Since Vengeance is coming out I figure I should review Vanilla real quick. I played it on launch and liked it quite a lot and I still like it now, just less so (and I promise the review isn't just gonna be "story bad gameplay good" guys, trust.)

That being said, pointing out the obvious: yeah V's story is unfinished and unlike what some people seem to insist, no it is not an attempt at minimalism like Cockturne the shit is just incomplete. Whether or not that's worse though is up for debate. But back to the point: "unfinished" or rather "lacking" is how I'd describe most of V which is a bit sad since this is like one of the few game releases I've been super hyped for but shit happens I guess. They had one of the few mildly interesting depictions of LNC in mainline but fumble by giving none of the alignment reps the proper time to develop, even the rep that gets the most screentime still didn't get enough development to make his out-of-left-field heel turn anything other than comical. As for the endings themselves three of them are much like Cockturne's Reason endings (i.e. bad) with the last one being completely antithetical to the sidequests required to achieve it. All of which to say that the story is just okay I suppose, though it's both mildly funny and mildly irritating that the copium surrounding this game further bolstered the "SMT was never about story" take.

But enough bitching about the story cuz instead I'm going to start bitching about the gameplay which is the actual source of my problems with this game. For one, level scaling. I don't really need to elaborate on that because we all already know what's wrong with it. I'm going to preface this next point with the fact that I have yet to finish this game on hard mode outside of NG+, and the main reason is that FATLUS FUCKING SUCKS AT DIFFICULTY SETTINGS. I suppose this is an issue with JRPGs in general but for the most part Fatlus' definition of "raising the difficulty" is just making the enemies spongier, which wouldn't be a massive problem if it weren't for the fact that V's BOSSES ARE ALREADY SPONGEY AS SHIT. Maybe it just feels this way since in this one you can actually see health bars but man the bosses in this game are soooo spongey for no reason. It's obviously not as bad as the average Persona game in terms of sponginess but it's still fucking annoying and is only exacerbated by the fact that COMBAT FEELS SLOW AS BALLS, even when you skip animations, only made worse by the fact that this game is stuck on a SHITTY ASS "CONSOLE" that it clearly is not properly optimised for.

Another pretty big problem I have with the gameplay is the fact that there is no post-game content to speak of. You're telling me there are all these cool ass high level demons I get to fuse and the only things I get to use them on are Lucifer (a boss so easy you could beat him on auto mode), Shiva (a pretty good fight actually held back that you can only fight him ONCE and ONLY on 1 specific path) and Demi-Fiend (a boss that's DLC and also SUCKS FAT MONKEY BALLS.)? Going from Apocalypse having Twisted Tokyo and Messiahs in the Diamond Realm to this in V is just... disappointing.

Some other smaller gameplay gripes include:
● The ways buffs work is this game sucks and they should change it.
● Aside from the ones needed for the alt Neutral ending, the sidequests are kinda ass.
● Ever since SJ made physical skills cost MP, Fatlus has been trying to homogenise magical and physical and V is a prime example of that. There is basically no reason to ever go magic aside from just thinking they're cooler because shit like Dracostrikes mean that physical can do the exact same thing as magic but just better.
● Not really a gripe but PLEASE FATLUS MAKE AILMENTS MORE USEFUL PLEASE.
● The three "dungeons" this game has suck ass.
● The open zones are... fine? But the amount of reused assets between them isn't really helping this game's case.
● The fact that only about 3 Magatsuhi skills are useful and they give the best one to you right off the bat.
● Stat distribution on level-up sucks. JUST LET ME PICK EVERY STAT MYSELF INSTEAD OF DOING 3 AUTOMATICALLY.
● Probably more shit I'm forgetting since it's been like a year and a half since I last played this game.

Overall I'd say V is probably the worst Press Turn Megaten game (I have to specify Press Turn instead of saying "Modern Megaten" since I still way prefer this over shit like SJ or the Hashino Personas) but I still actually do like it. The review is only all negative for comedic effect, trust 🔥. Also the music is the best in Megaten, forgot to mention that.

But be sure to check out my Vengeance review in like a week where I herald it as the greatest game of all time.