#I love smtv really hope this one is like

[1driedpersimmon]

Hi, saw the smtvv trailer

My take away is that I hope these girls can now kill people, together 🤝

[gothamcityneedsme]

hopefully smtv vengeance like. adds some stuff to clarify on things left by the wayside in the original game. im looking at some forums and such on some of my remaining questions and they're like. nobody knows lol. smtv has suffered a bit too clearly from the cutting room floor i think

[ultaiswrong]

[Pre-SMTVV doodles, so I guess Canon of Creation doodles]

(technically no spoilers dw)

So I made these before the new game came out, as hype, because I actually love the SMTV characters, and I was hoping to see them get the justice they deserve.

Especially these two, omg their friendship dynamic would be so!!!! (for any TGAAC fans, they are so Asoryuu, I sweaarrr)

I wish we saw more of them being friends before everything started, even though I know that really can't be feasible with this story- So I'll just continue to imagine their silly antics (delusional)

Please, do take some them art as a result 🤲 I care for them so.

[Anyway SMTV Vengeance route spoilers bellow-]

Guys what the hell was thaaaat-

Technically not done with the Shinagawa section so I don't know what they'll do with Tao's character yet BUT GOD

On one hand they speedran Sahori's plot even more so, but on the other, they?? Actually fleshed it out more?? And it feels way better, and I really like it?? Explain that to me, IDK-

But Tao, I'm glad she's getting this development, and she works really well in opposition with Yoko.

Am I okay or normal about the whole school area bit? Absolutely not, they actually made me believe they weren't doomed, Lilith isss enemy number one.

Will I ever recover from this? Absolutely not.

If I get more of Sahori and Tao I think my heart will perish, beware.

[kivaember]

one of smt5v's greatest achievements (among many) is making me actually like and be entertained by Dagda. i now go OH YOU when i see him instead of roll my eyes. i think a big part of this is that he's no longer got the really sharp 3ds audio compression on his voice that hurts my ears

i admit i've always loved dagda just bc he has extreme chuuni energy when he's like an ancient god ESPECIALLY WHEN HE'S ALL LIKE "UGH MOTHER!!!!" this man never outgrew his edgy teenage years and i love him for it. makes him perfect for nanashi tbh

i really hope dagda turning up in smtvv means they're thinking of freeing smtiv and smtiva from 3DS jail... bc those two are the only mainline smt games that haven't been ported or remastered (smt 1 & 2 is available on nintendo online, as well as smt: if), and they're very good games.

i genuinely think that smtiva actually is canon to smtv and the reason why YHVH is no longer around. they never actually said in detail how YHVH died in smtvv, just vaguely said lucifer was responsible somehow... makes sense if smtv follows on from smtiva bonds ending where they destroy YHVH across all time and space :v

[shionxion]

I finished up TTYD Remake on Wednesday. Beat the last secret boss and wow what a game! It feels so nice to come back to TTYD after all these years! (But with QoL changes and other new stuff, of course!) Like, a lot of love was put into this game and I believe that this is the best way to play TTYD! Also, I'm really surprise at how I played TTYD this time! I mainly focused on BP. I got damn near 90 BP in this run! And I don't normally do that because of how nervous I get with HP that's under 50. (Same goes for FP) Also I hit B List star before getting to Chapter 2 because I wanted the strange sack early . I usually hit B list star during Chapter 3. Yeah, I was a bit over powered lol! It was so bad that when I equipped the Bump Attack badge during the last chapter, some enemies just dead! XD

Yeah, too much power and a bit of luck from that Dark Wizzard dropping me my third Power Plus P badge for this final badge setup. Honestly I didn't even need the mega rush, last stand, power rush or close call badges during the last secret boss. I was just a bit paranoid. Then again I don't know if it was RNG since that boss only healed once during my second attempt. Then after that it was smooth sailing. Oh and thanks for that new try again option! It's another good QoL change! (Thought I had to get back to floor 100 again after dying!) I can go on about this game, from the new QoL changes, the new music, the textures, the new expressions! the two new bosses. This game really put a smile on my face. Just smiles all around! :D One of those new bosses is the current holder of the title for my favorite theme in the game! What else?... Oh! little Pyro (Yoshi) is my goat! Carried me so hard in most fights. I was out of practice with the power bounces, so he was the next best thing! (And his stampede attack was very good too! Was spamming it on the final boss lol!) Vivian, Koops, Ms. Mowz and Bobbery help out a lot too! Especially in the Pit of 100 trials! I kept leaving because I got nervous at the lower floors. It was probably for the better since I didn't have my partners ultra ranked yet. Good thing I waited! Especially since I ran into to some amazee dayzees. And I enjoyed charging Vivian to 99+ to punch the hell out of her bitchy sister! (Happy Pride Month!) Okay, now that I'm done with TTYD Remake, the next game that I'm gonna tackle before Dawntrail will be SMTV: Vengeance! Which, literally comes out next week! I'm really hoping that this version of the game will be better and I enjoy it. The vanilla game felt unfinished and just overall meh. I really wanna like this game so we'll see how things go next week!

