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| (SMT: Strange Journey Redux Box Art) |
I've never played the original SMT: SJ because it was too late to get it by the time this game came out, though I have searched for it. And to be honest, there are some commentaries in this game I'm not fond of. But I will be professional in telling why I don't like some commentaries but primarily be focused on telling the aspects of the game.
Story: In the not too distant future of 2020, Eastern Europe has been invaded again. Tokyo has had an increase in sex and drug-related crimes with overdoses and murders. The Latin American Economies have crashed and violence and turmoil have been seen. China and South Asian countries have contributed more to toxic pollution. And the United Nations seems tense and heavy with resentment towards each other. But the only thing that has united them, is a mysterious opening called "The Schwarzwelt." (Literally The Black World in German) It's open in Antartica and the only hint of what's inside are mysterious pictures of Burning Cities, Palaces of Pleasure, An Extremely Huge Department Store, and a City that doubles as a Junkyard and Landfill.
The United Nations has sent a secret army force to investigate and, if possible, stop the Schwarzwelt from expanding or all of humanity will be eradicated by being engulfed in this void. You play one of these soldiers and you are backed by American Marine Jimenez, Your Commander Gore, and a Russian Scientist Zelenin. Step into the world of Schwarzwelt to understand the mystery of why it appears while also meeting Bugaboo, a demon who persuades Jimenez to Chaos, and Mastema, the angel of Punishment who hearkens Zelenin to Law. But with a new character named Alex in the mix, who wants to kill you, and a new Dungeon led by the mysterious Goddess Demeter, gives you six possible endings to go through. It's a lot of Playthroughs but you'll have to trust yourself as you go through this STRANGE JOURNEY: REDUX.
Backstory: Inspired by films like John Carpenter's The Thing and the post-apocalyptic Damnation Alley, the Atlus team wanted to develop the new SMT: IV game. However, many elements just feel off making the reason why the game is called Strange Journey more appropriate. For example, The main setting is in a realm of alternate dimensions in Antartica instead of the usual Urban settings of Tokyo. The main cast is all adults and it's usually young teenagers who are on the path to becoming adults who take this plunge into the demon realm. And most odd is the fact that this game was originally made for the Nintendo DS instead of a home console which would've gotten a better demographic as well as how the DS is usually seen as a family-friendly console thanks to Nintendo. But Kazuma Kaneko said that this console was the perfect way to end the game off when necessary, and had to do with another Atlus series, Etrian Odyssey (I've never played it but I'd like to.) But for any Persona fan who's played Persona Q, you'll understand the whole playstyle quite easily. Just add SMT elements and there you go, SMT: SJR.
Characters:
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| (The Protagonist/Hero) |
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| (Zelenin) |
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| (Jimenez) |
Jimenez: A Mexican-American (At least I think he's Mexican) Marine and a brazen black sheep to the Red Sprite Team, he is looking to stop the Schwartzwelt. However, he becomes the Hero of Chaos and wishes to help the demons in conquering Earth and making a new dog eat dog world.
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| (Commander Gore) |
Gameplay: The gameplay is a dungeon crawler so those who like fast paced RPG's might not get the thrills they would expect but the battles feel fierce and fast because you are in serious danger. The Environment is a grid that focuses on exploration and discovery. Looking up in the environment can help with predicting other places to go to and making travel faster.
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| (Demeter) |
Demeter: The Goddess of Agriculture and the Harvest. She is the main guide of the new Womb of Grief. And now she leads us to a new place where fruit is lost and must be returned to her. However, what these fruits are for, are a mystery to us.
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| (Alex) |
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| (Louisa Ferre) |
Louisa Ferre: A mysterious woman with a very familiar name. She looks on the protagonists one in a while when traveling to deeper sectors of the Schwartzwelt. She seems to be a part of having her own agenda but what she wants remains unclear.
