The short review is that it's a competent enough JRPG with a good sense of style but a weaker combat system then its cousins SMT and Persona and little variety in its dungeons made this a bit disappointing for me personally. It took me about 39 hours to beat including the Lost Numbers DLC. If you want longer thoughts see below.
This had a good art style that sets it apart from other Atlus games. Ringo's character design really stands out in a good way.
The combat is good, it's just not as good as I would have hoped given other games made by Atlus. Combat here is still turned based with the usual weaknesses but instead of being rewarded/punished for exploited weaknesses with another turn you get stacks that deal damage, called a Sabbath, at the end of a turn dependant on how many stacks you have. This system is very one-sided in support of the player unlike press turn or one more. If the enemy hits your weakness here they just do additional damage, there's no fear of another attack or being more susceptible to damage. The lack of risk makes it boring and the game easier then I'd like. The system does start to get more depth later in the game with characters gaining specific damage types they'll be rewarded more stacks for hitting weaknesses for and sabbath skills on demons that can add additional effects. Unfortunately it takes a while for this to appear and doesn't change that the system has no risk for the player. I probably wouldn't be hard on the system if I didn't feel a need to compare it to other Atlus games.
Dungeons are fairly standard. A few have gimmicks to try to spice things up but none really stand out mechanically. That could be overlooked if their were more variety visually. Its not surprising theirs little difference between a dungeons first and last floor, that I can forgive. But they reuse dungeons aesthetics for multiple different dungeons you need to go to in the main story and for smaller side quest ones, in one case two long sections of the main story back to back look the same. Really showed the games low budget.
This last criticism is admittedly a nitpick. I think there's one too many forms of character progression here. You have your usual leveling which lets you fuse/use higher level demons, a core part of Atlus JRPG's. But you also progress through side dungeons related to your part member (that are long and aesthetically the same) unlocking skills for the characters as you get deeper in, how deep you can go being limited by how close Ringo is with the characters. Then there is upgrading each characters weapons where you give items found in dungeons and dropped by monsters for upgrades to attack but also for special abilities unique to characters and other perks. I just think thats one too many systems for character advancement and they should have picked one aside from the basic character leveling stuff. I can't think of good reasons why perks for the characters had to be divided into different ways of unlocking.
Despite those issues I did like the story. Not the best Atlus has done but it keeps you going through the worse parts. There is part that felt a little unearned because we needed a bit more interaction between some characters but it's otherwise good. Music was also good but not much more for me to say on that.
This had a good art style that sets it apart from other Atlus games. Ringo's character design really stands out in a good way.
The combat is good, it's just not as good as I would have hoped given other games made by Atlus. Combat here is still turned based with the usual weaknesses but instead of being rewarded/punished for exploited weaknesses with another turn you get stacks that deal damage, called a Sabbath, at the end of a turn dependant on how many stacks you have. This system is very one-sided in support of the player unlike press turn or one more. If the enemy hits your weakness here they just do additional damage, there's no fear of another attack or being more susceptible to damage. The lack of risk makes it boring and the game easier then I'd like. The system does start to get more depth later in the game with characters gaining specific damage types they'll be rewarded more stacks for hitting weaknesses for and sabbath skills on demons that can add additional effects. Unfortunately it takes a while for this to appear and doesn't change that the system has no risk for the player. I probably wouldn't be hard on the system if I didn't feel a need to compare it to other Atlus games.
Dungeons are fairly standard. A few have gimmicks to try to spice things up but none really stand out mechanically. That could be overlooked if their were more variety visually. Its not surprising theirs little difference between a dungeons first and last floor, that I can forgive. But they reuse dungeons aesthetics for multiple different dungeons you need to go to in the main story and for smaller side quest ones, in one case two long sections of the main story back to back look the same. Really showed the games low budget.
This last criticism is admittedly a nitpick. I think there's one too many forms of character progression here. You have your usual leveling which lets you fuse/use higher level demons, a core part of Atlus JRPG's. But you also progress through side dungeons related to your part member (that are long and aesthetically the same) unlocking skills for the characters as you get deeper in, how deep you can go being limited by how close Ringo is with the characters. Then there is upgrading each characters weapons where you give items found in dungeons and dropped by monsters for upgrades to attack but also for special abilities unique to characters and other perks. I just think thats one too many systems for character advancement and they should have picked one aside from the basic character leveling stuff. I can't think of good reasons why perks for the characters had to be divided into different ways of unlocking.
Despite those issues I did like the story. Not the best Atlus has done but it keeps you going through the worse parts. There is part that felt a little unearned because we needed a bit more interaction between some characters but it's otherwise good. Music was also good but not much more for me to say on that.