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« on: November 22, 2021, 04:10:52 PM »
Devil Survivor has great fusion mechanics, that was before Strange Journey and 4. In Strange Journey it doesn't matter what you use as fusion material because the skills don't carry over anyway.
In SMT 3, Persona 3 & 4, it's restricted by how many times you're willing to exit and re-enter the menu, but it still matters what you use as material.
Yeah, there are annoying parts in other dungeon crawlers. But this is on a whole other level.
For example invisible doors that are mandatory to progress. To see them you need to look at the wall in question, just standing on the tile isn't good enough. So what are your options here? When faced with a long corridor I would take one step forward, turn to my left to check for an invisible door, press right twice to check for an invisible door, turn back to my left then carry on forward one tile.
On the other hand you could face the left wall, hold down the R button and do a sweep across it. Then turn around and do a sweep across the right wall, then turn and head back in the direction I was going. You've now walked the corridor 3 times.
That's not good design. For optional content sure, a little secret to stumble across, but for the critical story path?! What were they thinking? It doesn't happen often, only a handful of times during the game, but it's enough to reinforce the habit of bumping into every single wall of the maze.
What about the black out rooms? It's essentially Pokémon caves before you learn flash, but at least with Pokémon you could learn flash before you have to go into the cave. In Strange Journey there is no such luxury.
But nevertheless, you push forward, try and error your way through the dungeon and finally learn the Strange Journey equivalent of flash. Great you've done it! Now you don't have to worry about those annoying areas anymore! Yeaaaah about that, just kidding, the blackout room gimmick returns for some inexplicable reason and the flash you learnt in the other dungeon no longer applies here. Have fun fumbling around in the dark, again. This is mandatory, not an optional area.
Strange Journey is a throwback, it's got simpler mechanics in the vein of something like a Soul Hackers or Persona 1 PSP. But those games didn't feel the need to waste my time with infuriating dungeon design, they were fun and inoffensive.
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