I feel like I should write more reviews, and I wanna start with this one. I feel like I have to feel pretty strongly to write about something at length, let alone passionately, so let me say this: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is about as close to a perfect modern JRPG as they come, and it's truly shaken my faith in what I believe my favorite game is (it's EarthBound, predictable, I know). I played the original for the Switch pretty heavily, getting all endings and thoroughly enjoying the experience, but I couldn't help but feel like the game really wasn't at its best on the Switch. The particle effects could be kind of sloppy at times, the framerate was a *huge* issue, and some of the more involved animations would make the performance tank something fierce. Here on PC, SMT V has truly found its home.

The game is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. While you do still get some minor chug here and there, it's barely even noticeable, even on the Steam Deck that I play on. The voice-acting is pretty good, especially the demons, but the music and sound design are absolutely fantastic. The soundtrack is absolutely bleeding with monstrous bangers, from the jazzy bops of Shouji Meguro to the more post-rock, apocalypse ambient droned out guitars of Ryouta Kozuka. There genuinely is something for everyone here in the music, and what's kind of nutty is that it's not a threadbare stew of blandness, but an extremely intricate, powerfully emotional, and truly introspective tapestry of not just ear candy, but the entire three-course meal for the ear as well.

None of this is to even touch on its gameplay, which I recognize as being the pinnacle of the series, along with II, IV, and Strange Journey. I played every main series game, save for Apocalypse, leading up to Vengeance because I was just that hyped, and I can absolutely say that without a doubt this will be one of the best gameplay experiences you will have in the entire mainline series. SMT V departs from the series in a lot of ways, much like III did. You don't have any equipment, stats are much more condensed, and both the sidequests and the main quests tend to be a little less roundabout and confusing. None of this pans out in a bad way, however, and honestly folding a few stats into others and getting rid of some entirely actually frees up your brain for more delicious strategery, which this game is *absolutely* chock full of. The Press Turn system has literally never been better. It is so much fun and so rewarding to thread item uses, weakness strikes, and ally switches through your Press Turn Icons. Also returning is SMT's iconic demon negotiation system and demon fusion system, both of which are firing on all cylinders here. The negotiations are absolutely covered in painfully funny dialogue, so you have an incentive to negotiate a lot, even if you're fusing most of your demons. There are even unique conversations that can take place between certain demons in a fight. If you read up on the lore sections in the compendium, it'll give you a pretty good idea of who might have a unique convo for whom. In a lot of ways, it reminds me a lot of a couple of tabletop RPGs, and even the recent Baldur's Gate III, where it pays to have every little unit and every little piece of equipment optimized to your advantage and/or your enemy's disadvantage. If you like that kind of stuff, you will absolutely love this game.

Slightly more fleshed out in this entry is the platforming of all things. IV kind of experimented with this, where Flynn could jump down or climb up some ledges or jump some gaps, but it honestly always felt pretty restrictive and...Kind of clunky, if I'm being honest? Here, that problem is nearly eradicated. I find it very difficult not to immensely enjoy bounding around Da'at and just picking fights with demons. Hopping around on buildings, grabbing up Miman, knocking out those sidequests; it all very much sings to the collectathon girl in me. The platforming is pretty simple, but that works to the game's benefit, since it allows you to more easily explore the blown-out ruins of Tokyo. The mazelike roads, buildings, and structures spiderweb over each other in ways sure to make an urban planner need new draws. This *can* work to the game's detriment, however, since some areas can be overly confusing or bloated, though I'm of the opinion that that's mostly relegated to one ward (those who know know) and its dungeon. Honestly though, this is a game meant to be played several times over. You will get better at finding your way through the more annoying parts, and they easily become much, much less of a pain. New to the game include fun goodies like Magatsu Rails, which allow you to traverse the craggier parts of the map more easily, and the Sky View, which is a godsend (demonsend?) in those more annoying parts of trying to hop around blindly and losing your way. Demon Haunts are also extremely entertaining. While the dialogue can repeat a good bit with each visit from your demonic companions, it's again worth it just to hear what kinds of weirdo crap your party can say or do. Some demons like you and want to be your friend!! Some demons just want to be your mommy. Some demons just scream they just scream a lot. Some demons just want to eat you. It's like opening a free mystery bag every time you visit. Worst is that you wasted two minutes of your time sifting through some stuff you didn't need. Best case scenario is that you have a good amount of stuff that's gonna stick with you for the rest of your life in the greatest way. And none of this even touches on the stat boosts and other bonuses you can get from forging good relationships with your demons in an interestingly Persona-esque take. All of this, of course, is in impeccable and loving service to the worldbuilding and the plot. And oh my goddesses, do I love SMT V: Vengeance's plot.

SMT V: Vengeance's narrative is one of the coolest in video games literally ever. It's not quite as awe-strikingly amazing as II's, or quite as deep and hard-hitting as Strange Journey's, but it's an extremely well-rounded plot that could very well see you shedding tears. Your endeavors as the Nahobino will see you make both great friends and foes alike. The gist is that you are a third-year high school student (shocker, I know) at Jouin High School in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, and, in true SMT fashion, things go awry when the world starts to crack and crumble under the weight of the invading demons. It never quite gets "I ate your mom" crazy, but there are some pretty wild things that both are happening and are going to happen. Now that you're in danger, a saint-like robotic figure by the name of Aogami swoops in to save you, and fuses with you to become the omnipotent being known as a Nahobino. Depending on whether you chose Canon of Creation or the new Canon of Vengeance, the story progresses in some truly wildly different ways. On Canon of Vengeance, one of the entire areas and its dungeon is completely replaced, and honestly, that new area is my new favorite one in the whole game. It's a fantastic superblock of all the game's fun stuff connected by city streets and park trails.

I could seriously go on and on about this game. Some things I didn't even touch on, like the new ball-bustingly difficult superbosses that *dare* you to beat them without using cheese strats, or the absolute treasure trove of mods for the game just a short month after release. But it's almost 4 AM and I have a tabletop game in the morning, so I will leave y'all with this to chew on: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance was a life-changing and mind-expanding experience for me, much like many of the other entries in the series have been for me. I totally completed everything, too. My time in Da'at will stay with me for the rest of my life. And it isn't that I might complete the game 100% again one day, but that I happily will with open and loving arms.