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Best part of Soul Hackers 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb1dx06uFWM

The legend himself, Keiichi Okabe. But it's all downhill from there lol. 4 hours of this one and it's a bust for me. So I think the mixed reception is maybe right. The production values are great, there's something certainly here, but it's just so freaking boring. So it might not be an identity crisis of a weird mix of SMT and Persona, it's just kind of a subpar offering that doesn't do anything that great.

This is the second dungeon theme I had to endure, without falling into a coma lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtWrBJEQg7I

I forget how big MONACA is and that they even do anime. So to me it's clearly Okabe probably wasn't that hands on with this game.

The combat is completely fine with some cool stuff. Probably some Persona in there, with comparisons to SMT Digital Devil Saga 1-2 from the PS2 I can think of. And I even like some of the main characters, like this hime bob cut Ringo. Buuuut yeah. I've had my fill. Either I hit up another SMT instead later this year or give Persona 5 a whirl. Rebirth drops on the 23rd so I don't want to start up anything too long now.

Man oh man, am I stoked for a big replay this year though haha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah9JgFGdqWU

Looks like TONS of new content and QOL changes. The area at the end is completely new. I think I told you I regretted rushing this game a bit. Funny enough it's kind of like SMT though compared to the other XB's, way more gameplay first with story taking a backseat. But everything there is still awesome and cool to soak in. Think I'll have even more fun with it this time.

I'll be curious what you make of Metaphor. Doesn't look like something I'd enjoy, purely on the visuals alone haha. But who knows. It got a lot of GOTY talk last year, so definitely sounds popular.

Atlus doesn't seem to miss with OST's. SMT5 is incredible, with over 40 battle tracks. That's insane. I think SMT4 is still my favorite OST of these games, but yeah. Great music from these teams. If you like those hymns and choirs, how about this banger?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YmnR4Rydbw
Mastema's theme apparently. Now I'm sad my first playthrough wasn't the right route to finally fight this SOB. Is he in Persona too? I wouldn't be surprised. He's always this weird shady character on the sidelines. I think SMT kind of pits Law/Holy as the real villains. He's so creepy and asks of your bidding all for his Holiness. lol, oh well I do have him on my team actually haha. He's cool to use. But I want to finally fight this guy.

I'm being stubborn and can almost knock out one of these last two super bosses I have on this SMT5 playthrough... need the RNG Gods to assist me. lol

Hope you had a good holidays dude and a great 2025 is upon us.

I went ahead and bought Persona 5 Royal on Steam. It was still 60% off ($24) and with a little Christmas money to spare, I figured what the heck. No clue when I'll get to it, as I'm excited for Rebirth coming out later this month now. But yeah, I'll be giving P5 a look someday.

I'm about done with a NG+ run of SMT5. Got over 110 hours on Steam. lol, definitely my 2024 GOTY. The route I played this time was basically the original game. On one hand it's cool they have all that in there, but on the other, it's clearly the weaker campaign. Missing several new characters, one map is entirely different (cool, but was for the worst. I prefer the Vengeance edition map in that spot), etc. Also kind of ridiculous that to get 100% of the demon compendium and truly see everything, you have to get all 6 different endings. I don't have that drive anymore haha. And I'm swallowing my pride on these two super bosses, banging my head against the wall here. You pretty much have to break the game apart and have these ultra specific setups with a lot of luck. I tried and had fun, oh well. I'm happy enough that I beat the tougher optional bosses in the first main campaign and fought the super final boss. I'll probably never be a 100% SMT completionist since the post end game stuff is so insane, but yeah. I got 95% of the demon compendium, so I still got a lot. Overall don't want to sound like I'm complaining, got 100+ hours out of this beast and loved it. But I just have to walk away for my sanity and be okay not 100%'ing it lmao. I'll have to think that way again with Rebirth too I'm sure.

Yeah lol, for both of us it's another case of where it might just be better keeping a foot away from the rapid fanbases of these series. I'll take a little innocent ignorance on all these design arguments and whatever haha. The demon designs were portrait/sprites in SMT4, but so richly detailed, it was from then I just noted damn... these are some slick designs and my favorites so far. And SMT5 is carrying that torch.

Maybe you'll like this design: https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-41/smt5-abdiel.html

Finally got the unique SMT5 mascot-like girl on my team from my avatar:
https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-41/smt5-nuwa-human-form.html
https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-41/smt5-shohei-and-nuwa.html
https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-41/smt5-nuwa-snake-form.html

Was level 80 if that sums up how far in I am. Apparently her snake/true form can be fused and created as well. Level 89, so that'll be fun. I wonder if it lets you have both her forms on your team haha. I'll find out.

Love these ladies. Third one with the snake is Vengeance' exclusive Lilith. I didn't create the first chick on the left here, since she seems more physical based which I have covered. But running around with a party of the other three has been so freaking fun and effective.

