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Redux was my first SMT game (picked diet chaos) and honestly I just remember how much research I had to do to finish the game (it’s THAT dungeon that got me crying out of frustration) It’s a great time. *wipes tears as I pour over another teleporter map* I honestly did attempt other dungeon game but I couldn’t get it because my next dungeon crawler didn’t have side buttons and felt much slower

Strange Journey is the game that comes to mind when I think a Live Action movie (3 parts perhaps) could adapt well to the medium

I played Redux and absolutely hated the voice acting. Listening to characters who are canonically speaking English have their lines read in Japanese was incredibly immersion-breaking. Thank god the game lets you turn it off.

I know it’s a fairly neutral take but my playthrough of the original version of this game might be my most fond SMT memories. I need to get around to trying redux one day. The pure dungeon crawling and exploring the maps while slowly getting more and more powerful was just such a great experience. The DS games in general are all so solid and are slowly being lost to time because the format of the console is so unique.

16:55 Was that a editing error? That seems like unintentional repetition.

Best soundtrack, best gameplay, great artwork, worst story (Besides 4 Apocalypse, but I at least find that game hilarious), not atmosphere, no tone. I feel only the very beginning and very end of Path of Creation are good. Vengeance is good for the first 2/3rds because the character development and relationships got fixed, but after Yoko became the villain I feel the last 3rd of the game meandered and felt shallow. Also I much prefer Miyazu and Dazai's story in Creation than Vengeance.

I think it was Marsh that made a vid on Strange Journey and Redux and I'll repeat what I said there about Redux. I never played OG SJ, only Redux, and I did find the combat was a little trivialized, but still required strategy because of how stringent demon abilities were even if the Commander abilities added a lot. Also I find SJ's music is better than Metaphor's, it's more bombastic and fits the tone very well. People have problems with the new endings, but I love them because of how much work it takes to get them. You drag yourself over broken glass for 3 really harsh decisions. You drag yourself through magma to get a good ending you deserve in Redux. Womb of Grief, even if you trivialized combat, is hell as a dungeon. Especially the final area when going after Shekinah. Sometimes hard work, effort and time Does pay off. Sometimes you Can change a person's convictions. Sometimes, rarely, one in a million, your hard work pays off and you can change the world. Also the ideas of how they tweak each ending to make the Neutral Good, Chaotic Good and Lawful Good endings I feel really fit with their associated character's convictions.. CG - Reminding Jimenez that the human in him is what Bugaboo was drawn to and that humans and demons can compliment each other. LG - Showing Zelenin that her wish to protect mankind means nothing if there's no mankind to protect and that she's being used to rob people of free will by a higher power when the core desire she wanted was safety. And lastly that Neutral Good ending, which I can barely call Good, hurts a lot. Whoever came up with that idea as an ending deserves an award on their own. If mankind can't change, at least you can, and if one person cherishes people that much they'd sacrifice everything of themselves to keep the world safe, they'll do it. Eternal vigilance. The only reason the world lives on today is because a small group of people or even one person sacrificed nearly everything they had against a mountain of opposition to keep it going. (Also lot of Madoka Magica vibes)

Great video. I think you should play DeSu, I just finished it recently and that game does a great job of building what's going on within the lockdown zone. It has some fantastic characters and a lot of routes that are good in their own right. Personally, I am not a fan of the upscaling used on the game/footage in this video, the text and assets look smeared and ugly.

Fun video of one of my favorite games. That being said, how do people still have trouble with demon conversation. There is an easy trick to it. Just use the demons personality when you pick answers, not alignment. Kid like to learn and play games, older man/woman like respectful answers, wilders are more instincts and primal answers, Etc. Its not that hard. Sure, some demons are just dickheads and steal your macca and flee, but this method will up your chances of succes by 60%. This counts for all SMT demon negotiations. Have fun recruiting yall.

I'm one of the few who enjoyed Redux a lot more, WoG had some wild design choices with teleporter shenanigans that rivaled Eridanus, which I actually loved a lot. New bosses, especially Shekinah who is probably my favorite design in the series, were super enjoyable. Shoving the super-human power into the demonica instead of the actual character worked really well considering the setting of a highly advanced human culture that abuses the planet for power. Before playing SJ I was super sceptical of the tile-based dungeoncrawling design as I didn't really enjoy the crawling in the 90s Atlus games. But it's probably one of the most immersive games I've ever played with a ton of exploration and secret paths hidden all around. The vision upgrades and Phase Shift gave me a lot of Metroid vibes. While you actually had more contact to other humans in SJ compared to other SMT titles but the oppressive atmosphere definitely rivaled the desolate explorative feel stuck in a horrifying world much like the early metroid titles. Considering the tech limitations I'm still in awe how immersive both SJ and SJR are to me. The even more dissonant menu sounds in og SJ made the atmosphere even more horrifying accompanied by the more muted colors and lack of voice acting. The lack of the field save also helped this constant feel of terror. While the other SMT definitely got more grim visuals (organic megastructures like the cosmic egg in SMT4a for example), SJ and SJR feel much more like an RPG-infused survival horror.

