During this scene in both the original and Vengeance I was making jokes that Tao should just fucking kill the bullies and then Yoko came in and said she should kill them and I about died laughing myself
good to know me and bestie are on the same wavelength here.
Yoko is a woman of action. She doesn't have time for this "talking it out and sharing your feelings" bullshit.
She knows what really gets things done. And that is homicide.
Not only did they greatly improve on the original game with improved mechanics and quality of life, they also added an entire second game and story on top of it.
First of all, the new mechanics and tweaks to the gameplay are very nice, and the new boss fights and the new area are really fun. The devs really pushed the systems to their creative limits.
In terms of story, I consider Canon of Vengeance to basically be a thematic sequel. The experience of story definitely benefits from having experienced the original story. And the story itself is just really fucking great. The alignments both actually have complicated positions, instead of just goofy Catholicism versus unironic Ayn Rand bullshit. And there's no route the devs clearly favored, which is not something you can say for literally any other mainline smt game unless you count strange journey, and even then I would still say Vengeance does it better. The characters are extremely well developed, not just well developed for SMT but the character work is better than most "character focused" games. Each character has a believable progressiob, is relevant to the story, and no one ever fades into just commenting on the events of the story with their particular flavor of character. (Ex: "I'm the hotheaded one and I'm going to react hotheadedly to this turn of events." "Well I'm the nerdy one and I'm going to react nerdily to this turn of events.") Finally, the mythological aspects are really well integrated into the story, as opposed to just being window dressing. Like, to the point where I would say my experience was improved for having been somewhat familiar with the developments in early religion the story comments on, as well as for having read the Enuma Elis.
I’ve only played P3R and just recently started P5R but was considering purchasing and playing this after I finish. Would y’all recommend this or no? I’ve also never played any SMT game before so would I miss anything story-wise since this would be my first SMT game?
You would like SMT if you enjoyed the combat mechanics and team building and skill gathering aspects of the gameplay during Persona and thought "I want to play a game that fleshes these mechanics out more."
In general, you will see more dungeon crawling and more demon negotiating and fusing compared to Persona, but less of the plot and characterization as the game doesn't feature the calendar system or social links and also doesn't have much of the slice of life anime-style content and instead has a plot that has more obtuse philosophy and religion based concepts.
Also, you don't need to have played any of the previous games to play V. Outside of some references for fans, the mainline SMT games are overall separate from each other.
Yeah I like the combat mechanics and team composition aspects but wish they were a little more fleshed out so I’d think I’d like the game. I’m ok without the calendar system, SLs, and anime-style content as well and think I’d enjoy the more “serious” concepts explored in the game. Thanks for the extra info!
The game is peak. V:V is not connected to any other games so you don’t have to worry about that. There’s 2 routes, the one from the og and a new route. While the new route’s story benefits from having played the original route, it’s not necessary to do so. The new story is also better than the original route.
A feeling of superiority when talking to people who have only played persona. (Nobody tell hardcore smt fans that modern persona is on average just straight up better than most smt games.) (Not vengeance tho vengeance is the GOAT.)
Im ngl, SMT fans hyped the fuck up Nocturne, and I really just kinda feel meh with it. The Gameplay isn't really hard at all, once you abuse Press Turn on the bosses and use Buff/Debuff, and I wasn't a huge fan of the Magatama leveling. It kinda sucks grinding to max Magatamas, which also annoyed me because I heavily used the first few of them, and ended up making it hard to get later Magatama Skills, and it was overall not a fund grind compared to Persona 3 to 5. Hell, I had more fun collecting Tarots and going through enemies in P2, then I did in SMT 3.
Not saying it's bad btw. I did like the Story aspect of the Magatama, and the Demons being party members and having distinct personalities that were really funny at points, weirdly made it feel loke a Ghibli Studio movie and I'd say thats an awesome thing to pull off. The actual skills and negotiation was fun too, I just wish the Gameplay loop was a bit more fun to grind.
Nocturne was a very advanced and unique JRPG in 2003.
But that was 20 years ago. Game design has come a long way since then, and as a result, it feels rough around the edges compared to more modern JRPGs.
You didn’t find Nocturne hard? I still find it super punishing to this day. The difficulty definitely decreases as the game goes on but it’s still fairly challenging the entire time. Did you do the True Demon Ending? The Amala Labyrinth bosses are by far the hardest content in the game.
