So I finally got around to finishing SMT IV today (I got the chaos ending). Pretty good game overall, but it has some flaws that keep it from being truly outstanding. Here's a somewhat-organized bullet-point review:
* The difficulty started off harder than necessary, soon reached a point of being just right, and then spent the rest of the game slowly getting easier. It kind of felt like Pokémon in that regard... it seems like the difficulty is there, but it doesn't scale itself to the ridiculous number of options you have available. The Minotaur boss fight in this game kind of felt like the Misty fight in Red/Blue... the last hard fight before you start getting real team-building options. Most later bosses simply don't have an answer to tetrakarn + makarakarn, and MP's never really in short supply. I wonder if the game would have seemed harder with a different strategy, though... I went heavy on magic with occasional points in agility and luck and it ended up working really well.
* The encounter rate is pretty high. I actually started switching the game to easy mode while traveling from point A to point B so I could use the 100% flee rate and travel at a decent clip. This game really could have used a "repel" item. That one skill that lets you banish "weak" enemies from the map was never very useful.
* I really like the battle system. It's so wonderfully swingy! So much can happen in a single turn. I wish the battles were more involved and fewer in number so the battle system could really shine... it seemed like a waste to have so many small encounters that could be wiped out completely on turn 1.
* The demon recruitment process is fun. The entertainment value of the silly conversations more than makes up for the occasional frustration when a demon takes your stuff and runs away.
* The demons in general are fun. I've seen the occasional gripe online about the clashing art styles and the reuse of sprites from older SMT games but none of that really bothered me. I often found myself recruiting or fusing new demons just for the hell of it. Late in the game I picked a good team and stuck with it, though.
* The game did a good job staying colorful despite the dreary settings. Certainly less brown than a typical apocalyptic wasteland!
* The music is great overall. I wish the battle theme changed a little more often though... the Mikado battle theme is my favorite of the bunch and I think it's the one you hear the least.
* Burroughs wins my vote for funniest character. She manages to say "congratulations on completing the quest" at the most hilariously inappropriate times.
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As for Zelda, I beat the game without dying but I did use some red potions along the way. Never tried out the other potions because by the time I had the ingredients for them, my arsenal was complete enough that I didn't need the extra power-ups. The game was a little on the easy side overall but never to the point of being boring; in fact, the low combat difficulty made it easier to focus on exploring.
