SMT- NOCTURNE (HARD MODE): A Fiendish Labyrinth

To put it bluntly, this may have been the wrong game to challenge on the hard mode. The mania that has me gunning for harder and harder play from videogames has probably finally gotten the best of me here. Not that I'm giving up mind you, this is a very good game. The path to take when putting your team together is always clear, but sometimes you need more strength and luck than you are going to have at that point. The complaints that I had in the past have since been mollified by the great gameplay in SMT: Nocturne. And we all know that things like art and story tend to take a backseat to the meat of the game once you've got your hands in it. The art is still sort of an eyesore, but the story has taken a few nice turns that I think are interesting. On the whole, the demon training/combining part of the game is satisfying too. Look for more details in Demonology 102, coming up next week.

Now on the subject of difficulty, I have been cursed twice by my own hand. Once when the game asked me, "Will you play the kiddy wuss version of the game? [NORMAL] Or are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president? [HARD]" (I'm paraphrasing here) I mean... really. What could I have done? It's not like me to take that kind of guff from a videogame. So I had to choose [HARD], but perhaps they should have called it [DESERT ISLAND MODE]. Secondly I need to discuss a game called Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniax.

This is the director's cut of the original game released in Japan, and was the game that was brought to the states and translated by Atlus for release as SMT: Nocturne. Maniax added a number of new elements, including a place called the Labyrinth of Amala. The labyrinth is a place reminiscent of your old Ultima Underworld games (beat em), or the more recent Etrian Odyssey (beat it). It is a tough as nails dungeon with traps and pitfalls and many other kinds of carefully engineered doom. You gain access to this place after defeating a jaunty skull-headed fellow named "The Matador" and talking to an old man in a wheelchair and his hot goth nurse type... person.

After the battle you whisked to this alternate world with walls the color of blood and creepy music. Once there you hear from the Old Man that he once had eleven candelabrums (candelabras?), one for each level of the Labyrinth. And he wants me to get them back from the fiends who stole them from him. I said yes, naturally. After all when presented with an epic quest what else would one do? What I didn't understand at the time was that I was already on an epic quest, and this was totally optional. I could have said no, and have never heard from either of them again, or had to fight ten fiends. The real problem is that each of these fiends is placed in irritatingly close proximity to the regular bosses, who are pretty tough, and are about twice as strong. There hasn't been a boss battle I haven't had to spend time on preparing for yet. Having two of these battles back to back without any kind of story progression is really annoying. Had I known about the structure of the optional content would I have changed my answer? Probably not. Massive dungeons are a reason I buy games to start with.

So as I defeat each fiend and get his candelabrum, I can travel deeper into the labyrinth. With all the preparation (read: grinding) needed to overcome the bosses it makes for the perfect playground for xp farming. The place has it's own rules and story as well, which makes it more interesting. It is also very big, big in the sense that every level of the labyrinth has multiple floors of it's own. One trip down a ladder can put you up against demons you have no chance of beating, that's of course if you aren't lucky enough to fall into a pit trap that takes you down lower than that even. There certain death is dealt to you by totally unfamiliar demons who will reflect your own attacks back at you. No kidding, it is the classic "you don't belong here yet" kind of beatdown you might remember from the old days.

I haven't played a game where the possibility of death was so great since my days of Nethack obsession. It is only a certain part of the game so the comparison is not perfect, but without the greater amounts XP gleaned from this place I'd be wandering around the overworld for ages trying to get the same things done. Despite all the roadblocks I've pridefully put up for myself, I am still quite looking forward to the tasks at hand. A sure sign I am dealing with a winner here.