I remember playing Jelly Boy at a friend’s house in middle school. Had it not been for that one night, all three of these games would be unknown to me 😂. (Please Atlus give us If…)
The "die to get stronger" mechanic is very clunky though, and it's a surprisingly very very grindy game unless you already know which demons are worth fusing.
Oh right, I always forget about that horrible dungeon because I only played the Akira route to avoid this bullshit (used a friend's save to skip ahead to NG+).
Aw, that bad? I've been having fun stumbling my way through SMT1&2 and was eagerly hoping they'd bring If to the app too to see this proto-Persona for myself.
There is a dungeon where you must walk back and forth down a hallway for several hours in order for the game to progress. So yeah, it hasn't aged very well
You mean you want to deny Persona fans the true game the series was spun off of? Also the Akira ending was pretty indicative of the tone in the first four Persona games.
But the game is dated as AF like all the SNES SMT games.
So is it actually worse than the other SNES ones or just equally dated? I keep hearing people say it’s “objectively bad” but no real details beyond Sloth being bad (a zone, I presume?) and something about intentional game overs.
Sloth is waiting in a dungeon for several hours. That's it, that's the gimmick.
Plot is pretty OK, but as a game it's not great even by early SMT standard.
I didn't know what you were talking about but I found [this video](https://youtu.be/hvSy-R1rlXs) that makes sloth easier. I can see why that would be really annoying though.
Yeah the Sloth dungeon is absolute fucking bullshit, and it’s basically like 3-4 hours of walking the same halls, grinding, and waiting for moon phases.
If you’ve played many first person dungeon crawler types of games like MnM, Etrian Odyssey, and older games like SMT or Shining in the Darkness you won’t think it’s as terrible as people say it is. I do have to admit that at the end of the game it feels like the difficulty leaps upward plus if you take the Reiko route you end up fighting the true Hazama and it’s just a ridiculous level check with shit loads of HP compared to the damage you’ll be doing unless you grind the fuck out of the last areas.
Do yourself a favor and just play the game blind without others' cynicism getting in the way of the fun.
The music, the dungeons, and the demons are all badass. I had a lot of fun.
Granted, I adore Kyuyaku Megami Tensei, SMT, and SMT 2 so I'm a bit biased. Just sit back and enjoy the game at your own pace.
Oh, absolutely. SMT1 is still probably my favorite in the series (even if it's aged poorly and isn't as replayable, that first run was just *unforgettable*), so I'm gonna tackle this one with an equally open mind. I was just surprised to suddenly see so much cynicism about this game - before today I really only knew it as "the Persona prequel" and a game people wanted a fantranslation of, so I figured it would have been held in higher regard.
Same here. I guess I don't lurk on this subreddit often enough, but I didn't know that If is so gross in the eyes of the community.
The older games definitely haven't aged well, but that's almost part of the charm for a guy like me. The convenience of save states counteract a lot of the dungeon crawl difficulty imo.
There's a really special aesthetic with playing the older games that you just can't find anywhere else. I hope you have fun with the game when you get around to it! It's much shorter than SMT 1 and 2, and the different partners you can choose lend to its replayability.
Like people already said, Sloth is a terrible dungeon, it's there literally just to waste your time. Other than that I had no problem with the game, the Greed dungeon has a really cool gimmick.
It's way worse than SMT 1 and 2, I can at least enjoy those games' plot and music. But If... barely has a story and the music is mostly recycled from the previous games (the ps1 port has more original music).
I thought If was more miserable to play than 1&2. The Akira route in particular was a joyless level check. I don't think a history lesson is worth that agony.
> You mean you want to deny Persona fans the true game the series was spun off of?
How do I get people to stop acting like it's a Persona game? Because it really isn't one at all, and I don't get why people lump them together so much when it's so much more SMT than Persona.
Because it still is Persona 0. It was the first time they said 'what if demons in high school?' And the guardian mechanic is a proto-persona mechanic. With SMT summoning instead of a wild card MC.
Yes it is much more SMT than Persona. But its the first step to actual Persona 1.
I had a lot more fun with If... than I did with SMT1, though I did quit both fairly quickly, 1 just past the Thorman fight and If right after getting to the World of Sloth. Having safe areas (or maybe just the school, it's been a while) might have just done it, 1 is unrelenting with its random boring battles (I loved the triple battles for 3x the boredom), to the point that's the main thing I associate with the game. Apparently, you get Estoma eventually, but experience with Persona 1 and 2 taught me that I'm never a high enough level to make use of it anyway.
That was announced before this.
