By now, it’s best to know what to anticipate from an Atlus recreation. Whether or not you’re wading into the Boschian fever dream of Metaphor Refantazio or winding your method down the seven circles of hell in Shin Megami Tensei, Atlus likes it darkish. Darkish and peculiar. Unconstrained by the trimmings of normalcy. A bit edgy and a bit juvenile, however all provocative and goth.
Raidou Kuzonha vs. The Soulless Army isn’t any exception. The curious PS2 recreation (which loved a 2006 launch in Japan and North America, and 2007 in PAL areas) carries on Atlus’ fascination with the occult and the Satanic, however with one main variation from all of the developer’s different titles: this one is an action-RPG.
Now, it is advisable to instantly get your mind away from the concept it’s a Soulslike, or something related. It’s extra of a hack-and-slash, peppered with the necessity for strategic flourish. Not like previous MegaTen games (and their use of the phenomenal Press Turn system), your protagonist, Raidou Kuzunoha, can assault with both his shut vary sword or his lengthy vary gun. However this wouldn’t be a MegaTen recreation with out demons, so in fact Kuzunoha may also summon two demons at a time to assist in battle.
At launch, this recreation was high quality. I’m a MegaTen sicko, so in fact I performed this as quickly because it hit the PAL market (I additionally performed the sequel, later, which is best in nearly each method). It wasn’t something to write down dwelling about, actually, and the fight was grating greater than it was creative. However, oh my, how all that has modified now – almost 20 years later.
Coming to the Switch 2 at launch, Satan Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Military Remastered is a little bit of a misnomer. What we’re getting right here is extra of an enhanced model, and one that really looks like a pure and intentional development of the unique recreation. And are you aware why that’s? As a result of, someway, most of the identical builders that labored on Raidou and its sequel in the course of the PS2 period are nonetheless on the studio.
Yeah, I do know, proper? What’s successfully occurred right here is that Atlus has been capable of say to its workers: “hey, do not forget that recreation you very almost acquired proper at launch in 2006? Have one other swing at it. Load it with all these cool fight concepts you needed, enhance the techniques, take what we’ve discovered within the final 19 years and go wild”. And the result’s an enhanced piece of area of interest role-playing historical past that performs higher than ever.
First up, Atlus has remade the sport’s pre-rendered backgrounds into precise 3D. Every part regarded high quality earlier than, however now there’s extra interactivity, extra impetus to get off the overwhelmed path (and, probably, extra to truly do – negating some criticism of the sport’s brief size from its launch). Atlus has crammed extra demons into the roster, too, that means you’ve acquired extra freedom in the way you method battles, in addition to extra choices for summoning and fusing. Once more, this looks like a direct reply to criticisms of the sport’s small providing at launch in 2006. Should you’re a MegaTen sicko, you’ll admire the additions of demons like Idun, Hayataro, and extra from SMT:5.
The fight upgrades themselves – extra standing results, a extra streamlined menu, extra motion for Raidou in battle, extra management over your demons – all appear to have been retroactively added into the sport from the second within the collection. No complaints, right here; Satan Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon improved upon the primary recreation in almost each method. It makes for a much better expertise than the unique recreation, and one that really stands up fairly properly in 2025. It’s not precisely going to blow newcomers away, but it surely’s novel – and an ideal ‘on the go’ kinda recreation to indicate off on the Change 2’s fancy {hardware}.
One other small quality-of-life factor that’s price mentioning is the encounter price. It’s been mounted. No extra random encounters. As a substitute, demons are seen on-screen and also you (kind of) get to decide on when to have interaction. To make issues much more partaking, we’ve acquired English voice appearing, too… And you already know what? It’s fairly good!
And which may be what makes this re-release so interesting to me, really. The unique Raidou video games comprise a number of the most gratifying, and memorable, narrative moments from any title Atlus has ever made. Sure, that features Persona. There’s a humour to those video games that basically works – and the interactions between Raidou himself and his acquainted cat Gouto is a good instance of excellent video games writing: tutorializing while delivering story.
Your demons have all these powers outdoors battle (so you’ll be able to reveal the hidden ideas of NPCs – typically vulgar, all the time humorous – or roleplay as a detective to see extra in a given scene). The bizarre, occult-leaning setting of Nineteen Twenties Japan is pretty distinctive, and Atlus does properly to dive into how curious it’s, understanding that it’s a time of change, a time of hysteria, but additionally of pleasure and development. Having this colored in with competent and enjoyable voice-acting is one thing I didn’t know I wanted.
It is a much better product than I used to be anticipating, actually. The Shin Megami Tensei 3 remaster was pretty primary and barebones, however this… it is a shining instance of how one can re-release a recreation some 19 years later and have it really provide one thing new, and make things better that the unique model lacked. After a short preview, this has gone from ‘hm, that’s attention-grabbing’ to ‘oh, properly I’m going to purchase that, then.’ Your mileage could differ, in fact, however I believe it is a fascinating instance of what Atlus can cook dinner up with its legacy titles.
Now, the place’s my Digital Satan Saga 1 + 2 HD Remaster, ey?