Current Level: 21

Current Dungeon: Sector Bootes

Current Demons: Pixie, Pele, Harpy, Leanan Sidhe, Gu Huo Niao, Dzelarhons

• The first thing that stood out was how much I hate the music. It’s so bad. It’s kind of in this weird limbo between not wanting to be ambient but also not giving it any strong melodies so it doesn’t stick out. Also I find that (personally) it never fits the emotional tone. ESPECIALLY the battle music.


• I love exposition, but this was WAY too much. I should’ve timed between the game starting and when I could actually interact with things besides menus/cutscenes and my conservative estimate is about 40 minutes. Why?!


• Also I don’t really care for the plot. Like yes I didn’t care for SMT 3’s plot either but it at least had an interesting hook. At least it had something to say, even if I feel it didn’t work for me. But so far all it’s about is the drama between these cookie-cutter characters and I just do not care.


• One thing I will praise though is the pacing once you actually start playing. Everything is happening so fast, it really gives a sense of panic and confusion as people start getting obliterated by the demons and the folks onboard are desperately trying to get the ship working. Even after it’s over it feels like there’s this nervous rush to figure out everything. I originally didn’t know what to think but I think it works.


• One character I’m curious about is Jimenez. He’s starts off as this asshole who only cares about his own wellbeing, who’s really only here for the money. However, as he’s forced to become part of your unit, I can start to see the cracks in his ego. I hope they take this in an interesting direction.


• The gameplay is standard SMT stuff. I actually miss the third-person view rather the traditional first-person perspective in dungeon-crawlers, but I’m cool with it. Especially because this game is supposed to be much more a personal story, it works well here. Recruiting demons is still a blast, and I feel like we have more variety right out of the gate, which I really like!


• One thing I don’t like though is the alignment system. The whole questionnaire basically forces a direction on your character before you even have a chance to explore the world and get a feel for where your morals skew towards. It just kind of locks you in one path immediately. I’m unsure if there are multiple endings, and I am curious if your response to certain questions throughout change this, but it doesn’t feel like it. It makes sense narratively, but I feel like it ruins such an effective part of the SMT formula.


• Ok so the Yggdrasil fight was one of the weirdest I’ve ever experienced in a video game ever.


• Maetama is definitely interesting. Reminds me of the role Lucifer plays in the older games, how despite his kindness to you, you have this feeling that you can't quite trust him. I like the sublte nods to the SNES titles like that throughout.


• I forget just how "labyrinthy" SMT dungeons can be. They're these huge, winding mazes that are very easy to get lost in. Having an automap is such a huge blessing.


• I'm also trying to make more of a habit of saving often. Because this is a game for a mobile console, having the quality of life improvement of being able to save at any time is huge. However, they balanced this by not allowing you to save in multiple slots, only one. In terminals or at your base, you can than save in as many slots as you want. This is fine, but I feel they still don't balance this well. Especially because you can't fast travel using the terminals, they feel almost worthless in the game.


• I'm so ass at negotiationg demons to join my party. It's just who I am I guess...


• I feel in terms of diversity, the newer SMT games definitely have more variety in their demons. This game is no excpetion. I just find it cool to experience deities from other cultures that I'm very much not familiar with.