[Emulated on PCSX2]

Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army is quite a fascinating game with a lot to digest. First, I’d like to focus on its setting which is the Taisho era of Japan (which ended in our world in 1926 but has been extended to 1931 in this game).

To give some background, in 1853 Japan was forced to end its 200 year isolation and open up trade to the west. This caused a massive change in Japan with rapid advancement in industrialization with the new Western technology, reorganization of government from feudalism to a more centralized government, and a focus on growing the military to become a world power.

So why is all this important to Raidou? By the Taisho era, the effects of westernization could still be felt strongly and is one of the central focuses of the game. From the invading demons that represent Japan’s old world, the clever use of prerendered backgrounds mixing Western and outdated Edo period architecture, beautifully crafted soundtrack incorporating Jazz which was spreading throughout the world at the time, Atlus does an incredible job at capturing this era.

Every character is feeling the effects of modernization from Denpachi who's rickshaw business has come to a standstill due to the introduction of automobiles, Tae embracing the new freedoms of women in this era, and Munakata who desires imperialism using new technology. Other themes can also be seen in the story such as recognizing and cherishing our bonds with others along with passion to do our best in life despite dark times.

The story itself takes a lot of inspiration from detective dramas, with each part of the story fitting into an episode. The light hearted and witty approach to the story telling is very pleasant and the game does not hold back with how ridiculous the story gets. Every episode has something crazy from fighting yakuza in a bathhouse while being naked with nothing but your hat on to time travel and Russian cyborgs. Episodes are also very well paced, never dwelling too long on a plot point to avoid the player getting bored.

Gameplay wise Raidou does something unprecedented for a Megami Tensei title, swapping the standard turn-based combat system with action rpg gameplay. While theres definitely a lot that can be criticized such as the poor implementation of MAG that feels more of a leftover from previous games rather than serving any purpose, loyalty requiring grinding to fuse demons, random encounters in towns, to the clunky movement and lack of melee abilities outside of basic attacks, I still enjoyed the combat a lot and appreciate what it sets out to do.

Rather than feeling like a hack and slash, Raidou finds a way to bridge the gap between action and turn-based by having a focus on managing menus from switching demons, choosing their attacks, circulating through elemental bullets, to picking items to use. I found this approach to be quite unique and appreciated the experience it brought compared to other games in the genre.

Another aspect I loved was how Atlus incorporated the adventure genre into this game to fit the theme of being a detective game. Every demon has certain skills to help Raidou on his cases such as mind reading, fitting into small areas to reach something, using lightning to sense for clues, freezing water to walk on, and many more. Rather than this just being a skill you active from a menu you actually get to control the demons and move around as them which is really really cool.

While not a perfect game, the charming characters and story along with the unique gameplay made me fall in love with this game and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this title, regardless if you’re a Megami Tensei fan or not.

Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army is a very long title, so for levity's sake, I'll refer to it as "Raidou 1" from here on out.

Taking place in the Taisho Era (that's the "Roaring 20's" for us American dogs), you play as the 14th designated inheritor of the title of "Raidou Kuzunoha". As part of the Narumi Detective Agency, you take on the stranger, more demonic cases brought to your attention. You go around town, talking to people, using your demons' powers to get further reactions out of the populace. You can also send your demons out solo, to get past the unaware humans or reach areas that Raidou can't get to. Some of the more innocent demons refer to this as "playing detective", which is the cutest thing ever.

The world is presented via pre-rendered backdrops with fixed camera angles. The Taisho era definitely gives this game an atmosphere that no other Megaten game has. This game has my favorite "Cathedral of Shadows/Goumaden" of the whole franchise, literally a mad scientist's laboratory. I really like how expressive Kazuma Kaneko's character designs get to be in this game. Shoji Meguro accompanies this world with one of his funkiest, jazziest soundtracks ever. It kinda feels like he brought his signature Persona vibes over to this title, giving us some perfect tunes for a detective on the beat, or a summoner in battle.

Of all the SMT games out there, one mostly universal constant is the demons providing quirky dialogue to offset the dark tones that the games typically thrive on. Raidou 1 stands out from the crowd by having a fairly quirky tone all throughout, and in turn is one of the most amusing SMT games I've ever played. When investigating, NPCs have consistently enjoyable dialogue, and you can draw even funnier dialogue out by using a demon's skills on them. There are moments where the game has you do "demon negotiation" as a gag, seeing as Raidou's typical way of making friends is confining them into test tubes. The tone is a lot more lighthearted than most SMT titles, but it does know when and how to reel things back in, get serious, and keep you invested.

