Primarily known for their stonkingly massive JRPG juggernaut Persona 5, Atlus are notorious for bringing high-level Japanese anime videogames to a western audience. Some of their titles like the aforementioned Persona series are mega hits, but Atlus are notable for gloriously niche videogame series’ such as Etrian Odyssey, Danganronpa and Catherine. However, Atlus are known for a series of raw and uncompromising turn-based JRPGs known as Shin Megami Tensei, and here pops along the fifth entry in the series, an upgraded and expanded version of the hit Nintendo Switch game now hitting Xbox Series X/S, christened as Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance – and no the V isn’t for Vendetta here obviously, it’s for Vengeance. Is this the kind of turn-based JRPG Xbox players have been pining for since Persona 5, or should the V in the title actually stand for Void?
If you were a gamer stranded on Xbox who always wanted to try Shin Megami Tensei V a go, then this extra-large offering is a scrumptious feast waiting for you to devour its every morsal. This revitalized version makes the original come across like basic hamburger, whereas this behemoth stacks up like a towering triple whopper. Let’s find out what scrumptious stacks of protein and cheese are awaiting within shall we?
The largest difference between the original Shin Megami V and Shin Megami V: Vengeance is there are two story routes you can follow. The first route is of course the original game’s story in its pristine and refurbished form, and the other route is the brand new ‘Canon of Vengeance,” featuring a brand new story with drastically altered events from the original pathway. Both pathways offer up eighty-plus hours of gameplay, and it’s incredibly enticing to want to see both stories through to their conclusions.
In the original SMTV, the story revolves around two versions of Tokyo, the modern and untainted version, and a version labelled The Da’at, which is a post-apocalyptic and eradicated kind of Tokyo that’s ravaged by an ongoing war between angels and demons, both fighting for the powers that be, namely The Creator and Lucifer, the latter of which kills the former, effectively throwing Tokyo into a demon-infested disarray.
Meanwhile, the Vengeance storyline while at first following the narrative ebb and flow of the original SMTV experience, breaks off roughly midway through the game, changing tracks by focusing its attention on Lilith and her pack of nefarious demons known as the Qadistu. The events of this diverging story are an improvement over the original story path, so it’s very well worth experiencing, though certain scenarios leave something to be desired.
Vengeance serves up two delicious story arcs that pull out all the stops to pull you back into SMTV one more time in the largest and most-pleasing way possible. Not only does Vengeance offer two lengthy story canons, it also refines the original SMTV with exquisite quality of life improvements, meaning you can effectively ditch the original completely and make Vengeance your ultimate way of playing this all-encompassing turn-based RPG.
New characters, demons and an upgraded pace and feel. There are a new set of skills called Magatsuhi skills, that are immensely powerful game-changers that can turn the tide of a scrap. The new Demon Haunt addition gives you a place to hangout with your ally demons, and they may spit out some unique bonuses that give Vengeance its own distinctive flavour from the original SMTV experience.
Not one for the squeamish, the Shin Megami Tensei series prides itself on being a hardcore anime RPG series that shreds your nerves as much as the chords to its riveting synth metal soundtrack. Suffices to say, SMTV: Vengeance pulls no punches when it comes to dishing you up a scintillating and visceral turn-based JRPG experience, so don’t go in expecting the comparative fluffiness of Persona 5 and you’ll be just fine.
As a turn-based RPG, Vengeance doesn’t stray away from what you’ve come to expect from the genre nor from other Atlus games. Running parallel with Persona, you take charge of a party of 4, levelling up as you trigger battles by attacking patrolling monsters, batter or bargain with them, then scoop up the Macca currency and level-up your party so that they become more formidable in combat.
Yes you read it correctly, you can negotiate and attempt to bargain with your demonic enemies, so that they can join your party or otherwise leave you alone. They’ll require you to give them certain items and dialogue options will pop-up, allowing you the chance to convincingly exchange with the demon. You’ll want to smooth talk and adapt to their litany of personalities and preferences, so don’t be mean, passive aggressive or cruel, or you find yourself raising their ire and irritate them enough for them to attack you.
Negotiations with enemies work the same way they do in Persona and aren’t significantly improved, though fixing what isn’t broken is a bad idea, besides it’s always delightful discovering each demon’s personality types and trying to merge with each of them.
The overarching quibble that may bother some with SMTV, is that familiar the various monsters you encounter will look eerily similar to those beasties you discovered in Atlus’s other huge anime JRPG series Persona. Seductive blue swimsuit angels, gunk monsters that look like the Pokemon Grimer, tentacle leviathans, a multitude of malevolent hellspawn, and many winged fiends echo callbacks to the Persona series. While it’s welcome to see the parallels between these two JRPG juggernauts, sometimes it feels like one franchise is trying to crib too much from the other, and that can make SMT5 come across as a borrower of inspiration rather than the inspirer.
On top of the above gripe, this collection of devilish and demonic creatures aren’t quite as whimsically represented as in the Persona series, but the artstyle exudes an aesthetic that truly distinguishes Vengeance from its contemporaries. The demented and twisted designs of these demons are impeccably rich at evoking the jolly yet deranged essence Atlus is known for, complementing every part of Vengeance in a freakish but fabulous way.
Conclusion
If you loved the original form of Shin Megami Tensei V, then Vengeance is a fantastic complement to it, with a strong second story arc, excellent quality of life improvements, and a generally refined and improved JRPG experience fans of the genre will lap up vigorously. Yes, it’s still perhaps existing in the shadow of the Persona series with its litany of similarities, and doesn’t quite have the grace and style of its brethren, but it’s a hardcore RPG that blazes its own path (mostly), and does so with conviction and poise. Vengeance is therefore fully worthy of your attention and the amount of hours you’ll no-doubt pour into it.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
