PixlBit

It's hard to say if you would like the game or not, but if you think it looks interesting I'd say go for it.  Personally, I loved it (although I'm finding out that I love every SMT game I play).

If  I remember correctly, the dungeon crawling is actually 3rd person.  It's just the fight scenes that are in first person (as well as the beginning town).  And yeah, you can 'capture' demons by negotiating with them and then use them in battle.  You can also fuse the demons together to create other demons that are often more powerful.

Negotiating with demons is kind of annoying and seems to be really random at times, but I really enjoy the combat system in SMT games.  You have different types of attacks (elemental, physical, etc), and most enemies (and allies) have different weaknesses or resistances.  If you hit an enemies weakness you get an extra turn, and if they are particularly strong against an attack you actually lose a turn (same happens if they hit you).

It sounds interesting but difficult because I've never played an RPG that's like SMT. Only RPG games I play are like Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, Persona etc. Do you think this game is good for beginners in the series? Also how long is the story? Including some grinding. I feel like I should give this game a try because a lot of people give it high praise. But I also know that's not one of the reasons why I should buy it.

The game is pretty long.  I'm not sure how long it took me, but I'm sure it was well over 50 hours, so if long games are a turn off then I wouldn't get it.

If you've played Persona, then you should be familar with the combat system.  It's basically the exact same with the exception of not having a negotiate option.  The non-combat part of the game, while having some unique features, is similar to many other JRPGs.  I'd say the major difference is the setting.

As for being a good game for beginners of the series, I'd say it's probably as good as any.  It was the first "true' SMT game I played (although I had already played all of the Persona games, of which the first two  are similar to typical SMT style).  I really enjoyed it and have since gone back and played SMT III as well as a few spin-offs.

I actually like games that take a while to complete because I feel like you're really getting your money's worth rather than buying a $60 game that will last you 6-7 hours. Lengthy games like Borderlands 1&2, Mass Effect series, Persona series etc are really good lengthy games. Some games like the Uncharted and GoW series are well worth the price even if the games only take a few hours to beat. 

I think i'll give SMT IV a shot. It's $20 for a high praised game that people say RPG and JRPG gamers would love. What really got me is the fact that my local GameStop still has the CE. Thanks for your input!

I liked the game a lot. I bought it at launch for full price and I have no regrets

I like the concept of the SMT games, but the ones I've tried so far have been hard. I heard that SMT IV on 3DS is less hard though, so I picked it up. I think I have the CE version too. Seems that was the only version Gamestop had at the time. I still have to play it though. Etrian Odyssey Untold and EOIV took up all my time last year.

I'm fairly new to the series so I wouldn't have any clue as to how the SMT games are. I'm surprised that my local GameStop stores only have CE as their new copies of the game. Seeing how the game is rated so high, I would've thought the CE's would be sold out in a heartbeat. I checked if the CE at the store I was at still had everything in it (sometimes the soundtrack or art book would be missing) and everything was there. Sucks that the box was a bit beat up but a small price to pay for a CE. I'm playing the pre owned one I got and I'm not sure whether I would say I like it yet. Maybe I have to give it some more time.

One thing I would say is to not judge the non-combat portions of the game until you make it out of the first dungeon.  The way the opening town is displayed (static, first person screens) is not the way the rest of the game is.  Once you finally make it to the bottom of the first dungeon the game opens up more. 

I'm not trying to be a cheerleader for the game, because I know everyone has differing opinions, but I remember being not sure what I felt about the game at first when I saw the first town was navigated entirely through menus. 

Also, fyi, don't be discouraged when you meet one of the first bosses (the minotaur).  He was extremely difficult when I got to him, and I've seen on the internet very many similar reactions.  The encouraging thing is that once you beat him, there are not really too many other bosses in the game that are nearly as difficult.

That's good to hear. I was thinking the whole game was going to be displayed like that. I'm barely at the third training quest I believe. I've read the beginning of the game is the most difficult so I've been grinding everywhere and fighting every single demon I can find just to be prepared for what's to come.

Is it just the first town that is navigated through the menu or is it like that throughout the whole game? I played a little bit of Devil Summoner and I know that game has navigation through the menu.

It's just the first town.  Later on you start navigating to cities on an overworld map, and then in the cities you run around in third person like in the first dungeon.  I'm not really sure why they did the first town like that.  It probably turned off alot of people who didn't know it was going to change later on.

Yeah I wouldn't have known that unless you mentioned it.