Also unlike most SMT games, Raidou 1 is a real-time action game. Raidou wields a blade and a gun, but unfortunately, this is no Devil May Cry. All you get is a three-hit combo, a lunge attack, and a spin attack. None of it really chains together, and combat feels really stiff overall. The bullets you can shoot come in many different elemental varieties, and are mostly used to hit an enemy's weakness, opening them up for more damage via your sword strikes. Raidou can also guard with his blade, integral to survival. Being a Devil Summoner(TM), Raidou can summon one of his demons to fight by his side in battle. Their helpfulness can go either way, if I'm being honest. If you're attacking efficiently as Raidou, you'll often end up pushing your demon's targeted enemy juuuust out of the range of their attack, due to long windup animations. There were times where I tried to attack the enemy in a way that wouldn't squander my demon's attacks, but that felt like a makeshift solution to a problem that shouldn't have been there to begin with. I also found that giving a demon a healing skill activates a very dominant strategy: tanking all damage and letting your demon heal you. To be fair, if your demons aren't attacking effectively, putting them on eternal support mode isn't the worst idea, but it kinda locks off gameplay potential. Lastly, when a demon is sent out on a solo investigation, you actually have full control over that demon during random encounters, which is pretty novel for an SMT game, spinoff or otherwise.

I think the big hangup with the combat comes from the pacing. If this were a turn-based SMT, I would likely be at the edge of my fucking seat for every turn of battle, even if the fight took upwards of 20-30 minutes. When you shift to real-time action, you shouldn't keep enemy health pools that large. Repetition and tedium set in really fast when you're required to be directly involved in combat at all times. Several bosses feel like they go on for far too long, really just boiling down to becoming a war of attrition. I admit that it's entirely possible that I just wasn't playing the game right, and didn't fuse the powerful demons I should've had at that point. One problem with that: You can only fuse demons that you have max loyalty with. This feels like a pointless extra step that only serves to enable more grinding. Furthermore, I tried to keep a party of demons that would allow me access to as many field skills as possible at any time, partly because I enjoy all the flavor text, but also because you never know when a field skill will be mandatory for progression. Fusing demons did in fact lead me to hit a roadblock like that on more than one occasion. I may also just be directionally challenged, but I found the overworld map very confusing. A lot of train fares were wasted on me not remembering which area was called what, and not knowing where to go next.

Raidou Kuzunoha VS. The Soulless Army is definitely a game of ups and downs, but for the most part, I was delighted by this title every step of the way. It's just unfortunate that its roughest spots are kind of the most critical ones. This game has been mentioned quite a bit in Atlus's customer surveys as of late, possibly testing the waters for a potential remake. Raidou 1's rough spots could probably be ironed out with a good remake, or perhaps......a sequel.

only writing a proper? review because i had the worst game of fortnite ever triple reboot my teammate because i had annoying kids up my arse the whooole game so this will take my mind of it (no real spoilers probably)

many gamer megatennist chuds will tell you its viable to skip raidou 1 for 2 because they arent connected and reoccuring characters are reintroduced in 2 but i dont think so because 1 is really fun and silly

the gameplay is kind of shit a LITTLE BIT, the game has random encounters which sets you onto a typically square plane with no obstacles and a fixed camera and demons will spawn in waves until all of them are killed. you only have a sword with a slash, charge and joust attack and a gun with different bullets to load in (you can also block too i forgot that). the main way you fight is by summoning in your demon to command manually(ish) or let its fairly competent ai aid you, although the quality of the ai depends on the skills it has pretty much. if you hit an enemy weakness with your demon and hit them with raidou you can fill some go go gauge and do a powerful combo attack with your demon

the game also has a MAG counter which you gotta top up as it costs mag to summon demons and do combo attacks but youll never run out even if you waste it on useless combos you can just capture a shitty demon and trade it into shin sekai for shit loads of mag or whatever
within the game's tutorial youve done the most you can do with the games combat it will never get anymore in depth or complex which i guess creates a same-y vibe but the execution makes it feel like your actually fighting with your demon which is kind of chuddy but its infinitely more interesting fighting as equals rather than mindlessly slashing while getting carried by ai, you actually need to pay attention to your demon(s) and command them well a good example is this infamous (to me) fight during the hiroku invasion you gotta fight mishaguji hes some big penis guy but his attacks can inflict charm which literally turns your demon against you by healing up the boss or something and making you wanna kill yourself