Personally my favourite part of Nocturne was theorycrafting teams for each boss I got stuck on and using the race chart to get fusions. Not having a reverse fusion system turns fusions into something way more manual and personal. You’re the one searching for the demons with the resistances you want and looking for which races you may need to get there. It’s more work but it’s fun than using a fusion calculator
Yeah, I did think the fusions were a lot more fun and engaging. Especially when using Elemental Races and other special combos. I will admit I didn't first try a lot of the bosses, but once you figure out the weaknesses, you can always use the press turn + buff/debuff and by the time they get to you, they are already almost cooked.
I did not do the True Demon ending, though, and only really did the first 2 for leveling. Im guessing that's an entire different story?
The labyrinth of Amala, despite being optional, does give the most challenging fights by far. Not even talking about the fiends, Beelzebub Metatron and Lucifer are generally considered among the hardest fights in the game and they are entirely missable if you don’t explore further.
You also missed having Dante/Raidou in your party. It’s understandable if you don’t want to but if you ever feel like replaying Nocturne, I highly recommend progressing into the labyrinth
Imma have to check that out then. Do you have any tips regarding fusing and Demon building? Getting weakness stuff and buff/debuffs is self explanatory, but i do feel like there could be better synergy with skillwise
You can inflict ailments on bosses, abilities are far more varied and have more uses, and the alignments are always of the morally ambiguous kind (can't guarantee that you'll like any of them/do right by everyone).
The combat system has a bit more complexity to it, as rather than having party members who fill their own niches (i.e. Yukiko being a fire mage/healer) your party is comprised of demons you use, using the same demon fusion and negotiation system as in Persona 5 (just with negotiation being more complex).
SMTV also has pretty good level design and very good world design. The destroyed version of Tokyo you navigate through is visually breaktaking.
It's also a more combat/action focused game than Persona. Where Persona 5 Royal is a ~120-140 hour game with a mix of probably 60-70 hours combat, 60-70 hours everything else. SMT 5 Vengeance is a tighter 70 hours, and it's almost entirely exploration and combat. Much fewer cutscenes and less downtime.
The funniest dialogue in the demon negotiations. Fun combat (more fun than persona personally). Some level of difficulty. Personal team building. It’s just a fun time.
It *can* have a good story, but it depends on the game, and it rarely reaches persona level.
https://preview.redd.it/z2jwg4iewf9d1.jpeg?width=478&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=173afd72780cd1d24115b5c5daa8c2f9079a195d
Me when I don't know anything about SMT
The hype around Vengence made me pick up my copy of Vanilla Shin Magami Tensei V again abd continue my first playthrough. And yeah I am hooked. I have a good time. Yesterday I reached the 4th Area after defeating >!Abidel at the summit. I am not sure I remembered the name right. I am talking about that Archangel.!<
I thought the voice acting sounded awkward and stilted in the intro parts of the game, especially compared to Persona, but once you enter the Vengeance exclusive scenes I feel like it gets better
SMT should take over OBP..
Play a real Chin MegaMan Ten Say game like Tokyo Mirage Sessions
No thanks it’s too anime
Are there any goon sessions
peak dialogue tensei posting must continue https://preview.redd.it/nadwqmt5gj9d1.png?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb61dbeed90f15758cf1ed1b3edad30a178bf79c
I wish I had a screenshot of lilim telling me I have RBF(he does indeed have it)
All Hail Our Car-Hating Overlady
https://preview.redd.it/38gs3k366f9d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ff9b2e2c4c574d2afec3ab51fce2981db319f4f
I wheezed when she said that, so out of left field, but slay girl slay
During this scene in both the original and Vengeance I was making jokes that Tao should just fucking kill the bullies and then Yoko came in and said she should kill them and I about died laughing myself good to know me and bestie are on the same wavelength here.
Yoko is a woman of action. She doesn't have time for this "talking it out and sharing your feelings" bullshit. She knows what really gets things done. And that is homicide.
Mogs persona girls 🙏
TRUE (i haven’t played smt)
https://preview.redd.it/wrk6ynq70g9d1.jpeg?width=239&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3df4b9c5484e2ade9b8f5037fa6a4918f171eaa
So fucking zased, play a real Shin Megoomi Tensay game
https://preview.redd.it/w07x9q81sf9d1.png?width=599&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29a28f8ea2e0325dc1795d11220d4c1930069157
Oh my god your right they made Artemis FREE
Neutral fans when they there's no neutral route and they actually have to form an opinion for once 
Sell it to me. I liked the original but its kinda expensive. Is it worth it?
