Ever since its release in 2021 for Japan, my friends who play Falcom’s games kept telling me about how good The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak (henceforth Trails through Daybreak) was despite some rough edges at launch. It felt too good to be true back then because for a series like this, people (including myself) often joke about the barrier of entry across different platforms. I ended up trying the Japanese demo for Trails through Daybreak and was in love with the combat system and the visual upgrade. I had no idea about the story back then. Fast forward to today and I’ve played Trails through Daybreak across Steam Deck, PS5 (including the PS4 version), and Nintendo Switch. It is an incredible experience. I’m going to cover and compare every version I have access to, but this review will focus on the PC version on Steam Deck.

Trails through Daybreak is just special when it comes to its story, characters, and world. I’m not going to pretend like I suddenly like the older games less or anything because I love most of them, but Trails through Daybreak just feels like such a step up doing everything right without any ifs and buts. Usually, a Trails game recommendation from yours truly includes caveats like playing many other games to get the best experience, or even needing to have played prior games to not miss out on important plot points. We’ve had a few good entry points over the years like with Trails in the Sky (PC or PSP), Trails of Cold Steel (PS Vita, PS4, PC, and PS3), or even my recommendation on Switch which is the Crossbell duology. Right now, I can say that newcomers who want to play Trails and are completely new to it, can play Trails through Daybreak directly. Sure, having played earlier games gives me a better experience with context, returning characters, and seeing the world from this side, but I don’t have any hesitation in telling newcomers to play Trails through Daybreak directly. It is that damn good.

So what makes Trails through Daybreak’s story so special? It begins with Van Arkride who is a Spriggan. As a Spriggan, you take on the kinds of jobs the police don’t and will not bother doing. Set in Calvard (yes, finally!), Trails through Daybreak’s story begins with Van being approached by Agnes who needs help finding her late grandfather’s memento. As Van, you take on all kinds of quests that progress the story, or side quests that actually were interesting to do despite some still being obvious fetch quests with not even an attempt to hide things. Van is basically my favorite Trails protagonist already, and I feel like I might regret saying this in a year or so. I don’t care about that right now, but Trails through Daybreak’s Van is everything I wanted from this game in how he makes decisions, approaches different quests, important character moments, and more. Even the banter between the main cast is excellent.

As the story progresses with Van, you are joined by more from one of my favorite Falcom game casts ever, and I’m not exaggerating. You’d think Falcom might fumble and have some characters join with not enough screen time, but they thought things through here. Not only do characters like Judith and Risette have great designs, but they just elevate the whole plot throughout. Trails through Daybreak still is a Trails game, but it feels darker and more mature throughout, including in dealing with specific topics you don’t usually see in many Falcom games. Van and company definitely meet some interesting characters across the factions in the game.

With Trails through Daybreak, Falcom wasn’t just willing to change things up when it comes to the narrative and setting, but also give us a dramatically different combat system. When I see people excited for Atlus’ upcoming RPG Metaphor ReFantazio because of its combat system, I just remember how Trails through Daybreak did it first in 2021. If you’ve watched gameplay footage of Trails through Daybreak, you might think that you can either go with action (Field Battle) or turn-based (Command Battle) combat here. While you can make your way through most encounters with the former, some force you into Command Battles. I found myself enjoying the mix of both, and the system even lets you start off with one and switch to Command Battle with buffs or other stat changes. The action combat is pretty simple, but it helps that normal enemies don’t seem bloated when it comes to their HP.

Command battles feel like a step above what we had in Trails into Reverie here. When you initiate Command Battle, you can move within a blue circle and do normal attacks, change targets, perform Arts (using EP) that take time to activate, perform Crafts using CP, Shard Skills, use S-Crafts (with excellent cut-scenes), and much more. I feel like the Trails through Daybreak combat system has tons of potential even after how well-realized it is in this game. Being able to melt popcorn enemies around a more powerful foe using the action combat and then swapping to turn-based to take on the harder ones in a mob never gets old. I know I can try Trails through Daybreak II’s Japanese release to see how things changed, but I’m going to be patient for the localization and also see what happens in Kai no Kiseki (out this year in Japan).

In terms of gameplay structure, Trails through Daybreak is very much like a normal modern Trails game, but every aspect of the systems has been improved with the addition of an alignment system, much better sidequests, and generally a snappier experience. Not only does the game itself feel like the best Trails has ever been, but even subtle UI changes help make it feel modern.

