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Post by Sarge on Apr 24, 2024 21:04:07 GMT -5
To answer the question, yes, both DS and PSP are 7th gen. Those really help round out the gaps that you saw on console for older-style games.
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Post by toei on Apr 24, 2024 21:24:36 GMT -5
Xeogred You hear that music every time you load a save, too. It's funny because it doesn't sound like the rest of the soundtrack at all, it's a modern vibe. But it's the best music in the game, along with this: This plays whenever the hero does something badass. The other one that comes to mind when I think of the game is that one: That one plays whenever the party discuss their plans for how to deal with whatever new problem came up.
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Post by Xeogred on Apr 24, 2024 21:41:57 GMT -5
Yeah I don't remember these at ALL. But the instruments/samples in the second track are definitely familiar with how I remember the OST "sounding" at least. I just can't think of another track off the top of my head. So yeah the menu theme is so weirdly iconic and timeless.
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Post by Xeogred on May 4, 2024 15:52:48 GMT -5
This is what it feels like to be 43 hours into SMT Strange Journey.
What is the LONGEST pure dungeon crawler you guys have played?
There is something very different about this and other SMT's to me, because I put about 80 hours into both SMT3 and SMT4 and loved every minute of it. Now this isn't to say Strange Journey is bad. But despite it being 43 hours in comparison, it's feeling like 400 compared to those games. This game absolutely needs to end soon. I finally just looked up a few maps with where I'm at since I've been eyeballing a FAQ (looking a list to gauge where I'm at), and thankfully I think I'm in the longest last dungeon right now. The final dungeons look shorter, but are still freaking 8 floors deep. So I could be looking at still another 10 hours worth. A few more bosses to go. I'm ALMOST THERE! But I'm bleeding out.
Strange Journey is a good game, but I really feel the monotonous nature of this kind of dungeon crawling I think due to the first person/mazey aesthetic and all in this case. I always had a hunch. I think most of us would agree if some SNES JRPG's ran 30+ hours, they'd start feeling too long as well.
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Post by toei on May 4, 2024 16:14:57 GMT -5
HLTB has SMT1 at 30 hours and SMT2 at 35 for Main Story. I was really into the first for a while but did get tired of it before the end, and I got bored with the second long before. They have Strange Journey at 52 hours. No way I'm playing through that.
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Post by Ex on May 4, 2024 17:26:31 GMT -5
What is the LONGEST pure dungeon crawler you guys have played? Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl on 3DS took me 115 hours to beat. Just for the main campaign, not the post-dungeon. That's real time, as tracked by the 3DS' game timer. This was on Expert difficulty, no artificial aid whatsoever, no previous experience with the series, doing a lot of the side-quests, and not taking advantage of the grimoire glitch dupe. HLTB's average time for this game is 47 hours. That tells me some things. Such as, most players play on Normal or Easy, they use strategy guides and walkthroughs, they avoided side-quests, and plenty exploited the grimoire glitch. I applaud you playing through Strange Journey, and I have no doubt that it is difficult. But I dare you to do a 100% blind run through Millennium Girl, no artificial aid at all, on Expert difficulty. You'll be more than ready to get back to Strange Journey. This 3DS game on Expert was by miles the most difficult turn-based JRPG I've ever finished. It makes Nocturne seem like a day at the beach.
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Post by Xeogred on May 4, 2024 20:55:34 GMT -5
Of course the cute anime girl cover art with nice green trees and leaves is harder than Nocturne. Hah. Why did you play this one on Expert and was it seriously good for 115 hours worth? I'm convinced I've got some soft cap limit to figure out on these classic mazey/first person dungeon crawlers.
Actually, Strange Journey has been one of the easiest SMT's by far...
Anyways this game is driving me nuts bros. It pulled the nastiest trick in the book nobody likes... in the final stretch, it's time for BACKTRACKING EXTREEEEEME! Got my hidden/locked door thing upgraded more, can "phase shift" certain areas, so of course it's time to revisit the earlier areas for the 10th time (the story already has you backtracking to old places frequently). These spots aren't hard to find or remember once you glance at a map, but I am DONE!!! I turned on some "sub app" thing I unlocked that GREATLY reduces my enemy encounters now and I'm just looking half of this crap up now until I get back to the final dungeon. Thankfully these bosses guarding thes four COSMIC EGGS!!! are a joke. But that's such a weird catch, would I want this game to be harder and drag out more? Maybe it'd be more fulfilling in challenge, but agonizing in another way. Of course the final dungeon is like 8 floors. No idea how complicated it'll be, glancing at maps doesn't always convey just how complex they might be.
I'm also convinced this game, while the story has been good and better as it goes... just way too many damn characters here for me and SMT. Not to mention one of the main characters who directs 90% of the main plot/missions and stuff is some AI named "Arthur" who has no amusing quirks or whatever. It's just some stupid lifeless robot.
