Well I've been misleading in my explanation. It's not usually an actual Game Over. I should have pointed that out. Not everyone gets wiped out. But getting some of my demons K.O.'d before I have a good means of reviving them (as familiar, money is scarce in the beginning) pretty much means the same thing as it leaves me stranded to use my backup demons, who some times are just fusion fodder waiting to be fused later. And if I get surprise attacked again after that... Well, that's why in those situations it's sadly much more time efficient to just reset, and I don't want it to be that way. I also want my main demons to gain exp when I venture out and fight. Not get K.O'd soon after I step into the field because of a mechanic like that. It also seems you can't hit enemies first on the world map, though I can't recall if this means they can act first.

Not sure what mechanics I might be missing, but I have read up on some things before I started. Mainly about builds and general advice. The only new battle mechanic I see so far is Smirk, and the fact that physical abilities now cost MP rather than HP. I really don't think this has anything to do with my lack of knowledge of the game mechanics.
And I could make up teams that together fully cover each elemental resistance, but but one of the main things I like about these games is that there are so many monsters I like to use. Using the demons I like is very important to me. And I don't think this mechanic of all things should impose on your freedom of chosing which demons you should bring with you. If there's a boss with a certain strength or weakness, that's fine. But not something like this.
I'd rather play with my favorite monsters and lower the difficulty if that's what it takes rather than be forced to play with monsters I don't like because of this mechanic.
Though for now I'm enduring it on Normal to see where it goes. I can't say it's a plesant experience to keep saving so often though.

Haven't played IV but went trough p2-p3-p4 dds2 and smt3. I don't get the point of lowering the difficulty in a SMT game has what's unfair will stay unfair (getting ur team OSd first turn because RNGs hates you), and otherwise the difficulty is incredibly in these games. I get why someone would play, for example, catherine in easy mode or use a walktrough in a VN just to follow the story from start to end, but lowering the difficulty in a SMT game would be taking away half the fun IMO.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, especially of "fun"

The bolded is your problem. Don't get attached to demons. Seriously. Literally, as soon as you have the money to do it, or the demons, you should be fusing demons away and not caring what you get, as long as it's better than the last. This isn't Pokemon. This isn't the type of game you're describing at all. This isn't a "pick your favorite demons and win" type of game; it's the opposite. It's "pick the best demons for now, and win for now." Even on easy, it's that way. The core battle system doesn't change on easy. I'm pretty sure the only thing that changes is the level, which means nothing because you can still get your team swept by a super effective attack by a demon 10 levels lower than you, and the lower prices. You know, to make it easier to fuse more.

Changing the difficulty won't change that aspect of the game at all. You're literally fighting against the core game design. Monsters don't even learn moves past their first few levels. You're literally intentionally weighing yourself down on all fronts. You're not only making your team worse, but you're making the moves they learn worse. Take my advice and let the demons go.

Also, do what I did and only fuse magic demons. And make sure every done of your main demons has all four of the main attacking types. Really helpful. Like, it makes the game a cakewalk.

Also, as soon as you can, get the moves Makarakarn and Tetrekarn on at least one of your demons. Makes the game even more of a cakewalk. (...until the end.) Those are moves you're just not getting without fusing without regard for "demons you like." Think of it more as "builds you like." You're not keeping the demons, you're keeping their builds, and tranfering them to better demons with hopefully better builds. And use the compendium (consortium?) as soon as you have the money.

And as soon as you can, use your points towards lowering both the compendium prices and raising the demon fusion level cap. Very helpful.

I don't hold on to the demons for too long. The only exception really where I kept one for the entire game was Pixie in SMT 3, but in that game demons could evolve into several new forms so she lasted for a while. I keep fusing them into newer stronger ones. But it's usually into ones I like.

If I can chose between Samael who happens to be weak to one of the elements the current monsters use,





or Jueyuan, who happens to be strong against an element they use, then I will always go with Samael. In some cases I still remember when I used certain demons at certain portions of the games, or the story behind them. And I like that, and the reason I do is because they were memorable in some way. Which makes it interesting seeing them again in the next SMT game I play. Especially if they have a bit of a story behind them.

As for "intentionally making the moves they learn worse", that's not really an issue. If I want a certain move, I'll likely get it on some of my monsters. I've gotten Maragidyne (I believe it was) on Gabriel in SMT III, by going back several generations through her family tree and fusing it into Persona made to create her. Both of the ones neccesary to create Gabriel in fact, to increase the likelyhood of it happening, because she was resistant to learning Fire skills. I believe there was a 4% chance of Maragidyne appearing on her list, on top of the already random factor of being one of the skills randomly selected out of the bunch. And Gabriel herself was just made for the purpose of carrying along that skill to Metatron along with 4 other Archangels neccesary for the fusion, where I repeated that process.
So in this game where every monster not only can seemingly inherit any skill, and you even get to chose which skills are carried over, it's not going to be a problem. I'm quite used the fusion system.

