The tl;dr, spoiler free edition of this review is basically: I think this game is pretty good but if you’re on the fence try waiting a while and see if those rumors/datamines of a ps4/pc port are true. Despite performance issues and some story quips, this is one of the most fun rpgs i've played from a battle mechanic/world-exploring perspective and does a lot of interesting things regarding its quests, alignments and characters. The performance is a bit shoddy but its art direction itself is spot on (god bless you, Doi) and the music is also up there as one of my favorite soundtracks from the series (god bless you, Kozuka). There are some pacing issues and shortcomings the series has usually had regarding its structure but I can't be too mad at the latter. Easily up there with Nocturne as my favorite.
The long version is a much more complicated affair:
In starting my review of Shin Megami Tensei V, I should state the fact that this is my favorite game series by a long shot. This game was easily the game I’ve been most excited for since probably Persona 5, so my excitement and biases regarding the series should be noted as this means I myself can look past certain performance issues and also the barrier that is SMTs usually notorious difficulty, so certain hurdles don’t latch to my head as much as it might for others. Of course I try to keep a mental note of parts where it does get fairly rough, for example during a boss fight in the midgame I encountered moments in which battle animations would take a few seconds to even load. Other times I would have to think about certain level jumps or battles that might be mean to newcomers to the series. Shin Megami Tensei is a weird series to talk about, think outside the box, and honestly recommend with its requirement for players to remain vigilant in nearly every battle until the very end. Yet, the thing about SMT and with what changes V brings to the table I think its safe to say that not only is SMTV a much more approachable title but I think by this point it should be noted that this is a game that was meant to be exploited by anyone -and I think that’s fairly obvious from the get-go.
Shin Megami Tensei, mechanically speaking, is a series about exploitation of course. Ever since the introduction of the Press Turn system in Nocturne, SMT has taken pride in at least incorporating some form of weakness exploitation -> bonus actions/chain attacks/however you describe Strange Journeys gimmick into most of their games. Each of these games expects you to make use of every action you can get in one turn, as any kind of mismanagement or misfire means the opposing side can also take advantage of this system and abuse it (to varying degrees of A.I. difficulty competency). And despite even my fairly well versed understanding of not just the mechanics/exploits of the series (and a fair chunk of demon weaknesses), one cocky but misplaced move would often leave me in a pickle, or worse, a game over. Even with this, that shouldn’t deter players of course, especially since it’s never been easier to utilize your player character and demons to overcome any battle the game throws at you.
This game’s biggest asset is easily the addition of the ‘Essence’ system. This is Naho’s main method of accruing skills and affinities throughout the game, similar to Magatama in SMT3 without the leveling requirement nor the need to do stuff like block puzzles. The secondary aspect to this is that it also applies to your demons as well (minus the affinities part). By all means you can get through the game okay by not fine-tuning every demon into a monster for a specific fight. You can get through the game alright with what demon’s you’ve normally fused, recruited and what have you. However this system does allow for a greater degree of exploitation fun as you can give the demon that has the right affinities but not the right spells more attacks that can work for a boss or quest that you’re having trouble with. This comes to a head especially later in the game not just because you might encounter tougher enemies but you’ll start getting essences with much crazier combinations to work with, you might have a finalized demon party in your head, you might have a bunch of essences stocked up on to make weirder move combos, etc. You’re only limited to the single essence per demon and when Gustave, your shopkeep starts selling them the ones he offers aren’t entirely useful but this is such a neat mechanic in an already really customizable game. Again, you don’t need to utilize this all the time- however if you wish to ham with your demon loadout, you have another means to deck them out.
The essence system is also brought up on top of the return and introduction of several other mechanics and items like the skill potential system which prioritizes skills for a demon by having certain elements be of greater or lesser use/function with how large the interval is for that element (e.g. a demon with +3 in the Ice element will have ice skills at a reduced mp cost while a -3 will make those skills cost more), as well as sutras, which allows you to boost a demon’s skill potential so long as that has said element at +1 or higher (so demons with no affinity in ice can’t use ice sutras). Alongside this, you also have Grimoire and to a rarer extent, Gospels, which helps max out the exp bar to level up after your next battle to your demons and Naho respectively.
