How do I into pic related?
I've never played an SMT game and want to start.
Can I skip the early ones or do i need to start from scratch, and is there preferred systems to play the games on?
Pls no bully
>>344545870
Nocturne on PS2
Not SMT but Persona 3 or 4 as well.
strange journey or devil survivor
>>344545870
I'd Start with Persona 4 its the easiest to get into, then move onto DDS or SMT4 and see where you want to go from there.
>>344545870
Start wherever you want.
Buff, debuff, exploit weaknesses.
Demons aren't your friends, don't get attatched to them. Fuse them into better ones often.
SMT IV is a great way to start. It'll help you get a lot of the mechanics down and understand how things work. It's probably one of the more accessible games in the series.
>>344545870
Start with either Digital Devil Saga or Persona 3 FES. DDS has similar gameplay to Nocturne and SMT IV, but with more of an emphasis on story.
Persona 3 FES means you can get into the Persona series which can help you get used to all the different skills you will be using in SMT. FES means you'll appreciate the improvements made in Persona 4 Golden, and could get you interested in Persona 5.
You don't need to play the older SMT games pre-PS2, but they are still good. SMT I is one of the best in my opinion.
>>344546340
>FES
do you want him to hate Persona
not OP, but is digital devil saga worth it?
I assume it's kinda like SMT
>>344546978
Just as long as you're fine with encounters every 8 seconds
>>344545870
The games are different enough that it doesn't matter where you start, but you'll get more out of SMT4 if you play some of the earlier ones, and I wouldn't recommend playing Apocalypse before the rest. Playing mainline in order is recommended, and playing Strange Journey before 4 is as well.
>>344546978
It's SMT without demon fusion.
I still haven't played it but the OST is rad.
Start with emulating Shin Megami Tensei for the super famicom. Get the translation patch and the patch for the translation patch that brings it in line with nocturne's official translation and fixes a couple of bugs.
>>344545870
The early games are great, but functionally broken and not easy to get into unless you're already into Wizardry-likes.
Noctune or SMT IV are probably the easiest of mainline to get into, so go for one of those two. SJ is good too if you don't mind Wizardry-like dungeon crawling with considerably more forgiving and less unintuitive mechanics (SMT I and II are actually easier due to being broken, but they're pretty unintuitive and dense to play through compared to SJ).
>>344550408
>spamming zio in SMTI
>OP want to get into SMT
>A bunch of shitter recommend him Persona 3
Every fucking thread. Don't do it OP. Persona 3 have nothin to do with smt other than the copy pasted name. Other than that it is just a bland vn with boring randomly generated dungeon where you'll farm the same recolored ennemies over and over.
SMT I, II and Strange Journey can easily be emulated on android phond, tablet or PC. They are the old school wizardry one
SMT III is on PS2 or 3 so it can also be emulated on PC. Be sure to get the lucifer call version it add some stuff.
Finally, SMT IV and IV: Final are on 3ds
Just pick the one who seems to be the most edgy and you'll be fine
>>344545870
You can start anywhere, there isn't really an overarching storyline.
Just make sensible decisions like "don't play DDS2 before DDS1" and "don't play SMT IV Apocalypse before SMT IV"
If you have a 3DS, I recommend SMT IV. Otherwise, you can emulate one of the others.
I'm ashamed to say this but I never played the raidou games, are they particularly difficult?
SMT IV, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, or Persona 3 FES are all pretty good starting points
>>344552150
Nah they're easy as shit
>>344546025
>Nocturne on PS2
This seems like good advice. I'm new as well, just went through SMT I and II and now I'm working my way through III. III's better to start with if you aren't a nut like me that must play from the beginning.
If you follow some of the advice here and start with Persona, you'll probably start with Persona 3 or 4. Whether you love them or hate them, do note that the mainline SMT games and even Persona 1 and 2 are really not much like Persona 3 and 4 at all.So love or hate the waifus, love or hate the social sim/school sim elements, the calendar system, the music, etc, you're not going to be seeing that stuff outside of Persona 3 and up.
Just started DDS2 today, are there any important differences that I need to know going in from the first one?
Also, is physical build for Serph still viable in DDS2 or should I change it to magick? The new mantra grid got me kinda confused here.
>>344545870
You can easily start from whichever you like, most games are disconnected other than vague references.
Nocturne, Persona 3 or 4 are good starting points to SMT gameplay.
And then youcan't escape your hunger.
>>344553067
Phys is god tier in dds2
>>344553168
Yeah, basically
>Been playing JRPGs almost exclusively since 2014
>"Well, I'll just try out the Persona series finally, then I'll take a break. I'll play the SMT mainline series in a few months."
>Finish the Persona series. 1 and 2 were great. 3 not so much, but I really liked the types of games the first two (or three, technically, since 2 is two games) were, especially the first. Heard that the SMT series is something like that
>Start up SMT I
>"Okay, I'll play through SMT I-IV Final and then I'll take a break. I'll play some spin off later."