[alinktoana]

local elderly girl sells stickers at a japanese food festival

not gonna lie, the entire experience is very emotional to me and it's been a month but moon channel's vid essay about cool japan, and the release of smt5 vengeance (lol) inspired me

tldr: i made some stickers, got real existential about it, will keep making more c: if youd like to check them out, here's a link

ive always wanted to draw, i used to say i was gonna become a painter or a fashion designer when i grew up. none of that happened, but i did go to film school. my final project was a script for an animated short highly inspired by nbc hannibal, majora's mask (i know, it was 2016, it makes sense to me lol) and a huge loss in my life from which i havent fully recovered, 10 years later.

the point is, ive always been art adjacent but i never really drew, until i got inspired by_hannibal itself_, noel fielding, kylux (LOL) and a roommate who was who was really inspired by art youtubers like frannerd and drew around the house, so i picked up a pencil and started drawing hannigram fanart bc i was so insanely in love with that show lol i remember who i was before i drew. i spent my days reading and watching tv, bc i love stories and stuff, but i was a consumer. and once i got a job after college i felt so incredibly isolated and directionless. do i have a direction now, as i work as a """"designer""" for a company that sells a mental health app? no. but like demifiend was force fed a magatama and got demon powers (LMAO BEAR WITH ME I JUST BOUGHT SMT3 HD REMASTER), i caught the art demon (like steven zapata says). and i caught it bad. i spend my day to day rushing through my work and chores and everything so i can have enough time to draw in the evening, to do whatever, and sometimes the need is so immense i cant do anything bc im not good enough, my skills are fading, im worthless, what's the meaning of all this? so i took a chance and showed my work at an arts alley on a japanese food festival i was helping organize. mind you, i was juggling that with my 9/5, promoting the event, finishing drawings from years ago. and when i got there, nobody got it. people looked at the stickers and didnt recognize the characters, and went on to buy the stickers my friends had that were more current. it was all japanese fanart. we were there with the single purpose of baiting weebs like us lol

ive always dealt with clients, im used to this. but im used to business to business, bc sigh i am a corporate girly. and im a beginner in the demon arts of arting. i felt so ashamed people were preferring other people, that i had the audacity to think i was worth anything. but i stood there, standing still with my brain boucing off my skull wanting to leave but also enjoying the experience and hoping someone, anyone would get it. and some people did. to my surprise, jack frost was my best selling sticker, lol. jack frost, from the smt franchise, a franchise im so new to but i love so dearly. im 100% a poser, ive never finished a megaten game. but… it just speaks to me. and thats where my cool japan feelings come from bc, like i said, i was selling at a japanese food festival. people my age, from the country i come from, were exposed to dragon ball and cardcaptor sakura from birth. and learning about history and the atrocities of the japanese empire is just. who can you trust. but ive aways resonated with one thing from japan, and it's the way they portray sadness in their works. it's become a ritual since last year that i will listen to smtv's ost when im on my period bc it literally brings me back to life. no one but i know how many times ive drawn goro majima and taiga saejima bc their mere existance and their sorrow resonates with me so immensily and i dont wanna see them being sad, nor do i wanna see me being sad. it's. it's really difficult to be to admit that im from brazil, bc our country sells happiness as an export but for many, many years the most popular genre is butthurt country music, and it makes sense, you know? people dont wanna admit they're sad. and i can only imagine what it's like for regular japanese people, bc we (i) get to see their big exports of bittersweetness… i dont know, maybe other people get to see that from brazil too, i dont know. the arts in brazil, or specially where i live, it's just isnt in the cards for us. but ill keep trying, you know. and i know fanart is a hack. but im trying. despite everything and everyone wanting us (me) to work for mining/metal/oil companies, make the most money, have the least health, drink all the alcohol (but call an uber), consume, reproduce and die, i. i just wanna draw tiny people, you know. it's. not that big a deal. all this to say that yes im gonna keep drawing and making stickers and, who knows, you know. these are stickers that i wont ever find near me, or that im too broke to get them from artists/official stores, so if youre like me, here's some pdfs in case you wanna print them and stick them wherever c: ty if you got this far, this is a big ramble… but it's been years in the making and despite everything im happy about it c:

[akechi-official]

In your opinion, what would be the best SMT game to start with between III (remake), IV, and V? For someone who’s played Persona 3-5 but none of the main series games

Okay this is a hard question because SMT is really difficult to get into if your only reference point is Persona 3-5. You have to be willing to accept that SMT is NOT persona and you will NOT be getting the same experience.

