Shin Megami Tensei V, or SMTV for short, is the most high profile release the series has ever had, period. Up until now it has been one of those series that, while being popular in Japan, was still a niche interest here in the West. I am reminded of the massive success seen by Fire Emblem: Awakening, which brought the then-waning franchise into a worldwide spotlight that renewed interest in the Fire Emblem series for years to come. It feels as if this was ATLUS’ attempt at the same trick While I don’t think Shin Megami Tensei V is good enough to give ATLUS quite the same level of acclaim, it’s more than enough to pull in a brand new wave of Western fans to the series.

Like many people in the West, Shin Megami Tensei V marks my first foray into the SMT games. I didn’t know what to expect, beyond the vague notion that it was ‘kind of like Persona’ and that Jack Frost, ATLUS’ mascot, would show up at some point.

I was correct on both fronts. Shin Megami Tensei shares some themes and gameplay with Persona, but focuses far more on gameplay. The large majority of playtime is dedicated to exploration, turn-based combat, and the recruitment of demons. These demons will form the rest of your party, and can be levelled up and fused together to create new, more powerful ones.

I knew it wouldn’t focus so much on the story and characters — that was always Persona’s wheelhouse — but I wasn’t quite prepared for the way in which SMTV throws the protagonist right in the thick of it without much in the way of introduction. While some games will introduce each concept one by one to avoid confusing you, SMTV doesn’t seem to mind if you are confused or not. Without leaving you much time to process things, the game takes you from “You are a normal high school boy” to “Now you’re in the future where Tokyo is destroyed” to “You’ve been fused with a prototype demon, now you’ve been recruited in the war between angels and demons”. It doesn’t help that the protagonist seems utterly unconcerned with anything happening around him. This is becoming a common problem among silent protagonists: as graphical quality improves and character models become more detailed, it becomes very difficult to ignore the main character’s eerie, blank stare in the face of apocalyptic events.

Luckily, it was easy to forget the story and focus on demon recruiting and combat, which is the meat and potatoes of the game anyway. I was perfectly happy spending hours exploring the destroyed Tokyo 20 years in the future, completing quests and finding items. The turn-based combat seems to have been as perfected as it can possibly be, having combined classic turn-based strategy with a system that rewards you with extra turns the longer you target your enemy’s weaknesses. I am usually not a fan of turn-based combat, but SMTV’s combat kept me engaged and rewarded right up until the end.

The world looks slightly less nice in the Switch’s handheld mode, which leaves the game looking weirdly muddy. It’s still playable, but the game is clearly at its best in docked mode with the benefit of 1080p.

The Nintendo Switch was a strange choice of console for ATLUS to entrust with their beloved flagship title, and I don’t think it was the right one. These graphics would have looked incredible on a machine capable of 4K, but more importantly, the Switch seems to struggle slightly running the game. It’s nothing that ruins the experience, but the frame rate often dips below 30FPS, with occasional moments of lag when traversing the world. Even the pause screen lags for a brief moment.