Fyonn
did their best!
Elsewhere, I've been talking about Shin Megami Tensei 1 (and also Nocturne before that and a brief detour into SMT: Imagine private servers) a ton and it's at the point that I figured I should, you know, actually make a thread about it. Here's some thoughts about it that I am reposting from a different, more stream-of-consciousness format.
I think SMT1's area design is way ahead of what it could accomplish with SNES technology. Like, a lot of it makes significantly more sense if you look at the map - suddenly weird room patterns are obviously meant to be things like a fence surrounding a building, a strip mall, a row of shacks, etc. But since it can only do one kind of wall texture per map, it doesn't come across while moving around at all.
Like, looking at the Shinjuku underground map, I can so clearly see the concrete fence surrounding the Yakuza headquarters, taller and better maintained than all the buildings around it, towering over the rows of small domiciles and the few shops set up in the world's saddest market district directly adjacent to no less than three consecutive bars. It's such a perfect picture of petty tyrants lording over people already rejected by society at large. And that's before the apocalypse. After the apocalypse, the fact that the secret police have a significantly greater story presence and malice than the previous inhabitants of the Yakuza headquarters can't be missed. But walking around the Shinjuku underground? What is this, some kind of weird mall??????
The populated areas of SMT1 are the largest and most complex dungeons for most of the game because they're so ambitious in depiction. I want to see these locations fully realized so that navigating them feels more natural, but I also want them to maintain their nature as dungeons in of themselves. A "dungeon" that is an interlocking puzzle of social interaction and gathering information is so much more compelling than a dungeon that has some pitfall traps sometimes and a couple one-way doors.
I don't find myself with an extreme amount of love for SMT1. I made the mistake of first having played Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei, which executed the same kind of ideas as SMT1 with significantly higher polish, primarily thanks to being remakes of MT1&2 made after learning lessons from the design of all four of its predecessors. But I am finding secret strengths of SMT1 that give it its own character beyond its Wizardry But It's Edgy And Has Demons exterior.
I think SMT1's area design is way ahead of what it could accomplish with SNES technology. Like, a lot of it makes significantly more sense if you look at the map - suddenly weird room patterns are obviously meant to be things like a fence surrounding a building, a strip mall, a row of shacks, etc. But since it can only do one kind of wall texture per map, it doesn't come across while moving around at all.
Like, looking at the Shinjuku underground map, I can so clearly see the concrete fence surrounding the Yakuza headquarters, taller and better maintained than all the buildings around it, towering over the rows of small domiciles and the few shops set up in the world's saddest market district directly adjacent to no less than three consecutive bars. It's such a perfect picture of petty tyrants lording over people already rejected by society at large. And that's before the apocalypse. After the apocalypse, the fact that the secret police have a significantly greater story presence and malice than the previous inhabitants of the Yakuza headquarters can't be missed. But walking around the Shinjuku underground? What is this, some kind of weird mall??????
The populated areas of SMT1 are the largest and most complex dungeons for most of the game because they're so ambitious in depiction. I want to see these locations fully realized so that navigating them feels more natural, but I also want them to maintain their nature as dungeons in of themselves. A "dungeon" that is an interlocking puzzle of social interaction and gathering information is so much more compelling than a dungeon that has some pitfall traps sometimes and a couple one-way doors.
I don't find myself with an extreme amount of love for SMT1. I made the mistake of first having played Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei, which executed the same kind of ideas as SMT1 with significantly higher polish, primarily thanks to being remakes of MT1&2 made after learning lessons from the design of all four of its predecessors. But I am finding secret strengths of SMT1 that give it its own character beyond its Wizardry But It's Edgy And Has Demons exterior.
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