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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux Review

by Mike Moehnke · Published July 19, 2018 · Updated November 18, 2018

Age of Extinction

Every few years I get in the mood to tackle something else from the massive Megami Tensei line of titles, and that synced conveniently with the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux . The word from this game’s original edition warned that it would be a considerable timesink, and that is most definitely still the case. Strange Journey in its Redux form actually manages to be even more of a timesink due to the addition of a mammoth new dungeon to explore, but at least this is not a complete waste of the many hours required to persevere. My urge to play anything else in the series has been successfully quashed for another year or two.

A baffling phenomenon in Antarctica called the Schwarzwelt has aroused the intense interest of decision-makers around the world. This phenomenon is slowly expanding from the South Pole and placing all land inside within a black border that is impenetrable to all scanning efforts. No drones sent into the Schwarzwelt have survived to return, and the images they managed to broadcast before contact was lost only produce more questions instead of answers. Four ships crewed with the most talented people possible are about to set out into the Schwarzwelt, in order to hopefully learn what is happening. Upon entering the area matters within quickly diverge from what was planned, and an already-dangerous mission sees its odds of success decrease further. The player takes the on role of a soldier recruited in the event that combat prowess is needed inside, something that quickly proves to be a helpful skill set to aid survival once the demons inside the Schwarzwelt appear.

Strange Journey Redux has an enormously ambitious narrative that attempts to detail a series of events through which a demonic takeover of the Earth could occur, while avoiding any obvious insertions of unbelievable methods to advance the plot. It has a fairly large cast of characters with some depth to their motivations. The personalities at play are not as complex as they could be, since certain key players are locked into paths regardless of what the player might choose. Such ambition is worthy of praise even when not everything the narrative attempts is a success, and Atlus USA’s typically strong localization ensures that what transpires remains gripping. This is an involving tale that manages to keep coming up with interesting developments throughout, and avoids treating the player like a dullard when doing so. Having three potential endings in the original game along with new material including additional endings for the Redux version ensures that plenty of time can be spent with this setting if desired.

Please be more specific. Who are they? If I knew, maybe it would mean something.

Efforts to give the player input into morality are where the narrative does not come off best, primarily thanks to the limited options available. Three morality tracks provide the options for responses in numerous scenarios, but often none of the available responses convey what the player would prefer to do. These segments definitely offer more shades of gray and realistic portrayals of humanity than will be found in most RPGs, but not nearly enough to represent the gamut of possibilities found in the real world.

Armed with a specialized suit that allows him to manipulate his surroundings, the protagonist wanders the multiple dungeons of Strange Journey while encountering plentiful demons along the way. In the vein of many other titles in this series, conversation with just about all battle participants is possible and often encouraged. Demons come with a sizable variety of personality traits, from old fogeys to creatures incapable of uttering more than guttural grunts. Conversation will frequently net rewards, and many demons are perfectly willing to join the player’s stable of party members if the right incentives are submitted. The chance also exists that the player will manage to infuriate instead of ingratiate, but the plentiful options for talking things through are both interesting and worthwhile.

Many demons cannot be convinced to join the player and must be created through fusion. All defeated bosses and numerous scarce beings not regularly encountered can be created via the combination of demons extant in the current stock, which is an absorbing process that will divert a substantial amount of time. As in other games from the series, what can be created is strictly limited by the protagonist’s current level, which at least provides an excellent reason to seek out additional combat. Fused demons can also inherit certain valuable abilities from previously-acquired party members, giving more incentives to spend time with this system.

Demonee-Ho will treat you like dirt, and you will like it, soldier!

Combat itself is a relatively straightforward turn-based affair in which the player and up to three companion demons duke it out against adversaries. Due to the presence of various elemental affinities and weaknesses, there is no such thing as a character optimal for every situation. Some enemies absorb or reflect attacks of specific types, and status ailments work regularly if the recipient is not immune. An important battle component is the automatic supporting attacks unleashed when an enemy’s weakness is hit, something that is most helpful against defensively-powerful opponents. Bosses require attention to be paid, as some of their abilities can destroy an unsuspecting player on even the lowest difficulty.

Navigation of the dungeons is often no less a task than prevailing in altercations, as these are sizable places with many devious tricks to tax the player. One-way doors and poisonous floor tiles are just the beginning — soon enough other nasty elements such as holes in the ground and teleporter mazes add to the bedlam. Patience and the presence of an automap on the lower screen aid in unraveling these tricky places, which are addictive to explore even as they befuddle. Strange Journey oddly locks off certain parts of dungeons until New Game Plus mode is achieved, and it is bothersome to see such locations appear on the map without any way to explore them, especially when the game already requires around eighty hours to complete.  That time can be lowered a bit by attempting to plow through the game without stopping to look around, but a great number of optional missions that usually ask for thorough navigation of the dungeons also exist to contribute still more content.

Redux adds a number of options to the mix, starting with the ability to choose a difficulty upon beginning the game. Casual challenge is not a cakewalk but does make things more manageable. The major addition to Redux is a new character’s appearance in the second dungeon which opens the Womb of Grief, a completely new area which itself takes at least twenty hours to explore. Going through the Womb of Grief is optional but yields extremely helpful abilities that can tailor random encounter rates to the player’s liking and make dungeon navigation much easier. Among the very helpful things to be gained in the Womb of Grief is a function that shows where a teleporter will take the party, something that otherwise is dependent entirely upon memory. Unless one waits until near the end of the game, it is impossible to explore the Womb of Grief in one trek, since its lower portions can only be unlocked once various abilities to open multiple types of sealed areas in the main storyline are achieved. Each new floor represents a completely different undertaking and exploring the place is a worthwhile endeavor. Going through it also broadens the game’s conclusion options.