Speaking of feeling modern, Trails through Daybreak is the first game on Falcom’s new (at the time) engine, and it shows. Obviously this isn’t cutting-edge, but Trails through Daybreak is a huge step up from the Cold Steel games and Reverie when it comes to visuals and even character models. Katsumi Enami’s character designs translate brilliantly to 3D models, and it was great seeing them return to the series after the excellent work in the Crossbell games. Outside character models and UI improvements, Trails through Daybreak looks gorgeous compared to earlier games. I already thought Trails of Cold Steel III was a step up from the first two games but Trails through Daybreak feels like we are finally a generation ahead. It also helps that the game scales really well making it retain its aesthetic even on the Switch.

If I had to pick one thing that didn’t hit as hard for me in Trails through Daybreak, it would be the music. As a huge fan of basically every Falcom game soundtrack, I felt like Trails through Daybreak was lacking as many great songs I wanted to listen to outside the game. While in-game, it was all good, but Falcom game soundtrack to me are always experiences outside the game as well. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard the Crossbell, Trails of Cold Steel series, or Ys soundtracks. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but I was hoping for more songs I’d want to listen to outside the game beyond just seven or eight right now. Voice acting has been consistently great, and I’m glad the volume level issue I ran into with a few prior English dubs in the series isn’t present here.

Trails through Daybreak PC port features

So far I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Trails through Daybreak, and the PC port is only going to get more praise because it is one of the best PC ports I’ve ever played. PH3 went above and beyond here. Not only are all the features I’ve come to enjoy in the developer’s PC releases included, but there are a few I never thought I’d see in a modern Falcom game, including a PC-exclusive one. Before that, let’s cover what makes Trails through Daybreak’s PC port so good. Aside from graphics options, Trails through Daybreak on PC gives you more control over the high speed mode (turbo mode) letting you set different speedup factors for field exploration, field battles, and command battles. I used this mode almost all the time and still have ended up with more than 70 hours on Steam Deck as of my current save which is in new game plus. The PC version also lets you skip startup logos to save time when you want to resume your save. Speaking of saving time, as with PH3’s other ports, you can also directly resume from latest save when launching the game through Steam to save even more time.

When it comes to display and graphics options, strap in because there is a lot to cover here. Trails through Daybreak lets you adjust display mode (windowed, borderless, fullscreen), select monitor, resolution (320×200 up to 4K on my monitor), select refresh rate, toggle v-sync, adjust frame rate limit (30 to 360fps), adjust FOV (25 to 65), change screen brightness, and enable HDR on supported displays. The HDR setting in Trails through Daybreak is the first time any Falcom game has official HDR support as far as I’m aware. You can adjust HDR peak brightness and HDR UI brightness here. It looks amazing on my Steam Deck OLED.

On the graphics side, Trails through Daybreak lets you select from one of many presets (performance (aimed at low end laptops or handhelds), console (matching the PS5 experience outside resolution and frame rate), default, high (aimed at gaming PCs), and ultra (high end gaming PCs)). You can toggle motion blur, depth of field, adjust three different draw distance settings (character, level of detail, and light draw distance), shadow resolution, shadow filtering, shadow caching, and local shadowing. On the rendering quality side, you can adjust resolution scale (50% to 200%),

One more thing to note is you can preview the game image behind you as you change specific settings. This is also something I want to highlight as most games don’t let you see realtime differences when you are tweaking graphics options. For anti-aliasing, Trails through Daybreak lets you use basic screen-space AA, FXAA with a high quality profile, 2x MSAA, 4x MSAA, and 8x MSAA. You can also use sparse grid supersampling and transparency supersampling here. Aside from that, more quality options include portrait supersampling and minimap anti-aliasiing which dramatically improve the UI specifically. You might think these are small things, but having played Trails through Daybreak across basically all platforms in the last few weeks, these two specific settings generally make the PC version look like a lot more care went into it when you look at dialog with portraits and the minimap. The latter specifically looks poor on consoles.

The final graphics settings let you adjust screen space reflection quality, volumetric lighting quality, a high-resolution cubemap setting, and use a new water shader option from PH3. This specific setting requires reloading the current map. It is quite a nice option to have here. The screenshot above is zoomed in from my Steam Deck with the modern shader at the bottom and the original option on top.

