By now, ATLUS’ long-running Shin Megami Tensei series should be a familiar name for 3DS owners; from the Sega Saturn-remake of Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers to Shin Megami Tensei IV and its direct sequel Apocalypse, these darkly stylish, demon-collecting JRPGs have delivered some of the most engrossing experiences on the platform. It may be getting on in years, but the 3DS isn’t quite done with Mega
Ten yet, thanks khổng lồ latest entry: Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux, a remake of a 2009 DS dungeon-crawler. While the nâng cấp lacks some of the bells và whistles we’ve come to expect - such as stereoscopic 3D & an English dub - this is still a top-tier, atmospheric adventure, a standout Shin Megami Tensei title, & a must-play for RPG fans.
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Trading in Mega
Ten’s typical Tokyo trappings for something a bit more remote, Strange Journey sends players straight down lớn icy Antarctica. Something’s not right on the southern continent; a mysterious blight called the Schwarzwelt is slowly creeping its way up from the South Pole, threatening lớn envelop the entire globe in darkness & destruction. As part of a secret, international crew sent down to lớn investigate, you’ll fill the shoes of a young cadet charged with protecting the team from any potential dangers. It doesn’t take long for things khổng lồ heat up from there, starting with the revelation that the Schwarzwelt is hiding more than just darkness, instead appearing to lớn be a multidimensional war zone for angels, demons, & the unfortunate humans caught up in the middle.
Strange Journey is aptly named, & its twisting narrative makes for an engaging, winding ride. It features the allegorical storytelling Shin Megami Tensei is famous for - with characters that represent ideological ideals lượt thích Law and Chaos as much as their individual personalities - but its unique setting also allows for a genuinely intriguing sci-fi. It đơn hàng with themes of artificial intelligence và agency, environmental disaster & religion, và it’s all backed up by excellent worldbuilding và memorable characters.
Once you settle into Antarctica, you’ll be able khổng lồ head out from your ship and explore the Schwarzwelt proper, and it’s here that the main chơi game loop opens up. Strange Journey is a dungeon-crawling JRPG that plays a bit like a cross between mainline Shin Megami Tensei games & an uncharacteristically dark Etrian Odyssey. From Shin Megami Tensei, it takes the demon-gathering team-building (think biblical Pokémon), weakness-based battles, & moral alignment system (more on all these in a bit); from Etrian Odyssey, it takes an expedition-based mission structure, discrete dungeon areas, & intricate, dynamic màn chơi design. Instead of the navigable overworld of most Mega
Tens, here you’ll jet off into discrete ‘sectors’ from a menu, exploring & mapping out (automatically) each area as you go, pushing your team as far as you can before heading back lớn retreat, refuel, và jump back out again.
It’s a satisfying cycle, & the excellent level design keeps everything feeling fresh, with traps, mazes, portals, & plenty of NPCs và on-field scenarios lớn keep you on your toes. More than most Mega
Ten games, there’s a sense that the maps is as much an enemy as the demons in Strange Journey. There’s also an addicting feedback loop of rewards, as resources you’ll find in the Schwarzwelt can be used to lớn develop new items, armour, and weapons, & to nâng cấp your high-tech Demonica Suit with new ‘apps’ - programs that xuất hiện up new locations, new gameplay features, và tweaks to lớn adjust everything from difficulty to drop rates.
Of course, the Schwarzwelt is more than just empty space, and along with mapping out its multidimensional mazes, you’ll spend plenty of time fighting for your life against its inhabitants: the angels, demons, and mythological creatures that trang điểm Shin Megami Tensei’s massive menagerie of monsters. You’ll use these monsters lớn fight as well, putting together a team by negotiating with enemy demons lớn convince them to join your cause.
Demon negotiation can be a bit hit or miss in Megami Tensei games, but Strange Journey is on the more satisfying kết thúc of the spectrum. The dialogic gymnastics you’ll engage in lớn court your creatures range from abrasive to lớn flirty to lớn downright absurd, but they’re always a good time. Once you’ve gathered a few monsters, you can also ‘fuse’ them together khổng lồ create more powerful creatures, passing down skills as you go. Demon fusion is oddly compelling, và it’s easy khổng lồ spend hours trying khổng lồ manipulate the system to lớn put together a perfect team.
