Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance Review – Brutal Recreation

Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is a rereleased version of the game Shin Megami Tensei 5 from 2021. Atlus is no stranger to remakes and rereleases. As every major title they release gets some form of one or the other. Such as Persona 5 being re-released with new content on the PlayStation 4, and eventually everywhere else in the Royal edition. As well as this year brought us a faithful, high-quality remake of Persona 3 with improved gameplay systems, revisions to other systems, and added content.

With all that said, what category does Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance fall under? Honestly, I would say half and half in this case. As it not only has tons of revisions to many of its systems, but it also has a completely new optional storyline that offers a shocking new tale of awe and wonder. While also adding multiple new endings, new areas and so much more. Vengeance feels more like a second draft that delivers on a truly special experience, albeit with a few caveats.

Developer & Publisher // Atlus, Sega
Platforms // Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4|5, Nintendo Switch, PC
MSRP & Release Date // $59.99 on Xbox, June 14th, 2024
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X

Tales of Creation and Vengeance

Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance features two narratively separate stories that you can choose from when starting the game. The Canon of Creation storyline is the original story of Shin Megami Tensei 5, where you played as the Nahobino, a high school student who becomes trapped in the Netherworld and accepts the help of a demon called Aogami to not only escape the Netherworld. But to also recreate the world anew after discovering the current world is fading out of existence. Leading him down a path of hardship as he fights friend and foe on his mission to recreate the world based on whatever beliefs you align yourself with throughout the story.

The storyline that came in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, is the appropriately named Canon of Vengeance. Where the game starts similar to Canon of Creation, but part way through the opening act, the Nahobino encounters a mysterious foe from the Qadistu. A group of four female demons whose goal is to reshape the world in the image of chaos. This storyline intertwines with a lot of the story content in Canon of Creation, with major deviations in motivations, character arcs, and boss fights in the story. It feels less like slight obvious revisions for a better outcome, and more like disruption to the original story that feels natural.

But just how different is the overall narrative experience in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance? Well, for as far as it did go in some areas, it still feels reserved at times.

Vengefully Led Astray

Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance focuses on both the Qadistu, consisting of Naamah, Eisheth, Agrat, and Lilith as the new antagonists and a new mysterious ally named Yoko Hiromine. But where things shift a lot not only narratively, but in the gameplay, is how characters like Yoko, and even members of the normal cast like Yuzuru, Tao and even Dazai become part of the main party. This choice allows for many meaningful moments that let you get attached to everyone in the story much more than Canon of Creation ever did. Which helps every shocking twist in the story to hit on a deeply personal level.

For example, one of the earliest story beats involves a bullied girl succumbing to the power of a demon wreaking havoc on the school that the main character and his friends go to. In Canon of Creation this part of the story is drawn out through the exploration of the school and leads to a new zone to see the climax. In Canon of Vengeance, the climax of that part is taken care of in the school with a much darker outcome, and going into the second zone afterward was to save the students who were kidnapped from the school.

As previously mentioned, while the overall story in Canon of Vengeance is different, the areas you go to outside of two locations are the exact same as Canon of Creation. Instead of Chiyoda in that specific route in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance as the third area of the game. You get Shinjuku instead, which is a better substitute. Considering Chiyoda is a foggy maze-like war zone, and Shinjuku has a lot of variety to it. From giant trees in large circular zones to city ruins and golden gates that mimic a heaven-like vibe, it is a much more visually and functionally functional zone.

That is not to say there are some other flaws. Following Chiyoda is the dungeon for the Demon King, and exploring that zone can be frustrating, but it felt designed to keep you from getting bored with several platforming challenges. Following Shinjuku is the dungeon just known as Shakan. Shakan is very boring to explore and it’s only finding the orbs that shift the level around to progress. Shakan in a lot of these puzzle areas also lacked enemies which brought my leveling to a screeching halt.

The final problem in this approach was how every zone still had too much of the original story and side quests, like encountering Fionn, an Irish deity in the second zone, and still having his unique side quest in the final level of the game. I would have preferred these encounters stay in Canon of Creation, instead of Canon of Vengeance. It would have given me more reason to go into a new game plus to experience more of the endings in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance.

