Prologue – The Coming of Vengeance
Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance is everything that the original version of the game was supposed to be back in 2021. I could say this is a review of the game, but I’d honestly say that this is me nerding out about my experience with Vengeance when I finally finished my second playthrough. While I may mention some points regarding the game’s development, rather than bringing up the old topic of what the original release was like, I mainly want to focus on things I really loved about Vengeance.
That being said, I want to make mention of the time when Vengeance was announced. Keeping my ear to the ground, I began to hear rumors of a second release of SMTV and even that it would have the secondary title of Vengeance. While there was some hesitancy from my own feelings of the original release, I felt that it was expected to get a director’s cut release like many other previous Atlus released games, and that this is one that may have been sorely needed. Then I saw the trailer and I could see that this would be something more than just a director’s cut release. The trailer showed off various new scenes, abilities, demons, features, all with this tone that felt angrier, yet within the mystical and primal nature of SMT5. It was clear that the special sauce that makes an SMT game, what was missing from the original release, it was now here. The following interview from the developers would state that, in what we surmised from documented interviews of SMT5’s development and the resulting original release, there were concepts and ideas they had for SMT5 that didn’t make it into the original release. Vengeance would allow the developers to apply a good portion of those concepts.
Leading up to the release of Vengeance, the opening that would play when you booted up the game was given out and it perfectly captured the tone that would pervade the new tale of the Canon of Vengeance. It had dawned on me that something the original release was missing was an opening movie. This would be the first indication that Vengeance is the complete version of SMT5. I had different ideas on how and when I would purchase the game, which is why I didn’t preorder it. Ultimately, I did buy it on day one, actually managing to get myself the preorder bonus of the very beautiful steelcase that showcases both the Nahobino and the Qaditsu, the four new demons that would serve as the “antagonists” of Vengeance’s story.
The Canon of Creation – How it felt this time around
Out the gate, when you begin the game, you are in a dream sequence and shown a girl floating in space in a fetal position, being given two options – to take her hand or to leave her in this space. Usually, in Atlus re-releases that are considered definitive editions or director’s cuts of previous games, the new content would be woven into the story of the original game. In the case of SMT5 Vengeance, this breaks the norm by providing the story of the original game as its own route, known as the Canon of Creation. The new tale that is special to this version of the game is referred to as the Canon of Vengeance. It was in this moment I realized the primary thing that was actually missing from the game’s original story – a chaos route. For the uninitiated, SMT games are often structured in an alignment system that determines the ending of the game, broken down into two primary alignments – Law and Chaos. While it’s strange to say that SMT5 was missing a chaos route despite the original game having a chaos ending, looking at them again, the Canon of Creation, even by name and the context of the story, feels it fits within the themes of a Law route. This makes the action of choosing your ending rather than being subject to the alignment system of previous games make more sense as it provides you control over the fate of the universe.
The first choice I made was to go through the Canon of Creation. This was because I didn’t finish SMT5’s original story, having only made it to the end of the third area. I wanted to finish what I didn’t the first time around before jumping into the Canon of Vengeance. Upon the first throws of combat, I could feel the level scaling was changed for the better, feeling like I was fighting on much fairer ground. I constantly was yelling the words “I’m back!”, in this state of euphoria of playing the RPG I wanted all this time out of SMT5. But in addition to that, I didn’t realize how much I missed running around Da’at Tokyo and feeling like this transcended being that’s able to take down the most powerful of demons, angels, and gods.
Something I didn’t have from the original release was the DLCs of the game either. It seems like a minor item to make note of, but one of the DLCs of the original release included fights and fusions for the Fiends of SMT3, with a final fight against the Demifiend himself as a superboss. SMT5 Vengeance decided to include all the DLC of the original release, with the previously mentioned SMT3 fights, as well as fusions and fights against Artemis, Cleopatra, and Mephisto, as part of the game. The odd part was none of the DLC felt like shoehorned content. While that does bring up the topic of DLC potentially being content they decided to leave out and sell for additional money, it felt nice to have that content be part of the game rather than still having to pay extra money for it, especially for the players who purchased the DLC for the original game and don’t have to do it again a second time.
