Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army Review

I hold a special affection for the Devil Summoner series, including Soul Hackers on 3DS, which introduced me to the larger Megami Tensei universe. Despite their imperfections, these games are part of my appeal. This sentiment also applies to Soul Hackers 2 and especially the original Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army. To me, there’s no better PS2 gem that suits my preferences more perfectly. It may be puzzling or awkward at times, but its charm is undeniable. The combination of traditional Shin Megami Tensei demon summoning with action combat and adventure game advancement creates an engaging experience for sure.

Raidou Remastered – The Enigma of the Nameless Troops

In contrast to its title, Raidou Remastered – The Enigma of the Nameless Troops is actually a complete overhaul of the original PS2 version, boasting refreshed graphics, voice acting, an upgraded combat system, and numerous enhancements for player convenience. It incorporates familiar SMT elements such as Reverse and Fusion, skill customization, field dashing, fast travel, auto-saving quicksaves, among other features. The improvements are so extensive that it seems like a completely new game has been created.

In the role of Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, a member of the Yatagarasu organization, you’ll find yourself in 1930s Tokyo during the Taishō era. Your mission involves teaming up with a local detective and your talking cat companion, Gouto, to monitor the capital city. Throughout the game, you’ll encounter and resolve various supernatural mysteries, both by fighting and collecting demons. The story will frequently switch between the human world and the Dark Realm as you investigate these cases. Interact with people on the street using your demons to coax them into providing more information.

In this game, demons not only serve as valuable allies in battle, but each one you summon possesses a distinct ability that activates based on their specific Type. Apart from simply charming the crowd, these demons can be dispatched to solve puzzles in the field. They can fly, scout for hidden items, monitor the map for enemies, or embark on independent missions to explore areas that Raidou cannot reach. During solo investigations, you’ll take control of these demons and even engage in a few battles using them alone. This is an engaging way to apply demon collection within the Shin Megami Tensei genre, as it’s quite rare for games in this series to include ADV mechanics.

In the initial PlayStation 2 version, the game opted to represent its nostalgic Tokyo setting primarily using prerendered backdrops. Not only did this approach enable the city to be densely detailed, but it was also a wise decision considering budget and hardware constraints. Contrastingly, Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne was developed in full 3D, making its transition to HD visually smooth. Remaking games with prerendered backgrounds is more challenging, yet I never expected they’d go as far as recreating everything from the ground up. However, their effort proved fruitful.

In my opinion, Raidou Remastered is an impressive recreation. Although everything has been rebuilt from scratch, it still reminds me vividly of how I remember playing it in college when it first hit PSN. The game maintains a unique aesthetic, but the way they’ve updated the graphics while preserving the original feel deserves recognition. The lighting and shading on 3D models are superb, setting a high standard for any future ATLUS revival of a PS2 game. The fact that they recreated the camera angle from the bathhouse brawl in Episode 2, even down to the smallest details, made me smile. They’ve gone the extra mile by remaking all the pre-rendered movies in the new style and keeping some town shots as pre-rendered images.

In the updated version of the game, random battles, which were frequent and prevalent in the PS2 version, even within the Human realm, have been eliminated. This results in fewer battles, streamlining the overall experience. The freedom to explore at my convenience and engage in conversations with characters is a welcome change, as it enhances the impact of demon intrusions in the narrative. Additionally, having the option to pay a small fare for street cars to travel between locations is beneficial, whether you need time to gather supplies or attend to Case Files.

‘Case Files’ serve as the arrangement system for the supplementary content in the original game, designed by the development team. Previously hard-to-find demons now stand out on the playing field and are categorized under a Case File, ensuring that you don’t overlook them if you’re actively seeking them. Additionally, they’ve introduced additional side quest chains, often centered around newly introduced demons such as Hayataro from SMT V.

Overall, most of the recent enhancements to the quality of life seem appealing and contribute positively to the gaming experience; however, there’s still a sense that some rough edges have been smoothed out. There are minor changes that might just be nitpicks in the broader context, such as no longer requiring a weak point to capture demons. My main issue, which I mentioned earlier, is the introduction of mandatory objective markers. These should ideally be optional for players who find the game too confusing without them, but they have significantly diminished the original game’s sense of mystery and problem-solving. The markers are also inconsistently implemented, with some being excessively intrusive while others allow you to solve puzzles on your own. The sacrifice of the traditional puzzle-solving experience found in adventure games has been replaced by the requirements of a sleek modern action game.