It really depends on what aspects of Persona you like though. For me I am a huge fan of turn based RPGs so the SMT series was not a hard jump to make. But if you like Persona for the characters and the story I really don’t think mainline SMT should be your first step into other MegaTen titles because SMT is really not about the characters. It’s about the world, and the themes, much more than about the characters and story. So if you go into SMT expecting to fall in love with a diverse and deep cast of characters, you might be disappointed. My suggestion would be to go play Devil Survivor tbh. However, SMT shines in world building, concepts, themes, and presentation. You have to be willing to look a little more abstract into the world.

If you still want to try SMT, though, here are my suggestions.

I would say if you love character and story SMTIV probably has the most fleshed out characters of the three. There’s a reason people got mad at SMTIV for being too similar to persona. There’s a lot about it that’s not for the faint at heart, and it’s still a difficult game, but the concept and characters are super interesting to me so you might enjoy it. Not as deep as Persona characters, but deep enough to where you become invested in them as people.

If you’re more interested in the gameplay, SMTV might be a good bet, because I think it is very fun to play even though it’s incredibly difficult (although I am playing it on the hardest difficulty so it might be easier at a lower difficulty) and I think for newcomers it might be easier to fall into coming from Persona. But don’t expect a good story, SMTV’s story and pacing is quite frankly terrible, and I’m not a fan of the world either. Others might challenge me on that. What you’re getting is incredibly fun and fast paced gameplay at the cost of an interesting world.

SMT Nocturne really isn’t a good game for people coming straight from Persona IMO. But it is the game that invented the Press Turn system and Persona 3 likely wouldn’t be what it is without Nocturne paving the way for it. So if you’re interested in the history of MegaTen Nocturne is a must play. A lot of people have said the remake isn’t as good as the original but it is a fine way to play, especially with the bug fixes and updates. This isn’t to say Nocturne is worse than IV and V, btw, because Nocturne is hailed as one of the best. But it’s difficulty might be a barrier to keep you from enjoying it.

That’s kind of a recurring theme, because SMT is kind of intended for hardcore RPG enthusiasts the games are WAY harder than Persona. For reference, Persona 5 on Merciless is a million times easier than SMTV on Hard. You really have to think critically about every move and prep for every major battle in SMT. Persona just doesn’t have that sort of difficulty. Not to say one is better or worse than the other, they’re just for two different types of players.

I do find it funny that you don’t want to try out SMTI and SMTII. But understandable, those games require a lot of preparation to play, especially since you can soft lock yourself in them.

Sorry that I don’t have a concrete answer, but I’m leaning towards saying IV or V just because they are slightly more forgiving than Nocturne. In summary, for story, play IV. For gameplay, play V.

Or just play Strange Journey, I’ve heard that game is really good.

If you do end up playing them, let me know what you think! Hope this was helpful!

[azttore]

For the ITs Leader trio, who pulls off Dress and who pulls of Tuxedos Best?

Also, favorite winter down/past time?

oh wow ! i am assuming this is in reference to my au art …? i am going to be honest, i am unsure what you mean by leader trio, as narukami is the only one ever considered a leader. so excuse me if i misunderstood ^^” but in context with my au post

narukami 100% is the best dress wearer and absolutely pulls off any fit he tries. my idea of narukami is that once he met mitsuru, the gloves were off in his gender presentation game. he saw her and was like “…wow! i can be like that! i too can be a girlboss!” then proceeded to do exactly that. i think narukami would favor those thigh-knee cut slim fit dresses, like in the spy movies- or those floor length slim fits with a little tail. something showy and bright, give him an excuse to bring makeup and jewelry too. i like to think that once he grew comfortable with his identity, he tried to one up mitsuru in anything he pulled off when they were working on something together. friendly girlboss competition.

between naoto and yosuke, they fit two specifcially different types of suit to me. i am not a fan of being tapped to the narrow box of tuxedo, so i hope you don’t mind me expanding a bit.

naoto is likely “the best” with pulling off a suit, but that is inly due to his nature. when you are the great detective prince, you have to carry a sort of air that comes with learning how to be fashionably acceptable. while he could certainly pull off a tuxedo, without a doubt, i actually think naoto would be a little more… uniquie, about it. tailored suit and simple tweaks to the existing style to give it more of a princely sense of theme, is what i personally see. i will have to draw it at somepoint, i am not the best as explaining things, my apologies. my main point of inspirational reference for naoto and the suits he would wear is older, royal like dress shirts and vests/blazers, coat tails and embroidered patterns- some much similar to that of the jouin uniforms of smtv.