a really shit part of raidou is the demon fusion system and how you tend to stock your demons too, if you arent battling you are doing detective work and you can summon your demons to aid you by using specific skills that their race has. people say its kind of annoying but there are like 5 races so as long as you have a pagan, frost, wind, pyro and volt order demon + a small guy and a fly guy you are pretty chill BUT

because of this and the bond system where you gotta max out your bond with a demon to fuse away makes it so you only fuse demons every 3 episodes or so and along with the fact there are so few demons in the game everyone who has ever played this game will have run the same demon team at some point in the game, going back to the mishaguji ive seen like 4 people talk about how they had raja naga on their team with bufudyne and dia aura which crazy story i had that too!!!! you BARELY fuse demons or get to use a good variety which sucks because the demon models look disgustingly good like its kinda crazy how good they are no bad looking demon (subject to change when i remember an ugly one)

the game has sakes which you can use to boost the bond of your demons quicker but like real talk sell them holy shit uselessss free money its insane and fusion is expensiveeee

the detective gameplay as mentioned is fairly tame its just going a to b but its driven by the story obviously which without spoiling is a crazy interesting and whimsy silly story and the music pairs really well. there is no bad track in the ost at all its inoffensive they didnt try and do anything crazy they just made some good as music

anwyay idk it was really fun and i like it more than its worth this game is probably a 3/5 for normal people but its a crazy goofy time with a good amount of challenge the big gripes are at times it can be a bit of a slog or a bore when its pure sucky detective work or poorly designed gimmick bosses thats it #rumblygoopers #poshcheerios https://discord.gg/cpavPDsQUe join the army play fortnite with us

ALSO the game isnt necessarily linear there are optional content via training halls scattered across the map and at the shrine where you can fight cool bosses like yoshitsune and beezlebub for fusion (yoshitsune is broken so slept on fuse him PLEASE)

This game has a really promising premise that quite honestly was set back by the PS2's limitations and tbh I think by Atlus' own limitations as well. The game feels like a rushed, shallow product to meet the latter half of the PS2's life rather than just making it a PS3 title seeing as the console had already been out by it's release date. Then again though Persona's 3 and 4 barely came out between this game's release date and they made those games work spectacularly on the PS2, so I don't even know man.

Some of my more concerning complaints with the game is pretty much the combat's repetitiveness and boring design where they took "hack and slash" quite literally. The lack of dialogue audio during cutscenes was also quite disappointing borderline annoying. Don't get me wrong, I didn't feel the same way with Nocturne's (PS2) lack of dialogue audio in their cutscenes if anything it really added to its atmosphere, but seeing a game where the characters are the major focus of the game yet they have no voice just feels off. Kind of leading into my point about how rushed/shallow the game feels really adding to the "don't worry about the fine details no ones gonna care about that when they get to slice up demons, just ship the game" vibe

My biggest gripe though is that I paid fucking $500 for both Raidou games when they have the game design quality of a $20 shovelware game you'd find on the Switch. That's on me though for being an absolute idiot thinking those games would be worth spending on even as a collectors item lmfao. Fuck you eBay resellers.

Would not recommend this game to anyone unless you are a die hard Megami Tensei fan and/or like collecting rare PS2 games.

If Atlus ever decides to do another cash grab with their older IPs, I really hope they just remake this game cuz honestly there's nothing really worth preserving aside from it's admittedly stylish PS2 graphics.

three things i have to say about this game

a. it's an awful action RPG with an extremely shallow and therefore boring combat system. the AI behind your demon partners is awful and rarely guards, with there being no command to tell them to. you're legitimately better off not using your demon, and instead just soloing and summoning a demon that has dia/diarama to heal as needed. your attacks have awful ending lag, so every time you attack, it just feels clunky and slow. there's no option to dodge, guarding is brainless and almost always nullifies damage. the game turns into an unengaging "guard until your enemy finishes attacking, then attack them" affair. it's boring.

