On your way home from school, you and your friends are caught in an earthquake and transported to Da’at--a bleak alternate dimension overrun with demons. Before long, you are ambushed by some spicy little guys with wings and pitchforks. It's at this very moment a man in a cybersuit appears before you. Now you're given an ultimatum: accept the help of this mysterious stranger or be unceremoniously skewered by a pack of lesser demons. To be honest, I'd probably pick the latter.

 

After accepting the help of your scrumptious savior and putting the dispatching your first group of enemies, you’re free to start exploring. You start your journey alone (fused with your new friend), making combat especially dangerous until you can convince wayward demons to form a party with you.

 

After wandering around for a while and putting the smackdown on some of the hostile residents of Da’at, you discover that a war between the forces of Law and the forces of Chaos has been raging for years in this alternate Tokyo. This long battle has left "#Team Law" on the ropes in denial of their impending defeat. Naturally, this is bad for the world as you know it-which is why you decide to step in and grab the reins. Frankly, who better to save the world, (or destroy it), than a high school student with a cool haircut?

 

Shin Megami Tensei V flexes as one of the best modern turn-based JRPGs. Battles utilize the series’ iconic Press Turn system, where you gain extra turns for exploiting your enemy’s elemental weaknesses. The key to victory is balancing your team's elemental affinities to ensure your enemies can’t find a weak spot and wipe you out in a single turn. Keeping a large stock of demons to pool from is ideal, but you are limited to the number of demons you can keep with you. In usual SMT fashion, you can use Macca to summon demons you’ve already acquired or you can hunt them down and convince them to join you again.

 

New to this entry, Miracles provide a somewhat nonlinear character upgrade system where you can potentially put yourself at a disadvantage early on if you don’t plan carefully. These costly upgrades include improvements to quality of life such as increasing demon stock or discounts at the item shop, or improvements to combat capability like improving your skill potential in skill affinities which increase your damage and decrease your MP usage. Miracles are unlocked by beating mini-boss encounters at various marked points on the map called Abscesses, and the currency used to purchase them is called Glory. Glory is found in giant glowy disco balls hidden around the map and is also rewarded any time you find one of the adorable Miman’s hiding places.

 

While Shin Megami Tensei V might not accomplish anything particularly innovative for the series, it isn’t a bad thing. The most notable change is the introduction of the Magatsuhi gauge, which fills under various conditions to unlock powerful abilities for you as well as for each demon. This adds a new layer of complexity to combat and allows for new tactical strategies to consider.

 

The control you have over your roster has also never been this deep or rewarding before. Not only can you collect various demon essences that change your own elemental affinities and individual skills - you can also use those essences to change the skills of the demons in your current stock. This adds a little more longevity to each demon if you have one you really like and want to use for a bit longer. Each species of demon also has unique Magatsuhi skills you unlock gradually by doing quests throughout the world. These demon “ultimates” were not that useful to me in the first half of the game though, and I found myself mainly using a default one until I had purchased enough Miracles to make my Magatsuhi gauge fill several times in a single battle.

 

Newcomers to the series expecting a character-driven plot similar to Persona 5-this is not it. While several supporting characters may play an important role in the outcome of your journey in Shin Megami Tensei V, most of your adventure will consist of exploring the overworld alone. Most of the cast is not given much screen time until much later in the game, so you might not find yourself pickin' up what they're puttin' down right away. When you do catch up to the story beats, though, the cutscenes are a treat to watch.

 

Presentation-wise, Shin Megami Tensei V looks great. Kazuma Kaneko’s demon designs are as iconic and memorable as ever. The soundtrack is also phenomenal and lends to the dark, post-apocalyptic atmosphere very well. Now, whether or not the Switch handles the game perfectly is up for debate. I play all of my Switch titles docked and while I’ve had a pretty smooth experience, there are occasional moments where it will take a second or two for textures to load or instances where things “pop” into the zone. By no means was the game ever unplayable for me but I did notice these things often enough to take note of them.