When it comes to PC-exclusive features, aside from the big boost to frame rate target and resolutions that are obvious upgrades, Trails through Daybreak has a show BGM option that you can have display the current track name and soundtrack position. You can set this to only have it display when a new song is encountered or display it at all times. This feature was in the Crossbell games and it is amazing to see it brought to Trails through Daybreak since the console versions don’t have it. Trails through Daybreak on PC also has full keyboard and mouse support as expected from PH3. I didn’t test this though as I played the PC version exclusively on Steam Deck. On the controller side, you can choose button prompts or have it auto detect. The button prompt options are mouse/keyboard, Xbox, DualShock, Steam Deck, Stadia (yes, I’m serious), and Nintendo Switch. I ended up sticking to DualShock button prompts here. The Trails through Daybreak controller options also let you tweak camera sensitivity, targeting cursor sensitivity, vibration intensity, and stick deadzone options.

As you can see, Trails through Daybreak is a fantastic PC conversion that I consider the gold standard. But how does all this work in practice when playing on Steam Deck? Well it is possible to play at a locked 60fps or even aim for 90fps thanks to how scalable the port is, but I settled on 45fps at 90hz for the best combination of graphics that exceed console while looking great on the Deck’s own screen and running well. I started off with the the default and console presets before tweaking some things like shadows to lower options. Most of the settings are on medium, but I opted to increase some things like minimap MSAA and specific draw distance options from the lower settings. Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is my favorite way to experience Falcom’s newest masterpiece by far. It also seems to offer over 4 hours of battery life with HDR using these settings.

Before getting into the platform differences and comparisons, I want to note that Trails through Daybreak has no save data bonus that I can see from prior games. I have every single Trails game available on all platforms installed with save data store locally, and there was no in-game bonus or detection of any of that. You can however transfer the PS4 and Switch demo data to the final game.

Trails through Daybreak PS4 version and improvements from launch

Trails through Daybreak’s launch version on PS4 in Japan was capped at 30fps and lacked some of the quality of life features we are used to with the series in the West. It was then patched to offer an uncapped frame rate (which was basically 60fps on PS5 through backward compatibility) and also the ability to skip S-Crafts. Right now, the PS4 version on PS5 runs at 60fps, but the visuals and load times are not as good as the native PS5 version. You can toggle the frame rate cap from the settings in the PS4 version.

Trails through Daybreak PS5 improvements and features

The PS5 version of Trails through Daybreak has no graphics options, but looks crips and runs at 60fps. It also supports PS5 Activity Cards to track progress of certain things and quickly get back into your save file from the dashboard by saving time that would be wasted watching company logos and splash screens. Basically Trails through Daybreak on PS5 is a very polished experience and I have no major complaints with it.

Note that the comparison image above has been zoomed in and cropped to show the differences even when this article is read on smaller displays.

Trails through Daybreak PS5 vs Switch

Trails through Daybreak on Switch is a native port from Falcom itself just like Nayuta was before. Barring those, all Trails games have been ported by external studios with the quality being very inconsistent outside the Crossbell games which are immaculate on Nintendo’s hybrid system. If you played recent modern Trails games on Switch like Cold Steel IV or Reverie, Daybreak’s port is much better, but it still falls short of even the PS4 version when comparing them on the same display. The load times are longer, resolution lower, frame rate target lower, and it just feels like it is only worth it to play exclusively in handheld.

Even early areas of the game suffer from some issues and can’t hit the 30fps target consistently. Despite that, I put in dozens of hours on Switch just to see how Falcom’s new engine feels on Nintendo’s hybrid system. With the compromises to make Trails through Daybreak run on Switch taken into account, it is still worth your time if you only play on Switch and will stick to it handheld. Just avoid playing it docked if you can since the visual cutbacks are a lot more prominent when playing docked.

Trails through Daybreak PC vs PS5

While the PS5 version looks crisp on my monitor, it has some minor shimmering and aliasing issues when moving around, especially in open areas. The PC version scales well above this if you have the necessary hardware. The PC version also supports much higher frame rates in addition to all the PC-exclusive features I covered above. Trails through Daybreak on PC is the definitive version of the game by far. On the console side though, the PS5 version is the way to go for its improved visuals and much faster load times compared to the PS4 version, let alone the Switch version that is only worth getting if you exclusively play on Switch in handheld mode.