Other returning changes include the Hama/Mudo skills doing normal elemental damage rather than being purely instakill spells (instakill has a chance of activating if target is weak rather), player upgrades in the form of ‘Glory’ (vs the apps in Strange Journey and 4) and the moon phases returning once again play a role in negotiations and fusion accidents. Minor additions to the battle mechanics include spell additions like the ‘dracostrike’ series of spells -strength based skills with elemental attributes to help with weakness exploitation, (de)buffs now last 3 turns but can be stacked twice, an additional level above -dyne for common spells (relegating prior ‘severe’ spells like Ice Age or to having different functions). On top of this are some unique/exclusive skills found on demons throughout your journey that range from party heals that give buffs, damage spells that cause debuffs/status ailments, or even just better versions of other spells (e.g. Mermaid’s Stormcaller Song being a better Ice Breath). Your chance to get these is fairly sporadic sadly, as a good chunk of them are locked behind either DLC, late game or new game plus, but they’re neat to check out the animation/effects of. Unique demon conversations are also a returning feature that is greatly appreciated, less from how useful it is but just how neat some of the flavor dialogue is. In fact, a DLC mission has a unique cutscene following a battle if you have an end-game demon in your party, there’s a lot of neat flavor conversations between some of these demons. Some of these are easy to try out, some might need a bit of smt trivia knowledge (Decarabia + Forneus) some of these I just got by chance like having Cirronup when approaching Koropokkur, not realizing both came from Ainu culture.
The last major battle mechanic I’d like to talk about is the magatsuhi gauge, a new feature in which as a battle progresses you will fill a gauge up until it is full and you can activate a litany of special moves that you unlock by getting talismans. These moves cost nothing to cast, don’t waste a turn and are often extremely powerful. Getting these talismans can be done mostly through quests but some might require just talking to npc demons on the overworld, like the foul talisman. These are a really neat idea but the weird thing about them is that SMTV hands out arguably two of the best ones right off the bat, one giving you guaranteed crits on all attacks and the other being a single enemy nuke. There are others throughout the game that you’ll definitely find more useful in a pinch such as the ‘Femme’ skill reducing the cost of all your spells to 1MP that turn, or some can be used to exploit even the game’s superbosses like the ‘Beast’ skill boosting damage output for 1 turn based on damaged you are. A lot of them are pretty alright but might not be as enticing as the first two you get for a long while, skills like ‘Hit’ and ‘Dance’ or ‘Dekajaon’ basically never had any chance of me trying them out. I’ve seen some talk that the first two that are given are the only two you’ll ever need, which I wouldn’t agree with. Certain skills like ‘Fairy Banquet’ giving you a free all stat max buff is amazing and even stuff like ‘Luck’ or ‘Sincerity’ are nice to consider if you need to grind exp/macca or want help with negotiations. That said it is still very odd that the two given at the start are as immediately busted as they are.
I sincerely love the gameplay of Shin Megami Tensei. It’s hard for me to think of a battle system I’ve fallen in love with more than these ‘press turn’ games. There’s a certain rhythm you get into once assembling a fine party of demons, especially when you prep for an upcoming boss and know the ins and outs of a ‘proper’ team. However even going beyond the normal SMT battle system a lot of the changes made to V just add so much more enjoyment to each battle, especially in boss fights. I think the best thing this game adds unironically is certain bosses being weak to ailments. For once I can build a demon and legitimately consider ailments as a feasible spell and mean that unironically, especially if said demon can get normal damaging spells that inflict these ailments and combine that with support skills that allows said demon to get back MP for inflicting these ailments. These don’t break the game of course but I was more than satisfied getting a late game boss confused, having them pop their own magatsuhi: critical, having said boss hit themself in confusion 4 times (said attacks critting himself) and basically waste an entire turn. Charming boss fights with multiple opponents, getting Mirage off at all, even just being able to poison bosses for extra chip damage feels so goddamn right. Even the superboss isn’t entirely nulled to every ailment. That superboss too is also a great (if fucky) example of this game wanting you to take any advantage you can get to beat it. It’s an odd fight to try to recommend because
1. If you want to get the secret ending you have to fight it before the alignment lock
2. This boss is level 93 in a game where said alignment lock happens after a level ~80 dungeon
3. The strongest enemy combatants you can farm are level ~87 and you can get decently leveled just off this until you’re level 87 yourself
4. Gospels are fairly hard to come by so if you don’t have that 4 dollar mitama-farming dlc good luck if you want to be at least equally levelled without too much grinding.
