Shin Megami Tensei IV

 3DS
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release Date: Jul 16, 2013
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 626 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 434 out of 626
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 626
  3. Negative: 158 out of 626
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  1. violentvito
    Jul 18, 2013
    7
    I am 7 hours into the game and I am still not sure what the point is. Are the demons making a come back? The characters on the other hand are very fun and lead the story along very nicely. The battle system is a bit complicated and feels over done, but once you get used to it you begin to enjoy it a lot. Capturing demons is horrible and the worst feature of the game, "stop stealing myI am 7 hours into the game and I am still not sure what the point is. Are the demons making a come back? The characters on the other hand are very fun and lead the story along very nicely. The battle system is a bit complicated and feels over done, but once you get used to it you begin to enjoy it a lot. Capturing demons is horrible and the worst feature of the game, "stop stealing my stuff demons!!" I am enjoying this game so far and it will hopefully continue to improve as I grow used to the SMT mechanics. I recommend giving this game a go if you can get it on sale as I did. $20 after the $30 rebate, already had Fire Emblem. I would not pay $50 for it though.… Expand
  2. birdman3
    Nov 6, 2013
    6
    There are comparisons out there between Pokemon and SMT. I can understand the comparisons to a certain degree, and as someone who had not played a SMT game before this one, I consider their similarities to be limited. In Pokemon, you recruit a team that you develop and strengthen, choosing your strengths and weaknesses explicitly. In SMT, you recruit demons, which you subsequently fuseThere are comparisons out there between Pokemon and SMT. I can understand the comparisons to a certain degree, and as someone who had not played a SMT game before this one, I consider their similarities to be limited. In Pokemon, you recruit a team that you develop and strengthen, choosing your strengths and weaknesses explicitly. In SMT, you recruit demons, which you subsequently fuse into other demons. There is no demon that you can keep with you from beginning to end- this game is not meant for that. As for strengths and weaknesses, you can take steps in this game to eliminate almost all weaknesses. What I mean is this: by the end of the game, all my demons were almost clone copies of each other. The most effective strategy involves trying to give as many of your demons as many different elemental attacks as possible so you can abuse the system to get as many attacks as you can. So I had multiple demons all with Cold, Fire, Lightning, etc.-based attacks so that they could be effective against any enemy. When I fused a cool demon, it was sad knowing that he would be useless in 3 levels and I would just fuse him into another demon, who may or may not resemble anything from a children’s toy to a geographic landmark. The evolutions that are available in the game are somewhat exciting, but they’re rare to find, and the evolutions don’t always make sense. The story in the game is fairly lackluster, and I really disliked having to navigate myself through Tokyo on my own. You have to remember where all the locations are, and even then- the quests have a way of not letting you know exactly where you need to be. I spent a good deal of time lost and having to look up guides online to see where I needed to go next. Overall, my experience with this game was fairly negative- the unique combat system was interesting, but it was also repetitive. Fusing demons was cool when you got cool demons, but most of the time the best demons were ridiculous-looking. I’d have been better off replaying Fire Emblem.… Expand
  3. GTAFANBOY
    May 27, 2014
    6
    Being a European, I have not been able to play this game yet, and knowing Atlus, I never will, however, to avoid missing out I watched many YouTube clips of the game, and in my opinion it is one of the best Pokemon games yet, the game begins with you playing as an anime who has became a pokemon man, and the female protagonist of another Pokemon Strange Journey has started to turn everyoneBeing a European, I have not been able to play this game yet, and knowing Atlus, I never will, however, to avoid missing out I watched many YouTube clips of the game, and in my opinion it is one of the best Pokemon games yet, the game begins with you playing as an anime who has became a pokemon man, and the female protagonist of another Pokemon Strange Journey has started to turn everyone into Europeans, meaning you must stop female protagonist of Strange Journey from making more Europeans, because if you don't, Atlus will have to eventually release the game for PAL territories.

    The game has the good old Law and Chaos paths instead of the whiny Emo Reasons that the antagonists in the game had, apart from Hikawa, he was cool.
    The Chaos path has you side with the evil Europe fanbase as you set out to destroy the the NA region.
    The Law path however has you side with the NA and wipe Europe out, then everyone is happy and plays Persona 4 area.
    I decided to watch the Chaos ending myself.

