The Shin Megami Tensei series has proven itself as one of the most consistently well-made RPG franchises in recent memory, and SMT: Strange Journey is no exception. There are few dungeon exploration games that are as solidly well put-together and interesting.
As far as Nintendo DS role-playing games go, this is my new favorite, hands down. But then again, I'm a huge fan of both dungeon crawling and Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series games.
Unless you're absolutely sick of Shin Megami Tensei's core mechanics or can't push past a few tutorial-heavy opening hours, Strange Journey's a fantastic RPG - portable or not.
For better or for worse, it makes the player the master of his own destiny. As it turns out, that\'s a heck of a challenge, but the challenge is worth it. [Apr 2010, p.87]
As the title states strange journey is strange. Quite unexpectedly we are lead back to the old days of the Megami Tensei franchise and no it isn't any less brutal. There is no press turn system and exploiting weakness is less important. The game's main theme is exploration which is why almost every area can be an absolute choir to travel through and can feel borderline impossible without some sort of online map. Resource gathering is also tedious. Not to mention demons can only have 6 moves instead of 8. The demon password system works well and while you can abuse it, it is very costly and while you're not hard pressed the game doesn't just hand it out ether. The story is unsurprisingly awesome, and while the demons may seem overtly preachy many of them are connected in some way to the planet that humanity has spend most of it's time desecrating. However the story as good as it is, the DS screen is small and reading a big text dump on the really small screen can get irritating. And because the game's main theme is exploration there is no way you can rush through this game. It's a solid title but the changes added since Nocturne were added for a very good reason and this game will shoehorn that point into you if it does nothing else.
SummaryWhen the black spot appeared in the Antarctic, mankind became nervous; when it began to spread, that anxiety turned to panic. The Joint Project, convened to discuss how to deal with the expanding anomaly, decided to send in four ships carrying humanity's finest soldiers and most cutting-edge technology. The mission: to investigate what l...