I like it a lot despite its flaws. The plot and characters are garbage. The only arcs I cared about was with Lahmu and towards the end with the race for the throne of creation. Exploration is super fun and rewarding. The rewards for exploring and doing side quests are so huge and greatly reduce the need for grinding combat. Exploration isn't always a hit though, as by the third area you will be exhausted by hidden miiman, dangerous paths you can't easily return from, and invisible enemies. The dungeons are GOOD but not great, in particular, the second dungeon is just a pain in the ass to maneuver through. I've played probably 200 hours of the game, and I could really nitpick it and pull it apart with its many flaws, but there are some areas that shine through and put it at the 4-star status to me. Those areas are party building, lore, and combat.

Quick lore summary with spoilers before I go into team building and combat:
Long ago the Judeo-Christian God ascended to the throne of creation granting him the ability to shape reality. He used the power to create mankind and the earth but also to strip all other gods from all other religions/mythologies of their divine knowledge. From there, the gods degenerated into angels and demons, maintaining their forms and their power but without any divinity. Pretty soon into the game, you find out God is dead, killed by Lucifer, and that the earth was turned into the post-apocalyptic netherworld. God also made it so that in the event of his death, only beings known as Nahobino could ascend the throne and take his place. Nahobino are the fusion of humans with divine knowledge originating from the garden of Eden and the demons and angels that now exist below god. You play as a Japanese high school student who fuses with a demon to become the first Nahobino. By the end of the game, there are 3 other Nahobino all lusting for the throne, each with their own guiding philosophy and goal. You get to pick which other Nahobino you want to side with which will determine your ending and the kind of world that will exist once you ascend the throne. Or you can go for the true ending and not side with any of the others and go your own path! Anyways, I left out some details for the sake of brevity, but I just adore the world of SMT V and the lore surrounding it. It's so interesting and the 4 philosophies to choose from when going for the ending leave a lot to chew on.

OK LASTLY THE GAMEPLAY. COMBAT AND TEAM BUILDING. Fusing demons has never been easier, with the reverse compendium fusion you can see ALL fusion recipes right there in the game without need for any online resources. Just being able to see possible fusions from your registered demons is life-saving. You can just look at the demon you want, find a recipe that works for you, and then go for it. Or you can just straight up summon demons from you compendium to immediately fuse them. It's so simple but it saves so many headaches. Furthermore, character building! You get to allocate one stat point per level and can infuse yourself with the essences of demons to take their skills or elemental strengths. The more you explore, the more essences you get, the more you can fine tune your protagonist. Not to mention you can infuse your demons with essences as well, which moderately reduces the need to do chain fusions for that perfect team build you want. Despite these great additions, SMT is known for being brutal and this game is no exception. These quality of life changes will make the grind shorter and save you from a headache but what they won't do is save you from brutality of bosses. You will have to spend a good amount of time theorizing a team that can beat each boss. This means finding weaknesses, determining the turn order for your team, and make the right moment-to-moment choices in combat. Remember, if the protags health drops to zero, you lose the fight, no matter what state your other demons are in. This, combined with devasting magatsuhi attacks that bosses and overworld enemies can utilize to get guaranteed critical hits, means you will be redoing a lot of encounters as you figure out your enemies moves, weaknesses and attack patterns. Its an addicting and rewarding cycle of constantly reinventing your team to challenge new bosses and explore new areas.

Underrated Pokémon game. Yes, it looks like a 3ds game, no the national dex isn’t there, yes there’s paid dlc. But honestly I think the max raids and dlc adventures offer so much and is the closest we’ve gotten to a real Pokémon mmo. Dynamaxing was great for balance compared to mega evos and z powers because it means you can make almost any mon on your team into something viable. Also really enjoy the themes about the environment, history and myth present in the narrative along with some really stand out characters. This game got me back into Pokémon when I had been off of it for a while so I appreciate it quite a bit. Also personally, I think the national dex is broken and unbalanced and idrc that it isn’t present. That being said, it’s still a standard Pokémon romp overall with all of its flaws included. It’s just too damn easy and the while I enjoyed the themes, you’re definitely gonna be skipping all dialogue on a second playthrough.