Rank them

The original smt without space yukiko? 10/10

IV > Nocturne > Strange Journey > IV:A.

>are you serious?

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>people unironically ranking IV as the best
I hope V isn't doomed, the core audience has become retards.

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Gameplay: Nocturne > IVA > IV > SJ
Everything else: SJ > IV > Nocturne >>>>> IVA
Overall: Nocturne > SJ > IV >= IVA

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Cope.

I feel like people have a lot of selective memory with IV, letting the setting, some of the cool bosses (Minotaur, Medusa, King Kenji) and our hoyboy cover up the rest of the dull game. That was the case for me at least. Apoc really improves on it in every way except the awful femoid characters.

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Bros, I really wanted to like SJ, but I'm finding it a real slog. I'm so glad I found out other people hated Eridanus because that's where I felt things began to dip. Now Mem Aleph wants me to find the four cosmic eggs, and it just pissed me off. The game is no way bad. I love the initial exploration, and that the characters are adults; it may not be too different than other SMTs in how it characterizes the three characters representing each route, but it definitely came across as a bit more mature. I'm just wondering if I'm a filthy casual who can't into dungeon crawlers, because I was burnt out by EO1 towards the end. Random battles + teleport tiles and other shenanigans is a pace killer but does embody the idea of being in a labyrinth.

>difficulty completely drops after Minotaur and never returns
>you can buy the app that restores your entire party's mp before even reaching Tokyo, breaking the game
>magic builds are way too strong. Random encounters can instantly be destroyed with almighty spells and bosses have too few resistances and a weakness even in the lategame
>partner system is shit, partners often add little support and can actively fuck you over purely from bad rng
>3ds hardware made dungeons all narrow, linear corridors
>Tokyo map is confusing, unless you are actually Japanese the names of locations basically equate to fantasy names to the player
>alignment system is poorly implemented. Attaining neutral is not done by making choices that consider both options but instead being a fence sitter
>Walter and Johnathan are poorly written alignment heroes. They act buddy buddy most of the game, clash over a single argument mid game, then go back to being friends nduring the alternative Tokyo scenarios
>Isabeau is waifu bait meant to guilt players into being neutral
>Mikado literally becomes irrelevant after five hours or so
>characters like Kaga and Tayama are introduced then killed almost as quickly as you met them
>guest designs are awful

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At least I can have fun despite IV's flaws. I don't like rerolling 10-20 minutes every time I want to fuse a demon in Nocturne. demon sources are shit and demon-co-op is inferior to press turn plus strange journey has cancerous dungeons like Eridanus and Grus.

>Why aren't there quest markers and a GPS navigator telling me where to go!
The absolute state of zoomers.

I only played IV for about 20 hours and I dunno, the game kinda sucked

I just replayed for the first time in like 4 years and it's still up there as one of my favorite Megaten.

It's a masterpiece.

never played any of these games before but i have the top right installed on my flashcart, is that a good way to get into the series?

Nocturne > SJ > 4 > 4A

Yeah, Strange Journey is kino.

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IV is more consistent with I and II. III is the outlier, which is not a bad thing.

>Isabeau is waifu bait meant to guilt players into being neutral
And Futsuko, Hiroko and Yuko aren't?

SJ>Nocturne>IV>I haven't played Apocalypse but going by what I've heard it's probably the worst

Yes.

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IV is only "more" consistent with I and II since it has a lot of pointless references to them just for the sake of nostalgia points. Bringing Stephen back as a retarded donut steel that is all powerful rather then keeping him self contained to the I/II/If... universe is one of the stupidest writing decisions in the series.

The hardest part is more of an endurance test than any actual skill requirement, though there's enough hard bosses to meet that demand too I suppose. Sucks you're going chaos as you miss out on one of the hardest final bosses in the series, but if you're looking for the eggs the game is almost over anyway.

Didn't play SJ.
4A>4>Nocturne
Nocturne had way better atmosphere than the other two but the gameplay is just so much better in 4 and even better in 4A.

okay, im going in blind i hope it works out

Strange Journey is fucking unplayable to me after getting so accustomed to Etrian Odyssey's mapping.

What's different about 4A's gameplay? I finished 4 for the first time this week (Hoy route) and I really liked it. Only other SMT is SJ, which I loved, but I get that it doesn't really have press turns compared to the other big entries.

Skill affinities make it so you can't just copypaste skillsets onto each new demon. STR isn't useless. You can pick your party member, and they all bring something unique. Smirking is more balanced by adding additional effects to some skills if you're smirking, but not making you nigh untouchable.

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>IV didn't have a single good guest desig-

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Above covered most but there's also stuff like locking skill slot apps behind levels so you can't just load up right away, also death/expel skills become like normal element attacks that require smirk for their instant kill chance, and magic being able to crit.

>Futsuko, Hiroko
The SMTI Heroine has an actual connection to the Hero, even then the main character and her basically have zero personality so not really. Hiroko absolutely isn't. SMTII subverts this by giving you Beth and killing her off early on. Hiroko is literally Aleph's biological mother, there was never meant to be any kind of romantic implications between her and Aleph, that would be fucked up especially because she literally knew him as a child still developing.

Yuko is a bit more of waifu bait I guess but overall she isn't too active and ultimately she is ignored in the TDE.

What separates Isabeau more of waifubait in my mind is the way the game presents her. Her being into manga feels like a cheap tactic that would instantly draw the kind of playebase that plays jrpgs into her. Her battle on the law and chaos routes is a cool idea but ultimately it feels like it was intended to guilt the player, like with her suicide instead of letting you actually kill her, rather then present her as actually standing on her own.

For me, it's Koga Saburo

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IV:A is universally agreed to have improved everything about IV's combat but the already shoddy writing of IV is made far, far worse in IV:A.

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Sounds really fun, I still have an itch after playing smt4 while waiting for the nocturne remaster so I'll probably pick this up, thanks anons
Should I do a magic or str Nanashi? I was a magic based flynn but I also started NG+ to try out a dex build