I always really liked the mantra system in this game. I like how it incentivizes you to plan ahead with your builds, but allows you to change it whenever you want.
i do love how Argilla doesn't initially Devour Enemies of how a little story bit like that plays into gameplay, i always love when games do that kind of thing no longer how little or how long it is
Off the top of my head, I love how Xenoblade 3 makes the Flame Clock a mechanic just to show how much it sucks, then frees the party from it at the end of Chapter 1 and you never need to worry about it again.
Chrom: oh no! I drop the Blue Key! Chrom immediately dies afterwards Speaking of Fire Emblem and Hinduism, I remembered that the Fire Emblem story I had in mind was based on Hinduism with a mix of Alchemy. 24:47 Serph is the Leader, Heat is the Lancer, Cielo is the Big Guy, Gale is the Tactician, and Argilla is the heart. Sera is the new girl.
Atlus really created arguably the best customization and build system of any SMT game and then never ever bothered with anything like it ever again. I guess this does make DDS even more unique than any other SMT title which is just one of the many reasons why Atlus should REMASTER THIS GAME ALREADY!
This episode:DID SOMEONE say customization!?!?! 9:40:Okay so our pink main healer wants to go down the line for this games wind skills…..welcome back yukari takeba
Any other Embryon member: Hey boss, why is there blue walls blocking off bits of our own base when we don't even initially have the key? Serph: Uh... Because... Uh.... *Brain short-circuits* Angel: Because someone has to write this kind of comedy.
I guess it kind of is, just with tons of small "minor jobs" rather than big ones. Tokyo Mirage Sessions kinda did something similar where classes learn skills off their weapons, and while you don't keep skills forever you can re-learn them by going back to the weapon they had.
I love the mantra system. it allows for so much experimentation and, more importantly, it actually allows me to multi mage PROPERLY (seriously smtv why are your essences so impossible to get)
SMTV can be weird about that. A few chests guarantee you good Essences, but then once you use them it's hard to get them again. And then there's the choice of whether to use the Essence for its resistances or skills.
@@BigKlingy yeah. my problem lies more in lategame essences. smt is all about adapting to the fights but for as many systems as the games try to give you only dds truly lets you adapt. simply because any endgame smtv essence is so annoying to get again that you just cant. (doesnt help how its final boss works)
@@Flutterdark_ I remember using Amon and Gabriel's Essences at one point, then realizing later on that I really wished I didn't, given how tough they are to get back.
I always love in games where Theres like a separate experience bar and then when that’s max you get new skills , it’s also really cool in this game especially due to hunt skills, and always throws me off when it’s just the bar to get all of the skills
Correction: Null Element only gives immunity to Fire, Ice, Electric, Force, and Earth skills. Expel, Death, Physical, and Ailment skills will still be able to hit you.
Yep, Null Attack. Victory Cry is in Digital Devil Saga, albeit named as Auto Soma. It's also on a post-game Mantra along with Null Ailment, which gives blanket immunity to almost all ailments (I think only Stone is not blocked since Stone is Death-elemental)
Wanted to note something about the buff and debuff skills. Two party members with a buff skill each can combine into Dekunda, while two with a debuff each combine into Dekaja. And if all three party members have a debuff each they can combine into Debilitate Could be useful to have until you can get those skills normally
11:59 Ah yes, Wikipedia. Where anyone can write anything before the fact checkers can verify its authenticity. 24:00 I think you mean, "You have developed emotions; I do not comprehend."
0:55 I see, so that's what MAG was in Raidou, really should check out the pre-PS2 games one of these days. The Mantra System works well, with most of the later ones having some broken skills, with the caveat being that you'll likely only be able to buy one of these in the main game without Macca grinding and the main game is generous enough that it really isn't necessary.
Yeah MAG was Magnetite. I forgot it was in Raidou but I think it works differently there. You used to lose MAG every few steps you took with Demons out, and stronger demons consumed more.
By the power of the Mantras… 2:28 I now christen this Embryon member “Homie” because they are a good friend. I wonder why they call it “Force” in mainline SMT. Never got that. 11:59 I don’t know, I feel like TvTropes would be a better name considering how much time it’s eaten up from me. Never did I think that a status effect called Stomachache would be such an issue.
heat is probably the most lovable jerk/murder hungry character for me. my affinity for him is like the straight cis male equivalent of the [P5 spoiler???] . . . . akechi fixation for women and gay/bi men. the karma terminal has special dialogue when a character masters every mantra, but unfortunately i don't have a save file from right before getting that dialogue. so unless you can find it online, you won't be able to show it off. oopsies. my bad. :/
For me I like him due to the reveals (mostly in DDS2) of exactly why he's the way he is, and it's... one of the most unique ways of explaining a jerk in the history of fiction. (Spoiler cut) The fact he's essentially a young girl's fanfic version of someone she thought was an incel for her, brought to life.
