While all eyes might be on the Nintendo Switch, we’re still seeing the good old 3DS get
some support.
Atlus has been steadily pumping out games for the system ever since its launch, with
Shin Megami Tensei in particular being well-represented.
The latest release of the bunch, Strange Journey Redux, is a remake of the 2010 game for the
Nintendo DS, and like the previous SMT remakes on 3DS, the game comes with a ton of new content
and features.
But are these changes enough to get old-timers to redo this strange journey, or is this game
better left out in the cold?
The story begins with a military team heading into Antarctica to investigate a phenomenon
known as the Schwarzwelt, which is growing in size and consuming everything it touches.
Your ship crashlands inside the Schwarzwelt, leaving the crew scattered with little hope
of completing the mission or even getting back home.
While things do get more complicated from there, the base of the plot is remarkably
simple, something that makes the beginning of the game somewhat difficult to sit through.
It takes nearly an hour of exposition dumping to get to the first tutorial fight, and another
15 minutes after that to start exploring the game’s first dungeon, where the real meat
of the gameplay lies.
This wouldn’t be so bad if the dialogue were engaging during that time, but a lot
of it is repetitive explanations of what the Schwarzwelt is and how the game’s signature
Demonica suits work, which is far from the most interesting thing in the world.
The narrative does pick up after the slow beginning, but only to a limited degree.
The main characters aren’t particularly deep, and if you’ve played a few other Shin
Megami Tensei games before you’re going to know exactly what kind of role they’ll
all play.
None of it is unbearable, but none of it is exceptional, either.
For a series with such a storied history for engaging plots and characters, it is a bit
disappointing.
For returning players, however, there are a few minor changes that might spice up the
story when compared to the original.
A few cutscenes are animated, which is a nice touch, and the dialogue is fully voiced as
well.
What’s odd though is that the game only features Japanese voice acting, with no option
to switch to English being present at all.
Every other Shin Megami Tensei game on 3DS was fully voiced in English, and with pretty
good performances as well, so this change was surprising.
The Japanese voice acting is certainly serviceable, but it is an odd omission nonetheless.
The game’s presentation otherwise isn’t too far off from what was seen on the Nintendo
DS 8 years ago.
The redrawn art and sharper textures make Redux a cleaner-looking version of Strange
Journey, but at the end of the day it’s still a first-person dungeon crawler and the
graphics by necessity are going to be somewhat repetitive.
The dungeon designs are interesting thematically, but one can only look at the same wall texture
for so long before it gets a bit stale.
The graphics are serviceable though, and due to the nature of this kind of RPG you’re
going to be spending 70% of your playtime looking at the bottom screen map anyway, so
it’s not a big deal.
The music seems to be mostly untouched from the original on DS, still featuring the same
bizarre blend of orchestral ambiance and weird fake-latin choir chanting.
The style is iconic of Strange Journey, there’s no other game out there that sounds like this,
but unfortunately I found that many of the game’s tracks sounded too similar to each
other to be truly memorable.
While the game’s main battle theme is phenomenal, the rest of the music grew tiresome very quickly.
But as stated before, the aesthetics aren’t the real reason to play a game like Strange
Journey.
This is a dungeon crawler through and through, and those who enjoy trekking their way through
labyrinthine locations will find a lot to enjoy in the base gameplay.
In many ways, Strange Journey feels much closer to Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey series than to
Shin Megami Tensei.
There is a main hub where you can go over missions, shop, and heal, but aside from that
there are no overworld areas to explore or towns to chat with people.
This game is all dungeons all the time, and the majority of your game time will be spent
dealing with the various tricks and traps layered throughout.
Each area introduces new wrinkles to the exploration, from one-way doors to teleporters to dark
rooms to even dimension-shifting.
While the size and complexity of these dungeons can certainly be overwhelming, there is a
huge sense of accomplishment that goes along with mastering a location and knowing exactly
how to traverse it.
The battle system manages to be a good deal of fun as well.
In series tradition, you can recruit demons to join your side through often hilarious
and just as often frustrating negotiation sequences, as well as fuse your demons together
to form new ones.
What’s different is that the Press Turn system that many other Shin Megami Tensei
games feature has been replaced with something called the Demon Co-Op system.
Upon hitting an enemy’s weakness, other party members that match your alignment will
get a free attack in, which allows you to shred through opponent’s health much more
quickly.
This change not only speeds up battles tremendously, but it also adds a new element to the way
you think about your party arrangement.
Sometimes the strongest demon isn’t the best choice, since if its alignment doesn’t
match yours, you’ll be losing a lot of damage every time you use Demon Co-Op.
It’s a great system, especially considering that your alignment determines your ending,
meaning replays will have you using different demons as you trek to see all that the game
has to offer.
There is, however, one major issue with the battle system.
The first time you encounter a demon on the field, it will appear as a blue blob, and
it’s only after you defeat that demon that you are able to see its design and name.
This takes a lot of the fun out of exploring new areas, as you’re always flying blind
whenever you run into a new demon.
While other Shin Megami Tensei games traditionally hide enemy weaknesses until you fight them
a set number of times, knowledge of the demon’s mythological origins or even just knowledge
of the series in general can allow you to make some educated guesses at the very least.
With the unknown demon system, however, you’re literally flying blind, just throwing attacks
out at random, some of which can be reflected back at you and result in your party being
damaged instead.
If I know I’m fighting Jack Frost, then I can reasonably guess that using ice attacks
is a bad idea.
But if I don’t know that’s Jack Frost and I use an ice attack as a random guess,
I’m going to be punished for something I had no idea was coming.
This system isn’t gamebreaking by any means, but it does make the initial exploration a
lot more tiresome and it was something I was hoping would have been fixed in this remake.
Thankfully, some things were changed for the better.
You’re now allowed to equip as many exploration sub-apps as you want, and you can swap them
on the fly instead of needing to find a terminal or go back to the ship, which is convenient.
There’s also a run button for making backtracking faster, options to speed up or skip battle
animations, an easy and hard mode, and various other quality of life improvements that make
the game more accessible in general.
There is also a new added dungeon, the Womb of Grief, which is massive and a ton of fun
to explore, as well as story elements involving the brand new character Alex, which lead to
three all new endings to experience.
The new dungeon alone adds at least an extra 10 to 20 hours of gameplay, so there’s plenty
to see even if you’ve explored the Schwarzwelt once already.
More content is said to be on the way in the form of DLC, but I was unable to access any
of it in time for this review.
Strange Journey Redux is an odd game.
It aims at pleasing the type of RPG fan that loves dungeon crawling over everything else,
and it does succeed at creating a campaign that that kind of player will love.
However, what it gains there, it sacrifices elsewhere, as the story is less engaging than
others in the series and the game as a whole is just not a friendly experience.
Because of that, I can’t really recommend it for newcomers to the Shin Megami Tensei
series, or for fans who find the character interactions more engaging than the dungeons
you trek through in games like Shin Megami Tensei IV and Persona.
For those that do enjoy the Shin Megami Tensei games that kick you in the teeth constantly,
you’ll find a lot of very challenging and rewarding dungeons to explore, but not much
else.
As for me personally, I liked Strange Journey Redux.
While the beginning is a bit slow and there are some annoying aspects like the unknown
demons, there were several points where I was glued to my screen, trying to find my
way to that one last patch of dungeon left to explore.
I’d definitely recommend this version over the DS original, but only if you know exactly
what you’re getting into.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Shin Megami Tensei
and all things gaming.