Want to make your life easier? Get these and turn them on.

Inventory arrangement is not one of this game’s strong suits due to the sheer amount of time it can take. Each specific item has an individual maximum amount that can be in the player’s possession, which at least eliminates the need to constantly return to home base in order to dump surplus supplies. Most new creations of the home base crew available for purchase require very distinct components that enemies and environments won’t consistently produce, and this can lead to many occasions where a tempting thing is inaccessible until the player tediously acquires its constituent ingredients. Just sifting through the huge mass of acquired materials in order to sell what is unnecessary also takes a very long time when several hundred possibilities are present. In most other ways the interface is functional, but this tediousness is difficult to overlook.

Strange Journey Redux betrays its DS origins through the visuals that mostly date from its original iteration, though the result is not so much unpleasant as unremarkable. Dungeon layouts make the various areas distinct from each other but also have these places look pretty much the same within each location. An impressive variety of demon images will be found within, but they don’t move much and numerous designs will have been seen before in other Megami Tensei titles. First-person dungeon exploration rarely attracts much attention through its astounding good looks, and Strange Journey Redux does not break this trend. There are a few cinematic sequences which look nice but take up a very small portion of the time spent playing.

Redux adds voiced dialogue to all the plot developments, something that can help give a little more character to the personalities. Its Japanese cast is workmanlike throughout but does not achieve such a stellar quality of performance as to entice all players to listen, especially when numerous demons have short vocal clips that will be heard many times during the proceedings. The music has some good compositions but really needed more variety, especially in its dungeon themes. Too many areas use male choral effects that sound similar, and later areas get reused compositions from earlier. Certain tracks are indeed very pleasant to the ear, particularly those heard when confronting bosses, but they aren’t heard often enough.

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.

Redux content is nice

Interesting and alluring setting

Plenty of things to do

Time-consuming inventory management

Dungeon themes don't vary much

Tags: 3DS Atlus Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux

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I’m not sure when I’ll be playing this, seeing as I hadn’t even gotten around to getting the other endings in the original DS release. Still, I think I will enjoy taking this strange journey again.

Thanks for this, Mike. After 150ish hours of Backtrack listened to in 2018, hear your voice reading this in my head (is that weird?). Looks like a pretty decent time sink ahead for me once I clear a few others from the backlog!

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey review

Pokemon's goth cousin is a journey worth taking.

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Choice to battle or talk to most foes

Ominous chanting soundtrack

Spartan but effective graphics

2D sprites and 3D dungeons can be a bit plain

Might prove too slow for some

Horrifically doom-laden tone

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Some fans call the Shin Megami Tensei games ‘Pokemon with the lights out’. Even though the SMT series predates Pokemon by quite a few years, the flow of catching, levelling up and fusing demons feels very much like the basic Pokemon grind. But what sets SMT apart from other JRPGs is its willingness to tackle mature and truly apocalyptic themes. Strange Journey fits right into that tradition, telling the story of a doomed multinational effort to investigate a mysterious black hole called the Schwarzwelt that has appeared at the South Pole.

Strange Journey repurposes the engine Atlus created for the Etrian Odyssey series, so inside the Schwarzwelt you find maze-like dungeons brimming with demons and mythical creatures that, at best, are ambivalent about humanity’s survival. You’re protected by special power armour called the Demonica that lets you communicate with demons and turn them into allies. You can fight on your own in the dungeon if you want, but your guns and swords won’t take you far without some strong demon allies to watch your back.

The big difference between Strange Journey and Etrian Odyssey, modern paramilitary setting aside, is the alignment system. This is a classic Shin Megami Tensei feature that’s making a return after some time away. Throughout the story you’re allowed to make decisions that can align you as Neutral, Lawful or Chaotic. Your alignment dictates how well you get along with certain demons; if you have compatible creatures in your party, you can gang up on enemies to devastating effect.

In many ways Strange Journey plays like an update of the original SMT games that Atlus released for the SNES. Those games were deeply influenced by first-person PC dungeon crawlers such as Wizardry, and Strange Journey feels no different. Whether this is a positive or negative depends on your proclivities as a gamer, obviously. Many years ago, series creator Kazuma Kanako stated in an interview that the Shin Megami Tensei series was for players who looked at other JRPGs on the market and thought, ‘This isn’t me’. If you’ve ever felt that way, you’ll be quite at home with Strange Journey.

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Shing Megami Tensei: Strange Journey offers a memorable and thought-provoking horror story about humanity’s more destructive tendencies and a competent – if not revolutionary – dungeon crawling experience. 

Boasting the series tried and true formula of demon hunting and an engaging combat system , Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is an excellent dungeon-crawling RPG that successfully builds an oppressive, pessimistic atmosphere while telling a story about humanity’s suicidal greed.

