I am a big fan of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. However, those familiar with the franchise are aware that it is expansive, branching out into spinoffs and subseries such as Devil Survivor (a strategy subseries), Soul Hackers (a pseudo sci-fi subseries), and the Persona franchise, which speaks for itself. Now, Atlus has revitalized a beloved entry in the Devil Summoner subseries, and it is a rather impressive (and distinctive) entry.

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, is a remastered recreation of Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, which was released on the PlayStation 2 in North America in October 2006. For the sake of brevity, from here on, I will be referring to this remaster as Raidou Remastered.

Raidou Remastered takes place during the Taisho era, set from July 30th, 1912, to December 25th, 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō. You play Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, the 14^th in a line of Devil Summoners from the Kuzunoha clan. Raidou is sent to work in the capital under the guise of a detective, solving crimes that are secretly demonic attacks.

After meeting a young woman from the noble Daidouji family, Raidou is swept up in a series of cases that involve not only the Daidouji family but the underbelly of the capital as a whole. Alongside this, a mysterious Devil Summoner begins to appear, causing trouble for Raidou. This detective twist to the SMT formula is only part of what is unique here, however.

Raidou Remastered isn’t a turn-based RPG like other Shin Megami Tensei titles. It is an action game, more akin to something like Kingdom Hearts. Raidou moves in a 3D arena, fighting demons, dodging attacks, and blocking damage. Raidou can have up to two demons on the battlefield at once, and those demons can be switched out on the fly.

Demons move and act autonomously on the battlefield, though you can issue them commands as long as you have the correct amount of magical energy (referred to as MAG). MAG also serves as the fuel for your demons’ actions, but you regenerate MAG as you attack with Raidou’s sword. As such, Raidou Remastered’s combat is a constant resource management push and pull, with a lot of different strategies involved.

I’m not a huge fan of the limited way of commanding demons, and the MAG system gets stressful during some of the more intense fights. However, overall, the combat system is enjoyable and is very different from standard SMT titles. The demons do more than provide combat help, though.

Demons are classified into different types, and each demon has different skills that can help you on investigations. Of course, these skills all come from a set pool, allowing you to utilize the versatility of the fusion system. This means that you’ll want to always have a varied group of demons with you for various investigative tasks.

In addition to demon fusion, you can also perform Sword Alchemy, which allows you to upgrade Raidou’s sword to learn new skills and combat abilities. Some skills are passive, while others are combat skills that can be executed by holding ZL and then pressing either B, X, or Y.

The controls are easy to learn, but they do get a little fidgety from time to time. Mostly when you are in the heat of a boss battle and your hand does that thing where you hit the wrong button trying to heal. Overall though, Raidou Remastered feels like a smooth action experience that is very familiar for those who enjoyed action RPGs in the PS2 era. The difficulty options and accessibility features make it a very easy pick-up-and-play experience as well.

The art style is also very stylistic, specific to the art style of most Shin Megami Tensei titles, while also keeping a grounded, period aesthetic. The character portraits and art are well crafted for dialogue scenes, while the cutscenes are also well made. The voice acting is well done, with some stellar performances from antagonist characters in particular.

All in all, if you’re a Shin Megami Tensei fan, this is a great change of pace that highlights a different part of the franchise’s history. If you’re new to the franchise but aren’t sold on typical turn-based RPGs, this is also a great entry point. Alternately, fans of detective stories might also find a home here, even if it is more of a set dressing for the Shin Megami Tensei world of demons.

A Nintendo Switch 2 review copy of Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army was provided by Atlus for the purposes of this review.

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Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army

$49.99 USD

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Fantastic Action Gameplay
• Gorgeous Art Style
• Intriguing Detective story
• Great Accessibility features
• Runs well on Switch 2

Cons

• Fidgety Controls
• Commanding demons is Limited