SMT IV Apocalypse

How's OST this time? I liked SMTIV soundtrack so much. Is it worse/better?

Much easier. For example, it's no longer game over if the MC dies.

To the game's credit though, they DO justify that; Flynn's such a good Master that his demons get fucking livid if something kills him. If a demon gets ejected out of your party they will search the entirety of Tokyo just to find you and they make it clear that no, they did not enjoy the separation at all.

it's kind of sweet how Flynn's demons treat him

That's pretty damn cool, it sounds like they're taking the series in a different direction.

IV is kinda retreading the first in the sense that it's a good introduction to the series and captures the Law/Neutral/Chaos dichotomy pretty well. You have your Law friend, your Chaos friend, but the female character is explicitly Neutral instead of always siding with you. While Strange Journey can also be seen as retreading the first in a more "international" sense, it's closer to the original 2D dungeon crawling SMT while SMT IV is more in line with the more modern 3D SMT games like Nocturne.

SMT IV FINAL (or Apocalypse if you prefer) is basically the SMT II to SMT IV. It can be seen as an alternate take on the Neutral path of SMT IV with new characters while the original characters do their thing.

It's pretty good. There are elements of SMT II in the normal battle theme, and here's the story boss theme.
youtube.com/watch?v=SgmXyt91pq8

However, there's only like 30-40 new tracks.

Can I keep Alice for the rest of the game or she'll fall off too much? I did it in IV and while her damage was nice by the time I reached level 70 she was getting almost oneshot by everything.

exp becomes almost unmanageable if you keep leveling the same demon over and over.
If you really like a demon, you'd better grind eternally for incenses.

Considering you can hold like 16 demons, I don't see why not. While I don't know how viable she'll be, gameplay mechanics have been upgraded, like Light/Dark moves only being insta-kills when the user has a Smirk. Demon fusion also works differently, with every demon having inherent traits. You can fuse fire moves on Jack Frost, but he has a "penalty" to using them compared to other moves. Maybe there's something in there that will make Alice more useful.

Where can I farm incenses anyway? DLC?

What about mitamas, can't I get them?

Fiends.

Oh shit are fiends back? Please don't tell me they kept that stupid 1 out of 256 encounter rate for no reason

Apparently, they can be challenged in the Tokyo Bay area. I don't have my 3DS right now, so I can't confirm just yet

It fixed most of the horrible fuckups made with the godawful abortion that is IV. I mean christ, it even made smirk a bearable mechanic.

It's probably the best mainline game now.

Does being a dick to Asahi influence any of these alignment points?

I assume they push you towards Anarchy.

Is this a sequel or a complete edition of SMTIV? Can I get this as my first MT game?

it's a sequel
so play SMT4 first

>It's probably the best mainline game now.
lol no

It's a midquel/sequel to SMT IV.

Play SMT IV first, and go for the Neutral route. SMT IV works as a standalone game.

It's a little difficult to explain. You don't go Law, Neutral, and Chaos in SMT IV until the last 15%-20% of the game. SMT IV Apocalypse starts partway into the Neutral route of SMT IV, except the protagonist is different and you see the events taking place from his perspective while the protagonist of SMT IV is now seen as an important NPC. There are four possible endings in Apocalypse (Law, Chaos, Peace, Anarchy), none of which match up to SMT IV's Neutral ending despite the game starting from a point in the Neutral ending, but do have some similarities to its Law and Chaos endings.

I wouldn't say that you're required to play SMT IV before Apocalypse. You would get more out of the story for sure, but Apocalypse's protagonist was not in SMT IV, so it's like a new character. Certain events that take a while to learn in SMT IV are common knowledge in Apocalypse because you're playing from a different perspective, but you end up learning the same material either way, just at a much earlier point.

>domains are still boring

Not the lack of Vitality stat and physical attacks using MP instead of HP.

Above could have worked if there was a way to attract attacks to a certain ally, but there are only 3 types of HP/MP spreads and HP/MP is based on Level, not any stat,so there's no such thing thing as a defensive demon in the game.

The soundtrack.

The soundtrack is what saved SMT IV from being unplayable garbage, and while SMT IV:A is much better in that regard it still uses its music as a crutch.

like all JRPGs

Lol ye s

Which mainline game is better then?

Nocturne, DDS, and even Strange Journey blow it out of the water. Hell, even P3P and Persona 4 are better.

>DDS is mainline
>SJ is mainline

>Persona is mainline

Just because you're accustomed to the SMT series doesn't make it any less engaging or interesting. "Unplayable garbage" is a huge exaggeration, soundtrack or no.

>Bizarre Adventure isn't mainline

Did not follow Apocalypse news, so what is IV's canon ending? neutral?

Apocalypse interrupts and retcons the Neutral route.

They literally changed the name mid development to keep anyone from thinking it's a mainline game.

Any new waifumons?

The only reason they changed the name is because it didn't take place in Japan. It was developed as a mainline title.

>It was developed as a mainline title.
...and then they realised they had diverged too far from the concept and decided to call it a spinoff, which is accurate.

It sucks when even non mainline games can be so much better than IV. But that's what happens when you makes absolutely retarded design decisions, like no VIT and Phys costing MP.

When did they every call it a spinoff?

When they didn't give it a numbered title.

How is that an argument for it not being mainline, it is clearly part of the mainline and the only reason it isn't numbered is due to it not taking place in Japan, it's intended to be mainline.

>It's a "SJ isn't mainline because there's no number" episode

W-well, my demons are a bit different!

youtu.be/TZWlh_KN_JA?t=9m32s

So this is worth picking up? I actually liked IV.

Same shit, slightly improved.

Neutral is canon, but retcon'd so that Apocalypse happens right before Flynn and Monkey go kick Walter and Jonathan's shit in.

I have deleted SMT IV from my 3ds, but I still have my save game right after completing neutral route (but without starting NG+ yet), can I transfer my data? What do I obtain?

>still haven't finished IV yet
>want this anyway
shit

You can finish 4 this weekend user-kun.