    Not as good as Persona 2, that one had Hitler in it, other than that Chie is best girl and you're waifu sucks and Europe does not exist.
    I give it a six.    … Expand
  4. Dynel
    Jul 25, 2014
    6
    Only for fans. That's the sad truth of this game. And even then, only Hardcore Fans will find this game suitable to their tastes. As it is quite difficult to do anything. Earn money, "macca" is so difficult that you need the DLC to grind money, and even then, it's not a mission that can be done early in the game, you have to advance quite a bit to be able to beat the enemies that drop theOnly for fans. That's the sad truth of this game. And even then, only Hardcore Fans will find this game suitable to their tastes. As it is quite difficult to do anything. Earn money, "macca" is so difficult that you need the DLC to grind money, and even then, it's not a mission that can be done early in the game, you have to advance quite a bit to be able to beat the enemies that drop the items to sell.

    leveling up is also difficult, and there's DLC for it as well. And for app points as well. Seems like you can circumvent the difficulty of the game after you play for well over 10 hours. Leveling to 10 or 20 isn't easy. As even level 1 demons can kill your level 14 special fusion demon. Kind of ... weird, considering it is an RPG where being high level should yield more damage against low level enemies and the low level enemies doing less damage to you, which isn't true in this game.

    defeating an enemy 1 level ahead of you isn't going to give a lot of experience, as it should, it all depends on where in the cave you are. And you are told to grind for levels everywhere you can, which is kind of boring, after doing so more than 3 times in two floors apart from where you started.

    The above points will no doubt make new players of the series stop playing completely, as a single demon with multi strike can kill off the entire party, even at full health, if you are caught by surprise. Those points prove that only die hard fans or hardcore fans will stick with the game and finish it.    … Expand
  5. guiletheguiles
    Mar 18, 2021
    7
    While definitely not perfect, Shin Megami Tensei IV is probably one of the most addictive jrpgs I've ever played.

    The art style alone made me immerse myself into this bleak world of demons and play the game for about 60 hours. Chracters might not be well developed, but they're unquestionably well-designed. The same can be said about the demons, but on a much bigger scale. Each demon is    While definitely not perfect, Shin Megami Tensei IV is probably one of the most addictive jrpgs I've ever played.

    The art style alone made me immerse myself into this bleak world of demons and play the game for about 60 hours. Chracters might not be well developed, but they're unquestionably well-designed. The same can be said about the demons, but on a much bigger scale. Each demon is unique and intriguing enough so you'll never get enough of collecting and fusing them. I've wasted countless hours checking their stats, playing with the fusion network, reading their descriptions. I couldn't get tired of it.
    One other thing that kept me glued to the game was the combat. The famous SMT press turn system is incredible. Finding enemies' weaknesses feels rewarding as hell and making sure that your character and demons are well-protected and well-prepared doesn't feel at all like a chore, it's actually entertaining. Part of why the battles work so well is likely due to how fast-paced, fun and challenging they are.
    As for the story, well... It's good. Its semi-minimalistic approach does handle well the ending for each route. It's just not AMAZING. But it does carry an intense and dense atmosphere, touching on some interesting themes and expanding the post-apocalyptic world more and more as it progresses. It's just sad that main and supporting characters are somewhat forgettable.

    As for the icing on the cake, it has to be the soundtrack. It's simply nostalgic and astonishing. Completely matching the game's mood, hyping some exciting (or gloomy) moments and providing some bonafide tracks. If Shin Megami Tensei IV were an album only, no game included, I'd still love it.

    But SMTIV isn't without its shortcomings. I've encountered BIG issues here.

    First and foremost: Every map in this game sucks!
    Traversing through Tokyo is the worst part in the game. The overworld map is weird, slow confusing and extremely unintuitive. The same goes for the dungeons. They're repetitive, wonky and lazy. Thank god for the art direction, because the environments and directions presented are horrible. The entire game, no matter which route you choose, screams AIMLESS. And that's a huge problem! It's such a huge design flaw that it ended up hindering a chunk of my experience with the story and my progression, in general.
    Another extreme nuisance for me was the negotiation system. Again: Aimless!
    It's purely luck-based and let me tell you that luck isn't at your side at all in this game. One pure example for this is the vastly exaggerated difficulty right at beginning. It's brutal! And yes, it does get easier after you take down the Minotaur, but why the **** make the TUTORIAL area so unbearable? Makes no sense...
    The last problem lies in the Challenge Quests. They're just... boring. While some of the challenges actually matter, most of them are useless and unrewarding. And if you're somehow stuck in the neutral route, boy... Good luck getting the 1st place in the hunter board. It's a slog!

    All in all, Shin Megami Tensei IV is an underrated gem on the 3DS. An addictive experience, with an interesting story and an amazing battle system.
    The game's mistakes are undeniably ruthless and irritating, but if you manage to get through them, you'll find a very good jrpg to play for a long while.    … Expand
  6. ParkerI
    Jun 28, 2016
    7
    At about 15 hours into this game, I'm not sure if its worth continuing. The visuals and the atmosphere of this game are nailed perfectly. The combat system is simple turn based RPG fair which I expected going into it. However, its too much rock paper scissors with very little strategy involved. The real challenge in this game is keeping your Demons alive with the over powered encountersAt about 15 hours into this game, I'm not sure if its worth continuing. The visuals and the atmosphere of this game are nailed perfectly. The combat system is simple turn based RPG fair which I expected going into it. However, its too much rock paper scissors with very little strategy involved. The real challenge in this game is keeping your Demons alive with the over powered encounters and bosses. Luckily, unlike most RPGs you can visibly see the enemies and proactively ignore them if you want. When the game finally opens up from its introduction, is when it takes a huge leap forward with many alternate paths. However, getting past the difficult early part of the game left a sour taste in my mouth.

