In my assessment of the unique Shin Megami Tensei V again in 2021, I wrote, “…it’s been a very long time since I’ve disliked the beginning of a recreation as a lot as Shin Megami Tensei V’s.” And but, in 2024, I began it once more. Why? Two causes.
First, as a lot as I hated the primary 15 hours of SMTV (and another parts that continued all through), I used to be nonetheless in a position to advocate the sport. Second, as a result of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance not solely delivers a completely new story, nevertheless it additionally corrects the sport’s largest design flaw that sapped the enjoyable out of the unique launch. Let’s begin by wanting on the story.
Vengeance begins with the identical pitfalls as the unique; we meet a couple of college students at a Japanese highschool, and we’re given no purpose in any respect to love or care about these folks earlier than we’re plunged into an apocalyptic world with the principle character who has merged with a demon to be reborn as a Nahobino.
We’re then set unfastened to discover an enormous wasteland referred to as Da’at. Within the unique, the one incentive we’re given for that is that there’s nothing else to do. Run round, battle demons, recruit demons, push onward. Now, relying on the trail you choose initially of Vengeance, we at the very least get a human companion. In the beginning, we see a silhouetted character and are warned in opposition to taking her with us. In the event you don’t, you play the unique model of the sport. In the event you do, you play the brand new storyline involving this character at new Qadištu enemies.
I like to recommend you’re taking this woman no matter whether or not you performed the unique, because the “Vengeance” story does a a lot better job at being an precise story.
You possibly can then determine if it’s value one other full journey to play the unique path. There’s worth to that, as a result of there’s a lot to discover, discover, and accumulate that your second “completionist” playthrough might be nearly as compelling as your first “story” playthrough.
It helps, too, that the world of Da’at is such a singular place to go to. The preliminary desertscape is actually overwhelming, nevertheless it’s nonetheless somewhat gorgeous to see, and every new space turns into extra compelling to discover. Additionally, no recreation I’ve ever performed has made mass destruction appear so concurrently bleak and exquisite.
I’m not going to enter an excessive amount of element on the sport’s mechanics, as they’re largely the identical as earlier than (once more, you possibly can seize the small print in my unique Shin Megami Tensei V assessment). Principally, it concerned partaking in turn-based fight with an assortment of demons and utilizing the “press flip” system to emerge victorious. This entails figuring out their weaknesses and utilizing the suitable assaults to use them. The extra you achieve this, the extra assaults you get. After all, enemies can exploit the weaknesses of your self and your demons, too. So, you need to be sure you have the best demons in place and that you simply’re leveling them up appropriately.
You get the demons by both recruiting them in fight (accurately guessing the best solutions to their somewhat goofy questions, then agreeing to surrender cash, well being, or objects) or by fusing them. Some have to be fused, so that you need to accumulate as many demons as doable. You’ve gotten a restricted variety of slots for them, so that you’ll must fuse demons to open up new slots. However you don’t need to do that too shortly or the demons received’t purchase their higher abilities to cross alongside when fused. There’s rather more to contemplate, however we received’t fear about that proper now. As a substitute, let’s discuss how Vengeance makes this complete course of rather more satisfying.
Within the unique, your progress might solely be saved on the Leyline Founts the place fusion takes place. There aren’t quite a lot of these, so you may theoretically go a full hour with out the power to save lots of. As a result of the demons can one-shot kill your fundamental character, this meant you’d must always backtrack to a Leyline Fount each time you recruited a very tasty demon, discovered an important merchandise, or overcame a hard adversary; you both moved backwards otherwise you risked dropping any vital progress. The sport pressured you to play defensively, and that’s not enjoyable. Now, it can save you the sport everytime you need. About to face a tricky battle? Save. Lastly recruit a difficult demon? Save. Need to see in the event you can soar to a hard-to-reach space? Save. The sport now not wastes your time; it retains you shifting ahead.
Sort of. Vengeance additionally introduces Demon Haunts to the Leyline Founts, that are locations the place you possibly can hang around with the demons you collected and get to know them. Why would you need that when the demons solely exist to be sacrificed and fused? I assume the youngsters simply can’t dwell with out their social sims nowadays.
Oh, and the demons provide you with further objects and stage up quicker in the event you discuss to them (glad my actual life associates don’t work that manner). These visits gradual issues again down, however not sufficient to harm the general expertise.
All of this implies you’re much less prone to keep away from fights whereas exploring, thereby engaging you to really play the sport whereas taking part in the sport. And in the event you’re a kind of gamers who liked grinding by way of the problem of the unique model, no worries; there are many difficulties to maintain everybody completely satisfied.
Even with all of those modifications, the gameplay loop stays; discover an enormous space, stage up, purchase demons, face a boss, get a story dump, repeat. Vengeance does a greater job of retaining issues attention-grabbing alongside the way in which, however V nonetheless has the least attention-grabbing storyline of the half dozen Shin Megami Tensei video games I’ve performed. That’s advantageous, as a result of the exploration of the huge wastelands of Da’at, the turn-based fight, and the demon-fusion mechanic are sufficient to hold gamers by way of.
The repetition could flip some away (particularly contemplating the general size), however repetition is simpler to take care of so long as I really feel like I’m regularly making progress. The standard-of-life enhancements made right here enable for that, and that enables gamers to lastly absorb all that Shin Megami Tensei V affords with out the necessity for anger administration courses.