3★ - I like the game.
While I did enjoy this game overall I feel it did have some issues that may have been due to the open-world experience. While this was my first non persona game so my expectations for the story may have been misplaced but I was disappointed by the lack of it at least when it came to the Main Story. I found I did enjoy some of the side stories way more than the story. Especially one you get access to during the final map.
The story feels so lackluster and to me, it feels like it was due to the open world. It seems the developers didn't want exploration to be interrupted by the story so it only happens at the start, middle, and end of maps which doesn't really allow for much to happen and the bulk of interesting events happen right at the end where it doesn't really matter anymore.
I would only really recommend SMT5 for its gameplay which is solid and was a fun experience. I played on normal for the intended experience and was challenged by the majority of the major encounters. However, I was doing all the side content along the way and found a couple of bosses ended up under-leveled because of it. While others happened to be at a higher level than me which lead to a more engaging fight.
This is made worse by the final part of the game where a lot of the normal enemies will be at a higher level than you, so you expect you need to be at their level to be prepared for the final boss and it turns out the final fights are all lower levels than some of the normal enemies. So I ended up making what was supposed to be the climax really easy. This led to the finale feeling deflated and abrupt.
I wouldn't recommend this game unless you wanted to have some solid RPG battles. If you wanted something for the story I would say to not really bother with this one.
Side note, but why are their demon fusions at max level when they will trivialise any of the final bosses in the game?
While I did enjoy this game overall I feel it did have some issues that may have been due to the open-world experience. While this was my first non persona game so my expectations for the story may have been misplaced but I was disappointed by the lack of it at least when it came to the Main Story. I found I did enjoy some of the side stories way more than the story. Especially one you get access to during the final map.
The story feels so lackluster and to me, it feels like it was due to the open world. It seems the developers didn't want exploration to be interrupted by the story so it only happens at the start, middle, and end of maps which doesn't really allow for much to happen and the bulk of interesting events happen right at the end where it doesn't really matter anymore.
I would only really recommend SMT5 for its gameplay which is solid and was a fun experience. I played on normal for the intended experience and was challenged by the majority of the major encounters. However, I was doing all the side content along the way and found a couple of bosses ended up under-leveled because of it. While others happened to be at a higher level than me which lead to a more engaging fight.
This is made worse by the final part of the game where a lot of the normal enemies will be at a higher level than you, so you expect you need to be at their level to be prepared for the final boss and it turns out the final fights are all lower levels than some of the normal enemies. So I ended up making what was supposed to be the climax really easy. This led to the finale feeling deflated and abrupt.
I wouldn't recommend this game unless you wanted to have some solid RPG battles. If you wanted something for the story I would say to not really bother with this one.
Side note, but why are their demon fusions at max level when they will trivialise any of the final bosses in the game?