SMTV may be lacking in some areas but its strengths are really strong. Its main strength being the combat. It is one of the best turn based combat systems I've ever played. It isn't entirely different from the previous games but it has such a tight design, it's hard to get tired of it. The Press Turn system is as fun as ever and really makes you consider aiming for weaknesses or crits and your team formation. No matter how hard a boss seemed at first, I loved that there was always another option to overcome it. Rather than grinding which I never felt the need to do, you can start fusing demons to both up the level of your demons and get a particular skill that may target the enemy's weakness. You can also use essences which allow you to take certain abilities as well as switch your main character's affinities which can be useful if an enemy use skills that you are weak to. Sometimes just rethinking your strategy such as how you use buffs/debuffs, team formation or what items to use can turn the tides of a difficult encounter. This remains satisfying throughout the whole game.

Exploration is also a lot of fun and very rewarding. There's always something to find while roaming that is useful. I mentioned the essences above which you can find in the world, as well as buying some from the vendor. You can find these cute mimans all over the world that gets you a set of items every five that you find as well as some glory. Glory which can be found in other means while exploring allows you to purchase miracles that upgrade your character such as allowing you to have more demons in your roster or have more skills. You can find demon statues that level up all your demons and there's various useful items strewn about. You uncover these things on the map by clearing out abcesses which are usually challenging demon fights. There are, of course, plenty of demons to encounter while exploring who you can recruit onto your team by talking to them. This process can be fun but it's perhaps a bit simplistic with not much strategy to it. There are four main areas to discover which do have an oddly enticing apocolyptic look to them with lots of sand and ruins but they do look a bit too similar with little variety. There is a decent verticality to the areas though which I appreciate. There isn't much in the way of towns to explore and NPC's to intereact with. The side quests are mostly rote too which is dissapointing.

A story involving different deities is usually something I enjoy but the plot and characters here are incredibly dull here. It mostly feels like an afterthought going through the same beats of order and chaos that the series usually deals with. The story is so uninteresting that it makes it easy to ignore it completely.

The combat and exploration being as fun as they are along with a fantastic soundtrack make it easy to recommend. I hope they continue to refine what they have to give us an even better sequel like Apocolypse was to SMTIV.