So where I really enjoyed the original Shin Megami Tensei V I didn’t hesitate to try out the new version to see if it was also a lot of fun while also being worth buying another full priced game for the experience. Where the original game only included the four routes for the Canon of Creation this one includes them and two additional routes for Canon of Vengeance which is something you can select at the very beginning of the game. This starts a new story where you once again become a Nahobino and seek to claim the throne to change the world but you also meet a new and mysterious human character Yoko and battle a third party enemy called the Qadistu who have their own motives in the battle between angels and demons.

So starting off with the story it’s largely the same. You’re still fighting to save Tokyo with an end goal to remake the world; however, in the process you are stuck in the middle of a fight between angels and demons both sides try to motivate you into remaking the world the way they want you to do so.

In fact barring the conversations with Yoko and how the story places more emphasis on a returning character Tao the first roughly half of the game takes you to the same locations in the same order only changing some of the circumstances in how you get there. Though we do get some additional cutscenes along the way which flesh out the human characters all returning from the original game there wasn’t that many of them at first. This was something I found a bit frustrating as it meant there was initially less new content than what I was hoping for.

However, after awhile the story took an entirely different turn from the original game presenting us with a new area, a whole array of completely new cut scenes and moments that gave us far more character development for the cast of human characters than what the original game gave us. This is also where we got to see more of the new enemies the Qadistu and learn how this third party fits in the story. Plus it featured some twists and turns that had me extremely shocked as I did not see them coming. I was very pleasantly surprised by this. Then once again to my shock the game found a way to essentially return to being largely the same game with a few alterations to the scenes that were interesting but not as frequent as I would have hoped.

Then you get to the end of the game and it does change things a fair bit. Rather than having three main endings and a secret ending that you can for the most part pick from at the end of the game Vengeance automatically locks you into an ending based on how you answer questions in the game. This was something I liked a lot because as I was experiencing the end I really didn’t know which one I was going to get, something I didn’t feel in the original version. However, as for how the endings happened it also largely happens the same way despite it being a new canon. You fight new bosses till you end up fighting the same final boss as the original, then the credits and a couple of minutes to wrap up the game. The story was good but rather than feel like an all new experience it felt like a modified version of the original game with significantly better execution.

The gameplay is entirely the same as the original. As the Nahobino you engage in turn based combat with your enemies by finding their weaknesses. Hitting weaknesses does more damage while also giving you an extra action while hitting an enemies strength does the opposite. You have a slew of combat items to use as well and can recruit and fuse demons to create a party of high level allies. Unlike the first game for a majority of this game you also get human companions you can add to your party which for me made me less motivated to focus on my demons because I naturally wanted to focus more on what was new versus what I experienced by beating the original version multiple times.

The game also had some quality of life improvements which I felt were very needed such as the ability to save anywhere which is something I will always prefer over saving in select locations. You also have more options to bond with the demons in your party to increase their stats, your own stats and gain items which does help motivate you to keep demons in your party for awhile to make them the best versions of themselves versus fusing them for something stronger. Plus while the game did feature many of the side quests from the original game it did add a lot of new quests and I was motivated to find those which added experiences unlike what we got from the original game, but like the story I wasn’t motivated to redo side quests I knew I’ve done before but very motivated to do the ones I haven’t seen.

Overall my feelings are kind of mixed on this. It’s without a doubt a better version of Shin Megami Tensei V. However, where the original game motivated you to beat the game several times to see each ending it is that aspect of that game that hinders Vengeance because any moment that was an exact match or similar to a moment in the original game felt redundant which hindered my motivation to play the game. The new additions were a lot of fun and I enjoyed them far more than what was featured in the original game, but I think it just wasn’t enough new content to justify an entire new game where it could have been done as DLC where we could have transferred all of the progress we had and not feel like we’re starting mostly from the beginning again. Sure you can transfer data from the original game but it amounts to just a handful of demons you have to earn money to get back. So I really enjoyed this game and if you haven’t played the original don’t hesitate to get this as it is the best way to play the full Shin Megami Tensei V experience. If you have played the original I think it’s still worth diving into but wait for it to go on sale as there’s not an entire game’s worth of new content in comparison.