The story is set at the end of the 21st century. Humanity amounts to 7 billion souls and social conflict has been escalating while the planet suffers. There’s war in Eastern Europe, an economic crisis in South America (rampant inflation has led people to raid malls), and the most powerful nations just stand by, accumulating wealth. To make matters worse, a space anomaly appears suddenly at the South Pole one day, releasing demons onto the world: called Schwarzwelt, this anomaly seems to be growing by the day and so a military excursion is sent there to investigate.

The Schwarzwelt is described as a natural phenomenon that is bound to destroy human civilization, as it’s absorbing its surroundings while it grows. Characters refer to it not as a natural disaster, however, but as Earth’s defense system: it’s not a random phenomenon, but a corrective measure.

The origin of the Schwarzwelt, the reason why it came to being, is at the heart of Strange Journey ’s narrative. Characters constantly debate over how it’s supposedly a response to humanity’s greed, a way for the planet to defend itself from a civilization that’s laying waste to its surroundings. The game opens with war, social inequality, and the complacency of the rich to get specific about the type of behavior that is being punished. Humans are painted as destructive beings and their will to live is treated as more of an annoying obstacle – much like the resilience of a cockroach – than a virtue.

The protagonist – a silent one – is a man that you can only change the name. He’s part of the expedition sent to the anomaly in the South Pole and his mission is to investigate the place and discover a way to make it disappear. Of course, their plans go awry pretty quickly and they get stranded inside it: they discover that the Schwarzwelt is a demon-infested land, formed by several planes of existence that mirror humanity’s errors.

One of these realms is a war-torn battlefield, reflecting humanity’s propensity to solve their problems with violence: it’s a ravaged place, with burning buildings and rubble everywhere. Another realm is a shopping mall – members of the expedition are quick to mention their consumerism habits – and there’s one that is littered with garbage.

The demons that populate these places are all responding to humanity’s doings in some way or another. This is a Shin Megami Tense i game, which means that the protagonist’s party is composed of the demons he is able to befriend in the field of battle: before offering money and items, or making a display of power, the player must convince them that they share the same ideology. This part is crucial to these negotiations, as the demons often mention the damage humans have done to Earth, condemning it and asking the protagonist – us – how one can proceed from then on. Some seek to punish, others to rebuild, and some offer only resignation.

These demons are fascinated with humans. If their actions seem condemnable, it’s because they are meant to reflect humanity’s mistakes. A genocidal demon, for example, says to the protagonist, “ We need only mimic you to slaughter humans on a grand scale. ” In other words, if they kill, imprison and murder humans, it’s only because we already do this to ourselves. In Strange Journey , the demons function as a dark mirror that reflects humanity’s worse traits, exposing to the members of the expedition that what motivates the Schwarzwelt is not evil, but natural retribution: the planet is defending itself. As an angel explains, “ The actions of the demons mirror the actions of humans. ”

It’s a staple in the Shin Megami Tensei series to offer three paths – Law, Neutral, and Chaos – to reach an ending. Law, represented by God and his angels, is usually related to order and oppression – a tyrannical government. Chaos, supported by Lucifer and his demons, is related to the law of the jungle – a meritocratic society where the strong eat the weak. The neutral path stands in the middle ground, trying to offer a compromise that gives power to humanity.

Strange Journey differs from the other Shin Megami Tensei games in the sense that the ideologies behind these paths don’t matter too much. What matters is that, here, they are all solutions to the same problem: humanity turned into a suicidal society that’s consuming the planet just so that a selected few can live like monarchs. Even the neutral path is pessimistic, deeming that even if the protagonist is successful at destroying this Schwarzwelt another one will not take long to appear. The problem that the protagonist faces, then, is that his mission is just a palliative solution, missing the cause of the destruction.

As this is a horror story, the incursion into the Schwarzwelt doesn’t go as planned and quickly derails. They become stranded in this foreign land that rightfully deems them monsters, being attacked by unknown assailants from all sides. Rescue missions go awry, leadership becomes scattered. Soldiers start to panic and think only about their own lives. The narrative is structured around these rising problems, giving a sense of urgency to the proceedings: there’s always something going wrong somewhere, there’s always a tragedy about to happen.

In the protagonist’s crew, Jimenez is the first character to stand out. He wants to escape that hellish place, but then return later with more resources. He believes that they are on a suicide mission, with no means to succeed or survive. His polar opposite is Zelenin, a woman who got captured by demons when she arrived at the Schwarzwelt – she had to watch her colleagues being slaughtered – and so resents using them in battle. She’s more cool-headed, always trying to maintain everyone’s spirits under control and offer a more honorable course of action.

Jimenez befriends a demon called Bugaboo, whose faithful and innocent personality gives off dog-like vibes that are supposed to make us root and care for him. But Jimenez is also constantly quarreling with the rest of the crew, displaying an alarming lack of tact and sometimes even empathy toward others: he cares about his interests first and foremost. Zelenin, meanwhile, detests demons because of her traumatic experience in the Schwarzwelt. This makes her a ripe candidate for being indoctrinated by the angels, whose binary discourse of good against evil favors and justifies the hatred she feels. And it’s just fitting that the character that represents the “Neutral path” mirrors its themes of death and rebirth of humanity.

