Well finally I played enough of this game to be able to review it. RPGs are always hard to review because you need to put in a lot of time to see everything the game has to offer, and see all the systems the game uses. It’s no different with this one.

This is actually the first time I play a game in the Shin Megami Tensei main series (comprised of Shin Megami Tensei 1, 2 and 3, Shin Megami Tensei if…, and the newest entry in the series, Strange Journey). I mean, I played some Persona games, Nocturne, DemiKids (on GBA), Revelations: The Demon Slayer (on Game Boy Color), but those are all spin-off titles of the Shin Megami Tensei series, but I never actually played any of the main titles…

So read on and see if I liked my first game in the main series!

Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus
Date of Release: March 23rd 2010
Platforms: Nintendo DS

Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Rated M for Mature… just search for the demons “Mara” or “Incubus”, you’ll understand

Presentation
The game, most of the time, is in a first-person perspective, like the other games in the main SMT series.  As such, you’ll be spending most of your playtime walking through corridors, with the occasional branching path. Overall the different worlds look nice, though they do get repetitive when you spent a lot of time in them. Each area is designed in a way that is made to reflect a certain aspect of humanity, and, for the most part, it just looks weird, except in the art when you see pictures from scouts and such, where it really looks like it should. As for the character design it’s rather basic. Every human character is wearing the same outfit (a special outfit used to increase capabilities), but otherwise each of them looks different and, while some might not like the style in which the characters are drawn, I think it fits really well with the world they’re in. As for the monster design… well, it’s Shin Megami Tensei, you already know what the monsters look like. If you played any of the SMT games, a lot of the monsters come back and haven’t changed. The monsters, overall, look really cool, or very strange. No complaint there. Graphically the game isn’t incredible, but it’s well done enough.

Sound-wise… It’s pretty basic. There’s a few sound effects for different kinds of attacks, and that’s about it. The music is pretty nice, but it’s not something I’d listen to outside of the game. It fits the areas and visuals perfectly, but that’s about it. It has those weird grunting voices as “back vocals” and sounds rather strange, but it’s still not bad at all.  But the soundtrack CD it comes with is kinda worthless since it’s not really fun to listen to separately from the game.

Story
Unknown to most people in the world, a hole in space-time is forming in the South Pole, enlarging every day. That “hole” is called the Schwarzwelt. You join a team of people who want to explore the Schwarzwelt. Using super advanced vehicles you enter the Schwarzwelt. And all the vehicles crash land in different areas of the Schwarzwelt. After crash landing, your ship is attacked by invisible enemies (which you find out are demons). You manage to fight them off using the power of the Demonica, a special suit made to enhance your abilities. After the attack, the Demonica upgrades itself with a “Demon Summoning Program”, enabling you to see demons and letting you use demons in battle if you can manage to “hire” them. Afterwards, it’s your mission to explore the Schwarzwelt, finding different areas and items, fighting bosses, to be able to get to new areas and eventually get out of the Schwarzwelt.

The story is a bit basic, but it’s really entertaining, surprisingly. While it is rather repetitive(go to a new area, explore it, find a boss, fight it, get a special item, go to next area), and the characters are a bit bland, there’s lots of twists and turns, some that are quite unexpected too, making it enjoyable.

Gameplay
Through most of the game, you’ll either be walking around or reading. There’s lots of talking, especially at the start and end of every area. The walking around is fairly simple. You’re in a grid, like most First-Person RPGs. You see the area your are in on the top screen, and a map on the bottom screen. The map automatically filles itself up as you move around, and it instantly marks and door or gate you find. It also adds a spot on the map if you find side-quests. Also, once you get certain upgrades for the Demonica suit, the map will display where hidden Forma and Monsters are.