5. Grinding to beat this boss means the bosses thrown at you in the final hours are kinda cakewalks (this could be a good thing).
The fight itself can be done without needing to be exactly the same level as the superboss but I do wish it were easier to reach their level without needing DLC. If you don’t get said DLC but are fine doing a second run I would just recommend that instead. Otherwise have fun trying out the superboss, in which many of the game’s mechanics and philosophies can be put to the test or just absolutely broken. You can go in with level 99 demons and use the most broken magatsuhi skill in the game (a damage barrier that reduces all attacks down to 10% their original value), a demon that can reliable keep the boss debuffed for long periods with Boon Boost EX and a general party healer. At this point it becomes a typical fight similar to others throughout the game with the added trouble of managing the cronies our boss summons that can throw a wrench into everything, healing/rebuffing/debuffing/having spell blocks/etc. Additionally our boss having access to a party-wide severe almighty move that drops all opponents defense to rock bottom, as well as their own chance to proc magatsuhi: critical can lead to some tight situations. But same as ever, just remain vigilant and you can succeed. Alternatively, you can enter the fight at low health -> boost yourself to max buff -> debuff our god’s defense to as low as it can be -> survive the first turn but remain at as low hp as you can -> pop your Beast magatsuhi and take advantage of an exploit that allows putting demons back in your stock to stack half turns to do 4 Murakumos and beat the boss in two turns. There’s more prep that’s not mentioned here but that’s what I enjoy about Shin Megami Tensei, it’s ability to be broken. Weakness exploitation is merely the first step but dig deeper and you find way more ways to take advantage of the system, helped by its immense customizability. Even tinier combos early in game like getting a demon with a poison skill and a demon with Venom Chaser, a move that does significantly more damage on a poisoned target, felt really fun especially when I tried that out on a later boss.
Here’s where things start to get a bit harder for me to fully think about and analyze myself as I would also like to think more about the overall world exploration and the story aspects/weaknesses of the game. I’ve already spent 2200 words in this review but dammit this is the one game I’ve been hard looking forward to the past few years, I’ll keep these sections more brief and maybe down the line ill edit in a more in-depth opinion.
The world exploration is pretty fun, if straightforward. I do wish there was slightly more variety in our map themes. For the most part its Tokyo but blasted into a desert but each area is a different shade or tone to differentiate it from the last. Certain sections of an area might differ overall, like a forestry area in the second half or certain sections of the final area utilizing the ‘geometric/runic’ vibes of 3 into certain parts of the map. It was definitely fun exploring and seeing Tokyo in an open world environment finally, although some variety would have been appreciated. Additionally that 3rd area has some really confusing layouts, not sure if intentional or not. Could have just been me but I found myself get lost often in certain areas of that map. I do enjoy the additions of the Miman and Abscesses quite a bit, I would say I found these more fun on average than the Botw equivalents of the Koroks and the Open World Towers but that might just be me (also helps 200 is a much more manageable number to collect and you have an npc that helps reveal them at the end of each map). Also a shame there’s not too many dungeons outside of like, 2 and a half. I did really enjoy the final Tokyo map however, I think that’s a better way of starting the third act than the latter parts of dealing with Chi Yous, Ongyo-Kis and odd door puzzles. The final Tokyo map just says fuck it and drops you in the middle of the map to locate three waypoints (meaning bosses) that you can tackle in any order and its just exploring the area from there, really fun way to do the last exploration-based area of the game.
I might as well take this time to also talk about the music and art direction of this game and to be honest I can’t put it any other way than I just adore it. The main thing holding back this game visually is that its a switch game, this game desperately needs a PC port. I can live with poor performance myself but I think most people would better appreciate this game if it was on anything that wasn’t just Switch. Otherwise I love a lot of the new designs, Naho, Aogami and Nuwa/Shohei were already some of my favorites of the cast, on top of a lot of the new demon designs and 3D introductions for older designs. It’s also great to see Atlus just, once again, having a game where battles utilize these snappy af animations and cool unique cutscenes for certain attacks. It is funny seeing the demons Doi designed get way more treatment as far as these animations go, but I’m not complaining- I would be lying if I said Idun’s little dance she does for an idle animation didn’t go a long way as to me keeping her on active roster (also the fact Golden Apple is super good but thats beside the point). Alongside the art is the soundtrack which, admittedly I had my reservations about once going through the first few hours.
