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Shin Megami Tensei and Persona

he certainly wouldn't dance around the subject that's for sure.
 
I love how whenever Sho is brought up in conversation, this thread immediately devolves into horriblely amazing puns.
 
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Better than any of Sho's actual puns

or teddie's for that matter
 
I also just want more Haberkorn being douchey.
cuz I love it when he does other character types besides the hero.
 
So, uh, D.C. Douglas (VA for Wesker among many other things) posted on Facebook about some games coming out in the next couple of months: BBCPEx (June), Lost Dimension (July)... and Dancing All Night (June). Blazblue isn't weird since he's Azrael and Extend coming out next month doesn't sound too unlikely, but a June release for DAN?

We know they've been doing the dubbing and stuff for awhile, but the possibility of it coming out within the same month as the JP release sounds too good to be true.

But at least if it's not a June or even a July release, at least we know we'll have freakin' D.C. Douglas in it.
 
Wesker confirmed for shit dancing game
 
you're welcome :3

EDIT: Oh yeah, SMT: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker is out on 3DS now!

It's got some free DLC that is worthless and some other spotpass and other features. It seems the core game hasn't been changed at all, all the resources going into the intro and second story mode. I dunn how to feel about it. I need to spend more time with it.
 
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Squire Grooktook said:
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On a side note, I started playing Castlevania: Rondo of Blood recently. Good reminder of how to make your game anime as fuck while still being legitimately charming.
Thought about this and one thing I can point to is the departure of Cozy Okada from Atlus. He was one of the original founders of the company and is credited as the creator of the Megaten franchise. The last game he would have had a direct hand in would be Nocturne and looking back at the series from that point, there is a pretty consistent tone for all of those titles. I don't want to say that the Pre-persona 3 titles were "darker" or grittier than later games but that's the best way to describe what feels different about them.

DDS would have come out a year or two afterwards but since it uses art assets from Nocturne and I would assume that Atlus would still be keeping their titles pretty close to what they were used too it feels like a Okada directed game. And with Kaneko still doing art design you can expect it to look like a SMT game.

As for what caused the current generation of persona games to be so different in imagery and arguably tone, the series since 3 has been directed by Katsura Hashino who has definitely brought anime to the SMT universe. I'm pretty sure that the overall writing staff of Atlus has changed a lot since the early 2000's as well so that could also be a factor.
 
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@Persona (the guy that helps doing these amazing sprites for skullgirls) is pretty knowledgeable about the matter.

There, summoned him
 
PaperBag_Sniper said:
Interesting speculation.

One thing: I always under the impression that Kazumo Kaneko was also a writer/director alongside Okada, and that the two of them were the major creative force behind the series, in terms of both gameplay, aesthetics, and theme. This would explain why DDS, the Raidou games, the first Devil Survivor, and SMT IV, all did more or less good jobs of staying true to the series.
 
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The earlier games were all works of Cozy/Kaneko along with the writer Satomi Tadashi (who self inserts himself in Persona 1 and in P2 marries his waifu Tammy, the heroine from SMT If).

Cozy left after Nocturne to do some bad PSP games at his own company Gaia and later headed up Cave Online which made SMT Imagine - looking it up, seems like he's just been making mobile games since then.

Tadashi last worked on the scenario of DDS along with the novelist Yu Godai. He seems to have left the company since then?

Kaneko last did character/world design on DDS, directed/wrote/did everything on the Raidou games, character designs and concept for Strange Journey, and did the original concept/rough scenarios for SMT IV. I think he's slowly retiring and letting the next generation of Atlus take over the reigns? Though, when I asked some buddies at Atlus about it, they said he's still around and doing stuff so who knows? Probably a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, or maybe he's just become fully management at this point and is thoroughly entrenched in office politics and trying to keep the company afloat.


Either way, I agree that Atlus games have lost a lot of their appeal without Kaneko. I think Hashino is a great director and every game he's touched has been fantastic and better than the last, and Soejima is a fantastic designer and his stuff is amazing - but what got me into Megaten was the vibe of creepy occult + oppressive atmosphere and the slick, eerie designs of the characters, which is really missing from the modern era.

SMT IV was a great return to form with its harsh atmosphere and twists on the series tropes. I hope they make more like it. Likewise, Devil Survivor has a great gameplay system but I really wish the character designs were Kaneko instead.

Hell, if they just offered a DLC skin that'd redraw all the characters in every new Atlus game in Kaneko style, I'd be the first to buy that shit and play through every game. As it is, I have trouble getting through all these P4 spinoffs and Devil Survivor remakes.


That said, I'd rather play any Atlus JRPG than any other JRPG out there. I'll probably play through and really enjoy SMT x FE despite how much I dislike how it looks.


===============
THAT SAID, here's a survey Black and I were running about SMT acrylic character keychains we wanted to make!

Vote for the ones you'd buy and we'll make 'em! Though the votes are waaaaay over now and we've already decided the 34 we're making, but maybe the 5 votes of whoever reads this thread will be enough to push someone back into the ranking?
 
