the end of MegaTen as we know it

[Tuxedo]

Overclocked is strictly better than the original. I love how its added content is endgame, route-locked

SJ Redux is more of a mixed bag but I prefer it over the original.

• There aren’t any app slots anymore, you can just use them all no strings attached. It’s AMAZING, and balanced compared to the first game if you play on hard
• You don’t lose if the main character dies anymore, if you get the app
• The new dungeon is absurdly big and I love it and all its bosses
• Save anywhere is easy to forget since the old savepoints are still there
• New story is… not amazing, but tolerable. Please do not think this is anywhere near as trashy as SMT Apocalypse
• The Doi designs for humans are close enough to the Kaneko ones, and the space crew gets some much welcome actual art
• The new demons are pretty bad though. Zeus is a beefed up Daganronpa bear and is the worst thing about this game
• Mastema makes a >:-( face instead of his usual :^} face if you fight him, which is also unforgivable
• Higher resolution is nice, but the backgrounds now look dreadful compared to something like Etrian Odyssey 4
• The virgin mary (Maria) is a new boss. Unfortunately she’s just a generic « prove your strength to me » boss

[sleepysmiles]

oh my god, that soul hackers music. i slept on that one, i need to play it just for that muuuuusic

i am playing Strange Journey OG right now and trying to finish it this time (3rd time trying to). It’s a cool, good little dungeon crawler but… i don’t like the music i don’t think! It’s “interesting” for SMT music, but i like SMT music the way it usually is for a Reason

hmm. maybe i’ll out sj on hold again and play soul hackers instead

[villain]

Kaneko era (iirc Kuzunoha ideas had been floating around for years)

i’m pretty sure they hint at kuzunoha raidou in the bonus interview video with kazuma kaneko and cozy okada that came with eternal punishment. raidou’s design is also re-hashed from a phone card made for a mystery novel company I think (or maybe it was a novel, but I only ever saw the scan of the phone card) that kazuma kaneko drew in like, 1999 or 2000 (which itself is heavily biting yasunori kato).

---

i am playing Strange Journey OG right now and trying to finish it this time (3rd time trying to).

I did not like Strange Journey. It was just really… I don’t know, bland? And I was never a fan of the Etrian Odyssey system. Which is too bad, because the story is kind of cool.

Soul Hackers is 1,000% cooler than Strange Journey.

Also recommending some of the Hyper Arrange album tracks. Some of them are amazingly goofy. This one is sung by the various Soul Hackers characters, including the Spookies and Manitou. “I can’t wait to get your tender, finger-lickin’ soul up on my plate” is a pretty good lne.

[Tuxedo]

I’ve already went on on these forums about inhumane staircases in RPGs, and these ones in Shibuya from SMT4A are a pretty good example:

Just imagine a pregnant woman trying to climb these

Another aspect of worldbuilding where SMT4A falls short compared to SMT4 : Stairs

[alfred]

I originally gave up and sold soul hackers about halfway thru, but this thread made me miss it and I went to go look for it again today. All the stores near me that used to have 13 dollar CIB copies are sold out and it’s like pretty expensive on eBay now so I think that’s a sign I should just forget about playing it and continue listening to the soundtrack.

[Ymer]

i mean there’s always

Tell me about 3DS hacking

How is it today? What can I do? What do I need?

[idiot]

yeah it’s worth looking into if you still want to play 3ds stuff i think

[alfred]

It seems like the only way now is some thing where you use your expensive gpu to brute force some kind of key? Also pretty soon I plan on playing culdcept online with some randos assuming it’s not dead at this point.

[villain]

Er, what? I’ve been emulating Soul Hackers 3DS this whole time without brute forcing anything or using an “expensive” GPU…

ETA: unless you mean playing the ROM on the 3DS itself. then, no clue about that. but i was able to decrypt the CIA using my 6 year old computer for use with CITRA with no problem.

[alfred]

Yes like to hack your 3ds in general if you’re on the latest firmware now…

[idiot]

ah that sucks, i did mine a couple of years ago and at the time it was just a point of putting a bunch of exploit stuff on an sd card

[Tuxedo]

Ometeotl is my new favourite Megaten demon(s). Look at this cool monstrosity

They never got any big role in any game, AFAIK they’re not even a random enemy or boss, but just a potential fusion result (without being interestingly elusive either, like Jeanne D’Arc or Huang Di are)
They have one really unique quirk in SMT4 in that they are constantly spinning during demon conversation, so you can see both sides of the design, and I think they’re the only demon in the game who do that? Hard to notice because you have to get out of your way to talk to Ometeotl.

Beyond the lower half of the body being another top half, there’s another hidden aspect to their design I didn’t notice at first…But it’s really obvious in retrospect and so sexual I can’t help but burst out laughing everytime I see it

Ometeotl is a real Kaneko Bingo winner with body horror, striking color work, relevance to the source material, genitals, an air of dignity, etc, all rolled in one design, and it’s a crime that this scan is the highest res picture I could find on the net

[anothersphere]

Found one a bit better.

There’s a nice rip of all demon and character art from IV + F/A floating around, which are high res but with some grit and pixelation from the 3DS format.

I got both Ometeotl and Jeanne in each game respectively, I think the latter by fusion accident and relatively early. It was hard to part ways!

[sleepysmiles]

Ometeotl is one of my favorite demon designs in the series. All the Aztec demons are pretty choice! (s/o to Tlazolteotl aka Toilet Goddess)

gods, i need to splurge on a Kaneko Works sometime. Whichever one has all that glossy Nocturne art of the Demifiend beating ass

[villain]

It’s Volume III that has the Nocturne art and more up-to-date demon designs (well, as of ten years ago). I recommend Digital Devil Apocalypse, though, it has Kaneko’s older stuff up to, I believe, Soul Hackers? It’s pretty rad.

[villain]

The 3DS version of Soul Hackers has bigger bust art for the characters, so I’ve ripped and uploaded them along with the demon and character sprites. There was another file with the smaller PSX/Saturn busts, so I included those, as well.

[sleepysmiles]

[the_kyphosis_gamer]

What’s your team(s) look like?

[Raziel]

also the first three volumes of kaneko works got reprinted recently, so they’re not outrageously expensive anymore.

[sleepysmiles]

Oh i am so glad you asked. i love showing off my demonz

my cool and powerful demifiend

my squad for taking on Lucifer, who i almost certainly over-prepared for (guess we’ll see). i spent a frankly pretty stupid amount of time fusing a custom Black Frost and Lilith just because they’re two of my favorite demons and i wanted them there at the end (and even then i kinda half-assed it which is why Lilith has Mazio and no Debilitate). Vishnu is my pinch hitter

i wanted these jerks on my Lucy fighting team but i fucked up and maxed out their skills before i could get Pierce on them (for those who don’t know, Lucifer is highly resistant to all elements and the only way to make fighting him not tedious is to get Pierce, which cuts through physical resistance). Metatron is a decent backup healer/buffer and Beelzebub turns endgame random battles into a joke but otherwise they’re mostly here for bragging rights

the Megapixie, who’s also here for bragging rights. FUN FACT if you use her as a fusion sacrifice, it instantly shoots any demon up to level 99!

Mother Harlot, who pretty much singlehandedly (and multi-headedly) carried me through the end of the Amala Labyrinth. Every time she casts a spell she takes a big, slow swig of her goblet first. She rules

Surt, who made the physical reflect/absorb enemies in the last dungeon very easy because he’s the one demon in the game who’s basic attack isn’t physical element (it’s fire-based, but buffs with Taru-Kaja and is affected by Attack All)