You can field a các buổi party of up to three demons at a time alongside your human avatar, và with physical attacks và guns, an elemental magic system, & an outsized focus on debuffs & status ailments, the turn-based combat in Strange Journey is a snappy, fun, and satisfyingly strategic affair. It’s also one that stands out even from other Shin Megami Tensei games, thanks lớn the particular importance it places on alignment. The alignment system is a key piece of Strange Journey in general; dialogue choices you make & actions you take throughout the trò chơi affect your character’s moral compass, which runs on a spectrum from Law lớn Neutral to lớn Chaos. That alignment in turn affects the story progression, the endings you’ll see, và even your battle & recruitment strategies. Not only is it significantly easier to recruit demons of the same alignment, once on your team your ideological allies will also help you out with additional ‘Demon Co-Op’ attacks after you hit an enemy’s weakness.
These follow up attacks - Strange Journey’s version of SMTIV’s Press-Turn system - allow you to pile on any time you can suss out an opponent’s weak point, and learning lớn exploit them khổng lồ their fullest is an absolutely essential part of battle. You could field an all-Neutral team and get three follow-up attacks to every critical hit, for instance; or you could spread out the damage potential by fielding a 2-2 split. It’s a wonderful little wrinkle that helps ensure you’re changing your strategies as you progress through the game; conversational choices we made had us hopping between alignments several times, so that the all-Neutral team we fielded in the early game quickly became no help at all after we made one too many Law-abiding decisions.
Between the ever-shifting alignment system, the dynamic level design, & the difficulty of the combat - it’s easy lớn party-wipe even from standard battles, and bosses are beautifully brutal, try-again affairs - Strange Journey nails the feeling of tension that makes the best dungeon crawlers so hard to lớn put down. As one example of this that will tax even franchise veterans, the first time you fight a particular demon it appears only as a ghostly glitch, with no information about what quái thú it might be. This means you won’t be able khổng lồ see a Jack Frost, instantly call on years of Shin Megami Tensei experience to lớn know that Agi attacks will hit a weak point, and cheat out a cheeky victory; instead, you’ll have to first fight a round blind, bringing back the thrill of seeing a new foe for the very first time even if you’ve been summoning demons since the Super Famicom.
Of course, this was all true of the original DS release as well, so what’s new in this remake? Most importantly, Redux adds a significant chunk of narrative content, including a new key character và storyline, an excellent new dungeon, lots of new demons, và several new endings. It’s a sizeable addition, but even better, it’s smartly integrated into the game; rather than a tacked-on epilogue or extra episode, Redux’s new story beats are woven relatively organically into the experience. Whether that’s worth a trả lời in & of itself will depend on the player, of course, but for us, Strange Journey’s already-engrossing chơi game and branching paths make a return trip an appealing proposition.
Another significant nâng cấp is the addition of multiple difficulty levels. The ‘Normal’ mặc định is plenty hard, so while masochists will get some mileage out of the new ‘Hard’ mode, the rest of us will appreciate being able khổng lồ drop down to ‘Casual’ when needed. That welcome option is accompanied by several smaller quality-of-life tweaks; you can now save anywhere in a dungeon, for instance, and many of the new Demonica apps are geared towards lowering the challenge level. Strange Journey is never going to be an easy game, but we very much appreciate these extras making it more accessible.
Graphically, Redux isn’t a massive leap over the original release, but it is a noticeable one; crisp new character portraits địa chỉ a lot of expression to dialogue scenes, the newly dynamic battle backgrounds are much more exciting, & the updated HUD makes for a gorgeously stylish interface. A few lower-res textures và blocky objects betray its DS origins, but overall, this is a very attractive game.
