Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Review
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Man, what happened here? I tried hard to like this, but every angle of it is perfectly positioned to ricochet my interest away. My background is in Nocturne, so I was excited to have tough challenges to really test my team-building mettleโ€”but instead I'm finding fights that are next to impossible unless I'm within a few levels of the boss, and easy to beat with minimal planning once I am. I kept going back to the Jatayu fight with new clever strategies and just kept getting wiped by sheer DPS and resource exhaustion.

The demon breeding is also majorly de-emphasized. Essences make it vastly less relevant to try to keep around useful moves in breedable demons, while unique skills that don't breed true add nothing where they could have incentivized particular routes through the breeding tree.

The lack of randoms ruins the logic of a dungeon delve, and the the plot (at least of the Canon mode) isn't much to write home about either. I've heard all of these were substantially worse in the base game, which I never played hoping this one would fix most of its issues, but they're still here in force. This just makes me want to go back and play Nocturne again forever.

The one thing I will say for this, and the reason I'm not rating it lower than this: the writing (and localization) is fantastic. Incidental demon dialog is the only part of this game that's consistently delightful, and I wish I were more interested in the rest of it so I'd get to see more of that.

Reviewed on Sep 02, 2024



nex3
@nex3

Hamlet: I see him, Horatio... my father...
Horatio: OMG me too! Where'd you see him?
Hamlet: In my mind's eye, obviously. What the fuck are you talking about?
Horatio: uuuuUUUUUHH



nex3
@nex3

Ophelia: So my brother was telling me how much Hamlet's a fuckboy for the millionth time, and he starts talking about my "chaste treasure".
Ophelia's girlfriends: Eeeeeew! Your brother?
Ophelia: I know, right? You shouldn't even be thinking about my chaste treasure, Laertes.
Ophelia's girlfriends: Who is he to talk anyway?
Ophelia: Right? Dude is such a slut!


nex3
@nex3

King Hamlet's Ghost: *two pages of bitching about how much it sucks to be dead*
King Hamlet's Ghost: oh shit morning's coming, let me finish up quick
King Hamlet's Ghost: *two more pages of bitching about how he got murked by his brother*


nex3
@nex3

Polonius: Okay I'm gonna need you to take some cash and messages to my son in Paris
Reynaldo: No problem
Polonius: And, you know, spy on him a bit
Reynaldo: I was planning on it already
Polonius: Say you know his family, say you've met him...
Reynaldo: Can do
Polonius: Maybe make up some mean lies about him, nothing too nasty
Reynaldo: I can call him a gamer
Polonius: Exactly, and a drunken foul-mouthed slut, that sort of thing
Reynaldo: That seems a bit harsh
Polonius: Don't worry about it


nex3
@nex3

any British filmed production of Hamlet that doesn't stunt cast Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern gets demerits in my book


nex3
@nex3

on the other hand I adore this production's decision to have Hamlet give "To be or not to be" in the world's stupidest t-shirt


nex3
@nex3

@PositronicWoman: Is that David Tennant in the Hamlet picture you posted?
Me: Yeah!
@PositronicWoman: How's he doing?
Me: Bad!



nex3
@nex3

Hamlet: I see him, Horatio... my father...
Horatio: OMG me too! Where'd you see him?
Hamlet: In my mind's eye, obviously. What the fuck are you talking about?
Horatio: uuuuUUUUUHH



nex3
@nex3

Ophelia: So my brother was telling me how much Hamlet's a fuckboy for the millionth time, and he starts talking about my "chaste treasure".
Ophelia's girlfriends: Eeeeeew! Your brother?
Ophelia: I know, right? You shouldn't even be thinking about my chaste treasure, Laertes.
Ophelia's girlfriends: Who is he to talk anyway?
Ophelia: Right? Dude is such a slut!


nex3
@nex3

King Hamlet's Ghost: *two pages of bitching about how much it sucks to be dead*
King Hamlet's Ghost: oh shit morning's coming, let me finish up quick
King Hamlet's Ghost: *two more pages of bitching about how he got murked by his brother*


nex3
@nex3

Polonius: Okay I'm gonna need you to take some cash and messages to my son in Paris
Reynaldo: No problem
Polonius: And, you know, spy on him a bit
Reynaldo: I was planning on it already
Polonius: Say you know his family, say you've met him...
Reynaldo: Can do
Polonius: Maybe make up some mean lies about him, nothing too nasty
Reynaldo: I can call him a gamer
Polonius: Exactly, and a drunken foul-mouthed slut, that sort of thing
Reynaldo: That seems a bit harsh
Polonius: Don't worry about it


nex3
@nex3

any British filmed production of Hamlet that doesn't stunt cast Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern gets demerits in my book


nex3
@nex3

on the other hand I adore this production's decision to have Hamlet give "To be or not to be" in the world's stupidest t-shirt


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