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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey review

Pokemon's goth cousin is a journey worth taking.

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Choice to battle or talk to most foes

Ominous chanting soundtrack

Spartan but effective graphics

2D sprites and 3D dungeons can be a bit plain

Might prove too slow for some

Horrifically doom-laden tone

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Some fans call the Shin Megami Tensei games ‘Pokemon with the lights out’. Even though the SMT series predates Pokemon by quite a few years, the flow of catching, levelling up and fusing demons feels very much like the basic Pokemon grind. But what sets SMT apart from other JRPGs is its willingness to tackle mature and truly apocalyptic themes. Strange Journey fits right into that tradition, telling the story of a doomed multinational effort to investigate a mysterious black hole called the Schwarzwelt that has appeared at the South Pole.

Strange Journey repurposes the engine Atlus created for the Etrian Odyssey series, so inside the Schwarzwelt you find maze-like dungeons brimming with demons and mythical creatures that, at best, are ambivalent about humanity’s survival. You’re protected by special power armour called the Demonica that lets you communicate with demons and turn them into allies. You can fight on your own in the dungeon if you want, but your guns and swords won’t take you far without some strong demon allies to watch your back.

The big difference between Strange Journey and Etrian Odyssey, modern paramilitary setting aside, is the alignment system. This is a classic Shin Megami Tensei feature that’s making a return after some time away. Throughout the story you’re allowed to make decisions that can align you as Neutral, Lawful or Chaotic. Your alignment dictates how well you get along with certain demons; if you have compatible creatures in your party, you can gang up on enemies to devastating effect.

In many ways Strange Journey plays like an update of the original SMT games that Atlus released for the SNES. Those games were deeply influenced by first-person PC dungeon crawlers such as Wizardry, and Strange Journey feels no different. Whether this is a positive or negative depends on your proclivities as a gamer, obviously. Many years ago, series creator Kazuma Kanako stated in an interview that the Shin Megami Tensei series was for players who looked at other JRPGs on the market and thought, ‘This isn’t me’. If you’ve ever felt that way, you’ll be quite at home with Strange Journey.

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux Review

by Mike Moehnke · Published July 19, 2018 · Updated November 18, 2018

Age of Extinction

Every few years I get in the mood to tackle something else from the massive Megami Tensei line of titles, and that synced conveniently with the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux . The word from this game’s original edition warned that it would be a considerable timesink, and that is most definitely still the case. Strange Journey in its Redux form actually manages to be even more of a timesink due to the addition of a mammoth new dungeon to explore, but at least this is not a complete waste of the many hours required to persevere. My urge to play anything else in the series has been successfully quashed for another year or two.

A baffling phenomenon in Antarctica called the Schwarzwelt has aroused the intense interest of decision-makers around the world. This phenomenon is slowly expanding from the South Pole and placing all land inside within a black border that is impenetrable to all scanning efforts. No drones sent into the Schwarzwelt have survived to return, and the images they managed to broadcast before contact was lost only produce more questions instead of answers. Four ships crewed with the most talented people possible are about to set out into the Schwarzwelt, in order to hopefully learn what is happening. Upon entering the area matters within quickly diverge from what was planned, and an already-dangerous mission sees its odds of success decrease further. The player takes the on role of a soldier recruited in the event that combat prowess is needed inside, something that quickly proves to be a helpful skill set to aid survival once the demons inside the Schwarzwelt appear.

Strange Journey Redux has an enormously ambitious narrative that attempts to detail a series of events through which a demonic takeover of the Earth could occur, while avoiding any obvious insertions of unbelievable methods to advance the plot. It has a fairly large cast of characters with some depth to their motivations. The personalities at play are not as complex as they could be, since certain key players are locked into paths regardless of what the player might choose. Such ambition is worthy of praise even when not everything the narrative attempts is a success, and Atlus USA’s typically strong localization ensures that what transpires remains gripping. This is an involving tale that manages to keep coming up with interesting developments throughout, and avoids treating the player like a dullard when doing so. Having three potential endings in the original game along with new material including additional endings for the Redux version ensures that plenty of time can be spent with this setting if desired.

Please be more specific. Who are they? If I knew, maybe it would mean something.

Efforts to give the player input into morality are where the narrative does not come off best, primarily thanks to the limited options available. Three morality tracks provide the options for responses in numerous scenarios, but often none of the available responses convey what the player would prefer to do. These segments definitely offer more shades of gray and realistic portrayals of humanity than will be found in most RPGs, but not nearly enough to represent the gamut of possibilities found in the real world.

