Shin Megami Tensei V took FOREVER to come out! I mean, it was announced before the Switch even came out. And I was so excited, having played the SMT IV duology several times before that, along with Devil Survivor Overclocked. But I had no idea how long it would be before SMT V would have actual gameplay shown, let alone released!

But then, in June 2021, we FINALLY get gameplay, and a release date: November 12th, 2021. A couple days later, I got the game as a present for my birthday!

I played the game nonstop, eventually beating it just over a week after getting it. And I remember really, really loving the game. A year later though, I’ve changed my mind on a few things.

One thing I still very much enjoy is the combat. It’s so, so cool. The new Magatsuhi meter is a a genuinely cool addition to the standard Press Turn formula! You earn Magatsuhi each turn in battle, and the Magatsuhi you collect is retained between battles, only draining when you use a Magatsuhi skill. The idea is amazing, but I found that I didn’t use many of the other Magatsuhi meter skills outside of Omagatoki: Critical, the one you start the game with. Each race has their own Magatsuhi meter skill, and you unlock those by doing sidequests and stuff. Some of them can be useful, but Omagatoki: Critical, which makes every attack you and your demons make for the entire turn inflict critical hits.

Magatsuhi is a concept first introduced in the third mainline game, Nocturne, which SMT V likes to call back to with it’s sandy, post apocalyptic setting. But it also decided to forgo a traditional equipment system, just like Nocturne! In V, the Nahobino is able to obtain Essences, which can be used in two ways: Either using the essence to impart it’s resistances and weaknesses on the Nahobino, or using it to learn that demon’s skills! Demons are able to use Essences in the latter way as well. You earn Essences either by exploring the world, or demons have a chance to give them to you each time you level them up after they learn all of their skills. It’s similar to the Magatama system from Nocturne, with a few differences to make it feel distinct from the earlier title.

That’s not all that’s new in SMT V, though! For the first time in the mainline series, you’re able to freely explore the world! Jumping, hopping, and speeding along. It’s not an entirely open world, though! Tokyo is split into four different sections, and each time a major mark has been reached in the story, you gain access to a new section of Tokyo, each with it’s own side quests, demon encounters, and story beats. Exploring Tokyo at first is really, really fun! But as you get further into the game, the scenery gets stagnant, in a way. Each section of Tokyo is covered in sand. So much sand. And outside of the color palette changing, and a brief section of the second section, the scenery just stays the same. Section one, Minato, is a regular looking, sandy desert. Shinagawa, the second part, is another sandy desert, but it’s colored a deep red. Them Chiyoda, the third part, is… Another desert, but gloomy purple, since it’s stormy. And the final area, Taito, kinda looks snowy, an ethereal, pale blue. But nope. It’s… sand. And as you get further, navigating these sections gets more and more confusing. It could just be growing pains, this game being fully 3D, but I know they can do better!

Unfortunately, the lofty ambitions they had for the world and exploration didn’t end up being reflected with the story. The basic plot of the game is that after a murder at the real life Shinagawa Station, the main character takes a detour to go back to their dorm. But then, the tunnel he, Atsuta, and Dazai are in collapse, transporting them to the other Tokyo. From then on, the game is spent fighting the demon hordes that are starting to pop up in your Tokyo, and eventually deciding on how to solve the problem. But things get a little screwy in that… Not a lot actually happens. The sense of scale feels so out of whack. You find out a few hours into the game that 18 years before the game started, the actual Tokyo was obliterated by demons, and the entire population of the city was killed, and you’ve been living in a fake one recreated by god. But the thing is, everywhere else on Earth is A-OK. But at the end of the game, the entire world has to change. But… Why? If everyone else is okay, how come the whole world has to change to fit?

Not only that, but it feels like other plotlines are sort of half baked. Like with Sahori, she’s sort of shown being miserable, we hear about her once or twice, and then she goes cuckoo and gets possessed by a demon. We don’t see her again for a while, but then we go to save her from the demon. The boss fight happens, and in the cutscene, the main character gets killed saving Tao from the demon, and then Tao dies. But then Tao uses her power to save the main character. And it just feels so… Hollow. Tao in general feels like a missed opportunity. She’s supposedly our best friend, but we hardly know anything about her. She’s has powers since she was little, but not much is actually specified about those powers. She saves us with them, but the origins and specifics of said powers is never made clear.

In a 2017 interview with Famitsu, Kazuyuki Yamai said that SMT V’s story would focus on issues that worry people today, such as terrorism, homelessness, nuclear weapons, and others. But in the final product, none of those made it in.

Overall, I think SMT V is really good. But I know that the devs can do better, especially with the story. I hope that when SMT VI comes out, whenever that may be, we get a game that has the highs of V, and significantly improves on it’s shortcomings. I think it’s worth your time, even if the story is kind of a stinker.