The primary battle theme is so good and I was desperately wanting a full version ever since hearing it this last E3, the only shame is that it will be the main battle theme you hear for the entire game. That’s basically just the RPG way but at least the theme we do get kicks ass and the other battle themes are just as great. They oddly range from clear bangers to this more mellow tune for certain quest fights, and this could honestly apply to a good chunk of the soundtrack as a whole. Ryota Kozuka continues his delve into this experimental/industrial/rock fusion while also keeping some tracks way more atmospheric to fit the more ethereal tone of the world and it works superbly in my opinion. The first area’s main theme sounded alright and I was mostly siked to hear it after knowing it from one of the first few trailers, but then you get to Shinagawa, the 2nd area of the game and just ‘aughhhh’. Music in general is a very hard thing for me to analyze in general to point its hard for me to even describe my own taste or what I like in certain tracks outside of just saying like ‘i like its vibe’, but I do think SMTV’s music is just another example as to the talent over at Atlas kind of evolving/branching into new territory while acknowledging its roots all over. There’s a lot of tracks here that sound like Persona, like Digital Devil Saga, like 16-bit SMT, like SMT4/Apo, some tracks sound like multiple kinds of SMT titles. It’s hard in general for me to pick a favorite SMT soundtrack but this certainly goes up there. Absolutely crazy that I heard fans saying this game had a weaker soundtrack.
In a similar vein to the exploration, I think quests in this game are done way better than they were handled in 4. It seems like quests (more involving quests at least, unlike the ones that just involve giving demons certain items) are way more rewarding and engaging this time around as they might often twist into another direction based on what you align with. They also tend to involve certain story elements or sideplots in a way that’s very neat. Only issue being that I honestly thought certain characters would be given more screen time (mostly because they got introduced alongside what would be our ‘alignment’ characters), rather these characters kinda get relegated to an odd side quest chain. Not bad, per se. Just not what my initial thoughts of these characters were gonna go.
The story might be the last thing I want to touch up upon and I’ll keep it brief. I don’t think the game has a necessarily weak story, I think it’s subjects and characters are done pretty well on a surface level. My main issue I would say is that it suffers from really weird pacing. I think if certain elements were better arranged and introduced there’d be much less of a fuss from fans in general. I don’t want to spend too much time on the story because to be honest, I don’t go into these games with the story on my mind. I could spend time comparing the structure of this game to something like Nocturne or even some of the older smts but I would just say go into this game knowing that SMT in general isn’t story-light per se, but story-minimal in a sense that many characters can kind of just come across as one dimensional in their arc or some characters might not get as much time as you’d think. It didn’t really bother me too much especially because by the end I quite enjoyed what the game was getting at thematically and on the grand spectrum of the Megaten meta/universe.
There’s a lot more I can probably touch upon or explain better but to be honest it’s 3 in the morning and this has gotten to be way longer than I imagined. My closing thought is just how I compare this to my current favorite SMT, Nocturne. There’s still a lot of other SMTs I’ve yet to play but hear are just as fantastic, the DDSs, the Devil Survivors, the Devil Summoners, Eternal Punishment, etc. but as it stands Nocturne was the game that showed me the transition from early SMT to what SMT stands for now, while providing an interesting twist on series old conventions and ideas. It stuck in my mind for its aesthetics, its gameplay, its themes, etc. A few years later and sure enough I still enjoyed that game immensely, while acknowledging its flaws and shortcomings. But this time around I’m faced with a game that faces a similar situation. There is a lot that can be improved upon, even some quality of life stuff I forgot I wrote down until now like quests having clearer level indicators or just, maps having waypoints. I could still be in a honeymoon phase and maybe I’ll reevaluate certain thoughts about this game but as it stands, I could see myself liking this more than Nocturne in the long run. Even so, the more important thing is less which is better but that I also see this game as the next step in SMT as a series. I'm very glad to have spent as much time as I did on this game, Shin Megami Tensei still remains some of the most fun JRPG shenanigans out there and I'm thoroughly looking forward to what comes next, mainline/sidegame/spin-off/etc.