Fighting
As you explore the different areas of the Schwarzwelt, you will encounter random battles. Depending on the area you’re in, and where in that area you are, you encounter different demons. The battles are very standard turn-based RPG fare. Each turn, you choose what each character in your team does, and then the turn plays out. Attacks are done in order of speed stats. Each demon has strengths and weaknesses. They can reflect certain elemental attacks, or get a bit less or a bit more damage from certain elements. The main character can attack with his sword, attack with his guns (which can have special elemental or status effect-inducing attacks), use items, defend, or summon demons that are in “storage” if you have an empty spot in your team. Demons can attack normally, use skills, return to “storage” or defend. There’s elemental skills, healing skills, and various other things.

A special element here is alignment. The usual good, evil or neutral stuff. This is displayed on your character name and on your demons’ names (red is evil, white is neutral and blue is good). That shows useful in battle. If you hit an enemy’s weakness (or more than one enemy), all party members of the same alignment will instantly use an attack on all the enemies that got their weakness hit. That becomes very important as you progress through the game and build a team, as you’ll try to get mostly demon’s of the same alignment to be able to set off more powerful attacks.

Items
There’s the usual healing items, but there’s more to it. Your main character gets equipment: Sword, Gun, Armor and Accessory. Different guns have different skills, in addition to different damage potential. Swords just vary in strength and elemental attributes. Armor varies in defense and elemental resistance/weakness. Accessories give different stat boosts or elemental/status resistance. You also have sub-apps, which have various effects, both in and out of battle. Equipment gives various ways to customize your main character.

To get new items, you have to find something called Forma. Some of it is dropped by monsters, but the rest are found using the Forma Search function of the Demonica, which reveals hidden Forma on the map. As you find Forma, new items appear in the store. To buy them, you have not only to fork out the cash, but also use a certain number of each required Forma.

Speaking of customization, at the beginning of the game, you also get a series of questions you can answer to change your base stats and stat growth when you level up. Fun.

Demons
Demons are probably the most important element in the game. You have to get them to join your team, otherwise you can’t really progress through the game. To recruit them, you need to negotiate with them. First, you have to talk to them. After answering 2 questions, if they didn’t get mad at you (you have to find out each enemy’s personality to find what would be the right answer for what they’re asking, though there’s an element of randomness there), you can ask them to join you (or give you stuff). There, they’ll usually ask you for various things: items, macca(money), HP or MP. If they become satisfied, they’ll join you. Though that’s sort of random. Sometimes it will work, sometimes they’ll decide not to join you.

In addition to negotiation, you can fuse demons together to create new ones. Not all demons fuse together, but most do. The only limitation you have here is that demons you fuse can’t be higher level than the main character. The only exception to that rule is if there’s an accident during the fusion. Accidents happen at random. And there’s also special fusion, which require more than 2 demons, and requires specific demons as well, but gives specific types of demons as a result.

Some people find that the game is a bit broken for some reason. There’s a system that enables you to enter passwords, and, after entering those passwords, you can pay macca to summon the demon that the password added to your compendium. This is considered cheap because you can just go online, find a code for an overpowered monster and buy it with money. Sure, some of the more broken monsters will cost more, but some people still consider this to be a very cheap element of the game. BUT it’s completely optional, so you don’t HAVE to use it.

Overall
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is a very fun game. I definitely really liked my first play of a game in the main SMT series. Yes it’s a bit of a grindfest, but it’s still fun. The fighting is fun, building a team of powerful demons is fun, and the game offers some good RPG challenge. And it’s quite long too, so you’ll get tons of playtime from this.

If you’re an SMT fan, definitely check it out. If not, well if you like RPGs it’s worth checking out as well. It’s not “conventional” as it’s a First-Person RPG, but it has lots of familiar elements.

Great game, well worth buying.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- It’s long
- It offers some good challenge
- Lots to do outside of the main quest
- Fighting and building a strong team is fun

Cons
- You can cheap your way out using passwords
- Some might consider that a lot of reading is a con… though I don’t

The Save Factor
The game is at a starting price of $35. And, if you’re into this type of game, it will last more than long enough to justify the price. I feel it is worth the $35, with its fun gameplay, engaging story and long playtime you will get from it, so that’s the Save Factor on this one.

jobocan ds, Games, Handheld, Review