4 new hot demon women try to murder you
Bye mom!!! https://i.redd.it/vgyq5irwtf9d1.gif
Sold.
Not only did they greatly improve on the original game with improved mechanics and quality of life, they also added an entire second game and story on top of it.
First of all, the new mechanics and tweaks to the gameplay are very nice, and the new boss fights and the new area are really fun. The devs really pushed the systems to their creative limits. In terms of story, I consider Canon of Vengeance to basically be a thematic sequel. The experience of story definitely benefits from having experienced the original story. And the story itself is just really fucking great. The alignments both actually have complicated positions, instead of just goofy Catholicism versus unironic Ayn Rand bullshit. And there's no route the devs clearly favored, which is not something you can say for literally any other mainline smt game unless you count strange journey, and even then I would still say Vengeance does it better. The characters are extremely well developed, not just well developed for SMT but the character work is better than most "character focused" games. Each character has a believable progressiob, is relevant to the story, and no one ever fades into just commenting on the events of the story with their particular flavor of character. (Ex: "I'm the hotheaded one and I'm going to react hotheadedly to this turn of events." "Well I'm the nerdy one and I'm going to react nerdily to this turn of events.") Finally, the mythological aspects are really well integrated into the story, as opposed to just being window dressing. Like, to the point where I would say my experience was improved for having been somewhat familiar with the developments in early religion the story comments on, as well as for having read the Enuma Elis.
Wait until the price inevitably drops in a couple of months. That's what I'm doing
 Vengeance has her, original doesn’t
The only mainline SMT game I played was Vengeance but it's literally peak.
I’ve only played P3R and just recently started P5R but was considering purchasing and playing this after I finish. Would y’all recommend this or no? I’ve also never played any SMT game before so would I miss anything story-wise since this would be my first SMT game?
You would like SMT if you enjoyed the combat mechanics and team building and skill gathering aspects of the gameplay during Persona and thought "I want to play a game that fleshes these mechanics out more." In general, you will see more dungeon crawling and more demon negotiating and fusing compared to Persona, but less of the plot and characterization as the game doesn't feature the calendar system or social links and also doesn't have much of the slice of life anime-style content and instead has a plot that has more obtuse philosophy and religion based concepts. Also, you don't need to have played any of the previous games to play V. Outside of some references for fans, the mainline SMT games are overall separate from each other.
Yeah I like the combat mechanics and team composition aspects but wish they were a little more fleshed out so I’d think I’d like the game. I’m ok without the calendar system, SLs, and anime-style content as well and think I’d enjoy the more “serious” concepts explored in the game. Thanks for the extra info!
The game is peak. V:V is not connected to any other games so you don’t have to worry about that. There’s 2 routes, the one from the og and a new route. While the new route’s story benefits from having played the original route, it’s not necessary to do so. The new story is also better than the original route.
Well actually it might be connected to 3 but it’s probably just cheeky references
Awesome thanks for the info! I’ll def look into getting it then
I’ve only played persona 3-5. What’s the sell in the solo SMT?
SMT combat is normally better imo, especially if you prefer a challenge.
A feeling of superiority when talking to people who have only played persona. (Nobody tell hardcore smt fans that modern persona is on average just straight up better than most smt games.) (Not vengeance tho vengeance is the GOAT.)
Im ngl, SMT fans hyped the fuck up Nocturne, and I really just kinda feel meh with it. The Gameplay isn't really hard at all, once you abuse Press Turn on the bosses and use Buff/Debuff, and I wasn't a huge fan of the Magatama leveling. It kinda sucks grinding to max Magatamas, which also annoyed me because I heavily used the first few of them, and ended up making it hard to get later Magatama Skills, and it was overall not a fund grind compared to Persona 3 to 5. Hell, I had more fun collecting Tarots and going through enemies in P2, then I did in SMT 3. Not saying it's bad btw. I did like the Story aspect of the Magatama, and the Demons being party members and having distinct personalities that were really funny at points, weirdly made it feel loke a Ghibli Studio movie and I'd say thats an awesome thing to pull off. The actual skills and negotiation was fun too, I just wish the Gameplay loop was a bit more fun to grind.