Strange Journey is a first-person dungeon-crawling RPG. This means that each realm of the Schwarzwelt is a complicated labyrinth full of traps, dead ends, and monsters – that appear in random encounters. On the bottom screen of the DS/3DS, the map of these dungeons fills in automatically as we explore their many corridors and halls. Usually, each realm has a specific gimmick, such as tiles on the floor that deal damage to whoever passes through them, pitfalls that send the protagonist to the bottom floor, and even teleports that send him to specific places on the map. To make exploration a key factor in the game, important upgrades are scattered throughout the dungeons, allowing the protagonist to spot hidden doors or be able to see in dark corridors.

The game uses a turn-based battle system where the protagonist is always the leader of the party, which is composed of three demons fighting beside him. The protagonist is more of a supporting character in battle, as he doesn’t learn many skills – they are tied to his equipment – and is usually the only one that can summon new demons if one falls in battle or use items to assist the others.

The main gimmick here is how alignment impacts the battles: when a demon hits an elemental weakness of the other demon, they inflict more damage, and everyone that is of the same alignment – Law, Chaos, or Neutral – attacks together immediately, dealing unblockable damage. Since it’s advised for the demons to be of the same alignment as the protagonist – to maximize damage – the path the player wants to take in the story directly impacts the team of demons they must build: a player following the Law path will have a party mostly composed of angels, for example, which is fitting.

Strange Journey is not an easy game by any means – Dungeon Crawlers seldom are –, which leads us to carefully consider what demons to use and what skills they possess. Status effects such as paralyze, sleep, and poison are a bit one-sided – bosses are mostly immune to them, but our party is not – but buffs and debuffs are essential for both sides in battle: it’s imperative to use them against bosses, for example, whose enormous power, if left unchecked, can devastate our party with just one attack.

Redux Edition:

On the 3DS, Strange Journey comes in the Redux Edition, which adds a lot of quality-of-life features, such as the ability to save anywhere and equip more apps (which serve as additional skills), besides two optional dungeons – the first one being enormous – and a new ending for each path, if we complete those dungeons.

Unlike Radiant Historia , where the additional content only served to pad the game’s runtime and destroy its melancholic atmosphere – it ensured that everyone would have a happy ending – Redux ’s additions are a bit more balanced and rarely deviate from the original experience.

The big optional dungeon is called Womb of Grief. Just like the Schwarzwelt, it has many layers and floors, and their difficulty increases as the player ventures deep down, so to encourage them to complete it in parts as they progress in the main story. On the one hand, the Womb of Grief offers the same kind of challenges as the main dungeons, being built around the same traps and devices, which means it can be seen as a filler. On the other hand, the items we can get by exploring it make the traversal of the original dungeons less of a pain: one of them can reveal in the map where the teleports are going to send the protagonist, for example, which makes the layout of the later labyrinths less disorienting. In other words, the time we spend in the Womb of Grief, we gain back in the main story.

By the same token, if the protagonist can get a bit overleveled after the many battles of the Womb of Grief, making the random encounters in the main game a breeze, we can also acquire an app that makes random encounters with underleveled demons disappear, so we do not waste time battling them again. Also, there’s no more griding to defeat the final bosses, which here pose less of a roadblock since the protagonist can manage to get stronger by organically exploring the Womb of Grief.

Story-wise, the ending – at least on the Neutral path – doesn’t negate the themes and tone of the original story, but builds upon them. In the Neutral path, for instance, the ending leans more heavily on Christian symbolism than the original, but its take on humankind’s nature stays the same.

Shing Megami Tensei: Strange Journey offers a memorable and thought-provoking horror story about humanity’s more destructive tendencies and a competent – if not revolutionary – dungeon crawling experience.

September 10, 2022.

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Is An Underrated Treasure

Strange Journey isn’t as well-known as other Shin Megami Tensei games, but its unique setting and excellent writing make it one of the best.

Shin Megami Tensei is gradually gaining popularity, and, as with any growing series, a common question new fans have is where to start. Good cases have been made for games like the legendary Nocturne or the excellently-written Devil Survivor . However, one title that’s frequently overlooked is the series artist Kazuma Kaneko ’s personal passion project: Nintendo DS dungeon crawler  Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey .

Beginning as a spin-off to the main franchise, Strange Journey took on a life of its own with a more adult cast and international setting. For the first time in the core series' history, the story broke out of Tokyo and dealt with a global crisis. When a black hole-like dimension known as the Schwarzwelt opens in Antarctica, the Earth finds itself crossing over with a realm of demons, and humanity must send its best to investigate  the disaster. This unique narrative resulted in a game that was at once familiar and yet quite unlike anything the series had ever seen before.

Related:  The GENIUS of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne's Beginning

What immediately sets Strange Journey apart from almost any other RPG on the system is its tone. Many games attempt to be mature through a gratuitous combination of gore, nudity and profanity but fail to speak to deeper truths.  Strange Journey,  by contrast, while no stranger to adult content, is a refreshingly slow burn that lacks the desperate edginess of its competitors. Its opening cutscene is filled with tension, carefully exploring how the Schwarzwelt isn't just another demonic abyss. When the player finally braves its depths, they'll find it full of tacky cities, shopping malls, piles of garbage and other twisted parodies of human civilization.

These may not sound like especially disturbing locales, but each one represents a failing of the human race. Instead of leaning on old tropes about hellish punishments, Strange Journey takes a more contemporary approach to the Seven Deadly Sins . The rubbish-laden city represents peoples' wastefulness and the lack of respect for the world they live in. The shopping mall, plastered with commands to purchase and consume, is an explicit criticism of capitalism's excess and its struggle to satisfy humanity's constant need for more. Such critiques form the backbone of the game's writing,  as its story questions whether people can correct their flawed systems or if changing their nature is the only way to save the planet.

