Nintendo 3DS ATLUS Publisher Sale (Digital Download): Shin Megami Tensei IV EXPIRED

These games are really expensive in physical form these days, so I have been waiting for this sale for a bit. That said, I do not have any recommendations and would love to hear yours. SMT IV and SMT IV Apocalypse were purchases for me when I saw this sale. Probably going to get Persona Q2, but beyond that, I am a total noob with SMT spinoffs.

Also, this is my first deal submission, so constructive feedback on format above would be helpful. Does strikethrough affect assistive tech like screen readers?

Really don't like buying digital on 3DS but I think I missed the boat on getting some of these physical at low prices. Might pick up Shin Megami Tensei IV.

Also, I'd recommend Etrian Odyssey if you like old-school dungeon crawling that can be difficult. They are lite on story and more about the strategy and RPG group building. Also, you draw out maps of dungeons as you explore them - which is kind of cool. I only played IV, and never even finished it, but will likely revisit it if I'm in the mood. You don't have to play them in order or anything like that.

Quote from Dgaart : Really don't like buying digital on 3DS but I think I missed the boat on getting some of these physical at low prices. Might pick up Shin Megami Tensei IV. Also, I'd recommend Etrian Odyssey if you like old-school dungeon crawling that can be difficult. They are lite on story and more about the strategy and RPG group building. Also, you draw out maps of dungeons as you explore them - which is kind of cool. I only played IV, and never even finished it, but will likely revisit it if I'm in the mood. You don't have to play them in order or anything like that.

Thanks for the recommendation! Why do you not like buying digital on 3DS?

Quote from deucesdaddy : Thanks for the recommendation! Why do you not like buying digital on 3DS?

I'm not the person you asked but I would guess because games are tied to your console and not your Nintendo account on 3DS. So if you ever lose your 3DS or it breaks, your games are gone.

That said...it's very straightforward to hack a 3DS these days and I absolutely love backing up my physical games to have them all on my system, and I can back up my digital purchases too, so this alleviates the concern for me about games being tied to console.

Quote from deucesdaddy : Thanks for the recommendation! Why do you not like buying digital on 3DS?

I just mean cause I have a good size physical 3DS collection, and -not to get into the whole physical vs digital debate stuff- but like with any digital good you are basically just leasing access to the game. Nintendo has said they will continue to let you buy, download and re-download games for the forseeable future, but there will be a day when maybe your grandkids can't download your game again, lol, but you'll still have your cartridge which may actually have value as well.

Also, I think you can have your device linked to your nintendo ID to download on another 3DS device but I'm not 100% on that. Why even put up with not knowing if you can re-access content you paid for, if there are other options to buy something?

Quote from Dgaart : I just mean cause I have a good size physical 3DS collection, and -not to get into the whole physical vs digital debate stuff- but like with any digital good you are basically just leasing access to the game. Nintendo has said they will continue to let you buy, download and re-download games for the forseeable future, but there will be a day when maybe your grandkids can't download your game again, lol, but you'll still have your cartridge which may actually have value as well. Also, I think you can have your device linked to your nintendo ID to download on another 3DS device but I'm not 100% on that. Why even put up with not knowing if you can re-access content you paid for, if there are other options to buy something?

"but you'll still have your cartridge which may actually have value as well."

This right here!!! Have you seen the prices of these games physically? I know some are in hundreds territory. Not only can you not only never worry about if Nintendo will shut down the access to download but you could most likely make money selling in the future.

All that said, I prefer physical even when games aren't worth much. I like to know it's mine and usually you'll find great deals well before you find them digitally.

There's a very sweet spot between release and having to hunt ebay for huge prices where small games like these hit clearance and you get them dirt cheap. Trying to hit that mark is thrilling lol.

Quote from Exrian : "but you'll still have your cartridge which may actually have value as well." This right here!!! Have you seen the prices of these games physically? I know some are in hundreds territory. Not only can you not only never worry about if Nintendo will shut down the access to download but you could most likely make money selling in the future. All that said, I prefer physical even when games aren't worth much. I like to know it's mine and usually you'll find great deals well before you find them digitally. There's a very sweet spot between release and having to hunt ebay for huge prices where small games like these hit clearance and you get them dirt cheap. Trying to hit that mark is thrilling lol.

All points on physical media from you and others are valid. I was late to the game on these, so now I can get the digital versions of everything for the cost of a single cartridge for SMT IV Apocalypse.

