I was recommended to play this game to learn about the lore behind Nier: Replicant more. This game is alright, it has a LOT of sexual themes in it, alot of sex related dialog and adult jokes. Most combat is pretty boring, it's a bunch of spamming and only a few bosses are fun like (Lady Four). Now let me say it will be hard for you to really understand story until wayyy later in branch C, and D, in the other branches you kind of just play and don't know why the main character does what she does. Unlocking Branch D requires you to get every weapon in the game like nier games, it has a pretty HARD rhythm related boss fight, it is easy some parts but is SUPER HARD when the camera shifts off the character and you can no longer see when to press the button to hit note, making you rely on sound timing... Nonetheless it explains a lot about some lore, and references Drakengard 1 ending E in the very end.

Drakengard 1 is probably the most painful game (both mentally and literally) I played in a while...

Why I played this game: To understand the lore of replicant and how the White Chlorination came to be (Ending E)

Is it worth to play this buggy annoying game?: NO, if you want to play the Ending E boss only use someone's save, or watch a video.

There are a few good things about this game, the characters and the dark nature of the endings, good work from Yoko Taro as always, but other than that the gameplay SUCKS, Music SUCKS, stages SUCK. Some aerial missions are fun.

And by the way, Ending E boss is way harder than Drakengard 3 "D" boss. Ending E carried this game so hard...

I do not like souls games at all, but this one was different for me as it had amazing visuals, terrain and music. There were some bugs such as stuttering due to poor optimization which will probably be fixed in later months.

After playing this game a second time with the co-op mod I have found myself liking it much better, even when I'm alone I like exploring the map and getting the popular endings like Ranni or Frenzied Flame ending. I believe this game requires alot of memorization of attacks and sharp reflexes, and it may be difficult sometimes, but there are loads of build options and so many different abilities and weapons/armor. Taking on a difficult boss can be enjoyable with the versatility of customization.

This game will go down on my favorites of all time, it is packed with action, dialog, story, and combat is very very exciting and boss fights are each unique in their own way and depends on thinking and strategy. Music is also what makes this game a gem, each fight has it's own music track to accompany the extreme conditions. And has a lot of humor packed in there as well I had a couple laughs. Only thing I hated was old graphics and camera is a bit weird, and it is a rather short game, somewhere between 3-10 hours.

Note that this game is a spinoff from the original Metal Gear Solid cannon timeline, but it does reference original characters.

Other than that, 10/10 game!!

This Game is a combat, explosive power scaling, and Quick Time Event/Button Mashing fiesta. The story is good itself, there is no room for the player to relax during this game, every second is action, button prompts, and destructive attacks. And it shows effort put in especially in the artistic side.

Being a PS3 game, it emulates and upscales the graphics WONDERFULLY on RPCS3, on 4k settings it almost looks and plays like a 2017-2020 game. You can play this game at 4k 60fps, and can go even higher FPS but will make gameplay impossible to catch up with.

It was a unique game to play, make sure you get requirements for TRUE ending.

After completing the original SMT IV and getting the annoying neutral path, I thought to myself why not try this game out and see what it has to offer. Here are some of the things I liked and disliked about Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse:

What I Liked:

-Quality fixes from original IV, everything from estoma ability, UI, and overall game build feels much more stable than IV, playing IV after Apocalypse will make you think IV has some sort of challenge handicap put on.

-Flynn!! Flynn finally gets full voice acting and his character as the reincarnated messiah shines ever brightly. I really like how they implemented Tokyo's views of Flynn after doing those annoying 19 tasks in IV. Along with his companion Isabeau, she is also the same manga loving nerd samurai... how could you not like Isabeau.

-Difficulty spike, this game offers 5 modes of difficulty and anything from conflict and up is pretty challenging, unlike IV where the first dungeon has enemies that one shot you, then the game ends up being easy later on. Apocalypse mode is for those who have endure ability only... because sometimes Nanashi will die to some BS.

