Amethus

I'm level 49 now sitting at 33 hours in, went mostly magic with even agi/luck. Just made it past the first 'major' alignment decision I'd say and things are getting real weird. Personally this game's shaping up to be one of my favorite SMT games. I'm not the biggest fan of the intro but it's kind of cool how much the game opens up later. Since I made it to a certain area (Tokyo), the game's been going up and up for me with the only two things bothering me being: Charon's 10 second death speech and physical demons having low mp pools. Not that big of a deal over all.

The save anywhere feature is nice. For me the new fusion system is much better than previous games. Nocturne is one of my favorite games but I love that I don't have to skill cycle to get what I want, don't need to clutter my party with fodder, and I can just do a non-specified search and see what there is to make overall instead of pairing demons individually.

Also glad to see that the game doesn't pull any punches. I've had quite a few encounters where an enemy seemingly wrecks my party but by staying calm I was able to turn it around and come out on top. Hell one boss in particular died to a demon I thought was kind of a drag on my party.

The story's been good too. It's held my interest so far and I really want to see it through to the end.

Guess that'd be it then. Frankly I'm pretty clueless so I'm glad you chimed in.

As far as I know, it didn't say. Guess we'll have to wait on the specifics.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/04/nintendo_direct_watch_the_european_3ds_presentation_live

Announced on the EU Nintendo Direct (at the 35:35 mark), SMTIV will be coming to Europe! Hooray! I live in NA but I always hear about how long it takes for Megaten titles to make it over (if at all). So it's nice that more people can get it.

Not only that but it's been announced that first prints of the game will include some neat stuff including a 176 page strategy guide. Compared to what I usually see in first copies (a sample CD) that's not too bad.

http://atlus.com/smt4/purchase.html

You should be fine starting here. Even the spin offs (with the exception of Digital Devil Saga 2) are good about letting you just jump into a later numbered entry without having played the others.

Also Nocturne's rough but not impossible. It just really punishes the player for not covering your own weaknesses and not utilizing buffs/debuffs. Since you have P4G under your belt and have already been introduced to the basics, I'm sure you'd do alright (assuming you didn't play on easy). If you're interested most of the PS2 SMT games got a reprint. You can probably find copies of Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga 1&2 for $20 online. Nocturne uses a similar battle system to this game (press turn) so it might give you a good idea of what to expect. Digital Devil Saga uses the same battle system but it's a spin off and shifts the focus from demon collecting to named character building.

Just keep in mind that these games are dungeon crawlers at heart. They have a cool story leading you on but it won't be like P4 where you'll stop and grind social links for a few hours.

Nah, Nocturne is SMT3 in the main series. It goes 1, 2, 3 (Nocturne), Strange Journey, and then 4. Nocturne can't take place between 1 and 2 as it's in its own universe.

The thing with Nocturne is that it introduces the concept of an overall Megaten multiverse. So it's assumed the other games take place in their own universes but are connected by the multiverse (hence the references you see between each game). Little confusing but kind of cool.

Some combat footage:

The sprite death animations are pretty goofy, not gonna lie. Still excited though and I'm loving that boss battle theme.

Yes! Really happy it's coming out soon. I've been casually working my way through EO4 and I'm ready for Soul Hackers but man... Nocturne's one of my favorite PS2 games so I'm stoked to play this.

Glad it's the International versions. Totally gonna get this for my Vita.

They didn't do one for Innocent Sin, don't think they would do one for its sequel (Eternal Punishment).

Though I did look through a bunch of reviews before buying EP on the PSN just for kicks. Turns out Jeff reviewed EP way back when and gave it a good score so that's interesting.