@@BigKlingy dds2 spoilers . . . . . dds2 does do a fantastic job explaining why heat acts the way he does and actually did a good job kinda getting me to sympathize for him. like i don't condone the bad stuff he does, but i also can't hold it against him either. i'd say it's more, sera liked the idea of two guys fighting over her. heat is easily the best looking/the "jock" of the embryon meanwhile serph (the one she imagined in her head) was the 'nice guy'.
9:20. I remember watching SuperButterBuns' "Digital Devil Saga For Beginners" Video and she pretty much recommended the same thing. Or in she so eloquently put it "Make this guy [Serph] blast fire real good". 24:38. All the "correct" dialogue options in this game can be summed up as "I am the Goodest of Boys.".
I liked going over the Mantra system but I feel like it ruins some of the suprise but other that it's helpful and probably will help people get ready for the FIENDISH super boss
I'm glad, honestly. It felt like a needless and annoying mechanic. And NOCTURNE, infamous for being really hard and player-unfriendly, was the game that got rid of it!
@@BigKlingyThere's another annoying thing regarding early MegaTen games: demons cost money to summon unless you have a party member with the Sabbaoth skill.
@@camilaherrera-ramirez2704 While I appreciate the convenience of the modern games, I found I rarely had much use for the Demon skills in Nocturne that let them summon other Demons from your stock. (e.g Beckon Call from Baphomet, which summons a RANDOM ally) Knowing that's how it used to work explains why those skills exist.
Hey Klingy. Thanks for the content today, it was a rough day today. Currently at my grandma’s house, and without my best cat buddy it’s really weird… I call it brain-denial: where you still keep expecting something to happen after it’s gone for good. But, despite that, I can say I made a good dinner (tacos) and I tried to show my grandparents Tom Lehrer. Also Hawaii Part: II is really helping me. It’s an theatrecore-like album about a young couple that ends up in tragedy and Simon’s (the guy in the story) insanity. My comfort album that if I could sink in 42-45 minutes I listen to it. I feel like the P3 Protag would listen to either The Mind Electric or Labyrinth from the album. The sheer insanity of TME’s second half after 2:50 (because that part is the song in reversed but not as chaotic as the actual song), with the second half cutting into samples from classical to Hawaiian ukulele strings. It’s supposed to represent a schizophrenic episode (as the writer is schizophrenic), Electroshock Therapy, or the electric chair. Labyrinth has MASSIVE Burn My Dread vibes, no real need to say more than that. But it’s about Simon’s crippling insanity after his “treatment”, wracked with grief over what led to his torture and agony. Sorry I rambled about one of my favourite albums. Point is: listen to it. Dream Sweet in Sea Major is beautiful, and Stranded Lullaby’s demo is a good cry song.
I've noticed a theme of that lately. Glad I'm able to provide some comfort in hard times, though some people I was close to just tested positive for covid so I might be the one needing good vibes soon.
0:18 Well, isn't that lovely? 1:31 Considering that the game is called DIGITAL Devil Saga... makes you wonder, doesn't it? 6:50 That's probably supposed to be Rakshasa. 7:37 Okay, the attack buffs aren't great, but the defense debuffs? That's nice! 7:41 I take that back about the attack buffs, this skill sounds amazing! 10:45 Hell Fang, huh? If only it was Hell's Fang, then I could make Ragna the Bloodedge jokes. 12:00 ...I knew about this in advance, but I'm still confused. 14:34 Yeah, I figured. 15:32 So... we're totally going to rush down this section of the Mantra Grid to get Debilitate as soon as possible, right? 18:44 ...Sure, whatever you say, Heat. 19:52 Nope, definitely not! Totally just a coincidence! 23:41 Ah yes, the power of friendship! 35:27 And I think Shiva was on the other side. 36:15 Woah, that's cool!
To me this is FFX's Sphere Grid but better. The issue with the Sphere Grid was the ways to gets the most out of it were very obtuse or required a special mode that was tough to start in.
