Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is an intense, weird, and incredibly enjoyable dungeon crawler. Though newcomers may be understandably intimidated at its lack of hand-holding, Strange Journey’s intense world and deep fusion system make it one of the most unique RPGs on the 3DS.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Developer: Atlus
Price: $39.99
Platforms: Nintendo 3DS (reviewed)
MonsterVine was provided with a 3DS code for review.
Much like the Persona series, Strange Journey is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series. While Persona focuses on social links and friendships between teenagers, Strange Journey is about the dark underbelly of our world and friendships with demons. It certainly lives up to its name in every way, as Strange Journey will bring you on a bizarre, addictive, but overall pleasantly strange journey.
Strange Journey takes place in a world much like our own, aside from the enormous black hole that’s slowly engulfing Antarctica. As the world panics about the rift in space-time that devours the continent, multiple governments band together to send scientists and soldiers into the demon-inhabited abyss, officially dubbed the Schwarzwelt. Entry into the Schwarzwelt doesn’t go well, leaving only a single command team and scant survivors to finish the original mission: to learn about the void and to stop it from destroying the Earth.
The story delves into an examination of human nature, using the demons for contrast. Though the characters aren’t particularly deep for the most part, Jimenez and Bugaboo are particularly fantastic. The floor-boss demons are strong characters themselves, thanks to their unique personalities and theologies. A lot of these theologies are reflective of Strange Journey’s recurring theme: that humanity can often be more vile than demons.
“I like how Strange Journey conveys the message, I just wish it had a bit more restraint in how often it conveys it.”
The criticism does feel a bit tired at times, as more than a few characters talk about how selfish and greedy and cruel humans can be. I like how Strange Journey conveys the message, I just wish it had a bit more restraint in how often it conveys it. When you’re running around a distorted shopping center with signs about consumption and greed, it feels a bit excessive to have demons talk about how vile humans can be. The theme works well, it’s just used a bit too frequently.
Strange Journey excels in its gameplay, which alternates between simple dungeon-crawling and complex demon fusion. While exploring the various floors of the Schwarzwelt, your character will come across a variety of demonic foes, many of whom are based on various myths and legends from around the world. These demons can be recruited and used as teammates through negotiation. Rather than catch or tame demons, it’s up to you to convince each demon that you’re worth teaming up with. This requires analysis of each demon type’s speaking pattern, which is far more interesting than it sounds. Some demons are like cynical old men who like when you agree with them, while others value manners and decency above all. You’re always on your toes when negotiating with different demons, which makes each recruitment feel earned.
Combat is standard fare for the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. You and your demons fight foes in first-person turn-based combat using a variety of physical attacks and elemental magic. Enemy and ally demons alike have different elemental resistances and weaknesses, which are often found through trial and error. This makes Strange Journey’s difficulty somewhat customizable, as exploiting weaknesses can make or break any boss battle, or even any regular battle. Strange Journey, while easier than core Shin Megami Tensei games, is certainly challenging. Any random encounter could kill an unprepared player, which adds a sadistic (or perhaps masochistic) sense of tension to the entirety of the game.
While you gain experience through battle, the best way to make your party stronger is to fuse your different demons together. Thanks to the seemingly infinite amount of fusion combinations, you’ll never grow tired of finding new and more powerful demons to crush enemies with. When you add in the ability to imbue certain skills into different fusions, you end up with a system that is full of depth and incredibly fun to explore.
“Every floor of the Schwarzwelt has a different theme, each of which embodies a vice of mankind’s.”
Visually, Strange Journey boasts a unique style that mixes strange but creative designs with a dark twist. From the iconic Jack Frost to the intimidating Ippon-Datara, every demon has a design that tells you everything you need to know about them. Every floor of the Schwarzwelt has a different theme, each of which embodies a vice of mankind’s. From the natural and fierce beauty of the Womb of Grief to the dimly-lit and scum-marinated streets of Sector Bootes, every part of the Schwarzwelt is expertly crafted to convey a different sense of dread. Some of the environments can feel a bit samey though, making navigation difficult without the constant use of the second screen’s map.
Strange Journey’s soundtrack is suitably moody, going between fast battle themes and slower, creeping atmospheric tracks. A few of the tracks blend together and become forgettable, but the overall soundtrack is strong enough to make up for this. The majority of Strange Journey is voice acted as well, and it’s done incredibly well. Different demon types have different manners of speaking, while each human character’s voice is fitting of their personality.
The Final Word
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is a fantastic and suitably strange dungeon-crawler RPG. The game’s accessible story and stellar demon-fusion help craft a unique experience that, while difficult and intimidating to new players, is a must-have for RPG fans.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
