Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux Preview

<h3>Strange Journey Redux is Good Old-Fashioned SMT<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>This preview covers impressions based on the game&&num;8217&semi;s first two main story dungeons with a snippet of the new side dungeon&period; <em>Shin Megami Tensei&colon; Strange Journey Redux<&sol;em> asserts itself as comfort food for series fans&period; This enhanced port offers the sort of content you&&num;8217&semi;d come to expect from a modern Atlus re-release&period; There are extra difficulty settings&comma; more opportunities to save&comma; extra demons&comma; and new endings&period; None of this is surprising considering past <em>SMT<&sol;em> enhanced ports such as the two<em> Devil Survivor<&sol;em> 3DS games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This extends to the core gameplay systems&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;ve played any <em>Shin Megami Tensei <&sol;em>title in the past decade&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll quickly settle into a comfortable groove&period; Among the familiarity&comma; <em>Strange Journey Redux<&sol;em> carries a few alterations&period; Demon negotiation and the removal of the press turn system are the most significant changes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Negotiating With Demons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Demon negotiation still functions normally&period; You initiate conversations with demons and persuade them to join your party through a series of responses&period; Demons also ask to join your party at random intervals at the start of battle&period; Much like the main negotiation mechanic&comma; any of them could be lying to your face&period; This unease and cautious mistrust are fine and dandy&comma; but you want to know what&&num;8217&semi;s different&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I have one word for you&colon; Alignment&period; <em>Strange Journey Redux <&sol;em>actively integrates the series&&num;8217&semi; trademark alignments into many of its gameplay systems&period; Decisions you make throughout the course of the journey influence where the player character falls on this alignment scale&period; Everyone starts off as &&num;8220&semi;Neutral-Neutral&&num;8221&semi; with different alignments also prescribed to demons&period; A negotiation&&num;8217&semi;s difficulty depends on how closely that demon&&num;8217&semi;s alignment matches up to yours&period; If you and a demon share alignments&comma; it will dismiss one flubbed response&comma; allowing more wiggle room&period; You also can not recruit dark-aligned demons until you gain access to a specific Sub App for the protagonist&&num;8217&semi;s demonica battle suit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Co-op Attacks<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The press turn system introduced in <em>Shin Megami Tensei&colon; Nocturne<&sol;em> is replaced by co-op attacks&period; Exploiting weaknesses is still a major part of combat&comma; though you&&num;8217&semi;ll no longer receive a freebie for doing so&period; Party composition dictates how effective co-op attacks are&period; When an enemy&&num;8217&semi;s weakness is exploited&comma; a party member will only perform a follow-up if it shares the attacker&&num;8217&semi;s alignment&period; You can easily fuck yourself over in critical situations if you don&&num;8217&semi;t remain consciously aware of this system&period; It makes bosses significantly easier or harder depending on how actively you incorporate it into the usual compendium-filling process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Closing Thoughts<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em>Shin Megami Tensei&colon; Strange Journey Redux <&sol;em>has only just begun to show what it has to offer after nearly fifteen hours of playtime&period; The new character&comma; Alex&comma; was introduced near the end of the second dungeon&period; Her role in the story&comma; as well as the extent to which her extra dungeon adds to the gameplay experience&comma; remains to be seen&period; The little bit I have explored of that extra dungeon&comma; the Womb of Grief&comma; shows promise&period; The first floor alone contains a more complex layout than either of the first two dungeons&&num;8217&semi; ground floors&period; Traversing it felt like a journey &lpar;no pun intended&rpar;&period; A full review should be coming by its May 15th launch&comma; though it&&num;8217&semi;s safe to say <em>SMT<&sol;em> fans will enjoy taking a bite out of <em>Strange Journey Redux<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Disclaimer&colon; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><em>A review copy was provided by the publisher&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;