yosuke would be the perfect picture of just a guy in a suit and i love that for him so fucking much. i feel like it solidly depends on the type of event on whether he really dresses it up or not. sometimes he can be in a rather quickly put together, budget buy tux. looks like a guy going to prom for the first time. probably needs help tying his tie. when he does put in the effort, however, yosuke can pull off a really well-put tux with no problem. between narukami fashion osmosis and having to learn how to be taken seriously in the field of law, he caught on pretty quickly on how to care for a suit and dress to a t. you just gotta convince him whether or not the occasion is worth it or not- because otherwise? this mans sense of fashion is a fucking disaster i love him so bad but he dresses like a middle aged dad in hawai’ian shirts and khakis. he wears those fucking tshirts with the tuxedo printed on the front. probably wears fucking socks with sandals and freaks out over those water shoes with the toes.

outside of those three, if you would have asked me about the entire investigation team-

both answers would be rise. rise can pull off any shape of dress just as good as she can suit, and i think she opts for those very dress-like suits with frills and tails. rise, narukami and naoto working on pulling off some of the most elaborate, unique fashion takes meanwhile yosuke is standing in the enterance way wearing a shirt that says “man i love fishing” in a pair of shorts that have ten pockets and big ass sneakers too big for his damn feet. i like them so bad. i do think rise and yosuke go in brand name shopping sprees together, she helps him find the cool shit. rise is naoto’s biggest supporter in fashion choice and likely has a hand in getting him a lot of custom work done. as a note to the au, i like to think rise is qprs with the trio. they all hold hands sometimes.

as for your last question!

vacation. oh my god this team needs a fucking break. they are overworked to shit please just give them sometime to hang out and breathe.

in those moments of peace, i think they each are still figuring out their pursuits and hobbies. the only one i am really sure of is that i think naoto is writing in his off time. i feel he has a big attachment to literature, or at least knowledge, and wants to have his own book of sorts. not too sure the type of book, ill get back to you on that, but it feels right to me that he’d be writing in his off time (even though it is still technically work and needs to be convinced to take a break).

sorry this is a world wall i am a little autisitic about them

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

So I gather that King Goomba is a twitter user, right? Would you be able to explain the context behind the Goomba stuff? Have they done something in the past? Thank you.

I know people have said things about King Goomba outside the one big thing he's known for, but I....don't remember whatever that was. But here's a rough outline on his lore.

The thing he's known for is "#BreakFreePersona(5)", it's where he went on every Atlus post (and I think Nintendo related post) to get P5 on the Switch. And I mean vanilla P5, back in like 2017ish I wanna say (blame Smash Bros). This is because the idea around the fandom was "bother Atlus and they'll do it" and this glorious bastard did just that.

The thing that annoyed the fandom the most (barring the side that didn't mind/liked him) was he was overly persistent. Like going as far to post to Nintendo and other nintendo related games on twitter about it (aka unrelated to Persona/Atlus). Which can be annoying, but like.....just block him?

He was never malicious, usually just copying and pasting "This is great, but it'd be better if you put P5 on the switch!" (and then later updated to P5R when it got announced).

Anyway, he got his wish with P5R on the switch.....................but his job was not done. Oh no sir.

I think he might've slowed his roll just a tad, but he is still batting for Soul Hackers 2 on Switch. And it looks like he's batting for FeMC too (I beat him to it klsadjfkla but I'm glad he's going to bat for us). (I wanna say he wants SMTV on other consoles too but I can't remember).

I agree with him, I want the games on all the platforms too. I ain't complaining. Shit I think I might've mentioned that the fans should do that prior to Goomba starting (I know I didn't inspire anyone I think it was an off handed mention on here if I did say it akdjfslf). I think people attribute his behavior to some Persona video that mentioned "break free Persona"?

ANYWAY, so my part time job allows me to talk to xbox/sony/nintendo reps from time to time. And prior to Persona coming to Xbox/Nintendo (at least non Q games) I would ask their thoughts on Megaten coming to their consoles (answer was always "of course we'd love to, but it's up to Atlus....." which yeah. askldfjad). But for shits and giggles I'd bring up Goomba a few times (I've moved a bit so I've seen a few diff reps bc of that) and they knew of him. They were aware, they saw his comments. And again "Yeah we'd want that, but Atlus......." so Atlus probs saw it too.

So I say "I'm going Goomba" bc that's what I'm going to do. What he did lsadfjklaf I'm not really copying hoping it'll take off like his, I just know the reps of those companies will probs see it and get annoyed/tired/irked by me at the very least if I do it enough. I'm aiming to be the biggest thorn in their side. Petty? Yeah, well.......maybe they shouldn't have remade the vanilla version of the game when everyone was voting for a P3 remake BECAUSE we wanted a definitive version TT0TT

[lilycovecity]

smt vv thread

more like i wanted to document this a little better than a usual twitter thread. also wanted to spend more time thinking about it.

i bought smtv on launch and started it, got a couple of hours into the first area and got freaking murked by a demon it completely shattered my desire to keep playing. which is really funny but also a testament to the smt way of saving every 2 minute because you never know when you're gonna get owned by a new moon demon.