Armed with a specialized suit that allows him to manipulate his surroundings, the protagonist wanders the multiple dungeons of Strange Journey while encountering plentiful demons along the way. In the vein of many other titles in this series, conversation with just about all battle participants is possible and often encouraged. Demons come with a sizable variety of personality traits, from old fogeys to creatures incapable of uttering more than guttural grunts. Conversation will frequently net rewards, and many demons are perfectly willing to join the player’s stable of party members if the right incentives are submitted. The chance also exists that the player will manage to infuriate instead of ingratiate, but the plentiful options for talking things through are both interesting and worthwhile.

Many demons cannot be convinced to join the player and must be created through fusion. All defeated bosses and numerous scarce beings not regularly encountered can be created via the combination of demons extant in the current stock, which is an absorbing process that will divert a substantial amount of time. As in other games from the series, what can be created is strictly limited by the protagonist’s current level, which at least provides an excellent reason to seek out additional combat. Fused demons can also inherit certain valuable abilities from previously-acquired party members, giving more incentives to spend time with this system.

Demonee-Ho will treat you like dirt, and you will like it, soldier!

Combat itself is a relatively straightforward turn-based affair in which the player and up to three companion demons duke it out against adversaries. Due to the presence of various elemental affinities and weaknesses, there is no such thing as a character optimal for every situation. Some enemies absorb or reflect attacks of specific types, and status ailments work regularly if the recipient is not immune. An important battle component is the automatic supporting attacks unleashed when an enemy’s weakness is hit, something that is most helpful against defensively-powerful opponents. Bosses require attention to be paid, as some of their abilities can destroy an unsuspecting player on even the lowest difficulty.

Navigation of the dungeons is often no less a task than prevailing in altercations, as these are sizable places with many devious tricks to tax the player. One-way doors and poisonous floor tiles are just the beginning — soon enough other nasty elements such as holes in the ground and teleporter mazes add to the bedlam. Patience and the presence of an automap on the lower screen aid in unraveling these tricky places, which are addictive to explore even as they befuddle. Strange Journey oddly locks off certain parts of dungeons until New Game Plus mode is achieved, and it is bothersome to see such locations appear on the map without any way to explore them, especially when the game already requires around eighty hours to complete.  That time can be lowered a bit by attempting to plow through the game without stopping to look around, but a great number of optional missions that usually ask for thorough navigation of the dungeons also exist to contribute still more content.

Redux adds a number of options to the mix, starting with the ability to choose a difficulty upon beginning the game. Casual challenge is not a cakewalk but does make things more manageable. The major addition to Redux is a new character’s appearance in the second dungeon which opens the Womb of Grief, a completely new area which itself takes at least twenty hours to explore. Going through the Womb of Grief is optional but yields extremely helpful abilities that can tailor random encounter rates to the player’s liking and make dungeon navigation much easier. Among the very helpful things to be gained in the Womb of Grief is a function that shows where a teleporter will take the party, something that otherwise is dependent entirely upon memory. Unless one waits until near the end of the game, it is impossible to explore the Womb of Grief in one trek, since its lower portions can only be unlocked once various abilities to open multiple types of sealed areas in the main storyline are achieved. Each new floor represents a completely different undertaking and exploring the place is a worthwhile endeavor. Going through it also broadens the game’s conclusion options.

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Inventory arrangement is not one of this game’s strong suits due to the sheer amount of time it can take. Each specific item has an individual maximum amount that can be in the player’s possession, which at least eliminates the need to constantly return to home base in order to dump surplus supplies. Most new creations of the home base crew available for purchase require very distinct components that enemies and environments won’t consistently produce, and this can lead to many occasions where a tempting thing is inaccessible until the player tediously acquires its constituent ingredients. Just sifting through the huge mass of acquired materials in order to sell what is unnecessary also takes a very long time when several hundred possibilities are present. In most other ways the interface is functional, but this tediousness is difficult to overlook.

Strange Journey Redux betrays its DS origins through the visuals that mostly date from its original iteration, though the result is not so much unpleasant as unremarkable. Dungeon layouts make the various areas distinct from each other but also have these places look pretty much the same within each location. An impressive variety of demon images will be found within, but they don’t move much and numerous designs will have been seen before in other Megami Tensei titles. First-person dungeon exploration rarely attracts much attention through its astounding good looks, and Strange Journey Redux does not break this trend. There are a few cinematic sequences which look nice but take up a very small portion of the time spent playing.

