Recent reviews by SiegDere

Leandros is still a lil ♥♥♥♥♥

After multiple playthroughs I must say, I love this game. There was definetly an itch for a good SMT game and now it's scratched. Finally, Atlus made a good game in a decade since the original SMT IV (Persona 5 was a disappointment for me, sadly; re-releases of Catherine and Strange Journey were a mistakes because of the new story bits; Soul Hackers 2... PFFT HAHAHA, oh man,,, why does it even exists). So here's my incoherent train of thought about this banger of a game.

This is a re-release of SMT V, which originally laucnhed on NS in 2021. I've played original version, but didn't finish it, permormance was really getting in the way, 30 fps was fine in combat, but sub-30 in exploration was unacceptable. Fortunatley, now it's not a problem, game works superbly at 144 fps and looks much better. I saw that people complained about UE4's infamous shader compliation stutters, but I didn't have those.

Unlike previous game, SMT V offers 4 main locations (5 if we count CoV's Shinjuku), there're like open districts with lots of side activities like secret locations, side-quests, chests etc etc. This is not genius in any way and it's not on the level of FromSoft games or BotW's exploration, but it definetly worked for me, especially for the first time. And I really liked that game didn't cockblocked my creative approaches to some of the places, for example, ther is a bridge in Ueno and I didn't know how to climb there, so I jumped from the top of a near building to the bridge, and only then I realised there was a way under the bridge and I was just blind. Also, SMT V now has a Magatsuhi RaIl system, which almost removes tedious backtracking, good stuff.

Press Turn system returns and it is as good as ever with addition of Magatsuhi skills and group skiils, there're a lot of them and they definetly come into clutch here and there depending on your situation. Probably the one complain I have to make is that you can negotiate with a demon even after you angered them, it's kinda easy to exploit. I can't say much in a details, I'm not really an SMT specialist. But believe me it's good, and with demon-collecting, party-building and exploration it's worth to play, it's great and fun.

Unlike the story, it's lacking, even in CoV. Yes, the characters are now better written, and you at least can understand thier motivation, except Dazai, somehow they made this isufferable ♥♥♥♥ even worse. CoV is like SMT IV, but in reverse, the endings are like "hey, good thing you chose this ending", and it just doen't work. Moreover Yoko ending just doesn't make much sense storywise, I mean I understand what she's going for, but after all that happend it just hard to imagine MC would simp for her, and the cherry on the top is that You don't get to fight Tao in the end (Atlus, you cowards), it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Mastema, somehow even after fusion with Lucifer and Samael to became a Satan he came back just to mess with our plans and lo and behold, he has so much power he can control Tiamat, who's been created to oppose God's will, what a champ. CoC is more of a clash of ideas then the coherent story. I liked the fact that Law route characters were so obsessed with retatining God's order they bacme fallen, but that's all I can that's good about CoC. Again, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Dazai, what changed him, we don't know, why Yuzuru wanted to re-create the world where Tokyo is safe but at cost of gods clashing with each other, how would it help him save people, we don't know. Probably the only character who's motivation is 100% clear is Nuwa, and by far she's the best character in the game.
Side-quests are hit or miss. I really enjoyed Khonsu questline, but others are either alignment quests (where you decide who's in the right, and who's in the wrong), kill mini-boss quests (would shed blood again for Demeter in the name of fertility) or fetch quests. There're some new quests added in Vengeance that really had the potential to be good, but they wrap up really quickly, I wsh there were more drama or character building (I'm talking about Alice and Nahobeeho quests, they should've been questlines with character development).
Well, the story is dissapointing, but there's not much story to begin with, at least I can tolerate that, unlike Persona 5's power of frinedship and stealing hearts for a 100 hours straight. Also, I recommend to finish the game at least twice, one in CoC and other in CoV, cause they compliment each other, and only then you can see a full picture of the events.

The soundtrack is awesome. Ryota Kozuka delivers again! In short, it's like a SMT IV's soundtrack, but bigger and better. Battle themes mostly felt like idealogical sequels to SMT IV's counterparts. Tracks playing doing exploration are either compliment the atmospehere of a locarion or just straight up banger (Da'at: Ginza, my beloved). True last boss fight has a great use of main battle leitmotiff, and the track is just really beautiful. There's a drone riff every time you start a battle, but main battle track doesn't start until you chose to attack (or any other command except turn)? *Chef's kiss*. There're some tracks that felt corny, like battle themes in Castle, Shakan and Temple of Eternity, but overall the OST is great, and I really won't miss Shoji Meguro any time soon.

Also, they've included all previous DLCs in the base game except mitamas, but those aren't really needed, SMT does not have a grindwall, so don't worry. It's just ugly that Sega and Atlus selling cheats, why not make them unlockable after beating game on hard or godborn? I don't understand. DLCs with new demons are overpriced, too, imho, Dagda is pretty useless, Konohana Sakuya is good, but replaceable with other buffer/healer like Idun/Demeter/Tao.

Right now I am on the Godborn NG+, which raises ever enemy's leve to 150, and let's you raise your cap to 150, still fun, but I need to make a break, so I made this review to just give you my thoughts while they're still fresh in my mind. Probably will update my review after Godborn playthrough.

Again, overall I highly recommend this game. It's that True Shin Megami Tensei Game™. If you liked Persona, try this one, I beg you...

A cute wad!

Absolute banger!

Devs want you to nomiante this game for the best visuals (which is fair), but damn the soundtrack just slaps. While it's definetly far from the best works Vanguard Sound produced, it's still a banger.

Shut up oomfie.
Im Listening to Nanahira!

Secretly got drip

Bought it for the Plot

After Zero Time Dilemma I had low expectations coming into this. And not only AI didn't disappoint, I can state that it is the best game by Uchikoshi I've ever played. The story is conclusive unlike Zero Escape series, it answers all the questions you have, it doesn't break the rules, and the only finnicky thing it has is probably just a reference to Zero Escape/Infinity Series. Gameplay-wise it's somewhat like Ace Attorney, but court debate is replaced with dreams where you have to solve pretty trivial puzzles and manage your time. The difficulty is just right for this kinda game. So just buy it pls ;_;

Retarded and bluepilled