>>3908566
Did you mean barren

>>3908566
>>3908585
>it just feels baron and hollow
LOL. The level of retard.

>>3908566
I think it's neat, unlike smtv which has Ubisoft levels of bullshit going on at all times on the overworld map

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I will never understand the love for this game. It’s trying to be this gritty and dark game when it just feels baron and hollow. It uses religious imagery to hide its shallowness. The gameplay is ok, but overall I only see praise for it from pretentious plebbitors

>>3908566
>it just feels baron and hollow
well the conception wiped damn near every human off the face of the earth. did you ever think maybe that's the fucking point?

filtered

>>3908748
Good morning, anon.
Enjoy your shift.

>>3908566
firstly
>baron
lel

but that said, i MUCH prefer the first-person dungeon crawler SMT games. but theyre also pretty fucking hard. so nocturne still IS probably the best gateway into playing actual SMT games ie: not purse-owners

>>3908566
Its because its the PS2 kiddies only mainline SMT game on their platform, so they automatically assume its the best in the series.

>>3908566
>I will never understand the love for this game
Fags not understanding beautiful things, news at 11.
>It’s trying to be this gritty and dark game
It, world ended, shit is bad. What do you want, sunshine and puppies?
> it just feels baron and hollow.
Like a proper dungeon crawler should be?
>It uses religious imagery to hide its shallowness.
No, it doesn't. That would be evangelion.
>The gameplay is ok
Gameplay not ok, it is great. The combat and dungeons are leagues above generic jrpg shit.
>I only see praise for it from pretentious plebbitors
That can't be? You are a plebittor and aren't praising it?

>>3908817
>but theyre also pretty fucking hard.
>the first-person dungeon crawler SMT games.
Um... Nani the fuck?

>>3908566
OP you are correct but unfortunately
>baron

>>3908566
You have to be 18 to post here.

>>3908566
I don't really get why Nocturne is so often seen as the peak of the series either. It's my least favorite of the main-line entries I've played. It has worse mechanics than most of its successors, and a less compelling setting/plotline/atmosphere than its predecessors.

>>3908817
Nocturne is a whole lot more difficult than SMT 1 and 2.

>>3908566
it's peak aesthetics

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>>3908566
>silent lead
>party is just generic monsters
>none of the player characters have any plot relevance or chemistry
>dungeons are ugly hallways
>plot progression is because some guy in a Hawaiian shirt tells you to do something

I don't really get it either, OP. It's just a monster catcher game with a coat of post-apocalyptic paint on it.

>>3911808
>pure gameplay
>characters and story are an afterthought
Yes, I think this is based.

>>3911808
>I need my party to be friends, I need virtual socialization to make up for what I lacked in high school
kek

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>>3908566
I will never understand the love for this game. It’s trying to be this gritty and dark game when it just feels bannon and hollow. It uses religious imagery to hide its shallowness. The gameplay is ok, but overall I only see praise for it from pretentious plebbitors

>>3911808
>plot progression is because some guy in a Hawaiian shirt tells you to do
>monster catcher game with a coat of post-apocalyptic paint on it.
Hell yeah.

>>3908566
Bought it when it came out. Didn't think it was that great either. Got pretty far, but never finished it.

>>3911819
>>3911826
>>3911907
you guys don't actually like rpgs. you just like pokemon with demons.

>Take 2 steps
>Random encounter
>Take another 2 steps
10/10 game

>>3908817
exploration wise sure but combat difficulty? i already forgot alot of smt2 stuff but next to nothing in 1 is harder than what 3 throws at you

>>3908566
There's nothing more plebian than not getting SMT, so congrats, you just lost to reddit.

>>3911971
Oh look, another demon i can recruit and fuse for my army!
Thank you, random encounter.

>>3908566
I found it very tedious and could not finish it

>>3911962
Are you baiting or just extremely autistic and narrowminded

>>3911962
Nah, I just want a true Pokemon DRPG in the style of the old school MT/SMT 1st person games. I honestly believe that the two formats were practically made for each other.

>>3912148
yes, that was intended to be a bit of a bait or troll attempt. but my point still stands: Nocturne is a very minimalist game with a focus on combat and monster catching. It's largely lacking anything else that is normally found in the mainstream jrpg genre.
So i'm a bit miffed when people call it a 10/10 masterpiece rpg, when it's missing several of the components that would make it a 10/10 game. gameplay and customization alone can't carry an rpg.

>>3912201
>gameplay and customization alone can't carry an rpg
Can't agree with this part. There's no one way to do an RPG, different games can focus on different strengths. It's a matter of personal preference if you like an RPG emphasizing certain things or not.

And personally, I think Nocturne has a cool story, even if it's sparse.

>>3912201
>>3912205
... y'know, after playing my fair share of vidya I find that what I'm looking for is meaning behind the madness. When a game is just gameplay? Then yeah sure, the gameplay itself is it's own reward. Something screwy happens with my brain when any semblance of a story starts appearing and then the gameplay becomes a lot less important.