I want a new Devil Survivor. I’ve played them both so much that there is nothing more to try besides really weird builds which isnt my thing. The SMT demon thing just works so well with tactical RPGs. There is a lot more they could do with it. It honestly should be one of their pillar franchises to feed the tactical fans
There were some older tactical RPG SMT spinoffs too. I like both the Devil Survivor games (1 has the better story, 2 has better gameplay), so I'd like to see more too. Hopefully Soul Hackers 2 not doing too well doesn't scare Atlus off from reviving other spinoffs.
Even with cannibalistic demons, skill trees! 1:30 You'd think this is a digital game with devils that is part of a saga. (i'm not sorry) 3:41 Looks like a lot of Mantras share ending. 7:28 Enrage is somehow even better here than in Persona 5... 10:16 It also expanded! 14:31 Makes you inmune to all forms of magic except Almighty. And since this is technically Shin Megami Tensei... "Good strategy, unfortunately Megidolaon" is very much a thing. 14:59 Oh yeah, Weakness: Ailments... They're their own elements. 17:05 Vanity, the skill the enemy loves to spam when they're losing. 23:08 Darn, two tribes' worth of people and it's not enough manpower 38:15 We cleared two taunting treasure chests and discovered 3 more. Oh well. 39:50 I guess make that three cleared taunting treasure chests. Next time, these people keep trying to understand basic emotions.
1:15- A pain, but it is something I'm morbidly interested in checking out. The idea of needing resources to summon your monsters is an interesting one at least. Just sounds like SMT 1 & 2 didn't do it well enough. 1:46- Yeah, it really does sound like a Chaos Rep took over this world or something. 4:34- That's REALLY nice that you can see in advance what each Mantra has too. Again, this is a VERY nice evolution/improvement from the Magatama system of Nocturne. [6:15- Never mind. Well, at least we can see what comes next and get some info instead of nothing.] 5:45- So that also means too we basically have to buy every Mantra. That said, are there any special ones we can find out in the world or no? [10:25- Never mind, that helps answer this.] 6:02- Oh. Noted. Oh well, since it looks like the Mantras don't control weaknesses/resists like Magatama did in Nocturne, that shouldn't be too bad then. 7:50- Or can we have fun with Tetrakarn and make enemies hit themselves with +2 Atk Buff hits? Xp 11:39- RIP Dark/Bright Might, but honestly, they *probably* had this nerf coming. 12:00- I'm sorry, WHAT?! Why?! lmao 16:47- Incredibly strange to see them come this late. 18:51- Kind of, but there's still quite a difference between just killing an enemy in a war and dining on their corpse. 21:03- I guess you can say that he does not compre- *Gets shot for the bad joke* 24:06- Okay, there it is. Xp 25:37- Really, it's just resolved like that. I mean, I don't require a big dramatic scene for that, but I thought a choice like that would get some more attention like in a cutscene or something. 30:24- At least he has a sense of humor...? 37:50- "Honeycomb power, activate!" - BigKlingy 2024. 38:31- Taunting us with unobtainable chests until post game?! Oh that's MEAN. 39:53- A Great Chakra ALREADY?! Why is this game so frikin generous?! In other news, as you can tell by my very late comment, a busy day. During the downtime I had when watching this, made progress for a challenge thing I've been meaning to beat and before things got busy, did more of TTYD.
@@BigKlingy Yep. Sure SMT does that a lot (namely with what skills demons will learn next), but the Magatama's only showing what's next and nothing else was a massive pain. Again, love how the Mantra actually let us see all of the skills here this time. If it just let you see what every Mantra had right away like you did with the complete file, would have been a perfect system. Still great as is at least and still an improvement over the Magatamas.
@@BigKlingy Yeah, that says something that you had to look up which Magatama had those skills (for me, I could only remember Gaea Rage because it's from the Gaea Magatama and its stupid strength check forcing Demi to be physical, even for non TDE runs). Again, such a massive improvement the Mantra system made by letting us see these skills in advance. Also yeah, both those previously mentioned skills weren't really that strong (Jav I never really bothered with and I'd still like my Tornado + Force Boost Combo for an AoE more even at the end game of Nocturne), which makes me wonder why they became so iconic with Demi. Guess the animations REALLY won people over or the devs wanted those skills to get a second chance come Demi's later appearances.
