SMT IV was my first title in mainline after getting into the franchise through persona 4g+5, I picked it up at gamestop for like 17$ knowing it was supposedly related to persona and expecting it to at least be alright and if it wasn't at least it was cheap so no big loss but holy fucking shit this game rewired my brain chemistry I love this game it's one of my favourite video games of all time now, thanks to purely this game I own every game in the entire franchise now.

First I'll talk about the combat, it's exceptional I didn't know it was basically the standard at the time for SMT but the concept of rewarding more turns for exploiting weaknesses and landing crits is just incredible I experienced this with persona but the one more system just doesn't compare how it feels to pass half turns onto the rest of the party and maximize the amount of of skills you can fire off in SMT IV there's just nothing else like it and smirking was a genius way to to add onto the press turn system and further reward exploitation and punish playing recklessly.

Second the ATMOSPHERE OH MY GOD I have never been as sucked into a games atmosphere as I was this game the exploration once you get past the long but imo enjoyable opening makes you really feel like you're exploring a myriad of real places that people once used to go about their business in. A high attention to detail really makes the locations in this game feel real and lived in. The music compliments this game extremely well it's creative and interesting and Atlus went all out giving this game an extremely robust soundtrack that adds to the atmosphere of each area insanely well this soundtrack got in my head so hard there were areas I'd walk into and freeze in place only to retreat back to the previous area and look else wear because the song playing in that area was so immediately intimidating and oppressive and idk how many times or for how long I've just sat on the world map paused just to listen to the over world theme on loop.

Thirdly the characters and writing which are just also great, SMT is big on exploring different ideologies and the extremes ideals can take us to as people. I still have to play some of the older games in the series but I don't think any other game in the franchise has displayed this as well as IV does travelling with your companions and seeing how the world effects them and changes them with their pre existing bias is just amazing I love all the characters to death and they feel so real and the way the change and things they believe in are just so natural for a game like this. This is going to sound very reddit but genuinely I think this was one of the first games/piece of media that really made me start thinking about my own world view and helped me start to deconstruct a lot of preconceived biases about people and religion and the world, this game genuinely helped me grow as a person and I am definitely bias towards this game as a result lol.

In conclusion, this is just the best one almost no other game has done or ever will accomplish what SMT IV sets out to do.