One of 2021's best JRPGs escapes the Switch with a Personal 5 Royal-style expansion in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, with updates that will eat 80 hours of my life

2021 was stacked for JRPGs, yet Shin Megami Tensei 5 still managed to win a spot in my personal picks for the year alongside the likes of Bravely Default 2 and Tales of Arise. So it's immensely exciting to see Atlus giving the game a shot in the arm with Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, an expanded re-release of sorts that should sound familiar to anyone who played Persona 5 Royal. 

Announced at this week's Nintendo Direct showcase, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is coming to Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on June 21, 2024 – the same day as the Elden Ring DLC, to the dismay of my calendar. This is arguably the biggest news since the original game was locked to the Switch, meaning many more players can finally enjoy it. 

Vengeance updates SMT5 with a new storyline said to add 80 hours of content primarily to the middle and final third of the story, as well as sweeping combat and quality-of-life updates that can be enjoyed throughout. It's billed as the "definitive version" of the game, and like Persona 5 Royal – slightly less like Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse, which followed an alternate timeline entirely – it seems to basically be the same game, but more. However, where Royal simply added an extra chapter to the end of the game, Vengeance features one big decision that essentially splits the story into two routes with different endings. 

Also like Persona 5 Royal, Vengeance has drawn some criticism for offering limited options to players who already own and played the base game. Atlus and Sega are, after all, selling the updated version exclusively as a whole new thing instead of an a la carte add-on. In this case, you can't transfer your save file at all, but you can transfer a whole three demons to the new game's Compendium collection. You'll also get some minor bonuses if you have save data for the original game, but frankly I care way more about playing this on a new-gen console or PC than I do any of that fluff. It looked and ran fine on