I've played this game so much in high school as it was one of the first SMT games I actually bought store front when it first released. I stopped playing after a while with only three more endings left, so I recently came back to finish where younger me left off.

While my opinion on the story may have changed over the years, the gameplay and the amount of content this game delivers was still enough to keep me invested. If you'd like to hear more on my overall thoughts, as well as what I think about Overclocked, you can read about it in a retrospective I've recently posted on my blog: https://artbycarlyh.wordpress.com/2024/05/04/human-of-bel-devil-survivor-retrospective-5-4-24/

Honestly this game definitely suffered the retro formula in where it almost expects you to head to the next destination after completing your task. It was hard to navigate through the world map and find the right continent you’re suppose to head to next, but thankfully I had a guide that included the full view of the map to help me out.

The combat for most part is rather quick and easy to master if you know how to build a decent RPG team, with most of the bosses end up being defeated at around 4-5 turns if you really grind your levels at the start. The last of the optional dungeons are only worth going through if you’re willing to grind. While tedious at best, it also doesn’t help to remember which dungeons you went to can actually provide the best experience gains and what not.

Also since I was playing the PSP version I absolutely loved the pixel art and backdrops, giving off that old retro RPG Maker-esque style while at the same time feeling old school with its presentation. There were definitely a lot of cool looking monsters and I was only able to fight 70% of what can be found and fought within the game.

The story is overall simple at best, and given the context on how the game was first developed back on NES, you can easily see the themes of its production and with how the ending goes after beating Chaos. Kinda ironic how games that were meant to be "the last hurrah", actually end up getting really successful.

Despite the minor frustrations, I actually enjoyed this leisurely play through. Just some classic RPG fun that gave the humble roots of what FF was. I’m hoping for when I get into the next FF titles, there will be one that would really struck me in terms of story and gameplay. 💙

EDIT (3/24/23): So I was able to beat the rest of the souls of chaos dungeons on a separate file. Managed to get the Ultima Weapon and a bunch of other good equipment while grinding, and all that was left was the labyrinth of time, where the psp exclusive super boss is located. I tried it and only got pass the first 3 dungeons. This extra dungeon requires a lot of testing of patience, which I tend to have so little after playing so long and due to my completionist brain wanting to end it ASAP. Perhaps I’ll give another update after I beat it, whenever that’ll be, but for now I’ve covered at least 95% of this game at this point, so I’m done for now.

While I do enjoy the overall concept of this game, as well as its beautiful art and somewhat intriguing story, I can't recommend this game is for everyone...

Every time a new expansion comes out, the meta changes and people complain about the new broken cards that come with it, which I can understand why. When I first started, I never really made it far in ranked matches until I managed to get every card with the use of money that I had. It did help out a bit, but I still struggled against all the crap the current meta throws in your face. (unless you cheat your way though it by using deck lists from the japanese gamewith site...) Story mode can also throw such ridiculous tactics outta no where too, unless you have all the cards at your disposal.

I don't really play this daily as much I use to when I first started 'cause I pretty much got most of everything now, as the scrubby completionist that I sorta am. But needless to say, I'd only recommend this to players who can withstand ridiculous tactics, don't rage quit so easily, are extremely rich, or at least are skilled at advanced broken card games to play it.

My only hope is for when this game gets all the expansions it needs, then Cygames will nerf just about everything so that all the classes are somewhat equal with one another, and that way we all wont have to deal with all this crap (but thats likely not gonna happen).