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With all the true to the original remakes (Soul Hackers and the early Persona games for example) I think it'd be a bit of a stretch to say that the current team is afraid to tap into the classic Atlus style for SMT and the like. I don't even hate Kaneko's art design. I just feel its a bit disheartening that some people are willing to write a game off just because someone like Kaneko isn't doing the art. I mean, as much as I love Keita Amamiya doing some art for SMT IV, I'm not gonna be the least bit upset if I see he had no involvement in the next one.

I'm not even that much of a fam of the chibi style for Persona Q, but I still enjoy it nonetheless.
 
This is all interesting info to hear. From the looks of it, the "dream team" of Atlus has either moved on or shifted to managing projects.
Persona said:
Either way, I agree that Atlus games have lost a lot of their appeal without Kaneko. I think Hashino is a great director and every game he's touched has been fantastic and better than the last, and Soejima is a fantastic designer and his stuff is amazing - but what got me into Megaten was the vibe of creepy occult + oppressive atmosphere and the slick, eerie designs of the characters, which is really missing from the modern era.
Basically how I feel about the games. What got me into Megaten was Persona 3 and Strange Journey, but having played around the earlier titles I really like the grim atmosphere and the gothic motifs. I do think that Persona 5 is going to be really good though. P3 is my second favorite Persona game and 4 is a refinement of the mechanics I liked in the series. If P5 can continue the trend of improving the mechanics, while also telling a compelling story it's going to be the best Persona game of this new generation.

SMT IV was a great return to form with its harsh atmosphere and twists on the series tropes. I hope they make more like it. Likewise, Devil Survivor has a great gameplay system but I really wish the character designs were Kaneko instead.
I've got a laundry list of Atlus RPG's to finish the Devil Survivor series is one of them.

-----------------------------------

On another note in preparation for Persona 5 being released later this year, I think it'd be a good excuse to replay the previous Persona games. I'm going to start at Persona 1 and I have a question. Is the original Revelations: Persona worth visiting? The only version I've played was the PSP one but I'm kind of curious to see how the original one played out.
 
The English version has a lot of Americanization in it. That's all the changes I know.
Also, have fun with that battle system...
 
SanoBaron said:
The English version has a lot of Americanization in it. That's all the changes I know.
Also, have fun with that battle system...
You know I love me some hybrid tactical RPG combat :PUN:
 
Masouusversion.jpg

basically everything you need to know about Revelations: Persona
(he talks jive too)
 
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SanoBaron said:
oh I do too.
in Devil Survivor. :PUN:
That's on my RPG bucket list for this year. Right after FF Tactics
 
Devil Survivor Overclocked had the best Law/Chaos axis of all the MegaTen games imo, and the setting was really cool too. Only off-putting thing is the artstyle.
 
I'm probably, like, the only person who actually likes the artstyle of Devil Survivor.
not many artstyles I hate.
 
Nap1400 said:
Devil Survivor Overclocked had the best Law/Chaos axis of all the MegaTen games imo, and the setting was really cool too. Only off-putting thing is the artstyle.
Better than SMT II
 
at least it's not evangelion like all of the second devil survivor is
 
The character desing on Devil survivor 2 is pretty bad and the game feels way less "desperate/fight for survival" than the first.

even if it has joan of arc, i can't bring myself to like it. And i already HATED most characters form the first.

That being said, i told Persona was a master in atlus-related things, haven't i?
 
I still like the art style and characters. :p

And ye, it is cool to see Persona's Atlus JRPG knowledge.
 
The best character from DeSu2 is Jungo
and his cat, Jungo
this should be common knowledge
 
I know I've said this before, but the characters in Devil Survivor look so damn sickly and ech. Also anti-grav boobs
 
Lol, I love how everybody gets so upset about the boobs.
Not even here.
I've been on social media sites that have had several paragraph rants, charts, algorithms, and diagnostics if the boobs in devil survivor.
Like, I can't help but laugh at the obsession.
 
honestly I just don't care for Yasuda as an artist or a character designer
the only work of theirs that I can recall being fairly tame is Durarara!!
but Devil Survivor is just not good
like I can understand getting popular anime artist person to do your shit but why not make it a good one
like Katsumi Enami
 
SanoBaron said:
I wanna see Keita Amamiya do more art.

He did the character and world design for one of my favorite super nes action platformers, Hagane. Really amazing game. Love the horizontal somersault move.
 
Squire Grooktook said:
He did the character and world design for one of my favorite super nes action platformers, Hagane. Really amazing game. Love the horizontal somersault move.
yo, just look at some of the art he does in general.
07bb2a54d99de8d9668dd3685e292a56.jpg
garode-4.jpg

even my birth Sentai!
tumblr_m2r755gSun1rqtcbqo1_1280.jpg
so otherworldly and artistic. I want a full game with all the art by him.
 
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Well you do get to play as a Buddhist magic powered robot ninja in Hagane.

And the final boss is a sentient nuclear missile covered in faces (which you chase up a silo while fighting in order to kill it before it launches).

Helps that it's a 10/10 game on top of the art direction and character designs.
 
I was more referring to an SMT game done by him.
but I'll definitely give Hanagea try.
 
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