Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance - Switch Review

Bruno César Monteiro Cordeiro Silva -

Megaten fans have had it pretty good with the Switch. Ports of some of the best hits of the franchise throughout many eras are available on the switch—remasters, remakes and all sorts of good stuff—and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is the newest member in the line of goodies.

As an enhanced version of the original SMT V, the game tells us the story we know from the first version of the game, with many extras. New endings, new mechanics and a whole lot of great quality of life improvements have been brought in—now let’s see if it was worth the wait!

The Good: Divine Power!

Playing Vengeance feels so good. The short of it is simple: all the additions are incredibly welcome.

Even the more basic add-ons are game-changing, making the exploration of the Da’at a much, much smoother romp than the base game. Not only is the player now allowed to save the game at any point, but the addition of the Magatsuhi Rails might be the most welcome change of them all.

Simply put, they are fast-travel points spread throughout the map, allowing for the player to cover up a lot of distance once they have explored the map enough. The backtracking for quests, demons and general exploration has always been a massive sore spot in the game’s reputation, making an already very lengthy game feel artificially stretched out. Exploring feels much smoother and more rewarding.

And speaking of rewarding, the addition of innate skills is a huge improvement to the combat system. The usual negotiating and fusing of demons stays the core of the series, but now each individual demon has its own specific passive skill that can completely change how they interact with the game. 

Alongside the great amount of stat-boosting items, this makes it viable to choose your favorite party members and stick with them throughout the game, even if they are initially weak or soon underleveled. You can even have actual interactions with them in the newly added Demon Haunt, where you are able to talk to, give gifts, learn about and strengthen your demonic allies on a more involved level. The demon haunts look different throughout the game and feel very immersive.

Finally, as an enhanced version, there is just much more to experience on the story side. The entirely new route isn’t the only difference; there are multiple new quests, plus all of the DLC content for the first game is present in Vengeance, which adds up to an experience packed in with a lot of content. The new characters and story are fascinating, a more than welcome addition to the game’s rich and already engaging story.

TL;DR

  • Many much-needed QoL improvements
  • Deeper gameplay mechanics than vanilla V
  • Rich in both old and new content

The Bad: Did it need to take this long?

At the risk of sounding somewhat entitled, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “Why did it take so long for this to be here?”. All of the quality of life additions are incredible, but they also feel like they patch up very basic problems in the formula. This is an entirely new full-price game yet things like adding a save anywhere feature and the magatsuhi rails feel like they could have been added in a patch to the base game. Between those and the presence of so much previous DLC content, it feels awkward that this is a full priced game in an era of DLCs and patches.

Although Vengeance adds a lot to the base game, it doesn’t fix all of its problems, namely in the story section. The new characters exist in a way that makes them feel somewhat isolated from the rest of the cast, and as for the previously-existing characters, there’s still the problem where, although you can choose a handful of different endings and factions to pursue, only one is really fleshed out. Seriously, two out of three factions in the Canon of Creation just stand around being vaguely cryptic and very hostile!

Finally, although the game is still amazingly fun, it’s still on the easier side for Shin Megami Tensei games. Even playing on the higher difficulty, there were only a handful of times when I actually lost a fight or had to get creative with my strategies. It’s not too easy, as the game did push back on some occasions, and specifically the final boss demanded a better understanding of mechanics, but for most of it, the game could use a bit more of that old Shin Megami Tensei spice.

TL;DR

  • Some additions feel unworthy of a full price tag
  • Story factions aren’t all properly fleshed out even in this new version
  • Still on the easier side compared to the rest of the franchise

Final Score: 9/10

Sure, there are some things that made me do a double take, but Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is still a really good game! There is more than enough to sink your teeth in and really enjoy your time with this version. It’s so chock full of little details, interactions and possibilities that I had a blast playing it and taking my time. 

Playing it for the first time was amazing, and I’ll be going back for more very very soon. I truly feel like I want to experience everything the game has to offer in as many ways as possible, and I fully believe the developers did not disappoint.

Thank you for checking out our Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Switch review, thank you to Atlus (via Five Star Games) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: