Is this a difficult game to play? (even in normal mode?:/)

[stellarsky08]

errmm.. Hi.. I've been fascinated with SMT games ever since I've played P3 and P4.. So I'm trying to play all the SMT games.. I have P4, P3 FES, Persona 2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment, Persona: Revelations as well as DDS 1 and 2, Devil Summoner 1 and 2.. so the only game that I haven't tried yet is this.. :/ I've read a lot of reviews, seen various gameplays in youtube.. Can this be only finished by a hardcore fan? As I'm not really fond of tedious grinding.

[Wanderer Groo]

It is definitely harder than your run of the mill RPG, but I didn't have to do much grinding. Just keep your party leveled and there'll likely only be a few hangups.

[sabaku_lotus]

@Wanderer Groo: OP said they were not found of tedious grinding though.

Ok here is the nitty gritty of SMT/Persona:

*If the main character dies, the exception is SMTI or II I think, its game over regardless.

*The series focuses on weakness/strenghts. Remember this. Also focuses on debuffs/buffs than most RPGs.

*The SMT USA ones are a bit harder than the Persona series, but it depends on the person.

*You get everything from demons or demon related and can fuse them for skills.

*READ THE MANUAL. If you get stuck in this game use a FAQ. Only your pride will suffer from seeking help.

*Devil summoner plays nothing like the other games in the series.

I'm guessing by your post that you played the series before(?) Nocturne is considered the hardest SMT in that series but has one of the best storylines if you decide to tackle it, but you may have to either grind (even though you don't want to but it's almost a requirement in SMT/Persona games,) or do hard thinking. Hard thinking as in creating/leveling up the right skills from demons and Magatama for specific situations. It's possible to level up regularly without grinding but you would have to go through a guide step by step and figure out the best way to tackle the situation on your own.

Also don't play hard mode the first time around.


Any more questions just ask.

[Tenshi]

It's not THAT hard that only a hardcore fan would finish it, it's rather challenging though it is also very balanced and doesn't ever actually fall into unfair territory. In fact it may be the most balanced RPG I've played.

As you have played some other SMT titles you pretty much know the general gameplay strategies (as sabaku_lotus said, for starters buffing/debuffing is much more important than in other RPGs).

This game rewards you greatly for good strategizing, when you learn to make balanced parties and to take advantage of the press-turn system you'll find yourself dispatching even enemies and bosses that are overwhelmingly stronger than you are. So you don't really need to rely on tedious grinding, but you'll have to use your brains a lot.

I could finish the game with basically no grinding at all and with minimal demon fusing/recruiting, only about 40% of the compendium at the endgame, compared to Persona 3 or 4 where I finished with around 80%. Sometimes a boss may get you unprepared, but you'll be just fine by just recruiting a demon or two or do a pair of fusions to rebalance your party's elemental or status defenses, you don't really need to level grind.

[Wanderer Groo]

Originally Posted by sabaku_lotus

@Wanderer Groo: OP said they were not found of tedious grinding though.

If this is in response to my 'keep your party leveled,' I was refering to keeping the other demons close to the MC's level. Which can be done readily enough through fusion.

my own formula for making the game easier was ice breath, fog breath, and whatever the drain magic spell is. freezing the enemy gives you extra attacks, them missing denies them extra attacks, and draining magic keeps you in the ammo. Gaming the activation system is huge.

[trismegistus]

It's a tough RPG, one of the tougher that I've played. There are a few battles where, if you don't have certain abilities, you're doomed, time to go grind till you get them, and then even when you have the needed abilities things can go wrong; there were a few bosses I must've had to try 8-10 times before I got lucky and beat them. That being said, it's fiendishly (ha!) fun, and you get a real sense of accomplishment from it, sometimes even from the random battles. It's probably in my top 10 games, and easily in my top 5 SMT games.

[Chiyo Mihama]

Not exactly, you just have to know what you're doing. Don't think you can just get away with attack and heal, support skills like buffs, debuffs, ailments and the like are essential. The press turn system is for you to master and exploit, unless you want enemies to use it to steamroll you.

Grinding purely for exp will do you no good, tactical gameplay is king in SMT. You need to prepare an appropriate strategy with the right skills to beat bosses, not just grind.