Redux adds voiced dialogue to all the plot developments, something that can help give a little more character to the personalities. Its Japanese cast is workmanlike throughout but does not achieve such a stellar quality of performance as to entice all players to listen, especially when numerous demons have short vocal clips that will be heard many times during the proceedings. The music has some good compositions but really needed more variety, especially in its dungeon themes. Too many areas use male choral effects that sound similar, and later areas get reused compositions from earlier. Certain tracks are indeed very pleasant to the ear, particularly those heard when confronting bosses, but they aren’t heard often enough.

I enjoyed my time with Strange Journey Redux , and the many things its dungeons offered will stick with me. Its narrative is also interesting and should be applauded for what it attempts, even if the story’s reach is not quite what it can attain. I was also ready to be done by the time the credits rolled and uninterested in starting the whole thing again to see another ending or reach the heretofore-forbidden areas, which keeps Redux from being among the crowning achievements in my RPG experience. It was a worthwhile title to encounter though, and should at least be tried by anyone curious.

Redux content is nice

Interesting and alluring setting

Plenty of things to do

Time-consuming inventory management

Dungeon themes don't vary much

Tags: 3DS Atlus Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux

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I’m not sure when I’ll be playing this, seeing as I hadn’t even gotten around to getting the other endings in the original DS release. Still, I think I will enjoy taking this strange journey again.

Thanks for this, Mike. After 150ish hours of Backtrack listened to in 2018, hear your voice reading this in my head (is that weird?). Looks like a pretty decent time sink ahead for me once I clear a few others from the backlog!

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Review platform:, developer(s), publisher(s).

I can’t help but wonder why it is that the games on the Nintendo DS seem to be the most addictive of them all. We’re in a console generation where titles like Final Fantasy XIII and Mass Effect 2 are recent releases and titles like Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas are on the horizon. Despite that, my hands have been glued to my Nintendo DS with Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Sure, it’s not the most graphically impressive game I’ve ever played, and the story leaves a lot to be desired, but Strange Journey is nothing if it’s not addictive. For the same reason that kids across schoolyards (and, yes, me too) are playing Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, hardcore RPG fans will play the newest Shin Megami Tensei. It may not have a numeral in the title, but this game really is Shin Megami Tensei IV, and if you’re at all a fan of previous games in the series, you really should snag this game.

Strange Journey takes place in a near-future Earth where there has been a large void, called the Schwarzwelt (that’s essentially “black world” in German), slowly encroaching upon the land of Antarctica toward the habitable parts of the planet. The world’s governments have sent probes into this expanding darkness, only to receive images back of shopping malls, red light districts, and other signs of human civilization and nothing else. Concluding that these probes are simply incorrect, there is a crack team of scientists and soldiers who are given state of the art technology to enter this emptiness. They wear suits, called Demonica, which can be augmented by different software and sub-routines.

Upon entering the Schwarzwelt, the four ships are struck with a great deal of turbulence and are separated. The Red Sprite, the ship containing your protagonist, crash-lands and is discovered to be filled with invisible demons. However, found in the survivors’ Demonica suits is a program that allows them to see, speak to, and summon these same demons. It’s up to the crew of the Red Sprite to find the rest of the survivors, discover the secrets of the world of the demons, which is indeed a world of shopping malls and red light districts, and, of course, save (or destroy) the world.

The overall plot and dialogue is less than stellar, but that’s not where players will derive their enjoyment of Strange Journey. The gameplay is core, but that’s not to say that the gameplay and the story are not inextricably linked. Players’ choices in Strange Journey matter – they directly affect the Dungeons and Dragons-style alignment of the player character, and being aligned with Law, Chaos, or Neutrality is a of some importance in Strange Journey. Alignment is a direct contributor to two of the big parts of the battle system: demon negotiation and demon weaknesses. The battle system itself is straightforward for those who are familiar with most old-school RPG battle systems. It seems like it’s a bit of a step backwards, as it doesn’t have the nuances of the Press Turn system or the depth of Persona’s battle system, but there is still a lot to take into consideration.

Players will spend much of their time in battle negotiating with the same demons that they fight, as the only way to fight demons is demons. So it’s like fighting fire with fire… but with demons. Negotiating with demons is a multi-step process, where the protagonist must feel out the demon by answering multiple-choice questions. Sometimes, it seems like it’s more than a bit random, as many demon types will not react the same from encounter to encounter, but it’s a much more gratifying process than simply throwing a pokéball at an enemy to capture it. Alignment matters here, as a demon of the same alignment of the player is much more likely to play nice and be recruited. It’s not just recruitment that players can get, as they can also negotiate for items or for macca (SMT’s currency).

