Shin Megami Tensei V on Switch
If you’ve ever played an SMT game, the setup of Shin Megami Tensei V should feel instantly familiar. You take control of a teenage boy, and you quickly find out that he has the power to summon demons and control them in battle. Then, you explore a warped version of modern-day Tokyo. And by “warped” I mean it’s a totally screwed up and wrecked, apocalyptic version of Tokyo filled with angels and demons trying to kill you.
You then plow through the story and make decisions that will ultimately lock you into one of (at least) three endings: Lawful, Chaotic, and Neutral.
Despite featuring new characters and story beats, the premise is always largely the same, but don’t take that as a criticism of the game. Shin Megami Tensei V knows the kind of story it wants to tell and it sticks to it with confidence, and hey, if you couldn’t care less about the narrative, maybe the crushing difficulty of the combat encounters will convince you to stick around.
As far as introductions go, Shin Megami Tensei V feels the most Persona-like out of all the mainline games in the series. Whereas in past games, your companions were mostly all robots with zero-depth to them and only served to push one of the game’s three main alignments and ideologies on you, SMT V’s characters make more of an effort to come off like actual people.
It’s probably got to do with the fact that the introductory sequence is just so Persona, perhaps to a fault. You’re introduced to the protagonist as he’s getting ready to leave his classroom, and a school announcement encourages students to walk home in pairs as there have been unexplained murder cases popping up all over Tokyo in recent days… Sound familiar?
You’re then introduced to your classmates, but you already have a sense of who they are without needing to even know their names. The shy, demure girl who’s really popular among the guys, the goofy dude, the slightly nerdy girl who wears glasses, and the stoic guy that you can always count on in a pinch. Do they ever evolve beyond their stereotypes? No. SMT V might be the most Persona-like SMT game in the series, but it’s still not Persona, where Yosuke Hanamura evolves from the comic relief sidekick to one seriously dependable man who’s also incredibly emotionally mature.
And, truth? That’s fine with me. I’m here to fight angels and demons in a world where people are getting dragged off to hell and wage war against God and Satan themselves. I literally don’t have time to be thinking about dating my classmates or walking home together; leave that kid stuff at the door.
The side characters in Shin Megami Tensei V have always been nothing more than caricatures meant to embody the extremes of the alignment they represent, and that holds true here. SMT V makes an odd attempt to mimic Persona in its early hours by forcing you to interact with them and walk home together like you’re all best buds. This doesn’t last long, however, as the game slowly peels the characters away and shifts its focus to the combat and your character alignment.
Things go sideways, Tokyo becomes an apocalyptic desert, your character fuses with a demon and becomes a mythical being called the Nahobino, and you start kicking demon ass.
And yeah, the combat rules. The Press Turn system makes a return in SMT V, forcing you to exploit enemy weaknesses to gain extra turns in battle. Each time you hit a weakness or score a critical hit, you gain extra turn (up to four), and by doing this, you could potentially end a battle in just one round.
There is, of course, a flip side to this. Enemies can also take advantage of the Press Turn system and gain extra turns if they hit any of your party’s weaknesses. In addition to that, missing an attack will cause you to lose two turns, while having an enemy completely absorb your attack will cause you to lose all four. It’s brutal, knowing that just the slightest mistake could cause your party to get completely annihilated. One wrong move can give your enemy the advantage, and if they’re able to exploit your weaknesses, things just snowball from there.
Shin Megami Tensei V does give you control over how you customize your party and the Nahobino. A new Essence Fusion system allows you to collect various demon essence items as you play through the game, and these can be used to help the Nahobino learn new skills or alter his affinities. This isn’t something you want to be doing often, as essences are expensive and quite limited; rather, you’re meant to use them before boss battles so that you can effectively cover up your weaknesses and build the rest of your party around the Nahobino.
Your demons can inherit skills via Essence Fusion, too, but only the Nahobino’s affinities can be altered.
And speaking of demons, the negotiation system makes a return as well and… it’s still as random as ever. This might be an unpopular opinion, but the demon negotiation has always been the one major aspect that I really disliked in the Shin Megami Tensei series. You’re supposed to start a conversation with a demon and pick dialogue options that complement its personality type to try to convince it to join you, but this results in a clumsy process where you’re often left guessing in most situations.
Some demons make it easy for you; Pixie likes empathetic and kind-hearted answers, while Oni likes brute strength. The in-betweeners like Nekomata and Kelpie are far trickier, and trying to recruit demons can often feel like a tedious trial-and-error process.
Thankfully, once you’ve successfully cleared a conversation with a demon, you never have to do it again. Recruiting them in battle becomes much easier, and you can also summon them straight from your demon compendium if you’ve got the Macca to spare. Just like in past games, you can fuse multiple demons together to create a new one. Bonus points if your fused demons have already learned powerful skills that you can pass on to your newborn child.
The demon fusion system continues to be one of the best aspects of the series, especially when you’re trying to put together a strong enough party to face the challenges ahead. It’s fun to experiment with different combinations and see what you can get at any given point in time, and nothing beats the feeling of finally reaching a high enough level to fuse that super ultra-strong demon that costs you tens of thousands of Macca in summoning costs.
As if to flex the graphical power of the improved Switch hardware (as opposed to the 3DS, where we saw the release of the last mainline SMT game) and the Unreal Engine, Shin Megami Tensei V’s levels are also much bigger than ever before. At first glance, this seems like a good thing. Bigger levels mean more quests, more to explore, and more secrets to uncover. It also means more challenges, such as Abscesses which continuously spawn enemies and block off map coverage until you clear it out. Getting rid of Abscesses also unlocks new Miracles for the Nahobino to learn, which can range from elemental masteries to increased demon stock.