Completely opposite view on Redux's gameplay changes. In my opinion, allowing for all sub-apps to be on simultaneously remove an enormous amount of tedium related to capturing demons and finding formas as you can do all of those at the same time instead of grinding each separately and artificially inflating the play time. The random Commander skills helps counter the the poor balancing done on bosses and random battles by the original dev team.

I will exchange my soul and accept an afterlife of suffering if we can get HD Remakes of Strange Journey, IV and SMT 1

I still think smt4A did the combat system the best, despite all the flaws in the story

The Canon of Vengeance changed so much in SMT5 for the better,but also left a lot of things untouched or actually downgraded stuff. That final dungeon is still as dead as it ever was,which is a shame. On the side of downgrades: the Bethel summit plotline with all the gods talking was one of the best moments in the canon of creation and I think they did Odin,Zeus and Vasuki dirty in the new story. That whole point of THEM trying to get to the throne felt like a foot note.

I'd have liked to hear about the redux endings.

Amazing vid

Love this game

Why do you play with that godawful filter?

24:43 Once you get to play devil survivor 1, you might change this opinion. That game's writing and "worldbuilding" is peak. Sj has atmosphere while DeSu1 sells you the descend into madness of a lockdown.

BGs with a 100% 1000%

SMT: Strange journey was my first SMT game and honestly i feel it was a mistake since SMTIV really felt like 3 steps back where everyone was writen for the alignment. Also beside EO 1 and 2 i think this is one of the few ATLUS games where items are ungodly powerful and by endgame you are relying more on the MC than the demons for everything. Also Trying to do a full law demon only playthrough is suffering. I understand that there are neutral demons that cover most law demons lack of utility but i want my co-op attack damnit. I really should go complete redux. I donno why but it just doesnt hook me as much as the DS SJ.

Also on your point of all the best demons being chaos alignment, I feel that is partially because the bosses are all chaos. I understand why, but it always seemed more fitting for them to be neutral since they are reflections of humanity. but eh, what are you gonna do

Amazing video and discussion!! Can't believe I saw it so soon after the posting. I am a HUGE fan of Strange Journey (original, not redux as much) and it is tied with P5R as my favorite Megaten game in general. I completely agree with the narrative being near if not the peak of SMT writing and think it is especially poignant in today's world. Personally the neutral ending always hit me the hardest, because it doesn't even leave you with a happy feeling, just kind of like you got done with a tough, long day at work and have to go home. Chaos has always been my favorite though because of how much I love Jimenez's character and I think it is a logical conclusion to reach given the experiences in the Shwarzwelt. You play as the premier member of the strike team, and witnessing the flaws of humanity and the more human side of demons seems to fit well with the chaos philosophy in this game. Thanks for the great watch, keep up the good work!

Hell yeah I was just looking for a new long SJ video but I had watched them all haha perfect timing. Should reinstall the ol' emulator

If I could transfer SMT IV Edit:Apocalypse battle system to Strange Journey it would be my fav SMT game.

Calling my childhood background music "horrifying soundtrack" hits waaay to close to home

I absolutely love Strange Journey. It was the first Shin Megami Tensei game I ever played, and at the time, I found it incredibly challenging. It wasn’t until later that I realized I had unknowingly started with what many fans consider the hardest game in the series. That said, my only issue with the original Strange Journey is how the endings are handled. The law and chaos endings feel far too extreme, which, in my opinion, nudges most players toward the neutral ending since it offers a more hopeful outlook for humanity's future. This, unfortunately, undermines the impact and appeal of the other two endings. I would fix this by replacing the original neutral ending with Redux's version, which reveals that humanity never truly learns, and the Schwarzwelt cycle continues. This approach would make players confront the possibility of real, lasting change and force them to consider all three options. I think this creates a more meaningful narrative conclusion that reflects the name sake of SMT. ❤

Amazing video, very well put on how strange journey stands out in the shin megami tensei series.

