Shin Megami Tensei IV - Nintendo 3DS

This is the first Shin Megami Tensei game I've ever played, and I want to thank Nintendo and Atlus for doing the $30 Club Nintendo promotion, because otherwise I wouldn't have bought this game as early as I did. That being said, I'm definitely going to continue to buy Shin Megami Tensei games early if they all match up to this games quality, promotion or no promotion.This game was a real surprise for me, this series has always been praised for its consistent quality, but I honestly thought most of them looked too unfriendly for newcomers of "HARD"core rpgs. However, this game completely fixes that problem with the multiple difficulty settings (which I proudly didn't use) and the save everywhere feature (a life saver). The game couldn't be more welcoming to newcomers of this series, so if you're hesitant about this game being too hard, as long as you use the helpful features that are designed to deal with such problems, you should have no worries about becoming frustrated over difficulty.It's also a huge game, so if you're worried about it ending too quickly, push that thought to the back of your mind. This game is one of the longest games I've ever played, a normal playthrough without doing the side quests should easily last you around 40 hours. However, you should do the side quests anyway because they're a good source of exp and money.So if the game lasts around 40 hours without doing side quests, the story must be pretty long right? Well honestly, most of the time you spend on this game will be pure gameplay: wandering around dungeons, battling/collecting monsters, etc. The game's story is great, but if you don't actively try and seek out more plot (talking to npcs, doing sidequests, etc) then it might feel like theirs not much story at all, but overall the story is still very enjoyable.Since most of your time in this game will be spent actually playing it, the gameplay better be awesome right? Well worry not, because it is. The battle system is fun and engaging; at the beginning of the game you will always have to be on your toes when you're battling random enemies and bosses, however, during the middle/end of the game only the bosses will give you a hard time, the random battles stop being difficult if you obtain Almighty skills, which I have no problem with. And of course, one of the most fun and addicting things in this game is acquiring new demons and using them to battle and gain new skills. Theirs over 500 demons in this game so you'll never get bored of this.One of the little things I loved about this game was the intuitive interface, I've honestly never seen such a nice and clean interface on a handheld game, and it's great that the developers went out of their way to make it easy to navigate and just look cool.Overall, this is one of the best 3DS games out there. If you're looking for a fun game with addictive combat, an interesting story/setting, awesome music, and a cool interface, than this is the game for you!

There are many words to describe this game...... the one you should have in mind the most, however, should be this one: Tough.This is a game that will chew you up and spit you out if you believe that you can coast by easily. Playing Shin Megami Tensei IV (from here on simply SMTIV) and actually getting better at it feels incredibly rewarding, though, and it's probably one of the aspects that makes it such a special experience as a gamer. People familiar with the mainline series and several of the spin-offs may feel that the air of familiarity could allow for some wiggle room; and while being familiar with some of the enemies can prove beneficial, it can lead to overconfidence, which will work against you in this game much more often than not.I'll try to not spoil too much about the mechanics and story, because part of the journey within this game is finding the things that you like on your own... and demons helping you out; having mythological figures duking it out alongside you is always going to be a strong point in this franchise. Among the things I liked are:- The world-building being very good.- The characters are, for the most part, rather engaging and downright charming in some cases.- Some of the revelations of the story are well-executed and make sense when you actually put two-and-two together.- The battles are quick and fairly cathartic- The level of liberty that you have to mold / customize your main character and accompanying party is incredible.- Getting demons to negotiate or flat-out join you as allies is a challenge, but always a fun one.- The fusion function has been incredibly streamlined, and creating allies is now easier than ever.- Music is AMAZING and will make the adventure all the more interesting.My favorite element is, without a doubt, the "Press-Turn System" present in battles: The PTS is basically what happens when you get smart about your enemy's weaknesses and start actively exploiting them, augmenting your number of actions when doing battle; take into account, of course, that this can be employed against you, often with just as devastating results.The SMT games are often pegged as being really hard and, while there are indeed rather difficult parts in each respective game, part of the thing that keeps them from getting frustrating is that you putting effort in your journey actually pays off. If you insist on doing the same thing and following the same strategy as always, however, you are quickly going to quit playing the game, because you're simply not going to get anywhere. There's simply no way around that.There are a few things I did dislike about SMT IV, which could have made an already great game into something even better:1. The Map can be unhelpful without certain indicators. And while most areas do have signs and your in-game computer does help you out a bit, some more effort could have been put into the actual mapping function.2. In some cases, the stat that determines your luck can be deceivingly influential in how certain battles and the negotiation will turn out.3. Since there are very few random encounters, you have to actually cross paths with a visual representation of the enemy, and you have the option to gain the upper-hand before battle. The fact that sometimes, even if you do gain the upper hand using the mechanic of striking your enemy, the game will sometimes give the first turn to the enemy on important battles seems kinda cheap.It seems that Atlus (the developers of the game) have taken quite a few lessons from modern games and smoothed things out quite a bit, though; and, for the most part, it's been for the better.The ability to save anywhere is fairly useful, which contrasts nicely with the Etrian Odyssey games, which are much more old-school in gameplay and remind me a lot more of the older entries in this franchise. The same could be said of the demon compendium, which allows you, for a certain amount of money, to summon some of the demon allies you previously had.While quite different beasts, the most obvious comparison for this game is probably Fire Emblem: Awakening, for the amount of detail that the game offers to make your journey a most enjoyable one. Now, if you excuse me, I need to get back to this game.