Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
Main game
3.59 average rating based on 116 ratings
- Developers
- Atlus
- Publishers
- Atlus
- Franchises
- Megami Tensei
- Series
- Devil Summoner, Raidou Kuzunoha
- Platforms
- PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3
- Genres
- Adventure, Platform, Role-playing (RPG)
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy, Historical, Horror
Release Dates
User Stats
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This review is for the PlayStation Network (PS3) version
SMT: Devil Summoner came as fine change of pace from what I've experienced in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, but despite its nice ideas and simplistic enjoyable mechanics, it didn't quite stick the landing for me.
The beginning of the game hyped me up. It starts very well and during the first very entertaining three chapters, Devil Summoner showcases its strenghts back to back. The combat system is fun and accessible for anyone, characters and demon designs are great, the story sparks an interesting mystery, the demon investigative mechanics are creative and the cutscenes are nicely done.
Raidou Kuzunoka himself, albeit a silent protagonist, makes quite an impression and is definitely the most memorable character in the entire game. Add that to Shoji Meguro's fine soundtrack, the right amount of challenge and incredible boss fights, and you have yourself a strong start.
From chapter 4 onwards, though, the game's cracks become visible.
The pacing is dull and the story is simply tedious. The writing just does not hold up. I found myself wanting to go back to grinding and boss fighting everytime the story became the focus.
Fusion, something essential for SMT's fun factor is almost useless here. Demons take …
SMT: Devil Summoner came as fine change of pace from what I've experienced in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, but despite its nice ideas and simplistic enjoyable mechanics, it didn't quite stick the landing for me.
The beginning of the game hyped me up. It starts very well and during the first very entertaining three chapters, Devil Summoner showcases its strenghts back to back. The combat system is fun and accessible for anyone, characters and demon designs are great, the story sparks an interesting mystery, the demon investigative mechanics are creative and the cutscenes are nicely done.
Raidou Kuzunoka himself, albeit a silent protagonist, makes quite an impression and is definitely the most memorable character in the entire game. Add that to Shoji Meguro's fine soundtrack, the right amount of challenge and incredible boss fights, and you have yourself a strong start.
From chapter 4 onwards, though, the game's cracks become visible.
The pacing is dull and the story is simply tedious. The writing just does not hold up. I found myself wanting to go back to grinding and boss fighting everytime the story became the focus.
Fusion, something essential for SMT's fun factor is almost useless here. Demons take too long to level up, there's plenty of tiresome backtracking, map designs are unvaried and uninteresting and the soundtrack, no matter how good it is, repeats its 15 songs over and over again.
It's by no means a broken or an unpleasant game but it is, throughout its lenghty 30 hours campaign, quite a bore. I mean, come on, the final dungeon even packs a BOSS GAUNTLET! And I say this while praising the boss fights, which are probably the game's spotlights.
To me, SMT: Devil Summoner felt like a breath of fresh air for the series. Honestly. The first 3 chapters and the final 4 were great, containing everything right that this game carries. The problem is that the game has another 5 VERY tedious chapters that just threw the story and my interest through the window for a big chunk of the playthrough.
It's not bad. It's a fine action JRPG. But for a series with so many highlights, this is lusterless one.
TheNerdyGeek's review of Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
8/10
Played this on the switch 2. Very good game.
Good, but really drags on in the last third. I loved SMT V when it came out so decided to give this a shot since I absolutely adore the demon fusion aspect of this franchise, and while I definitely got my money's worth with this entry I think there are still enough flaws that it should give a potential buyer pause if they aren't familiar with the Megaten games.
I found the story plenty interesting enough to get sucked in, something that was certainly helped by its unique setting of post WWI Japan. Combat is fun, especially during the harder fights, but probably a little unbalanced on any difficulty other than the hardest. Demon fusion and weapon upgrades are also a highlight. I think the core systems that this game relies on are strong enough for a full playthrough for SMT fans for sure.
The issues with this game really start to show however in the final 4 episodes. The story kind of falls apart and the battles become a little too easy to plow through with any two demons with a good healing spell and plenty of type coverage. By the end I wasn't really playing it to have …
Good, but really drags on in the last third. I loved SMT V when it came out so decided to give this a shot since I absolutely adore the demon fusion aspect of this franchise, and while I definitely got my money's worth with this entry I think there are still enough flaws that it should give a potential buyer pause if they aren't familiar with the Megaten games.
I found the story plenty interesting enough to get sucked in, something that was certainly helped by its unique setting of post WWI Japan. Combat is fun, especially during the harder fights, but probably a little unbalanced on any difficulty other than the hardest. Demon fusion and weapon upgrades are also a highlight. I think the core systems that this game relies on are strong enough for a full playthrough for SMT fans for sure.
The issues with this game really start to show however in the final 4 episodes. The story kind of falls apart and the battles become a little too easy to plow through with any two demons with a good healing spell and plenty of type coverage. By the end I wasn't really playing it to have fun, but playing it just to finish it. Always a disappointment when that happens with a game and is the main reason I can't give it 4 stars.
Overall though, I'd say it's a decent game that I had a good amount of fun with. Worth the money to me just to play it legally with better graphics (for the most part), but may not be worth it to others.
Gameplay is a bit slow, dated, and can feel tedious at times, so if that's a dealbreaker you might not want to invest too much in this game, but if you can get past that, the game is a true classic of its time. The way the story unravels and picks up over the course of the game made me enjoy more and more with each hour I played. Despite the battle controls feeling a bit clunky, the game isn't so difficult that it really becomes a problem. I'm looking forward to jumping into the sequel!
