Mar1217 said:
ARamdomGamer said:
Atlus, bring back the quality Shin Megami Tensei used to have. Last good SMT was Strange Journey. Bring Kaneko on character design and direction, let Meguro be the head composer again, get again that spark of the first 3 numerical entries and revive the spin-off titles that also had a lot of care put into them, Digital Devil Saga and Devil Summoner.
|
Story wise ? Yes I agree. However looking at SMTIV in perspective, the game had already what I'd say the best premise and best opening act in the franchise as a whole, the later parts in Tokyo was where it began to tang a little bit and then recoup with the blasted/infernal Tokyo section, after that ? A let down sure, but I were to go past design wise, SMT IV/Apocalypse joyces from the best demon pool in the franchise, a press-turn system that is equal to no one and dungeons that aren't an annoyance to traverse (except God's domain,lol).
Also, people are mostly unanimous on last SMT composer, Ryota Kozuka, is done a fantastic job on both SMT IV games so there's no need of any Meguro's Persona/Jazzy influence anymore imo.
I don't mind if Kaneko were to come back honestly (actually, I'd not be surprised if he were a consultant for Maniac's Team) though, I won't underplay the work Doi has done so far in the art direction department. Sure, it can only imitate Kaneko's style but some he's latest demon design have nothing scoff at.
As for spin-off series, it's clear that were past the PS2/DS era where Atlus was willing to experiment in multiple ways (or just rentabilize the expensive engine used for SMT Nocture which was used for every SMT games of that era), but as time goes and with Sega ownership, I won't hold my breath anymore in the hopes of a new Devil Survivor akin to DS1.
|
IV starts super slow for me, like whatever cool ideas IV may have are bogged down by its execution and it just comes off as really bland and I don't even want to get started on how far removed from SMT tone Apocalypse is, specially that Bonds ending. Its story, pacing and character type for the alignments have been better in previous titles.
IV has great combat sure, but so did Nocturne when it introduced the press turn system, plus IV doesn't have the benefit of the many bosses of Nocturne which flipped your thinking and strategy beyond just basic buffs and debuffs.
Now as far as music, my problem is that IV is far from memorable, besides the main boss theme from IV and to an extent Incarnation of Evil from Apocalypse, a lot of it just kind of fades out of my memory, compared to the classics Meguro can compose and his mastery of multiple styles.
I don't mind Doi designing some demons, but I don't think his style fits for the character design of SMT, Kaneko's style gave good part of that twisted, macabre tone to the franchise and it reflected not only on his demons, but the human characters as well.