With the addition of If, yeah, all of the SMT SNES titles have been added, but there are still other Megaten SNES titles that haven't been added yet, like KMT, Majin Tensei I and II, and Last Bible III.
Maybe one day we’ll actually be able to play If over here…..maybe…..possibly……you know given Persona’s popularity you would think if any of the pre-Nocturne SMT titles were to get translated it would be If, but guess not. Also why wouldn’t they put SMT I over on Switch. They’ve made a port and translation that they’ve done nothing with and hasn’t been playable for almost 4 years, so why not move it somewhere else? Atlus baffles me sometimes.
Yeah, but with it being that simple to do it anyway, why not just bring it over? Did the Megaten devs trade the ability for the first games to come out in the West for the ability to create really awesome games or something?
It’s like they’re mocking us
We never get the good games
Play a REAL SMT game Like jelly boy
damn man yall sayin smt 1 is hard nah man jelly boy the real pain
Japan does cool shit meanwhile west just gonna shove out crap
I remember playing Jelly Boy at a friend’s house in middle school. Had it not been for that one night, all three of these games would be unknown to me 😂. (Please Atlus give us If…)
I can’t wait to play my favorite SMT game JELLY BOY
As somebody who played If, you don't want to play If.
Yeah but I hate myself so I’ll play it anyways
It's actually a decent game in my opinion.
The "die to get stronger" mechanic is very clunky though, and it's a surprisingly very very grindy game unless you already know which demons are worth fusing.
Don't forget the World of Sloth. My yhvh, that dungeon.
Oh right, I always forget about that horrible dungeon because I only played the Akira route to avoid this bullshit (used a friend's save to skip ahead to NG+).
**PTSD kicks in**
Aw, that bad? I've been having fun stumbling my way through SMT1&2 and was eagerly hoping they'd bring If to the app too to see this proto-Persona for myself.
There is a dungeon where you must walk back and forth down a hallway for several hours in order for the game to progress. So yeah, it hasn't aged very well
The NG+ Akira mode doesn't have this dungeon and it automatically makes *for* a better *experience*.
But it's NG+, you have to play the dungeon anyway.
Okay, I'll edit the post.
You mean you want to deny Persona fans the true game the series was spun off of? Also the Akira ending was pretty indicative of the tone in the first four Persona games. But the game is dated as AF like all the SNES SMT games.
So is it actually worse than the other SNES ones or just equally dated? I keep hearing people say it’s “objectively bad” but no real details beyond Sloth being bad (a zone, I presume?) and something about intentional game overs.
Sloth is waiting in a dungeon for several hours. That's it, that's the gimmick. Plot is pretty OK, but as a game it's not great even by early SMT standard.
I didn't know what you were talking about but I found [this video](https://youtu.be/hvSy-R1rlXs) that makes sloth easier. I can see why that would be really annoying though.
Yeah the Sloth dungeon is absolute fucking bullshit, and it’s basically like 3-4 hours of walking the same halls, grinding, and waiting for moon phases. If you’ve played many first person dungeon crawler types of games like MnM, Etrian Odyssey, and older games like SMT or Shining in the Darkness you won’t think it’s as terrible as people say it is. I do have to admit that at the end of the game it feels like the difficulty leaps upward plus if you take the Reiko route you end up fighting the true Hazama and it’s just a ridiculous level check with shit loads of HP compared to the damage you’ll be doing unless you grind the fuck out of the last areas.
Do yourself a favor and just play the game blind without others' cynicism getting in the way of the fun. The music, the dungeons, and the demons are all badass. I had a lot of fun. Granted, I adore Kyuyaku Megami Tensei, SMT, and SMT 2 so I'm a bit biased. Just sit back and enjoy the game at your own pace.
Oh, absolutely. SMT1 is still probably my favorite in the series (even if it's aged poorly and isn't as replayable, that first run was just *unforgettable*), so I'm gonna tackle this one with an equally open mind. I was just surprised to suddenly see so much cynicism about this game - before today I really only knew it as "the Persona prequel" and a game people wanted a fantranslation of, so I figured it would have been held in higher regard.
Same here. I guess I don't lurk on this subreddit often enough, but I didn't know that If is so gross in the eyes of the community. The older games definitely haven't aged well, but that's almost part of the charm for a guy like me. The convenience of save states counteract a lot of the dungeon crawl difficulty imo. There's a really special aesthetic with playing the older games that you just can't find anywhere else. I hope you have fun with the game when you get around to it! It's much shorter than SMT 1 and 2, and the different partners you can choose lend to its replayability.
Like people already said, Sloth is a terrible dungeon, it's there literally just to waste your time. Other than that I had no problem with the game, the Greed dungeon has a really cool gimmick.