It may appear paradoxical to dislike compulsory main story goals yet appreciate the game’s additional content, especially when it’s presented in a less obtrusive fashion. Instead of directly guiding you, the game only indicates where you should head, allowing you to explore the Case File description or ask for hints from there. The next steps are often left for you to decipher, or for you to mentally mark a potential diversion to revisit later. A game with such markers is generally more preferred over one without them, but I believe an optional toggle feature would have been even more beneficial. More choices always enhance the experience.

Traveling along the guided path of significant game milestones can influence the speed of the gameplay, as you’ll race through the primary narrative now. You’ll always know your destination, so the key story moments unfold rapidly. However, this can become quite intense, particularly since the latter chapters move at a brisk pace. I’d like to reiterate my request for an option to hide these milestones, as being able to explore and understand things at my own pace would have added to my enjoyment. Distinguishing between crucial NPCs and those who can be disregarded diminishes the impression that all these characters contribute to the game’s mood and ambiance. With Gotou providing more hints in dialogue, having only his words as a guide for progress would have offered a unique experience if they allowed me to turn off these markers.

In my perspective, while I yearned for the leisurely tempo of the original game to remain intact, it’s evident that some of that slowness was due to filler content. By eliminating the continuous random battles and reducing uncertainty, Raidou Remastered illustrates how streamlined the original game truly was. A significant chunk of my time spent playing the original Raidou back then was consumed by frequent battles, and getting lost only meant encountering more battles. My initial playthrough of Raidou Remastered lasted approximately 21 hours, with most of the Case Files completed. It was refreshing to experience a shorter, more concentrated Shin Megami Tensei title, which I couldn’t say as much for the original.

After spending more time delving into Raidou Remastered’s combat system, I can say that it’s noticeably improved compared to my initial preview. In a previous write-up, I elaborated extensively on its appeal, and I continue to hold that view. The rigid battle system of the original game has been significantly upgraded to resemble its sequel more closely. Now, there are light and heavy attacks available, each with their own sequence of strikes. Light attacks serve to boost your MAG meter, crucial for your demons to employ their abilities. Heavy attacks excel at dealing damage, especially when you can stun enemies by exploiting a weakness or breaking a boss’s shield. Additionally, both types of attacks will propel Raidou towards his targeted foe, ensuring that you remain immersed in the action at all times.

To ensure a steady damage output and healing, it’s crucial to keep Raidou engaged, attacking lightly. Your allies will quickly deplete your MAG, so an aggressive playstyle is essential to prevent this resource from running out. This aggressive approach also makes it more enjoyable to master evasion timing, as successfully dodging at the right moment triggers a Devil’s Bane attack that restores a significant amount of your MAG. Quick movement with the jump button, agile dodging, and timed elemental attacks make Raidou an exciting action game in terms of real-time gameplay. You now have more control than before, and the encounters have been adjusted to reflect this. However, if you’re not careful, you’ll die quickly, but being overly cautious will leave your demons without enough MAG to function effectively.

You can reach Goumaden from any save point or by returning to Tsukudo-cho. Inside Goumaden, you can merge demons and enhance your weapons. Now, you can combine demons regardless of their loyalty level, but it’s beneficial to increase loyalty since demons with maximum loyalty are more likely to drop items upon leaving. These items can be utilized for constructing weapons using the revamped Sword Alchemy system. The various weapon types (Sword, Axe, Spear) have been reintroduced in the original Raidou with this mechanism, affecting how your heavy attack operates.

You can go to Goumaden from any save point or Tsukudo-cho, where you can merge demons and upgrade weapons. Demons can be merged regardless of loyalty level, but it’s good to increase loyalty because high-loyalty demons often leave items behind. These items can be used to create weapons using the new Sword Alchemy system. The original game now includes different weapon types (Sword, Axe, Spear) thanks to this mechanism, which changes how your heavy attack works.

In Sword Alchemy, you can unveil additional special abilities and ongoing effects, known as sword skills. You can assign up to three of these sword skills, which you can activate by pressing the right trigger along with the corresponding face button. After completing Episode 2, your arsenal will consist of the three weapon types for the remainder of the game. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover any move combinations to extend combos, and it seemed like I had experienced most of what the game offered in terms of Raidou’s skillset before reaching the final act. It appears that the developers prioritized swapping out demons frequently, ensuring they have enough MAG and dealing damage (DPS), which keeps the combat from becoming monotonous throughout the game.

As the game progressed, I found that the routine encounters became monotonous. The standard fights didn’t provide much of a challenge, as you end up repeating similar actions for each encounter. Enemies don’t seem to escalate their aggression or deadliness throughout the game, and the damage they inflict is quickly healed by your demons. Some enemies fly around frequently, but the solution is usually just stun them with a gunshot. Boss battles compensate for this quite well, but most of the time is spent battling regular demons.

