Board 8 > SMT: Nocturne

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was starting to think the difficulty of this was kind of overrated and then I ran into matador.

augh, how do I do this

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DON~!

Hold shift for focused movement.

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The game doesn't really begin until you meet Matador.

Find a way to either boost your agility or lower his. Having Force-resistant demons also helps tons.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

I actually already tried to lower his stats but the jerk has dekunda. Haven't been able to find a demon with sukukaja yet and I really want one as I have a feeling it will help a lot with this battle system.

Guess I'll just have to grind.

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DON~!

You might be able to lower his stats once or twice without him using Dekunda. You're at the point where the game actually starts being difficult, especially if you're playing on Hard mode.

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If you gain levels with I think it was Wadatsumi ingested you'll learn Fog Breath at some point, and Fog Breath is amazing. Lowering all opponents' agility twice without fail is going to be a big help.

EDIT: upon doing some research I found that you can't learn Fog Breath until lvl 21, which you shouldn't have to do to yourself. Fusing Angel and Pixie will get you Uzume though, which is immune to Force and knows Media. You'll have to be lvl 18 for her.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

I did a combination of Uzume and ingesting the Force resistant Magatama you can buy in that town nearby. Get grinding!

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You have no time to ponder such questions, as Link has just grabbed a Smash Ball.
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That fight took me forever. I was playing through the game on hard and...I'm like 30 hours through I think. I haven't played the game for like 3 months.

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I generally play RPGs on normal unless I hear about them being stupid easy, which wasn't the case here.

and I just spend almost like 10 minutes fusion resetting to get the right skills on Uzume and when I finally get them... fusion accident.

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Hope you saved!

And never do fusions on full moons, unless you're trying for a Fiend. Getting closer to a New Moon makes accidents less common, IIRC.

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yeah I did, the persona games already taught me that!

also uzume made matador a total pushover and now I'm in ikebukuro where the random encounters seem to be getting critical hits way too easily, I hope that's just me being unlucky.

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DON~!

If you dislike crits now the boss is going to make you hate them. And he's very close. I recommend lvl 20.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

Dante was pretty challenging but not Matador challenging, still took 3 tries though. First time I fought him I wasn't prepared for him undoing all my fog breath and war cries. Second time I came prepared but demi-fiend got panicked and that seemed pretty much like an instant game over to me. The third time I took him out pretty easily without really changing anything, funny how that works.

I'm really wondering how many of the bosses have dekunda-like attacks though. My stat down attacks work really well when they don't, but I have a pretty hard time when a boss can cancel them out.

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DON~!

If a boss can cancel stat-downs, then always throw 1-2 debuffs on the enemy and let them waste their turns debuffing when they could be on pure offense.

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"Duel audio? You mean like rap battles?" - termina_rzident
KrahenProphet and Kana are on opposite ends of the Awesome Spectrum.

that sounds like a pretty viable strategy. I guess I should have probably kept a demon with sukunda instead of fog breath, oh well.

also played a little bit and ran into daisoujou. Fight took forever and I was pretty much just me hoping that demi-fiend wouldn't get knocked out by his instant kills and he didn't, whoo.

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DON~ !

Yeah, all of the Candlabra bosses are b****es

but after beating them, you can actually fuse them and get most of their hax skills in your party. Excellent

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"Duel audio? You mean like rap battles?" - termina_rzident
KrahenProphet and Kana are on opposite ends of the Awesome Spectrum.

You'll need a Deathstone for that though, which you can find in the Amala Labyrinth. Which is not a place you'd want to be if you could help it.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

Hey there's some great loot in the Amala Labyrinth, if you can brave its absolutely sadistic level design.

And as long as he doesn't complete the final level, he should be fine.

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Yeah, I only went through like... two or three of them before giving up and it was still worth it

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"Duel audio? You mean like rap battles?" - termina_rzident
KrahenProphet and Kana are on opposite ends of the Awesome Spectrum.

I already went to the amala labyrinth but after a while I was kind of getting my ass handed to me so I figured I should leave it for later.

I might do better by now, but I can't say you guys are helping the chances of retrying it!

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DON~ !

pfft. amala labyrinth is good times and great memories. you guys are just a bunch of wussies.

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"Oh God, maplejet's trying to be cool again. I'll call the ambulance." - Wylvane

had no problems with the amala labyrinth either here, you guys are nuts. just prepare yourself well. don't overlook walk skills, and be especially mindful that in Nocturne, Hama and Mudo skills kill you. they easy mode'd that later on by just making Hama Demi-style.