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| (The Three Wise Men. Behind them are the pictures of the future alignment choices) |
The Three Wise Men: These men are mysteriously looking at the Protagonists' choices. Not much is known but what can be analyzed is what 3 fates they see of the world.
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| (Mastema) |
Mastema: The Angel of Punishment in Judeo-Christian Lore. He is responsible for Influencing Zelenin to law. And he is trying to destroy Schwartzwelt for the Millenium kingdom to arise.
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| (Bugaboo) |
Bugaboo: The Bogeyman, or a variant of him. This Bugaboo is a 3/4 demon but 1/4 leaves any possibility for him to be whatever, angel or demon. After being persecuted by a rogue demon, Jimenez befriends him and also gives more sympathy to the Chaos side.
Gameplay:
The RPG battles take place in a turn-based strategy in predicting what enemies strengths and weaknesses are. In many SMT Games, Weaknesses, Resistances, Repels, and Nulls aren't mutually inherited in each game. For example, a Fairy is Resistant to Electricity but weak to Wind in SMT: IV; In SMT: SJR, she's Resistant to Fire with no noticeable weaknesses. So the main elements to use are Physical, Gun, Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind, Light, And Darkness. And unlike the Press Turn system, (where attacking enemy weaknesses gets you an extra turn on attacking) its the who has the higher attack speed RPG (like Final Fantasy) but the new system does add a bit of help. If you attack the enemies' weakness, the entire party based on your alignment (Law, Chaos, and Neutrality) will attack. Only those who share your alignment will attack an enemy/enemies. So the game pushes you to have a solid alignment sharing party vs. the strongest demons. But there are many demons so they will be pretty strong.
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| (Fighting demons in Bootes: Featured demons are Lilim and Jack Frost) |
Also returning are many old demons seen in many SMT DS games, but we do have some newcomers as well or rather, redesigns. Demeter is the main guide in the Womb of Grief dungeon and has Zeus as a boss. Zeus has a new design as well with a half light, half dark motif. Mada, who hasn't been seen in modern mainline SMT games, also appears too as well as Zaou Gongen, Hypnos, and the SMT design of Thanatos. Two new appearances in a long time are the demons Amon based on the Goetic demon and Anahita, a Zoroastrian goddess of Water and Rivers. But the biggest revelation to this game (pun intended) is Maria, The MOTHER MARY of Catholicism and Christianity is a summonable demon in this game. She hasn't been seen since SMT: Nine, an XBOX exclusive only available in Japan. (It wasn't that good due to being a project that had too many ideas and delivered so little. It was the basis for the Online MMO SMT: Imagine though.)
The Demon Fusion app is also here but demons only have 6 instead of 8 skills from SMT IV and Apocalypse. And inheritance of skills come from demon cores. But be very wise in using them. I haven't figured out how to get them back yet. But the sources opens up the ability of certain demons to get new abilities than just plain innate ones and a skill that is available from fusion inheritance (only sometimes).
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| (Alice with her stats, ready for fusion.) |
So primarily expect to dungeon crawl everything, go back to base for either refreshing and buying items and such. Demon fusion and a new field save are available everywhere.
Themes and Motifs: In this game, there is a different style of a theme than in previous SMT Games. For example, the major theme in this game is the human destruction of the environment. At first I thought it was going to be another environmentalist warning (I'm not an environmentalist and am personally sick of all that pandering about it when people definitely don't act like they do. Sorry for the rant but it kinda does annoy me.), but how the Atlus team tells the story is a lot darker and impactful on all kinds of environments.
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| (Tyrant Morax: The Leader of the forces of Sector Antlia. Behind him is the burning sector.) |
The first dungeon, Antlia, is a representation of war environments happening all over the world. Specifically, in Eastern Europe, there are invasions happening all over again.
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| (Picture of a Youtuber's caption pic of Sector Bootes: The Second dungeon of SJR) (Sorry I couldn't find one with a better resolution.) |
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| (Sector Carina) |
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| (Sector Delphinius) |
Sector Delphinius is a Junkyard. This place of both human and item waste is serving all kinds of junk and human and animal skeletons rotting and decomposing away in a grim and desolate junkyard where demons lurk and radioactive and toxic pollution reign.
