Game Journal #106 - End of Hiatus, Shin Megami Tensei

Hello all! Welcome back to my game journal series. I am back from my hiatus, and will resume coding this week! Hooray.

What did I do during my two weeks off? Uh... well, I did still work on my game a little. I didn't code, but I did draw some things. Other than that though, I stayed away from it as much as possible.

The biggest highlight of my break was playing through Shin Megami Tensei 1. Of all the SMT games I've played, it's tied for my favorite with 3. I didn't expect it to be very good (because 2 was kinda glitchy) but I was surprised. The story was compelling, I really got attached to all the characters in it. And the battles were really fun. When it comes to a turn-based game, the battle system is what keeps you playing. SMT1's battles were structured so that if you knew what you were doing, you could negotiate with the demon you're fighting and get money/macca from them every single time. I never felt starved for resources like in other SMT games.

The progression was also really good. The bosses gave so much EXP that near the end of the game, I could just avoid all the random battles and keep fighting bosses back to back. Very much appreciated. Exploration is also encouraged though, because you can become REALLY op at the end of the game if you do certain sidequests throughout. I happened to randomly come across them by trying to find where to go next (it's easy to become lost) so yeah. I beat the final boss in about eight turns. It was literally just me attacking, and my 5 other party members were buffing me. It felt so awesome because I earned it.

Another thing I really like about this game is that every stat is actually meaningful. Usually in RPGs where I can choose stats, I just go with attack and health/accuracy. Because 1.Attacking is free so you don't have to worry about mana, and 2.Enemies that block magic are much more common than ones that block physical damage. But here, the magic stat is also tied to magic defense. So if you don't level it up, you'll end up in trouble when an enemy uses magic against you. Even Luck does something; it increases your accuracy and evasion.

All in all, I recommend this game if you like JRPGs. If you do play it, go with the version on the Playstation 1. The graphics are amazing (especially for the time it was made in) and the gameplay is fun.

That being said, playing through this game gave me a few ideas for things to add in my own game. Here's what I plan to add in for next time:

1. Two new item types: talismans and hexes.

   • Talismans increase resistance to an element for one battle. Hexes decrease resistance to an element for one battle.

2. Two new shop areas, these being the Church and the Cultist Hideout. In each, you can buy items and do special actions.

   • In the church, you'll have the ability to class change and buy holy items.

   • In the hideout, you can infuse talisman/hexes to a character's soul. This makes the elemental resistance changes permanent. However, you must use one talisman and one hex. So you can increase Elec resistance while decreasing Wind resistance, for example.

   • You can add as many as you like to one character, but cannot remove one without removing all of them.

3. Two new shopkeepers for the church and hideout, John and Valorant. They're what I named the Law Hero and Chaos Hero in SMT 1. I think they're pretty cool, so why not. Designs coming soon...

4. Unrelated and not a new feature, but the ability to present evidence to other characters to advance the story. You'll also be able to get a game over if you make too many mistakes.

5. The addition of the quests section in the Almanac, as well as the ability to acquire side quests. I was stuck on how to implement this for ages, but playing through SMT1 made me figure it out. Yes, really. Sometimes you need to play a simple game to get a simple solution.

And that's all I have planned for now. I also really need to make a proper trailer for the game, so that'll be coming within the next month or so. But yeah. I'm really glad I took the time off, because now I really, really want to work on this game again. I'll be back in one week!