If you hit up Reload I'll be curious how that goes. Maybe I'll go for that one instead if you grab it on a sale someday haha. It's kind of P4 specifically to me... why did they go for chibi designs in that one? I really dislike how the game looks. *shrug*

Mostly a lot of stuff on my 3DS. The original Soul Hackers, which I guess was on the Saturn back in the day so this is some kind of remake. Then Devil Survivor 1-2, which are SRPG's I think. There's also a full sequel to 4, SMT4 Apocalypse. The story doesn't sound as good as 4, but apparently the gameplay is even better. So I bet that one will be a 70+ hour addiction like the other mainline SMT's to me. I'm still eating good with some more SMT's to hit up haha.

The Soul Hackers OST seems incredible for my tastes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HD3kHT5tqc

I did play a few older SMT's
- SMT1 PSX version. Was fun for a few hours. But you can't control, customize, or fuse the demons much from what I saw. SMT3 spoiled me a lot so it was hard to go back in this case haha. Apparently SMT2 is just more of the same. So I can respect these classics, but they lack what I love about the newer ones.
- Majin Tensei II - Spiral Nemesis. Cool vibe but again, got grindy and too dry. I think older SMT's have some 8bit JRPG tendencies. Not that interesting after a few hours. The genre got so much better from 16bit era and on.

Was cool to do some scholarly homework. The furthest I'll go back next time is for Persona 2, since it has a lot of SMT DNA in that one apparently. I read further into that and apparently a lot of the lead P2 staff are the ones from SMT3 and beyond haha, interesting. So the old Megaten minds are spearheading SMT while Persona 3 and on have kind of been their new experimentations with other staff.

Fun article to skim on the newer SMT artist:
https://eirikrjs.blogspot.com/2018/06/kcn-lvi-doi.html

And this... is when critique becomes obsession?
https://eirikrjs.blogspot.com/2018/07/odin-demon-wisdom.html

lmao good lord. I guess people are going to have some strong opinions for a series with particular demon designs. But for me, I think for something of this nature that has a hundred plus monsters and stuff, it's completely okay for the art to vary a lot. To my eyes I'm happy that this Doi guy seems to be the current and future of SMT. I'm loving his style and anything new in SMT5 has been a treat on the eyes. Search this big post for "Cleopatra" to see her cool design (think I linked you some in game screenshots though haha). I guess that design got a lot of heat because people expect her to be Egyptian, dark skinned, when she's really Greek. New to me. I could careless, I love her design here. lol *shrug*

I think I will forgo the P3 idea and just go for P5 someday, or maybe check out P6 if I'm still lagging behind on this ide and that comes around the corner. But now I'm kind of dreading the FOMO of when a new mainline SMT drops and if Atlus is going to pull this multi-version shenanigans again. But I think fans like you enjoyed the original P5 just fine. SMT5 kind of sounded half assed on the Switch though. Maybe it rushed or they always planned to do more with it on a better hardware. But I can't see them pulling that excuse again with the Switch 2 coming soon. Who knows. lol

First image looks broken, but for the next one though I like #3, then the two character design pages are great. Looks pretty similar to SMT kind of stuff.

I skimmed this the other night, realizing how much I like SMT4-5's art design. Looks like this guy worked his way up over the years:
https://eirikrjs.blogspot.com/2018/06/kcn-lvi-doi.html?m=1

The first Soul Hackers MC is pretty cool looking: https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Nemissa

This guy seems like the main demon designer over the years for all the Megaten games:
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Kazuma_Kaneko

Looks like he does a lot of other stuff too. I've noticed that a lot researching Atlus credits the last few days, these guys are older than I'd expect and wear a lot of hats.

No surprise there's a lot of overlap. Seems like Persona still goes for a lot more color and pizazz and SMT keeps it more grimdark haha. Yeah I wouldn't fret if I don't like P5 or you any of my recs, we'll have our own tastes along the way as we have. Still trying to convert you to the Church of Tomino... his Holiness, the Kill em' All God of Mecha. *laughs* JK.

Alice is a classic in SMT for sure, DIE FOR ME haha. It's cool that in SMT5 while you're exploring the overworld areas, you can have a little demon helper that finds loot and stuff out in the field. She was one of them I had around for awhile. Had her around for a long time, she's still actually in my party itself. She has a unique full party mid heal that buffs everyone too, essentially Luster Candy (if that rings a bell in Persona lol).

