I'm not looking forward to fighting Lahmu, and a few others. But mainly Lahmu, I can already tell that it's going to be a very painful experience.

I'll try my best

@@ZakaiCh Bucketgetter did a pretty low run without fusion of demons or use of essences on non-Nahobino party members; I'm pretty sure no EXP was taken from normal battles, but a fair amount was earned from quests instead. Someone did manage to get past Fionn in a mandatory-battles-only run, but...either they didn't get past Lahmu, real life intervened, or maybe they lost interest...?

From someone who's already beaten this game on release, It's really not that serious. There's far more changes to how combat works than just buffs/debuffs that are more interesting than that. Plus there's tons of moves at disposal that deal debuffs in addition to damage like in Strange Journey and IV. Stuff shouldn't be immune to change, but that's just how I feel about it.

@@Drawica fair enough. I'm not inherently opposed to change - hell, the way 4 and 4A deal with stuff feels like the best to me. I just feel a bit repulsed at first glance by how limiting (de)buffs are again.

At first I was really put off by it but after playing though a bit of the game it feels like they're equally important as in previous games. Tbh they just made it to where the buffs/debuffs wear off instead of giving enemies Dekunda and Dekaja is what it feels like. The game is balanced around it so it doesn't feel like it takes anything away from the experience.

@@sasaworker6417 It's not bad at all, you get used to it. You can use Ma-taru/raku/sukukaja to get buffs on all allies or just use luster candy to get all buffs up by one stage. The debuff is the same, the best is still debilitate which debuffs all of one enemy's stats by one stage, very useful since most bosses are just 1 single boss. There's also passive skills that increase the amount of time the buffs you cast last, I think Beelzebub has it, I think it's called EX Boon, increases your buff time from 3 rounds to 5 rounds, reducing the Persona feeling. I do prefer 4A's way of doing it too, but the gameplay in SMT V is probably the most refined SMT gameplay out there aside from 4A.

@@BAIGAMING yeah, that's why I was saying it's pretty much identical to persona, at least until you get the +duration. much as I like those games, I don't exactly like their buffing system as it's a bit too repetitive, whereas mainline you feel like you're constantly at odds with the enemy dekaja/unda'ing you.