Game gets a solid 9/10.
The gameplay itself is very pleasant. The battle system is what you can expect from a SMT game, but the new Sabbath system encourages the player to focus on upgrades, which then are from side missions and levelling up the soul level, encouraging the player to not ride through the story, but take time in the side missions, and spend time with the other members of the team. Unlike most SMT games, while grinding is still necessary, it's also not as tedious as other games, as you usually manage to level up more for every battle compared to previous titles in the series.
The dungeons in the game remind me a lot of SMT: Strange Journey Redux, especially the Soul Matrix ones. They're very good, and while it is a series of corridors sometimes, it doesn't feel crap at all.

The story is also very good and it makes sense (in contrast to a previously released Atlus title (staring at you, yellow cap ape boy)). You can see the motivations for every character, and there's tons of depth you can unlock to them by doing side missions. There are legitimate moments where you get surprised, and at times, it does even feel more darker than games like SJR and SMT4.

However, if there were some problems I would have to note:
- The game is very short, and isn't very challenging. It's a very pleasant ride, but it can be finished in less than 50 hours. And while grinding is easy, the game isn't that challenging by itself. The final boss is around lv. 65 if I remember correctly, which is breadcrumbs compared to the true final boss of SMT SJR, which then is lv. 86 if I remember correctly.
- The extra side-missions DLC feels more cheap than it is expensive. While it does clearly have effort put into it, it's sad that it doesn't do anything more than add a few bossfights that seem more cheap than hard. The other DLC are also meh, such as the fact you have to buy demons that would ordinarily be in the game, such as Satan and Mara.

Overall though, for the usual player, it would be a pleasant experience, cut short by the short length. However, in it's short length, there's tons of pleasure. It's a penis joke, and also a 9/10 one at that.

I am soon finished with the game, and I plan on 100%ing as I enjoyed it that much.

Shin Megami Tensei V was one of my most anticipated games so far in my short life of 19 years. It was the only reason dust wasn't collected on my rarely used Switch console, for the sole purpose of playing this game. One day, it came, went, and left me with the "pretty alright" impression. Pretty alright as in "could've been worse, could've been lots better".

The story itself is pretty usual. There is a law, chaos and neutral rep. However, unlike other titles, the story here felt more lackluster. Some characters are written with no sense, such as the law rep going from "a quirky guy with a cap who would never hurt a fly", into a "Columbine High School Catastrophy Demonstrator". The chaos rep has no true intention for choosing chaos, yadda yadda yadda. There are some highlights though, such as the neutral reps being written very nicely in contrast to the others. They are a nice refresher to the entire game, and it is a shame that they weren't as featured as the other reps. Basically, if I had to sum up the story, I'd say it works, but you wouldn't be blown away from it.

In terms of gameplay, it also does have it's ups and downs. The free exploration, with jumping and climbing, as well as no random encounters, instead using spawned enemies on the world map, was very nice and refreshing in contrast to the usual dungeon crawling. In addition, the whole concept of essences introduced a new type of gameplay for SMT, with you being able to essentially finetune yourself into a mighty God, finetuning your moves as you wander. As with most RPG, there's also tons of grinding, reliviated by the optional DLC of grimores and that type of stuff from the Mitamas.
The bad parts would be the pacing of the combat in relation to the story, I'll probably continue this later.

As of writing, it would have been a good while since I played the game, I'd say 3-4 months. However, despite that passing of time, I still think that this is one of the greatest pieces of Shin Megami Tensei. This is, as with all of my reviews, just an evening writing, don't expect it to be fully through and comprehensive.

I'd like to first talk about the story. The story is simple to grasp at the start; you're a part of an elite team set to stop a demonic black hole at one of the poles set to engulf the entire planet. Your ship crashlands in a sector, and your goal is to reconnect with the other ships, fight your way through demons, and finding out what you believe in.

As per usual with most SMT games, there usually exists a representative for law, chaos, and neutral. This game is no exception, with each representative of the game being written as actual people with reasons for what they are doing. Zelenin is law representative because she trusts Mastema, the angel who has saved her on multiple occasions, who then turns her into an angel as well to spread the word of God. She takes orders, acts professionally and refuses to use demons, using mostly angels when possible. In the meanwhile, Jimenez, the ex-soldier who doesn't take lightly to orders, is a great chaos rep, because his entire being after his transformation is a result of humanity's ruin, something discussed tons of in the game (more about it later). He turned into the half-demon half-human being because he tried to save a demon he felt sorry for, who was being tortured by a couple of opportunists for easy grub. Gore is also nicely written, but he didn't feel as present as these other twos, so I'm skipping over him mostly.

