It’s now been almost three years since the launch of the original Shin Megami Tensei V and as is tradition at Atlus, the obligatory enhanced re-release (with a new storyline centered around a new girl) has now arrived. all modern platformers in the form of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Boasting a comprehensive alternate storyline and a host of gameplay and balancing tweaks, SMTV: V is easily the definitive version of an already excellent entry in the long-running series. If you’re at all a fan of SMT, Persona, or JRPGs in general, you owe it to yourself to check it out as soon as possible.
For this review, we’ll focus more on the additions and adjustments made to the core SMT V experience with this release. If you would like to get a more detailed assessment of the underlying game mechanics and such, we encourage you to do so. invite you to read our review of the 2021 version, which still applies largely here as well.
Now, let’s briefly return to exactly What this version is. Atlus typically releases an enhanced version of its most popular games a few years after their initial release, usually with new story content and balance tweaks that address complaints about the original version. Previous releases, such as Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker or Persona 5 Royal, usually added this extra story content at the end or sprinkled it along with the old scenario. So what makes SMT V:V a little more special is that rather than just offering an “addendum” to the original plot, this version brings a complete plot for you to choose from. instead of the original.
SMT V: V starts out much the same as the original version, but just a few minutes into the plot things diverge into new and interesting territory. In a bizarre 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 her there, the fate of the world will continue as planned, but if you choose to take her hand, she will become real and the world will be set on an unforeseen and unknown path. Ultimately, this is where you choose whether you want to follow the plot of the original SMT V (called “Canon of Creation” here) or the new story “Canon of Vengeance”.
If you choose to save the girl, she is soon introduced as Yoko Hiromine, a prim and mysterious devil summoner who agrees to accompany the Nahobino on his quest to determine the future of the world amid an ageless war between law and chaos. Yoko is a capable warrior with a quiet darkness, and her strength is a welcome asset as you face a charismatic new gang of antagonists who call themselves the Qadistu. The Qadistu offer yet another interesting perspective on the nature of truth in the strange world of Da’at, and they become increasingly central to the story as events gradually diverge from the original plot of ever more meaningful way.
We were fans of the original divisive SMT V plot, but it’s hard to argue that Atlus’ second attempt at a story here isn’t an improvement. In many ways, it feels like it’s the developers’ story. research to say it for the first time – Yoko was supposed to be part of the original version before being cut midway through development, and her addition to the main cast here feels organic and seems to fill a gap that wasn’t apparent before. Perhaps more importantly, it feels like this new plot focuses a bit more on the interactions between the different human characters, making this narrative easier to connect to than the somewhat straightforward plot of the first version .
While we encourage all players who choose this game to start with the Canon of Vengeance story, we still suggest playing with the Canon of Creation at some point as well. It may seem inferior, but experiencing both gives you much more appreciation. for what they each bring to the table. Plus, if you take into account the 80 hour runtime for either path and the multiple endings, it’s a plot of SMT V content to burn if you are addicted to the challenging and engaging gameplay here. Needless to say, it will be a while before you run out of things to do.
Aside from the story, various gameplay and quality of life improvements have also been made to further streamline the experience and make it overall more enjoyable. For example, you can now record anywhere with the press of a button, rather than having to wait to find the next Leyline source. This helps reduce some of the backtracking during difficult encounters and makes it much easier to avoid losing a ton of progress if you get jumped by an enemy who deals a critical hit that crushes you in one hit.
Da’at is still as fun to explore and travel around as ever, and to make crossing easier, there are now strategically placed grind rails throughout the desert to help speed up the journey. Some of these are immediately obvious and others need to be discovered before appearing on your map, and we liked how they expand on the existing map providing access to new areas while still allowing return back generally faster. Often, you’ll unlock a new rail after navigating a “long path” around a series of obstacles to make traveling to and from the top easier.
The Demon Haunt is another important addition, giving you the rather cute opportunity to spend time talking and building relationships with your various recruits. After a demon has traveled with your party for a while, it will request to speak to you, and you can then choose to acknowledge its request at a relaxation location accessible from any Leyline source. You can then exchange gifts or talk to them, and after the conversation the demon will usually receive a stat boost. Sometimes even the Nahobino will benefit from direct boosts as well. It’s not a social bonding system, but we still appreciated the effort to push you to view demons as more than ultimately expendable assets. At the very least, Demon Haunt provides a nice break from the ever-present stress of the rest of the adventure, while the gameplay benefits offered by these exchanges can help give you the edge needed to overcome a boss encounter that leaves you hooks.
These additions aside, the gameplay is otherwise pretty much the same as the original, which was excellent. You explore the vast and scary wasteland as you go on your wacky Naruto run, Press Turn is still one of the best turn-based combat systems ever created thanks to its strategic and engaging approach to buffs, weaknesses and the economy of the turn, while recruiting and fusing demons. remains a compelling and addictive party-building mechanic throughout the experience. While the harder difficulty may put off some, there is rarely a dull moment in either story given the wealth of objectives and gameplay options. Everyone has their own tastes in JRPGs , but it’s hard to argue that SMT V:V offers anything other than a polished and thoughtful gaming experience.
Much like Atlus’ previous re-releases, a key thing to remember about SMT V:V is that it’s still largely the same game released a few years ago. Sure, it received an entirely new storyline and a series of gameplay and balancing tweaks that make it a superior experience overall, but those of you who weren’t excited about the gameplay loop and difficulty from the original version won’t find much here. change of opinion. On the other hand, if you did Like the original version – or even if you just had a few reviews that stopped you from really getting started – this game is 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 almost completely undoes that first version through all the additions, tweaks, and original content.
Something that notably made not The improvement in this re-release is the performance, which still isn’t fantastic. While everything runs at a somewhat consistent 30 FPS, the resource display and blurry resolution are on point 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 doesn’t belong on such modest hardware, but it’s clear that Atlus had to push the Switch as far as possible to get acceptable performance. but not impressive the state in which it is found.
This is a bit disappointing, as we were hoping that a few more years of development experience on Switch would allow Atlus to find ways to get better performance out of it. On the other hand, it seems like we’ve reached the point where developers simply can’t do much more with the limited hardware, especially since SMT V:V is built on a standard engine with Unreal 4. If lack of visuals or resolution is a big issue for you in your games, we suggest skipping the Switch and choosing one of the versions available on other hardware platforms, if you have access to one of them. SMT V: V is a good experience on Switch as far as performance goes, but it hardly feels like the definitive version of this release.