Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance: An Improved Gaming Experience
Shin Megami Tensei V is the only game in which you willingly reveal your status to a manic Demon with torture gear, whether you are a top or bottom. Only a tremendous franchise like Atlus’ obscure, cult-classic JRPG could make you feel sorry for a disgustingly rotten, unwelcome green slime. No other game could satisfy my craving for crazy Demon conversation and raw rejection. And you will be glad to know that Atlus has infused Vengeance with the same wickedly amusing cruelty that fans love about the franchise.
Welcome to post-apocalyptic Tokyo!
Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance is an improved re-release of Shin Megami Tensei V. The game transports you, an average high school student in Tokyo, to a wasteland known as Da’at, where you combine with a mystery entity to become a Nahobino, a half-human, half-demon hybrid. It is now up to you to negotiate Da’at’s chaos and solve this tale of angels and devils.
Turn-based combat with a diabolical party
In Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, combat are ruled by the Press Turn system, which is all about exploiting enemy weaknesses to get extra turns. If you make a mistake, you will forfeit your turns.
You have one significant advantage over your opponents: a party of Demons. Recruit or combine them to form an alliance. While recruiting is cool, the Fusion lab is where the truly addictive experiments take place. Mix two wild Demons to create your own unique creatures.
And there are plenty of lab rats to experiment on, with 230 Demons returning from the original game and 40 new ones. While some are forgettable (looking at you, Nyam Nyam), others, such as Onyankopon and Anansi, are visually appealing.
Demon bargaining is a classic SMT mechanic. To get them to join your team, you must first engage in a discussion. Depending on the moon phase, they can become more or less demanding. What is difficult is choosing an answer that matches their mood.
I was shocked by the Demons’ ingenuity. You can start to win them over, but if you do not match their level, they vanish in a puff of smoke. They save you for later, like a Demon waiting list, until you reach a level that is worth their time.
Play-doh difficulties
Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance’s difficulty options appeal to a wide range of players. Playing on Normal, I was sucker-punched and had to reload several times, bypassing cutscenes to return to the boss battle. It felt like an endless cycle of rinse, skip cutscene, fast-forward speech, and repeat.
The RNG frequently decides to play dirty, and before you know it, you are smacked by a boss’s instakill move. GAME OVER.
In this difficulty mode, each battle feels like a high-stakes challenge. Before you can face the bosses, you must complete every side quest, fine-tune every Demon in your crew, and study all of the enemy’s tactics and vulnerabilities.
I appreciated the challenge, but it left me exhausted. Encounters seemed like unpleasant interruptions that depleted my stamina quickly. It became a grind, clearing all side stuff simply to fight the boss and move on, only to repeat in the next region.
So, one night, exhausted, I threw up the towel and switched to Casual mode with Auto-Battle enabled. Suddenly, those repeated encounters took care of themselves, freeing up all my mental energy for exploration, item hunting, and Demon fusion.
With both difficulty modes available from the start, SMT V Vengeance creates a welcome environment for newbies. It might be a nail-biting, turn-based strategy epic or a casual Demon collectathon.
The appearance and sounds of the apocalypse
Shin Megami Tensei V’s visual style immerses us in a devastated landscape that screams biblical doom, and the soundtrack makes you feel every moment of it. Toshiki Konishi’s trademark rock-meets-electronic sound creates the ideal atmosphere for humanity’s imminent apocalypse.
But one thing I can not get over is the Demon’s howls. Each species has its own particular sound, which adds to its uniqueness and recognizability. Ippon Datara’s exaggerated cries could cause nightmares.
While the acoustics in Vengeance is impressive, the visuals leave much to be desired. Back in 2021, SMT V looked promising for a Switch game, but with next-generation technology, Vengeance’s untouched surroundings pale in comparison to its redesigned 3D characters and Demons. The game takes you across a bleak wasteland for what feels like an eternity, attempting to divert you with chuckling Mimans, random prizes, and chatty Demons scattered about. It is entertaining for a while, but these gimmicks cannot conceal the fact that the scenery is absolutely superficial.
Atlus’ Canon of Vengeance
When SMT V first came out, fans had a lot to say—and most of it was not pleasant. However, two years later, Atlus responded to all of the criticism with Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, its very own reverse UNO card.
Back in 2021, the most common criticism leveled at SMT V was its shallow, poorly paced story with flat characters. Atlus appears to have taken this personally and rectified it in Canon of Vengeance, a fresh new game mode that completely revamps the mid-to-late game events. The adjustments begin immediately. Da’at is now experiencing interactions that make it feel more alive. Characters, both new and returning, join your party as guests. Minor plotlines, even those from the beginning of the game, have been rewritten, making each arc feel less underdeveloped.
The developer did not stop there; he also addressed other criticisms. Was the map difficult to read? Atlus updated it to emphasize height inequalities. Tired of all the Demons in the Overworld coming to you? Activate the Etoma Field. Were flying fiends annoying? Poof, they are gone.
Atlus took every piece of feedback into consideration, and the re-do of SMT V feels like the studio’s personal Canon of Vengeance. While I am not convinced this is the game the developer had in mind, with Kazuyuki Yamai’s promises of tackling heavy topics like terrorism and Masayuki Doi’s flashy ideas of riding on Hayataro’s back, I truly believe Vengeance is the best version of Shin Megami Tensei V that Atlus could produce.