The core concept of the game is the fact of humanity's ruin, which then gives the game life. The game shows how humanity consumes, pollutes, kills, destroys, all for their own sake. The entire reason for the black hole is because of this exact mess, with each sector representing their faults; a war-zone rid with fire, a never-ending horrific shopping mall, a labyrinth of trash, and it goes on and on. Each demon looks at you, the human, in both awe and hate (something which really gives them life), as they ask him what he believes in. Do you believe that humanity should be changed? Should it remain the same way? Those questions are precisely the topic for this game.

In addition to the story, the game also has a smart way of tackling alignments. Depending on what you do and answer in the game, you can change your alignment, and therefore how your game ends, but in this SMT, there were a few clever additions added. Your name will display what alignment you are currently on, with it changing colour representing the alignment. White is neutral, red is chaos, and blue is law. The game encourages you to keep track of this, with the Co-op attacks, more on which later. This whole system of course makes the game easier to tackle, both in gameplay and story.

Enough on that though, now the gameplay. To first get something cleared up; yes, there's grinding here. You have to grind for exp, Macca, and Formas to get through. However, when you look past that, you have possibly the most exciting gameplay in a SMT game yet.
The main character himself doesn't have the same variety of moves as demons, but is limited to what moves exist on his weapons, which are his gun and melee. These can of course have different elemental attacks depending on the gun, which makes collection and buying guns highly important if you want to take advantage of weaknesses. Speaking of, you can also change your suit of armor to have different weaknesses and resistances, which is important if you want to progress on without dying, duh.
Most of the elemental attacks are left to the demons, who can be recruited and/or fused, as per standard in most SMTs. However, the special thing with demons comes in the forementioned Co-op attacks. Every demon in the game can be divided into neutral, law and chaos, and depending on their alignment and yours, they can deal extra damage if someone in the party strikes a weakness/critical hit while the demons are of the same alignment. This is great, because even though it narrows down the demons one can use, it introduces that you can't just fuse whatever anymore, you have to coordinate and plan your team carefully.
The boss battles in this game are simply told, amazing. Their difficulty and length make them feel like a real battle, that even if you grinded all the way up to 99 for the final battle, you would still have a real battle. They are hard, but they sure make you feel like you accomplished something.
If I had to criticize something, it would be the dungeon crawling, as I am generally not a fan of the slow-paced speed of it, especially in the format of Etrian Odyssey, but for a game like SMT SJR, it felt more right than wrong. The dungeons felt truly massive, mostly because they are both actually massive, and maddening. You would totally require a walkthrough to even get through some places, but it doesn't hurt much of the experience, looking back at it.

The new content in Redux is what makes the cherry on top of the amazing cake. The introduction of Alex is amazing, as her whole being depends on your actions. You "write" her, in one way, you could say. She is first introduced as a great enemy, someone who easily kills you, after popping out of nowhere with her strange demonica suit, and AI companion similar to yours. You treat her like an enemy at first, but as you progress, you start to see the reason for why she does so; to protect the world from you. Whatever you do with your alignments, she will say she is from the future, and tell you why you have done a gruesome act; slaughtering the entirety of mankind, enslaving them to God's song, or dooming them to another black hole. She is the good guy in the story against her "bad guy"; you. And she is the only way to make what you do right.
Along with her, the introduction of Womb of Grief and Demeter was very nice. In contrast to Alex, Demeter is painted as this friendly figure who revived you, all for harvest. You do what she tells you to do; gather fruit in her dungeon, which you do over time as you unlock more items, and defeat more bosses. However, towards the end, it gets revealed that she is not as good as you think, and is a pawn to the three wise men; thinking you were a piece of human trash, before being disposed of herself, sacrificing her health to the true final boss.
Speaking of, the true final boss which you encounter after agreeing with Alex is also amazing. The battle itself is possibly one of the most hardfought boss battles I can think of, as it's both ridiculously hard, yet fair. Possibly one of my alltime favorite, honestly.

If there were some stuff to criticize, I would say the OST. The OST is good, but I'd prefer it if there were new songs for battles, and not just the same one for most common fights. However, at some places and bossfights, the music fit perfectly, so much that it is a shame that this is a 3DS game, where the audio has been decompressed to fit properly on the cartridge. Other than that, there's of course the grinding, but that's it really. It's simply a perfect SMT game. Not much to conclude, it really is just that good.