The long version is a much more complicated affair:
In starting my review of Shin Megami Tensei V, I should state the fact that this is my favorite game series by a long shot. This game was easily the game I’ve been most excited for since probably Persona 5, so my excitement and biases regarding the series should be noted as this means I myself can look past certain performance issues and also the barrier that is SMTs usually notorious difficulty, so certain hurdles don’t latch to my head as much as it might for others. Of course I try to keep a mental note of parts where it does get fairly rough, for example during a boss fight in the midgame I encountered moments in which battle animations would take a few seconds to even load. Other times I would have to think about certain level jumps or battles that might be mean to newcomers to the series. Shin Megami Tensei is a weird series to talk about, think outside the box, and honestly recommend with its requirement for players to remain vigilant in nearly every battle until the very end. Yet, the thing about SMT and with what changes V brings to the table I think its safe to say that not only is SMTV a much more approachable title but I think by this point it should be noted that this is a game that was meant to be exploited by anyone -and I think that’s fairly obvious from the get-go.
Shin Megami Tensei, mechanically speaking, is a series about exploitation of course. Ever since the introduction of the Press Turn system in Nocturne, SMT has taken pride in at least incorporating some form of weakness exploitation -> bonus actions/chain attacks/however you describe Strange Journeys gimmick into most of their games. Each of these games expects you to make use of every action you can get in one turn, as any kind of mismanagement or misfire means the opposing side can also take advantage of this system and abuse it (to varying degrees of A.I. difficulty competency). And despite even my fairly well versed understanding of not just the mechanics/exploits of the series (and a fair chunk of demon weaknesses), one cocky but misplaced move would often leave me in a pickle, or worse, a game over. Even with this, that shouldn’t deter players of course, especially since it’s never been easier to utilize your player character and demons to overcome any battle the game throws at you.
This game’s biggest asset is easily the addition of the ‘Essence’ system. This is Naho’s main method of accruing skills and affinities throughout the game, similar to Magatama in SMT3 without the leveling requirement nor the need to do stuff like block puzzles. The secondary aspect to this is that it also applies to your demons as well (minus the affinities part). By all means you can get through the game okay by not fine-tuning every demon into a monster for a specific fight. You can get through the game alright with what demon’s you’ve normally fused, recruited and what have you. However this system does allow for a greater degree of exploitation fun as you can give the demon that has the right affinities but not the right spells more attacks that can work for a boss or quest that you’re having trouble with. This comes to a head especially later in the game not just because you might encounter tougher enemies but you’ll start getting essences with much crazier combinations to work with, you might have a finalized demon party in your head, you might have a bunch of essences stocked up on to make weirder move combos, etc. You’re only limited to the single essence per demon and when Gustave, your shopkeep starts selling them the ones he offers aren’t entirely useful but this is such a neat mechanic in an already really customizable game. Again, you don’t need to utilize this all the time- however if you wish to ham with your demon loadout, you have another means to deck them out.
The essence system is also brought up on top of the return and introduction of several other mechanics and items like the skill potential system which prioritizes skills for a demon by having certain elements be of greater or lesser use/function with how large the interval is for that element (e.g. a demon with +3 in the Ice element will have ice skills at a reduced mp cost while a -3 will make those skills cost more), as well as sutras, which allows you to boost a demon’s skill potential so long as that has said element at +1 or higher (so demons with no affinity in ice can’t use ice sutras). Alongside this, you also have Grimoire and to a rarer extent, Gospels, which helps max out the exp bar to level up after your next battle to your demons and Naho respectively.