There is, however, one significant flaw in Redux’s presentation on the 3DS: it’s not actually presented in 3D. While this seems to lớn be turning into something of a trend in the system’s twilight years, it’s especially disappointing here; a first-person dungeon-crawler with a slick visor-based HUD is practically crying out for stereoscopic support. We kept instinctively trying lớn turn the slider up when we’d come across new Schwarzwelt sectors, hoping to lớn see them pop in 3D lượt thích Etrian Odyssey’s labyrinths; it isn’t a dealbreaker, but it is a notable disappointment.
The audio is also a bit of a mixed bag in terms of upgrades. Most significantly, Redux adds full voice acting lớn the story for the first time - but only in Japanese. The Japanese track is excellent, và it certainly adds lớn the experience, but if you’re used to lớn playing 3DS Shin Megami Tensei games in English, the lack of a dub here feels like a missing option. The music, on the other hand, required no updating at all, & remains as hauntingly brilliant as ever. This is a special soundtrack from Shoji Meguro, with orchestral instrumentation, ghostly choirs, và occasional bursts of memorably melodic riffs. It’s appropriately unsettling, and delightfully different.
In fact, ‘delightfully different’ is a good descriptor for Strange Journey Redux in general. It’s very much Shin Megami Tensei - with demon negotiations, dungeon crawling, và weakness-based combat - but from its setting & soundtrack lớn its gameplay and story, it stands out in the series. That chất lượng nature makes it a rewarding play for series veterans, but also a perfect place to start if you’ve never played a Mega
Ten title before; no matter where you’re coming from, you really can’t go wrong.
Conclusion
From its demon collecting & killer combat to its sci-fi South Pole setting, Strange Journey Redux is a fantastically engrossing adventure, & an excellent reason khổng lồ get lost in your 3DS once again. As a remake of a DS classic, Redux adds in enough new content to make a replay worth your time, along with plenty of welcome accessibility tweaks lớn help let newcomers in on one of Shin Megami Tensei’s best kept secrets. The lack of stereoscopic 3D và English voiceover is disappointing, but these are small complaints; Strange Journey is a can’t-miss trip for JRPG fans.
Excellent 9/10
Scoring Policy
Review copy provided by Atlus
Tue 29th May 2018
Certain buy for me! Now gimme some Shin Megami Tensei on the Switch!
Tue 29th May 2018
I didn"t notice there was no stereoscopic 3d or English voiceovers when I bought it. That really is a bummer. I"ll still play it and probably enjoy it, but it"s gonna be weird since most of the cast are not Japanese...
Tue 29th May 2018
One of my absolute favorite DS RPGs, now on 3DS. Naturally I bought this, haha. Strange Journey rules.
There is such a ridiculous amount of SMT remakes at this point, but I don’t mind. I’m glad this one isn’t going as far under the radar as Soul Hackers did a few years ago.
Matt
Fox Considering how much SMT the 3DS has, I have a good feeling the Switch is gonna get a lot more than just SMT V.
Tue 29th May 2018
I enjoyed it but I wish the localisation was the same high standard as the other SMT games on the 3DS.
Bring on SMT V!
Tue 29th May 2018
I wish the Persona series eventually come to Switch, it"s already have a decent fanbase on Nintendo consoles with all those SMTs, Persona Q & Tokyo Mirage Sessions, c"mon, only a little step left, Atlus.
Tue 29th May 2018
The original was an amazing game, one of my absolute favorites on the DS. I"m sure this version is just as good.
But boy was this trò chơi rare in Europe, not a single retailer that I often use seemed lớn even acknowledge this trò chơi existed. I pre-ordered the PAL copy from Play-Asia and luckily got my copy sent, after that the pal version was immediatedly out of print/out of stock in that site too. Talk about a limited release, sheesh. Now waiting for my copy to arrive with baked breath.
oji I’ll be very pleasantly surprised if they ever announce a mainline Persona trò chơi that isn’t a PS exclusive.
I’d even be happy with remakes. Persona 1 & both Persona 2’s are kind of rough, & would benefit from an overhaul.
Tue 29th May 2018
I so regret not buying this right at release. I seriously LOVE these games & are some of the best/top RPGs out there, as far as I"m concerned.
