Topic: Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne 13th anniversary

[affinity]

Ah yes, it would take days to describe a lot of the qualities and genius designs that only SMT Nocturne has, though really only experiencing it can really begin to describe it at greater levels!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RdbZeOxL2o

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1187717

http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt348/TristanEmpire/SMT3/001.jpg



even the graphics still aged well and one of the greatest unique looking rpgs

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=196128023&postcount=81

This is the finest RPG of Generation 6, and my vote for its best game.

Everything is 150% value.


Tough, long, brutal dungeons designed so that often the player character is dwarfed from excellent cinemtagraphy.

Bleak, post-humanity world where ethical and moral decisions are up in the air with an ever-increasing anxiety-spawning loneliness.

Vicious, nasty bosses that enforce mastery over them, the rule system, and yourself via the magnificent Press Turn System and Demon Fusing.


Stellar art direction from one of gaming's Lost Masters, Kazuma Kaneko.

Outstanding demon design that takes the previous static sprites and does wonderous, inventive movements from the new 3D forms.

Being a game on a non-infinite budget, a brutalist art-deco design was utilized for many areas, with everything lit in strong yet wan coloring on matte surfaces. This hid the simplistic geometry with elan.

The plot and world are familiar yet artfully alien even in the ruins of Tokyo.


And Lord Aralia Almighty, the music.

Going from harsh distorted industrial metal of Boss Battle, capricously playfulness of Mystery, intimidating sinisterness of Ikebukuro, warbly languidness of Heretic Mansion ~ Curse, to the unearthly heartache of Rescue, this is always ALWAYS the perfect track in a staggering breadth of tone, genre, and tempo.

There's just something in that desolate atmosphere,that near endless customization, the simplistic,yet absolutely metal storyline...

SMTIV has near 400 demons,but Nocturne's ~182 felt so well-implemented,so faithful to their lore (like the special conversations,the mutations,the special fusions,how the skills they get seems to fit their mythology origins better,...),a surprisingly high number of them had fitting signature skills (whether conversation skills or attacks).The Demi-Fiend had almost nothing but signature skills. There were a more interesting variety of moves ,like Mind/Nerve/Curse (instead of just being grouped under "ailments" ) and Out-of-battle skills.

The dungeon-crawling is grueling,but fun;you can get lost,the random encounters can be legitimately dangerous,there are puzzles,the occasional minigame,many many obstacles and great level designs,like the Diet Building and the Obelisk.The Amala Labyrinth is in particular amazing,as it does feel like you're visiting essentially Hell on the side of your main quest.Hardcore

Even the bosses were interesting due to how you needed to figure out their gimmicks and find ways to deal with their signature moves to win.Very few bosses felt like mere damage sponges and that was cool

The Fiends actively seeking you out,rather than being annoyingly-rare encounters was a nice change of pace and helped their badass status more than any other game.


I could go on and on and on about this game, but I think I've already made my point across that I really love the s*** out of that game.

I completed TDE path on PS3, starting a Hard save. they should port it to PS4 as well.   Sure it isn't flawless and there's lots of ways to improve it, but there's really no other rpg with the wealth of qualities SMT Nocturne has.
And to think it's only $10 on PS3 and it has tons more value than a lot of AAA budget rpgs with longer development times.  it really should be as popular, played and well known like the most popular RPG classics.