Good return to the fun aspects of the Shin Megami universe. Some new features make this a nice addition to the library.
The story (no spoilers here) takes place in Japan during the early 20s. You control a detective sent to investigate various occurrences throughout the city. The presentation is great and all of the menus-maps-missions tie in quite nicely. The game is broken up into episodes. You'll find the map similar to the Persona-Nocturne with the little icon you use to navigate around. In towns you will engage with a number of people who you're able to gain critical information for your cases. A cool feature is that you're able to have your demon bribe, interrogate, mind-read or numerous other things towards certain characters. You also can send them out on mini-missions to obtain items or further your research in certain areas.
Control is good although is a little troublesome in small places due to the pre-rendered backgrounds which are beautiful by the way. In regards to the graphics you'll find the city bustling with people carrying on their everyday duties. Cut-scenes are done in a fashion similar to the DDS game and make for some good breaks in the action. Very interactive and creative in a sense that battles can and will come at any moment. The creature designs are more similar in nature to Nocturne versus the DDS games. Some of the creatures are new and a nice addition to characters we've seen over the past three titles. You'll fight the same creatures (about 5 different demons) for the first couple of hours before you break into a more diverse number of monsters.
Battling is done in a large sort of isometric (tilted) field of play. You'll start of fighting a number of demons in which practically hack and slash or shoot your way with the main character (certain number of combos apply). Your assigned demon can cast spells, support you with heal spells, and/or attack monsters by commands you provide it. As the demon learns more spells you can perform a combination attacks. At times when battles appear to be done more monsters will appear to test your skills. Be sure as you progress to heal and assign MP saving commands to your demon. Lastly you are able to capture the monsters in your vial when the creature is near death. This is the interesting part of the game which is nice although I would of enjoyed having the question feature that the Nocturne game perfected (from previous SMT games). By capturing demons (not possible for monsters higher in level than you) you are able to have a great support partner. Even more you can switch demons for the boss battles which I'll leave to you to find out.
The demon fusion feature is pretty much the same as the Nocturne game. You're able to combine two or more demons for a more powerful one. You'll find this mode to be pretty in depth with curses, accidents, and a variety of fusion techniques. You're also able to register your demons and buy them later if needed. The soundtrack and music of the game as with any SMT game is one of my favorites. I was surprised not to see a music CD, but sure there will be one made. The music compliments each scene and changes with each new area. In some instances such as the early bridge scene the sound really works with a nice speaker system. It's a pain to see that no voices were added, but you have to think of the amount of text involved in this title alone.
Overall this is a great title and makes up for the years of never seeing these games stateside. I hope that more people go away from the standard RPG and invest some time in these creative, diverse, and interactive role playing games. Have fun!