I"ll be getting this in just a short while & hopefully it"s still the "first-run" version that includes extra stuff — I have pretty much all the other Atlus games like this and my Collection OCD is creeping up so that I have all first-runs of Atlus games.
Tue 29th May 2018
I love these games but I have such a hard time navigating dungeons in first person. Still an awesome series though
Eagle9 I haven’t beaten most SMT games, but the most popular seem to be:SMT 3: Nocturne (PS2)SMT IV (3DS)SMT: Digital Devil Saga (1 và 2) (PS2)
I really enjoy Strange Journey, the Devil Survivor games, & Soul Hackers also.
Alto If you’re looking for extra stuff, you’re gonna be disappointed.
The DS version had a cool slip cover and a soundtrack tucked inside. This 3DS version has nothing except a reversible cover.
Tue 29th May 2018
I love my Switch but the sheer depth of RPG"s on the 3DS means I still play it almost daily và with releases lượt thích this I can see that continuing for at least another year or two.
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Tue 29th May 2018
I can"t get into the SMT games at all. The rng of it và constant reloading from saves just astounds me. SMT IV was unplayable in my opinion. Kudos to lớn anyone with the patience for this sort of game, not my cup of tea.
bolt05 Yeah the beginning of SMT4 is harsh but you can unlock an easy mode after dying twice. It"s worth giving it another chance. It"s a fantastic JRPG.
bolt05 That"s fair. SMT games are purposely hard on the player. Once you pass the first boss, the trò chơi balances out a bit. Now, getting past that boss can take a while...
Tue 29th May 2018
How is it for a jumping on point for the series. The trò chơi looks lượt thích a lot of fun but, I don"t want to get into something too confusing that would make me not want to lớn play it.
Tue 29th May 2018
Even though I already received the trò chơi a week ago, a little while ago I went back to lớn finish SMT 4 Apocalypse & ended up playing it instead, it"s just so good & a step up in every regard in comparison lớn regular SMT 4. The original Strange Journey was one of THE best titles on DS, though, so it seems lượt thích I won"t be getting off the Shin Megami Tensei train for quite a while. Now I only need to lớn figure out which path to chose this time around.
Tue 29th May 2018
Skipping this one. Don"t really lượt thích 1st person dungeon crawlers. I"ll take SMT IV and SMT IV:A over this any day.
Tue 29th May 2018
The lack of english voiceovers và stereoscopic 3 chiều is actually perfect for me. Atlus games have terrible 3d implementation, so I never make use of it, and their English dubs... Aren"t awful, but the way they butcher Japanese names can get incredibly annoying.
With that said, this is the one SMT game where English vocals would have made a lot of sense.
Preposterous SMT IV: Apocalypse is probably my favorite 3DS game, full stop. I wasn"t not expecting it lớn be as fully engaging an experience as it turned out to be.
bolt05 SMT IV"s initial difficulty curve is a bit steep, but it got easier for me the more I played. The Minotaur was easily the hardest part of the trò chơi for me.
If you ever get a chance, try SMT IV: Apocalypse. The difficulty curve is much more fair, & it starts out with difficulty options. There are also numerous QOL improvements that make it less intimidating than the previous game.
Preposterous Gameplay-wise it"s one of the best SMT until now (If only they added Attacks Combos like Digital Devil Saga 1&2, it would be perfect). Story, in the other hand... Meh. "Shoehorn neutral path which one is Persona-kawai-waifu-friendship-plot-armor". Dagda had so much potential, but in the over he"s just an edgelord. //
Sector E now, the one thing that bothers me it"s the alignment bs (just because I cooperate with ONE angel in sector Carina doesn"t mean I"m a zealot).
Eagle9 I"ve played almost every SMT game starting with SMT 1. My favorites are SMT 1, SMT IV Apocalypse & Nocturne. As far as spin offs go, Devil Survivor Overclocked is amazing as well as Digital Devil Saga & Persona 3 is pretty fun. (I also really liked Soul Hackers & Persona 1 but I don"t believe that"s a popular opinion.) The best place khổng lồ start is with SMT IV or with a Persona trò chơi (either start with P3 & then move on to lớn 4 or just play P5).
