I personally enjoy the demon collecting aspect of the game and find the story to be a bit weak, the characters are pretty bad. So you may be able to play it for the story, but I'm not sure if the story would be enough to get someone through level grinding if you hate grinding.

No, I find it to be gimmicky. It doesn't contribute to my experience with most games, and even when it does the impact is minimal. I would rather see Nintendo focus on something different with their next gen handheld, whatever that may be.

Its my favorite Mario RPG. I found it to be a nice break of pace from the bevy of traditional RPG offerings the ds had. Great sense of humor.

I did not really have to grind at all, do not know why you guys do.  And the story is not poor!  What is wrong with it?

Sora278

Its poor in comparison to other SMT games I suppose, I definitely had higher expectations. The characters were all boring. And I didn't have to grind all that much either, but for someone who can't stand grinding at all, I wouldn't recommend the game. I exploited enemy weaknesses and was probably able to beat bosses at lower levels than others were. But if you don't exploit weaknesses and strategize properly, than you will have to be a certain level before you can beat bosses. And that will require some grinding.

I'm gonna hijack the thread because I'm looking to get into this series too and don't want to make another thread when we have one here.

For someone who plays RPGs for plot over gameplay, is it worth getting into the SMT games or should I skip them because of the difficulty? I don't mind difficulty if its clear how to overcome the problem and I don't have to grind at all. Seriously, if it even remotely smells like grinding I'll drop the game because I just don't have the patience or time for that anymore. As a reference I've recently played and liked Persona 3, Tales of the Abyss, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, and Fire Emblem: Awakening, while I couldn't stand Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time because of the ridiculous difficulty and Yggdra Union for the same reason.

Whiteblade999

Yeah, you'll have to grind. And SMT IV has a pretty poor story.

I don't do it because its not worth it. But some people don't mind blowing $40 for the slightly different experience, or for collection purposes. I don't know if X and Y will allow for more than one save file, but some people buy both games in order to have separate game saves. I just don't feel like spending extra money to essentially buy two copies of the game.

He meant sour, not spoil.  Like would SMT IV be so good that the others will look bad?  The answer to that is no personally.  I do not think there is any huge difference between the games that could make you think the rest are bad in comparison.  Think of it like Zelda, they all have their own unique way and same basics but you would not say Link to the Past is bad after playing Skyward Sword.

Sora278

Oh I didn't read it that way, for some reason I saw spoil. :P I haven't played the first two in the series, and I don't think there's much reason to. I think sticking to SMT IV, the Personas, and some of the other recent games will do you just fine. In which case, no, it  won't sour the experience. Whenever you go back and play older games in any series, they will lack improvements that the others have made. Some people can deal with that, others can't.

Some of you recommended SMT IV right off the bat. If I do that, will it sour the experience of the previous games? And I don't care about difficulty and accessibility. I usually like games with a good challenge.

thetravman

Nope it won't spoil anything, its story doesn't connect to any other SMT games. Its not all that difficult, you just have to learn the game and adjust to it. Attack the weaknesses of the demons, fuse a lot, save often. If you don't shy away from a game where you could die a few times, then you'll enjoy it. I personally have no problem with the difficulty, but I've played multiple SMT games.

I personally loved Devil Survivor, one of my top 3 ds games. But its not a good place to start the series. I would go with Persona 3(currently on sale for download on the PlayStation store for $10). Or you could play it on the PS2 if you have access to that. SMT IV is also a great one to start with. As someone else mentioned you can save anywhere and the fusion system has really been made easier.

Etrian Odyssey IV and Shin Megami Tensei IV are both very long rpgs, and both are excellent.

Kid Icarus and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy both have high replayability, as does Mario Kart 7 if you don't already have that.

There's also Heroes of Ruin, you can play through that with four different characters in single player. The monetary system within the game gets kind of broken towards the end though.