I can see the Chaos alignment and the cycle of Samsara being kind of connected like you were suggesting. It also works like a class system, maybe like Final Fantasy 5's since I have played that game before. I am more familiar with Makarakarn and its more powerful incarnation in Persona 1, Crystal Wall, since I felt like I really need the later to defeat the postgame bosses. They were free press turns so makes sense they were nerfed. Wikipedia is out for blood. You might be wondering what Mantra means. In Hinduism, they are holy words believed to have religious, magical or spiritual powers and are also used in prayers. Aum is an example of an important Mantra since it is first sound in Hinduism. There are longer Mantras and my dad pointed out that the Gayatri Mantra is also really important as it is cited widely in Hindu texts. The lines probably get more blurred in this world due to the demonic powers. He finally doesn't comprehend. I thought we would get a bigger cutscene too. You can also view it as really rewarding exploration as well. Meanwhile, I was even more late but good to hear you are making more progress with that challenge thing as well as TTYD. As for why I was late, my laptop charger stopped working so I waited a whole day to get a new one but I have it now and I can get back to doing a lot of important things on my laptop like recording videos and playing Gran Turismo 4. Speaking of that, I just beat the Clio Trophy which was the event that I mentioned as being badly designed. The reason is your opponents are all using Clio V6 Race Cars but you can't buy one yourself so you have to tune a road going Clio V6 yourself which wasn't that bad at the end of the day since with my tune as well as some Racing Hard tyres, it drove like a dream and easily beat the opponents. The big kicker is the prize car is the Clio V6 Race Car that your opponents used, which is probably not as fast as the Clio V6 I used. At least the event wasn't that hard but the same can't be said for two infamous one make events that are coming up. For now, I will probably take on some other one make events when I find the time since playing the TTYD remake does take up a lot of time. Speaking of, we beat Chapter 2 which went alright since nothing really challenged us except for the Power Bounce action command which seems a lot tougher now then it did before. Trying to guard some enemies is a little bit trickier for us too since the enemies feels like they move a lot slower than they did before which throws off our timing. After that we did the Chapter 2 preparations and my brother took on the Pit of 100 Trials and made it to floor 50 pretty easily as he only used one fire flower on the 21-30 sets of floors as Sweet Treat and Flower Finder was more than enough to keep him going. Now, onwards to Chapter 3 which has been going very smoothly as well and we also just got the Yoshi who is now called Whopper so you can see why I rely on my viewers to come up for my nicknames for my Pokemon playthroughs. My brother also finished everything he wanted to do in the Paris mission in his Hitman playthrough and it was fun seeing the very creative methods he used for his missions. The next mission seems way bigger in scope so my brother has his work cut for him. I also think his Nuzlocke is still looking really good as well.
2:30 And for your service to the Embryon I shall christened you Steve. 3:41 So I should note something, despite appreciating the idea of customisation at a base line, Since it allows you to create some interesting or useful combinations by finicking with it. However I’m not a big fan of systems that follow the Mantra of “Everyone can a sess everything” that this game falls into. For various reasons that include but aren’t limited too. Choice paralysis in some cases because you have a lot of options to consider. At the opposite side it can lead to certain combinations of skills and abilities being what you want to go with, You’ve mentioned going for skills Taunt and going through the tree for Devour skill on everyone for example. Which limits build variety. Rather than encouraging or having a verity in skill composition Despite not minding Grinding depending on how you gain access to those means to get skills the game makes grinding something you have to do to get a lot of what you want rather than a choice. And like I said with Serf’s stats last video I’m not the biggest fan of when in a JRPG or being able to screw yourself other or make the game way easier by going with certain skill or stat choices. I also feel like it makes the party members inherently less interring for a gameplay standpoint, since they don’t have their own set of skills you have to consider when making a team or going into certain battles, let’s say you have a boss that is only vulnerable to Magic since they have a weaker Magic stat and don’t resist any Magic element, but are immune to Physical but weak to Earth, if Argilla for example had exclusive access to Tera line of spells and Makakaja, she would be uniquely useful for that fight, but with this system everyone can do that if they have enough time. In RPGs like this, I like having party members with a unique skill identity that makes them better or worse in certain situations alongside having incentives to consider other party members. To compare to other games with similar very free systems. For example Xenoblade 3, I like that game in spite of the fact that the party members only have soft differentiation from each other based on what classes they have an easier time getting and training in. While it did mean that certain Skills and Arts could be more associated with certain characters, Even discounting the fact that Eunie