in any case i went to target today on a journey for something else and smtvv was 20 dollars off so of course i copped it.

i think smtvv has such a strong aesthetic sense. it's peak kaneko except as interpreted by doi, which is insane because i feel like doi is doing kaneko more than kaneko has done. LOL. it's funny and cute especially when you compare smt iv/iva to smt v. i really love the school uniforms.

i was really surprised that they had like four variations on their uniform, including a sailor style and then a more preppy varsity type...i think nahobino's full gakuran with the lilies is so beautiful and i wish that we got a female character with the seifuku version because it's one of my favorite uniforms in the game.

the music in this game is also a lot of ambient noise which i love. lol. i dont know if the overworld stuff will be as strong as smtiv for me music wise but the big important scene music has been so delightful.

the first time i heard smtv stuff was at the concert and i was really floored by the instrumentals so ... i have my hopes.

in any case...

as you know obviously my favorite smt game is smt iv. so that's my baseline for comparing anything i consume re. smt. LMFAO i know the love of nostalgia blinds me but it is my everything.

so i find it really interesting that you're simultaneously painted as loser with no friends in your class but also you know the most popular girls in school. for some reason.

while i was typing this i went to go google what his canon name is and i guess it's kei amemura? which is cute. kei-san...

i'm already ready for the yuzuru/kei yaoi. a good demon hunter x demon set up.

i also think kei in general seems so...detached? there's something about him that's really whatever about the entire ordeal. kind of just being pushed along vs the other members that we've met so far.

also aogami/kei is kind offffff (pleasepleaseplasepleaspelaseplaese) lmfao

GUESS WHO DIDN'T LEARN THEIR LESSON ABOUT SAVING EVERY TWO MINUTES AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHI JUST LIKE LIKE HALF AN HOUR OF PROGRESS BECAUSE I WAS AUTOBATTLING TOO HARD FUUUUUCKASJDFKLASJDFLASKJDFLASJDFASLDFASDJFASLK;DFASLJ FMAN IM PISSED

ok. we are back again. finally at my first demon fusion and i got cait sith :) my kitty cat. i love the demon fusion for smtv lmfao. sick organ moment.

one of the things that sucks about smt in general is the inability to like. teleport to ur quest marker. like for sidequests. i grabbed what u needed dont make me go trek all the way over there

ok. finally at the first boss fight (tokyo tower) the minotaur if u will. after this we will see if i continue for the night...

[queered-into-oblivion]

🎥💎💕 for both? :o

took a while because both me and moon wanted to answer for our respective fixations - demifiend

persona 3:

scenes- how you get everyone together and go to the park, how fuuka gets trapped in the apparatus. how you know its all going to end soon and it feels painfully melancholic but happy. you get to have everyone together for once. it means a lot to me and makes me cry every time i get to it; its so final but so loving

how he specifically asks to go with everyone too. and how not all players will even see it, i hope everyone does though because its magical

trivia/etc- obvious things like how you can revive shinjiro/chidori. even though chidoris is pretty damn hidden and not even we knew about it until the 3rd or something play-through

{you have to talk to junpei every day after chidoris death and she revives but with no memories. theres debates on it in the fandom but i like that junpei gets something nice; he deserves it}

something thats not really a fact but been thinking about it is the limited merch they released for the movies. the aigis headphones for winter of rebirth were really fucking good specifically and us and our friend actually found them in almost mint condition in a mandarake and managed to buy them just a week ago

character- akihiko sanada is the most amazing fucking character and people need to love him more

hes so autistic, loves fighting and fitness so much its his special interest and he uses it to navigate how he sees everything. caring, one track minded but in the best way

intelligent in his own way, as much as arena wants to deny it. he was the one to figure out the full moon link and everything; he’s consistently known for good marks in school even if its with mitsurus help. hes *smart* really damn smart

also his drive to protect everyone and keep honouring miki and shinjiro after their deaths is fucking beautiful; dont care what anyone says the scream at shinjis picture was heartbreaking and i hope they manage to capture it in reload. god i love akihiko

im not biased dont look at me /lh {it said to do one otherwise id do one for aigis and ryoji too. could do all of sees and bebe and akinari and the old couple and everyone, i love them all}

smt nocturne:

scenes- thats a hard one… hell biker/mara summoning is really funny but the conception/raidou joining your party/manikin slaughter make me emotional still

raidou joining just because im really gay and it was kind of sweet. the other two because they’re sad. especially the manikins, they all deserved so much better

trivia- basic things that i like: smtv being a sequel to nocturne is really cool especially with how the nahobino plot plays out but i wish the story of smtv was… better in canon/took longer than 3 days

also the demifiends english va was the director for the english dub which is interesting

character- does raidou count? im making raidou count

but if not, futomimi easily no contest hands down. i love him, i love the manikins, they had the best reason, fuck you chiaki

also i don’t know if its me being biased or what the game does but assuming its the second i like how the game makes you feel kinship with them for being not able to make a real reason. and i like how they tried anyway

[athetos]

I played SMTV for 5 hours and WOW great first impressions tbh!