This question isn't necessarily new for  SMT , but  Strange Journey 's international setting makes it more relevant than the games about Tokyoite teenagers. Most children don't have a detailed grasp of the world's political and ideological problems, so asking them to recreate a planet they barely understand often seems absurd. In Strange Journey , the values held by different peoples directly informs the plot. The greedy but freedom-loving American Jimenez gradually warms up to the Schwarzwelt's inhabitants, implicitly relating their survival of the fittest mantra to his homeland's self-deterministic ideals. Contrasting him is the kind but paranoid Russian scientist Zelenin, who likely grew up in the USSR given the game's early 21st-century setting. Her longing for harmony and hatred of demons leads her to find kinship with the opposing angels, who reward her faith with the power to directly enforce it.

Related:  One Shin Megami Tensei Spinoff Was a Weird Pokémon Clone Aimed at Kids

By spiritually alluding to the Cold War,  Strange Journey brings the conflict between Law and Chaos much closer to home. Its representatives feel less like cardboard cutouts arguing for tyranny and more like real people making moral compromises to realize their utopias . While the original game accidentally undermined this by making Neutral the most positive ending, the 3DS re-release  Redux amended this with additional content. As a result, the game now has the most interesting and even charming alignment endings, letting Zelenin and Jimenez achieve their goals without losing sight of their humanity, while Neutral becomes far more morally complex.

For all its narrative triumphs, however,  Strange Journey  does have some flaws. Its dungeons are conceptually brilliant but can be obtuse to explore, and  Redux 's new environments aren't as interesting to look at. The Demon Co-Op system, which lets party members assist allies of the same alignment, is a decent battle system but lacks the strategic depth of the absent Press-Turns . Finally, the difficulty is somewhat uneven. Once players get past the first few levels, it doesn't take much to build an optimized party and annihilate the remaining challenges.

Yet, despite these shortcomings, Strange Journey is still a fantastic game. Its gameplay still has a lot of depth, and its strong writing offers plenty to both returning fans and series newcomers seeking a more mature story. While physical copies are hard to come by,  Redux 's continued availability on the 3DS store makes it a necessary purchase for those with the system. While the game may lack the epic scope of Nocturne or the refined mechanics of  Digital Devil Saga , it's still an excellent reimagining of everything that makes the series great. Those willing to make this journey won't soon forget it.

Keep reading:  Shin Megami Tensei: Alignments, Explained

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Review

Atlus' first-person dungeon crawler hits the ds..

Getting all there is to get out of Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey requires patience and a willingness to experiment and explore. Provided that describes you, there's plenty to enjoy in this lengthy dungeon crawler. Though the game's turn-based combat system is standard stuff, fusing demons, launching co-op attacks, and exploring the environments keeps things interesting. There's also a surprising amount of personality in the game, as dialogue sequences develop the characters, bosses, and quests to an impressive degree. It's not without a few bumps here and there, but Strange Journey's depth and wealth of options for customization make it a trip worth taking.

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Review

Sci-fi trappings don't make the repetitive gameplay in this dungeon crawler feel any less dated.

By Lark Anderson on April 6, 2010 at 6:34PM PDT

Since its inception, the Megami Tensei franchise has weaved elements of science fiction with fantasy stories to craft rich worlds steeped in the occult. With the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, developer Atlus has taken a slightly different approach with a story that is much more focused on science fiction than previous entries. Despite this shift in direction, however, Strange Journey is still a game firmly entrenched in the past. Longtime Megami Tensei devotees may be thankful for its return to the first-person dungeon-crawling roots of the series, but those expecting this to live up to the superb Persona 4 or Devil Survivor will be disappointed with the outdated gameplay, straightforward combat, and boring exploration of Strange Journey.

At the tip of the South Pole, a mysterious black spot that consumes everything within its boundaries has appeared. This spot, dubbed the Schwarzwelt, is observed to be expanding uncontrollably; thus, a multinational team of soldiers and scientists armed with the latest weapons and technology have been sent in to find a way to stop it. After crossing through the threshold, you learn that the Schwarzwelt is actually the gateway to a world of gods and devils fed up with the human race. After an accident traps you inside with demons who endlessly expound on how mankind has squandered and abused their planet without a shred of subtlety, it's up to you and your ship's crew to save the world and escape.

As an American soldier, you spend most of your time securing the various sectors that are found within the Schwarzwelt; each of them a twisted facet of the human world. Gameplay consists primarily of first-person exploration through these mazelike areas which, over time, become increasingly complex. They are also booby-trapped with pitfalls, moving floors, damage tiles, and the like. To survive the bland, repetitive, and presumably harsh environments in the Schwarzwelt, you're equipped with a suit of demonica armor. This set of prototype combat gear automatically maps your movements, and helps you uncover hidden passages, enemies, and items through various subapplications you install. Though the demonica proves invaluable, even with all of its utility, you still often find yourself wandering around aimlessly. There are times when your map does not show you where to go next and your list of objectives doesn't clearly communicate what to do, and so you have no choice but to stumble around looking for hidden passageways or the next story event. This is particularly frustrating if you return to the game after a break and forget where you are.

