Spoilers in the Alignment section, be warned. Rest are fine though.
The first SMT game many people including me played. As an intro game it's decent but if you've played other games in the SMT series there's no reason for you to play IV. Before I rip this game a new one let me talk about the things I did enjoy in it.
What I enjoyed
- OST is very good. Lots of memorable tracks
- The prologue of the game in Mikado is pretty good. Good introduction of characters and set up of the story.
- The side quests flesh out the world really well and the rewards are pretty good too.
- The new White Ending is super based.
- The stuff with the redpills and the perpetual reactor was cool.
What I didn't like
Story
The majority of the story is just stolen from SMT 1 and 2 but mangled up. This isn't a homage type situation where the game is paying respect to what came before, IV literally reuses multiple plot points and a character but somehow it does them worse. Most people playing IV didn't play 1 and 2 so this goes over their heads.
Even on its own merits, the IV story is not good. After the prologue literally nothing of importance happens for like 10 hours. It's like
Prologue -> 10 hours of nothing -> alignment stuff towards the end of the game -> game ends
Alignment
IV has the worst depiction of alignments in the series by far. Every game since SMT 1 has developed the alignments or tried something new in its place.
SMT 1 - first in the series and builds upon the alignments from MT2
SMT 2 - Vastly build on Law and Chaos at the cost of neutral not getting a lot
SMT if - no alignments but the story changes based on your partner.
SMT 3 - no alignments, you get something similar but new in the form of Reasons.
SMT SJ - Brings back alignments but makes the alignment reps except neutral relatable and understandable.
In SMT IV Chaos and Neutral focus on nothing new at all. The chaos ending is the same old "fight to live, live to fight" stuff, and it's a shame because chaos was introduced in IV with an interesting angle of spreading knowledge. Neutral literally took the whole helping Masakado regain his strength thing from SMT 2. Law is inconsistent, the higher ups want Mikado to learn and grow in their absence by making them study technology from Tokyo but they also want to maintain the status quo for some reason.
It's actually baffling to me how badly Isabeau was handled as a neutral rep. She's indecisive and unsure for a good chunk of the game. We could've gotten a good arc about her learning to be confident and stand on her own, it wouldn't even be that hard to insert something like that into the story. It would fit perfectly into the alternate Tokyos section, we could've seen Isabeau's reaction to how Law and Chaos affect the world and what her indecisiveness could lead to. Instead we get a headless chicken. I know IV likes copying SMT 1 but it didn't need to copy the helpless woman as a neutral rep.
Characters
The set up for them in the prologue is nice but after that they turn into generic alignment heroes. Walter starts off as a bro character and stays that way for the whole game except towards the end where he has his "What if rich people... bad?!?!" moment which was a bit stereotypical but hey at least they did something with him. Jonathan starts off as someone you might think is a goody two shoes but it's clear that he doesn't fully agree with the rules and the law and is willing to bend them if necessary. After the prologue he's just a regular nice guy. Isabeau starts off as someone who seems composed and competent but by the end of the game she's reduced to this helpless girl who can't make any decisions on her own and has to rely on the MC. Navarre literally disappears after the prologue and you never see him again unless you do the relevant side quest. Basically everyone sucks after the prologue except Walter who gets a tiny amount of development which is probably why he's a fan favourite. Pretty bad situation especially compared to Strange Journey which had good characters with understandable motives and actions.
Gameplay
Dungeons suck. In fact there are almost no dungeons in this game except for the domains(which are bland and suck ass), the reactor and the final 2 dungeons. Instead of dungeons IV just has these areas that are designed to look like real life locations like parks and buildings. They look nice for a 3DS game and their design does fit the type of place it's supposed to be but ya know, an SMT with almost no dungeons is just weird.
Combat is fun but gets easy after the prologue before ramping up a bit for the final bosses.