What I like:

Exploring is definitely the most fun that it’s been in a SMT game ever. Naruto running everywhere is a blast, and there’s so many little guys to find (I forgot their names already). You’re constantly rewarded for going off the beaten path.

The sidequests are numerous and pretty easy to keep track of. I’m a big sidequest nut, so this is a pro in my book.

I really like the skill inheritance so far, and the miracles you can obtain with glory. I always love being able to customize your protag to your liking (I’m going for a magic/vitality build this time)

The graphics look great - idk if it’s because they actually are great when compared to other current-gen games, or just because it’s the first SMT game that’s in HD, but yeah.

I’m a fan of random battles (yeah, I know, I’m a bit odd) but this game benefits so much from seeing enemies in the field. Truly a really good upgrade, because man megaten suffered the most from highly frequent random battles (especially ones that randomly would get the first strike and wipe your team)

Just some nice quality of life improvements! Being able to teleport to the most recent fount is really nice. And the tutorials, while I mashed A through all the text because this isn’t my first rodeo, are surprisingly helpful for a SMT game. I’d really recommend this one for newcomers.

What I don’t like:

As fun as exploring is, I’m so lost, dude. Even with the compass, I constantly find myself going in circles - I’m hoping that later areas have a lot more variety going on so I’m less confused.

The plot is underwhelming, but in all honesty, I didn’t go into this game expecting a poignant and revolutionary story - I wanted to make demons with their tits and cocks out FIGHT and drool over stats. Which as I said, this game does very well.

Please let me finish sidequests without backtracking all the way to where I accepted them. Let me talk with them over zoom and have them wire my rewards to my bank account or ship it by drone.

[roaldseth]

Hope this doesn't sound too stupid but I wanna say that I really love your dedication to Roland. Its honestly refreshing to see content with him in it, especially since its an obscure series and he's not a popular character. The amount of detail and love you put into your art and writing of him (and Adil, nearly forgot to mention how great it is to see him in anything at all) shows and I love seeing it.

Thank you! They probably were not said to be words of encouragement, but I sure took them as such. This was not stupid at all, and it's the people like you that reach out to me and voice that they too like content of Roland that I love hearing from the most! It brings me joy that even though my audience is small, I have to remember that there is still one out there. And I guess that's just what I'm destined to do.

It might seem like right now I'm taking a little break from My Beloved to do some SMTV art. It's just what's giving me ideas at the moment, but don't worry! I don't want to say this and make people think I will never draw Roland (and Adil!) again. No, quite the contrary. Roland and Adil are forever. Though I am very hot and cold with my feelings about my art, I assure you there will be plenty much more art of them to come, especially now since I've found a way that I can be faster and look cool-ish.

[landoftheway]

OKAY, I saw both SMT videos

Obviously it’s awesome that Nocturne is not only getting an HD remaster, but also voice acting.

Also cool we’re getting Raidou instead of Dante; the latter is funnier for meme purposes, but the former is objectively more useful in the game.

As for SMTV, we don’t have a lot to work with from such a short trailer, but there’s a few things I noticed:

There are a LOT of artistic and thematic similarities between it and Nocturne, which is both a good and a bad thing. I fucking love Nocturne, obviously, but I don’t want them to just make Nocturne 2; I want V to stand on its own merits.

The implications of the unknown demon grasping the hand of the protag suggests some kind of fusion, which again parallels Nocturne (and to a lesser extent Apocalypse, though that was itself basing that whole deal on Nocturne). Frankly I hope this isn’t the case; playing with part-demon protags is an interesting idea, but we’ve already played it out a number of times and I still think there’s a lot of interesting things we can do with human protagonists.

Carrying off of my first point, everything from the dialogue of the Creator being dead and the world being “reborn in Chaos”, to Lucifer himself appearing with a demon army to take on an angel army, to the barren wasteland of the world the protag finds himself in almost makes it look like a direct follow-up Nocturne’s True Demon Ending. This… actually could work if done right. Nocturne’s setting stood out as one that was distinctly Chaotic in nature compared to SMT1′s Neutral and SMT2′s Lawful, but at its core the setting of Nocturne was still overseen by Divine Authority. Playing with a setting truly devoid of Lawful presence and authority could actually make for an interesting game in terms of exploring what such a world would truly be like and what Chaos as an ideology really means. Plus it’s not like SMT hasn’t done direct follow-ups before; SMT2 is a direct sequel to 1, and we all know how good that turned out. That said the game would have to be very careful to not lean too heavily on Nocturne so that it could still measure-up as its own game; cameos should be avoided (save perhaps for a bonus boss or two) and the events of Nocturne should only be discussed in passing. Of course, this is all assuming this really is where SMTV is going; we don’t have nearly enough info to say for certain.