I finally got Ishtar the other night, she'll be a good healer. At this point with how stacked the SMT roster is, I do end up favoring cool looks and sex appeal, lol. Got a harem going in SMT5 by this point. But it kind of fits my heavier focus on magic too. Jack Frost kind of seems like the DQ Slime, the cute face of the series. So yeah I bet I'd recognize most of the demons in Persona. Is Lilith in Persona? She's usually a late game villain in these haha. Though one of the designs that changes the most from what I've seen. She is chef's kiss in SMT5 Vengeance. It was really cool working my way up to SMT5 a bit, since it's so damn nice seeing all the demons in this level of quality. And it feels like it has a ton of the unique one offs I've seen in one game, another from something else, etc. The culmination of all the SMT's.

That all sounds like some cool mechanics with a dash of stuff I've seen in SMT. For these the Press Turn system is mainly about hitting your opponents weakness, be it elemental or ailment, then you get an extra turn per time you do that. Lot of fun synergy building out your party and taking both offense and defense into account. The MC and demons learn a few skills along the way, which goes into how you can customize the fusions. Usually a lot of nice flexibility with what you can do with the MC. Late in the game you can start negating most of the weaknesses if you play your cards right here and there. It's all so damn good and fun, with enough to set it apart from more vanilla turn based games.

Can't believe I just now realized that with the "Persona" name, lmao. Better late than never...

Well P5 is on my wishlist. I guess don't hate me if I don't like it haha, I'm still skeptical purely with its aesthetic. But yeah I think I owe one of these a more serious look since I'm knee deep in its big daddy series SMT now. After SMT5, I just have the 4 sequel to hit up, then a handful of the spinoffs.

Ever look into this one? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1777620/Soul_Hackers_2/

Not a great score... and sounds like maybe what you get with poor aspects of both Persona and SMT mixed together. But I dunno. It looks worth a look for me. Maybe it's more of an SMT game that didn't work for Persona fans, or vice versa. lol, but in this case the aesthetic looks cool to me. The original Soul Hackers on 3DS is one of the spinoffs I have. The others I think are some SRPG's, but I hear they're pretty good. In the end though it seems like mainline SMT is the peak for those and that's definitely what I'd say too, 3-5 have been some of the best JRPG's I've played.

That definitely sounds interesting. Did you play the original or Royal Edition? I think Persona still has demon recruiting? Do you inherit their skills or something? Since it looks like they don't actually form your playable party, unlike SMT. The PS2 Digital Devil Saga games were a bit different with main characters and you'd learn demon skills/essences. I used to hate monster recruiting stuff in most JRPG's, but it's the gaming crack of SMT to me haha. The dopamine of not just seeing your levels and stats rise along the way, but your entire party gets better and cooler looking. Once you're past level 50 it's like you're running around with a bunch of boss characters. lol, love it. The MC is usually a little overpowered in a balancing way. I ended up leaning pretty heavy into magic again like I did in SMT4 as well. This series and DQ have made me enjoy casters more than I used to years ago.

I guess the one knock I hear about P3 in comparison is it has really repetitive dungeons or something. I wonder if this mind jack thing is a series staple, since that one does that too I think. I hear it's one of the darker ones, but who knows. But yeah, maybe I'll just eyeball P5 on a sale sometime instead.

Persona 2 sounds like more of an SMT game. I guess Persona fans don't like it much. Then I saw a lot of its staff are the ones who have been heading the modern SMT games. Interesting how the Atlus DNA twists and turns into other stuff. I just realized they do the Etrian Odyssey games as well, I've heard good things about those. Maybe I'll check them out after I beat what I want of the SMT's.

Yeah I'll probably grab it on this sale soon. They finally dropped the price of Remake as well. FF16 is $60 I think. So as usual Square prices make no sense lol. Remake and Rebirth are coming out at that ugly $70.

It takes about 10 hours to get the ball rolling, but from then on I've been pretty intrigued and enjoying the story/characters. I wonder if that sentiment you saw all stem from the original release of SMT5 two years ago on Switch. Since I went into this, both knowing that SMT is lighter on story and kept my expectations in check from things I heard... but it seems vastly better in this department than expected. I don't want to look up what's different about Vengeance yet, but it sounds dramatically different. You even pick an entirely different campaign option at the beginning. I think that some of these main characters that were with me for most of the game might be totally new, lol. So if you look up SMT5V specifically, it sounds like the true finished product. I'm glad I waited. Atlus are kind of assholes about this and all their weird releases and revisions. Apparently the newest remake of Persona 3, lacks the new female protagonist option from the PSP remake or something. So will they remake it a 4th time with truly everything? lmao...

Overall I don't think it'll beat SMT4's story for me, that one had some insane plot twists and such a cool cyberpunk vibe. But this is damn good too. SMT3 is kind of a different flavor, you don't have human characters that travel around with you to fill out all that context. You just bump into them at times. So that one is kind of lonelier and more survival horror in a way. I'd compare the storytelling to Souls for that one haha. But yeah, the plots in SMT4-5 have been pretty cool to me. I'd say 4-5 have the best music too.

