Shin Megami Tensei V Review – Control Your Demons

In my first impressions of acting, I wrote that the fifth part of the famous JRPG saga surprised me with a rather “hurried” beginning of the narrative, when almost a few minutes later he threw me into the open world of the demonic realm of Da. ‘at without explaining or introducing the characters to me properly. But I wrote that after a while I put it out of my mind due to the fact that she successfully wound a very fun and well-balanced gameplay loop on her finger – catch your demon, cultivate it on your own and make him a member of the combat squad before later you cross it with an even stronger demon. Well, fifty hours later, I can happily say that apart from the liberating open world structure and great gameplay, the game has finally managed to offer a really interesting story with unforgettable twists.

• Platform: Switch
• Publication date: 12. 11. 2021
• Producer: Atlus (Japan)
• Genre: japanese role playing game
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: Not
• Data to download: 13 GB
• Game time: 50+ hours
• Price: 1399 CZK (Xzone)

World, atmosphere, story

The open world, divided into four giant open and several small indoor maps, brought this series a huge benefit. In fact, this is the first of the unexpected associations or comparisons that came to mind during the game: I felt like I was exploring a logically connected landscape from the first Dark Souls. Common to this world is not only the sophisticated connection of the environment with a number of abbreviations, etc., but also its esoteric gloom (after all, this is a desert on the ruins of destroyed Tokyo) and, of course, murder, because even on the lowest basic difficulty, the game is not a walk in the rose garden, and death in most cases is either an unfortunate encounter or an unfortunate departure.

Another unexpected association was waiting for me musically, because after the initial inconspicuous moods (during shooting) or relatively average guitar riffs (during a fight), more and more interesting songs began to be used in the soundtrack, perfectly emphasizing the increasingly destroyed and strange landscape and all more spectacular and weird boss fights. Thanks to this, I discovered for myself that the music reminds me very much of the original Silent Hill, which of course also fits perfectly into the theme of the apocalyptic world of demons. However, even larger portions of electronics and warped vocals were involved. Combined with the game’s aesthetically extraordinary graphics, this often made for a very powerful audio-visual experience in the second half of the game, i.e. if the game’s styling suits you and you experience intermittent dips below 30fps during outside view.

After all, this is a desert on the ruins of destroyed Tokyo.

As for the plot, its creators by no means underestimated, they simply decided to throw the player into a fascinating open world, its exploration and battle carousel as quickly as possible. But as soon as you look around, the story begins to change, including repeated trips to the “real” modern Tokyo and back to its destroyed demonic parallel dimension (whose origins and characteristics are beautifully explained). Each named character from your classmates and mentors will play a decisive role during the story, for which they will have to go through an interesting development. Without wanting to reveal too much, I really liked how ruthless the game is and how it can break your heart multiple times in a row. It fits perfectly with the theme of the end of the world and the final battle between order and chaos. The ending of the story and the game was then downright epic, narrative and gripping, rewarding all of your non-linear decisions as you play, before offering up one of four completely different endings.

Order versus chaos

The Shin Megami Tensei series is known for its emphasis on numerous boss battles and high difficulty, as well as its overall emphasis on gameplay and action. Perhaps it has never been more believable than in the fifth installment, which carefully conveys its plot sequences, but almost constantly keeps you in an open world full of swirling demons that you can enter with your hands, magic or word. You can train your character and the demons in your party as physical fighters, but it’s much more efficient to learn as many types of magic as possible, as each opponent has specific weaknesses that you use to get extra hits during combat. By the way, this is a turn-based combat system, but very smart and understandable, nice in the spirit of the classic Final Fantasy games.

Since your and your opponent’s levels have a significant impact on each other’s strength and stamina, you will be forced to constantly upgrade or replace the active demonic fighters in your group. Thanks to this, you will study the entire atlas two hundred imaginary monsters inspired by mythologies of all kinds, from various world religions to all sorts of myths and legends. The system is deeper and more interesting than, for example, Pokemon games. The mechanic of persuading demons to join you during the battle also helps this – here you will sometimes encounter some vulgarity or sexual innuendos: this is a game for adults. If you love JRPGs and prefer mechanically polished games with a focus on gameplay to everything else, this year it’s hard to find a game that’s more fun and challenging. You just don’t load the ultra-low difficulty DLC, which completely messes up the entire balance of the game in favor of one-button progression.