i think it's interesting you mention that some things work better in definitive over the original version, because i find that definitive completely revokes some of the key aspects of the original that i thought were so cool. not knowing the fates of party members in act 2 until meeting with them again was a big one, and erik's amnesia i always found worked a hell of a lot better "unexplained" because it wasn't really hard to fill in the blanks that he had a trauma response of dissociation after what happened to his sister

i really think DE hinting at what's to come in act 2 completely ruins the appeal and pacing of it in the first place. also i'd honestly probably recommend going through with act 3. as much as i don't like it, i think your lack of attachment to the latter end of the plot would make you enjoy its revelations more. but iunno - your mileage may vary

honestly we're lucky this game came out as finished as it did (and at all). i recommend watching a vid about its dev cycle if you're curious - it's a total clusterfuck

"I found myself constantly losing to bosses just to come back with a team specifically designed to counter it"

every smt game is based on trial and error. grinding is pointless - it's all about party composition. fuse lots of demons, negotiate, and build parties around what's blocking your path. most of this series is spent in menus. though it is worth noting that early game is more of a struggle than late; eventually you hit a point where you've got a pretty reliable team for most circumstances and can adapt on the fly

if that's not your thing, then the only games i think you might enjoy in the series are smt iv and apocalypse. maybe something like digital devil saga as well since it doesn't have demon fusion at all

still pissed they picked a B tier NIN song (at best) when they had literally all of phm/broken/tds/fragile to work with

fuck it - let's use the free album that was made in garageband

as if that's even a footnote compared to the way it performed on switch

yea i mean that as a positive as well. level scaling was the achilles heel to this game's combat to begin with. what i'm saying is that if you find it too easy, you should fight less often

if you're playing on normal, that's your first mistake. level scaling is gone so now you can just focus on doing quests and killing shit significantly below your level - as any good smt game should be

wanted to add something else i've realized: i just took down the big lv 23 xuanwu at lv 15 in what was a significantly more stressful fight than hydra ever was. i'd encourage you to take advantage of the fact that there's no longer a level cap by grinding as little as possible - the game actually works even when enemies are more than 3 levels ahead of you now!

i haven't gotten to the next boss, but i will say that i've found myself only fighting regular demons (outside of doing quests) for the purpose of negotiating. i feel like thus far this game's been balanced around assuming you just wanna get straight to the point, which i'm cool with

having just beat hydra last night on hard, i think your criticisms are more a product of you understanding the way the game's designed above anything else. that much is clear from the fact that you knew to use dampeners, which is definitely v's biggest learning curve imo

personally i was a good 3 levels under that fight and yoko didn't serve much use to me there at all. heavy lifting was courtesy of chad warden, mermaid, azumi, daemon and neko shogun. didn't really seem worthwhile to have another party member using items when it'd have just meant fewer turn presses being used effectively

her having tarunda doesn't mean a whole lot to me either there seeing that i fought hydra before she unlocked it - but even so, lots of my demons already had access to it. neko shogun's got fang breaker, c-wizzy's had tarunda for a while - hell, i don't think yoko even had it by the time i did that fight. and i've been doing all the sidequests too. essences aren't hard to come by and i don't think those aogami ones are all that great either