    The catch to this game that's supposed to separate it from other RPGs is the demon recruiting and fusing process.

    Recruiting is interesting giving a risk vs. reward dynamic. Failure to choose the correct dialogue options will skip to your turn and potentially leave to your team taking loads of damage. Successfully recruiting a demon, gave me an adrenaline rush especially when receiving a Mecca and/or other gifts in return. You can unlock perks to improve this process (which I recommend).

    Fusing demons is addictive. Though the more I dove into this game, the more this one glaring problem was made evident. The demons are not UNIQUE enough. Pokemon for instance has HUNDREDS at this point and manages to make them all feel unique with movesets, abilities, and typings. SMT4 feels like a step back from the Pokemon series. With Demons recycling the same moves and unnoticeable improvements from fusions.

    The story does save the game. If you like dark, gritty, and engaging story and characters this game does shine. The characters are all fully voiced all with distinct and interesting personalities and goals. There are different endings based on the choices you make in the story. I have yet to complete the game but I can already see the various paths you can go to have a profound effect on the story.

    Overall, this is a good game but its combat system doesn't offer anything unique or different from other RPGs since the SNES. I may finish SMT4 for the story but the high difficulty curve and generic combat is keeping me from continuing at this pint.    … Expand
  7. Ices1ice
    Aug 24, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Disclosure this is the only SMT game I have beaten besides persona 3 & 4 and I will probably compare to those as they are my only reference to this style of game. I finished this game on normal with a nutural run.
    Story- The story of this game takes a while to get going and it is ridiculously segregated as you will most likely get lost. The story is passable when it happens, it's a philosophical tale that will test you and put you in one of 4 endings. The part that kills it for me over say a persona title is that I couldn't care less about Jon, Walter, Isabeau or pretty much anyone in this game. Maybe if we knew something about these characters to humanize them a bit the twists would be more impactful. In persona you genuinely care about the characters because you see them at their worst you shoot the **** with them and you feel like you know them. They are real people unlike generic girl who's only characteristic is that she likes manga.
    Gameplay- The only reason to play this game, it's fun to fuse demons and come up with crazy builds, boss battles are challenging for a bit then you become the Archmage of the entire **** universe and cream anything in your way. Exploration sucks ass I looked up a guide and it still sucked don't recommend playing this game blind; most of your gameplay will be spent wondering what the **** to do.
    Music- BLAND nothing in this game stands out that I remember. Persona 4's music blows this games out of the water in my opinion. Every track in Persona is memorable and I can hum along to all of them. This game has out of place rock and ambient sounds that usually made me turn the sound off
    Conclusion- This game is for hardcore nutbags that are okay with gameplay and difficulty over literally everything else. There is a very low variety of gameplay so you better love negotiating, fusions and Boss Battles because there is little else here of value. It was entertaining enough but it is a far cry from the quality of Persona.    … Expand
  8. Terrorgod
    Feb 28, 2020
    7
    Other than the persona series, SMT 4 is the first mainline shin megami tensei games I played. It took me awhile to beat this game as the first time I played it i didn't realize how much more intense this game was than persona (this is a thing i learned to love). The first thing I can immediately note is how the game doesn't handhold you at all. The start literally does some exposition,Other than the persona series, SMT 4 is the first mainline shin megami tensei games I played. It took me awhile to beat this game as the first time I played it i didn't realize how much more intense this game was than persona (this is a thing i learned to love). The first thing I can immediately note is how the game doesn't handhold you at all. The start literally does some exposition, tosses you in a dungeon, and tells you to kill, befriend, and etc with demons. These demons can actually kill you at this point in the game easily, which is kind of great. Your friends in the game aren't overly hands on as well which means that any accomplishment really feels like it belongs all to the player, creating a great risk and reward system that feels amazing when you finally overcome and obstacle that seemed insane at first.