I tried getting into P4 once but wasn't feeling it. Not sure what they were thinking with those chibi characters. I might try P3 or P5 someday though. But these games look like if Studio Trigger developed something, kind of an eyesore on my eyes lol. I'm glad SMT is a lot more "reserved" in comparison. The demon rosters and combat is probably similar though, the Press Turn system. So for the gameplay comparisons I owe Persona a real look someday. SMT5's field gameplay kind of feels like Souls meets Nier Automata. It's pretty fun exploring the areas and finding some of the secret upgrades and such. This is one of those awesome JRPG's with like 20 different battle themes, so all the music is constantly fresh too.

Funny to talk on either side of the fence haha. Maybe someday I'll play a Persona and you some SMT. Is there pervy and dark humor in those? There definitely is in SMT. lol

Dayum! lol, I think you wanted to knock out FF16 first right? Which you got paused.

I was going to ask if you knew about the side quests situation... but hopefully it's a bit obvious when I start playing it later next month or whatever, as in which ones to skip and not worry about. Maybe with the rewards. That's been easy to detect in SMT5 for me right now. If the rewards are normal usable resources, who cares. But key items and such I'll definitely want to do. So maybe Rebirth is like that. I've just heard far too many stories of people burning out from the side quests rather than the other way around, so at least I know ahead of time to not worry about 100%'ing this one. lol, I'm not that invested in my Steam achievements either. Took some pride and fun in my PSN trophies I guess, but yeah it's not a big deal in the end.

Can't wait to be with Tifa again. But man, SMT5 is setting the bar high with hotties and my demon harem. lol, just unlocked Ceopatra!
https://postimg.cc/gallery/wmdTFVP

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/the-game-awards-2024-every-major-announcement-rounded-up/

Glad I didn't waste my time watching this live haha. Some highlights though...
- Rebirth on PC next month!!! Shiiiiit, will I be ready after Shin Megami Tensei 5? This game is massive and I love it. lol
- New Onimusha!
- Ryu Ga Gotoku reveals its latest game, Project Century - Takes place in 1915, that's a very cool and interesting setting choice
- RGG is apparently making the next Virtua Fighter too, I think that's cool

I agree with that too. For those not interested in playing the game, this is a worthy little redux and kind of gets the point across. At least they get to experience the majestic 10/10 OST. I am so glad that happened, since we usually got really crappy music in adaptations over the years. I'm guessing they have to pay Square/Monaca or someone royalties for this, but it was worth it. And kudos to the OP/ED's and new tracks, they fit in real nicely.

I still can't help but sympathize with 9S a bit. So 2B must get me deeply at some point as well haha. The 2E thing completely slipped my mind. Huge refresher on that stuff. I think A2 was really likable here. But still, I might have flipped a lid in 9S's shoes too...

I think one of the weakest parts about this version was Pascal. I didn't really feel any attachment to him or the robot village at all compared to the game. So that's one area where the game being longer and letting these things cook really benefits the character development. He was still great to see and hear though, the episode with the battle for the village was awesome. But yeah, that was like the most iconic town in the game, and you only get a glimpse of it here.

Apparently that random chick at the end was from Drakengard 3 I think... *shrug* Not sure what that means haha. I wonder if they could do a Nier Replicant adaptation. I still need to play the remaster and see how the "bro" is compared to Papa Nier from the old US 360 release. I actually thought he was really good and liked the dub. It was mandatory, but yeah. I just have to be in the mood for major depression when I replay Nier lmao, it's such a heavy game the deeper you get in.

I'm kind of black pilled on Gundam at the moment, so I think I'll let you potentially sample this one down the road first lol. Just glad I'm getting my mecha/action fix with super sentai now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QNq7e1i2RA

Pretty happy with Nier S2 overall. Nice fun way for us to sit back and revisit this story with the cliff notes version a bit. I'm still amazed at how solid the production values were. Overall I'd never tell anyone interested in the games to watch this instead or first, but yeah. Fun redux on one of the best videogames ever made.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60449/Kidou_Senshi_Gundam__GQuuuuuuX

What da hell. Lot of ex Gainax staff apparently.

Yeah, experimentation is good but maybe FF's jumped ship haha. Ideally they probably should have stopped with the numbers after 10. Been weird different systems and genres since. Anyways yeah, maybe I'll still like it a lot, the combat designer was formerly Capcom and worked on Devil May Cry 5 I think. So that bodes well.

I still want to play Stellar Blade the day it drops on PC though. lol, my #1 priority.

Still can't stomach much of Tim, but I think he does okay bringing people over to the table and make people seek out other opinions.

Almost surprising Klavan didn't take a shot at the deluge of DEI crap this year to get some laughs out of them haha.