is always your first user of Full Metal Jaguar she has an easier time adding it’s Arts and Skills to other classes, but people like Noah and Taion could still use that class The game that got me into Atlus RPGs Tokyo Mirage Sessions does have a similar system to here, being that you can choose to make and equip certain weapons to gain skills, but the skills every character has access to are segmented even if some are similar. Even though they can both use the Zan line of Magic Kiria and Tsubsa have different skillsets otherwise. A game I have watched a friend play-through, Persona 1 a game which while having restrictions in what certain party members have access too actyally doesn’t do so for the most part, not only because of the small amount of Personas some Arcana’s have but many party members don’t have many Personas they cannot equip. Looking it up the starting party with their Bad (Can equip but cannot use skills) and Worst (Cannot equip at all) The Protaginist, Maki, Mark and Brown have 3, Yuki, Nanjo, Elly and Ayase have 4, while Reiji has a whopping 10. And keep in mind that includes the universal fact that only Males can use the Moon Arcana and only Females can use the one Star Arcana Personal and the fact that all Females have Bad Affinity with Tower. So only a very small amount of weaknesses, like how Maki has 3 negative affinities but only 1 unique to her So in essence its fairly free while,trying not to be while having some weird aspects that override that, like how Reiji has Good Affinity with Satan despite having Worst affinity with Judgement normally or how 1 of the 2 Tower Personas and 2 of the 4 Devil Personss are also unique to him. Hence making me think the system is kind of a mess and could deal with actually having more concrete restrictions, like most of the main cast being weak in each other’s Arcana’s. 6:38 Raksas Jazz Hands 18:54 Another aspect of this plot that I find interesting is normally I feel Heat’s strong desire to devour demons for power would be well portrayed in a very negatuve unflattering light to play him as a future villian and Argilla would be a character whose refusal to devour others would be something that stays, But due to how the world works and the games mechanics you get the opposite, Especially with Argilla as it’s kind of like character development that she starts devouring Demons, almost like how a character has a superpower that they reject and find disgusting but learns to accept it, while Heat being the most gung ho about devouring is treated in a neutral light. 19:13 Since nobody has seen the Sun, would that explain why for this game specifically why a lot of the cast are very pale in their Kaneko Art. It gives the art a very eerie quality that I don’t really like 22:31 Something I find interesting is that since the Tribes have relative strength in universe it justifies why in gameplay the regular enemies will start getting stronger when fighting certain tribes. While also making sense why the Embyrom go after certain tribes first. Not something that every JRPG does. Why would the monsters outside Roer in Trails of Cold Steel be a lot stronger than the monsters outside Celdic, In terms of how the world is constructed to lead to that strength algorithm, it leads to going seems to lead to conveniently tribes of similar strength rank being right next to each other, While due to how the Tribes territory makes a circle around the Karma it means that a lot of these Tribes also have Neibours of different strength ranks, the 2nd ranked Tribe the Wolves is also next to the 5th ranked Tribe. And the Embyrom seem to be neighbours of the 4th and 5th ranked tribes, meaning that the opponents they would likely encounter first and the weaker ones. And another aspect of game structure that would make things go a certain way, most if not all of the victories against other Tribes are going to be by the Embyrom, since we need to fight most of the Tribes to provide bosses and dungeons.
@@BigKlingy They always said in school that Wikipedia was not a reliable source of information. But they didn't tell me that Wikipedia contained stuff like BLOODBATH and LAST MEAL, though!
if Wikipedia mantra isnt a mistranslation why do people say its supposed to be called Kunitsukami? or is this the "purposeful naming choice" therefore not a mistranslation logic?
There's an Amatsukami mantra, so yeah they probably changed the Kunitsu one as a joke. (Didn't the Amatsukami conquer the Kunitsukami in shinto mythology? If so, I guess that's fitting.)
Mantra Grid.. I see.. Would help out what they should managed.. Tribes.. Hmm.. Too bad Harley & his Tribe R gone very early tho.. Well.. A start to go up against.. or to team up with better than alone against.. 🤔 Take caution... Blue Key?- For the walls from earlier.. (That underground tho.. Postgame?.. Hmm.. Very later next time...) That clears up for everything. (A start to deal a opposite side of another tribe to the next huh..)
Skill/Class trees have always given my a lot of decision paralysis and forced a ton of grinding, this seems more simple for now. ...Is DDS grind-heavy?
It IS, but only if you're going for the NG+ superboss. That's why I had someone lend me a savefile. (All mastered Mantras and skills carry over to NG+ though, but levels and stats don't) Because the 100% speedrun for this game is around 24 hours and at least a third of that is just grinding for the superboss, which essentially demands you master every Mantra on every character.
The plot really is complex. Hopefully there's no major contrivances that'll derail it. Cough cough Final Fantasy 8 Cough cough. That's one big grid. I would love it if there was a way to lose that blue key. Way too funny.