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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

the only SMT related games I played are P3 and 4 and hama and muda are instant kills in those as well, although I think they might have been easier to avoid in those. Right now my unicorn has a spell that protects me from them but it's MP is a bit to high to cast it in every random encounter.

Just beat Ose who was really easy, despite the fact that I feel like my current party is kind of bad. I don't even have a single electric spell, which made some of the random encounters kind of long, especially those with eligor in them who also casts mudo, augh.

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SatonakaChie posted...
I actually already tried to lower his stats but the jerk has dekunda. Haven't been able to find a demon with sukukaja yet and I really want one as I have a feeling it will help a lot with this battle system.

Guess I'll just have to grind.

A fairly common tactic is to debuff specifically so they WILL remove your debuffs. Kills a turn. It's not even specific to SMT; DQ likes it too.

Wanglicious posted...
had no problems with the amala labyrinth either here, you guys are nuts. just prepare yourself well. don't overlook walk skills, and be especially mindful that in Nocturne, Hama and Mudo skills kill you. they easy mode'd that later on by just making Hama Demi-style.

>.> Not so much easy mode as removing redundant skills. There wasn't much point when they were EXACTLY the same.

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There's always hope for better things in life. But you can't let anything, friend, lover, God himself, be your hope. You have to be your own hope.

Having to void only one mudo sounds a lot easier than having to deal with two instant kill elements!

And I beat hell biker. Bosses have been fairly easy lately, I wonder how long that'll last.

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DON~ !

The middle stretch of the game is alright in terms of difficulty. It's the beginning, with Matador, and the parts to the end that have the really tough fights. Of course, by the very end of the game it's possible to get pretty overpowered!

You're probably tough enough to handle one or two levels of the bonus dungeon at this point.

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I did the first Kalpa and it didn't really give me much problems now, not really sure about doing the second just yet. I'll probably just continue the story for now.

And I went through that prison where they were keeping those manikins. Demi-fiend's friends sure are douches and how are they even managing to survive with all those demons around anyway. the only human that seems to be kind of okay is Hijiri, geez.

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I think the rule of thumb is that if you have enough Candleabras to enter a Kalpa, you should be good to go. The enemies might be more challenging, but it should be manageable. Just hold off on completing the final level (which I think is the Fifth Kalpa).

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I guess this guy is optional but Ongyo-ki is being pretty mean. I think really need something to get rid of his status boosts for the battle to go anywhere but I don't have any demon who can do that yet, augh.

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Ongyo-ki is mean unless you fight him with the "moon" at 8/8. Then he gets easy.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

I only found out about Ongyo-ki because I was looking for all of the Magatamas I missed much later on in the game, so I looked it up in a guide and, yeah...

Still, he's a dick.

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uhh really, what happens at full moon?

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The moon casts a shadow on the real Ongyo-ki.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

well I fought him on full moon and now I kind of feel like I've been cheating. he didn't even attack!

also took a quick look in the second kalpa and it seemed pretty manageable, I'll probably go through that later.

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DON~ !

wow white rider what a jerk, thought I was stuck there for a second but I eventually beat him. I don't know if this is going to happen again but I think I might be holding off on amala for now.

also I just realized I can fuse matador but his level is actually kind of low, so I think I'll skip on him for now unless there's something amazing about him I'm missing.

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DON~ !

You should work towards fusing Daisoujou. It'd help tons.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

Is White Rider the one that ambushes you when you walk out of a save room?

If so, yeah he's a dick.
If not..............well, something to look forward to.

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You have no time to ponder such questions, as Link has just grabbed a Smash Ball.
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yes, although it gives you the option to not fight him, which I picked when I encountered him the first time. after that I proceeded to fuse a pretty good demon, went back to the save point and encountered him again, picked the option to not fight him but I couldn't get away (what), got destroyed, augh nocturne.

I eventually beat him with a completely fire resistant party and by casting the spell that protects you from instant kills, which made him pretty easy but still.

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DON~ !

Went through the obelisk. I've already seen some NPCs talking about reason and stuff but now I'm pretty now that those are connected with the multiple endings. The fact that there are multiple endings is all I know though, no clue what exactly influences what I'll get. I'm assuming it's mostly my answers to questions but there might be more. I like going through games blind and just seeing what ending I'll get, so I guess I'll do that here as well.

edit: and I just noticed demi-fiend now has votary as his class. I guess this might have something to do with the ending as well or maybe not I dunno. he might have been like this for a while already since I was trying to recruit demons a while ago and some of them mentioned they were too vile for me and immediately cut off the conversation.

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From: SatonakaChie | #039
he might have been like this for a while already since I was trying to recruit demons a while ago and some of them mentioned they were too vile for me and immediately cut off the conversation.

