Strengths: Top-class art design and graphics; deep monster raising system not unlike Pokemon - but with demons; plenty of hours of game play (if you don't mind spending most of it leveling up); strong story.
Weakness: Mute lead character; simple, or lack there of, story excution ruins makings of amazing story; stale gameplay (aka monster raising) for the casual gamer or Pokemon vet; wasted cameo by Dante from DMC.
You may not believe this, but unlike what seems to be the entire population of gamers out there who have played this game, I did not enjoy my time in the SMT:N world. At first, the awesome graphics (which are helped out greatly by fresh art design) push you quickly through the first few hours. You go through a few dungeons, get a few demons in your party and story is progressing nicely.
Then you hit a boss battle where you are easily wiped out. For the next few hours, you will spend your time building the levels of your demons in hopes of getting them high enough and/or finding the right combination of demons for the battle. Demons have different classes and abilities such as fire, ice, etc., that effect damage taken/received in battles and this, in my experience, was really hard to figure out without outside help. Casual gamers or RPG newbies will most likely find this game extremely frustrating at these moments without a guide. But it does not end there...
...then another boss battle appears which follows the same rules as above. Then another. And another. You get the picture. Each time it seems to take more and more time to raise and combine the right demons to have the perfect party to defeat these bosses, some of which have insanely good attacks, which can lead to some controller-through-the-window moments.
Hard boss battles are nothing new to the SMT series, as in my experience with the Persona series, and that is not necessarily my gripe. The problem is that the story seems drop into the background. Go look for something or someone, find a boss, spend two, three hours finding demons and leveling them up, rinse, repeat. Some of us have done this for too many hours in games such as Pokemon and even if these are "adult Pokemon," the same level-up to pass a point mindset puts the brain asleep.
Even when the story is in the forefront, the mute lead character and boring supporting characters (including a generic, demon hunting cameo by Dante from the Devil May Cry series) hurt what little story progression is made between boss battles or interesting characters hit the stage. This seems to be my fault, as I was expecting more of a party of characters such as the Persona series progressing the story (which seems to be what the SMT: Digital Devil Saga series is all about).
Again, I am one of the only people I know who dislikes this game. RPG vets, those looking for a less cuddly Pokemon experience, or people who want more leveling up, less story, will enjoy this game. Casual gamers, I would say most gamers, will at least want to have the 400+ page guide for this game by their side the whole time. If any of the things I mentioned above show up on your general dislike list, either pass on it, rent it first (try Gamefly if you cannot find it around town) or borrow it. Then again, it is pretty rare so buying it and hating it can actually bring you more in return, as I found out.
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The most intersting thing about SMT is the atmosphere. With the dark setting, few games are like it. Aside from that, the battle system is amazing. You are able to combin different monsters to gain different ability and form interesting parties. The only weakness is that it might be too hard for most people. It is game over if your main charater dies, so it can be hard if you don't know what you are doing.
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Strengths: Looks nice, innovative setting and feel.
Weakness: Lots of fighting.
This has been one of my favorite games as of late. I especially appreciate the very innovative and refreshingly dark storyline that is definitely out of the ordinary. After playing so many save the princess/kingdom/family games it's quite nice playing a game like this. Also I had a lot of fun with the massive amount of customization of characters and the monster collecting aspect. A great game overall that doesn't steer too far from the traditional RPG formula but brings an excellent story and atmosphere.
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Strengths: graphics, storyline twist, demon depth, and difficulty.
Weakness: If it is the music, I wouldnt know. I wasn't paying attention to that. But on the outer map moving from icon to icon, as an icon was not great. some freedom of movement.
In an age where games are beatdown in days or just hours, looking for games that are worth my money and give me something to do, are hard to find. Why on earth are people referring this to a pokemon type game is beyond me. I've never played pokemon. However I have played YU-GI-OH. I enjoy yugioh. The reference is to the fact that as you talk to demons and recruit them they fight with you. YOU may have on call a certain number of demons with innumerable differences in abilities. LIKE yu-gi-oh you may mix your demon friends together 2 at a time or all of them, to create a much different demon. if you do this right you can transfer certain spells or abilities, sometimes this takes alot of time and resetting. but if you want to have those hard earned spells, it is worth it. You will mix them at a cathederal. once you do this your old demon or demons are gone. however.... the cathederal also offers a (storage) of your demons it will save the most current version, if you want. so...for a price, (after you have used the demon to mix),you can purchase it back. the higher the level the higher the price. Now the game itself is very deep, it offers good challenges and it is familiar to other rpg's. So just buy the game, play it, and play it, and play it. Too bad the brady book isn't made anymore I would have enjoyed seeing what I am missing, plus I'm hung on the little numbers you step on then fight those girls up in that tower. Crap. Be careful or youll get stuck like me.