Other returning changes include the Hama/Mudo skills doing normal elemental damage rather than being purely instakill spells (instakill has a chance of activating if target is weak rather), player upgrades in the form of ‘Glory’ (vs the apps in Strange Journey and 4) and the moon phases returning once again play a role in negotiations and fusion accidents. Minor additions to the battle mechanics include spell additions like the ‘dracostrike’ series of spells -strength based skills with elemental attributes to help with weakness exploitation, (de)buffs now last 3 turns but can be stacked twice, an additional level above -dyne for common spells (relegating prior ‘severe’ spells like Ice Age or to having different functions). On top of this are some unique/exclusive skills found on demons throughout your journey that range from party heals that give buffs, damage spells that cause debuffs/status ailments, or even just better versions of other spells (e.g. Mermaid’s Stormcaller Song being a better Ice Breath). Your chance to get these is fairly sporadic sadly, as a good chunk of them are locked behind either DLC, late game or new game plus, but they’re neat to check out the animation/effects of. Unique demon conversations are also a returning feature that is greatly appreciated, less from how useful it is but just how neat some of the flavor dialogue is. In fact, a DLC mission has a unique cutscene following a battle if you have an end-game demon in your party, there’s a lot of neat flavor conversations between some of these demons. Some of these are easy to try out, some might need a bit of smt trivia knowledge (Decarabia + Forneus) some of these I just got by chance like having Cirronup when approaching Koropokkur, not realizing both came from Ainu culture.
The last major battle mechanic I’d like to talk about is the magatsuhi gauge, a new feature in which as a battle progresses you will fill a gauge up until it is full and you can activate a litany of special moves that you unlock by getting talismans. These moves cost nothing to cast, don’t waste a turn and are often extremely powerful. Getting these talismans can be done mostly through quests but some might require just talking to npc demons on the overworld, like the foul talisman. These are a really neat idea but the weird thing about them is that SMTV hands out arguably two of the best ones right off the bat, one giving you guaranteed crits on all attacks and the other being a single enemy nuke. There are others throughout the game that you’ll definitely find more useful in a pinch such as the ‘Femme’ skill reducing the cost of all your spells to 1MP that turn, or some can be used to exploit even the game’s superbosses like the ‘Beast’ skill boosting damage output for 1 turn based on damaged you are. A lot of them are pretty alright but might not be as enticing as the first two you get for a long while, skills like ‘Hit’ and ‘Dance’ or ‘Dekajaon’ basically never had any chance of me trying them out. I’ve seen some talk that the first two that are given are the only two you’ll ever need, which I wouldn’t agree with. Certain skills like ‘Fairy Banquet’ giving you a free all stat max buff is amazing and even stuff like ‘Luck’ or ‘Sincerity’ are nice to consider if you need to grind exp/macca or want help with negotiations. That said it is still very odd that the two given at the start are as immediately busted as they are.
I sincerely love the gameplay of Shin Megami Tensei. It’s hard for me to think of a battle system I’ve fallen in love with more than these ‘press turn’ games. There’s a certain rhythm you get into once assembling a fine party of demons, especially when you prep for an upcoming boss and know the ins and outs of a ‘proper’ team. However even going beyond the normal SMT battle system a lot of the changes made to V just add so much more enjoyment to each battle, especially in boss fights. I think the best thing this game adds unironically is certain bosses being weak to ailments. For once I can build a demon and legitimately consider ailments as a feasible spell and mean that unironically, especially if said demon can get normal damaging spells that inflict these ailments and combine that with support skills that allows said demon to get back MP for inflicting these ailments. These don’t break the game of course but I was more than satisfied getting a late game boss confused, having them pop their own magatsuhi: critical, having said boss hit themself in confusion 4 times (said attacks critting himself) and basically waste an entire turn. Charming boss fights with multiple opponents, getting Mirage off at all, even just being able to poison bosses for extra chip damage feels so goddamn right. Even the superboss isn’t entirely nulled to every ailment. That superboss too is also a great (if fucky) example of this game wanting you to take any advantage you can get to beat it. It’s an odd fight to try to recommend because
1. If you want to get the secret ending you have to fight it before the alignment lock
2. This boss is level 93 in a game where said alignment lock happens after a level ~80 dungeon
3. The strongest enemy combatants you can farm are level ~87 and you can get decently leveled just off this until you’re level 87 yourself
4. Gospels are fairly hard to come by so if you don’t have that 4 dollar mitama-farming dlc good luck if you want to be at least equally levelled without too much grinding.
