Since there are no human party members who stay with you the whole adventure, you'll build a rotating team of three demons who all have their own strengths, weaknesses, and special tricks. While you'll fight lots of intense battles within them, these bizarre cityscapes also encourage exploration and even involve some tricky platforming to find all of the hidden Miman – little red dudes who give you a currency you can use on miraculous bonuses for your whole party or to customize the protagonist.Īnd customization is the main pillar of SMT5. They all have a very distinct vibe, diverging from a central theme of surreal, techno-religious weirdness. They range from the sun-baked desert expanse of Minato to the gloomy, blood red badlands of Shinagawa, and each one echoes an area of real-world Tokyo with ruined buildings and major landmarks jutting out of the wastes. The bulk of the action takes place across four expansive, open areas of the Netherworld: an alternate reality reflecting a post-apocalyptic Tokyo crawling with mythological beasts and heroes. What's missing from the Persona formula here is a lot of its heart, but Shin Megami Tensei V still rises to succeed in most other ways.
They have similar, excellent turn-based combat systems that encourage you to fish for your opponents' weaknesses and make smart use of every resource available to you. Both branches of the family share much of their cast of highly customizable demons, like mythological Pokemon you smash together to make even more powerful ones. Shin Megami Tensei V feels like the edgier, less sociable younger brother of Persona 5, even though Persona began as a spin-off to the series.