SMT V is very much a game of extremes, things that are very fun and cool, and other things that are exceedingly lame.

The combat is great here, with the variety and constant danger SMT is known for. There's an absurd amount of bosses to fight that all work at least a bit differently. It's hard to get tired of fighting stuff. There are some oddities that make some fights get samey, and it gets very easy to shatter the balance.

Exploration is alright. Sometimes it can be fun, but you spend a LOT of time in differently colored versions of what feels like the same map. There are dungeons, but they are pretty lackluster in comparison to what you'd expect from this series. Even when you have interesting gimmicks, they just don't get used.

The music and presentation is pretty good. The new designs are mostly cool, and the music is as good as you'd expect from these games. There are some performance issues, but it's not that bad.

The story is complete ass. It feels slow but develops basically nothing. It kind of gets in the way of the atmosphere too, which is also dampened by everything just being a desert.

Overall a fun game, with a lot of weird little quirks. Hopefully Vengeance takes this promising format and turns it into something stronger.