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| Pollyanna
201th Post
 
Frequent Customer
    
|  "Re(1):Interesting"
, posted Fri 6 Feb 12:39
quote:
As much as I loved Persona, I was kind of disappointed with the low number of switches and puzzles elements (that I can remember at any rate). Do the dungeons in SMT3 continue this trend or do they offer a bit more interaction?
The dungeons in Megaten 3 are EVIL. Well, there still isn't too much interaction, though...it's quite clever of them, because while they LOOK more detailed, in actuality, they're pretty much just corridor mazes. There are, of course, areas that open up, and the presentation makes it feel much more "real", but it's still very corridor oriented.
What makes the mazes in Megaten 3 so good, though...is the variety of challenges that each one gives you. There usually aren't things are simple as switches, but more like mud slides, or fairies that teleport you to random places (actually there's a lot of crazy teleporting) or illusionary walls, moving platforms, reverse realities etc etc.
The presentation is simplistic, but it looks clean enough and makes for some interesting environments. They aren't as interactive as say, recent Final Fantasy games, but in terms of puzzles...almost every maze has some sort of clever "trick" to delight (or frustrate) you with.
Of course, I still think the bosses are way more fun.
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| Iggy 2739th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
    
    
| "Re(2):Interesting" , posted Fri 6 Feb 12:43
quote:
The dungeons in Megaten 3 are EVIL. Well, there still isn't too much interaction, though...it's quite clever of them, because while they LOOK more detailed, in actuality, they're pretty much just corridor mazes. There are, of course, areas that open up, and the presentation makes it feel much more "real", but it's still very corridor oriented.
What makes the mazes in Megaten 3 so good, though...is the variety of challenges that each one gives you. There usually aren't things are simple as switches, but more like mud slides, or fairies that teleport you to random places (actually there's a lot of crazy teleporting) or illusionary walls, moving platforms, reverse realities etc etc.
The presentation is simplistic, but it looks clean enough and makes for some interesting environments. They aren't as interactive as say, recent Final Fantasy games, but in terms of puzzles...almost every maze has some sort of clever "trick" to delight (or frustrate) you with.
Of course, I still think the bosses are way more fun.
Waaaah...
I HAVE to get Nocturne Maniax!
．．．人はパンツをセンタク機にほうり込むのは、どんな時だ？
答えは一つ。
．．．それを脱いだ時、だぜ。
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| Pollyanna
203th Post
Frequent Customer
| "Re(3):Interesting" , posted Fri 6 Feb 21:37
quote:
Waaaah...
I HAVE to get Nocturne Maniax!
YES...you do! I think the bosses are even more fun, though, because they're so specific on strengths and weaknesses and you have to get really dirty to beat them sometimes. Every time you miss, you lose a turn (two turns including the attack), and another turn if your attack gets reflected. Hit a critical or hit with the boss' weakness and you gain a turn (this of course, only works so many times per turn "set", so it can't go on forever). In some cases, you can lose a whole round (set of turns) uin one move if your attack gets reflected by a group.
I remember how awesome it was when I got Son Goku, who reflects all physical attacks...so whenever an enemy attacks him, they lose all their turns AND hit themselves. Managing magic reflects and physical reflects/absorbs later in the game becomes half of the fight. By the end, the game wasn't quite as difficut, because it had made me so "tough" by pulling every dirty trick it could possibly pull on me.
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| Iggy 2741th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(4):Interesting" , posted Sat 7 Feb 00:57:
quote:
YES...you do! I think the bosses are even more fun, though, because they're so specific on strengths and weaknesses and you have to get really dirty to beat them sometimes. Every time you miss, you lose a turn (two turns including the attack), and another turn if your attack gets reflected. Hit a critical or hit with the boss' weakness and you gain a turn (this of course, only works so many times per turn "set", so it can't go on forever). In some cases, you can lose a whole round (set of turns) uin one move if your attack gets reflected by a group.
I remember how awesome it was when I got Son Goku, who reflects all physical attacks...so whenever an enemy attacks him, they lose all their turns AND hit themselves. Managing magic reflects and physical reflects/absorbs later in the game becomes half of the fight. By the end, the game wasn't quite as difficut, because it had made me so "tough" by pulling every dirty trick it could possibly pull on me.
By the way, is there anything like an Ultimania collection for this game? With all those little features, I would surely need some assistance... And if the assistance weighted 800 pages, I would feel better. Size is everything, I tell ya!
．．．人はパンツをセンタク機にほうり込むのは、どんな時だ？
答えは一つ。
．．．それを脱いだ時、だぜ。
[this message was edited by Iggy on Sat 7 Feb 01:10] |
| Variable Savior
192th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(6):Interesting" , posted Sat 7 Feb 10:02:
quote:
YES...you do! I think the bosses are even more fun, though, because they're so specific on strengths and weaknesses and you have to get really dirty to beat them sometimes. Every time you miss, you lose a turn (two turns including the attack), and another turn if your attack gets reflected. Hit a critical or hit with the boss' weakness and you gain a turn (this of course, only works so many times per turn "set", so it can't go on forever). In some cases, you can lose a whole round (set of turns) uin one move if your attack gets reflected by a group.
I remember how awesome it was when I got Son Goku, who reflects all physical attacks...so whenever an enemy attacks him, they lose all their turns AND hit themselves. Managing magic reflects and physical reflects/absorbs later in the game becomes half of the fight. By the end, the game wasn't quite as difficut, because it had made me so "tough" by pulling every dirty trick it could possibly pull on me.