>Playing SMT III right now. Thinking about also playing Strange Journey and maybe DDS after IV Final
>>344553067
Phys can crit so it's always useful. When it's not, that's what your teammates are for. You'll want everyone to have 1st and 2nd tier element magic eventually anyway for those bosses with only one weakness
And think of the mantra grid like DDS1's if unlocking things also unlocked things in adjacent lines
ITT: Megaten = Shin Megami Tensei
>>344554741
Congratulations, you're a pedant!
>>344553269
>>344554359
Noice, good to know. Fucking everything up with ragnarok was so damn pleasing in DDS1
>>344554859
>Disliking weebshit mean you're a pedant
Personally I recommend SMT IV, Digital Devil Saga, and Devil Survivor 2 for an intro to SMT. Nocturne can be pretty brutal and be a turn off if you aren't into that. As for Persona definitely start with Persona 3.
>>344555037
Clearly, you have no clue what I'm actually saying. Or you don't have the ability to articulate your thoughts very well.
>>344545870
Start with persona 3 or 4 which are basically lighter smt games, then go to smt4
>>344546340
>FES
Don't listen to him unless you want to play a game that's just annoying to play. People will tell you that the battle system is okay, and it works, and while that's true, it's just not fun.
Persona 3 Portable fixes this, but one minus is, instead of running around the overworld, you just select where you want to go, which honestly just saves time, and is not that big of a deal to lose. Tartarus (The main dungeon of the game) stays the same.
Also Persona 3 Portable has a Female main character with different social links, but it's more of a "What if?" scenario and intended for your second run through the game.
>>344555737
I agree with this. I fell for the FES meme and boy, did I feel stupid. Why they lifted the Dragon Quest IV system when Enix figured out 16 years before that it sucked, I'll never know.
>>344555737
Does P3P let you control your party members? I never played any version of 3, but I got the impression that in the original you couldn't control party members, which led to a lot of frustration. Like that MarinFuckingKarin comic.
>>344555693
>I want to play smt
>Start playing those games who play kind of like smt then play the real deal
>>344556140
>Does P3P let you control your party members?
Yes.
Marin Karin wasn't actually a problem if you weren't retarded. I never saw Mitsuru cast that because of the tactics I had her set to. The A.I. is still shit though and I'd recommend P3P if you just want to have fun.
FES>P3P
FES is better for your first play through and P3P for others
>>344556305
Cool, that helps a lot actually. I don't mind AI tactics in RPGs that much (like the arena matches in DQM), but I'd still prefer actual control if possible. Thanks.
>>344555737
The game becomes easy to an absolutely absurd degree in P3P, and being comfy in the overworld is a good chunk of the charm
Portable should NEVER be your first playthrough of Persona 3
I'd recommend starting with SMT IV
>>344556476
>and being comfy in the overworld is a good chunk of the charm
That's one of the reasons I played FES, but really, the overworld is nothing to write home about. The only thing it really has going for it is you can see shit's clearly getting bad late game, but other than that, it's really not anything at all special.
>>344545870
SMT1 on snes is the way to start
Start with SMT IV or Nocturne. DDS if you don't want to mess with fusion yet.
>>344558023
DDS doesn't have fusion?
>>344557903
>>344558023
Oh yeah, don't start with Persona 3 or 4. It's probably good for some people, but I've also met too many people who start with it then get upset that are turned away from other Megaten games because they're not all waifushit.
>>344558187
Nope. You are the demons.
>>344558187
You are the demons and learn abilities by spending not-experience points. You keep all that you learn, but can only equip a few at a time
>>344558332
Or are turned off of Megaten games because they think they're all waifushit. #FE's been giving people bad impressions about SMT. Fire Emblem fans who've never played SMT are blaming SMT for #FE being waifushit.
>>344558332
>>344558542
Huh. Interesting, I figured pretty much every Megaten game had fusion in it.
>>344558670
#FE ain't Megaten though. Persona started this trend first anyway. Remember the SMT IV reviews?
>>344558859
Yes, I know, but not everyone does. People who have no knowledge of Megaten remember #FE starting out as SMTxFE, so they think that SMT is a franchise all about waifus, especially since Atlus USA plastered "Shin Megami Tensei" onto the covers of Persona 3 and 4, and more people know about them than actual SMT.
>Remember the SMT IV reviews?
That's my point. People think SMT is what it isn't because of other games.
>>344558859
>the Dark Souls of Persona
Every single time
>>344559276
Anon, I don't know why you're telling me this. I'm just talking about games relevant to OP's question. #FE is trash and probably isn't helping perception of games I'm sure, but it's not related to what OP should play to get into Megaten.
>>344559647
Anon, I don't know why we're even having this discussion. All I did was add to what was said here >>344558332.