I also remembered why I was almost falling asleep playing a lot earlier today, God dang this OST SUCKS!!! Even with a stream on in the background or a podcast, it's not enough. I need high octane music blasting in my headphones to keep me alive playing Strange Journey. Now I'm back to blasting SMT4's God tier tunes. Across the same IP these two games have to be one of the largest divides in quality I have ever witnessed between their OST's, it's absolutely insane.
Anyways enough talk... need to beat this NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by Ex on May 4, 2024 21:32:41 GMT -5
Why did you play this one on Expert and was it seriously good for 115 hours worth? This 3DS entry is a remake of the original Etrian Odyssey. The original EO did not have difficulty settings, it only had the default difficulty. The 3DS remake added multiple difficulty options. According to the EO community, in order to experience the 3DS remake at the same level of challenge as the original EO, you'd need to play the 3DS remake on Expert difficulty. I didn't want to be a wuss, so I went with Expert. After beating this game, I did a deep dive into the differences. Long story short, it turns out the remake on Expert is actually harder than the original, due to myriad things I don't care to explain. I felt trolled. I'll play more EO in the future, but it'll be on Normal difficulty. This would have been a a good 40 hour game, not 115 hours. It's not worth 115 hours of anyone's life. >Anyways enough talk... need to beat this NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Serious question. How many of these "professional reviewers" that rated Strange Journey/ Redux 80/100 and above... www.metacritic.com/game/shin-megami-tensei-strange-journey/www.metacritic.com/game/shin-megami-tensei-strange-journey-redux/...how many of them do you think actually beat this game before scoring it?
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Post by Xeogred on May 4, 2024 22:11:01 GMT -5
Ahhh yeah, figured it was something like that. Trolled is probably the right word, whereas I got screwed over by Valkyrie Profile fans online convincing me to play that one first time on hard mode. I'm still kind of pissed when I think about that game and the dozen or so hours I got into it. I didn't finish it, but at least you got 115 hours out of EO.
DOUBT with those Metacritic scores. My faith in journalists even going back dozens of years is at an all time low now. I always liked RPGFan though, they were cool. Fascinating to see how middling the User Score is though sitting around 5/10. I'm still kind of baffled when I see so many people praising this story. I would say maybe SMT4 spoiled me and just flows better for my tastes, but a reminder here is that I actually started up Strange Journey first earlier this year. The first handful of hours were so slow and boring to me, thus I dropped it temporarily and played SMT4 instead, getting 80 hours of pure bliss out of that one with no issues. So even prior to touching SMT4, things about ST's story and structure was already bugging me. I can maybe see how for its time Strange Journey being the 4th main SMT production wise, it must have been really cool and a great JRPG on the DS. But I don't know. The deluge of characters, exposition, and story stuff throughout convinces me I should never play VN's. Except maybe I would like those knowing they're virtual books. That's not what I wanted when I was booting up another SMT game here with Strange Journey...
Also worth pointing out like these different versions of EO, I guess Strange Journey Redux (the one I'm playing) is easier in ways but a lot of it sounded like QoL additions. Simply being able to run on the field and get across the maps faster, things like that. So easy or not, I'm grateful I'm playing this version and it smooths things out. I could tell that doing some of the new Redux bonus labyrinth was probably what was making the main campaign easier in spots. But I stopped engaging with that side stuff -hours- ago. I did 3 floors (hours worth) and think I saw it was like 9 floors long, then knew dozens of hours before hitting ~46 tonight on this game, that I didn't want to 100% this game at all. So even without going to that bonus dungeon for ages now, it's been a breeze. The bosses are tough and usually take a try or two and maybe I'm just good at SMT at this point in ways, it never takes too long to get through some tough spots.
Anyways glancing ahead, think I just have one more boss and then the final boss. And knowing SMT, the final boss might be a real pain. But who knows. Hopefully I can knock this game out tomorrow.
I don't want to bad mouth it too much. I won't be another user slapping a 5-6 on this. It is a good game. Just feels exhausting with a lot of stuff I'd change about it. So even after I beat it, maybe I'll sleep on it for a few nights before writing up some kind of review. There's a good chance I'd take this over the Digital Devil Saga games, which are good too. But Strange Journey doesn't even grace the entrance of the pantheon to where SMT3 and SMT4 sit. Those games were another league (I'd still put SMT4 above Ys8 for me this year if that really sums it up).
EDIT: Guys... I started Strange Journey on December 23rd, 2023. Then I started SMT4 on January 21st. So there is a weird frozen gap in between here, but no wonder why ST is feeling like the ENDLESS JOURNEY. This game has been loosely in my rotation for freaking 5 months now. I'm pretty sure a single month is kind of my soft cap on when I want to move on from a long game if possible. Now I also underestimated I'm keeping busy with other hobbies lately too, so there's that. But yeah. Holy crap.
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