That sounds really, really cool... So much more involved than the 'keep on thrashing' strategy most RPG battles stress. I assume your japanese is sufficient to understand the storyline - sadly, I don't think I could play a story driven game without being able to pick up on whats going on. I tend to get into absorbing all the details and corollary information - not knowing what was going on would probably drive me nuts.
Blood marks heaven's path
[this message was edited by Variable Savior on Sat 7 Feb 10:03] |
| Pollyanna
204th Post
Frequent Customer
| "Re(7):Interesting" , posted Sat 7 Feb 11:20
Ah! Beat me to it on the webpage! I just saw it myself. Not much there, but it's...so...beautiful.
Anyway, I didn't need a strategy guide for SMT3 (I'll use the Megaten-fanatic friendly term now). There are 3 strategy guides out there that I've seen, but none of them were particularly good. There are several Atlus official ones as well, but I've only looked through one of them and didn't buy it due to lack of artwork.
Really, I think the game is pretty winable without a strategy guide. The mazes are the biggest issue, but since it maps everywhere you go, it becomes a system of trial and error after a while...so you can't really get STUCK, just inconvenienced. As for the bosses...hehe...well, for me...i don't think any boss took more than four tries, but it's almost impossible to beat some of them the first time (unless you're at an insane level). Usually you fight once and get thrashed, but figure out exactly what you need to do to win next time. If you're lucky, you can switch out your team accordingly in the first fight, or use a different startup set of demons the second time. Usually, you just reorganize your team, make new demons, maybe gain another level, then go at it again when you know its strengths and weaknesses. Even though I would usually lose the first fight, it was the most fun...trying to figure out all of the tricks that the boss had.
As for playing with minimal Japanese knowledge...well, the game is NOT plot driven. It's definitely gameplay driven. The basic plot is pretty hard to miss...but it has a very high learning curve. What I mean is that it's easy to understand a little, but very hard to understand a lot. I made the mistake of thinking that I could understand the game because I went through Tales of Destiny 2 (NOT Tales of Eternia) right before it, and understood the game like...100%. Then I get SMT3 and it's a philosophical, sophisticated kanji fest and I could only shake my head at half the dialogue. However, even so, I was only stuck once...(due to misunderstanding).
I think there's a good FAQ for it if you're afraid of being stuck...though with NO Japanese knowledge, you might be struggling a bit with keeping up with strengths/weaknesses/spell names.
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| Pollyanna
205th Post
Frequent Customer
|  "Re(9):Interesting"
, posted Sat 7 Feb 15:48
Ah! Actually, that's a good point about resources. I didn't think about that. If you've never played Megaten games before, then all of the spell names are sort of in a "foreign language." Also, it's good to have a resource to tell you what demon combinations make other demons. I didn't specifically use this myself, but it comes in handy to know which demons can mutate. For example Onkott, once he reaches a certain level, turns into Hanuman, who...at a certain level, becomes Son Goku (or Seitentaisei if you prefer).
The problem with this is that demons level up very slow, less than half as fast as the hero...and if you aren't a high enough level to command the mutated demon, then the demon won't mutate at all, and you'll have to level him again. This is bad, because you always want the strongest demons you can have...and if you have to wait longer to use a mutated demon, the hero may level up and be able to use a better demon, despite all the annoying effort you put forth to get one to mutate. So, it's good to know which demons mutate and what moves they'll have when they DO mutate, to make sure that you actually want them.
In addition, you have to "stick with" crappy demons sometime, because they'll get a really awesome move when they reach a certain level. So, as soon as they get that awesome move, you can combine them into making a cooler demon and have it inherit the move you need.
A strategy guide would be nice for this, and for negotiation tactics (which are simple, unless you want to make lots of money), but you could find demon lists on Japanese websites, and that's all you REALLY need.
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| Variable Savior
192th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(10):Interesting" , posted Sat 7 Feb 20:31
quote:
As for playing with minimal Japanese knowledge...well, the game is NOT plot driven. It's definitely gameplay driven. The basic plot is pretty hard to miss...but it has a very high learning curve. What I mean is that it's easy to understand a little, but very hard to understand a lot. I made the mistake of thinking that I could understand the game because I went through Tales of Destiny 2 (NOT Tales of Eternia) right before it, and understood the game like...100%. Then I get SMT3 and it's a philosophical, sophisticated kanji fest and I could only shake my head at half the dialogue. However, even so, I was only stuck once...(due to misunderstanding).
I think there's a good FAQ for it if you're afraid of being stuck...though with NO Japanese knowledge, you might be struggling a bit with keeping up with strengths/weaknesses/spell names.
I didn't mean to say that I fear being stuck due to not understanding the dialogue. What I meant was that for me half the fun of RPG's is their storyline (the other half being the gameplay). I like to experience the story and take in the plot twists, character interactions, little details, and so on. I don't know any Japanese so I doubt I could get anything but the simplest gist of what would amount to half the game.
I guess I could try playing with a script translation (I considered trying it for IS) but I don't know how well that would work. It'd be tough to page through a script while any game moves along - trying it with a language heavy game like this would be even worse (it's bound to take some of the fun out of negotiations).
Then again , however limited my enjoyment of such an import might be it's bound to be better than the zero enjoyment I get from not playing it... Hmmm.. decisions decisions.
Blood marks heaven's path
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