From going on new sidequests, to the inclusion of demon haunts and talking to demons I recruited, the game simply had this air of feeling better. By the time I got to the end of the Canon of Creation, while I didn’t have the ability to defeat Shiva and unlock the secret ending of the game, I felt satisfied with that first playthrough, ending at 81 hours. The funny thing is that the ending I went with didn’t have me fight the game’s final boss, sending me straight to the credits and watching the result of my actions. Watching the Nahobino walk across the expanse of the universe towards the somber and exhausted ending song, it felt like this end for myself alone was satisfying on a base level. If someone were to just play the Canon of Creation with all the features that Vengeance brought, I’d say it’s a solid experience. But having gone through the Canon of Vengeance, I’d say that the entire SMT5 Vengeance experience is complete once you’ve gone through both routes.
The Canon of Creation will help introduce you to characters and build a base relationship with each of them, particularly with that of Aogami, the proto-fiend the protagonist is fused with to become the Nahobino. Additionally, there’s explanations behind motivations of the actions of the various gods during the events of SMT5 that continue to happen in the background of the Canon of Vengeance’s story. If you were to go in without the understanding of those motivations, it may feel like you missed something. But I would say that the Canon of Creation helps elevate the Canon of Vengeance by the fact that instinctively, the player will look out for differences with the story and see how each difference further changes the story to make itself not a re-write of the original game’s story, but its own parallel tale.
The Canon of Vengeance
In my second playthrough, now having access to New Game Plus, I decided to go with the “Newborn” playthrough, in which I start at level one and retain only a few unlocks and my demon compendium registration. The idea was to go through the Canon of Vengeance with almost an almost fresh playthrough, but retaining some of my accomplishments from my first time around as completing the demon compendium requires multiple playthroughs.
In taking the girl’s hand, I come to learn that this girl’s name is Yoko Hiromine, a brand new main character that is very central to the Canon of Vengeance and serves to be the Chaos representative in opposition to Tao Isonokami, who now serves as the Law representative. While things don’t seem too different from the beginning of the game, I do notice Yoko’s presence…and that of a new dangerous demon that she helps fight as essentially Canon of Vengeance’s first boss. Were I not already well versed in SMT5, let alone SMT’s combat systems across the games, Glasya-Labolas would’ve been an extremely difficult wall to climb over. From beating him, with having an amazing boss track of his own, the game now shifts to a new main battle theme.
Tangent – Music
Something that was generally concluded about the original game is that the music was indeed good, including a total of 117 tracks. The battle theme of the original game was something I often listened to, with it being a combination of somber, upbeat, and unusually tired. It perfectly encapsulated the struggle of fighting against powerful beings as being one yourself. My favorite track of the original game was its major boss battle theme, “humans, demons, and…”, which was explosive, capturing the dangerous and emotional nature of the battle itself, incorporating a motif of the main battle theme, while relying heavily on the fast-paced guitar to keep you on your toes.
What Vengeance brought to the table was 89 new tracks that would be used alongside the original tracks. From the opening movie, to Yoko’s theme, and of course all the new battle themes, there were so many notably powerful songs that had this edge the originals didn’t. Again, I felt this was a result of the tone of the Canon of Vengeance being Chaos themed in nature, and the music needed to match that while still sounding like it’s within the musical themes of SMT5.
Aogami
Watching changes from the story as it progressed, especially with more focus on the storyline around Sahori and the unfairness of the ending result of that incident, made everything more impactful. Being able to fight alongside Dazai, Yuzuru, Tao, and Yoko did help build a relationship with them more in gameplay. The story finally decided to let them breathe together a little better and upon the end of the second area, I was left in shock of what happens with the Fairy Village. One of the biggest changes comes down to area 3, where instead of going to Chiyoda like you do in the Canon of Creation, you instead go to Shinjuku to chase down the Qaditsu. This brings about one of the most powerful moments in the story, from Miyazu deciding to stay with the Egyptian gods so Yuzuru doesn’t have to worry about protecting her anymore, to the final battle against the Qaditsu. I was left brutally hurt by Aogami being sacrificed and Yuzuru’s death. The helplessness of the situation further added to the theme of Vengeance, now putting us on that path and resulting in the new fusion of the protagonist with Tsukuyomi.
This is definitely a part of this whole little love letter to SMT5 that is the hardest to talk about and I’m just letting myself go full stream of consciousness for this one. I don’t think any of us truly appreciated Aogami until this moment. It finally clicked in who he was to us, both the protagonist and the player. This was a being that, when met with the protagonist, questions our actions. It’s not because he thinks what we’re doing is wrong. H wants to understand where we’re coming from to better support us. That is the key thing about Aogami – he is the most supportive person to us and it makes sense because he is a part of us. He’s going to stand by you through thick and thin, regardless of what choice you make. If you decide to end the cycle of rebirth, allow it to be reborn, punch a baby in the face, stick tinfoil in the microwave, he’s going to do his best to support you and stand by you. And he’s always respectful towards the protagonist, referring to him as “Young man”. He warns him of incoming danger. he talks with the protagonist in the safety of the demon haunt section to help him process the traumatic nature of the events of the game and affirm that he’s going to be by his side, no matter what.