Trails through Daybreak Switch vs Steam Deck

Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is a version I’d choose even over PS5 right now, so it is a big step above the Switch version in just about every way, especially if you have a Steam Deck OLED where you can experience HDR, better battery life, more responsive inputs, and more. If you have both platforms, I recommend getting Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck right now.

When I played Trails from Zero to Azure, I considered the duology as Falcom’s best Trails experience. Then I played Trails into Reverie and loved it so much, but I think Trails through Daybreak is the best Trails game. While I have no hesitation in saying Ys VIII is my favorite game in that series alongside Ys Oath in Felghana, I’m glad to now have Trails through Daybreak alongside the Crossbell duology as the best Trails experiences available today on modern platforms. Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is also my favorite way to experience Falcom’s newest masterpiece by far. Not only is it a fantastic Falcom game, but one of the best RPGs you can play in 2024, and knowing what released, you know I wouldn’t say that lightly. It joins Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, and Balatro at the top of my Game of the Year list right now.

Back when Apple announced multiple big console game ports for iPhone 15 Pro and iPad (with macOS in some cases), I had already experienced three out of the four games announced. The one I hadn’t really played, and one I decided to skip playing until iPhone, was Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Free) from Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed Mirage was billed as a return to the more traditional entry in the series with a shorter runtime. That might not sound great to those who haven’t paid attention to Assassin’s Creed, but despite how good most of the new games are, there has been a desire from the fanbase for older games. I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey quite a bit, but they are very long RPGs. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a shorter experience, and I was curious to see how it would scale on Apple hardware. Since launch, I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed Mirage on iPhone 15 Pro and PS5 with my progress syncing between both platforms through Ubisoft Connect for this review.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set in Baghdad, and you play as Basim Ibn Ishaq on his journey. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set before Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and it was originally planned to be an expansion to that before being changed into a full game in the series. It initially felt weird going back to the classic parkour, stealth, and well assassination focus compared to the full action RPG the recent games have, but I have no real complaints with Assassin’s Creed Mirage when it comes to the story and gameplay. It feels great to have a modern game with a classic series focus, and I hope we see more like this in the future in between the larger RPG entries in the series.

Having waited nearly two weeks since launch to see if any update releases to fix any teething or launch issues in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, I’m going to assume this is what players should expect for the near future when it comes to features and port quality. On launching the game, you need to download about 7.5GB in-game. I didn’t test playing with Ubisoft Connect as my aim was to play Assassin’s Creed Mirage across my PS5 and iPhone 15 Pro. I did try playing offline a few times and the game let me load my save. I can’t check if this works throughout though.

The Resident Evil ports and Death Stranding play great with a controller, but are quite a mess with touch controls. Assassin’s Creed Mirage on the other hand has seen the developers actually add a bespoke touch control option for playing on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad that makes it feel like a big and modern mobile game rather than a console game ported over with a ton of on-screen buttons. This is something I hope more developers do when bringing over console games to mobile. Just slapping a virtual button for every single input on a controller isn’t feasible anymore unless your game has only a few action buttons. Assassin’s Creed Mirage feels tailor made for iPhone 15 Pro when it comes to its controls at least, aside from a few tiny touch targets.

Customizing controls in Assassin’s Creed Mirage lets you move virtual buttons around across different control sets (swimming, base, etc), and also lets you increase or decrease button sizes. I like how the game has a red zone to indicate overlap issues as well when you are trying to tweak the layout to your liking. The issues I have with the UI in Assassin’s Creed Mirage have to do with a lot of the non gameplay sections. The touch targets in some menus are often too small. While the game is capped at 30fps as of this writing, there’s no need for the menus to feel sluggish as well. I hope this aspect can be improved over time.

I waited a few more days before publishing this review because I wanted to try it on my new Backbone One PlayStation Edition USB-C controller, and I’m glad I did. This feels like one of the first few games I’ve played where it not only properly detects the controller with PlayStation button prompts, but it also has Backbone One button prompts for the menu and other non gameplay buttons. The game plays perfectly with a Backbone as well.

