder if I should be prepared to play both back to back. HLTB shows that they're both about 30 hours. So together they still might be shorter than my SMT3 run time haha, but then again what if I get obsessed with these too?
I tried sampling Persona 4 again recently by the way... fell off pretty hard again. I even hate how the battle system UI's look in these. Everything about this series is just NOT my aesthetic at all.
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Post by Ex on Sept 18, 2021 20:42:33 GMT -5
DDS1-2 are essentially one game, yes. IIRC Atlus ended up splitting the original game during development into two halves, in order to get a product out sooner. I've read DDS1 ends with a bunch of cliffhangers that are resolved in DDS2. Also, DDS1 is much more narrative driven than SMT3, with far more CG cutscenes (that are well done).
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 18, 2021 22:00:08 GMT -5
Do you plan to go straight into DDS2 then? I normally don't do that to avoid burnout. But this seems like a special case where it might be more ideal to double up on them. I did this with Arc the Lad 1-2 and some others over the years. Guess I'll be curious to see how long DDS1 is for you. There's no monster fusing in this one right? So maybe I wouldn't get sidetracked... 200 times.
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Post by Ex on Sept 18, 2021 22:22:07 GMT -5
After I finish DDS1, if I'm still feeling it, I'll keep on rolling. Or I may take a break if I'm burnt out at that point. What could get me burnt out again is the encounter rate. Although I have read DDS2 backs down on the encounter rate, thankfully. There is no monster fusing in DDS. But each character has two forms; human and demon. You can control when you are in either form. And human form has unique abilities just as demon form has unique abilities. The main positive of human form is you can use weapons, but demon forms can use magic and also devour other demons (devouring is a long story). But each character has basic stats and a very robust level-up board. Basic stats for a character. All characters EXCEPT the main protagonist auto-level here. But the protagonist's stats are directed by the player as to how they accumulate. (The protagonist is not the character pictured here.) Every character has a "level-up board" as I call it. This is a zoomed out view. When you are zoomed in you can see the names of the nodes and such. Each one of these nodes unlocks another node, and every node unlocks new abilities within it. The player can choose the node paths taken. But it costs incrementally more money to unlock a further node, then it costs experience points to unlock the abilities of said node. It's deep enough to be interesting, but it's not something you can get OCD with like the demon fusing.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 18, 2021 22:28:21 GMT -5
Well, still looks like another 10/10.
The SMT3 encounter rate was pretty high itself. So I'll be curious to see how this compares when I get to it.
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Post by Ex on Sept 18, 2021 22:37:14 GMT -5
Maybe the encounter rate will be no big deal for you, who knows. I mean, it's not the worst I've ever seen. Just the worst I've seen in a sixth gen JRPG. It may be hard to believe, but I honestly think you'll enjoy DDS even more than SMT3.
This is the basic battle theme:
Not your average JRPG.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 18, 2021 22:45:39 GMT -5
So far, the only SMT game I've actually finished (spinoff or otherwise) is Soul Hackers. And that was indeed a lot of fun. Of course, your MC doesn't get magic in that one, so you want to load him up with physical power, and Nemissa with heavy magic is a beast.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 19, 2021 9:46:16 GMT -5
So far, the only SMT game I've actually finished (spinoff or otherwise) is Soul Hackers. And that was indeed a lot of fun. Of course, your MC doesn't get magic in that one, so you want to load him up with physical power, and Nemissa with heavy magic is a beast. That one looks awesome.
Are you not that into SMT or Persona in general? Seems like a blind spot for all the JRPG's you've played!
Or maybe you have 30 hour save files on all of them waiting to be finished ...
Demi-fiend was definitely way better off going full melee/attacks in SMT3 too. But I did think it was very handy keeping a multi hitting spell on him at times to hit some "Weaknesses" out of enemies and pile those extra turns on. Early on it was useful to have a healing spell on him too, since his MP was low priority to me, I could spam his healing in the normal menu in between battles. Maybe you can do a pure magic build for him with how customizable the game is, but it didn't seem ideal to me.
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Post by Ex on Sept 19, 2021 16:23:54 GMT -5
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