Don't let the rating fool you; I really really liked this game. My overall rating consists of an average of: 1) my rating of the actual game, which is 4.5/5 and 2) my rating of the quality of the remaster, which is 1.5/5.
The game (4.5/5): yeah, this game fucks. The atmosphere, themes, demons, dungeons, battle system, everything is there. I didn't think it was as hard as people made it out to be, but I did use a lot of guides to help me though, mostly to figure out where to go next which the game isn't great at telling you how to do (which btw, it really hit different going on GameFAQs posts from 2007 to figure out where to go. That really took me back). With the right preparation, this game is very doable, but will punish you for not preparing and learning from earlier attempts. I was surprised how a game from 2004 felt so good to play in 2021, which is a testament to its legacy.
The one fatal flaw, and the reason the game doesn't get a 5/5, is the random encounters. Playing this really makes you understand why these systems have been phased out in newer RPGs. At first it almost comical that you get another random encounter just 2 steps after finishing the previous one, but it doesn't really hit until the final dungeon, where the encounter rate is insane AND the demons barely let you escape which made me wanna tear my hair out. It completely interrupts pacing and it sucks, but bitching about random encounters isn't anything new.
By the way, I completed this on normal and went for the True Demon ending, and I had NO IDEA how fucking tough and how much grinding I would have to do for that final boss. I feel like its not mentioned often, so here's your fair warning.
The remaster (1.5/5): It's bad. I never played the original, so I was very happy that there was a way to play this game without a PS2, but there are glaring quality errors here that Atlus should be embarrassed about. The best thing about it is the new voice acting, and there's something to be said about not changing the game too much to maintain the experience of the original game, which is cool. However; the shitty quality music (I patched this out with a mod on PC), the 480p cutscenes, and some of the shitty looking textures, and FRAME DROPS (even with my beefy PC I still had some of this, but I know this was pretty bad on Switch), for $50 USD at release should be inexcusable in a modern remaster. Atlus could've and should've done much more for this game to give it the remaster it deserved, but it really feels like a big cash grab with how little work it seems they put into it, which is a shame really. Unless you Really Want the voice acting, there really isn't much of a reason to play this version over the PS2 version, if you happen to have access to it. Hopefully we get more remasters for the older MegaTen games, but I do hope that at least Atlus puts in a bit more work next time (or don't, and just port them and sell them cheap!).
The game (4.5/5): yeah, this game fucks. The atmosphere, themes, demons, dungeons, battle system, everything is there. I didn't think it was as hard as people made it out to be, but I did use a lot of guides to help me though, mostly to figure out where to go next which the game isn't great at telling you how to do (which btw, it really hit different going on GameFAQs posts from 2007 to figure out where to go. That really took me back). With the right preparation, this game is very doable, but will punish you for not preparing and learning from earlier attempts. I was surprised how a game from 2004 felt so good to play in 2021, which is a testament to its legacy.
The one fatal flaw, and the reason the game doesn't get a 5/5, is the random encounters. Playing this really makes you understand why these systems have been phased out in newer RPGs. At first it almost comical that you get another random encounter just 2 steps after finishing the previous one, but it doesn't really hit until the final dungeon, where the encounter rate is insane AND the demons barely let you escape which made me wanna tear my hair out. It completely interrupts pacing and it sucks, but bitching about random encounters isn't anything new.
By the way, I completed this on normal and went for the True Demon ending, and I had NO IDEA how fucking tough and how much grinding I would have to do for that final boss. I feel like its not mentioned often, so here's your fair warning.
The remaster (1.5/5): It's bad. I never played the original, so I was very happy that there was a way to play this game without a PS2, but there are glaring quality errors here that Atlus should be embarrassed about. The best thing about it is the new voice acting, and there's something to be said about not changing the game too much to maintain the experience of the original game, which is cool. However; the shitty quality music (I patched this out with a mod on PC), the 480p cutscenes, and some of the shitty looking textures, and FRAME DROPS (even with my beefy PC I still had some of this, but I know this was pretty bad on Switch), for $50 USD at release should be inexcusable in a modern remaster. Atlus could've and should've done much more for this game to give it the remaster it deserved, but it really feels like a big cash grab with how little work it seems they put into it, which is a shame really. Unless you Really Want the voice acting, there really isn't much of a reason to play this version over the PS2 version, if you happen to have access to it. Hopefully we get more remasters for the older MegaTen games, but I do hope that at least Atlus puts in a bit more work next time (or don't, and just port them and sell them cheap!).