Morality Based Endings

Both Canon of Vengeance and Creation have their unique endings. Vengeance has two, which are entirely dependent on whatever choices you make at the end of the game. While Creation has four unique endings that are similarly dependent, every ending in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is based on beliefs and the willingness to betray characters you grow attached to.

There are endings that are Lawful, Chaotic, or Neutral that require you to choose specific dialogue options throughout the story, and who you want to make into an ally or enemy near the end. Sadly, the only two options in Canon of Vengeance are the only ones that truly feel impactful, considering the way every character and story moment was handled leading to whichever you chose being excellently written to feel personal. In Canon of Creation, each ending does feel impactful and has some great writing attached to it all, but the road to get there feels disappointing.

There are rewards to take into new game plus that you get from every ending. Such as a unique character you can summon at any point in your next run, giving you an early advantage if you desperately need it. While also giving you a unique icon on your save file to tell you which endings you have experienced on that singular file to keep you on track. Especially when starting new game plus is filled with many hours of intense gameplay that you can get lost in.

The Brutal Gameplay of Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance

The gameplay in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is the traditional turn-based JRPG affair. Where you and your enemies take turns attacking each other, but there are many layers to the combat system that make the game unique. When striking an enemy weakness like fire, ice, or lightning or simply landing a critical hit, you are granted an extra turn-up that can give you up to eight actions per turn. But this requires enlisting a full party of demons into your party and strategizing with them and your knowledge of each foe to max out the potential of each turn.

On top of this system, Magatsuhi meter that unlocks a variety of team skills. One of the earliest ones you unlock guarantees that every attack lands a critical hit. This one became my go-to as most bosses in the game do not always have a weakness that I could exploit. The magatsuhi meter also allows certain allies to use unique abilities, such as Odin and Thor’s group ability that deals a lot of lightning damage to one foe, or one that is uniquely earned in Canon of Vengeance that allows the main character to attack four times in a row with the selected skill. If you have a full party and ask every member to leave, they relinquish their turns to allow this skill to become the end all be all for especially hard bosses.

However, one thing to keep in mind with these advantages for your party is that these same rules apply to enemy demons and even bosses. This leads to a lot of heartbreaking moments as the same exploits you find are replicated by demons much tougher than you, similar to Persona. But unlike the Persona series, where you are able to “Baton Pass” or “All-out Attack” in a synergetic way, every ability you cast is independent from your party. You have to think ahead on what you want each member of your party to do and find those exploits instead of relying of specific mechanics to set you up.

Like the Magatsuhi demons that now show up glowing red that play by a one-turn rule, as they usually use one-hit attacks that can kill your entire team. These challenging new demons give unique rewards for demons in your party to take advantage of after you have acquired the demons you want.

Gotta Recruit ‘Em All

Every single demon you fight in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance can become your ally. One of the ways you recruit in the game is in the middle of battle, which is a mini-game where you just talk to them. Every demon has its own personality that you have to understand and select the right dialogue to win them over. They will also ask for various gifts like money, items, and even health or stamina before they join. There are also quizzes on what demon they show you and you have to guess which one it is. As well as some stat-based challenges that can instantly recruit them if you win.

This system is very fun but can be a challenge depending on what your situation is in the game. Is giving money to a slime a good idea if you are low on health and need to buy items to heal your party? Or do you take the risk and say no and see if it attacks and kills you? There are a lot of funny outcomes to this system, but when you get the demons you want, you can start fusing them to make even more powerful demons.

The demon fusion system is very vital to Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance as a lot of endgame demons are locked behind this system. It revolves around taking two or more demons and fusing them together. It sounds simple, and it is, but there are a lot of options to help make the fusion system more user-friendly. Such as allowing you to purchase demons straight from your compendium that catalogs every demon you recruit and use them in that chosen fusion. As well as a system to show you what demons can be crafted from what you have in your party instead of just choosing one and then choosing the other to see the outcome.

The fusion system in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is very easy to use and is very beneficial in the long run, just like the various customization options in the same area you fuse in.