I totally get the thrill of finding gems in bundles and do that to build my collection and turn my hobby into a net zero to profitable hobby. If I found a deal on one of these games physically and I owned it digitally, I'd flip it.

Quote from deucesdaddy : All points on physical media from you and others are valid. I was late to the game on these, so now I can get the digital versions of everything for the cost of a single cartridge for SMT IV Apocalypse. I totally get the thrill of finding gems in bundles and do that to build my collection and turn my hobby into a net zero to profitable hobby. If I found a deal on one of these games physically and I owned it digitally, I'd flip it.

Oh yeah, I am not against digital (I have lots of game digitally and I'll sometimes sell my physical copies too) I just prefer physical when available. That being said, as you mentioned, these are unreasonable to buy physical now. So these are good 3DS deals!

There was a time a few years ago you could get SMT IV as part of a 4 for $20 promotion for pre-owned games priced $9.99 or less at GameStop, I must have forgot to check out or something because it seems I never grabbed a copy (it likely would have been missing its original case, but still). There is always that sweet spot where console games are no longer new enough to be sought after and not old enough to be considered collectible.

Quote from TheKeebz : I'm not the person you asked but I would guess because games are tied to your console and not your Nintendo account on 3DS. So if you ever lose your 3DS or it breaks, your games are gone. That said...it's very straightforward to hack a 3DS these days and I absolutely love backing up my physical games to have them all on my system, and I can back up my digital purchases too, so this alleviates the concern for me about games being tied to console.

Every once in awhile I still see someone say this to this day and it is mostly false and misleading. Maybe it was like that when the system first launched but for at least several years now digital games that you purchase on your 3DS console get tied to your account and not hardware. The only exception to this was when a game came preinstalled or you activated a code for one and/or made a purchase without having first linked an NNID (Nintendo Network ID -- basically a Nintendo account) to the system (if that's even possible anymore). In such a case there is no account associated with the system to provision the games to. However, once an NNID were to be linked to the system any of those previously acquired 'homeless' games then get tied to that account at that time. So basically as long as you created and linked an NNID account to the system like you should have then no, you cannot lose your digital games.

As far as future-proofing and protecting yourself against potential hardware failure down the road goes: 3DS games don't generally take up that much storage space and it's not hard to download and install your whole library on a single SD card, which can then be backed-up in its entirety onto another reliable storage medium and then easily restored later if need be by following the right procedure. Such as the one outlined in the following 3DS data migration guide [lofi-gaming.org.uk] for example. The size SD card it would take to hold your entire digital library is cheap these days and you can even go way beyond the official 32GB limit by using a PC to reformat the card as FAT32 instead, although for most people it will probably be overkill.

I'm someone who very much prefers the physical format when it comes to game consoles and have a substantial physical collection of 3DS games, but to say that your digital library will be gone if something happens is just flat out false. Not if you did what you were supposed to do.

Damn All of these are good. But this is a great deal for someone who is interested in getting into the Shin Megami Tensei franchise since SMT V is coming out soon.

Culdcept Revolt is also on sale for 5 bucks!!!

I bought:
SMT IV
Persona Q
Devil Survivor Overclocked
Culdcept Revolt

I already had Soul Hackers!

This is a GOLD MINE! I can honestly recommend every single game here. All very rare and amazing games. If you can't buy all of them, I would in the least recommend Shin Megami Tensei IV, Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux. Absolute classics and pinnacles of their series.

Quote from TheKeebz : I'm not the person you asked but I would guess because games are tied to your console and not your Nintendo account on 3DS. So if you ever lose your 3DS or it breaks, your games are gone. That said...it's very straightforward to hack a 3DS these days and I absolutely love backing up my physical games to have them all on my system, and I can back up my digital purchases too, so this alleviates the concern for me about games being tied to console.

I'm sorry what? This is flat out wrong.

If you were to lose the SD card in any way, hack the 3DS, and reinstall the titles using cartridge backups, you will still have your titles and save files. How do I know? Consult my double-banned 3DS (banned nintendo account, banned console) and my legitimately purchased titles who became inaccessible until I reinstalled them using backups. Digital is superior in every way if they're titles you love.

In fact, using physical cartridges ACTUALLY means you WOULD lose your game forever. Your save file is stored on the cartridge, the game is on the cartridge. You lose that little cart, it's all gone.

HOWEVER

Back up the cartridge, back up your save files, and everything is safe. Best of both worlds. It goes without saying that people do not want to carry around tons of cartridges when you could just install all of them onto the console. Should also go without saying that cartridge backups are also perfectly legal as they are your own backups of the software you purchased.