I have been a diehard fan of Persona for a good lone while now. To the point where my feelings on the franchise are that of rabid adoration that concerns even me at times. Seriously, between this and Like a Dragon it feels like Japan is conspiring to bankrupt me with never ending high-quality releases! But in all the time that I've spent going through Persona 3, 4 and 5- never once did I actually zoom out to the wider franchise that Persona was drawn from. Because yes, Persona is a spin-off; remember? Shin Megami Tensei is the woefully underserved original franchise that has seen such little support that Shin Megami Tensei 4 is still currently a 3DS exclusive title for the foreseeable future. What is it about these games that just fails to 'suck in the masses' like Persona does?
To get to the bottom of this I decided to lightly dip my toes into this most famous, and overshadowed, Japanese roleplaying franchise by going in on Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne. On Hard difficulty. In my defence, I figured that being a Persona veteran would give me some wiggle room against the challenges that would come my way- but it didn't take long until I knew exactly why this franchise lacks the fandom of it's spin-off; accessibility. That's as far as it goes, truly. Persona is a franchise built and bred to be accessible to the common man- easing you in gently to it's rigors that even the hardest games offer a little breathing space. The best way I can describe Shin Megami Tensei 3 is 'unrelenting.'
I think this was best contained within the literal first hours of the game, for the very first fight the game threw my way. After absolutely assaulting me with new terms I need to start caring about like 'The Conception' and such, I get pushed into my very first brawl and learn- oh, I literally don't have any other move aside from 'attack' and 'pass'. Also, I'm up against two enemies who kill me. That's right, the very first encounter is against mobs it is mathematically impossible to out-damage. I died in my first fight. As it turns out the two medicine the game gives you beforehand can actually be used mid battle by scrolling to the side with the directional buttons- unlike how Persona does it- And that was just the beginning.
Shin Megami also makes use of the now outdated system of enemy encounter I like to call the 'ambush system'. When you explore there is a chance you'll be thrown into a battle out of nowhere with no indication of a mob around you whatsoever. There's no crawling shadow avatar to avoid, you just get the ambush. Additionally there's a small chance the game will decide that they get advantage over you, which is apparently affected by the luck stat, and there's a supremely inconsistent cooldown meaning that sometimes (I think it may be dependent on the entirely unexplained 'phase of the moon' system the game assumes I already know.) You may be attacked literally two steps away from where you just last got attacked. It sucks, to be be honest. It sucks greatly.
All of these systems came clashing in the first boss fight of the game. An enemy preluded by dozens of friendlier demons hidden in various Hospital wards all offering the same piece of advice- about 'talking'. Seriously, it is insane how many of these demons nattering on about how people can talk to demons to get by them with fighting, and even how a couple saw a human talk their way around the very boss I'm approaching. That is, in typical design parlance, an indication of how you should approach the coming encounter. Can you see where this is going? The boss is immune to talking. It was all complete hogwash. And then, to rub salt in my wounds, I had to beat this boss three times, because the other two times I got ambushed on the way back to my save point and killed because of the ridiculous encounter rates. This game feels roughly slapped together on a mechanical level and it irks the living hell out of me.
It irks me so much because I would love to engage more with the promising sounding story of Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne. The end of the world, the warring post world quotes, the fascinating time bending old man and his maid that seem to represent some esoteric concept of the cycle of life or perhaps the relationship between life and death- it's hard to quite say. And then I happen to also know that Dante is palling around because this franchise makes no sense. There's a mood to this that feels plucked right of an apocalyptic anime that I'd watch- and I wonder if the game is going to live up to that potential as much as I'd expect!
What does have me somewhat confused is the music. So Persona has become renowned for having incredibly thematically empowering and just spectacularly composed soundtracks that gain a life on their own through 3, 4 and 5. 1 and 2 aren't as well known for this music, but what snippets I've heard seems to imply they're both damn good on their own. SMT 3's music on the otherhand isn't even in the same league! It isn't, I hasten to say. I think the soundtrack is genuinely good and I like listening to it- but the Persona games demonstrate a clear mastery of the additive nature of music as tool and discipline, whilst SMT 3 sounds like some solid tracks that the team commissioned. Sure, you get the 'in their own world' 'Shin Megami' heads who will die on a hill for the SMT 3's music, but there's little denying it from even the perspective of music laymen- Persona music just has more substance and spice to it. And I struggle to understand why that is given the same company oversaw both. (Although to be fair, I hear that SMT 4's soundtrack is supposed to be one of the best that ATLUS ever produced, so many I just need to wait for that port... whenever that's coming... any day now...)
My time with Shin Megami Tensei has been a dose of genuine intrigue damped by a messy and overly aggressive presentation that I'm pushing myself through because when every thing is working- I'm genuinely having fun. The 'stock' system for battles creates a great risk and reward dynamic to take advantage of, stacking buffs and debuffs are always welcome tactical decisions, bosses are a challenge to learn as well as to grind over, and I particularly like the feeling of building my entire team from figurative scratch rather than just building my hero and dealing with the team build the game fed to me, (like for Persona) but it sucks when all that goodness is what I'm struggling to see beyond the frustrations.
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