4/5 ★ – squidbob's review of Shin Megami Tensei V.

(review contains spoilers) + The game itself looks really nice, and considering the last time a mainline SMT game was 3D was Nocturne in 2003, it was amazing to feel the scale of the demons vs Nahobino in battles + The gameplay is great, there's a good variety of moves/strats that are all viable, essences aren't perfect (there's too many and most are useless before you get a chance to use them) but they're a nice way to keep low level demons relevant later on if one happens to be your favourite. Demon negotiation is fun and varied + Kozuka popped off with the music, the OST slaps and there are a few tracks I like just as much as Battle B2 + I really like most of the new demon designs (inc Angel), esp Fionn/Lahmu/Manananggal. (Abdiel though...) I think Doi hit his stride with V and people often complain about aspects of his designs (particularly in 4A) that are changed because of higher ups, not him + I think the change from dungeons to an overworld + a few dungeons is refreshing. I don't feel too strongly about either one. It's nice interacting with demons and seeing them wander around. Abscesses are a fun way to unlock miracles - The story is mostly nonexistent and when it does exist it's pretty bad. With Nocturne, the story feels purposefully minimal, but here they are feeding you too little while expecting you to be emotionally invested as characters you either hate or don't care about die. They barely get lines, much less any development, and their decisions don't make much sense because of that (looking at Yuzuru) Miyazu is also a massive waste of potential, not sure why they relegated her and Khonsu to optional sidequests when he's on the cover art for the game. It's even worse that you have to do his questline/other quests that involve you befriending demons/Shiva, the hardest fight in the game (minus demifiend DLC) in order to get the hidden/"true" end... which has you unapologetically commit demon genocide - I saw a comment somewhere that said monotheism/polytheism/atheism is a better way to describe the endings than law/chaos/neutral, and I agree, but (and this isn't exclusive to V) the way they play out isn't nuanced at all. Although the "law" ending itself isn't terrible, Abdiel/Dazai are an absolute joke, they talk/act like evil villains on a Saturday morning cartoon. Not sure anyone would have any desire to side with a Youtuber whose development consists solely of slicking back his hair and who won't stfu about god (for any reason other than memes, especially because his death is extra stupid on his route, talk shit and die not even from a fight but from Tsukuyomi's transformation scene, okay bro) - Although I generally like the overworld, I'm especially looking at Shinagawa here (ME EYES), god knows why they thought slapping a red filter over it was a good idea, and some areas are frustrating to navigate (especially Taito if you're trying to figure out how to climb somewhere, only to discover the item you've been trying so hard to get is an essence you already have and don't plan on using, thanks guys). To be fair, having at least one annoying dungeon is an SMT staple, so this evens out - Level scaling damage is dumb as hell, we already have Str/Mag/Def stats, throwing in level differences to calculate damage makes no sense. The balance of the game is thrown off completely when your level affects your damage more than how high your Str is. I don't mind being underleveled for a fight, but if you happen to surpass the level of the boss the fight isn't any fun. On this note, it's kind of ridiculous that you have to be lv 90+ to not be wiped out by Shiva, a requirement for the hidden end, yet they made no real adjustments to the final boss to account for you choosing that end. Basically I slapped Lucifer and he died - Locking the difficulty is ass, I realized too late that Normal was way easier than I thought it would be and didn't want to start all over on Hard. This isn't solely a V problem, but once you get past the first area you slowly begin to steamroll everything in your path. By the time you get Debilitate and Luster Candy and start passing it around on your team the bosses are a joke. Meanwhile they nerfed Charge/Concentrate (which is fine) only to make crits absolutely busted - Btw I think it's annoying they let you keep so much in NG+ yet not the talismans, considering how annoying they can be to get, though I did fine just using the Crit one every time I sound like I hated this game but I had a good time and would still recommend it to others... I just wanted it to be amazing 😞