I think this is the message you get when you are too low a level to recruit a demon. AFAIK they didn't let alignment influence recruitment until Strange Journey.

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SatonakaChie posted...
Went through the obelisk. I've already seen some NPCs talking about reason and stuff but now I'm pretty now that those are connected with the multiple endings. The fact that there are multiple endings is all I know though, no clue what exactly influences what I'll get. I'm assuming it's mostly my answers to questions but there might be more. I like going through games blind and just seeing what ending I'll get, so I guess I'll do that here as well.

edit: and I just noticed demi-fiend now has votary as his class. I guess this might have something to do with the ending as well or maybe not I dunno. he might have been like this for a while already since I was trying to recruit demons a while ago and some of them mentioned they were too vile for me and immediately cut off the conversation.

Your class is based on the combination of your mastered magatama. See how there's 3 colors? Each color represents an alignment... but the class is utterly meaningless anyway, outside of a few doors, so it doesn't matter. As for immediately cutting off the conversation, there's a bunch of demons you can't recruit in the first place; it's impossible to recruit anything in Amala, and I think it's impossible to recruit any tyrants or viles you meet, though I'm not entirely sure about that one; it's been a while.

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There's always hope for better things in life. But you can't let anything, friend, lover, God himself, be your hope. You have to be your own hope.

oh you can't recruit viles either? I knew I couldn't get wilders, haunts and fouls although I've had them approach me when they were almost dead a few times and I don't think I've even met a tyrant yet. I thought I recruited a vile demon before but I guess I didn't.

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I thought you had to have Jive Talk to talk to Wilder/Foul/Haunts, or try talking to them during a full moon (the opposite of intelligent enemies who go berserk and refuse to talk to you during full moons)

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The only certain death in the universe is Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons.
Not changing this line until I beat Seven Heroes (2/24/07)

I don't know what jive talk is and I haven't tried the full moon thing. So far I've only gotten those demons through them starting a conversation or by fusing and that's been working fine for me. I plan on completing the compendium eventually though, so I'll keep it in mind!

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There's conversation skills like Jive Talk or Brainwash that help you recruit monsters from certain families or with certain personalities. There's also some other conversation skills like I think Wine Party that help calm down monsters if they get angry while talking to them which gives you a second chance. Though you probably won't use them enough to make it worth giving up precious skill slots for them.

...Oh! I think I remember something else now. I believe that if you try to perform a fusion while cursed, you get a different fusion table which consists mostly of Foul and Haunt type monsters.

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The only certain death in the universe is Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons.
Not changing this line until I beat Seven Heroes (2/24/07)

Complete armageddon tends to make people crazy. It probably says a lot that I find Hikawa to be the most sane of the Reason people.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

played a lot today, after the Obelisk where the enemies were giving me a lot of trouble I didn't really have trouble with any place. Yoyogi Park had some annoying teleport puzzles but the battles were no problem whatsoever and gave me a lot of experience as well, in some encounters I was getting 3 times as much as in the obelisk.
The Amala Temple was probably a bit tougher but it was nicely divided up in 3 parts anyway, Skadi did give me a hard time though and when I finally beat her it was more luck than strategy but whatever (also augh teleport puzzles)
Right now I just got to the Diet Building so Isamu and Chiaki both have summoned their god. Demi-fiend sure has some lousy friends. I guess I can kind of see the good things about Isamu's world but no thanks, all these reasons suck, why can't there be a normal one. >__>

also fiend update: fought Red Rider who gave me no trouble whatsoever after the boss fight in the manikin temple place I forgot the name off, because I was wondering what happened with the manikins and I also fought Trumpeter (I guess the other riders are hiding out somewhere like the red rider was?). Trumpeter seemed easy as well although I guess I probably lucked out on the healing thing he did at the start of the fight because after his first turn he only used it on my party.

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I can understand that it makes people crazy, but there could have at least been someone who tried to just recreate the old world in some form? I guess maybe Hijiri was trying to do that but I'll probably never know and Yuko is still there as well, but I doubt she'll ever form a reason at this point.

also as hikawa caused armageddon in the first place I can't really say he's the most sane one!

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Hikawa is like the only one to hold onto his composure, and he doesn't do a lot of sick stuff aside from activating the nightmare system. And I like the way he dresses.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

well as he knew what was going to happen he had time to plan ahead. the fact that he even planned the conception is pretty insane whereas Isamu and Chiaki probably wouldn't even have shown their inner-psychopath if the conception never happend!

and his suit reminds me of a strawberry!

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