Got the jist of the appeal: saw mom's throat get ripped out, the dream sequences that would set the tone for all other SMT games, put in quite a few hours of grinding, chose my political side, and made some solid progress through the world and story. However I don't think I can consistently play this one to work towards the conclusion, as the encounter rate is actually so freaking high. This has never before been a problem for me as an avid fan of the jrpg genre, but when it gets to the point where you literally fear taking a step in the game for fear of a 3-phase encounter, you have abused your player too much. Might chip away at it on-and-off when I'm in the mood, and maybe one day I'll complete it, but right now there are far too many games to get to in this series alone for me to commit to this one.