5. Grinding to beat this boss means the bosses thrown at you in the final hours are kinda cakewalks (this could be a good thing).
The fight itself can be done without needing to be exactly the same level as the superboss but I do wish it were easier to reach their level without needing DLC. If you don’t get said DLC but are fine doing a second run I would just recommend that instead. Otherwise have fun trying out the superboss, in which many of the game’s mechanics and philosophies can be put to the test or just absolutely broken. You can go in with level 99 demons and use the most broken magatsuhi skill in the game (a damage barrier that reduces all attacks down to 10% their original value), a demon that can reliable keep the boss debuffed for long periods with Boon Boost EX and a general party healer. At this point it becomes a typical fight similar to others throughout the game with the added trouble of managing the cronies our boss summons that can throw a wrench into everything, healing/rebuffing/debuffing/having spell blocks/etc. Additionally our boss having access to a party-wide severe almighty move that drops all opponents defense to rock bottom, as well as their own chance to proc magatsuhi: critical can lead to some tight situations. But same as ever, just remain vigilant and you can succeed. Alternatively, you can enter the fight at low health -> boost yourself to max buff -> debuff our god’s defense to as low as it can be -> survive the first turn but remain at as low hp as you can -> pop your Beast magatsuhi and take advantage of an exploit that allows putting demons back in your stock to stack half turns to do 4 Murakumos and beat the boss in two turns. There’s more prep that’s not mentioned here but that’s what I enjoy about Shin Megami Tensei, it’s ability to be broken. Weakness exploitation is merely the first step but dig deeper and you find way more ways to take advantage of the system, helped by its immense customizability. Even tinier combos early in game like getting a demon with a poison skill and a demon with Venom Chaser, a move that does significantly more damage on a poisoned target, felt really fun especially when I tried that out on a later boss.
Here’s where things start to get a bit harder for me to fully think about and analyze myself as I would also like to think more about the overall world exploration and the story aspects/weaknesses of the game. I’ve already spent 2200 words in this review but dammit this is the one game I’ve been hard looking forward to the past few years, I’ll keep these sections more brief and maybe down the line ill edit in a more in-depth opinion.
The world exploration is pretty fun, if straightforward. I do wish there was slightly more variety in our map themes. For the most part its Tokyo but blasted into a desert but each area is a different shade or tone to differentiate it from the last. Certain sections of an area might differ overall, like a forestry area in the second half or certain sections of the final area utilizing the ‘geometric/runic’ vibes of 3 into certain parts of the map. It was definitely fun exploring and seeing Tokyo in an open world environment finally, although some variety would have been appreciated. Additionally that 3rd area has some really confusing layouts, not sure if intentional or not. Could have just been me but I found myself get lost often in certain areas of that map. I do enjoy the additions of the Miman and Abscesses quite a bit, I would say I found these more fun on average than the Botw equivalents of the Koroks and the Open World Towers but that might just be me (also helps 200 is a much more manageable number to collect and you have an npc that helps reveal them at the end of each map). Also a shame there’s not too many dungeons outside of like, 2 and a half. I did really enjoy the final Tokyo map however, I think that’s a better way of starting the third act than the latter parts of dealing with Chi Yous, Ongyo-Kis and odd door puzzles. The final Tokyo map just says fuck it and drops you in the middle of the map to locate three waypoints (meaning bosses) that you can tackle in any order and its just exploring the area from there, really fun way to do the last exploration-based area of the game.
I might as well take this time to also talk about the music and art direction of this game and to be honest I can’t put it any other way than I just adore it. The main thing holding back this game visually is that its a switch game, this game desperately needs a PC port. I can live with poor performance myself but I think most people would better appreciate this game if it was on anything that wasn’t just Switch. Otherwise I love a lot of the new designs, Naho, Aogami and Nuwa/Shohei were already some of my favorites of the cast, on top of a lot of the new demon designs and 3D introductions for older designs. It’s also great to see Atlus just, once again, having a game where battles utilize these snappy af animations and cool unique cutscenes for certain attacks. It is funny seeing the demons Doi designed get way more treatment as far as these animations go, but I’m not complaining- I would be lying if I said Idun’s little dance she does for an idle animation didn’t go a long way as to me keeping her on active roster (also the fact Golden Apple is super good but thats beside the point). Alongside the art is the soundtrack which, admittedly I had my reservations about once going through the first few hours.
