This game is in my opinion one of the best of the entire megami tensei franchise.
The plot was not only unique then, but still manages to hold up in this day and age with a selection of characters that have personalities and goals that flesh them out, without just following standard smt tropes.
However despite all that this game does well i am willing to admit some of its flaws, an example would be the gameplay that can't decide if it wants to be hard and against you, or easy and heavily on your side.
Random encounters can sometimes be insanely difficult with status ailment spamming and an encounter rate higher than the demand for devil summoner to be translated ( most ofthe random encounters HAVE random encounters within them), but the bosses can be won without any effort by stunlocking them with zio (elec skills have a 100% chance of stunning any enemy and that includes bosses that don't null that element).
Overall this game is one of my all time favourites, and while it may have many flaws it still holds up today as a certified classic.