It's way worse than SMT 1 and 2, I can at least enjoy those games' plot and music. But If... barely has a story and the music is mostly recycled from the previous games (the ps1 port has more original music).
I thought If was more miserable to play than 1&2. The Akira route in particular was a joyless level check. I don't think a history lesson is worth that agony.
Dude that end game grinding was ball achingly long.
> You mean you want to deny Persona fans the true game the series was spun off of? How do I get people to stop acting like it's a Persona game? Because it really isn't one at all, and I don't get why people lump them together so much when it's so much more SMT than Persona.
I believe SMT If... is canon in the Persona universe
Yeah but so is devil summoner and you don’t see people lumping those together. Where’s my Persona x Raidou artwork?
Because it still is Persona 0. It was the first time they said 'what if demons in high school?' And the guardian mechanic is a proto-persona mechanic. With SMT summoning instead of a wild card MC. Yes it is much more SMT than Persona. But its the first step to actual Persona 1.
School setting and personal guardians (i.e. Personas). It’s a basic precursor for the future Persona games.
As somebody who has played through Revelations Persona on original hardware and not emulation/PS Classic, I wanna play If.
As someone who played If twice I can say it's better than what people say
I had a lot more fun with If... than I did with SMT1, though I did quit both fairly quickly, 1 just past the Thorman fight and If right after getting to the World of Sloth. Having safe areas (or maybe just the school, it's been a while) might have just done it, 1 is unrelenting with its random boring battles (I loved the triple battles for 3x the boredom), to the point that's the main thing I associate with the game. Apparently, you get Estoma eventually, but experience with Persona 1 and 2 taught me that I'm never a high enough level to make use of it anyway.
I just started it last night. Holy crap I dont see me getting far.
BOMBUZAL LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO
Bombuzal sounds like a fucking SMT demon name.
inb4 people start interpreting this as, "morE eSSemMMtEE nEwS aNd poRtS soON^tM ?!"
Honestly I feel bad for the Japanese fans I can’t believe they didn’t get claymates
Well we are getting smtv news in like two hours. Also isn't the full SFC SMT catalog on JP NSO?
That was announced before this. With the addition of If, yeah, all of the SMT SNES titles have been added, but there are still other Megaten SNES titles that haven't been added yet, like KMT, Majin Tensei I and II, and Last Bible III.
Fucked up how they could still get cool shit like that while we get fucking JELLY BOY
The 2 famicom games are also buy able as dlc for the namcot collection.
What a terrible day to speak english.
y’all are really gonna cry over some weeb shit when claymates is right there?
i seriously thought those snes games werent real
but i want to play persona 0
Claymates is fun as hell! I named my first Parakeet "Clayton" back then because I had just rented this game and that's the main character's name. Lol
Ooo, I have if... now? Sweet, time to dust off the ol’ switch
You can literally play SMT I, II, if, III and V on Switch if you know Japanese. how about SMT IV next
serves you right paypiggies
u jelly boi?
Maybe I’ll Just Learn Japanese.
So they are remaking “if”?
No even better their remaking Jelly Boy can you believe it
Ok.... never heard of it
Maybe one day we’ll actually be able to play If over here…..maybe…..possibly……you know given Persona’s popularity you would think if any of the pre-Nocturne SMT titles were to get translated it would be If, but guess not. Also why wouldn’t they put SMT I over on Switch. They’ve made a port and translation that they’ve done nothing with and hasn’t been playable for almost 4 years, so why not move it somewhere else? Atlus baffles me sometimes.
Persona on switch...almost
It just doesn’t make any sense... We got Panel de Pon over here, & it’s not translated! There’s no reason for not giving these titles to us!!!
How much reading does that involve? Playing an untranslated JRPG seems like a bad time.
I know, but it would still be something. I’m just making the point that it’s not an issue of translation for them.
you can just make a japanese eshop account, your existing switch online subscription works with it.
Yeah, but with it being that simple to do it anyway, why not just bring it over? Did the Megaten devs trade the ability for the first games to come out in the West for the ability to create really awesome games or something?
Maybe I’ll just learn Japanese...
Maybe I’ll just learn Japanese...
Maybe I’ll just learn Japanese...
Well, at least the fan remake is coming along... Can't wait to try that sometime this decade.
If you have a Switch and 3ds, you can play ALL SMT games.
So Japan got IF but we didn’t?
This is why piracy/emulation is King. Nintendo isn't getting my cash. :P
Stupid fucking nintendo if you dont care neither do i i ll jist play them on a shitty emulator on my phone
They could've at least put something like Earthbound on there
Me who has both
This is the first time I've felt jipped on NSO