One area where your demonica does excel, however, is in facilitating interactions with the resident demons of the Schwarzwelt, whether they are violent clashes or philosophical debates. Depending on your equipment, you have a variety of attacks at your disposal to dispatch your enemies, but things don't always have to go down that way--some demons are open to talk. The demon negotiation system--most recently seen in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona on the PSP--has returned once more, allowing you to bribe, wheedle, or scare adversaries into becoming allies. Though this gameplay mechanic was fresh and innovative when it was first introduced well over a decade ago, it's no longer particularly exciting to figure out which of the multiple choice responses you're given will gain a demon's support or its ire. The system hasn't significantly changed in recent years, and dealing with demons in such a passive manner is neither engaging nor intriguing.

Regardless, successfully drafting demon allies means you can summon up to three of them to fight alongside you against their hostile neighbors in the turn-based combat system. Each demon has their own strengths and weaknesses, and so it's necessary to constantly tweak your party to ensure the optimal team depending on the situation. Demons aren't only meant for fighting, though--your recruits can also be fused together to create new, more powerful allies and to pass on special skills and abilities. You can even share your creations with your friends by trading passwords.

Strange Journey features a wide variety of demons to fight, recruit, and customize through fusion, each of which has its own meticulous artwork and animations (though some are reused from previous Megami Tensei games). Likewise, dungeon tile and texture art is highly detailed, though it unfortunately loses its luster due to the repetitive nature of the dungeon-crawling action. Veteran series maestro Shoji Meguro returns to score Strange Journey, and like other aspects of the game, his compositions shift slightly away from the norm to fit the sci-fi plot and settings quite well.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey may be the latest entry in the venerable franchise, but its outdated demon negotiation system and tedious dungeon-crawling action might have you think otherwise. Longtime series fans will no doubt appreciate its return to form for the dozens of hours its appropriately dark story will occupy them, but neophytes--especially those expecting something similar to games like Persona 4--are better off staying away.

• Leave Blank
• Lots of demon variety
• Excessively preachy story
• Dated negotiation system
• Repetitive dungeon-crawling action
• Objectives are often unclear

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (3DS) Review

Stranger still..

Those who hear the words, “Shin Megami Tensei” might think only of the ever popular Persona series. Little do they know, the SMT series spans well over a dozen games outside of the Persona entries and is one that has been going on since 1987.

One such game was “SMT: Strange Journey” for the Nintendo DS, and while it’s unlikely to make any best RPG lists, it was still received favorably by critics. Given the recent trend of Atlus going through their previously released DS games catalog and giving them the remastered treatment on the 3DS, it came as little surprise to see that Strange Journey would make its way to the 3DS in a similar fashion.

So, the only question that remained was whether or not it would be a remaster that would be worth the time, and the only way to find the answer was to embark on this strange journey once more.

The brand new character, “Alex” is out to make your life more difficult or easier depending on how you approach what she has to offer.

MSRP: $39.99 Platforms: 3DS Voice Acting: JPN Only Length: 50~hours

When a mysterious black hole forms near the South Pole, mankind is put to the test as the slowly expanding menace threatens to cover the entire world. Putting together the best and the brightest humankind can muster, they set out an expedition to explore this strange zone with the hopes to put a stop to its expansion.

If that sounds strangely familiar to the plot of the movie, “Annihilation”, that’s because it’s basically the same premise. To be fair, Strange Journey was originally released in 2009 while the book that inspired the movie was released in 2014 so there’s a bit of food for thought for those interested. Luckily, the similarities end there as once the expedition makes landfall, they’re not greeted by an alien entity but by demons and angels thought only to exist in legends.

As is the case with with most of the mainline SMT games, there’s a strong focus on the ideals of law and chaos without making one or the other seeming too much of the “right” choice to make. Delving into ambiguity and the subjective nature of morality has always been a strong suit of SMT, and it’s no different here.

The overarching story is renewed in part thanks to the addition of a brand new character named “Alex”, who first seemed bent on my destruction, but as I made my way through the “Womb of Grief”, I began to learn more about her motives and saw her as much more than just a deadly assassin. As for the newly constructed dungeon, it’s about as pleasant to explore as its namesake makes it out to be, and while it was decidedly more difficult than the story related areas, the various exclusive rewards made it well worth the effort.

The presentation has received a significant bump as well as now that all main event scenes are fully voiced in Japanese and there were newly drawn CGs that were used to accentuate the severity of various events, which was a nice touch. While it’s a shame we didn’t get an English voice option, the Japanese VA did an admirable job in their roles and I could feel the personalities of the various characters coming through with their performance.

Even though there was already quite a lot of content available in the original release, the Redux adds 3 more endings to the list as well as a slew of new demons to encounter and fuse.

The added CG helps inject a bit more drama to the event scenes.

As for the combat, it’s the standard SMT fare where characters are often weak or strong against certain types of attacks like fire, ice, wind, holy, dark and more. However, instead of affording another turn to the player when they hit a weakness, in Strange Journey, they are instead offered an opportunity to follow up the attack with demons that share the same… let’s say, moral disposition to the player character, which made building a capable team more complex than I originally anticipated.

When I was able to fully grasp the concept I was able to do the maximum amount of follow up attacks, which made short work of my foes, but I wondered if this was truly a better system than just getting a free turn when hitting weaknesses.

