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There’s a clear culture shift amongst roleplaying games, dependent on the publisher. More so in RPGs than in any other genre of game. So much so, that Japanese RPGs earn their own genre (JRPGs) to emphasise that difference in mechanics and theme. What’s more, JRPGs are more often turn-based strategy games. Your party is relied upon for saving the world. Everyone has anime hairstyles and over-expressive reactions to any happenings. And this makes Shin Megami Tensei V the definitive definition of a JRPG.
It’s single-player, turn-based and centres on you saving the world. But the theme takes on a really unique focus for this world-saving. You need to recruit demons in order to prevent the impending end of the world by taking on the mantle of a Nahobino – the fusion of a human and a demon. It takes around 60 hours to complete and hosts 221 unique demons!
The Story
Shin Megami Tensei V is a game run over two focuses. One has you playing as a nondescript high schooler in a floral uniform with a lack of vocabulary. The other, a Nahobino. Running through the world between (Da’at), fighting and recruiting demons, and progressing the majority of the story. Most of the gameplay occurs in Da’at, but there is a lot of cross over and opportunity to switch between as time goes on.
You, as the main protagonist, are thrown into a post-apocalyptic version of Japan and forced to take on the role of global saviour. As with many JRPGs, it turns out many of your high school friends secretly already knew about the impending doom coming - being members of Bethel (a secret organisation dedicated to fighting demonic forces). The game’s narrative is easy to follow and shares many common tropes with other games of the same calibre. It’s very anime in both its presentation and in the characters’ mannerisms and reactions to events. Wild twists throughout the game keep you on your toes and show the world to be one that exists outside of your character’s history.
Main Mechanics
Shin Megami Tensei V is a turn-based RPG where players fight against demons in a pre-determined story. The game progresses in a linear fashion but allows players to explore the world between objectives. They are encouraged to level up and fight outside the main story and benefit from taking on small side quests to unlock new demons, items, and gain more experience points (XP) to level up.
Elemental Affinities and Weaknesses
Like many RPGs, Shin Megami Tensei V makes use of elements and innate preferences for certain attack types. Enemies weak to fire suffer more damage to such attacks, as with lightning, physical, and any other damages. The exception here being dark and light attacks. As the essences of good and evil, these have a chance to instakill enemies weak to such elements. The other reason to aim for these negative affinities is to hit weak and critical strikes. These enable the party an extra action on every turn they are successful.
On the flip side of this, attacks can miss, be resisted, or absorbed, resulting in a penalty of losing two actions. However, there is a saving grace here. Players can fuse essences to themselves to change their own affinities. This ensures they themselves are dynamic as the situation changes, too.
Party Centric Gameplay
The main gameplay mechanic is the ability to recruit and fuse demons. Each has a unique ability set and design that has benefits and strengths based on the scenario. There is no blanket cover for being an all-rounder, however, meaning that you must be dynamic with your party; reacting to the situations as they present themselves. What’s more, different demons appear at progressive levels. Low-level demons often become obsolete as you progress and begin taking on more powerful ones.
This does force players to frequently change their party up to react to the current situation. It also means there’s no scope to get attached to demons. However, it’s designed to drive you to fuse demons as they become less viable. The only true character is you. All other additions to your party double up as manpower and resources. Tools to be used to achieve your goal.
How It Handles
I’ve never played such a JRPG RPG as Shin Megami Tensei V. Everything about it fits perfectly into the idea of what a JRPG is and how it should act, but without becoming overwhelmingly convoluted in its intricacies or narrative. It’s flashy, enjoyable, and quite the collect-a-thon as you progress. There are some great challenges embedded within the game that never feel insurmountable, and you never feel cheated when things don’t go your way.
But It’s Anime!!!
It’s no secret that I’m pretty darn shallow when it comes to games. If it looks good, I’m interested. And this game looks so dang good! For the Switch’s capabilities and the limitations any portable device presents, I thought this game was very well done. It has a particular art style that cashes in on the uniqueness of the demons and the world they reside in very well.
That being said, and all being considered, the art does fall into another category common amongst JRPGs. At its core, it’s incredibly anime. Oh, so anime! Less kawaii and more “this isn’t even 10% of my power”. The characters are straight out of any Shōnen manga and have the wild rebellious stylings of any protagonist of the sort. They have gravity-defying hairstyles and dress like they fell into last seasons’ discount sale. Normally this is something that would put me off, but it’s forgiven through what it does right. And that’s the demon designs.
