Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux

 3DS
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release Date: May 15, 2018
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 293 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 141 out of 293
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 293
  3. Negative: 145 out of 293
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  1. option1live
    Jul 7, 2018
    0
    I want to give "Redux" at least a one but I can't bring myself to do it. Instead, Redux is a complete roadmap on how to take one of the most brilliant, underrated, and overachieving games in all of JRPG history and turn it into an ugly, broken, bland, just shy of unplayable slog of mediocrity.

    Every single thing that made the original ORIGINAL has been twisted and warped into a mess    I want to give "Redux" at least a one but I can't bring myself to do it. Instead, Redux is a complete roadmap on how to take one of the most brilliant, underrated, and overachieving games in all of JRPG history and turn it into an ugly, broken, bland, just shy of unplayable slog of mediocrity.

    Every single thing that made the original ORIGINAL has been twisted and warped into a mess that parodies the exact message the original writers tried to instill. I would like to have a complete discourse on why this game sucks a fat one but I can break it down in easy to swallow bullet points:

    - This game is ugly: textures are flat and boring, demon designs look rough as heck, demon animations look jarring and gangly, NPCs look like something out of a dating simulator, the main characters look super generic and downright weird at times, the awful swirling 'smoke' effect brought in from SMT IV battles looks nauseating, (as does the 'shifted' camera position when attacking), backgrounds (and background objects) don't mesh well with objects in the foreground, and somehow the entire game looks blurry... as if they intended to add 3D but cancelled at the last moment. The original game looked vibrant and beautiful on the DS; what the heck happened?

    - Battles move painfully slow. And all the SMT IV attack animations look crappy. Even holding down on the A button to 'fast forward' attacks, it still moves about a third as fast as the original game's auto battle. In a game that needs you to do some grinding, this is important.

    - The game itself is slow AF. Walking from dungeon tile to dungeon tile is painfully slow. Checking forma is slow. Starting a battle is super slow. They added a dash function and it's STILL too slow. How do you take a game that averages 80 hrs out of a player at full speed and make it slower?

    - The UI is so freaking ugly it makes me hate the game. The original had small, scrunched damage numbers and small, still shots of demons in your party. That was it. They somehow made it vastly worse.

    - The game has been completely unbalanced for absolutely no reason. Overall the game is waaaaay easier. If you're new to the series, seeing enemy health bars might be nice, but actually messing with the very format of battles, items, weapons, subapps, has created a game that feels unfinished. Magic and status effects are borderline useless and physical attacks are so stupid strong (but still seem to miss about 25% of the time) that about 60% of all the demons, items, armors, apps, and weapons can be completely ignored.

    - Clear, one sided balancing issues in regards to microtransactions. It's SUPER obvious they made things cost too much and give less rewards in the hopes you'll pay real money for shortcuts.

    - The added character/storyline is jarring and doesn't fit in the game naturally whatsoever. Also, wtf is with the new dungeon and why? Feels like an overpriced DLC map (convoluted, time wasting, and with virtually no payout).

    - Story elements have been censored. If I recall, at no point do they call sector Boots a 'red light district'. Now it's called a 'business district'... Okay, so it's wall street lawyers and brokers in meetings behind the curtains in Mithra's castle? That's just one example and I've found several in the 20 or so hours I've been playing.

    - The only single thing I enjoy over the original is the Japanese voice work... but when it's playing over the most generic anime-tropish and downright cringy looking NPCs, it not only takes the seriousness out of the situation, it makes you feel like you're watching filler episodes of your favorite anime- you want to watch because you know the story is good, but it ultimately leaves you bored and ready to go back to episodes with real consequences and character development.

    - Demon conversation are WAY the heck easier, which kind of takes A LOT of the nuance out of the game. There were so many different personality types and deep responses from demons- admittedly hard as it was- it makes the game feel gimped to recruit demons now.

    - They took out the in game achievements. Why in the heck would they do that? Those were part of the charm of the original and in no way affected or detracted from the core gameplay loop.

    Not only did they do virtually nothing when it comes to 'remaking' the game, they took almost everything that made it great and threw it in the trash. Yes, the original was hard; I can admit it took me at least three tries and quite a few hours before I saw it to the finish but that's what the game was. And it was a brilliant game. This is everything Strange Journey was not.    … Expand
  2. midipon
    May 24, 2018
    2
    A first question one must ask when buying this game: is it more or less expensive than the DS version? The original is perfect as is, making this games was an absolute waste of resources on Atlus's part, though I'm sure it was developed by a B-team to keep the cost as low as possible and rake in as much money as possible from sales.
  3. pythonmamba
    May 17, 2018
    3
    The biggest fans of the SMT series are surely to still like this game, but it doesn't justify being played by anyone else nor is it really worthy for everyone else, as what changes are mostly tweaks that many won't even notice, give preference to the original game first if you wanna know the series, it also looks better.
  4. Trey82
    Jan 31, 2020
    2
    OH MY GAWT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!
    So alright, I read the reviews.
    I played the original and adored it. Frustratingly adored it. I have this idea of perfection that no games can get close to, but they have snippets of brilliance that would work AMAZINGLY well in the right circumstances. Etrian Odyssey was great. Until it wasnt. And then it was. And then SMT took the engine and turned it    OH MY GAWT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!
    So alright, I read the reviews.
    I played the original and adored it. Frustratingly adored it.
    I have this idea of perfection that no games can get close to, but they have snippets of brilliance that would work AMAZINGLY well in the right circumstances.