The limitation on sub-apps where I could get a variety of handy dandy effects like lowered encountered rate and passive regeneration was removed, allowing me to use as many of the sub-apps at once as I liked. Given that Strange Journey is a difficult game by nature, it was a nice touch to have more options in powering up my squad in passive ways.

There was also the addition of commander skills, which were unlocked via sub-apps which gave me the ability to use a powerful skill during battle that made a difficult fight into a simple one by letting my entire party get the first strike, reducing the number of enemies before the fight even began.

The quality of life extended far beyond skirmishes, as during demon fusion I was able to use a demon source which I could get from leveling up a demon in my party and by using one, I could directly transfer over a desirable skill instead of placing my hopes on RNGESUS to carry me through.

The combat will feel familiar to SMT veterans with some minor tweaks on the formula.

The biggest failings of Strange Journey is that it feels dated in more ways than one due to it being released almost a decade ago, as it suffers from pacing issues and lackluster level designs.

The beginning segments felt painfully slow as there was an excessive amount of dialogue, and it took more than a full hour just to get into the swing of things. While you could bring up games like Persona 4 where it takes hours to really get going, I would say that it’s not so much the “slow” part that is bad but rather that it is boring while being slow at the same time, making it feel even longer. The various dungeon areas often felt generic and uninteresting, and even though there were new hazards that were introduced from time to time, compared to the meticulously designed levels in Etrian Odyssey, it felt underwhelming.

Since 2009, Atlus has released many games and made strides in both storytelling as well as gameplay, and despite its many improvements, Strange Journey falls short of lofty standards Atlus has set for its modern games. Despite it certainly being the definitive version of the game to play, it leaves much to be desired under the shining banner of Shin Megami Tensei.

Fun tidbit – Some of the sub-apps and demons exclusive to the womb of grief are nearly game-changing and I highly recommend going through the dungeon as soon as new levels are unlocked.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

• Improved presentation
• Quality of life upgrades
• Challenging
• Uninteresting level designs
• Slow, boring pacing

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

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An enhanced port to the Nintendo 3DS , Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux , was released on May 15, 2018. The game includes new artwork for the characters, voice acting, animation, new demons, and three new endings. 350 demons are fusable in-game.

• 2 Characters
• 3.2 Demon Analysis
• 3.3 Co-Op Attacks
• 3.4 Demon Sources
• 3.6 Password System
• 3.7 Miscellaneous
• 4 Reception
• 7 References
• 8 External links

A mysterious black hole has appeared on the region of the South Pole and is expanding day by day. Concerned about this event, the United Nations sent a collection of elites from around the world to investigate the area called Schwarzwelt (シュバルツバース, Shubarutsubāsu , Schwarz-verse ). Inside, the U.N. Schwarzwelt Investigational Team finds that the area has been infested with supernatural beings known as demons that threaten to cross into the human world. As the team delves further into the Schwarzwelt, they find strange and repulsive callbacks to human society.

The player assumes control of an unnamed soldier from America (or Japan in the Japanese version), who will be working with three other crew members assigned by the Joint Project. The crew dons Demonica suits , which enables access to special abilities as well as regulating the player to the conditions within the Schwarzwelt.

Characters [ ]

From left to right: Zelenin, the protagonist, Commander Gore, Jimenez

The major characters of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey are:

• The protagonist - A USMC officer who underwent intense combat and command training between tours of duty. He was transferred to the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team by U.N. request. As a member of the Strike Team, his duties include off-ship missions and providing security for the expedition. He is on the crew roster for ship one, the Red Sprite .
• Commander Gore - The overall commander of the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team. He was originally a military officer serving a large country; the leadership abilities he displayed during his service earned him the top position on the team that now holds the fate of mankind. He commands the Red Sprite directly in addition to overseeing operations on the other three ships.
• Jimenez - Another member of the expedition with an American military background, Jimenez began his career as an enlisted man and is now a private contractor, attracted to the expedition by the promise of a financial gain. He serves on ship two, the Blue Jet , as a member of the Strike Team.
• Zelenin - A Russian scientist recognized for her research on the Schwarzwelt. Her position as the First Lieutenant of the Monitor Team was one of the first appointments made. Her chief duty is to research the Schwarzwelt's true nature along with her crewmates on ship three, the Elve .
• Arthur - The command unit for the Red Sprite , installed with an administrative pseudopersonality. From his vantage point tied into all the ship's systems, he extrapolates and proposes missions for the team. He is named after real life writer Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the science fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey .
• Bugaboo - Deep inside the Schwarzwelt, the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team finds Bugaboo, a demon that has undergone torture at the hands of other demons. Scanning Bugaboo shows that it is only 75% demon.
• Mastema - A mysterious entity that appears before the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team, resembling an angel with black wings. He is skilled in mystical arts and has the power to break the demons' barriers, but his countenance is more sinister than divine. He claims to have come to the Schwarzwelt on God 's orders. In the Japanese release, he was called Mansemat .
• Strange Girl - An enigmatic girl who speaks of demons and humans, but seems content to witness the proceedings rather than take an active hand. Her name is Louisa Ferre in the US version.
• Alex : A new character introduced in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux . She is hunting down the protagonist for unspecified reasons.

Gameplay [ ]

Strange Journey returns to the original Shin Megami Tensei style of dungeon crawling with a first person perspective, and uses animated sprites instead of 3D models. Additionally, there is no world map; each major area is completely isolated and can only be accessed through a hub area.

