SMT is a fantasy/mythology JRPG game series started in 1987 as an adaptation of the mediocre novel “Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei” and established its own identity with the titular sequel Megami Tensei II and the SNES reboot Shin Megami Tensei. It is best known for being difficult (though that’s more hearsay really, with the exception of SMT III) and having had the option to talk to enemies during battle since the very start in the 80s.

Within the mainline series (since there’s a fuckton of spinoff series like Devil Summoner or the most famous of the bunch, Persona), a conflict between the forces of Law (God - obey my very strict rules, and I will give you a peaceful and good life), Chaos (Lucifer - I will give you absolute freedom to do whatever you want. You might get murdered for fun, but you will live without limits) and those who oppose both factions is usually the centre of the narrative.

The previous entries of the game series took on a variety of settings:

SMT 1 had a Tokyo where a Fascist coup was underway with the help of demons.

SMT 2 has a cyberpunk theocratic setting and was a direct sequel of the first game’s canon ending. [fantastic game btw]

SMT 3’s Tokyo is completely unrecognizable by the time shit hits the fan.

So what does the 2009 entry in the series, Strange Journey do? It shows us the worst horrors imaginable. Our modern day world. Set in the near future on Earth, where the contradictions of capitalism continued as in real life (the opening even mentions a war in Eastern Europe), a mysterious phenomenon called the Schwarzwelt emerges in Antarctica. A black circle which keeps expanding from its point of origin begins enveloping more and more land, as aggressive demons emerge from it and begin attacking humanity. The MC is part of a military investigation team sent by the UN.

Inside, they discover the world is

spoiler

a reflection of societal ills plaguing human society, as demonic overlords gain power and seek to do the same on human territory. War, Hedonism, science without ethics, consumerism, waste generation are all addressed as the Investigation Team proceeds further inside the Schwarzwelt. However, not all demons inside are hostile, and eventually you meet angels of God who came to fight against the demons and carry out the conflict between Chaos and Law further.

The characters are easily some of the best written in the series, especially the main representative of the Chaos faction and the Law faction. Instead of the usual “they’ve always been sketchy, no wonder they started advocating for Genocide of sinners”, the character development is really well written and you likely will sympathize with both of them even to the point where the unavoidable confrontation begins.

SJ Character Spoiler

Zelenin is a member of the science team and a big advocate for cooperation among humanity. Her ship gets downed during an early part of the game and she becomes a prisoner of a demon lord, Mithras, who conducts experiments on captured humans. She barely escapes, but maintains a dislike of demons through the plot. This made her a perfect target of manipulation by the Angels, who eventually convince her to abandon her allegiance to the human crew of the Red Sprite and dedicate herself to fighting the demons.

Jimenez on the other hand, has had a different experience. His first memory in the Schwarzwelt was seeing you whoop the ass of demons with the help of your own ones. After joining the crew, he eventually finds a divergent Demon in Mithras’ torture dungeon and adopts a fatherly attitude towards it. Much later, he gets captured by a rogue squad of humans, whose goal is to do colonialism/economic exploitation of the Schwarzwelt as they conduct experiments to give humans the demons’ power. The MC tries saving him, but he is forcefully fused with the demon he rescued and successfully gains what the rogue humans wanted. He becomes PISSED and disgusted at humanity. He instead wishes the demons to take over the world and let humanity live in peace with the friendly ones and fight for supremacy with the aggressive ones.

It is no surprise that Zelenin and Jimenez do not get along at all.

The rerelease, Strange Journey Redux adds new endings after completing a bonus dungeon, and they add three new endings. It makes

Ending spoiler

less cynical versions of either the Law and Chaos endings, and a more cynical version of the neutral ending (shifting away from the usual neutral ending )

Personally, I went for the New Law ending, since I didn’t trust the Chaos representative and the neutral one didn’t convince me, and it was quite good and felt surprisingly realistic outcome-wise.

Not a communist masterpiece like Disco Elysium, but certainly one of the best games in the Megaten series despite the imo mid music (with exceptions ), average gameplay and it being a 3DS game. Also, some of the bosses are pretty hard.

9/10