Visually, I was mostly impressed with Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but the performance is where things fall apart. Playing with the high graphics preset results in a good image, but performance is unacceptable. I ended up tolerating the game’s performance in the medium settings, but combat really struggles. In addition to the unstable frame rate in these parts, frame pacing is also an issue with the 30fps cap not being perfect. Even if you play on the low graphics preset, there are drops from 30fps, albeit not as bad as in the medium or high presets. This is quite disappointing, and I hope patches can improve this at least on the low and medium presets. High will likely be best for newer iPads.

MrMacRight on YouTube has an excellent video covering how the game is across different iPads. I don’t currently have an iPad that can run Assassin’s Creed Mirage though. I do have the game on PS5, and I was curious to see how I’d feel playing it on that and iPhone with my save syncing across. The PS5 version runs and looks a lot better with 60fps gameplay and a much crisper image. I did enjoy Assassin’s Creed Mirage on my iPhone as a way to continue playing bits of the game though when I was away from home.

While I like the gameplay and story, I want to highlight the music. Assassin’s Creed games usually excel on this front, but I think the audio design in Assassin’s Creed Mirage is just superb. This is one to play with headphones for sure. The voice acting is a bit inconsistent in English, and I also wanted to check out some of the other dubs. You need to download more data in-game for this so keep that in mind especially if you want to play with Arabic voices.

This is more than a solid base for Ubisoft, and it is a few patches away from being superb. Having cross progression through Ubisoft Connect makes it even better though. While this isn’t a game I see myself coming back to later on unless it gets some notable DLC, I hope to see Ubisoft continue bringing cross progression support. I enjoyed using it in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Riders Republic, and Immortals Fenyx Rising on console already, but seeing it on mobile is a good sign for future Ubisoft ports.

One aspect I want to cover is the price point. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a free to try game with a $49.99 unlock for the full game, just like on other platforms. In addition to this, there are optional DLC packs like the Deluxe upgrade, weapons, and more. The reason I bring this up is to make sure everyone knows that these are the same DLC packs sold on consoles and not new ones for mobile despite the way things appear on the App Store page. I don’t like having this stuff in a full price premium game, but sadly that ship has sailed with Ubisoft’s releases. Just keep in mind that you only need the Assassin’s Creed Mirage full game unlock and nothing more to get the proper game experience.

I’m in two minds about Assassin’s Creed Mirage on iPhone 15 Pro right now. It is a great game and Ubisoft put in a lot of work into making it feel good to play with touch controls, but the performance issues hold it back right now. Since Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available as a free to try game, I recommend giving it a shot, but make sure you play until you get to experience some combat so you can properly judge how it will run on your own device. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a great entry in the series, and it is worth your time even if you are a newer fan to experience a modern take on classic Assassin’s Creed. I can’t wait to eventually see how Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels on iPad after playing it on PS5.

Having played the original Shin Megami Tensei V over four times on Nintendo Switch, I clearly loved the game despite its few flaws. Back then I wondered if we’d just see it ported to more platforms eventually with all DLC, or have to wait for the Switch’s successor for any sort of re-release. Maybe we’d get something like Persona 5 Royal that was built on the original, or something like Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse. I didn’t expect Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Having spent over 170 hours with Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance mostly on Steam Deck, but also on Switch and PS5, I can safely say that I’m glad Atlus handled it this way.

I’m going to cover how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels for those who played the original and also for newcomers who likely are going to experience Shin Megami Tensei V for the first time through Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. This review will not have any story spoilers for the base game or the new Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance route. I will also be covering how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels on Nintendo Switch compared to the original, which platform you should buy it on if you’re new to the game, and more.

It feels weird writing about Shin Megami Tensei V as a new release but here we are. After more than four playthroughs of the original, I wanted to keep playing more, but I decided to wait for potential ports or a re-release. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t just a new enhanced port for current consoles and PC, but a dramatic improvement in just about every way over the original. After having beaten Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance twice and currently halfway through my third full playthrough, I can safely say that this is one of Atlus’ best games for replaying. I just love spending time in the world, so what exactly was changed or fixed in this new version?

Before getting into the story content, if you didn’t enjoy the open zones and general structure of Shin Megami Tensei V, that has not changed here. If you enjoyed everything the original had aside from its overall narrative (or lack thereof with many characters poorly developed or just tacked on), this Vengeance route is a huge improvement, but it also has many changes to the narrative. In a lot of ways, playing the original route in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels like an enhanced new version of a game with quality of life features and all the technical improvements. The new route in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels like a remixed take with new story content, new characters, lots of new voice acting, fantastic new music, new areas, changes to the original story, and its own different endings. Yes, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new route doesn’t have just a single ending.

