Every floor of the Schwarzwelt has a different theme, each of which embodies a vice of mankind’s. From the iconic Jack Frost to the intimidating Ippon-Datara, every demon has a design that tells you everything you need to know about them. Visually, Strange Journey boasts a unique style that mixes strange but creative designs with a dark twist. “ Every floor of the Schwarzwelt has a different theme, each of which embodies a vice of mankind’s.”
When you add in the ability to imbue certain skills into different fusions, you end up with a system that is full of depth and incredibly fun to explore. Thanks to the seemingly infinite amount of fusion combinations, you’ll never grow tired of finding new and more powerful demons to crush enemies with. While you gain experience through battle, the best way to make your party stronger is to fuse your different demons together. Any random encounter could kill an unprepared player, which adds a sadistic (or perhaps masochistic) sense of tension to the entirety of the game. Strange Journey, while easier than core Shin Megami Tensei games, is certainly challenging. This makes Strange Journey ’s difficulty somewhat customizable, as exploiting weaknesses can make or break any boss battle, or even any regular battle.
Enemy and ally demons alike have different elemental resistances and weaknesses, which are often found through trial and error. You and your demons fight foes in first-person turn-based combat using a variety of physical attacks and elemental magic. You’re always on your toes when negotiating with different demons, which makes each recruitment feel earned.Ĭombat is standard fare for the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Some demons are like cynical old men who like when you agree with them, while others value manners and decency above all. This requires analysis of each demon type’s speaking pattern, which is far more interesting than it sounds. Rather than catch or tame demons, it’s up to you to convince each demon that you’re worth teaming up with. These demons can be recruited and used as teammates through negotiation. While exploring the various floors of the Schwarzwelt, your character will come across a variety of demonic foes, many of whom are based on various myths and legends from around the world. Strange Journey excels in its gameplay, which alternates between simple dungeon-crawling and complex demon fusion. The theme works well, it’s just used a bit too frequently. When you’re running around a distorted shopping center with signs about consumption and greed, it feels a bit excessive to have demons talk about how vile humans can be. I like how Strange Journey conveys the message, I just wish it had a bit more restraint in how often it conveys it. The criticism does feel a bit tired at times, as more than a few characters talk about how selfish and greedy and cruel humans can be.
“ I like how Strange Journey conveys the message, I just wish it had a bit more restraint in how often it conveys it.” A lot of these theologies are reflective of Strange Journey ’s recurring theme: that humanity can often be more vile than demons. The floor-boss demons are strong characters themselves, thanks to their unique personalities and theologies. Though the characters aren’t particularly deep for the most part, Jimenez and Bugaboo are particularly fantastic. The story delves into an examination of human nature, using the demons for contrast. Entry into the Schwarzwelt doesn’t go well, leaving only a single command team and scant survivors to finish the original mission: to learn about the void and to stop it from destroying the Earth. As the world panics about the rift in space-time that devours the continent, multiple governments band together to send scientists and soldiers into the demon-inhabited abyss, officially dubbed the Schwarzwelt.
Strange Journey takes place in a world much like our own, aside from the enormous black hole that’s slowly engulfing Antarctica. It certainly lives up to its name in every way, as Strange Journey will bring you on a bizarre, addictive, but overall pleasantly strange journey. While Persona focuses on social links and friendships between teenagers, Strange Journey is about the dark underbelly of our world and friendships with demons. Much like the Persona series, Strange Journey is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series.
MonsterVine was provided with a 3DS code for review. Though newcomers may be understandably intimidated at its lack of hand-holding, Strange Journey’s intense world and deep fusion system make it one of the most unique RPGs on the 3DS. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is an intense, weird, and incredibly enjoyable dungeon crawler.