That's right. Shin Megami Tensei IV will be the first SMT game I ever play. I have to admit, I honestly never thought this day would come. I've played and beat Catherine, and didn't think it was good. I started Persona 4 Golden, and didn't like it. I've started this game, and wasn't really feeling it. I played Persona 4 Arena, and loved it, but I guess that doesn't really count. Even still, I've always had a curiosity for the franchise, even if a lot of it is a little morbid.

Persona is my best friend's favorite franchise, so I've been exposed to a lot of these games through him. Whenever he tries to get me into Persona mostly, he likens it to Pokemon, with demons. I. Love. Pokemon. But I just can't do the japanese high school setting. That's why the core SMT games always piqued my intrest more than Persona. Specifically SMT 3. It feels like those games are more for my demographic than Persona is.

I've also always noticed how extremely generous Atlus has been with their sales on the eshop. It feels like almost every time I check, all there games are on sale, and that has given me sort of a fondness for them as a company. Like it feels like they care more about people playing and enjoying their games than they do about making this huge profit off of everything, and I like that.

I've always had this philosophy that if a lot of people like something, there has to be something good about it. That's why I always try to play games I'm sure I won't like, if only to broaden my pallet. That philosophy, combined with a swarm of perfect conditions alluded to above, has led me to finally purchase Shin Megami Tensei IV, and I plan to finish it to completion.

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With that all out of the way, do any veterans have suggestions for a beginner? My plan is to play through on the hardest available difficulty, and maybe if the game breaks my spirit hard enough, bring it down to normal. Knowing that, any and all tips, from basic to advanced, would be very much appreciated. I've done a little research on the battle system, so I'm a little familiar to the importance of "super effective" elemental attacks, as well as stat buff and debuffs, as well as grinding and fusing demons. Even still, I'm obviously still a novice when it comes to everything, so clarifications and especially notes on what not to do will probably help me a lot!

Don't try to do the same thing with your tv.

Theres a lady (I think?) who says different things to you based on your invisible morality bar. I believe she is the only way to know where you fall on it, so if you are trying to get a specific ending, talk to her often to make sure you stay on path. I don't think she pops up until a bit into the game, but its good to know. If you are just winging it (which you probably should do), then ignore that.

SMTIV was my first SMT game too, and I didn't have a ton of trouble with it. There are sections that are really hard, but I found everything to be fairly intuitive. Just rotate your saves, just in case.

Take your time and have patience. AND SAVE A LOT. Especially if you are going to play on normal difficulty. But honestly, that's all you need. It is a game that has a great story, but all the action won't really happen till the first 6 hours or so (depending on how quickly you grind etc)

EDIT: SMT IV was my first SMT game as well. As for Atlus, I absolutely love them now. They're one of my favorite developers and they are so under rated.

It's a dude in the bar(s), and he won't pop up until hour 10 or so anyways.

Anyway, the tips I have are to prioritize getting more skill slots for your character and monsters, and to diversify your party member skill types (force, gun, ice, fire, light, dark, etc.) as much as you can as quickly as you can, because those extra turns will make or break you early on. Also, never put a Slime in your party, it's borderline suicide in the early going. Long term, make a point of creating parties first with few or no weaknesses, so enemies won't have twice the turns to tear you a new one, and later make a party with lots of absorb and reflect skills, so enemies effectively never go at all. The fusion system will be necessary for this to happen, of course.

Next, and importantly, realize that the game has a reverse difficulty curve. The beginning is unfair, and you'll never have enough money, HP, TP, or skill slots to be comfortable. Once you beat Medusa those problems all melt away, and the game becomes a joke by the halfway point. Accept that the entire game operates on a "feast or famine" basis, and you'll be at peace with both getting effectively party killed before having a chance to move, and with ending most fights having more HP than you came into it.

My tip is to walk with your 3DS more often, if you don't already have maximum play coins. When you die you have an option to spend your play coins, instead of macca. Trust me, you will NEVER have enough macca in this game unless you grind for relics.

As already stated, the beggining can be a bit overwhelming for beginners. I'm a veteran SMT player, yet the Naga/Minotaur/Medusa boss killed me a lot of times. After that you will have more freedom to grind/do quests, etc and the game becomes easier until the end, when the difficulty comes back again. Also don't forget: you unlock easy mode by dying a few times (3 times, if i remember correctly). So, if you want an easier difficulty don't load the game back, just deal with it that you lose some macca/play coin. I hope you enjoy this game, i think it's a great game even though it's not the best SMT game out there.

My tip would be to not immediately dismiss the game as rubbish because it doesn't come natural to you...
It axes me the number of complaints I see because people feel they shouldn't have to grind or feel challenged...

Games should be easy to pick up though.

DKC: TF for example is easy to pick up, but still very challenging in the later worlds. It does a great job of teaching you the neccesities by virtue of its level design (instead of overly long tutorials or handholding).

Feeling challenged is great, but I'd happily argue that it's bad design to require "grinding." Perhaps you meant something else?

Grinding isn't a challenge. It's a chore. So far, I haven't had to grind at all, and have been pretty much breezing through everything, though I haven't faced the Minotaur everyone has been talking about yet.

But if this is you're way of telling me that I'll have to do boring and tedious grinding to progress, I'm going to call the game out on it when it happens. That being said, everything I've read has told me that level grinding won't help, which to me is a good thing. I've done a good amount of research, and I feel like I have a decent grasp on the battle system, though I'm still at the beginning. I just saved Navarre from that Ivy woman.