A Tactical Wonderland
I was blown away by how easy it was to understand the battle system for this game. Achieving successful critical hits or weaknesses gained you another attack up to a potential two per party member. What’s more, you could work to ensure you had the best fighting chance of winning by researching the demon first. Or by taking on demons you already recruited to your party.
I’ve never seen a game where enemies react to your party and their condition. It made ensuring your party was current worthwhile and reflected the demons in the locale. Talking to a demon you already had encouraged them to leave the battle of their own accord, but doing so whilst they were KO’d meant they’d sucker punch you relentlessly! Also, trying to recruit a demon of a higher level successfully left them ready to recruit when you’d achieved that threshold. Simply talking to them again stopped the battle and they’d evaluate your progress, leaving if you still weren’t worthy of their power.
Gotta Recruit ’em All!
The biggest seller of Shin Megami Tensei V, and the reason I say it’s a collect-a-thon, is because of the demon fusion. You can fuse two demons together to make a new one. It wasn’t a pure half and half and came from the whole pool of demons available, but it took skills from both that were fused and also gains its innate skill set. What’s even better is that fusing demons overrules the rule for level thresholds – meaning you can have over levelled demons (so long as you’re above the standard demon’s level). So many times I would recruit one just to see how I could blend it together with another. Heartless I know, but that was the excitement factor for me. Making demon smoothies!
A Surprising Spike!
At no point did I ever feel overwhelmed and at a standstill in this game… on medium difficulty. The hard difficulty, however, held its name with pride. I beat 2/3s of the main game on hard difficulty before I hit a wall. A big wall. By that point, I’d become invested in the story and cement mixing demons together, so I bit the bullet and went to medium. It didn’t make it a cakewalk, but it scaled back some of the massive damage I was receiving. I could no doubt have eventually broken the barrier of that particular boss and moved towards true glory, but my own impatience got ahead of me. Plus there’s no autosave feature, so any unfortunate death meant lots of lost progress. Be warned with that one!
Ungodly Beauty
The demons of Shin Megami Tensei V are the real winner of this game. The designs are all wildly unique but still mostly based on real-world folk tales and religious beliefs. But when I say demons, I’m referring to what the game categorises as demons. Gods, deities, apparitions, spirits, angels… demon is a blanket term for all of them here. But there’s no end to them. From Scottish fairies to Hindu demons, it really had them all. And what’s more, they’re all recruitable or can be acquired through fusion.
Imagine it! You’ve got Anubis, an Oni, and a Kelpie having your back whilst you beat down on some Mandrakes. And what’s more is that they all talk to you, in a limited capacity of uniqueness, and will react differently when trying to be recruited. How you respond will determine whether they flee, give you a gift, request goods to join you, or sucker punch you. Knowing how they’ll react (which is actually linked to what sort of extraordinary being they are based on) will determine that. But discussion aside, it’s the designs that give them real personality…
If you have any knowledge of demons, beasts from hell, or even religious gods, you’ll know that they often signify one of the more human weaknesses. Beauty. Or more, lust. I was pretty surprised when tracking down demons to note how many of them couldn’t afford clothes and rocked around near naked! This game wears its mature rating like a badge, but never breaks into the pure adult. There’s no actual show of inappropriateness, of course, but the symbolism and heavy hints of it are very close to the bone…
Have Some Modesty!
The best example of the lack of modesty here is undoubtedly the Incubus. If you know the lore, you know where I’m going with this. However, if you don’t, I’ll save you the Google – they’re demons that are quite interested in ladies. There’s a certain design choice for this demon that was certainly questionable for how they approached being accurate to its lore in its representation.
The flip side to this is how accurate the descriptions of these demons are. Going into the compendium of demons lets you look at their models, learn their stats, and also check out their lore. Some of them are designed for the game and, as such, have lore tied purely to the story. Others have lore set within a religious or symbolic element, and it’s impressive how much research was done to both represent the demon visually and to ensure its background was accurate.
Final Thoughts
Shin Megami Tensei V is an RPG fan’s game. Collecting demons and smushing them together to make new demons was my focus for the game initially, but I got invested in the narrative and enjoyed the story on the whole! It’s got a great art style to it and it’s easy to lose track of time whilst exploring Da’at and recruiting every mythical beast you encounter. If you’re one for collecting things, creatures and gods battling it out, or are a sucker for turn-based goodness, I’d check this out. A great bit of fun with some superb ideas threaded throughout it!