One of 2021's best JRPGs escapes the Switch with a Persona 5 Royal-style expansion in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, with updates that will eat 80 hours of my life
Feb. 23, 2024Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC too
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Vengeance updates SMT5 with a new storyline said to add 80 hours of content primarily to the middle and final third of the story, as well as sweeping combat and quality-of-life updates that can be enjoyed throughout. It’s billed as the “definitive version” of the game, and like Persona 5 Royal – slightly less like Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse, which followed an alternate timeline entirely – it seems to basically be the same game, butmore. However, where Royal simply added an extra chapter to the end of the game, Vengeance features one big decision that essentially splits the story into two routes with different endings.
Also like Persona 5 Royal, Vengeance has drawn some criticism for offering limited options to players who already own and played the base game. Atlus andSegaare, after all, selling the updated version exclusively as a whole new thing instead of an a la carte add-on. In this case, you can’t transfer your save file at all, but you can transfera whole three demonsto the new game’s Compendium collection. You’ll also get some minor bonuses if you have save data for the original game, but frankly I care way more about playing this on a new-gen console or PC than I do any of that fluff. It looked and ran fine on Switch, in case that’s your only platform, but I distinctly remember some occasional choppiness and a few prolonged load times, and SMT5 really deserves better.
The good news is that, whether this is your first time through or you’re coming back for more like me, Vengeance does genuinely sound like a big upgrade to an already great game. The new route – the Canon of Vengeance, as described ina Japanese deep-dive stream with English subtitles– introduces four female demons known as the Qadištu, a group that “stands against the protagonist in order to achieve a certain goal.” There’s also a new ally character named Yoko Hiromine, who joins up with our returning high school hero and also participates in combat.
Gameplay improvements are many and varied, too. Here’s a quick roundup:
In a Q&A, director Komori, who previously worked on Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, explains that Vengeance incorporates many ideas that had to be cut during the development of the original SMT5, with a renewed focus on the demons themselves. He describes Vengeance’s new route as “a tale of revenge by the oppressed” that adopts a demon’s point of view. It’s SMT goodness all the way down, the nearest I can tell, and it’s been long enough that I feel ready for a trip back to Da’at.
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