Finding these demons isn’t as easy as it first seems, as the main character can only see these creatures through his Demonica suit. When new demons are encountered, they simply appear as static, and it’s up to you to figure out what kind of attacks are the most effective against the newest demon’s type. This is probably the most difficult part of the game – especially considering that, like previous SMT games, the death of the protagonist is a game over. There’s no using a revival bead on him. As such, the player character might find himself wiped out by an errant attack that the armor he has equipped makes him weak to. It’s a crap shoot, certainly, but there hasn’t been a game in this series that hasn’t killed you eight ways till Sunday in every dungeon. It’s a difficult game, absolutely.

Once you’ve accumulated all of these demons, the alignment still matters. Bringing together a party that’s all neutral, all law, or all chaos can bring wonderful benefits, as they will now obtain bonus attacks. Unlike the Press Turn system, which allowed extra turns for attacks that exploited weaknesses, or the Persona battle system, where strong attacks cause the enemies to lose turns, Strange Journey makes attacks that expose a weakness work in the simplest way: they hit harder the more demons in your party you have of the same alignment. These extra attacks are more than worthwhile, and at many points in the game, they can be much more effective than standard attacks. Crafting a team that meshes well and exploits the weaknesses of different demons is incredibly important.

That brings us to the most fun portion of Strange Journey: Demon Fusion. Unlike its child-like compatriot in Pokémon, it’s not simply about going out and finding the right demons, it’s about putting them together into freakish abominations that are even stronger than the demons that comprise their bodies. It’s old hat for those familiar with Persona or SMT: Nocturne, but it works incredibly well in the portable space and it remains great fun in this iteration of the series. All the standbys, such as fusion accidents and special fusions, are there; there’s not much here that’s different from the demon fusion in the rest of the series.

One thing that is different is the inventory and equipment system. Rather than simply buying things with macca – after all, you’re in a world filled with demons that don’t particularly like you – players must find different components out in the world, either from scanning anomalies inside the Schwarzwelt or by defeating demons, bringing them back to the ship, and crafting them inside the ship’s lab. It can take a bit of hunting to find the right types of components to make just what you want, but there is a gamut of things for players to customize or create. Armor affects a player’s defense and strengths/weaknesses, weapons change a player’s attack type and strength, and sub-apps change minor things about the player’s experience. These are all limited by internal systems, but they’re all incredibly fun to tinker with.

There’s no doubt that the core gameplay of SMT: Strange Journey is fantastic, but the other aspects of the game aren’t quite as strong. The graphics are slightly above average, and the first-person dungeon view shows some of the low-resolution textures. Things never look bad, but there are games on the DS that look better. Many of the 2D sprites do look great, although the eyebrows of the main character are more than a bit freaky, but many seem under-detailed, especially compared to many of the 3D models from other iterations of the series. The music is fairly non-descript – I can’t remember a single song from the game, positive or negative. All the sound effects portray things effectively, although similarly to the music, there’s not much that stands out.

While the aesthetic elements of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey are only slightly above-average, the incredibly strong gameplay elements make the game so addictive that this doesn’t matter. If you love RPGs and don’t mind seeing quite a few game over screens, there isn’t much to dislike about Strange Journey. All of the systems are simple enough to grasp for the handheld gamer, but are deep enough to be incredibly worthwhile. Atlus has struck a great balance with Strange Journey, and they’ve crafted a game that’s more than addictive. There’s not much about the game that’s new, but that doesn’t keep the gameplay from being absolutely fantastic. If you’re a fan of any previous games with the Atlus logo on the front, you’ll want this one.

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey 2

A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android

Strange Journey 2 is a fangame, "what if" sequel to original Strange Journey title.

This game is free, and for personal use only, not for sale or redistribution. All the rights for Megami Tensei trademarks belong to ATLUS company.

Game features:

- first person dungeon crawling

- six main dungeons with puzzles

- press-turn and demon co-op combat

- VR battles against famous bosses of Megaten series

Your playstyle is defined by smart combination of alignment bonuses, Demonica apps, demons fused,  explorational equipment, Moon phases and commander skills

Modern AI models were used to generate characters and demons in Kazuma Kaneko style and backgrounds in 90s japanese animation style with retro pixelated look.