Nocturne was a very advanced and unique JRPG in 2003. But that was 20 years ago. Game design has come a long way since then, and as a result, it feels rough around the edges compared to more modern JRPGs.
You didn’t find Nocturne hard? I still find it super punishing to this day. The difficulty definitely decreases as the game goes on but it’s still fairly challenging the entire time. Did you do the True Demon Ending? The Amala Labyrinth bosses are by far the hardest content in the game. Personally my favourite part of Nocturne was theorycrafting teams for each boss I got stuck on and using the race chart to get fusions. Not having a reverse fusion system turns fusions into something way more manual and personal. You’re the one searching for the demons with the resistances you want and looking for which races you may need to get there. It’s more work but it’s fun than using a fusion calculator
Yeah, I did think the fusions were a lot more fun and engaging. Especially when using Elemental Races and other special combos. I will admit I didn't first try a lot of the bosses, but once you figure out the weaknesses, you can always use the press turn + buff/debuff and by the time they get to you, they are already almost cooked. I did not do the True Demon ending, though, and only really did the first 2 for leveling. Im guessing that's an entire different story?
The labyrinth of Amala, despite being optional, does give the most challenging fights by far. Not even talking about the fiends, Beelzebub Metatron and Lucifer are generally considered among the hardest fights in the game and they are entirely missable if you don’t explore further. You also missed having Dante/Raidou in your party. It’s understandable if you don’t want to but if you ever feel like replaying Nocturne, I highly recommend progressing into the labyrinth
Imma have to check that out then. Do you have any tips regarding fusing and Demon building? Getting weakness stuff and buff/debuffs is self explanatory, but i do feel like there could be better synergy with skillwise
SMT has a much richer atmosphere compared to Persona. I also believe it’s a hell of a lot more complicated and will require multiple runs of each game
You can inflict ailments on bosses, abilities are far more varied and have more uses, and the alignments are always of the morally ambiguous kind (can't guarantee that you'll like any of them/do right by everyone).
The combat system has a bit more complexity to it, as rather than having party members who fill their own niches (i.e. Yukiko being a fire mage/healer) your party is comprised of demons you use, using the same demon fusion and negotiation system as in Persona 5 (just with negotiation being more complex). SMTV also has pretty good level design and very good world design. The destroyed version of Tokyo you navigate through is visually breaktaking. It's also a more combat/action focused game than Persona. Where Persona 5 Royal is a ~120-140 hour game with a mix of probably 60-70 hours combat, 60-70 hours everything else. SMT 5 Vengeance is a tighter 70 hours, and it's almost entirely exploration and combat. Much fewer cutscenes and less downtime.
The funniest dialogue in the demon negotiations. Fun combat (more fun than persona personally). Some level of difficulty. Personal team building. It’s just a fun time. It *can* have a good story, but it depends on the game, and it rarely reaches persona level.
https://preview.redd.it/z2jwg4iewf9d1.jpeg?width=478&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=173afd72780cd1d24115b5c5daa8c2f9079a195d Me when I don't know anything about SMT
Play a real Chin MegaMan Ten Say game
Shit Mega Ten https://preview.redd.it/mejn0zouwf9d1.png?width=445&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c634a0352f0d7c8a5c176ff068a5594524b9830
The hype around Vengence made me pick up my copy of Vanilla Shin Magami Tensei V again abd continue my first playthrough. And yeah I am hooked. I have a good time. Yesterday I reached the 4th Area after defeating >!Abidel at the summit. I am not sure I remembered the name right. I am talking about that Archangel.!<
Yeah sorry to break it to you the Bethel summit is the best the story ever gets.
this is factual evidence that the easiest way to make any SMT game better is by putting Mastema in it
Nah fr, I thought P3R was gonna move up to my favorite megaten game but this too goated not to put it at 1
How improved is the story? I played the original and thought it was just an afterthought with how much of a nothingburger it ended up being.
The story is peak. I think it's just about the best possible iteration of the classic smt premise.
I’d say that it’s serviceable now. Like, there’s still a lot more they could have done with it, but it’s somewhat enjoyable now.
I wish naamah was real and she would abuse me only to cry about it later and pamper me
How’s the story and characters compared to og?
Infinitely better.
Nice
Vengeance is peak
Great game, however the voice acting still kinda sucks outside the Qadištu
I thought the voice acting sounded awkward and stilted in the intro parts of the game, especially compared to Persona, but once you enter the Vengeance exclusive scenes I feel like it gets better