With Vengeance, Shin Megami Tensei V went from being a great game to becoming an absolute classic

First of all, I would like to express how I am against Atlus' modus operandi when it comes to re-releasing their games. For me, it is a waste of time and effort that could be better used in developing new titles, in addition to being practically disrespectful to the game developers, as I am completely convinced that they do not hold back and always try to deliver the best possible within the first version of each game. Of course, the improved versions with more content are (almost) always better, but overall, I'd trade them for getting the next sequel in less time in any day of the week.

However, I can definitely say that I am very happy that Vengeance exists.

It's no mystery to anyone that the original SMT V had its fair share of problems. As much as I already considered it an incredible game, it always left a bitter taste for me. The immense wasted potential of the narrative, as well as the lazy and neglected development of the characters, made the game convey to me the feeling that it still wasn't everything they were aiming to achieve in its conception.

Fortunately, now with the Vengeance route, things are completely different. I'm not even going to comment on Yoko, the new character, who is actually pretty cool, but she's not exactly the one who changes everything from water to wine.
Now the characters have more convincing ambitions, and very cool moments included in an assertive and very well crafted way that makes the entire plot more cohesive and exciting to follow until the end.
The writers really took their time and added detailed interactions between the characters. Take as an example the simple act of completing a side quest: now the characters debate among themselves whether Nahobino made the right choice, deliberate what could have happened, put their visions of the ideal world in evidence and come into conflict with each other. This alone enriches the game's narrative immensely.

It didn't become any masterpiece in storytelling, and of course it still has some problems, but the effort put in here was really very impressive to me, in a way that no other Atlus re-release added as much positively to the base game's content as it did.

Regarding gameplay and mechanics, they also fixed the game's level scaling, this time allowing you to use your favorite demons until the end of the game without them becoming useless. Even the impact of Nahobino's choices throughout the journey now really have a weight in determining his alignment, going against the original game where everything was determined by a single choice in the final dungeon, which is a horrible thing considering the past of the series in which so many games worked on this aspect masterfully.

And above all, SMT V is more than ever one of the most extraordinarily fun games I've had the pleasure of playing. Hell, it quite possibly has my favorite turn-based combat of any game. And the new route takes all of this even further, with lots of secret bosses, fun sidequests, better traversal mechanics, and even a demon haunt to interact with all your demons and Aogami. It's impressive how the demons steal the show and are the real stars of this game, and with demon haunt, we were able to see even more how each of them has their own personality and charisma.

In the end, I loved SMT V when it was originally released, but only now I can say that it has become a fully realized work that fulfilled all the goals it set out to achieve.

PS: Ryota Kozuka is an absolute beast of a madman, all the new songs are just insane, someone at Atlus raise this man's salary for YHVH's sake