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| (The Womb of Grief: The only new dungeon introduced in SMT: SJR) |
There are 4 other dungeons but I'd rather not spoil them due to their plot relevance though you already have an idea. I want it to be a surprise and I want you to personally decide your fate in this game. That's the best and only way to enjoy the game. Follow the alignment your convictions lead you to.
Positives:
The Storyline: If you're already familiar with the common tropes of SMT, then you'll come through just fine. If not, prepare for a philosophical parable of choice, free will, and ideology.
The Characters: The characters have a fascinating dynamic. I know this will sound very SJW of me but I like the diversity of the cast. The fact that everyone is from different countries since the UN is making them all travel to the Schwartzwelt makes it feel like it is a world team mission. Also, I like the contrast of the collaboration of the Red Sprite Team in contrast to the United Nations members who seem like they are ready for waring with one another and putting on facades of togetherness while the Red Sprite Team actually does get along (with the exception of Black Sheep Jimenez.)
The New Demons: Seeing the 4 newly designed demons is such a treat and shows the hard work that new series artist, Masayuki Doi is doing with creating new demon designs for the series. He's continuing the Kaneko legacy while also being innovative. I know some of us kind of flacked on him in SMT IV but he's growing quite well into demon designs.
The Graphics: They are the one up from the original game it comes off as smoother and clearer while traveling through the sectors. And it brings out the colors and life of each sector as it haunts you while traveling.
Negatives:
The Preachiness: I admit, this is the first SMT game where I wasn't as fully enveloped in the storyline due to the themes and preachiness at times where Morax wanted to destroy humans for their destructive behaviors, and other leader demons who wanted the same destruction for various reasons. The game can pretty much be a reminder of watching one's self and the environment around him but luckily it's not to where the environmentalism (The only green environmentalism mentioned is Sector Delphinius which is true that us humans need to beware of making Earth uninhabitable for anyone with toxic and radioactive pollution.) is offputting.
The Character Sprites: The New Character Sprites by Doi have garnered Criticism but the only criticism I'll give is that sometimes, they feel a bit lifeless. I don't know if it's because its a Japanese only dub or that the faces aren't fully expressive but it's a fluke but it doesn't fully distract from the experience.
No 3D: I think the game could've used the 3D aspects of the 3DS quite well and it could make the dimensions deeper just like the SMT IV and IV Apocalypse games. Both had 3D elements that made them quite enjoyable.
No Dub: It's all subbed. Not that's bad but I would've loved to hear some of my favorite actors from America voicing characters in this game. It doesn't detract from the game but I would've liked it as an "icing on the cake" scenario.
Overall: This game is a wonderful part of the SMT Lore. A couple of small flubs but noting too overdramatic to destroy the experience and the added decisions of following the new endings give a bunch of replayability to the game. And if you are a fan of Persona or Dungeon Crawlers or SMT in general, this game should be in your 3DS library.
4/5
Passwords: This game has a password system to gain new allies and you can share them with people. So here are 5 passwords for some cool demons. Enter the codes exactly as I put or else you will get no demon. This is your warning.
Top: BufuBoyz4Life
Hathor with wind and healing spells:
Top: IuS?pmYjpV&R3?j6
Bottom: zFlnoKHC7qVFoC?0
Rangda with All Null and Repel every element (And starts at Level 1)
Top: t9pQpzT5poMVZr9b
Thor with Support and Strong Physical Abilities (And Starts at Level 1)
Top: kGEqAL5PZwK3rWG7
Bottom: 0uFLHhBxMKCL40Dj
Black Frost with All Elemental Skills and one Healing and one Almighty Spell (And starts at Level 1)
Top: 1vEWnEQmV9ZkjhQZ
Bottom: 9xQsZlOIjAMmlRPA
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