When you start a new save in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, you get to choose which route you want to take soon after. Taking the girl’s hand results in you being on the Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance route, while not taking her hand results in you being on the original game’s route, but with the new features and quality of life improvements. If you play Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch, you get to carry over three demons into the compendium, some items, and additional items based on the endings you had in your save file. I laughed when three of my maxed out level 99 demons were carried over into Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch.

When it comes to the story, my issues with Shin Megami Tensei V weren’t that it wasn’t in your face throughout, or that I wanted more social elements. My issues were that some characters just showed up randomly during important moments when you don’t even remember they exist. One specific character seems to be super important, but I barely even remembered they existed until the ending of the game. The true ending in the original game also involved doing some missable quests that you wouldn’t even bother looking into unless you were going to complete every quest it had. I’ve done every quest the original game had on Switch with the DLC, and really thought they should have handled many aspects of the characters and story better.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new route fixes most of this. Not only are there more interactions, but you actually see the cast grow with you and the world changing. Everything feels like it is part of a cohesive story that isn’t full of holes anymore. The new character interactions, additional dialogue in older scenes, remixed bosses, changes to cut-scenes, and more all come together to make Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feel like the actual main game. I even enjoyed having Yoko in older story moments with new voiced dialogue and more context to specific situations. Barring Yoko, the major new story addition is the Qadistu. I won’t reveal too much about them, but they definitely served to improve Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s story a lot, and I enjoyed every interaction I had with them.

I can’t comment on every ending Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance has, but the ones I did get I liked. I did like the change to going for different paths here compared to the original. Knowledge from the original does help in a small way, but be prepared to have Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance surprise you both mechanically and narratively.

Before getting into the visual and performance improvements and other technical details, I want to highlight some of the gameplay changes in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. I can’t say for sure if this was only because of some of the new features, or because I knew every older map in and out, but I found Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance easier overall. Being able to save anywhere and using the sky view made exploration much less stressful here. Beyond that, the combat changes and additional negotiation options make Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feel more complete. The only thing I dislike is the change to the Estoma ability that uses Magatsuhi gauge here instead of MP. You can’t spam it like you could in the vanilla game, and I got annoyed at the amount of enemy encounters in one specific map here. The challenge mode is also a lovely addition because I enjoy taking on older bosses or enemies again. I didn’t finish it all because it feels like a lot of it is meant for min-maxing.

If you’re new to Shin Megami Tensei V in general, I think the new Vengeance route is basically better than the original in every way. I’m curious how people who play this route first and then play the original will feel about the story across both. If you already played Shin Megami Tensei V, playing the Vengeance route will feel amazing with the story additions, changes to existing aspects of the game, and all the new boss fights and music. Even if this release just included the Vengeance route and was only on Switch, I would’ve been satisfied. Thankfully, Atlus and Sega have brought Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance complete with the original route and prior DLC to all current and last generation platforms.

Visually, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is a huge upgrade over the vanilla game since I focused on playing it on Steam Deck. Aside from the massive image quality and frame rate improvements over Switch, the new areas in the game are gorgeous. You saw some of these in the “New Locations” trailer, but seeing them in game at a high resolution is really something. When it comes to character models and new demons, I think Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is one of Atlus’ strongest releases in years. It has an impeccable aesthetic that oozes the Shin Megami Tensei vibe I love from Atlus. This also carries over into its music.

I’ve never hid the fact that Shin Megami Tensei V has a sublime soundtrack. I listen to it regularly even years after it was originally released. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new music feels like a blend of Ryota Kozuka looking to deliver something that lives up to Shin Megami Tensei V, but also reaching back into his Shin Megami Tensei IV vibe. The new boss themes in particular are amazing. I can’t wait for the full new soundtrack to be released. Outside the music, the new voice acting in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is very good across the board. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance might be my favorite Atlus re-release yet, and I don’t say that lightly.

