This hurts to do, but I'm dropping it. It's not that it's bad, just so bland. It is, in essence, a sequel to Nocturne and while I like the idea of a follow up, this just builds on the bones of the world that game created. The problem is this was Nocturne's weakest element.
When I go to Nocturne it's not really for that sense of world, it's primarily for the world established through combat. Nocturne is at its core a really good boss rush. The world is minimal to accentuate the atmosphere given by the difficult combat and resource management. The general overworld is just generic demons who exist in this world, but don't inhabit it. SMT IV, despite the gameplay changes, made it a point to have an interesting and lived in world that was worth exploring. V just brings over the boring overworld of Nocturne without any of the interesting aspects of it.
The magatsuhi system, while novel, also doesn't really expand on the gameplay established in IV:A. That game is contentious for some very legitimate reasons, but the one thing I will absolutely defend is the way they improved and fleshed out smirk. Decreasing the rng and making it a choice in combat added another layer to press turn that, to me, makes that game have the best combat in the entire series. Magatsuhi is an attempt to carry it over while integrating some overworld elements. Only thing is, it wasn't broken. They fixed it once already, trying to slap more stuff on top of press turn at this point just feels like floundering.
You can always create a unique and fleshed out aspect of your game. Strange journey, even with its gameplay regression, proved all you need is a cool world. IV reaffirmed that. Simply taking that excellent gameplay from IV:A and putting it into an interesting new world would have been enough. Instead we have a game that lacks an identity of its own. Content to continue the series, but not expand on it.
When I go to Nocturne it's not really for that sense of world, it's primarily for the world established through combat. Nocturne is at its core a really good boss rush. The world is minimal to accentuate the atmosphere given by the difficult combat and resource management. The general overworld is just generic demons who exist in this world, but don't inhabit it. SMT IV, despite the gameplay changes, made it a point to have an interesting and lived in world that was worth exploring. V just brings over the boring overworld of Nocturne without any of the interesting aspects of it.
The magatsuhi system, while novel, also doesn't really expand on the gameplay established in IV:A. That game is contentious for some very legitimate reasons, but the one thing I will absolutely defend is the way they improved and fleshed out smirk. Decreasing the rng and making it a choice in combat added another layer to press turn that, to me, makes that game have the best combat in the entire series. Magatsuhi is an attempt to carry it over while integrating some overworld elements. Only thing is, it wasn't broken. They fixed it once already, trying to slap more stuff on top of press turn at this point just feels like floundering.
You can always create a unique and fleshed out aspect of your game. Strange journey, even with its gameplay regression, proved all you need is a cool world. IV reaffirmed that. Simply taking that excellent gameplay from IV:A and putting it into an interesting new world would have been enough. Instead we have a game that lacks an identity of its own. Content to continue the series, but not expand on it.