Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

I went into Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance already converted. The original SMT V was a game I admired from a distance, the way you admire a cathedral that won't let you touch anything. Beautiful, austere, mechanically immaculate, but cold to the bone. Vengeance is the version that actually lets you in. Right at the start, a girl reaches out her hand. Take it, and you're on the Canon of Vengeance, a near-complete story overhaul with new characters, new antagonists, and endings that diverge sharply from the original. Decline, and you play the Canon of Creation, the 2021 story, now enriched with every quality-of-life upgrade the new release brings. Both paths share the same foundations: open-zone exploration across four ruined Tokyo wards, Press Turn combat built around hitting enemy weaknesses to steal extra actions, and a demon roster that numbers well past 200 with over 40 new additions, including mythology that the franchise has never touched before. The Canon of Vengeance is the real argument for double-dipping. New character Yoko Hiromine joins early and genuinely changes the dynamic, while the Qadistu, a new demon faction led by figures from Kabbalistic tradition, provide antagonists with actual presence and menace. The story still doesn't linger the way Disco Elysium does on every sentence, but the emotional core is now strong enough to give the alignment choices some actual weight. Veteran players will notice that Tao joins the party earlier, the third world area has been restructured, and a late-game dungeon called Shakan appears out of nowhere to test everything you've learned. The level cap rises from 99 to 150, with a Godborn difficulty unlocking after you defeat the secret superboss, pushing the cap further to 999 for anyone who genuinely needs to feel like a god. The combat system remains the best argument for the game's existence. Press Turn rewards preparation and punishes carelessness in equal measure: exploit a weakness and you gain an extra half-turn; get hit by one and you lose turns instead. Buffs and debuffs matter here in a way that many modern JRPGs have quietly abandoned. The new Magatsuhi Rails add quick traversal lines across the open zones, and the Demon Haunt system lets you interact with your current party outside of battle, unlocking new skills and the occasional gift. It's a lighter version of Persona's social mechanics, but it gives the roster of recruitable demons some texture beyond their stats. The improved fusion menus, which now include skill search and filtering, make the compendium feel like a tool rather than a chore. The one persistent complaint worth flagging: the Canon of Vengeance's pacing stumbles in the mid-section, and some of the new writing feels rushed compared to the setup it promises. The game also still asks you to hunt Miman collectibles for Glory points to unlock Miracles, which is the kind of optional side loop that will either delight you or quietly drain your goodwill. For anyone arriving on PC fresh, the platform port is clean, full controller support works well, and Steam Cloud saves mean your 80-hour file is not at risk. If you played the Switch original and want a reason to return, the Canon of Vengeance alone justifies it. If you are a Persona player who has never crossed over into mainline SMT, expect less social sim and far more unforgiving combat, but the depth of the build system, the demon fusion options, and the sheer variety of alignment-based endings make this one of the more replayable RPGs available on PC right now.

Monika · Scout Team

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