I’ve been playing it on Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and PS5. On Steam Deck, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance arrives Steam Deck Verified. This isn’t always a guarantee of something running well, but having done more than two full playthroughs specifically on Steam Deck, I’m very impressed by how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance looks and runs.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Steam Deck settings, graphics options, and features

If you play on a Steam Deck OLED, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance can hit 90fps (and even higher on both Steam Decks when played docked) in many areas of the game, but it isn’t locked 90fps. At the default preset by turning a few things up and shadows down, I only saw it drop below 60fps in a few specific situations, but it almost always runs well above. The menus are capped at 60fps though. On my Steam Deck OLED specifically in handheld mode, it regularly runs at above 80fps even while exploring. The major area I noticed frame drops below 60 was the Fairy Village. You go there quite early on. Even the new locations hold up really well including the more open areas.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on PC doesn’t have 16:10 support, but it has Steam Cloud support and full controller support. If you aren’t happy with the image quality at 800p, I recommend forcing 1080p for the internal display and playing at 30 or 45hz with some drops for the most crisp handheld experience. Speaking of handheld experience, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance even on its default PC settings at 800p on Steam Deck is a huge upgrade in visuals and performance over the docked Nintendo Switch version that rarely held a stable 30.

I also played Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on my 1440p 144hz display to see how it felt there. 1080p 60fps isn’t really possible on Steam Deck. I also tested 1440p and 4K and you can imagine how that went. I stuck to playing at 720p even docked to see how the game held up at frame rates above 90fps. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance can easily hit above 100fps on Steam Deck at 720p even in some open areas. It just isn’t consistent and you’re better off locking it at 60fps or playing with a 90fps target and fluctuations. VRR would’ve helped a lot on the Steam Deck OLED’s 90hz screen in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. You can play at a lower resolution of course, but I didn’t want to settle for under 720p here.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s PC port lets you choose button prompt options including an auto option, adjust keyboard controls, rebind controls for field and menus, and adjust a few graphics options. You can toggle ambient occlusion, motion blur, and anti-aliasing. The display options let you adjust screen mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), resolution (640×480 to 4K), toggle v-sync, and use a frame rate limit (30, 60, 90, 120, 144, unlimited). There are no additional options, and I was hoping to see draw distance and other features we see in Unreal Engine PC ports. Hopefully this can be added in a potential update.

Overall, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is an absolute joy to play, and it might be my favorite console to PC conversion that I’ve played on Steam Deck alongside Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for 2024. The load times are also very fast on Deck.

Shin Megami Tensei V Vs Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Nintendo Switch

Having beaten Shin Megami Tensei V on Switch multiple times years ago, I was curious to see how this new upgraded version of the game felt on the same platform. There are now a few more post processing options even on consoles like anti-aliasing which you can toggle on. It just can’t handle the game and drops from 30fps even indoors on Nintendo Switch both docked and handheld. I got used to it and put over 30 hours into the game on Switch OLED. If you played the original and enjoyed it on Switch, you will not have trouble playing this new version.

Comparing Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance to Shin Megami Tensei V has some visual changes. Even the FOV seems a bit different in the wide option the game has compared to the original. Beyond that, the new post-processing option toggles are not present in the original game either. I didn’t have enough time to test every location to compare because I was focusing on the Steam Deck version for this review, but it feels like Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t going to be much different in terms of performance compared to the original. If you are ok with that and want to play the new route on the same platform, this version is fine.

On the PS5 side, I can’t remember the last time I was this impressed by the glow up a game has seen moving from Switch to PS5/Xbox Series X. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance looks incredibly crisp, runs flawlessly, and loads instantly on PS5. It even has PS5 Activity Card support.

Having played it on Steam Deck (main platform), Switch, Switch Lite, PS4 on PS5, and the native PS5 version, you might be wondering how the Xbox version is. Well, I didn’t take a code on that platform because I pre-ordered it there already. If there’s a notable difference between Xbox and PS5, I’ll update this review in the future.

Should you get Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on PS5 or Switch?

At this stage, the only reason I’d recommend anyone play the Switch version is if they have no other platform to play it on and want to exclusively play in handheld mode. The downgrades compared to current platforms are just too big right now. Obviously this wasn’t an issue back at launch, but for those who have multiple platforms, keep in mind that every other version is better right now, and it absolutely shines on both Steam Deck and PS5. Hopefully Atlus can do an upgrade for the Nintendo Switch successor for those who buy Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch right now.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t just the definitive version of a game I loved years ago, but one of Atlus’ best RPGs in a long time. I always enjoy revisiting games I love every few years, but Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is just an incredible upgrade and release on its own. It is one of the best games you can play on Steam Deck in general, not just for this year.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5