SMTV Vengeance kind leaves me really conflicted unfortunately, because in a lot of ways, you could argue that this is the peak of the series, it's visually beautiful, has an amazing soundtrack, and the gameplay is really great!

However, sadly my main sticking point, much like with the original, comes down to the plot. I was REALLY hoping that they would be able to make something really great out of V's story, but still, I remained apprehensive coming in, and while for the first third of the new route, things were mostly all the same, during the second half, a lot of really cool and crazy shit started happening, and I was ACTUALLY really excited by just how much I was getting into it!... But then sadly, the final third came, and ehhhhh it's more or less just the same as in the original, with like a few added plot points, which was SUCH a disappointment man, it just felt like the game was in a rush to wrap up, and it really left me wanting more...

Vengeance is a great game, and a definitive step in a right direction in pretty much every way, however where story is concerned, it's really more of like, a half step, which was really disappointing. I wasn't really sure wether to give this an 8 or a 7, but decided I'll be nice and go with the big ol' 8, cause there is just way too much superb stuff here to ignore, I just wish that when SMT VI comes around, they'll be able to use this foundation to really hone in on just what used to make mainline SMT so magical...

Also remake SMTs I and II with these visuals and presentations, they would be some of the greatest Megaten games ever, please Atlus give me Pascal the Dog in 4K