Que historia bosta
Shin Megami Tensei V proves, like many other great JRPGs (e.g., Final Fantasy V), that a JRPG is not always defined by its story. The gameplay mechanics, level design, encounter design, world, characters, writing, story, music, visuals, and atmosphere are all pillars that can form the foundation of an RPG, but you don't need all of them for the structure to hold. The written story here is not good, so what? At least it stays out of the way - and frankly, I would rather have that than have a poorly-written story take up a significant portion of runtime. Gameplay can tell its own personal story, and my own experiences of playing through this were memorable and interesting. This game knows what it's good at, it's focused, but I can't deny it feels unfinished.
Field exploration is mostly improved. The areas all have an impressive amount of verticality, and trivial dungeon "puzzles" are replaced with figuring out how to navigate these spaces. Collectibles are useful upgrades to your abilities via Miracles and demon essences, instead of just single-use items or gear. Enemies can easily be avoided on the field.
The entire battling/collection/fusion loop is the best it's ever been in these games. Reverse compendium search, demon essences, more unique skills, the works - it all makes it more fun to experiment with different builds and create tailor-made teams for each encounter. You have to manage buffs/debuffs more now since they don't last forever, and there is a reasonable 2-stack limit. It's good to get players to think about when and where to apply these.
There are couple design desicions I think are a bit misunderstood.
The open-zone level design allows you to easily avoid fighting enemies most of the time. But by avoiding enemies, you miss out on valuable experience points, money, and recruitable demons. So how exactly does this make the game too easy? This is like complaining about the random encounter modifier in Bravely Default. In SMTV, not gaining exp and money puts you at a greater disadvantage, since these things are more valuable than the MP and items consumed during battle. Battles are always a net profit. Allowing you to skip most battles means it's more practical and fun to attempt lower-level runs. If this were a dungeon crawler like previous games, then skipping battles would actually make the game easier because resource management is an issue. However, SMTV is clearly not that kind if game; I think think the open zones complement this change to enemy encounters.
Likewise, level scaling is an important and integral part of the game's balance. If you're a lower level than your opponent, you'll be much weaker. Simple enough. Most RPGs have some form of it. But you can still defeat opponents even 10+ levels above you if you put any effort and thought into your party composition, demon fusions, and actions. I don't know where people are getting the idea that the game is just impossible unless you level up and that stats and moves are meaningless; it's just not true. Analyze your opponents abilities and adjust your party accordingly. Take advantage of the tools at your disposal. To me the aggressive level scaling in SMTV is just another thing that makes the game more fun to play at lower levels. The real issue with the level scaling is that it allows you to become too powerful too quickly when leveling above an opponent.
There are still several issues I have though.
I feel like by now, enemy weaknesses should just be visible from the start. All hiding the weaknesses accomplishes is making you use a spyglass and restart the fight. Magatsuhi is an interesting idea, but it quickly becomes apparently how much more useful Critical is over all the others.
The game as a whole feels unfinished. The level design by itself is good, but the field areas look too similar to each other. There are pockets of visual variety like the fairy village and weird floating cube zone, but they're few and far between. On the three times the game decides to throw a dungeon at you, it's pretty terrible. They're too short and too half-baked to be interesting. I think the game would've been better without these. Major quests are locked behind DLC paywalls. Worse still, a maid dress for Nahobino is not included in any DLC. And obviously, the story is undercooked. The game feels so lacking sometimes that it feels like they planned Vengeance from the start, they probably did.
The core systems of the game are so polished and well-designed that they hold up the experience and make it worthwhile. The presentation ties it all together, with some beautiful (if monotonous) visuals and a stellar soundtrack. I had a really fun time with this one.
Field exploration is mostly improved. The areas all have an impressive amount of verticality, and trivial dungeon "puzzles" are replaced with figuring out how to navigate these spaces. Collectibles are useful upgrades to your abilities via Miracles and demon essences, instead of just single-use items or gear. Enemies can easily be avoided on the field.
The entire battling/collection/fusion loop is the best it's ever been in these games. Reverse compendium search, demon essences, more unique skills, the works - it all makes it more fun to experiment with different builds and create tailor-made teams for each encounter. You have to manage buffs/debuffs more now since they don't last forever, and there is a reasonable 2-stack limit. It's good to get players to think about when and where to apply these.
There are couple design desicions I think are a bit misunderstood.
The open-zone level design allows you to easily avoid fighting enemies most of the time. But by avoiding enemies, you miss out on valuable experience points, money, and recruitable demons. So how exactly does this make the game too easy? This is like complaining about the random encounter modifier in Bravely Default. In SMTV, not gaining exp and money puts you at a greater disadvantage, since these things are more valuable than the MP and items consumed during battle. Battles are always a net profit. Allowing you to skip most battles means it's more practical and fun to attempt lower-level runs. If this were a dungeon crawler like previous games, then skipping battles would actually make the game easier because resource management is an issue. However, SMTV is clearly not that kind if game; I think think the open zones complement this change to enemy encounters.
Likewise, level scaling is an important and integral part of the game's balance. If you're a lower level than your opponent, you'll be much weaker. Simple enough. Most RPGs have some form of it. But you can still defeat opponents even 10+ levels above you if you put any effort and thought into your party composition, demon fusions, and actions. I don't know where people are getting the idea that the game is just impossible unless you level up and that stats and moves are meaningless; it's just not true. Analyze your opponents abilities and adjust your party accordingly. Take advantage of the tools at your disposal. To me the aggressive level scaling in SMTV is just another thing that makes the game more fun to play at lower levels. The real issue with the level scaling is that it allows you to become too powerful too quickly when leveling above an opponent.
There are still several issues I have though.
I feel like by now, enemy weaknesses should just be visible from the start. All hiding the weaknesses accomplishes is making you use a spyglass and restart the fight. Magatsuhi is an interesting idea, but it quickly becomes apparently how much more useful Critical is over all the others.
The game as a whole feels unfinished. The level design by itself is good, but the field areas look too similar to each other. There are pockets of visual variety like the fairy village and weird floating cube zone, but they're few and far between. On the three times the game decides to throw a dungeon at you, it's pretty terrible. They're too short and too half-baked to be interesting. I think the game would've been better without these. Major quests are locked behind DLC paywalls. Worse still, a maid dress for Nahobino is not included in any DLC. And obviously, the story is undercooked. The game feels so lacking sometimes that it feels like they planned Vengeance from the start, they probably did.
The core systems of the game are so polished and well-designed that they hold up the experience and make it worthwhile. The presentation ties it all together, with some beautiful (if monotonous) visuals and a stellar soundtrack. I had a really fun time with this one.