Highlights

  • Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance revamps the Press Turn system for a more strategic combat experience.
  • The Demon Haunt feature offers bonus stat points to boost the Nahobino's abilities in battle.
  • Improved Magatsuhi skills and Unique Skills add depth and variety to party composition and combat.

Like other Atlus games before it, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is an improved and enhanced version of 2021's Shin Megami Tensei 5 releasing years later and adding in new story content and balance tweaks. While it might not be as significant of an upgrade as Persona 4 Golden or Persona 5 Royal, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance marks the first time that the title is available on platforms other than the Nintendo Switch, opening up Atlus' excellent demon-taming RPG to a whole new audience. In terms of the improvements that this new, enhanced version of SMT 5 makes over the original, it's hard to not focus on the Press Turn system and its combat as being the highlight.

Shin Megami Tensei's Press Turn battle system is one of the many hallmarks of the franchise and the foundation on which the Persona series' varying battle systems are built. However, what makes the Press Turn system arguably more engaging and strategic are the ways that multiple demon allies play into targeting enemy weaknesses and exploiting them. Unlike in the Persona games, though, one wrong move or missed attack can cause a strong lead to fall apart in an instant, and the new Vengeance-exclusive Miracles and Essences make party composition more important than ever, serving to enhance an already excellent combat system.

shin megami tensei 5 smt5 protagonist nahobino
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Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance's Improvements to Combat Take the Tedium Out of Grinding

Anyone familiar with both Shin Megami Tensei and its offshoot Persona can attest to the necessity of fighting as many random encounters as possible to strengthen party members ahead of some truly nail-biting boss encounters. Shin Megami Tensei 5 was already a challenging game, and Vengeance goes a long way toward rebalancing the difficulty curve to make the early game easier and the mid-to-late game much harder. As a result, players will find themselves needing to endlessly engage with enemies on the map, but the improved Press Turn system in SMT 5: Vengeance makes this less of a chore and more of a boon.

The Press Turn system remains intact as one of the definitive elements of the Shin Megami Tensei series in SMT 5: Vengeance , but the improvements Vengeance makes over the core SMT 5 experience shake-up combat in some significant ways.

Combat isn't just faster in Vengeance (especially on PC or current-gen consoles where the title runs at a solid 60FPS), players have a host of new options at their disposal that can significantly shorten the length of tougher encounters. Primary among these are the new Magatsuhi skills that unlock based on specific party compositions, with some of them having the potential to completely turn the tide of a losing battle. Every demon in SMT 5: Vengeance also now has a Unique Skill that they bring to the table, and experimenting with these skills and different party compositions during the necessary grind adds some variety to the proceedings.

The Addition of the Demon Haunt Grants Massive Combat Boosts to the Nahobino

Aside from the practical enhancements that players can apply in-battle in SMT 5: Vengeance, the inclusion of the Demon Haunt is one of the more important additions that the game makes over the original experience. It may appear like a simple "hangout" for demons and a place to build social bonds with party members at first, but the conversations players have with Aogami here hide one of the best bonuses in the game. Every so often, conversing with Aogami provides the Nahobino with 3 bonus stat points for players to allocate as they choose.

Not only do these three bonus stat points equate to almost being a free level-up, but players can also strategically allocate them based on their party composition and playstyle with greater flexibility than the traditional 1 custom stat point granted at level-up. Depending on where players choose to allocate these stats, it's entirely possible for the Nahobino to gain a strong advantage over most random encounters early on in the game, especially when putting points into Strength and Vitality to improve their offense and defense, respectively. It's a small, but welcome, bonus that helps eke out a slight combat advantage for players where the original Shin Megami Tensei 5 experience didn't.