It's not a secret that I love the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series. I'm always excited when there's a new game coming in each series so I was pretty stoked about Shin Megami Tensei V. My favorite Shin Megami is Nocturne, the third installment in the series because of the story, artwork, and gameplay. Shin Megami Tensei V is definitely a close second. The one thing that the SMT and Persona games have in common is being able to recruit demons and the ability to customize them, making them stronger through fusion. The differences are that Persona is more focused on the social links and story whereas SMT is more about the story, tactics, and strategy.
As I started the game, I checked out the settings for accessibility. I did like that I could turn on subtitles and I was able to adjust the audio. I did see the game settings had difficulty ranging from normal to difficult. In order to get the Safety setting which makes the game much easier so I could just enjoy the story, I had to go into the Nintendo Eshop where Safety mode is a free DLC and download it. I am still wondering why they didn't just include Safety in the original game, but hey at least it's free and you can get it. I personally prefer safety and the easy setting in games so I can just enjoy the story the first time through and try the more difficult settings later if I want.
Shin Megami Tensei V sets up the story with you playing as a high school student in Tokyo. This gives you a good tutorial of how to move around with the game controls, how to use the area map, and how to check your user interface menu for inventory and character stats.
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| Just an every day student. |
Things go strange as they do in the Shin Megami Tensei universe and you are suddenly dragged into a world full of monsters. This starts your adventure and changes your appearance as well as you fuse into a powerful being known as a Nahobino that has great strength, can cast spells, and allows you to recruit demons to your team. This first map shows a Tokyo clearly in ruins and as you navigate this new world you get some battle tutorials about how fighting works and ways to recruit demons. There's not a lot of middle ground with talking to the demons. You have to choose your answers carefully because those choices can either get a demon to join you or make them angry and keep fighting you. There's a lot of interesting lore with all of the demons and the folklore from different cultures. The artwork and designs for the characters, the demons, and the surrounding world are beautiful and some really stand out.
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| The Nahobino in the new world. |
Of course it wouldn't be a Shin Megami Tensei game without demon fusions. There are save point wells very far and in between in the world map that also act as waystations for healing your party and a place where you can fuse your demons in order to make stronger demons with better stats and abilities. It does cost Macca (the currency in the game) to create these fusions. You can also register your demons to a compendium which allows you to pull from it to make specific demons you want. You also can not be a lower level than the demons you want to fuse, so make sure you plan accordingly.
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| Doing a little demon fusion. |
Your team is essentially you and three demons that rotate out depending on what you need in battle. SMT makes you think about those tactics and strategies when facing enemies because sometimes you need a demon that can take down an enemy who is weak to fire or you need a demon that can use spells to heal your party. The stronger your demons, the better because you can plan out what kind of team you want and find that balance that works for you to take down tough bosses. I was glad for Safety mode because it took out a lot of frustration for me and let me enjoy the game while also being able to take my time building up my party members and figuring out what worked best for me. It made boss fights fun and allowed me to follow the story and appreciate the gameplay.
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| Preparing for battle. |
There are four big open areas to explore in the game and it definitely encourages exploring so not only can you level grind, but you can also unlock the map as well. There is a bit of a trick to that with having to fight and destroy giant purple orbs on the map known as Abscesses. Make sure you're prepared because you will have to fight waves of demons to destroy them. Once you are successful, it unlocks huge chunks of the map and highlights points of interest. Getting the full map unlocked is a good idea so you can get around a little easier as well as pick up side quests. Sometimes, the map could be a bit frustrating because it was not always clear where to go and there were times where I realized I had to do a bit of platforming in order to get around. Many times that would involve a lot of backtracking because certain things on the map were not exactly where they appeared and that could be a bit exasperating. I was really glad for the fast travel points so I could just hop to them and find a route to where I was going.
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| One of the map areas. |
Many of the side quests were interesting and gave some pretty good rewards ranging from useful items to unlocking the ability to fuse a top tier demon. One side quest that was pretty extensive, but gave some solid rewards was the Miman quest. The Mimans are quite small and they would be hiding in places you least expect. You really had to keep an eye out for them and look in every corner in each area. There are 200 Mimans to find and while that seems like a lot, it is worth your while because the rewards offered are things like boosting stats and sutras that can boost skill infinity for your demons. You can also get hints from some of the Mimans about where the rest of them are hiding if you pay them a bit of Macca.
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| Finding the Mimans is worth it. |
Now, let's get to the one part of Shin Megami Tensei V that I could not stand because it was so frustrating to the point I was sure the game was trolling me. There's dungeons in SMT with bosses and I was cool with all of them and then there's the Demon King's Castle. This castle infuriated me, mainly for the third stratum because of the damn wind tunnels, fans, and platforms. I know that I am not the best at games and yes I play to have fun, but this area made me question what little skills I had and I wanted to light the entire castle on fire when I was done. Here's why. Sometimes the camera angles on this particular floor were very bad so I couldn't always see where I needed to go. Constantly getting swept off a platform because of the terrible delay with the dash button and having to start over from the beginning was a nightmare. I finally got past the first part and then there was more. One of my issues, is there is no checkpoint for this area which meant that if I missed the timing on the jump or the wind fans went off, I had to start from the beginning once again. This particular dungeon stood out because it didn't seem to fit with the others and this floor was terrible and sucked all the fun out of the game. The map for this floor is also bad because it is confusing with the layout and does not clearly show where each wind tunnel is. I only made it through this part because of sheer stubbornness and determination. Apparently I'm not the only one who was not thrilled by this area. A lot of people commented that this floor was awful compared to the rest of the game. The good news is Atlus addressed that issue and reduced the amount of wind gimmicks. I still don't like that castle.
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| I really wanted to set this dungeon on fire. A lot. |
The story for Shin Megami Tensei V itself kept me going because it was interesting and I found myself wanting to know more about the characters in the story. The philosophy and discussion between these characters as part of the story I also found intriguing because it did a great job of exploring the fact that each person has different ideas and ideals about how they see the world and how those choices they make can affect so many things. The artwork and music for SMT is incredible and it fits each area and boss fight quite well. There are four possible endings in the game and you're not locked in until you make the final choice. I did try out each one to see what would happen and they were really nuanced in the variations. Eighty hours of adventuring in Shin Megami Tensei V made for a great story and memorable journey. While there are a couple of things that could have been better, overall the game itself is pretty good and I enjoyed my time with it.
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| I enjoyed my adventure here. |
*Shin Megami Tensei V is available to play on the Nintendo Switch
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