As I delved deeper into the game, I reached a point where upgrading Raidou’s weapons seemed to lose its luster. It felt like Raidou had hit a plateau, and the combat, though thrilling initially, began to feel somewhat predictable. The stat boosts from weapon upgrades were appreciated, but the new Sword Skills at the higher levels ceased to feel impactful. By the end game, Raidou’s build felt insignificant, and I quickly reached the cap for my stats. Overall, the battle system in this game is incredibly dynamic and responsive, yet it seems there’s not much more room for expansion. It’s certainly not a bad thing, but it doesn’t quite live up to its full potential. Thankfully, the game’s brevity mitigates the impact of these combat limitations on the overall gaming experience.

In most ordinary confrontations, combat tends to become less dynamic past the midway mark, but this system truly shines when it’s pushed to its maximum potential. This is an Action RPG, and mastering the RPG mechanics becomes vital during these exceptional encounters. For instance, consider the Case Files quest chain in the Training Hall where you engage in a 100-demon battle series, with waves of demons attacking relentlessly. It’s complete pandemonium, yet the thrill of the chaos was exhilarating. Pitting the player against normal enemies that are usually harmless on their own, only to be overpowered, is an ingenious design choice for a game like this, offering a simple, yet engaging action experience.

In every chapter, the boss fights were an exhilarating challenge that kept me on my toes, offering a thrill I couldn’t find in many modern action games. These bosses were no pushovers; they dealt heavy damage and required mastering their strict attack patterns to survive. The difficulty spikes they presented were a refreshing change, testing my skills to the limit.

Each boss felt reminiscent of MMO raid bosses, with their use of area-of-effect attacks, summoned minions, and specific patterns to overcome. My reflexes were put to the test, especially when it came to the Safeguarding mechanic that allowed me to quickly pull demons towards me. At times, they could seem unfair, but this uneven balance is what made the classic SMT games so satisfying.

I was initially concerned that Raidou Remaster would follow the trend of ATLUS re-releases being too easy, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it retained its bite when needed.

As a fan, I didn’t find myself deeply emotionally invested in this game’s narrative, but it never left me feeling dull or uninterested. The story takes some wildly unexpected turns, and I have to admit, I enjoy the strange and unusual aspects of it. The initial premise of a 1930s detective summoning demons feels rather quaint, but by the time the credits roll, things take a drastic turn!

Although there’s an attempt to delve into the economic struggles of the era, the action-packed events keep the focus from dwelling too long on these issues.

Although I haven’t completed the original sequel “Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon,” I can envision its potential without needing to spend a large portion of the game time establishing new settings and characters, as the sequel is known for having multiple endings based on the choices made in the story. The idea that there are various outcomes excites me since the original Raidou (and this remake) follows a linear narrative. I’m looking forward to diving back into the game soon after this post is published, and I think it won’t be too difficult given the significant similarities between the remake and the original.

Regarding fresh narrative elements in Raidou Remastered, they’ve maintained a similar flow to the original storyline. Additional dialogue has been incorporated to clarify complex aspects or further develop concepts from the initial release. These additions significantly improved my experience with the story, particularly in the final chapter where new dialogues effectively reinforced the game’s primary themes. The core plot developments remain unchanged, but the added contextual details were quite charming.

Regarding the remake of Raidou, let me emphasize my admiration for it despite some reservations I have about the game. It’s remarkable how they’ve managed to maintain its original essence while giving it a contemporary touch, creating a fresh and engaging experience. If ATLUS continues this trend by revitalizing more titles from their classic catalog, I’d be thrilled.

The prospect of seeing Raidou 2 or the Digital Devil Saga duology in a similar style is exhilarating. However, what truly excites me is the potential for these mechanics to be further developed and refined. This remake serves as an excellent foundation for a possible third Raidou game, with all the assets for Tokyo already created and the combat system ready for more iterations and innovative encounter design.

Raidou Remastered has indeed enhanced a game with its share of flaws, yet it was limited by its goal to reproduce the content from the original game. Atlus deserves credit for creating a largely accurate yet refined version of Raidou’s first appearance. This remake offers an intriguing opportunity to re-experience that era of gaming, and I’m grateful that Atlus didn’t just discard the challenging parts of the original game. Raidou Kuzunoha remains a classic entry in the Devil Summoner series, and it’s wonderful to see Atlus continuing to explore this gritty franchise.

Tested Variants: The primary version was the Nintendo Switch, alongside the PC and an anticipated Nintendo Switch 2. Additionally, Raidou Remastered can be obtained on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox Series X and S consoles.

2025-06-18 16:57

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