Shin Megami Tensei IV

[Jordan]

This game is fantastic. I kind of got it as an impulse buy but I have been enjoying the hell out of it. I never played a Shin Megami Tensei game before but I really like the focus on demon/monster collection. I also love historical/mythological stuff so this game is right up my alley in terms of flavor.

[The Shoemaker]

I played about an hour of this game and forgot about it. It wasn't bad, I just had other things to play and never got back to playing this one. I remember it being pretty hard though!

The only other Shin Megami game I've played is Devil Survivor Overclocked. That one was a SRPG, which i enjoyed quite a bit.

[Jordan]

I don't think the game is too hard, but it's not easy. You kind of have to play carefully. Early on I found things easy once I was able to persuade a few demons to join me.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

I bought it a month or so ago and was really impressed with it at first.
However once you arrive at the main part of the game (the 'world' map to keep it free of spoilers) it kinda started to get problematic.
Suddenly you notice how messy the quest system gets, the lack of an actual world map with location names and the inability to mark things on your area map are a problem aswell. Also the balancing that up until this point was really good goes bonkers. You enter random demons domains with quite ordinary enemies inside just to suddenly face a mini-boss that is 40lvls higher than you and one-shots your party. While you can easily get out of these situations (you can save anywhere after all) it is frustrating as heck. Essentially the game removes your guidance, that got you through the first few hours, in favor of an unbalanced open design.
First I loved the game, now I am not thrilled anymore.

[Jordan]

I finished my second (and probably final) playthrough of the game, achieving the neutral ending.

I will admit the game is flawed in some ways. The worst thing about the game, in my opinion, is the map system. I completely agree that it lacks clear objectives and is confusing. The second major area of the game

Spoiler

Tokyo

is like navigating a rat maze. Additionally, the game should really have had clear objective points. On some quests, such as one in which you have to defeat Wukong, you actually do get clear objectives on the map. They should have applied this for all the quests as it would have made the game a lot less frustrating. Additionally, there should have been guideposts or some kind of in-game guides to assist you in getting from Point A to Point B. The game does offer you terminals and the ability to fly really late in the game, but these don't really help enough. The ability to fly, moreover, is too little, too late.

The other major complaint I had with the game is the enemy spawn rate. This game could have really benefited from a repel type item (along with a summoning type item) to make navigating areas less of a frustration. At some point in the game, it is possible to get an estoma sword ability that allows you to kill off enemy encounters on the map, but this still requires you to stop and swing your sword. It also doesn't protect you from mobs swarming you in narrow corridors. Furthermore, it costs a sizable amount of MP and is unavailable in the early game. These are all significant problems with the game. It would have been infinitely preferable to have some type of repel item that allows you to just waltz through areas without accruing demon aggro.

I also had one minor complaint: I would have liked it if the game directly showed you your alignment number at any given point in the game.

Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed other aspects of the game. I liked the story, characters, music and gameplay a lot. The battle system was fun and could be challenging at times. Demon Fusion was also way more addictive than I ever anticipated. I often spent embarrassing amounts of time figuring out the best demons to capture and fuse in order to get ideal combinations. It was satisfying in the end-game having demons such as Quetzalcoatl,

Spoiler

Lilith

,

Spoiler

Masakado

, Hachiman, Maya, Seth, Huang Long, Thor, Hel, Ba'al and other awesome mythological figures.

The whole approach of the game of drawing heavily from mythology was also greatly appealing to me. I love history and mythology. This game felt right up my alley. I invested over 100 hours into SMT IV and enjoyed most of my playtime. The neutral ending was also greatly satisfying.