Shin Megami Tensei IV - Nintendo 3DS

Didn't play in UK. Seems to be region locked. Got a refund.

Was not what i thought. Didnt work on uk ds. And was too expensive to send back

Un juego muy bueno, con una historia intrigante, sistema de juego adictivo, además de ser un juego muy largo al menos para una consola portátil. Envío rápido y seguro. El precio es alto a pesar de ser un juego viejo y para 3ds pero creo que se entiende porque no tiene mucha demanda.

Update (8/6/2013): Nearing end of game! The game gets insanely tough later on, especially boss battles. There is some DLC available, and more in the works, but I haven't added anything other than the Amazon.com coat (which is not really all that useful past level 8 or 9). I wanted to present a review of the core game. I have heard that a couple of DLC quests are repeatable for massive exp, so I didn't want to add those and change the balance. On a subsequent play through I will load most of the DLC. One thing to remember is to NOT GIVE UP. Some battles are tough and require balancing or adjusting your party. I HIGHLY recommend adding extra slots for demons. This is probably one of the best ways to keep reserves for both battles and for fusion. Update (7/21/2013): If you got the pre-order with the bonus book, do not read the book at all if you want to contain the surprise of the story. There is a ton of spoilers, even within the location concept art. Just be aware of this. I would say about an hour after beating Minotaur is a good time to look at the book and not spoil some of the surprise. Also, the story does have a lot of interesting twists and turns. The English voice cast is excellent, the sound editing is spot on, much better then Soul Hackers. My only problem is the difficulty which sometimes is easy (even on the harder setting), but if you aren't careful, even weaker groups of foes might get lucky and wipe out your party. All it takes is a few key hits on your party's weak points and the enemies gain extra turns. Also, enemy groups might be hiding reinforcements. Always dangerous. The game does offer you two options for if you are getting creamed: you can revive your party with macca after you get game over. You can actually do this for free if you keep negotiating with Charon. The other option is that after you get game over a couple of times, the game prompts you with a lower difficulty setting. I did not choose to lower the difficulty, and if you have played games in the series, I recommend also keeping the tougher setting. It's worth it. Since you can save (nearly) anywhere, it's not a big deal if you die. Just keep saving! ----------------------------- Original Review: The 3DS is an interesting system. Love or hate the 3D (I am not a fan), it's tough to argue with the quality of games being published. Shin Megami Tensei is one of those games that bears solid roots in classic RPG styles, yet has fresh and up to date touches that keep each new release interesting. The previous SMT 3DS release was Soul Hackers, a re-release of a PS1 (and Saturn) game. This is the first original SMT game on the 3DS, and I hope it won't be the last. I haven't spent too much time with the game, but I wanted to put down a few initial impressions based on my time playing this and virtually every other SMT title (all the way back to the Famicom original). There are a few interesting changes from previous games, but I feel this game bears a little more similarity in style to Persona 4 than previous SMT titles. Mainly this is interface and gameplay, not story and theme of course. Speaking of the story, the game starts off interesting in a fictitious future based on a feudal style Japan yet modern in time. Suffice to say, like other SMT titles the heroes become caught up in the battle between good and evil using demons as their scions. It's like a grown up Pokemon. Demons are either light or dark and this makes for interesting strategy and team building. And the demons are mostly familiar for fans of other SMT titles. Although the attitude level has been ratcheted up on a few! Looking at you Wendigo! And the spell names are the same (mostly) as previous SMT games as well. So fans of the series will be familiar with the names, but those who aren't might not know what Bufu, Dia, Agi, and other spell names refer to. But there are descriptions of each in game. The pre-order bonus was a great plus. The design book was mainly a strategy guide with just about 10 or 15 pages of design works. The soundtrack is also a nice bonus. But for those newer to the series, the strategy guide will help players through the initial portion of the game. The main storyline is very interesting, but a welcome addition is the side quests. There are many to undertake and rewards very from a little macca (money) to rare weapons and items. So far the game has not let me down. I will update the review further as I play more deeply into the game, but my main response is this: if you've played a Shin Megami Tensei game, then expect more of the same great style and story. If you're new to the series, this might be a good starting point, but perhaps playing a Persona title first might be less shocking unless you are familiar with this style of RPG. Highly recommended. And the $30 Nintendo e-shop bonus was a nice plus for purchasing this and Fire Emblem. I used it to get Animal Crossing for $5! Win win!

Seriously though, all the SMT games including their recently more popular spinoffs (ie. Persona) are great games. There's really nothing else like them in the RPG landscape - apocalyptic and sinister throughout, while keeping notes of humour and self-awareness, each game presents a strange and engrossing world full of deities, urban legends and folkloric figures made real. All of this is wrapped in deeply interconnected mechanics and a story told through broadly drawn character archetypes. Coupled with incredible visual and sound design from ATLUS' craftsmen and you have some of the most fully realized RPGs in both depth and breadth. For ATLUS' latest in its mainline, flagship entry, the move to the 3DS is a wise one. As each new entry takes about a decade or so to come out, it's always an event, but more importantly, each new game bring with it a host of improvements and changes that moves the series forward with the times. The last game, Nocturne, moved the series into 3D. With SMT4, ATLUS makes concessions to accessibility and brings back some colour to the game's visual palette and character designs move towards a more inviting aesthetic. For starters, the ability to save anywhere is a huge boon, almost akin to quick saving in PC games. The fact that the game doesn't unceremoniously throw you back to the title screen if your MC takes an unfortunate critical hit is another huge improvement. Combat is still vicious and tense, but the ability to resurrect your avatar is simply a quality of life improvement that's much appreciated in this day and age. Later SMT entries' more fleshed out and granular demon fusion options are also applied here, which simply takes a lot of the busywork out of summoning the exact type that you want, with the exact skills that you want. As for the 3DS-specific features: I find most games make poor use of the 2nd screen and simply relegate it to redundant UI elements, or worse, black or splash screens for when nothing's happening. SMT4 doesn't do anything revolutionary with its 2nd screen, but it uses the extra real estate wisely. There's a lot of stuff to keep abrest of in these games, so maximizing that screen space is essential. And, it's all touch activated to boot. As for the Streetpass features, these are also kept to an unobtrusive minimum. You can store up DDS cards from other users to unleash them as a moderately powerful freebie attack, and in turn you can also send out a demon to be passively leveled or randomly fused in order to gain new skills and forms. It's not a daring use of Streetpass, but it's a nice gesture. Play Coins can also be accrued as a currency for resurrection in lieu of macca, so there's that. The venerable series is just as good and just as addictive as it's ever been, and this represents the perfect jumping point for newcomers to the series.

This Review strictly evaluates the quality of the Limited Edition Boxset, and not the game itself (as it is still too early and not enough time has been invested in the game) ****Box was DAMAGED during shipping, even after having chosen the BEST shipping method. This was VERY disappointing.**** Art Book / Strategy guide Great quality, colour pages. Not as extensive as a Prima Game Guide, but a nice additional resource for people choosing to fully immerse themselves in dungeon exploration and fusion. Complete with fusion charts, dungeon maps, character bios and more! Soundtrack Some of the songs are reminiscent of chapel music, but its eerie, dark undertones reveal a classic SMT essence that remains present in just about every Atlus title. Has a total of 8 Tracks Box & Artwork Love the cover art, very modern SMT: Persona style. Love the art style as usual. Always an Atlus forte. Box are and game case share the same cover art.

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.