This review contains spoilers
(Finished on Neutral Route)
I think that this is one of the only semi-tolerable 1st person MegaTen games besides a few like Devil Summoner and SMT 1, but this game is so overrated. It might be a controversial opinion, but IDGAF.
Plot
Strange Journey's overall aesthetic are interesting, but the story is nowhere near as good as people say it is, with it being some "Humanity ruins earth so humans bad" plot, and that's just an oversimplification. It feels like a Nusona game, where all they do is just repeat the surface-level themes while saying nothing that's actually meaningful. But I'll give the game props for using its areas to display how cutthroat the Schwarzwelt can be, while also having a lot of bleak moments to show that not everything will go 100% correctly.
There were only 2 characters who I liked. Those two being Jimenez and Zelenin. Commander Gore was alright, but he's absent for a good portion of the story so I couldn't really enjoy him that much. Even the actual interesting characters like Louisa Ferre and the Three Wise Men are just there for the sake of being there. All they ever do is just try to convince you to join their side and they're not used in any meaningful ways. Everyone else is just some boring nobody that I don't care about. They're so unimportant that they didn't even give them their own portraits. They changed this in Deep Strange Journey, but that game's not worth mentioning.
Gameplay
The gameplay is pretty satisfying at times, I enjoyed walking around the dungeons and collecting forma to make new items. But at the same time the dungeons can be so long and boring to the point where I have to contemplate on whether or not it's even worth my time. Eridanus and Horologium are the worst offenders here, they're both tediously long and require a lot of backtracking.
I think the sub apps are a good feature. They make the gameplay more interesting and make SJ stand out from other MegaTen titles. The battles are also good, until they're not. Sometimes the fights can be the most unbalanced, one-sided bullshit ever.
I didn't particularly like fighting the final bosses of Eridanus and Horologium because they were overpowered and always spammed moves that guaranteed death. I only got lucky with the Sector E boss, Sector H's final boss is a fucking nightmare. No matter how many times I fused new demons to fight her, she still overpowered me. And I wasn't going to grind to the maximum level to fight her, because it takes what feels like a thousand years to even grind to ONE level, even with the Sub App named White Album that boosts your EXP.
I was just about to abandon this game, but then I found some codes of demons that reflected almost every single attack the boss could throw at them. I had to CHEESE the fight of the final boss to win, that's how bad it was. The final boss of the Neutral route genuinely killed my motivation to do the Chaos and Law routes, and it was a shame because I could just barely tolerate the game up to that point.
Verdict
This game is just okay at best. I respect this game for what it tried to do, but I can't bring myself to say it's an awesome game. I think that there are other MegaTen games that offer a more polished experience, and this one's definitely not one of them. It's only remembered fondly because of the art direction, the soundtrack and the unique setting. If you like this game, that's alright; but this one's just not for me.
I think that this is one of the only semi-tolerable 1st person MegaTen games besides a few like Devil Summoner and SMT 1, but this game is so overrated. It might be a controversial opinion, but IDGAF.
Plot
Strange Journey's overall aesthetic are interesting, but the story is nowhere near as good as people say it is, with it being some "Humanity ruins earth so humans bad" plot, and that's just an oversimplification. It feels like a Nusona game, where all they do is just repeat the surface-level themes while saying nothing that's actually meaningful. But I'll give the game props for using its areas to display how cutthroat the Schwarzwelt can be, while also having a lot of bleak moments to show that not everything will go 100% correctly.
There were only 2 characters who I liked. Those two being Jimenez and Zelenin. Commander Gore was alright, but he's absent for a good portion of the story so I couldn't really enjoy him that much. Even the actual interesting characters like Louisa Ferre and the Three Wise Men are just there for the sake of being there. All they ever do is just try to convince you to join their side and they're not used in any meaningful ways. Everyone else is just some boring nobody that I don't care about. They're so unimportant that they didn't even give them their own portraits. They changed this in Deep Strange Journey, but that game's not worth mentioning.
Gameplay
The gameplay is pretty satisfying at times, I enjoyed walking around the dungeons and collecting forma to make new items. But at the same time the dungeons can be so long and boring to the point where I have to contemplate on whether or not it's even worth my time. Eridanus and Horologium are the worst offenders here, they're both tediously long and require a lot of backtracking.
I think the sub apps are a good feature. They make the gameplay more interesting and make SJ stand out from other MegaTen titles. The battles are also good, until they're not. Sometimes the fights can be the most unbalanced, one-sided bullshit ever.
I didn't particularly like fighting the final bosses of Eridanus and Horologium because they were overpowered and always spammed moves that guaranteed death. I only got lucky with the Sector E boss, Sector H's final boss is a fucking nightmare. No matter how many times I fused new demons to fight her, she still overpowered me. And I wasn't going to grind to the maximum level to fight her, because it takes what feels like a thousand years to even grind to ONE level, even with the Sub App named White Album that boosts your EXP.
I was just about to abandon this game, but then I found some codes of demons that reflected almost every single attack the boss could throw at them. I had to CHEESE the fight of the final boss to win, that's how bad it was. The final boss of the Neutral route genuinely killed my motivation to do the Chaos and Law routes, and it was a shame because I could just barely tolerate the game up to that point.
Verdict
This game is just okay at best. I respect this game for what it tried to do, but I can't bring myself to say it's an awesome game. I think that there are other MegaTen games that offer a more polished experience, and this one's definitely not one of them. It's only remembered fondly because of the art direction, the soundtrack and the unique setting. If you like this game, that's alright; but this one's just not for me.