b. it's a mediocre JRPG. i did not care about most of the characters, there's very little to do in terms of self-expression with builds because you can't learn skills, and there's a lot less creativity to be had with demon skillsets as well. demons have severely reduced skill inheritance + slots available for skills, so you're going to be stuck with the ice demon who can only use ice skills or the physical demon that only can use physical skills. the puzzles/dungeons are almost always just "do you have this specific type of demon that can do a context sensitive action? no? well too fucking bad". the plot isn't awful, but it's not as interesting as it thinks it is.

c. the random encounter theme is REALLY good. seriously. listen to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kfjqM7UqbA it fucks doesn't it

The third entry in Shin Megami Tensei's 'Devil Summoner' subseries, Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army performed a sudden renovation in two key areas. First in the structure, whose batch of detective-themed TV episodes emphasized SMT's comedic element over the atmospheric or philosophical one. Ridiculous moments and witty writing abound, and there's enough room for the usual dose of supernatural horror and existential discourse, too. Between the jokes is a massive, complex city, with lots of exits and side paths to consider - although progression and backtracking gets a little confusing at times.

The other (and more dramatic) change is in the combat system, which offered a unique hybrid of Tales' action-RPG and Parasite Eve's 3D mini-arenas. Or in particular - combining the real-time battling, A.I party members and combo strings of the former with the perspective, guns and movement of the latter. These battles benefit from amusing one-liners and flashy attack feedback, if held back by some awkward handling and limited (but flexible) attack options to an extent. Modern SMT-isms surface yet again in its type-affinity favoritism, whose prevalence even affected dungeons and monster-capturing - not only strategy. But thankfully, the layer of skill-based difficulty is combat's primary focus, and not the dull matching-game linearity of late. Its demonic roster found a purpose beyond combat as well, boasting a large variety of non-battle abilities that interact with NPCs, objectives, dungeons, and even unlockable loot. Basically, it's their version (and expansion) of Golden Sun's Psynergy system, adding an interesting nuance to teambuilding while complementing its investigative gameplay. Overall - despite retaining much of MegaTen's DNA, the series' 'container' and its 'contents' had morphed into something hilarious and inventive (if a little unpolished) in the world of JRPGs.

Amazing and interesting setting. It explores Japan as it transitions into a Western capitalist country and how it affects ordinary people. The gameplay is not great but it's not that bad either, there is some fun to be had with demon fusion, recruiting and using demons on the overworld for exploration. The story unfortunately devovles into B-movie nonsense which is entertaining but it kind of drops the whole "changing Japan" angle of the earlier parts and kind of loses any meaning. Still, Raidou is a cool ass character, the game is full of cool cutscenes, the music is kick-ass, and it's really funny.

Este videojuego me deja con muchos comentarios positivos y otros pares negativos. El videojuego es definitivamente un clásico absoluto del PS2 y un videojuego muy bueno, sin embargo, el inicio puede ser algo confuso y, algunas veces, aburrido, pero cuando finalmente toma fuerzas (más o menos a la mitad) va con todo y se vuelve extremadamente divertido y, en especial, memorable. Musicalmente es hermoso pero lo es mucho más (lo que es decir mucho) artísticamente, desde sus fondos bellamente diseñados hasta sus diseños extremadamente refinados que juntos forman un apartado técnico extremadamente sobresaliente. La historia sin ser la cosa más compleja es muy buena con momentos emotivos y otros muy bellos lo que es realzado por su final tan hermoso. La jugabilidad puede llegar a ser un poco tosca por lo poco refinada que está, sin embargo, no es un problema tan grave y aún en su simplesa, todavía mantiene un nivel de profundidad que definitivamente lo hace una experiencia de juego grata. En cuanto al apartado de dificultad, aunque tiene algunos momentos tensos es extremadamente fácil, en toda la campaña solo perdí dos veces y fue por que me hicieron piedra y de un golpe me asesinaron, de resto, no perdí una sola vez, lo que puede ser un problema grave para ciertas personas, por mi parte la dificultad nunca es algo que me preocupa y algunos videojuegos medianamente fáciles similares a este nunca viene mal. En conclusión, considero que como entrega de Shin Megami Tensei es una muy buena y un videojuego que debe ser probada al menos una vez por su valor artístico y sus grandes virtudes, que definitivamente pesan más que las falencias.