Alex90 I think that was the point of Dagda"s character, based on his design, personality & manner of speech (at least the English version fits that image), instead of being a true representative of neutral path - Krishna & the Divine Powers fit that role much better.The supporting cast seemed likeable to lớn me & unlike Persona, you vị get an option to betray them, which is pretty cool.Even though the game play is really good, I wouldn"t mind SMT 5 bringing even more improvements.
Ralizah Exactly. I would"ve been perfectly fine with it if it was a Persona game, since that takes place in Japan, starring Japanese High School students. Even when it"s in English, you have to lớn assume they"re speaking Japanese, & the English is a convenience for the sake of the player.
In Strange Journey, however, they"re an international UN task force sent to lớn research a global threat, so it would make sense if they all spoke a common language, which you would figure would be English. Instead they"re all speaking Japanese, despite there only being...I think two Japanese characters, one of whom mostly spoke through Dialogue choice selections, assuming that he hasn"t gotten any new speaking roles.
So once again, we have khổng lồ assume that they"re all speaking a different language, presumedly English, và the Japanese is there as a convenience for the player...most of whom are probably not familiar with Japanese, so it"s subtitled in English. It all comes full circle!
Tue 29th May 2018
I have the original DS version but man it"s balls hard. The 3DS remake is much more friendly và I am really enjoying it.
Executer66 Most SMT are standalone so from a story perspective, you won"t miss anything. If talking chơi game difficulty, that may be a barrier to you. The first time I played SMT Strange Journey, I somehow managed to defeat the first boss, however, something happened lớn my save và I had to go through it again. This time, I met the boss khủng too early and it defeated me quite easily. It took me several tries khổng lồ get passed it. Combat can be easy or very difficult depending on the demon types you place in battle.
Tue 29th May 2018
Eh...the support for this game kinda baffles me. It"s not terrible, but it"s not really that good either.
Tue 29th May 2018
This trò chơi is great. I"ve been chipping away at it little by little since I"ve gotten it. It doesn"t seem as hard as SMT4. That Minotaur shivers
Tue 29th May 2018
Nice, as with pretty much all SMT games, I was expecting a 9. Man, the 3DS turned out to be quite the machine for SMT fans; I"ve enjoyed them all và it looks lượt thích this one won"t be any different.
bitleman I didn"t know there was an easier mode, so thanks for that.
I was defeated in the first fight about 6 times straight & though omg this is a bit nuts và I just don"t have time to trả lời a battle quite that much.
Chibi
Ninja 1. Story was đứng top notch! The opening scene, alone, draws you in from the beginning. As you go through the labyrinth, some of the area"s descriptions are so disturbing. 2. One of very few rated M games for the 3DS! 3. Couple of ways khổng lồ capture demons. 4. The first SMT game where your character is directly involved in battles.
Thu 31st May 2018
1. I will give you that the opening is fairly good. The rest of the story is just "okay" - not bad, but pretty typical for the series, và unless they cleaned it up in redux the writing was a little rough at times. Again, not bad, but nothing I would consider "top notch" personally.2. Rating doesn"t really mean anything for the unique of a game.3. Not much lớn say here. Pretty typical series stuff - the game doesn"t particularly mess anything up here or the like, so I don"t really have any arguments.4. Okay, I"m sorry, but this one just isn"t true. The character was directly involved in battles way back in Shin Megami Tensei on the SNES. Và if you mean first one that was brought to lớn the west...I believe that"s Nocturne, for the PS2.
Like I said, the game isn"t terrible, but I just don"t think it"s all that fantastic either. I am glad the game came lớn the west though - too many things never make the jump & that"s sad.
Wed 6th Jun 2018
I passed on the early purchase because of the lack of stereoscopic 3d. If it drops down to lớn 19.99 I might pick it up. I am a bit bitter about the lack of 3d in these late release titles. I love the 3d. Its why I bought the system.
Windy Me too! (about being bitter about lack of stereoscopic 3D support on later 3DS games). I refused to lớn buy the last Pokémon Sun và Moon because of it.