Strengths: + cool,stylish art design and graphics;
Weakness: - the battle system is not innovative
- the presentation of the overhead map is weak; instead of the character walking from town to town, you move a simple icon on a map.
You'll either love SMT: Nocturne or hate it. The setting, graphics, character designs are refreshing, but the battle system and the overhead map aren't anywhere as innovative.
SMT: Nocturne offers probably the best use of cell shaded graphics I have ever seen. It's almost like watching an anime cartoon.
On the other hand the battle system is nothing new; it's pretty much selecting moves through menus. Gameplay also involves talking to monsters and trying to convince them to join your army. In that sense it's almost pokemon-esque; they join you and you use them to fight with you.
Strengths: Looks nice and has interesting character design
Weakness: Requires TONS of time and patience
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocture is based off a popular rpg series in Japan.
I wanted to like this game, but I couldn't. While the game does a good job at presenting it's dark atmosphere, everything else didn't hold up. You will be assaulted with lots of battles thanks to the game's high encounter rate and yet will gain levels at a pitifully slow rate. To make matters worse, some extreme balance issues will force you to constantly level up or you'll be floored by enemies that will attack several times in succession before your turn.
The storyline starts off with promise but you'll go through large amounts of time where nothing exciting happens, greatly reducing interest. Worth a look only for serious rpg fans who have a lot of time and patience on their hands and even then you could do better than this game.
Strengths: Dante from DMC, engaging plot, multiple endings= replayability
Weakness: can get repetative (like any rpg), definitly not for rpg newbies
A great RPG, SMT: Nocturne will last you a while, with multiple endings to get, and tons of side quests to do. The style, story, and gameplay do a very good job of being different from almost any other game on the market as well. A great game, but only for the truly RPG hardcore, due to its sometimes complicated, and always deep gameplay. Recomended if you are up to it.
Strengths: Great storyline, recruiting demons, cut-scene graphics
Weakness: None
SMT: Nocturne is one of my favorite games. It has a great storyline and puts an interesting spin on the role-playing events that take place. The main character fights against demons that have been brought through to Earth’s dimension by an evil force. However, the main character has also been turned into a half-demon and now has the power to fight against this new threat. During the game, the main character can also recruit demons to accompany him in his quest to defeat this evil force. Dante (from Devil May Cry) also makes an appearance in the game and even joins your party.
This is a great role-playing game and I highly recommend the purchase.
Weakness: getting whooped by enemies that are 3 times weaker than you
This game is pretty good. The setting is awesome, post apocalyptic Tokyo. You are a demon who gets to choose his own fate. Pretty cool. The battle system is great. It allows for you to kill monsters much stronger than you if you know their weaknesses. However this means weak monsters can whoop you if they hit your weakness. All in all pretty great game.
Strengths: Graphics, Characters, Monster creation/capturing system, and designs.
Weakness: Its tedious and difficult.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is a RPG for PS2. This is the first true Shin Megami Tensei game to make it to the US. You play as a kid who happens to be chosen to be one of the few survivors to see the destruction of the world and the start of a new one. The game plays like a capture the monster turnbased RPG. You can capture so many various monsters and then combine them to make even more powerful monsters. The problem with this system is that the monsters cannot be a higher level than the main character. Another gripe is that the monsters you kill don't give much experience, so its going to be a level grinding chore to beat this game. Which makes the game tedious and difficult.
Give the game 3 stars for being unique yet average at the same time for an RPG and 1 star if you don't like monster collecting.
Strengths: Excellent graphics and unique story-line
Weakness: Combat is unforgiving, basic sound.
Finally, a RPG this is not an over-the-top flamboyant art style and story. The Cel-shaded look and the amount of detail really create a unique mood that sets this RPG apart from others. The story is much darker than many RPGs, and it is well written. Perhaps the only weakness of the story is there could be more of it. The overall game structure and combat is based upon standard turn-based game mechanics. One of the best new ideas is the ability to recruit and combine demons to make new weapons! The ability to talk to opponents instead of just attacking, is also very refreshing, and also helpful as the game can get very hard and unforgiving. The weakest aspect of the game is the sound as it seems slightly generic, however the music is decent and fits the tone of the game very well.
Strengths: Good setting. Interesting partnering system. Great strategical depth.
Weakness: Nothing comes easy.
Okay, I've know you've heard this one before. Modern Day Tokyo is on teh verge of total apocalypse and only one lone boy can save the world. Not so original. But SMT puts enough twists and turns on this common Japanese plotline to come up with something wholly new. I won't reveal any of the plot, you'll ahve to learn that on your own.
But along your travels, you'll meet a whole host of supernatural entities that you can cajole to join your adventure. There's a limit on how many creatures you can bring along. But you can fuse these spirits to create unique and even more powerful partners.