Another thing I do when I see a skill I want to use even though it's not on a demon I want to use is that I go ahead and fuse that demon into something stronger, or somethign that can be fused into something I like, to keep that skill around until that demon I like can be fused. I've already done that with a few buffs in SMT 4 that I have ready to incorporate into my team.

I don't only fuse magic demons, but I do always give them each of the elemental attacks, yeah. Physical demons have lower MP, but Tam Lin for example can attack 1~2 times and has high Str, so he tends to make up for it that way, so I can conserve some mana with him as I usually don't always need to use magic every single turn with every character. Exception being boss battles.

As for Makarakarn and Tetrakarn, I'll keep a lookout for them. Queen Mab (an old favorite, as it was Pixie's final evolution in SMT III), Lorelei as well as Xi Wangmu learn Makarakarn. Haven't looked into Tetrakarn yet but even if it isn't learned by any demon I like, I'm sure they can be fused into something I like. You can even fuse demons backwards through the family tree by fusing them with lower level demons.

And yeah, I do keep fusing my builds into new monsters. That's what I've always done. But onto monsters I like, when available.
This enemy encounter system is a useless mechanic that goes against the core of what SMT demon fusion has been about all these years. You could always move your builds to the monsters you wanted, with some limitations. But in general, you could always create the team you wanted with all, or most of the skills you wanted. Now however, this system is limiting which monsters are viable to use, forcing you to play with some specific monsters unless you want to have an unplesant time. I don't like that, and that's not what I expected from a game with such a diverse monster history.
The 5% HP reduction you gain from a premptive strike on an enemy, I can't even say with confidence that it's ever affected the outcome of any fight so far. Basically what it is is either get a normal fight, or risk getting wiped out. For something with such a heavy impact on the battles, I would have appreciated it if they at least made the enemy striking system a more fleshed out mechanic. But it's as barebones and simplified as it could possibly be, besides getting different swing animations for different weapons.

I just noticed the App for lowering the price for re summoning demons from the compendium, now that you mentioned it. I'll be getting that right away.
Anything else that's good? I got MP recovery, which is pretty useful for healing. And I've been focusing on increasing the skill slots for my main character and the monsters.

By the way, I heard you get more money later in the game. What changes to make money more easy to come by? I'm in Tokyo right now, and while I'm getting more relics, the prices of gears seem to have gone up rather proportionally to balance this out anyway.

As for the difficulty, if it lowers their levels to the point where the team doesn't get wiped out, that would be something that could get me to ease up on the saves and resets. However if it doesn't then it would be pointless. I guess I'll have to test it and see. I was hoping something else would change in the game to make enemy first attacks less devastating.

Well I too have been going from demon to stronger demon throughout the SMT games. That's been part of the fun, yeah. Especially since some of the new demons you can make are part of that particular story arc. And because there were so many demons, I always found ones that appealed to me in every level range. So I've been playing using the demons I like, while constantly upgrading them to new ones. I've done so in in about five other SMT games so far. So naturally it's something I expected out of this one as well.

However, this new system mechanic only limits the monsters that are viable to use (unless you want to risk getting wiped out, or feeling compelled to save an aweful lot). Why have so many monsters available, only to make so few of them viable? "See all those cool monsters? Well you can pick them and constantly worry about getting wiped out if you miss the enemy strike by a single frame or pixel. Or you can pick these specific ones instead. Don't like them? Well too bad."
And for what exactly? A mechanic that, as you say (because I see it that way too), is simply there to ensure that you attack first, which is generally the default state anyway in other games. And the alternative can be devastating. This would have been fine, if the actual premptive strike mechanic had been made in a more  interesting way considering the effect it has on your game. Something that you for example could improve as the game progresses in various ways, something that rewards thinking or strategy, or something that interacts with the environment, etc. But it's none of those things. It's a very simple one, and probably one of the less well designed ones I've experienced to be honest.
I'm not annoyed by the small bonus you get from striking first. I was just pointing out why I find the mechanic near useless.
If they had put some more thought and effort into its design, then it could have felt warranted. But for this, I don't agree.
Limiting the Persona you can use far outweighs whatever positive this mechanic may bring to the table. Because the monsters/Persona have always been one of the main appeals with the SMT series. Well, apparently not so much in this one as you're encouraged to play the game "right", which cuts out a big part of what made the rest of the STM series what it is and what's made it popular. We've always been given the chance to make the Persona we want to use viable.

If playing the game "right" is being forced to use a gorilla, a ball of meshed faces, and a penis (Mara), then I'm going to opt to play it the wrong way, unfortunately.
And I can blame the game designers for going with this idea. Cutting out a large amount of the Persona that are viable, encouraging you to use a certain few to avoid high risk of major frustration, and in return we get that simple preemptive strike mechanic. It doesn't even out for me, not even close. And it doesn't feel like an interesting challenge either.
An interesting challenge would be like when I faced three very powerful bosses at once who had devastating physical attacks and no elemental or physical weaknesses. Even with Marakukaja, you got destroyed almost instantly. The key was to charm one of them, so it would turn on the others, and take them out much faster than you ever could. And figuring that out, and coming to that realization, was fun.
Another example is when fighting a tough boss who split into several fake versions, along with the real one real. You had to guess which one was real, and they kept shuffling. But if you fight him during the full moon phase, which makes him stronger, the real one casts a shadow. So in return for fighting stronger versions of him, you'll always be able to identify the real one.