    Going into more depth on the gameplay, it uses a combat system called the press turn system. In which on your turn you are given markers equal to the amount of party members you have, each action costs a marker, if you get a critical or hit a weakness the marker instead starts glowing for another use, missing however makes you lose two markers. Overall with a party of 4 (which you will always have after the tutorial) makes it so you can have up to 8 turns or as low as 2 if you are unlucky. These same rules apply to enemies (and are only slightly changed for some bosses) but create some of the most fast paced and intense turn based jrpg combat out there. Combat always feels good, trash spawns can get you off guard, experimenting actually has merit, etc. Overall I loved the combat. But after getting past that, the rest of the gameplay is kinda dull in comparison. Level design past the tutorial is kinda iffy at best, no real dungeons besides some randomly generated ones that don't have alot of purpose unless you are going for a hidden ending and even then im not sure they all matter as they respawn, characters are all over the place along with the story, which is fine but some are just extremely underused and forgotten which makes you scratch your head a bit. Traversing the world has its ups and downs and the map is horrid, it can be hard to spot things even on a 3ds XL.

    Overall loved the experience overall, its heavy, dark, and extremely fun. Probably one of the best games on the 3ds, and definitely the game I've sunk the most time into on the system. I only wish it wasn't on this system on on the vita at the time so I would have experienced it sooner and had it in more detail as this game was definitely pushing the tech to its limits. 7/10 would bring walter to minotaur again.    … Expand
  9. INU4SH4
    Jun 22, 2020
    7
    I'm a huge fan of the SMT and Persona universe and at first, I really loved the atmosphere and challenges delivered by SMT IV, but after a few hours, the game becomes painfully easy. This was actually my first game in the series following some Persona games, so initially, this looked like Persona on steroids but the magic quickly vanished. This pales in comparison with other games in theI'm a huge fan of the SMT and Persona universe and at first, I really loved the atmosphere and challenges delivered by SMT IV, but after a few hours, the game becomes painfully easy. This was actually my first game in the series following some Persona games, so initially, this looked like Persona on steroids but the magic quickly vanished. This pales in comparison with other games in the series but still manages to be a pretty good game.

    The story was very good and the gameplay was solid as well but this game has a few crucial flaws holding it down.
    Firstly, its difficulty at later stages of the story compared to other SMT games was quite trivial. Another issue I had with SMT IV was the exploration. Exploring Tokyo in this game wasn't very fun, it was a painful experience and I kept getting lost all the time thanks to awful in-game tips. The last issue is the last freaking quest. The Chalice of Hope quest was just pure torture and almost killed the experience for me but I endured.

    Good game but could be better. Still recommend playing this to hardcore JRPG fans and the sequel SMT IV Apocalypse is definitely worth the trouble.    … Expand
  10. Heraldrick
    Apr 22, 2023
    7
    When I think back on my experience with SMT 4 I tend to think of the orgasmically good combat and a few standout moments of the story in a setting I never clicked with. The Press-Turn system alongside the "Smirk" mechanic is a fantastic foundation for any game to build off of. SMT 4 goes above and beyond that though, this is the game that made it so when I get absolutely destroyed an enemyWhen I think back on my experience with SMT 4 I tend to think of the orgasmically good combat and a few standout moments of the story in a setting I never clicked with. The Press-Turn system alongside the "Smirk" mechanic is a fantastic foundation for any game to build off of. SMT 4 goes above and beyond that though, this is the game that made it so when I get absolutely destroyed an enemy in a turn-based game I just go "ah, feels like home." Because I know that I will soon go from being the one getting abused to turning that enemy/boss into a wimp screaming for mercy when they hear MY boss music after some prep. This game is worthy of many dozens of hours of play if only to experience this combat and go from being a boss's b"tch to making the boss your b"tch.

    Where I think this game falls short is in the traversal and branching story. I generally prefer character-driven stories with settings among the more fantastical rather than apocalyptic. Unfortunately, this game embodies some of the reasons why. Traversing the overworld was a nightmare, just to find my way to the next story beat I often had to pull up a fan-made map on my computer screen and trace the needed route with my finger because everything looks the same in the apocalypse. And while this game is more character-heavy than other SMT titles it doesn't really center much of the conflict around them, they are just outlets for the writers to ask broader questions from the player. Though I should note it was just good enough with the combat so amazing that I played it all the way to the end.

    Some advice for those thrillseeking through this title:
    Learn to buff
    Love to fuse
    Walter will not "end it thus"    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Best 3DS Game of 2013
8
#8 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2013
5
#5 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 48 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 48
  3. Negative: 0 out of 48
  1. Hobby Consolas
    Jan 23, 2015
    90
    The combat system, character development and demons are a great evolution from previous games, but graphics needs some improvement.
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  2. games(TM)
    Jan 8, 2015
    90
    An incredibly in-depth RPG that should result in no two players having a similar run-through. [Issue#156, p.122]
    Read full review
  3. FNintendo
    Jan 4, 2015
    80
    It keeps some of the best aspects of the series, while adding new and always welcome content. The game's pace keeps the player interested non-stop and its overall quality redeems Shin Megami Tensei IV from the late European release.
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