5/5 ★ – asoola's review of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.

I finished playing the Canon of Vengeance storyline (Law Ending) and I loved this new addition to the game so much! While I never disliked the Canon of Creation storyline as they’re calling it now I see how much the added scenes improved on the characters of Tao, Yuzuru, Miyazu, Koshimizu and even the Protagonist and Aogami! I think also some characters change in personality made more sense for example Dazai personality switch makes more sense now! As for the new character Yoko Hiromine I really loved her character and the points she made (I don’t agree with her views entirely though and that’s why I got the Law ending) she’s a nice addition to the game’s story and I loved how she was able to influence lots of characters around her even if they also didn’t entirely agree with her views and pessimism. (like Tao) Characters aside I do think the new story is very well written and it made me emotional and cry on multiple occasions and this is coming from someone that never cried while playing the original Shin Megami Tensei V. Gameplay wise the game is way better and it improved on an already good gameplay and made it PERFECT in my opinion, I found myself enjoying the game way more and I got less lost in this game because the map was better compared to the original game map. Also the new boss fights, dungeons, and music were so good Battle -Beelzebub- is on repeat 😌. Now that’s over let’s talk endings! Like I said I got the Law ending (Tao ending) so I can’t talk about the other one now because I didn’t experience it yet (I’m definitely gonna do a NG+ play through for it!) but I really loved the Law ending I do think both Tao and Yoko made very good points before the protagonist chooses a side but I found myself agreeing with Tao ideals a bit more I think just because a world is broken doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed and that it had to be erased from existence to start a new. If you’re willing you can definitely make a broken world a better world where everyone can be happy which exactly what happens in the epilogue. The Protagonist and Tao didn’t mindlessly follow Bethel views rather they acknowledged the flaws and vowed to make a better world and I really love that! I’m definitely not done with the game because I wanna do a playthrough for the Chaos ending as I said so whenever that’s done I’ll add my thoughts on that ending here too! Speaking of endings I really love the fact that the protagonist chooses the ending based on your choices rather than me the player choosing (like in Canon of Creation) it feels more like something the protagonist actually chose if that makes sense! Anyways that’s all I wanted to say I really enjoyed the game and it’s definitely a fantastic game and it made me love the universe of Shin Megami Tensei V way more than I did in 2021-2023 ❤️ Update: As promised my thoughts on the Chaos ending in the Canon of Vengeance storyline, so the ending itself isn’t badly written at all in fact I think it’s very well written and fits the character of Yoko however I don’t think it’s something I personally like! The Law ending and the hope it sparked spoke more to me than the Chaos ending and that’s why I love Law ending more. I said it before but I don’t entirely agree with Yoko’s views while I understand where she’s coming from and can empathize I still don’t think I personally like the idea of leaving the old world behind just because it was a bit unfair and broken. All and all I still think the protagonist fits this ending too based on your choices throughout the game and Yoko’s character is very well written! ❤️ Update 2: I finished my first playthrough of the Canon of Creation path in this version of SMTV and honestly now that I revisited that storyline I still think it’s a very good story. The characters were still fantastic even in this path, Aogami and the protagonist included. A really random thought but some cutscenes in this path were so gorgeous and seeing them again made me love the original game even more than I did before, it’s insane how these scenes looked amazing even in the original switch version! Anyway this time around I aimed for the True Ending and I used to not be a big fan of this ending at all but after seeing it again in my own game I grew to love it, I think it’s easily my favorite ending for the Canon of Creation path! (My favorite ending used to be the Chaos ending (siding with Yuzuru and Koshimizu) it’s my initial ending in the original game so I still have a special place for it in my heart and I love it still but yeah the True Ending is fantastic I really loved it.) One more thing playing the Canon of Creation in Vengeance made me realize the real villain in the original game for me was the map! I still remember getting lost and it was so hard to navigate the map for me, I think the map in this game is revamped which is why I stopped getting lost hehe 😂. Thank you ATLUS! Update 3: Lots of updates for this review huh? But I finished my second playthrough of the Canon of Creation path in this version of SMT V, I already talked about the storyline in the previous update so I’ll immediately talk about the ending I chose this time around and it is my least favorite ending it’s the Law Ending (Abdiel & Dazai) I do think the ending itself is well written and it’s pretty good, I think despite not liking Dazai much I still think he’s an amazing character as well! It’s unfortunate that he never gains confidence and he instead chooses the choice that would be the easy way out which is tragic. I really was rooting for Dazai when I got to know his character more but his personality switch and how aggressive he became made me dislike him. I’ll say his personality switch actually makes sense as well since I assume his mental fortitude wasn’t strong and since they did mention using the summoning program (I forgot the name forgive me) make the user become more like demons so I guess his aggressiveness stems from that, which makes sense! I mentioned that his character personality switch makes more sense in Canon of Vengeance and I stand by that still but revisiting his character personality switch in Canon of Creation made me love the version of events there as well! Abdiel is a complex character because I do love her character due to how determined she is but just like Yoko I don’t agree with her views much. Now that I talked about the characters associated with the ending I’ll talk about the ending I simply don’t like this ending I feel like it feels off somehow, it does feel more hopeful than the Chaos ending for example but I honestly feel them going back to the same thing with the same dangers (probably) isn’t a good idea. That’s just my thoughts like I said though the ending itself is very well written and I understand fully why some people would prefer this ending! Final update: I got the Chaos Ending and Neutral Ending, Chaos: I talked about this ending a bit in my original review of SMTV but despite the dark atmosphere I still love this ending and I never regretted choosing it! I feel like it fits the story the most after the Neutral path endings. Which brings me to my next point Neutral: it’s actually not a bad ending and I initially thought it’ll be VERY similar to the True Ending but not really! It’s genuinely an ending that is satisfying to the story that was told! Nuwa & Shohei are characters that I didn’t like much in my first playthrough of SMTV but I absolutely love them after my many replays, I love how they truly cared for humanity’s future. While everyone was striving for a better future for humanity Nuwa & Shohei’s care felt the most genuine if that makes sense! Well that’s all I definitely still love the Canon of Creation storyline it’s fantastic! ❤️