Complete tangent here, but honestly, I think this musical score is better than the score of Metaphor Refantazio for me. Not that Metaphor has a bad soundtrack, I just feel that the composition of Strange Journey is next level. Something about the creative use of the chants, and orchestral instruments is really well done in Strange Journey. Music in Strange Journey really gives gravitas to events in game. There's more I could mention, such as the complete contrast between law and chaos themes in this game to the rest of the music, but this comment is already long enough as is

I think the commercial failure of immersive sims is down to their PC exclusivity in the 90s, and marketing in the 2010s. Dishonored and Deus Ex:HR show that console immersive sims can sell and be high quality. I loved Dishonored when it came out, and wasn't even aware Dishonored 2 existed until it was too late. I thought Prey was a sequel to the 2006 game that I barely cared about, and just saw the mid reviews. I don't think the sample size is large enough to just declare the entire philosophy impossible to sell. Every recent example of a major flop in the genre had awful marketing, and stuff like Invisible War or Thief 3 was more the result of not really having a good way to translate to consoles. Another problem is just the general unfamiliarity with the philosophy. When I first played Prey, I didn't know it was an immersive sim, and the combat felt frustrating. If there was a little more handholding in the beginning of the game, or just more familiarity with the design philosophy among gamers, I don't think this would happen. I think stealth focused games like Dishonored and Deus Ex put you in the right mindset much more intuitively than what I assumed was a BioShock clone.

Been replaying this awesome game. It’s pretty dope! It’s making me want to try the others. Definitely will be playing Apocalypse when I finish this one tho! Nice short btw🔥

The chaos aligment just being better is legit. Atlus certainly though so too because Redux focused on adding neutral and law demons to the game to offset that. I'm constantly flip floping between strange journey, nocturne and devil survivor as the best smt game (SMT 4 is a bit below those 3 for me because of a few low points in the game). One can only hope atlus will eventually port these games to PC and newer consoles. The only thing I felt missing here was a discussion of the new endings introduced in redux, yes you can ignore them but still when ppl complain about that game that's usually their biggest argument. I for one prefer the new endings because they all focus on holding on to at least some hope for humanity and are a bit less extreme with some more nuance.

Another banger! Don't really have much to say cause I haven't played strange journey.

Choosing a Switch Lite was a bad Idea.

Another video was breaking down the real - unreal dynamic and I think they really nailed how they skirt that line with just one example - Jesse's dodge. It'd been easy to make her just move real fast. But that's not all it does, it leaves a pressure wave in your wake, causing such realistic destruction from such a simple move conveying it's true power - I love it, and it really does showcase their entire design philosophy - the grounded and realistic results of something completely unrealistic.

I think the reason they always tap into that charm is Sam Lake. The man IS Remedy. If he ever retires, the studio will never be the same again.

I think you absolutely should not discount Quantum Break and Max Payne in their mainline series. They say QB isn't canon.. but do everything they can to dance on that line for legal reasons.

I couldn't believe persona 5 came out and I never heard of it. Love the music from kingdom hearts and final fantasy so it changed my life to say the least

Beat the game on normal just this morning. What is the press turn system I don't understand. Like i said i beat the game but it seemed like just a typical jrpg to me...

I just came back to this video after stopping at the disclaimer and beating SMT4. What a gem of a game.

It’s such an amazing game! Great video!

I haven't played Nocturne in years but i loved it, at least in the progress i made so far the last time i played it. Though i'm considering buying it for my Switch eventually, just so i can relive that experience once more and continue from where i left off after all these years.

Most of those quality of life you listed. are not from smt4 but strange journey or other previous games in the series.

Re2 remake was a good game but sorry re1 remake is king and still the best remake 😊

I just started No No Kuni, it’s amazingly fun!

Just finished it yesterday Probably one of the hardest games i ever played

Should have won GOTY, not Dragon Age Inquisition.

I thought the AI was broken because of a typo in the code?

The length of this game CANNOT be long enough. It's long for the new player rightly so, but very short lived for those that keep returning. The whole point why they dragged the length out was to make a point that no matter how hard you try to fight the xenomorphs, let alone even survive they always find ways to expand upon their infestation. A great example is moving the dish. They NEVER would've found their way into the habitation center at the end. And had you not released them from the reactor purge, they wouldn't have been agitated enough to investigate the outside of the station when you move the dish. Which results in them finding new ways into previously secured areas. Another neat thing is knowing that Gemini exoplanets and the reactor share the same walls and when you trigger the queens scream as you enter Gemini shes literally right beneath the player embedded on the opposite side of the wall in engineering/ reactor area.

Nah one of the best games OF ALL TIME!