@zeik: Yeah, if that turns out to be the case, then that'll be even better than actual person-to-person tags, though I haven't heard word exactly how it would be implemented. Hopefully it hits soon (and I also hope I can tag my US copy with my Japanese one)!
Speaking of impressions, after doing nearly everything in the Japanese version it's about time I reviewed the game, which is here for those interested.
I forget all the details, but it's definitely a lot more in-depth than what Soul Hackers did. You basically assign a demon (or possibly even a team of demons) to your character for street passing. The only result of this that I can remember is that it's possible for your demon to come back and evolve into a completely different demon, although I know there's more.
There's also a kind of hidden feature where if you streetpass someone with Etrian Odyssey 4 or Soul Hackers you get free app points to unlock more features for the Gauntlet. (I had originally heard you just needed save data, which would have been way better. Alas.)
Zeik's got it. You make this little card for yourself, either white (for just showing off) or black (for fusion with the demon of other people you pass), and assign one of your demons to it. The demon you assign can't be used in battle with it turned on.
The main benefit from using the black card is that it offers a high chance of fusion accidents, which will be good in this case as there are a number of accident-only demons who are quite useful. So, when you make your card, just don't put one of your most valuable demons on it.
In addition to the app points (which I only ever got once), the more tags you get means that your demons can give you some items upon their return, which can be healing items or even weapons.
It's a much, much better feature than Soul Hackers', though I'm curious just how well it'll work in a place that isn't Japan.
The biggest and most obvious difference is gameplay. Shin Megami Tensei is a straight up hard core first person dungeon crawl. The challenge level ramps up and gets straight nasty at the end, you have to constantly upgrade demons which you have to convince to join you, there is a lot of grinding. Persona is a much more traditional standard JRPG in gameplay and SMT is pure old school 80's stuff and has no intention of changing. Think Etrian Odyssey only... harder and no mapping.
It's worth noting that this is not relevant to Shin Megami Tensei IV. And if you would believe it, the game's difficulty is completely front-loaded and gets easier as the game progresses (as you get the more broken skills).
I just feel like there isn't really a good reason to NOT be able to see your characters and have animations during battle. Persona 4 did it just fine. And for those saying "well battles are quicker with first person" you could auto battle and have a fight be done in moments in Persona 4. Even disregarding that it's not so huge a difference. If a battle takes a little longer, but I can actually SEE what's going on I'd much rather have that.
My guess is that there wasn't time nor budget to render all of the game's 400+ demons in 3D. Of course, the logical response to that is, "use fewer demons!" Nocturne had one of the smallest compendiums in the series as the...well, first-ish game to be fully 3D.
I'm guessing IV runs on a different engine, so all the demons rendered across the PS2 titles couldn't simply be reused. Add that to the fact that all of Strange Journey's demons except for a small handful reappear in IV and I get the feeling that the first-person battles was a decision made near the beginning of the game's development cycle.
While I'd say the quality of the game is in no way impacted by the battle perspective, I empathize with those who feel that third-person adds a little more charm. There was something more satisfying about attacks bouncing off an uber-demon you made in Nocturne versus the same thing happening to a static portrait in other games.
It's totally fine. The way the enemies are shaded gives them needed depth and when you attack the camera angle will shift, making battles seem more dynamic. My only issue is that sometimes boss battles can seem a little drab, because almost all of them are a gargantuan close-up sprite against the same swirly haze Earthbound-like background. But the music makes up for it.
In short, the perspective doesn't actually affect the gameplay at all, which is perhaps the best the series has ever seen.
@rorie: Any word on this? The game launches in 2 weeks and the page could use an overhaul, but I know both @soren and I have been apprehensive to touch it because of the issue. Hell, I've been reluctant to do anything to the wiki since the relaunch, as many incorrect point totals and other issues have dogged contributions I've made after.
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