Endless Customization in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance

On top of the fusion system, and the many factors of combat is a lot of customization for the main character and your demons that bring it all together. From the Glory system for the main character it offers a staggering number of boons that can range from extra skill slots for him and your demons. With more unique abilities like debuffing enemy demons at the start of battle.

There are also ways to take essences earned from doing side quests and apply their unique abilities and stats to the main character and demons. These essences can give abilities to demons that they normally would not learn on their own. Like the Pixie learning “Megido” which is an almighty ability when her abilities are focused on healing. It gives a variety of options that feel endless and so cool to play around with. There are even unique abilities for the main character to earn from this system, like “Aramasa” which launches 8 quick hits in a row with a flashy animation.

Technical Performance, UI, and Music

Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance ran flawlessly throughout my over 60 hours of gameplay. It looked crisp, ran at a consistent 60 frames per second and the loading between areas was lightning fast. It never crashed once, nor had any stuttering or audio issues.

The game’s UI is also minimal when playing, and the menus are extremely easy to navigate. The only problem that I found with the menus was the optional toggles for Glory abilities, it is never explicitly shown, and I never found a way to disable anything. It does not hamper the experience, but it felt annoying considering I did want to turn some of these off in new game plus on easier difficulties to give my enemies a fighting chance.

Finally, the music in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is absolutely incredible. Every track when exploring every zone feels eerie and ethereal. Every battle theme creates hype to make each battle exciting, and every boss theme matches the tone of the fight. Especially the final boss theme which used the track that was in the announcement trailer of the game and was a genuine surprise. Atlus always knocks their music out of the park, but some of the choices in tracks felt more surprising than just impressive.

Accessibility and Difficulty

When it comes to general accessibility settings, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance lacks immensely. There are no colorblind settings or even text size or color options. The game does feature an array of easier difficulty options, however. There is a “Safety” difficulty you can download and breeze through the game to make it easy for you to experience the story. But beyond that, a lot of basic accessibility options are just missing.

When it comes to the difficulty in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance while safety and casual are aimed towards newer players, normal and hard require a lot more thought from the player. Normal ensures there are no shifts in damage numbers from enemies or you, putting you on equal footing and forcing you to rely on leveling and boosting stats from items earned from the Magatsuhi demons. But the hard difficulty really put things into perspective when I tried it on new game plus.

On casual and normal, the opening segment of Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance felt fair and challenging. Similar to the Fromsoftware games, if you get greedy you will get punished, however, on hard, you have to be very careful and use everything to your advantage. When exploring in zones you have these Magatsuhi orbs that can restore health, stamina and even the Magatsuhi bar itself.

On the easier difficulties, I avoided these because I never needed them after a certain point. But on hard, I was actively going back to areas to re-collect these orbs as they spawned back to make sure I could take on the next foe. I have not gotten very far on hard but can attest to just how scary it feels to be at the mercy of enemies and needing to save as much as possible so you do not put yourself in a bad situation you cannot get out of.

Final Thoughts on Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance

When it comes to Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance the best way to describe the entire experience is “exceptional”. The new story route despite reusing so many of the original locations feels like a missed opportunity for me. I did love every moment of the new story, and the gameplay was just as good as it was in the original release, with a lot cooler stuff added into the mix, even exploration in every zone was improved with the new “Magatsuhi Rails”. These are, sadly, also a missed opportunity as they just function on a point A to B system and are never used in puzzling ways to make certain areas more interesting to navigate. They do lead to unique treasures and sections of the map you could not reach in the original version, but I could not shake the feeling that there could have been more to this system.

Despite a lot of missed opportunities, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is more than worth every penny. I highly recommend picking the game up, because no matter what difficulty you can take on, it will keep you busy for 100s of hundreds.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Pros

• Fantastic New Story
• Great New Locations
• Brutal Combat
• Fun Demon Recruitment System
• Incredible Music
• Flawless Performance

Cons

• Missed Opportunities in Story Locations
• Lacking New Dungeon
• Unexplained Toggles
• Uninteresting Rail Grind System