It’s been nearly three years since the release of the original Shin Megami Tensei V, and as is the norm at Atlus, the obligatory enhanced re-release (with a new story centered around a new girl) has now arrived. everyone Modern platforming in the form of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Featuring a full-length alternate story and a host of gameplay and balance tweaks, SMTV: V is easily the definitive version of an already excellent entry in the long-running series. If you’re a fan of SMT, Persona, or JRPGs in general, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up at the earliest opportunity.
In this review, we’ll focus more on the additions and tweaks being made to the core SMT V experience with this release – if you’d like a more detailed assessment of the core gameplay mechanics and the like, we encourage you to do so. You should read our review of the 2021 version, which is still very much in effect here as well.
Now, let’s briefly address exactly what What This version is. Atlus typically releases an enhanced version of its most popular games a few years after their initial release, usually with some new story content and balance tweaks that respond to complaints about the original release. Previous releases, such as Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker, or Persona 5 Royal usually processed this extra story content until the end or sprinkled it throughout the old story. What makes SMT V:V even more special is that instead of just offering an “supplement” to the original plot, this version offers a full plot that you can choose from instead of From the original.
SMT V: V starts out the same way as the original, but just minutes into the plot, things head into new and interesting territory. In a strange dream sequence, you are presented with the spectral form of a young woman while a disembodied voice tells you that she “cannot be allowed to exist” and offers you a choice. If you leave it there, the fate of the world will continue as it was intended, but if you choose to hold its hand, it will become real, and the world will be set on an unplanned and unknown path. Ultimately, this is where you choose whether you want to follow the plot of the original version of SMT V (called “Canon of Creation” here) or the story of the new “Canon of Vengeance.”
If you choose to rescue the girl, she will soon be introduced as Yuko Hiromine, an elemental and mysterious demon summoner who agrees to accompany Nahobino on his quest to determine the future of the world amidst the ongoing war between law and chaos. Yoko is a capable warrior with a quiet darkness to her, and her strength is a welcome asset as she faces off against an attractive new gang of adversaries who call themselves the Qadistu. The kadisto provide another interesting perspective on the nature of truth in the strange world of the Da’at, and they become more important to the story as events gradually deviate from the original plot in ever more significant ways.
We were fans of the original SMT V’s contentious plot, but it’s hard to argue that Atlus’s second crack at the story here doesn’t represent an improvement. In many ways, this seems to have been the developers’ story required Let’s tell you this first time — Yoko was planned to be part of the original release before she was cut part way through development, and her addition to the core cast here feels organic and like it fills a gap that wasn’t apparent before. Perhaps most importantly, this new plot seems to focus a little more on the interactions between the various human characters, which makes this story easier to connect with than the somewhat bare-bones plot of the first installment.
While we encourage all players who choose this to start with the Canon of Vengeance story, we still suggest playing through the Canon of Creation at some point as well – it may seem inferior, but experiencing both gives you more appreciation for what each brings to the table . Plus, if you factor in the 80-hour runtime for either route and multiple endings, that’s… a lot Of SMT V content that you can browse if you are addicted to the challenging and interesting gameplay here. Suffice it to say that it will take a while until you eventually run out of things to do.
Aside from the story, several gameplay and quality of life improvements have also been made to further streamline the experience and make it more enjoyable overall. For example, you can now save anywhere with the click of a button, instead of having to wait to find the next Leyline Fount. This helps reduce some of the recoil in tough encounters, and makes it much easier to avoid losing a significant amount of progress if you happen to get jumped by an enemy and crit you in one shot.
Exploring Da’at is still as fun as ever, and to aid in traversal, there are now grinding bars strategically placed throughout the wasteland to help speed up travel. Some are immediately obvious and others must be discovered first before they appear on your map, and we enjoyed how they expand on the existing map by granting access to new areas while generally making backtracking faster. Often, a new railway will open after cutting the “long way” around a series of obstacles to facilitate travel to and from the summit.
The Demon Haunt is another big addition, giving you a nice opportunity to spend some time talking and building relationships with your various recruits. After a demon has been traveling with your party for a while, they will ask to speak with you, and you can then choose to grant their request at a quiet resting place accessible from any Leyline spring. You can then exchange gifts or talk to them, and after the conversation, the demon will usually get a stat boost. Sometimes, even the Nahubino will get some direct reinforcements as well. It’s not a social link system, but we still appreciate the effort to get you to view demons as more than just ultimately expendable assets. At the very least, Demon Haunt provides a nice break from the stress of the rest of the adventure, while the gameplay advantages these exchanges provide can help give you that edge to get through a boss encounter you’ve been stuck on.
Aside from these additions, the gameplay is very similar to what it was in the original game, which was excellent. You explore the vast and terrifying wastelands by playing goofy Naruto, and Press Turn remains one of the best turn-based battle systems ever created with its strategic and engaging approach to dealing with buffs, weaknesses and economic transformation, while recruiting and fusing demons remains a mechanic. The party building is compelling and addictive throughout the entire experience. Even if the harder difficulty can be off-putting to some, there’s rarely a dull moment throughout either story due to the abundance of objectives and gameplay options. Everyone has their own tastes when it comes to JRPGs, but it’s hard to argue that SMT V:V offers anything less than a polished and thoughtful gaming experience.
As with previous Atlus releases, the main thing to remember about SMT V:V is that this is still very much the same game that came out a few years ago. Sure, it’s got an all-new story and a host of gameplay and balance tweaks that make it an overall great experience, but those of you who weren’t keen on the gameplay loop and difficulty of the original won’t find much here to change your mind. On the other hand, if you an act Like the original version – or even if you had some criticisms that prevented you from actually getting into the game – this game is designed specifically for you. Atlus is removing the original game from store shelves to replace it with SMT V:V, and it’s understandable why, as this new version completely supersedes that first release with all the additions, tweaks, and original content.
Something he did remarkably well no The improvement of this version is performance, which is still not great. Although everything runs at a fairly consistent 30fps, the pop-in and blurry resolution of assets is par for the course here whether you’re playing docked or handheld. SMT V:V is still a visual miracle on the Switch and certainly looks like a game that has nothing to do with running on such modest hardware, but it’s clear that Atlus had to push the Switch as far as possible to get performance to an acceptable level despite the lack of… Awesome State in.
This is a bit disappointing, as we were hoping that a few more years of Switch development experience would lead to Atlus finding ways to get better performance than this. On the other hand, it seems like we’ve reached the point where there’s not much developers can reasonably do with the limited hardware, especially considering that SMT V:V is built on an off-the-shelf engine with Unreal 4. If the lack of visuals or fidelity is It is a big problem for you in your games, we suggest you skip Switch and choose one of the versions available on other consoles, if you have access to any of them. SMT V:V is a good experience on the Switch in terms of performance, but it rarely feels like the definitive version of this release.
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