Worlds collide at the bottom of the world as you and your party travel to Antarctica to investigate recent disturbances that have begun to plague the surrounding area with silence. Every single outpost in the region has gone dark. Probes show that there is no way through the energy field but there is a way to go over the energy field into the disturbance. This is where your crew comes in. Welcome to the bottom of the planet indeed. This is our review of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux.
The strange swirling energy field, called the Schwarzwelt, is expanding outwards from a single point in the world. The more it expands, the more it consumes. You begin your study of this anomaly by heading inside, but whoops your ships are hit by energy strikes and are sent spiraling to the ground. You are immediately met with things that you can’t see until you are equipped with your demon gear. And that is where the weirdness kicks into overdrive. The energy field encapsulates another realm of reality where Demons are all around. There are about 350 of them in the game, you can confront them, talk with them, and even add them to your team to help you through this realm. Pokemon anyone? That’s precisely my feelings about it after I started to get into it, much like you running around capturing all those little Caterpie. Alright so this game definitely isn’t Pokemon and it is definitely a game that children may have a hard time with.
The people over at Atlus have put together a game where you can run around through dungeons in first person mode a la the original Duke Nukem would be my closest comparison point. You have to navigate the map, which is covered by the nasty shroud of war, this means every step you take down the corridors will open up more and more of the massive landscape that you will explore. I will tell you that most of the textures and pieces of the map you will wander through will look very similar.
The game is a standard role-playing game outside of the small changed made for this particular type of game. You get to attack with your sword, or gun, or special attacks. You have the option to heal yourself and use items as well. After you rack up enough experience points you will move up to the next level and so on and so forth. I won’t give too much away, so I will say this if you are up for a challenge, and not being able to look away from the screen, this game is for you.
Note: Our copy was reviewed on Nintendo 3DS with a code provided by PR.