However, SMT Strange Journey was originally a DS game and I don"t mind ports of older games not having the 3 chiều as long it has some other enhanced features.
Chibi
Ninja I only added the rating because there are so few adult rating games và it is joy for us adult gamers lớn see one on a Nintendo system. I"ve not played SMT Nocturn in a long time but I believe your character was never directly involved in battles.
oninowon Ive still bought a few Late releases. I got Mii
Topia which actually had the 3d and I found absolutely hilarious. I also bought dragon quest 7 và 8. 8 had no 3d but is still gorgeous. I will pick up This version of SMT I have all of them on 3ds. That wont change. I love this system. Its been my favorite console (yeah he said console) of all time. I have put more time into gaming on 3ds than anything ive ever owned. I just wish I was better at Mario Golf! How in the world vì people shoot 25 under par on an 18 hole course? Yikes. I have recently modded my Wii to play online again and im really enjoying that. Yên ổn hoping they will at least announce rồng Quest X or XI for 3ds in North America. I know X isnt going khổng lồ make it but I can dream..........
Windy I have DQ7 & 8 on the PS2. DQ7 was my very first DQ trò chơi although I"ve since played DQ3-5 on my original DS system. DQ5 is still my favorite of the series. Generally, I"m not a tín đồ of Mario sports but I did buy Mario Tennis for the GC and enjoyed it. Despite that I"m still on the fence about getting it for Nintendo Switch. Bad news for 3DS owners though. DQ11 will not be coming lớn Western shores for the 3DS. If you have a Switch, the game is still slated to come to the system but much later.
oninowon oh yeah I also picked up Mario sports và was very disappointed with it. It seriously feels lượt thích 5 demos that have online play. I will probably trade that in for SMT. Thats a bummer about DQXI not coming to lớn 3ds. I thought it would send the 3ds out with a bang. But they never really bởi vì send systems out with a bang vày they?
Windy This +1. I loved SMT IV and was planning to play this one close to release .. The no 3 chiều really soured me. I will still play it as I love the series , but I have not played SMT Apocalypse yet & I will know play that first & get this later on on price drop . Hate doing that as I want to support but no 3d is less value to lớn me in my opinion
Windy This +1. I loved SMT IV and was planning to play this one close lớn release .. The no 3d really soured me. I will still play it as I love the series , but I have not played SMT Apocalypse yet và I will know play that first và get this later on on price drop . Hate doing that as I want to tư vấn but no 3 chiều is less value to lớn me in my opinion
Holy
Yoshi lặng the same way. Btw you should love apocalypse. Great graphics and excellent mở cửa world gameplay. I have Shin Megami IV as well Apocolypse is identical. Its my favorite series on 3ds. Shin megami IV is my favorite 3ds game just ahead of Fantasy Life. You know if you havent bought Apocalypse yet you zhould actually get Shin megami IV if you havent played it. Its pretty cheap these days 14.99 or so. I think ive seen Apocalypse down to lớn 24.99 on Amazon. But the 2 games are Identical with Apocalypse having new quests. The 3d is beautiful on both.
Thu 13th Sep 2018
Thanks Windy .. I actually did play SMT IV & loved it . Really wanted to play strange journey as it has more of a sci fi theme ... Change of pace . But the no 3 chiều is a bummer as I really love it in all the games . Have heard alot of good things about Fantasy Life . I was kind of torn between that & ever Oasis. Played the thử nghiệm of ever oasis và really liked it . Have you by chance played Ever Oasis ? If so let me know your thoughts !
Holy
Yoshi yes I have Oasis as well and it is great. If I had to lớn choose between Fantasy Life & Oasis it would be Fantasy Life because of the online play. Whats nice about the Fantasy life Online is that its exactly the same as playing offline. The trò chơi doesnt skip a beat. They are both nice
Tue 17th Mar 2020
Just bought it on the e
Shop (UK) sale last week for around a fiver!! Total bargain since I already have Shin Megami Tensei IV và still think it"s one of the best 3DS games ever!! I was trying lớn choose between Apocalypse & SJ Redux và think I"m pleasantly happy with the choice I made
