Finished it today. I think the game is good, but I don't think it's 100% a home run.
I mean the combat is great. At this point Atlus has this press turn the battle system down to a science. Just from the fact that the order of how your party is set up flows into how you do debuffs and buffs(for example, I always have the dude that can do armor price, so the next dude can do his super physical attack) just shows how everything in the combat is in synch. You just start thinking about turn order naturally. The demon fusing and party making feel easier and more accessible than before. Mostly thanks to the whole Demon essence thing, which makes kitting out demons you like pretty easy going. Mechanically there's nothing really to complain about other than I guess the meter system. It's pretty easy to ignore and even when bosses use their meter attack, it really just means use one of those dampeners before their turn.
I guess most of my problems with the game have more to do with the structure of the game. There's what two dungeons? And those dungeons feel more like filler than anything. The first one with the air vents is cool at first but gets annoying with the third part. The 2nd one is just kind of boring and straightforward. Both are basically just box room textures over and over.
It's the open-world field where most of the game takes place. And they are cool. Some of them(the first one really) feel neat in how they capture the abstract post-apocalypse. Tokyo Tower in a shinny desolate desert is neat imagery. The game is full of neat imagery, but the areas lose their luster. I mean at first, the scale is quite well done and I'm big on this trend of making the walking part of JRPGS not boring. It isn't boring here. You're running around a desert and jumping on rooftops. Cool.
But, by the 3rd time, it becomes a little boring and the 4th area just tedious. I mean it's really just the color that changes, the environments begin to blur together in bland city ruins. Not only that, you really feel like yeah you are just doing the same thing. It starts to feel like filler. Not curated filler like in the jrpgs of old. Yeah, a PS1 RPG can have you go through a dungeon and have it go on forever. But when you're done with it, you get a story beat and you move unto an area that hopefully looks different, has a new story thrust to it, and maybe its own gimmick.
Here since the story takes a back seat, you get done with one field, have that story beat drop, and then you are basically asked to do the whole process again. Go fight the filler mid-tier bosses at the boss points we just threw together, find the little treasure people, find the treasure caches. Basic copy and paste open world stuff. Thinley veiled with SMT wrapping, very thinly. Its not game-breaking, but anyone with a critical eye will probably see the vapidness.
The visuals....well honestly the game looks great at times. Image quality is rough and animation can feel a bit budget at times. But its also just a personal opinion that these character models look like 90s demon anime toys power by unreal engine. It just doesn't have that mature, cold, and abstract look of three. I think dropping cel-shading was a bad idea. Instead of going for a FFesque real-anime look that I don't think it pulls off.
Speaking of anime, I guess one of the fears about this game would be that the story would be too anime. I don't think it is, even though my Japanese teen joining the Japanese secret demon society squad is kind of lame. As is a certain obvious sad boy's turn. Lame and silly-looking. But upon thinking more the story is strong in themes if it isn't in actual events, characterization, and/or plot. Instead, I think it does achieve its goal of reflecting the challenges of the modern-day. We are kind of in a godless society. What does that mean and how should people lead their lives? I just think the story is full of these themes, but it can feel like it meanders, characters show up say something and then disappear while you feel little agency or rush. Maybe that was the point, the vibe. At many times during the game, I would just look at the screen confused, major things would seemingly happen, but they would drop on you like they were nothing. Maybe the melancholy feel fits into the unheroic angle the story is going for. Nothing feels "epic". It can instead feel pointless, but maybe that's the point.
I enjoyed the game. Atlus makes another jrpg that excels in gameplay, but is unrelenting in being it's own thing. I just think its a little lame when the seams show and you see the parts that wanted to be trendy.