Losing that support system, that other half, what is essentially the protagonist’s soulmate, in a bid for Aogami to save him, truly hurt. It wasn’t the inability to go Nahobino, it wasn’t the reversion to human form – it was the fact that Aogami was gone that hurt the most. And in that same breath, you have this moment where the brother of Aogami, Tsukuyomi, watches as his other half Yuzuru die, killed by Abdiel and Dazai. Now that pain of loss is shared by both the protagonist and Tsukuyomi. The new Nahobino form felt like it represented this defiant act of Vengeance against the loss. But if there was something that was clear, it’s that Tsukuyomi is not Aogami. He cannot support us the way that he did, from the way he speaks to us, to how he warns us, to how he checks in with us, to even the music that now plays when you’re in demon haunts, he knows he isn’t Aogami.
Taito – Sending Everything to Chaos
Upon reaching the final area of the game for a second time, with the goal of stopping Tiamat, I realized something that’s quite brilliant about Taito, which applies to the Canon of Creation as well since they share the same final area. While the areas of the game are relatively open, they follow a linear progression that have much in between point A to point B to provide you the tools and strength needed to continue the game. However, upon reaching Taito, you are thrown into the middle of the map and are given three areas to go to where you would acquire the keys to enter the Empyrean. The game provides no order on what keys to acquire first, only that you need to go to them. The entire area is filled with powerful demons, to which you may realize that you’re actually underleveled a bit and upon your own conclusion, know that you may not stand the best chance at retrieving these keys.
Through this non-linear approach at the end of the game, there is now this trust in the player that they can go about these strong enemies and recognize the need to acquire strength by fighting other demons before acquiring the keys. It pushes the player to naturally engage with the side content, and it subtly uses that need of strength to put the player into the same position as the various gods vying for power to try and re-create the universe. It’s a brilliant usage of using the game to put the player into the themes of the game without ever needing to have someone tell you it through dialogue. And because of that push to engage with the sidequests, there’s even this interesting change to the Egyptian storyline from the Canon of Creation. If you bring to Khonsu the sun crest, Miyazu decides to take vengeance upon Tsukuyomi as she holds him responsible for Yuzuru’s death. Even Miyazu had gone down the route of the game’s title and it was shocking to see this once meek character choose a dark path, even for a moment.
Upon reaching the throne at the Empyrean, what I was expecting was something along the lines of how the Canon of Creation’s story decided to present its endings, which was through a choice made before you fight the final set of bosses. I was so worried about having to choose between Tao in recreating the world in the shape of peace or Yoko in sending the world into chaos for something new to take its place. I know it’s a choice I would’ve sat with for a good while. What ended up happening is that the game, in classic SMT style, just gave me the route instead. All the micro choices I thought may have not mattered actually did in this playthrough, solidifying that the Canon of Vengeance is the Chaos route of SMT5.
What I entered was a brutal fight against Tiamat, even with the Nahobino at the maximum level of ninety-nine. What I was rewarded with was the best moment in the Canon of Vengeance’s story. Tiamat was broken down from the battle and while it reformed, Aogami’s essence escaped from the great divine serpent. With Tsukuyomi giving himself to Yoko to ensure she lives, Aogami reveals that Tiamat can only be destroyed by a descendant of the bull god, of which it was established earlier that Aogami is a descendant of. Seeing him again, to become one with him again, that was the last gift this game had to give me. Taking his hand as I did in the beginning of the game, hearing him say “Young Man” once more, the protagonist and Aogami merge to become their original Nahobino form, performing the Murakumo strike on Tiamat, an ability I had been using for the entire game, destroying Tiamat. Upon reaching the ending I was given, I felt this level of satisfaction of finishing what was a complete game. I got an ending I could feel content with, choosing a universe to be born of freedom rather than of stuck within a broken system. I’ve talked in the past to people about how video games have a special way of using experience to tell it’s story and I’d say that SMT5 Vengeance as a whole, with both the Canon of Creation and the Canon of Vengeance, is one of those cases where it could only do with what it did as a video game. The Nahobino and Aogami perfectly fit among the roster of SMT protagonists and this game as it is now deserves to go down the annals of SMT history as one of the greats.