[Viserdes]

First off, having just finished the game 20min ago (normal/ True Demon Ending) I can tell you that out of the SMT series this is definitely one to play through. It is hard, but only for those who are not accustomed to the SMT series, but having come from a similar background as the OP (high SMT exposure) I found its difficulty to be fair, not hard nor easy (Normal describes it well, lol).

The first thing to note is that stat changes (def/agil/atk) play a larger role than in some of the other games in the series, so just a tip is to get those abilities that increase/decrease (for the enemies) those stats. I can imagine those who are not experienced with SMT note its difficulty partially on account that they'd have to adjust to a different style of gameplay as opposed to something like Final Fantasy, which SMT in my opinion requires a much more "defensive" mindset.

My impressions of the game after finishing it, looking back on it it was definitely worth it to march and persevere through the game. There are some discouraging times (Matador/ annoying teleport floors putting you everywhere) but overall I can definitely see everyone's love for the game, the ending (TDE for me) was especially rewarding for myself. Expect awesome settings, minor NPC interaction and an awesome story.

In summary, Nocturne is a must buy for SMT fans and as for difficulty, seeing as you've also had some SMT experience beforehand you'll find the difficultly to be "just right" for the majority of the game. You won't go wrong with this game.

HINT: GET DAISOJOU ASAP DONT FORGET THIS, HES AWESOME!! /endcaps

[sabaku_lotus]

Originally Posted by Wanderer Groo

If this is in response to my 'keep your party leveled,' I was refering to keeping the other demons close to the MC's level. Which can be done readily enough through fusion.

my own formula for making the game easier was ice breath, fog breath, and whatever the drain magic spell is. freezing the enemy gives you extra attacks, them missing denies them extra attacks, and draining magic keeps you in the ammo. Gaming the activation system is huge.

Fog breath/War cry FTW.

Sorry I misread your post. I thought you was just implying on 'grinding a la FF.' ^^;

I actually have the Mc as a total magic user. I wonder how do the people who use the mc with physical attacks only get by in the game?

[Iris]

I prefer physical MC to magical MC for Nocturne, honestly. I think a phys build works quite well.

[stellarsky08]

(bummer. I forgot to validate my new email address that was why I couldn't post a reply.. oh well xD)

Thanks for the replies everyone.. I started playing the game after this post even though I haven't seen your replies yet. I just had the urge to play it.. xD Yes, yes I believe this is one of the most intriguing SMT games that I've ever played.. I love how you recruit demons in your party.. I just prefer having demons as my pt members rather than normal people like in other SMT games.. :> (Pokemon ftw.)

I'm currently stuck with Matador. I hate him. XDDDD I think I messed up my MC's skills, I forgot to ingest the magatama with the supportive skills during my early levels. :/ My MC's current skills are Lunge, Tornado, fire/ice breathe/, mana /hp? boost (forgot what you call the other one xD), and tarunda :/

any suggestions on how to kill that ughh.. matador :/

[Wanderer Groo]

Sounds like you're having a perfectly normal SMT:N experience.

Try to bulk up a party as high level at the MC, get the Magatma that resists force, and have as many good backups as you can to replace losses. This is a big difficulty hump, and while future bosses will be plenty rough, nothing will quite match the Matador's difficulty.

[Chiyo Mihama]

Ohohohoho.

I don't want to hold your hand through it, and I hope no one else here does either, so have these hints. Use, master and abuse the Press Turn system, and counter his Red Capote. Buff, buff, buff, debuff, debuff, debuff.

[stellarsky08]

Originally Posted by Wanderer Groo

Sounds like you're having a perfectly normal SMT:N experience.

Try to bulk up a party as high level at the MC, get the Magatma that resists force, and have as many good backups as you can to replace losses. This is a big difficulty hump, and while future bosses will be plenty rough, nothing will quite match the Matador's difficulty.

