Playing in Japanese. Aside from Xander Mobus's legendary performance as Dagda, ATLUS West really dropped the ball here.

This game feels like a love letter to the entire history of Megami Tensei. It takes cues from every notable game in the franchise. While SMT IV was more original in setting, this game has a somewhat basic setting of living in the demon infested Tokyo during the apocalypse, except this time, you're not a messiah. You're just a regular person. I can easily imagine this game working in the world of SMT I or II. It's a standard setting with a really interesting setup.

The direction this game goes with its story and themes are very interesting and unique for the series and I wish a lot of people had the literary analysis beyond "friendship is power?? Not in my MegaTen!!!"

This game is secretly extremely anti-religion and portrays how religion exists only to divide and control humans, and that the only way peace can be achieved in a world with religion is if every human is enslaved to that religion.

Another thing it is about is the inherent flaw in "choosing the lesser evil," instead of striving for something better.

The way I'm going to review this is from the POV of a guy who had already played this game 5 years ago, enjoyed it just as much then, and decided to go from Easy to Hard for this particular playthrough, after waiting just as long to play the OG SMT IV for... some reason. For anyone who wants my thoughts on base IV, a review of the game in question is sequestered hence within my profile.

I'll frontload this review with a few quick, minor complaints - primarily the existence of compendium premiums for resist/null passives (one of my favourite ways to play SMT games to this day, and a type of skill I'd argue is just as, if not more important, than buffs), and a few other daft skill distribution decisions (iirc the earliest level you get any buff or debuff is Angel at Level 12-15 or so). So going through some of the early areas, you're liable to get your shit kicked in. I ended up dropping the difficulty for Fusion and Compendium purposes, because otherwise you're forking out about 170k+ for mid-Lv. 40ish mons with resist passives, whilst waiting for the best relic spots to respawn.

What do I like about this game?
...Yeah, well... EVERYTHING ELSE.

Once you get over the minor skill optimisation hiccups, when battles start giving you momentum, they REALLY give you momentum. While you could argue that the reworked Hama/Mudo spells are a bit of an overcorrection from base IV, given their coverage, I... honestly fail to care (especially what they can do vs hordes, and how Smirking was handled here). And (I know this isn't gameplay, but it certainly helps) it's partnered with honestly my favourite regular battle OST in the entirety of SMT (before anyone asks, DDS2 isn't far behind).

QUICK EDIT: something I neglected to mention was that on the overworld, you actually have an idea of where the hell you're going this time. QoL and all that.

Now, let's touch on the story and characters. "There's too much power of friendship!" So I've heard. "It's not nuanced or fleshed out enough!" (even though base IV's approach to the topic was kinda :kek:).

OK, and?

For one, I fundamentally disagree with the lack of nuance. For as much as I'd love to deconstruct individual examples (Danu remaking Dagda, and a lot of aspects of the Divine Powers come to mind), I'd argue that this is one of the better narratives in the series, and I do mean that. And yes, my BOI Hallelujah is a personal channel mascot of mine for a reason.

Something else I want to tip my hat to before we end off, and one thing I don't think people give Apoc' enough credit for, is how genuinely funny this game is. Dagda is a no-nonsense middle finger to existence that I actually find genuine refreshing, not to mention Xander Mobus capturing his personality so well I'd make the claim it's among his best, if not his best, voice work. Yes, even better than Joker, Stocke, or even DBa Superman. It's damn close to my favourite, that's for certain. I also caught myself laughing for minutes on end at stuff like Navarre getting brutally roasted (ftr: I disagree with Nam's Compendium that his character only 'existed for jokes at his expense' or whatever, mostly for reasons of ludonarrative dissonance (him being one of the best partners from a gameplay standpoint) as well as Sean Chiplock sounding like he was having a lot of fun playing the role).

I'll admit I didn't have as much to say about this game as I thought I would. But all's fair in love and war, I suppose.

Absoluta obra maestra de los jrpgs, deja la ambientación tan deprimente del 4 original y acá nos la ponen como algo mas cotidiano y no externo (sigue siendo igual de deprimente). La nueva música es increíble simplemente temazo tras temazo especialmente los temas de boss (battle f2, f4, f6, f7, f8). Mejoraron los mayores problemas del smt4 original, el mapa ya no es un laberinto en el que perderse ahora es mas directo y te dice a donde ir (gracias).
Volvieron al combate perfecto al ya no depender del RNG en gran medida y estabilizar la mécanica del smirk, las afinidades son una implementación maravillosa le mete mas peso a las fusiones y a como buildeas a tus demonios, los combates también con todas estas mejoras se sienten mas satisfactorios en todos los sentidos, el explotar debilidades no puede ser mas gratificante y hay bosses que son un autentico desafio, especialmente en el final. La historia implementa lore my importante para comprender el universo de smt4 pero la nueva narrativa presentada por los dioses de los Poderes Divinos, es interesante a mas no poder y presenta dilemas qe de verdad te hacen cuestionar las cosas y estas divinidades tienen bastante presencia e imponen mucho pero el que destaca por sobre todos es Dagda, (CUIDADO SPOILERS) simplemente magistral lo que hicieron con el, un personaje que en principios parece un edgy total pero que mientras lo conoces ves que no es asi y busca algo mas alla de simples intereses vanales, el solo quiere regresar a los dioses a su estado original. El combate final es eclesiástico y súper emotivo cuando sacas el final de los "vìnculos", juegazo absoluto y te hace encariñar con su mundo pero especialmente con sus personajes, que entiendo el disgusto general que tienen con la historia y los personajes pero lo que cuentan y la manera como lo hacen solo realza a este juego.

Beaucoup de fans de SMT ne l'ont pas apprécié pour ses soucis d'écritures en général et son côté un peu plus "cliché anime" avec des situations un peu bizarres, et je comprends.
Moins bon que SMT IV en termes de cast et de récit, il reprend quand même la route la moins complète du jeu précédent en venant lui apporter un scénario alternatif et une fin plus joyeuse, classique et satisfaisante.

Mais il faut dire ce qui est, le gameplay est formidable et nettement plus agréable que celui de SMT IV. Les nouvelles musiques sont géniales. Je suis assez mitigé sur le nouveau cast cela dit, car il y a d'excellents éléments comme d'assez mauvais/maladroits ou facilement oubliables...

Le donjon final était infernal et certains twists n'étaient pas terribles, puis les choix pris tout au long du jeu ne sont pas importants malheureusement (mais changent tout de même 2-3 dialogues à certains moments). J'ai bien aimé les deux fins, et incarner un humain qui vit dans Tokyo était un très bon choix. Le jeu n'est pas excellent MAIS je l'ai adoré comme il est