Development log

• Strange Journey 2 fangame updated 6 days ago
• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey 2 is out. 19 days ago

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Bless you, absolute mad lad.

Sector Carina

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Sector Carina is the third area or sector that the Red Sprite's crew investigate inside the Schwarzwelt .

• 1 Appearances
• 2.1 Crafting EX Missions

Appearances [ ]

• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Profile [ ]

Sector Carina is the sector of the Schwarzwelt intended to reflect human greed and wish for lavishness and luxury, mirroring in an absurd mockery of a massive shopping mall stocked with all sorts of products; from simple items to even live animals and demons locked in cages, all shelves miles high and stocked to the brim. It is in this sector that Sanctums are introduced --they are different parts of time/space, accessible through shifts in special locations--. Upon arrival, the crew detects faint pulses of radio communications, leading them to believe the 3rd Ship, The Elve, is located somewhere within the Carina. Arthur indicates that though Zelenin's story makes the survival of other crewmen unlikely, it is possible the damaged ship still holds valuable parts, particularly the Graviton radio used to communicate with Earth, and later issuing a mission for its retrieval.

In one of Carina's sections, the protagonist again finds Mastema , who offers his aid on defeating Carina's demon master. Soon after, he descends to Carina's basement and finds the demon master himself, Horkos , partially fused with the Elve, and protected by its plasma armor. Crewman Jimenez , rushing in, inadvertently forced his demon, Bugaboo to dive in and get absorbed by the plasma armor. Shocked by this, he swore revenge to Horkos.

Seeking a way to pierce Horkos' protection, the protagonist returns to Mastema, who offers to take a Megami and a Wilder demon and fuse them into a sacred crystal capable of damaging Horkos, the Shibboleth, but indicating it would need technological updating to work. He also gifted Zelenin with a Power for her protection, acknowledging her respect for demons of the Divine lineage rather than others that could remind her of her ordeal in Sector Bootes . Taking the crystal to the Red Sprite's lab resulted in the creation of the Horkos Buster, an energy gun designed to separate Horkos from the plasma armor.

The Elve, damaged

After several confrontations, Horkos is forced to leave the damaged Elve and flee; Bugaboo's Demon Source and the Graviton radio are located and obtained. Using the radio, the Red Sprite attempts to communicate with Earth and informs their HQ of the situation; while the Schwarzwelt Joint Project has no other options to help, they offer to keep transmitting new information to the Red Sprite to make their escape easier.

Afterwards, Horkos attacks the Red Sprite after being separated from the Elve. While the Ship's plasma amor drives him off, it's clear he will not relent and will continue to attack. Given this, Arthur issues a mission for his extermination. After being hunted down by the Strike Team, Horkos vanishes using the Sanctum System, but dropping a Rare Forma allowing Irving and Chen, the Red Sprite's lab engineers to enhance the Demonica's Main App, allowing the Strike Team to use the Sanctum System to explore the rest of Sector Carina.

The Dwarf's home in Sector Carina

Upon being found, Horkos battles the protagonist, furious at being denied his meals with such ferocity. After his death, he drops Carina's Rosetta and a Rare Forma.

In the middle of exploring Sector Eridanus , Arthur and crew discover strange signals in Carina which, through investigation, turns out to be from the Lightning housed in a secret part of Carina. The Lightning, the prototype for the creation of the Red Sprite, the Elve, and the 4th Ship, and the Gigantic, housed Jack's Squad .

Later on, the Red Sprite's crew returns to secure one of the Cosmic Eggs. The egg is hidden within a Sanctum and guarded by Chaos demons. When the Protagonist finds the area with the egg he meets Zhu Yin , who will fight him on the Law or Neutral paths and give it to him willingly on the Chaos path.

Crafting EX Missions [ ]

Later on in the game, if the protagonist returns back to Carina he will find that a Dwarf , which, occupying Horkos' previous residence on the first floor, may ask the protagonist to gather crafting materials, starting the 'Forge! Forge!! Forge!!!' series of EX Missions.

Black Box Data

Demons appearing in Sector Carina include:

• Zhu Tun She
• Karasu Tengu
• Myrmecolion
• Doppelganger
• Kanbari (Enemy Search)
• Kuda (Enemy Search)
• Tam Lin (Enemy Search)
• Matador (Enemy Search)
• Horkos (Sector Boss)
• Zhu Yin (Boss, Law or Neutral paths only)
• Shin Megami Tensei
• 2 Persona 5: The Phantom X
• 3 Makoto Yuki