And you'll need to increase your power ASAP because SMT can be unforgiving at times. But not in the, "This is too tough, I don't want to play this anymore," way. More like the, "Whew, I finally passed this part, I can't wait to see what's next."
It's a really quite engaging title and highly recommended.
Strengths: Storyline and atmosphere, fast load times, guest appearnce from Dante from Devil May Cry
Weakness: May be too hard for some gamers
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is a basic turn-based RPG in many ways but with afew twists that make it an exceptional one. You have numerous upgrade options, monster recruiting abilities, and alignment influences that help make the game a good RPG experience. The game has a very engrossing storyline & alot of extras also which will have gamers playing for a long time. Different endings, different ideologies to choose from, afew bonus dungeons, characters, and goodies to find in the game to add replay to an already long game. I would recommend Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne to gamers that like RPGs & have some experience playing RPGs.
Testseek.com has collected 1 expert review for Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and the rating is 85 of 100. Click below and use Testseek.com to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS rating of 3.41 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #837 game of all time, #30 game of 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and #171 PlayStation 2 game of all time. The rating and ranking is based on an average of 69 critic scores, awards and other criteria. To see a breakdown of the game ranking, read individual critic reviews, or see how other games...
Thanks to Disgaea’s stateside success, it seems that we’ll be seeing a lot more regarding Atlus’s bizarre (though often surprisingly enjoyable) additions to the cliché ridden RPG genre. In fact, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Try saying that ten times fast) takes the role playing genre to a whole new level. SMT: Nocturne is hardly your typical ‘sword and sorcery’ RPG. In fact, the...
Seeing a Shin Megami Tensei title in the States is surprising. Though super-popular in Japan, the Megaten games have long been deemed too odd, complex, and most of all, dark for the American market. Most RPG fans are used to fantasy adventures with neon-clothed characters, not the modern-day, occult-tinged demon-summoning and post-apocalyptic scenarios offered by the Megaten series. Yet, here's...
The Japanese publisher/developer Atlus really opened some American eyes last year when it brought Nippon Ichi's Disgaea: Hour of Darkness to our side of the pond. Barely able to push it onto audiences through advertising and scarcely supported by coverage via the mainstream games press, Altus relied on the word of mouth created by the title's solid tactical mechanics and its unique presentational...
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Strengths: Top-class art design and graphics; deep monster raising system not unlike Pokemon - but with demons; plenty of hours of game play (if you don't mind spending most of it leveling up); strong story.
Weakness: Mute lead character; simple, or lack there of, story excution ruins makings of amazing story; stale gameplay (aka monster raising) for the casual gamer or Pokemon vet; wasted cameo by Dante from DMC.
You may not believe this, but unlike what seems to be the entire population of gamers out there who have played this game, I did not enjoy my time in the SMT:N world. At first, the awesome graphics (which are helped out greatly by fresh art design) push you quickly through the first few hours. You go through a few dungeons, get a few demons in your party and story is progressing nicely.
Then you hit a boss battle where you are easily wiped out. For the next few hours, you will spend your time building the levels of your demons in hopes of getting them high enough and/or finding the right combination of demons for the battle. Demons have different classes and abilities such as fire, ice, etc., that effect damage taken/received in battles and this, in my experience, was really hard to figure out without outside help. Casual gamers or RPG newbies will most likely find this game extremely frustrating at these moments without a guide. But it does not end there...
...then another boss battle appears which follows the same rules as above. Then another. And another. You get the picture. Each time it seems to take more and more time to raise and combine the right demons to have the perfect party to defeat these bosses, some of which have insanely good attacks, which can lead to some controller-through-the-window moments.
Hard boss battles are nothing new to the SMT series, as in my experience with the Persona series, and that is not necessarily my gripe. The problem is that the story seems drop into the background. Go look for something or someone, find a boss, spend two, three hours finding demons and leveling them up, rinse, repeat. Some of us have done this for too many hours in games such as Pokemon and even if these are "adult Pokemon," the same level-up to pass a point mindset puts the brain asleep.
Even when the story is in the forefront, the mute lead character and boring supporting characters (including a generic, demon hunting cameo by Dante from the Devil May Cry series) hurt what little story progression is made between boss battles or interesting characters hit the stage. This seems to be my fault, as I was expecting more of a party of characters such as the Persona series progressing the story (which seems to be what the SMT: Digital Devil Saga series is all about).
Again, I am one of the only people I know who dislikes this game. RPG vets, those looking for a less cuddly Pokemon experience, or people who want more leveling up, less story, will enjoy this game. Casual gamers, I would say most gamers, will at least want to have the 400+ page guide for this game by their side the whole time. If any of the things I mentioned above show up on your general dislike list, either pass on it, rent it first (try Gamefly if you cannot find it around town) or borrow it. Then again, it is pretty rare so buying it and hating it can actually bring you more in return, as I found out.
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