In a lot of these narrative based JRPGs, I always hated the moment when it was time to fight the final boss because all the NPCs would just start repeating themselves, and that's when the illusion disappeared. The world felt dead and lifeless at that point.

So what the fuck does any of that have to do with Nocturne?

It's because nothing you do really matters, and so I don't feel like the game has meaning to it. You pick any one of the factions and whatever the old world was and whatever the Vortex World was it gets astroturfed over. You reject all the factions? You rule a ruined Vortex World that's crumbling into oblivion. You revert the world to before the conception? ... you literally undid all the changes. The only ending with any sort of sense of progression is the true demon ending when you side with Lucifer to go fight in Armageddon, which while gets cool points, the Vortex World and all you did there gets cast away like dust in the wind.

TL;DR: I dunno man. Maybe Nocturne would've been better for me without the story at all. Just like an open sandbox.

>>3912201
>else that is normally found in the mainstream jrpg genre.
This is why genres exist for a reason and the diablo schizo can go fuck himself.
Who told you nocturne was a jrpg? It is a third person dungeon crawler. Now smt v, that is a barebones jrpg.

>>3912532
>the diablo schizo can go fuck himself.
AHH
FRESH MEAT

>>3912201
>It's largely lacking anything else that is normally found in the mainstream jrpg genre.
While SMT in general is pretty unique, this just isn't true. Things like turn based combat, rpg parties, elemental damage systems, etc, are all found in other RPGs. Yes, the story is minimal, but that's by design. Just because it isn't fluffed by tons of dialogue like many games is frankly a good thing personally. But that's down to taste.

Having played every mainline FF and SMT, I would say Nocturne is like the FF7 of SMT
>most popular in the mainstream
>accessible to normies
>pretty great, but not perfect
I agree though it's not a 10/10, but it's still pretty fuckin fantastic.

>>3912532
This guy also understands. I would recommend looking at older SMTs to understand the DRPG roots of the series.

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>>3912530
Narratively anon, I think the game is about embracing humanity, loneliness, and accepting that there are things that we just cannot do alone. All the reason reps, for example, have some variation of apathy towards existence due to their circumstances, and seek to impose their own order (law alignment) to fix it, aka a cope. The world has been recreated into what is essentially a transitionary state, requiring a strong will (reason) to bring about a new world.

Regular demon ending (chaos) is a result of the demifiend faltering and not having a strong enough will to manifest a desire (refer to the dialogue with Aradia). It is a result of his fear of the real world. We can see that there is some commentary on escapism here. He would rather burn it all down than accept reality.

All of these outcomes are due to the characters losing hope, manifesting their fears and torments into reasons for changing the world. A world that imposes their order, a childish way to protect yourself, a retreat into escapism/solipsism. "It is not me who is at fault, it is the world."

Keep in mind the OG version of Nocturne released with no TDE. Freedom ending (neutral) is acquired through showing certainty and conviction with the dialogue flags. The freedom ending is not running away from reality, but accepting it, and understanding that the price of the freedom it gives you is suffering and pain. The final dialogue for the freedom ending pretty much explains the point in my opinion. Hope it at least helps with understanding why so many people praise nocturne for its narrative.

>>3908566
The praise comes from pokemon kids that were bullied for still playing a kids game so had to find the "mature" pokemon game and that's what there was. the original release being fairly hard compared to other contemporary jrpgs also boosted their self worth and importance because they could beat the hard jrpgs like smt and persona while everyone else was strugling to get through final fantasy or whatever insane logic they had in their heads

>>3908715
This but unironically.

>>3914040
Found the pokemon kid.

>>3914023
>"It is not me who is at fault, it is the world."
But it's true.
Also, Musubi ftw.

>>3908715
>>3914299
SMT IV Apocalypse is my favorite out of all of them. It just does everything right.

>>3912159
Wait, how do you mean anon? Like a game where you have your monsters in a group and go dungeon crawling to find stuff or get the big bad or whatever?

I think I just got a spark of something that could be dope.

>>3914328
Even the shit story? And characters? And how horrible YHVH's universe was?

DDS is better

>>3908817
The first smt games aren't hard they're just an immense waste of time

>>3917951
NTA but I prefer them immensely over later titles. Waste of time, psssh... you're playing a video game. Time enjoyed is not time wasted.

KMT1 is pretty damn hard, 2 has its moments

SMT 1 is largely easy, with one hard section, 2 and If... are fairly challenging, especially the Akira Route.

>it just feels baron and hollow

"they're gonna think im so fuckin smart"

It was a 00s era edgelord thing, you had to be there

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>>3908566
its a great game but avatar tuner brutalmogs

>>3912135
And then every 2 steps thereafter you have to fight that same demon again. Gripping stuff.