    Etrian Odyssey was great. Until it wasnt. And then it was. And then SMT took the engine and turned it into the opposite ~ non map based, with an emphasis on story over gameplay.
    Which would be horrible, except that the Persona gameplay is jarringly good... it flawed.
    Years of playtesting via all those other games, and a testing ground of people who have played pokemon... make this game PERFECTLY balanced. (Not this 3ds garbage, the older DS version)

    perfectly balanced in that it strikes the JRPG chord of grinding, the paper rock scissors variations of weaknesses and strengths, fusions and guided evolution, and knowing that, unlike etrian odyssey, with just 15 more minutes of grinding your characters, and 2 hours of fuse/evolve magic... you could breeze through the next 3 floors on autopilot/autofight.

    This game, though.. has none of that.
    Which isnt to say that a newcomer would see that, necessarily.. because for every UI improvement, higher definition video or monster avatar.. there is something far more broken.
    I would like to call Al Pacino from devil's advocate, except I'm going to edit it for this game. Excuse my version of it, but I believe.. like John Cusack from High Fidelity said, you are using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. It is a subtle art.
    Ahem, anyway:
    "Atlus likes to watch.
    He's a prankster.
    Think about it.
    He gives PC/player's character... instincts.
    He gives you this extraordinary gift,
    and then what does He do?
    I swear, for his own amusement...
    ...his own private, cosmic...gag reel...
    ...He sets the rules in opposition.
    It's the goof of all time.

    Make it easier to visualize the story with actual NPC models, but edit the dialogue and their location badly. (This encounter used to be OVER THERE... in that room. That ROOM now has no purpose. What did you save me, 15 seconds of exploration?! Were people getting lost?)

    Talk to those characters or those demons, but now the conversations arent unique or endearing.

    Improve the UI to get to the Dia healing faster, but now you'll have to heal every 2 battles because the combat isnt as previously balanced!

    Condense the information on the bottom screen so you can get to it with the press of a button. But now it isnt as intuitive as scrolling with L + R.
    Go through the game expecting demon placement to make sense, as it used to? HAH NO! The rare encounters are now common! The next evolution of THOSE demons are now uncommon encounters! You are fighting the basic 2 demons WHILE their fusion isnt even necessary, because the next version ... YOU WILL BE FIGHTING AFTER A FEW BATTLES! I mean, why should I pick up basic demon A and basic demon B, when I can just hire their output?!
    You changed the voices to match their modern versions. Okay, not bad. Not good, either. But for a 'redux', that is to be expected.
    Music and SFX.. ehhh, nothing special. Feels more or less forgettable. Going back to my DS version .. or rather, playing etrian odyssey 5 ~ which has the modern or FM music option, I'm actually partial to the unique sounds of the older versions. (Hey, warcraft 3 reforged is getting the same flak right now, too! :)

    Items of a consumable nature are dropped more frequently, and forma seem to be dropped in a less compelling way. Farming mats is always a chore, but the remix they did and the emphasis on UI improvements or hunting mats is.. well, if you've played other Atlus games, you'll know. Its just that feeling you get when you play certain manufacturer's games... and in the specific time period.. like you know how rare a potion drop is in old squaresoft games, or how often you'll be overloaded with healing herbs in modern Atlus (COOKIE CUTTER RPG) games..
    They all feel the same, and yet not. Stella Glow, Radiant Historia perfect chronology and Rune Factory 4 all generally hand out their items in a certain fashion. Modern atlus feels like modern atlus.

    Anyway, older DS atlus games were tougher but consistent. This one loses the consistency for no reason.
    And that reason becomes highly apparent if you install the DLC.
    Or to explain it to anyone who will never buy/install the DLC... it feels like those smartphone freemium games where you are artificially.. ARBITRARILY... forced to grind for hours upon hours for no reason.

    But yeah, the game is rebalanced around those experience and macca drop DLC items.
    Even after installing and playing with those, the new balance is way off. More mis
    The game is now unbalanced.

    And while you're jumping from one demon
    to the next, what is Atlus doing?
    He's laughing his ass off.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Best 3DS Game of 2018
4
#4 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2018
6
#6 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. RPG Fan
    Feb 7, 2019
    95
    Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux's challenging gameplay might not be for everyone, but those it does appeal to will find a well-crafted dungeon-crawling experience with a thought-provoking narrative.
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  2. GameCritics
    Jul 23, 2018
    75
    Strange Journey was an enjoyable ride. Seeing the different dungeons of the Schwarzwelt and how the motivations of the demons (and how they felt about humans) blended well with each area.That said, those already familiar with the Shin Megami games will likely enjoy this reissue more than series newcomers thanks to its general difficulty and the inconsistency of the negotiation mechanics — it can be a bit polarizing for those who aren’t accustomed to the mechanics.
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  3. RPGamer
    Jul 20, 2018
    70
    I enjoyed my time with Strange Journey Redux, and the many things its dungeons offered will stick with me. Its narrative is also interesting and should be applauded for what it attempts, even if the story’s reach is not quite what it can attain. I was also ready to be done by the time the credits rolled and uninterested in starting the whole thing again to see another ending or reach the heretofore-forbidden areas, which keeps Redux from being among the crowning achievements in my RPG experience. It was a worthwhile title to encounter though, and should at least be tried by anyone curious.
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