The primary battle theme is so good and I was desperately wanting a full version ever since hearing it this last E3, the only shame is that it will be the main battle theme you hear for the entire game. That’s basically just the RPG way but at least the theme we do get kicks ass and the other battle themes are just as great. They oddly range from clear bangers to this more mellow tune for certain quest fights, and this could honestly apply to a good chunk of the soundtrack as a whole. Ryota Kozuka continues his delve into this experimental/industrial/rock fusion while also keeping some tracks way more atmospheric to fit the more ethereal tone of the world and it works superbly in my opinion. The first area’s main theme sounded alright and I was mostly siked to hear it after knowing it from one of the first few trailers, but then you get to Shinagawa, the 2nd area of the game and just ‘aughhhh’. Music in general is a very hard thing for me to analyze in general to point its hard for me to even describe my own taste or what I like in certain tracks outside of just saying like ‘i like its vibe’, but I do think SMTV’s music is just another example as to the talent over at Atlas kind of evolving/branching into new territory while acknowledging its roots all over. There’s a lot of tracks here that sound like Persona, like Digital Devil Saga, like 16-bit SMT, like SMT4/Apo, some tracks sound like multiple kinds of SMT titles. It’s hard in general for me to pick a favorite SMT soundtrack but this certainly goes up there. Absolutely crazy that I heard fans saying this game had a weaker soundtrack.
In a similar vein to the exploration, I think quests in this game are done way better than they were handled in 4. It seems like quests (more involving quests at least, unlike the ones that just involve giving demons certain items) are way more rewarding and engaging this time around as they might often twist into another direction based on what you align with. They also tend to involve certain story elements or sideplots in a way that’s very neat. Only issue being that I honestly thought certain characters would be given more screen time (mostly because they got introduced alongside what would be our ‘alignment’ characters), rather these characters kinda get relegated to an odd side quest chain. Not bad, per se. Just not what my initial thoughts of these characters were gonna go.
The story might be the last thing I want to touch up upon and I’ll keep it brief. I don’t think the game has a necessarily weak story, I think it’s subjects and characters are done pretty well on a surface level. My main issue I would say is that it suffers from really weird pacing. I think if certain elements were better arranged and introduced there’d be much less of a fuss from fans in general. I don’t want to spend too much time on the story because to be honest, I don’t go into these games with the story on my mind. I could spend time comparing the structure of this game to something like Nocturne or even some of the older smts but I would just say go into this game knowing that SMT in general isn’t story-light per se, but story-minimal in a sense that many characters can kind of just come across as one dimensional in their arc or some characters might not get as much time as you’d think. It didn’t really bother me too much especially because by the end I quite enjoyed what the game was getting at thematically and on the grand spectrum of the Megaten meta/universe.
There’s a lot more I can probably touch upon or explain better but to be honest it’s 3 in the morning and this has gotten to be way longer than I imagined. My closing thought is just how I compare this to my current favorite SMT, Nocturne. There’s still a lot of other SMTs I’ve yet to play but hear are just as fantastic, the DDSs, the Devil Survivors, the Devil Summoners, Eternal Punishment, etc. but as it stands Nocturne was the game that showed me the transition from early SMT to what SMT stands for now, while providing an interesting twist on series old conventions and ideas. It stuck in my mind for its aesthetics, its gameplay, its themes, etc. A few years later and sure enough I still enjoyed that game immensely, while acknowledging its flaws and shortcomings. But this time around I’m faced with a game that faces a similar situation. There is a lot that can be improved upon, even some quality of life stuff I forgot I wrote down until now like quests having clearer level indicators or just, maps having waypoints. I could still be in a honeymoon phase and maybe I’ll reevaluate certain thoughts about this game but as it stands, I could see myself liking this more than Nocturne in the long run. Even so, the more important thing is less which is better but that I also see this game as the next step in SMT as a series. I'm very glad to have spent as much time as I did on this game, Shin Megami Tensei still remains some of the most fun JRPG shenanigans out there and I'm thoroughly looking forward to what comes next, mainline/sidegame/spin-off/etc.