Those were fun, creative and interesting challenges, and alternate ways to go about beating them.
This is not. It's pretty simplistic design. Especially for something with such a big impact on the game. Whoever playtested it could not have noticed that enemies can spawn right on top of you when going through doors or tunnels, because that just doesn't make sense to me.

Walking through a door and having an enemy already standing there, attacking you before you can even swing your blade, and wiping out your team, is not a fun challenge. Swinging your blade at an enemy and see it pass right through them and then get attacked, is questionable design. (I've noticed that your hurtbox extends forward before your hitbox even appears when using a lance weapon, which further increases the risk of getting attacked if misstimed.)
That mechanic isn't something like in a fighting game, where one frame or pixel difference can mean the difference between life or death/devastation, and it feels justified. Because it's not that well made of a mechanic. I feel it's one of the least developed versions of this mechanic I've seen. And yet with the deadliest of reprecussions. And that's a bit ironic.

I can definitely understand if some else doesn't care about which Persona they use to the same degree as me. But for me it's simply always been an important aspect of the game.

Regarding the bosses though, I'm a bit surprised that every single one has had an elemental weakness so far. And I've fought about 10 or so thus far.
Hopefully that's just because I'm at the beginning of the game, and that it doesn't have to do with why people are saying it's easier than other SMT games.

As for the apps, the Demon Enhancer didn't seem very useful to me either, unless those bonus stats actually carry over, which I doubt. Perhaps for the endgame, if I have some app points left over, it could be useful for my final demons.
Fusion Booster is something I was thinking of, but up until now there have been other apps popping up that have taken priority, so I still haven't gotten to it yet. I'll probably expand my skill slots with the main character and my monsters first.
Regarding Auto-Pinpoint, if I cast Bufu on an enemy who is not weak to it, will this skill redirect the spell to a monster (if available) who is weak to Bufu? And does this work even before you've discovered an enemy's weakness?

As for money, I haven't bought much gear yet, but saving up instead. Guess I'll be continuing with that trend then.
Are there any different ways of obtaining relics to sell later? For example, send one of your monsters out to farm them in a quest?

And don't worry, I appreciate any insight I may get about the game. You've played through it, and that's good enough for me.

By the way, do Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael and Michael look like this, even when you summon them as allies?



A bit creepy in that case. I prefer the old design, so maybe I'll skip Gabriel and Uriel this time.

I hope Metatron still looks cool if he's in the game. Too afraid to look now. lol

Yeah, I'm definitely going to be mindful of the resistances now. Just like you said, if the choice is between two monsters I like, and one of them has a good resistance for this area, I will pick that one. Possibly even if I like one more than the other. There's also the possibility that my monster can't fuse into something I like directly, and I'll have to stick with one that I don't like for a while. In that situation I might as well turn it into any other monster that I don't like, in which case the chances of finding a good resistance/reflect increases.
I will also pay more attention to the armors I can buy and what resistances they have. Normally I'd avoid buying armor as much as possible, but in my situation it may help.
So I will definitely be thinking about it as I play.

When it comes to bosses, some times the less obvious way of defeating them is just not noticed because they also have a simple straightforward weakness. It's only at times when they don't have a normal weakness and make you struggle that you feel compelled to find it I guess. At least that's been the case for me. And right after I typed that earlier, I ran into a boss that had no weakness I could exploit. A horde of pixies guarding a teleport device. Glad that there will be some tougher bosses that I can't abuse. Though I expected as much, just wanted to make sure.
I'm trying to figure out why ppl seem to consider this one easier than other SMT games. But it doesn't sound like a general "easy", but rather, "easier than other SMT games" which should still be interesting. Right now I feel it may be because of how you and your monsters learn skills more easily than in other SMT games. On the other hand they limit the amount of money you earn, so it feels more difficult in some aspects as well. Definitely getting a "if you're not careful, you'll suffer" vibe from it, and that's good.

Ah, I see. Auto-Pinpoint sounds very convenient then. I use auto-attack every now and then, but this will make me able to use it more often. I'll definitely get it ASAP.

As for the new design of some of the monsters, I didn't know if it actually was a new artist, but it certainly looked that way. Sad to hear that it encompasses all the story VIP monsters. Just looked up Lilith, and yeah...



Really ugly designs. I hope they don't use this artist for the next game.
Now that I felt that there's no point in getting my hopes up for Metatron, I looked him up on Google as well. But to my surprise, he actually still has his original design.



Happy to see that at least. Perhaps you were thinking of another monster? Though if not, I can see why you might think this is from a different artist than the rest.