-Exploration, due to the estoma and enemy detection rework, exploring the somewhat rebuilt Tokyo is great, you get to actually go around and notice every detail of ingame areas. Of course the world of Tokyo is still a apocalyptic mess, but atleast it looks less dangerous than before. Also noting that tokyo main overworld has bridges that connect to every part of the city, meaning you don't have to always use terminals or cross that ONE SPECIFIC TINY HOLE deep hidden to progress through story....

-Dungeon crawling, this game has the best dungeons that I've played yet, especially the Universe dungeon.

-Boss Fights, this game has some good boss fights, some will intimidate you a lot.

-Quest System Rework, now quests can be finished as you defeat/complete a task without having to obtain the task itself from an NPC or association.



Some things that I did NOT like:

-Limited Soundtrack, this game does have some good bangers but it uses 85% of IV's soundtrack... could have been more music added.

-Shallow story and dialog, I gave this game 3.5 stars because I really enjoyed the gameplay aspect, but when it comes to story and dialog... The main story can be weird and funky, it almost seems like they blended persona 5 and smt edginess together...

-Dependency on Neutral Ending, you either have to play the annoying original IV, or watch a playthrough in order to know what is going on in the game.

-Pick-A-Door Dungeon Design, the puzzle aspect of dungeons was really annoying as it gives you like 100 different doors to go through and if you pick wrong path or door you have to restart. Having to constantly check your map and memorize paths to proceed through story.

-Funky Main Character, Nanashi and dagda seem like a cheap character blend that they just whipped up in a rush, it just feels like there could've been more to them.

All in all, I did find myself playing this game for long periods of time, that is because the gameplay and exploration aspect was really neat, and story and music are manageable.

I have played this game for a total of 1000 hours so far, And Honestly it is a really great exploration and player interactive MMO, and it has great music too. One thing I do hate is boring dialog most of the time, you find yourself skipping cutscenes.

A Realm Reborn story is very weak, probably because it is pretty old. The story felt like just a warm up for the next expansion dlc's to come. What I did love is how friendly the fanbase is and you can make some great friends, and some even craft gear and items for you.

I would say newcomers might feel overwhelmed by the amount of grinding necessary to finish all the 5 big stories (so far). And the amount of grinding for each desired job. Alot of job quests are locked until you are high enough level or buy dlc, or finish certain quest. Which for those who only enjoy job quests it sucks.

The amount of playability this game offers is insane, well it being payed monthly, its worth for those who enjoy it.

I advise newcomers to use XP food and join a free company ASAP for more XP buffs. Leveling up from scratch can be annoying.

This is my third SMT game that I have played, after SMT IV and SMT IV : Apocalypse. My honest opinion of this game is that it is a Flawed Masterpiece, it has everything that could piss you off like annoying random encounters, bullshit battles, mazes everywhere, and the Poor Remaster job. But it still has somethings that could be appreciated.

The Goods:
-A very dark, grim, and apocalyptic story filled with rich dialog and full voice acting. It holds up to the SMT game line.

-The music is pretty good.

-The main protagonist design is badass

-6 Potential endings, a lot of replay content (that's even if you want to repeat bullshit 6 times)

-Very challenging combat potential for those crazy psychos.

The Bads...
-Awful Remaster job and port, they did almost jackshit to improve from its original PS2 release.

-Random encounter rate is horrible, and the items that repel enemies for a short moment of time are only a little useful.

-Everything is very vague and you rely on going to story progression events by talking to NPC's or memorizing hints from characters.

-Everything is basically a maze puzzle, or a shit puzzle. Making you look up guides to navigate around.

-Make sure to start New Game in MANIAX or CHRONICLE for the extra content and True Demon ending. They do not tell you that, if you just start with normal New Game, you won't be playing entire DLC you payed for.

It saddens me that this game isn't getting as much modding support to "fix" the game. But in the future maybe the fps mod will stop the game from speeding when its above 30fps. And maybe a navigation mod to help you not get lost.

Cmon atlus... do you do anything right other than milk persona series?