Yeah, the game's really fun to play (except every time I get my ass kicked XD)

I finally defeated Matador yesterday.. dekunda was really annoying so I focused on buffing my party a lot instead of debuffing him

I got to fight with Thor and Dante last night and I'm on my way to Ginza after joining forces with the Mantra. I don't know if that was the right decision but I got scared of gozu-tennoh's overwhelming presence so I couldn't say no haha

[TraumaTeam4ever]

Originally Posted by stellarsky08

I got to fight with Thor and Dante last night and I'm on my way to Ginza after joining forces with the Mantra. I don't know if that was the right decision but I got scared of gozu-tennoh's overwhelming presence so I couldn't say no haha

if you want to return the world back to human world (in other word "save the world") then you made Wrong decision
if you want to create a savage world then it the right one

IIRC, this game have 6 ending:
Human Ending (or Neutral ending): you save the human world and return to normal life

Demon Ending: the world stay as the demon world till destroyed again

True Demon Ending: you become lucifer general and attack heaven

Yosuga Ending:you create the world only strong may live, weak will get killed. in other word, it the world where there only killing

Shijima:

The world of perfect harmony, without self, without passion, without conflict, without destruction. Individuality is eradicated and there is simply a collective inner peace in which everyone is equal to God.

Musubi:

The self is absolute, and every living being would live in an independent world, completely separate from all other living beings. The individual could use their mind to shape their world at will into their own personal paradise, without consequences or unwelcome interference of others. The name Musubi may possibly refer to the mystical power of becoming or of creation in Shinto religion. It is a neutral, solitary reason which resembles the philosophy of Rene Descartes. Its demonic sponsor is Noah, and is based on the Neutral Alignment of the previous Shin Megami Tensei games.

by agree with gozu-tennoh, you have step one step closer to yosuga ending

if you want Shijima Ending, agree with Hikawa when he ask you
if you want Musubi Ending, agree with Isamu
if you want Yosuga Ending, agree with Chiaki
if you want Human Ending, disagree with them all and answer "No" to Aradia at Yoyogi Park revisit, say you are a human to mithra, you must not go to the 5th kalpa in the labyrinth of amala
if you want the demon ending: disagree with them all and answer "Yes" to Aradia at Yoyogi Park revisit, say you are a demon to mithra
if you want the true demon ending:disagree with them all and finish the labyrinth of amala

[Wanderer Groo]

How about putting some spoiler tags on those?

Originally Posted by stellarsky08

I got to fight with Thor and Dante last night and I'm on my way to Ginza after joining forces with the Mantra. I don't know if that was the right decision but I got scared of gozu-tennoh's overwhelming presence so I couldn't say no haha

He doesn't crush you if you disagree with him to his face. That takes balls. He likes balls.

While it does push you to "rule of the strong" ending, you've got a long game ahead of you and plenty of time to do damage control. The best advice would be to answer questions based on what you want the MC to believe in, and take things as they come. Usually it's pretty obvious which camp you'll end up in, though your own morality in the game will determine the difference between the "refused all factions" endings.

[izanagi_the_creator]

The difficulty of this game is tough. One small mistake of not healing when HP is slightly lowered could result getting the game over screen after 2-3 hours of gameplay without saving too.

[boredbeyondbelief]

I honestly didn't find Nocturne hard, and I can't understand why people say it is. Sure, your SP runs out fast, but the battles themselves aren't that difficult. The fiends are fairly easy if you get a demon that has Tarukaja, and another with Bright Might. Just Power Charge, Bright Might (Get the demon with it to attack.), Tarukaja, and then attack on your extra turn. I did this for most bosses.

PS. I play on Normal mode.

[Kylaila]

Same. Matador is the "most difficult" part, .. well, go grind and get demons immune to wind and everything will be fine
You have many possibilites of how to get through the game easily. You can conserve your mana with a demon learning mana walk and healspells, you can make most fights easy with giving every demon you're using either bright or dark might and so on.
There are plenty of ways to do so, and whatever you choose, the game will be incredibly fun!
Good luck to you

[Kyouji]

Nocturne is to Turn-based RPG what Demon's/Dark Souls is to they RPG genre.

It is just fair and it got a learning curve.

I find both Raidou games on the hardest difficult among the top hardest games of the series.

Raidou 1 boarder the unfair land, because the gameplay issues, the " tankier " gameplay.

Raidou 2 on the hardest choice is just one of the best A-RPGs ever. A lot of 1 hit kill too lol.