The inclusion of the Demonica ( DEMO untable N ext I ntegrated C apability A rmor) allows the protagonist to upgrade his abilities through the use of "Apps". Apps include both combat and exploration abilities, such as the ability to unlock doors. The number of apps the player can have active is limited in the original Strange Journey , but not in the Redux rerelease.

Among other features, apps automate the effects of Estoma , Liftoma , and Riberama , so those skills are no longer present.

Demon Analysis [ ]

Unlike in other games, demons initially hide their appearance when first encountered, appearing as a sprite that looks like white noise, and all statistics for the demon will be displayed as "??". Attempting to negotiate with an unknown demon results in unintelligible text, and though the player can respond, the effects of the negotiation are completely random.

After defeating a demon once, the Demonica will advance its analysis level to 1, revealing the demon's name and appearance for all future encounters. Defeating demons, using them in your party, and including them in Co-Op attacks will advance their analysis level further. At level 2, the demon's elemental affinities will be revealed, and at level 3, all information about the demon will be revealed. Fusing or recruiting a demon will also immediately upgrade its analysis to level 2.

Co-Op Attacks [ ]

The Co-Op system replaces the Press Turn system from the previous game . If the protagonist or any of the player's demons hit an elemental weakness, all allies of the same alignment (Law, Chaos, or Neutral) will perform a Co-Op attack. Co-Op attacks will only ever manifest as a single hit, but they will be stronger if more allies contribute to the attack. Co-Op attacks are non-elemental and cannot be resisted or negated. Additionally, Co-Op attacks significantly increase the analyze rate of the participating demons.

Unlike the Press Turn system, this mechanic is exclusive to the player, and enemies cannot benefit from Co-Op attacks.

Demon Sources [ ]

When an allied demon's analysis level is maxed out, it will grant the player a Demon Source or D-Source, which can be added to any fusion to grant fused demons additional skills. D-Sources contain up to three fixed skills, as well as a bonus skill randomly selected from the demon's own learned skills. The player can only hold one of each D-Source at a time, and may rarely regain D-Sources from their respective demons as level-up gifts.

In addition to Macca, purchasing items now also consumes a resource known as Forma. Forma is obtained from demons (either by defeat or negotiation), with every demon having its own Forma, and from the overworld, with every Sector having its own Forma. Items are crafted through recipes requiring specific Forma.

Password System [ ]

By using an up to 32 digit code in the Demon Compendium, players can trade passwords to unlock demons from each other. Certain demons can only be obtained in this way, and Atlus revealed certain passwords to give players access. It was decided that this system was easier to use than connecting through Wi-Fi, as passwords can be posted anywhere and used at anytime.

Miscellaneous [ ]

Additional mechanics include:

• Gun attacks have returned after their absence in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne .
• Gun weapons now provide up to three skills when equipped by the protagonist. Each gun has a unique skill list. These skills often cost MP and mimic the effect of offensive spells.
• Stats use the same scale as Digital Devil Saga : Stats go up to 99 and characters gain 3 stat points on level up.
• Unlike in previous games, the player does not choose how to allocate the protagonist's stat points on level up; instead, the protagonist has one of several stat growth patterns based on the player's answer to a personality questionnaire at the start of the game.

Reception [ ]

Strange Journey was well received by critics. IGN gave it 4 stars (8.5 on a scale of 10), saying that "though the game's turn-based combat system is standard stuff, fusing demons, launching co-op attacks, and exploring the environments keeps things interesting." It received a score of 36/40 from Famitsu, which was the highest score given by the Japanese magazine to an Atlus game at the time.

Gallery [ ]

• The American release was accompanied by a soundtrack CD as well as a collectible outer box with all launch copies of the game. Music is done by long-time composer Shoji Meguro .
• A poster was available with the pre-order of the game from GameStop . It is located behind the box art.
• In 2009, a forum thread claimed that the game was developed as Shin Megami Tensei IV according to an interview with Kazuma Kaneko , but since the game's setting does not take place in Tokyo, it is apparently not named as such. [1] However, a new interview with director Eiji Ishida contradicts this. Ishida says that Strange Journey was conceived as a spinoff from the very beginning, but the promotional staff and Kazuma Kaneko thought that its quality was high enough to be called Shin Megami Tensei IV . Ishida ultimately refused to market it as such. Ishida also makes no mention of its setting not being in Tokyo becoming a factor. [2]  
• To date, Strange Journey has the fewest playable characters out of any Shin Megami Tensei game excluding fusible demons.
• The vehicles used to explore the Schwarzwelt are based on the Landmasters from a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie called Damnation Alley .

References [ ]

• ↑ Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is technically SMT4, says producer GoNintendo. (RawmeatCowboy; September 30, 2009)
• ↑ Embarking on a Strange Journey, redux Retronauts (Parish, Jeremy; July 19, 2018)

External links [ ]

• Official Japanese Site
• Official North America Site
• (Atlus U.S.A. Forums) Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Forum
• (Atlus U.S.A. Forums) Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Demon Password Forum
• (Atlus U.S.A. Forums) PRODUCTION DIARY: "Use Your Allusion" by Lead Editor Nich Maragos
• (Atlus U.S.A. YouTube Account) English Trailer / Gameplay Trailer
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