[oneddashone]

Games of the Year 2021

Something like 90% of this was typed up in December, but I only thought to finish and post it now. Oops. Also I bought an Xbox Series S this year (hello Elden Ring!), but late enough that nothing from there really made it onto the list.

***RECENCY BIAS***

Shin Megami Tensei V

Death's Door

Loop Hero

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

Forza Horizon 5

Sable

I got these all in the last few weeks, and so while it's too early to properly rank them in a category, I can already tell that they have a lot to offer and, with time, will likely be some of my favorites of the year. SMTV especially *very nearly* qualifies as "Essential," but I really should play it for a bit longer before making that distinction.

***SOME SHMUPS I BOUGHT THIS YEAR***

R-Type Final 2

Raiden IV x Mikado Remix

Mushihimesama

Darius Cozmic Revelation

Cotton Reboot

Espgaluda II

DoDonPachi Resurrection

Deathsmiles 1+2

I'm pretty sure R-Type Final 2 is the only properly "new" game on this list, but all of these shmups came out on Switch this year and I enjoyed my time with all of them. Special shoutout to the M2-helmed Cave ports, which feel perfect to me and are a total blast to play on my rotated monitor (with the 8BitDo arcade stick, of course—who even needs a candy cab these days?).

***RECOMMENDED***

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection

Bravely Default II

Umurangi Generation

Game Builder Garage

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus

Monster Hunter Stories 2

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain

Now for the real list. Anything at this tier is absolutely worth your time, in my opinion, starting specifically with the Bowser's Fury expansion to Super Mario 3D World. It felt at the time like Mario's designers dipping their toes into a new-ish, Odyssey-inspired way to design a Mario game, and I hope there's more where that came from because it's tremendous. The new Ghosts 'n Goblins is arguably even more fiendishly difficult than the original, but it's beautiful and still feels modern in all the right places. I hope we see more revivals of dormant franchises of this caliber going into 2022 (looking at you, GetsuFumaDen). Special mention too to Umurangi Generation, a game I knew next to nothing about going into it, and one that continued to surprise me up until the very end.

***ESSENTIAL***

Mario Golf: Super Rush

Axiom Verge 2

Spelunky 2

WarioWare: Get It Together!

Castlevania Advance Collection

Metroid Dread

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

Mario Party Superstars

A game in this tier is one of my absolute favorites of the year. Mario Golf might seem like a strange choice to some, but I found this game to be absolutely packed with stuff to do. I played through the campaign, played games online against friends, and loved the steady release of new characters and courses throughout the year.

I never quite finished the first game, but I played through and beat Axiom Verge 2 in about a week—which was great (more "short" games, please). I'm not totally sure, but I think the difference might have been the environments—most were way more open than the previous game's mostly tight, closed rooms. I've never quite followed the story in either of these games, but it didn't matter at all—if you like metroidvanias, you'll like this game.

I'm no good at Spelunky 2. Pretty miserable really, just like the first game. But this is perfection on an already nearly-perfect game, so I can't penalize it just because I'm too dumb to resist throwing a rock where I know I shouldn't. I played a lot of this game co-op with my daughter, which I didn't think would work but very much did (see also: WarioWare). Kudos to Derek Yu for sticking to his vision and iterating even further on a game that would probably have seemed "finished" to almost everyone else.

The original WarioWare is one of my favorite games of all time, and Get it Together is an intriguing update to the formula—one that I didn't think would work, at first blush, but one that I am happy to say I was very much wrong about. Another great game to play with a friend, and the unlockables and weekly challenges went a long way towards keeping me playing even after the final credit roll.

The Castlevania Advance Collection is something I've been asking for for a long time, and this package is just perfect. More like this, please.

Metroid Dread is great, but I think I loved it less than almost anyone else. I was really hyped before release and even replayed Super Metroid in anticipation, but then something happened. It started out incredibly engaging, but fairly early on I became acutely aware of just how dang linear this supposed metroidvania really was. "Wrong" paths secretly close, the supposedly inter-connected map is a lie, and everything's just been so damn designed to move you forward that the whole thing kinda loses it's "metroid-ness." I think the designers probably felt like they *had* to do this in 2021, to not waste anyone's time, but for me it ended up just kind of souring the experience. It's a beautiful looking game, the movement is fluid and graceful, and the boss fights are a spectical—but for me, the experience was a bit less than the sum of its parts.