Conclusion
Game sucks, has almost no identity of it's own and nearly everything in it has been done better by other games in the SMT series. Listen to the ost and move on
The first SMT game many people including me played. As an intro game it's decent but if you've played other games in the SMT series there's no reason for you to play IV. Before I rip this game a new one let me talk about the things I did enjoy in it.
What I enjoyed
- OST is very good. Lots of memorable tracks
- The prologue of the game in Mikado is pretty good. Good introduction of characters and set up of the story.
- The side quests flesh out the world really well and the rewards are pretty good too.
- The new White Ending is super based.
- The stuff with the redpills and the perpetual reactor was cool.
What I didn't like
Story
The majority of the story is just stolen from SMT 1 and 2 but mangled up. This isn't a homage type situation where the game is paying respect to what came before, IV literally reuses multiple plot points and a character but somehow it does them worse. Most people playing IV didn't play 1 and 2 so this goes over their heads.
Even on its own merits, the IV story is not good. After the prologue literally nothing of importance happens for like 10 hours. It's like
Prologue -> 10 hours of nothing -> alignment stuff towards the end of the game -> game ends
Alignment
IV has the worst depiction of alignments in the series by far. Every game since SMT 1 has developed the alignments or tried something new in its place.
SMT 1 - first in the series and builds upon the alignments from MT2
SMT 2 - Vastly build on Law and Chaos at the cost of neutral not getting a lot
SMT if - no alignments but the story changes based on your partner.
SMT 3 - no alignments, you get something similar but new in the form of Reasons.
SMT SJ - Brings back alignments but makes the alignment reps except neutral relatable and understandable.
In SMT IV Chaos and Neutral focus on nothing new at all. The chaos ending is the same old "fight to live, live to fight" stuff, and it's a shame because chaos was introduced in IV with an interesting angle of spreading knowledge. Neutral literally took the whole helping Masakado regain his strength thing from SMT 2. Law is inconsistent, the higher ups want Mikado to learn and grow in their absence by making them study technology from Tokyo but they also want to maintain the status quo for some reason.
It's actually baffling to me how badly Isabeau was handled as a neutral rep. She's indecisive and unsure for a good chunk of the game. We could've gotten a good arc about her learning to be confident and stand on her own, it wouldn't even be that hard to insert something like that into the story. It would fit perfectly into the alternate Tokyos section, we could've seen Isabeau's reaction to how Law and Chaos affect the world and what her indecisiveness could lead to. Instead we get a headless chicken. I know IV likes copying SMT 1 but it didn't need to copy the helpless woman as a neutral rep.
Characters
The set up for them in the prologue is nice but after that they turn into generic alignment heroes. Walter starts off as a bro character and stays that way for the whole game except towards the end where he has his "What if rich people... bad?!?!" moment which was a bit stereotypical but hey at least they did something with him. Jonathan starts off as someone you might think is a goody two shoes but it's clear that he doesn't fully agree with the rules and the law and is willing to bend them if necessary. After the prologue he's just a regular nice guy. Isabeau starts off as someone who seems composed and competent but by the end of the game she's reduced to this helpless girl who can't make any decisions on her own and has to rely on the MC. Navarre literally disappears after the prologue and you never see him again unless you do the relevant side quest. Basically everyone sucks after the prologue except Walter who gets a tiny amount of development which is probably why he's a fan favourite. Pretty bad situation especially compared to Strange Journey which had good characters with understandable motives and actions.
Gameplay
Dungeons suck. In fact there are almost no dungeons in this game except for the domains(which are bland and suck ass), the reactor and the final 2 dungeons. Instead of dungeons IV just has these areas that are designed to look like real life locations like parks and buildings. They look nice for a 3DS game and their design does fit the type of place it's supposed to be but ya know, an SMT with almost no dungeons is just weird.
Combat is fun but gets easy after the prologue before ramping up a bit for the final bosses.
Conclusion
Game sucks, has almost no identity of it's own and nearly everything in it has been done better by other games in the SMT series. Listen to the ost and move on