I think my favorite thing about Disco Elysium is that it taught me about psychic damage and shame. The first time I essentially died of embarrassment was really pretty shocking, looking back on it. From then on, my choices became quite a bit more meaningful and I was completely absorbed in this game's incredibly dense and layered world. Turns out I also really really love dialogue trees and dice checks—who knew? I'm also glad I waited for this version, too, because the voice acting is top notch.

***RUNNER UP***

Dungeon Encounters

This is a tiny bit cheeky, but I'm giving Dungeon Encounters a slight nod over the games in the previous category because it just came out of nowhere and clubbed me over the head with its simplicity. This has got to be one of the most purely designed games I've ever played. Everything is so perfectly tight, so meticulously edited, that it doesn't feel like one pixel could possibly be out of place. This feels like the work of someone who had an uncompromising vision and carried it through every precarious step of the way, start to finish. This is addition-by-subtraction, no frills, Dieter Rams-level stuff.

Oh, and the character portraits all look like they were drawn by Mike Mignola. A+++ from me.

***GOTY***

Monster Hunter: Rise

I can't bring myself to understand the idea that some people apparently have that Monster Hunter Rise is somehow *lacking* content. I fired up the game the other day for the first time in 2-3 months, and had something like two dozen new Event Quests to check out, most with unique rewards (hello, Akuma costume). And that's after I put over one hundred hours into the story, and still haven't beaten the final boss that unlocks at HR100. Not to mention all the time spent with friends on their campaigns. AND my personal side quest of crafting as many different Long Swords as humanly possible. If this isn't enough "stuff," I really don't want to know what is.

But "stuff" only matters if it's good stuff, and yeesh there's a ton of good stuff in this game. Monster Hunter World was already an exercise in cutting some of the crust that had accumulated over the years, and Rise goes even further and better. Getting into the fights is now as frictionless as you want it to be, thanks to the new map and the addition of the dog. The wirebug is the coolest new mechanic the series has added, possibly ever. Not only is it great for traversal, but it opens up an entire tree of combat options. A lot of what I loved about Generations returns here too, especially in those wirebug attacks, albeit less over-stuffed than in that game.

The selection of monsters is generous and varied, the locations are memorable and well-designed, and the armor and weapons are more than up to the series' already sky-high expectations. I've picked Monster Hunter games as my GOTY before, but Rise is easily my favorite Monster Hunter game. And the fact that we're getting a giant expansion/DLC this summer just means I need to find a bit of time between now and then to craft just a few more Long Swords.

[antichthons]

What features do you hope smtv has?

SORRY i took so long with this. but thanks for asking!

what i want in v (long post under the cut):

- a bomb ost as per smt tradition.

- gender options for the protagonist. not totally necessary, but it would be a welcome addition.

- i’d like to see some demons we haven’t seen in mainline. hectate, for example, has a very interesting design and totally deserves to be showed off in 3d. im super excited to see some of my favs in full 3d.

- divergence from the usual “teen saves apocalyptic japan” narrative:

i know this is what smt v and mainline are all about, but it would really breathe some life into the series. much of strange journey’s appeal rose from it’s thematic change and overhauls in narrative and music. maybe an “outside of japan” smt game is more suited for spin-offs, but i think a good change is needed if the series is ever going to take of in the same way persona has (outside of japan, at least). i emphasize “good” because developers are very obviously trying to make smt a bit more like persona. i’d link a bunch of articles and posts to supplement my point but im feeling lazy :S

- cohesive and story relevant puzzles:

most of the “puzzle/maze/use your brain” parts of smt iv and apoc didn’t really fit in the game. i’d always be left thinking “but why is this a puzzle? why a maze?” this was particularly true with the shesha part II. maybe it doesn’t count as a “puzzle,” but i get the sense navigation was made difficult at that point on purpose. could be wrong. it doesn’t make sense to be fumbling through paths when you’re supposed to be fighting an important boss. it presented an odd shift in tone and soured the fight a bit. all my friends got lost at this point and one straight up lost interest in the game because of it. puzzles ought to be challenging and meaningful, but still well developed and fun enough (or offer a strong enough incentive) to want to finish.

- well written women:

i think, in general, mainline has a tendency to prioritize beauty over substance in female protagonists. this doesn’t mean that all smt women are flat characters, but a few of them are a bit one dimensional. certain women, while often carrying their own relevance to the story/plot, typically don’t do anything too significant. you guys know i love isabeau, but even i can admit that her lack of agency combined with her love manga being her only distinctive personality traits is indicative of the writersnot knowing how to develop fictional women and/or pandering to teens and man children that are used to pretty yet dispensible female characters. her being weak isn’t even necessarily a *bad* trait either, and she’s definitely shown with more conviction in smtiva. even still, characters can be weak and still be well rounded if written effectively (like yuko and early chiaki). i also have beef with asahi and toki being sexualized throughout the game and the beach dlc. i may go over this in an entire separate post, so i’ll end it here. let’s try harder for our girls!

thanks for reading :~)