To be honest, a lot of recent remasters and remakes have been of games that aren’t actually that old.

We’ve even had remasters of games from as recent as a previous generation and for games barely a few years old. It’s pretty wild, honestly.

So for a game like RAIDOU Remastered to come along, a complete revamp of a game over twenty years old, it feels sort of refreshing. And SEGA have done a great job of making the game feel current, giving it more than just an asset refresh.

You may not know that the original series has more recently evolved to Soul Hackers but the original Devil Summoner games started as far back as the SEGA Saturn, the OG release never actually being localised outside of Japan. But with the parent franchise gaining in popularity, and after spending time with this gem, we’re sure hoping we’ll see much more of RAIDOU and those bad ass summoning abilities.

For those who may not know, what’s especially interesting is that this is also a spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei series, much like the better known Persona games which have become a critical hit just about everywhere in recent years. So this game has a whole new engaged playerbase to tap into!

And if you’ve played Persona or Shin Megami Tensei in recent years, you’ll feel pretty comfortable with what’s here. Summoning demons, taming them, fusing them, all in a dark fantasy esque setting where you straddle the line between a light and dark realm. You’ll recognise some of the creatures, so you’re going to be right at home with RAIDOU Remastered. There’s even a talking cat!

Anyway, to the game itself. RAIDOU Remastered follows the story of the Fourteenth Devil Summoner in 1930s Tokyo. You start out in a kind of training area which leads to a sort of a rite of passage and eventually find your way to the Narumi Detective Agency where you solve various unexplained and unimaginable mysteries. The story proper all begins with a young woman who asks you to kill her. I know, right? Check out the full opening to the game below…

A compelling start, then, and as you start to work through the mystery, you’ll learn more about the rationale and reasoning behind it, but also the hows and why. Raidou really does grip you early and has such a solid core loop of bouncing back and forth between locations that makes it easy for you to get where you need to at the tap of a button through the game’s fast travel and map system.

It’s convenient and with Switch 2 loading times, it’s really crisp with very little waiting around. The game has a good steady pace to it, and even the dialogue sequences and cutscenes don’t overstay their welcome for too long. Everything feels just right.

Once you’ve traveled around on the map and arrive at your location, you’ll find yourself in a semi-contained area you can run around and find hidden secrets around corners and down alleyways, but also venture into shops, talk to people on the side streets and even discover these side objective – case files. If you played the original, the big difference is the 3D modelled textures of the environments but also the panning camera that roves seamlessly. It really befits the explorative nature of the game.

The interesting thing RAIDOU does comes in the form of demons you can capture and summon. So each creature has unique battle properties, like fire and ice and lightning. But these skills can also be used in the overworld as part of your mystery solving. So, for instance, you can read some character’s minds to get key information, but you can also use an electric charge to hunt out hidden, flashing objects, and even help an old man cross the street by giving him a shove.

What’s more, you only have a limited amount of tubes to store your demons, so you’ll need to think very carefully about who you bring along with you, making sure you’ve got a healthy balance to help you both in battle and in solving these mysteries. And as you’ll be used to in the Persona / Shin Megami games, you can also fuse your demons together to create something new entirely.

Your demons can even be sent off on solo investigations. So when your character cannot go in a certain direction, whether there’s someone blocking the way or you’re trying to stay discreet, your demon can venture off, go roaming and unlock doors for you or check out rooms you’re not allowed to enter. When they’re done, they can then report back to RAIDOU. It’s a really cool idea and it keeps the game feeling fresh and different, very distinct from others in the series.

The combat also has its own spin. Where Shin Megami Tensei, Persona and even the more recent Metaphor Refantazio are mostly turn-based, RAIDOU is more real-time and drops you into battle with demons either side. You can choose which demons to use and will likely need to adapt based on the situation as enemies have weaknesses.

You have your light and strong attacks with RAIDOU and can build up combinations to weaken down enemies and break them down with special attacks for maximum damage, all the while having your enemies being peppered by your demons who can blast them with magic.

RAIDOU can also shoot at enemies by locking onto them in an Ikaruga / Rez-style with multiple lock ons until his bullets run low. This is obviously most effective for aerial enemies, but also helps further diversify battle and is pretty satisfying to continue pulling off.

The game has some challenging boss fights that break the rhythm of battle, requiring you to jump, dodge, duck and weave, while also using demons for protection and making sure you heal each other in the crunch situations. The demon dynamic really helps the battles stay fresh as you switch your abilities in and out.

It works brilliantly and is a great modernisation from the original game, showing ways that this remake really improves the experience. Oddly, though, I sort of missed the game’s noir, retro filter that makes it feel befitting of the times and in that sense, I’d say RAIDOU Remastered feels less like the time period it’s supposedly set in.

But as mentioned, there’s a good pace to the game, it’s segmented into easily digestible episodes and clocks in around 30 hours, so you can take it all in within a long weekend or at a pace comfortable for you, a refreshing change from other RPGs which frankly feel like they run too long. The game does have a lot of backtracking, though, which does get a bit tedious at times. And the side quests are almost pointless at times, in some cases just having you talk to the person issuing it to complete them.

By talking to people, finding clues, building up cases and following the story, the game really shines its brightest narratively and the combat is genuinely satisfying and enjoyable enough that will keep you rolling through. It’s a must-play for those who’ve never experienced the game before and for those who love this franchise and want to see things from a different perspective.

Verdict

RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is an absolutely fantastic RPG with a compelling core loop, much improved combat over the original and some smart, clever ideas that still translate well years later. Despite some age-old backtracking, this is a must-play if you love the Shin Megami Tensei franchise or are looking for your next great RPG hit.

Pros

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RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is out June 19 on PC, PS, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch 1 & 2

Played and Captured on Nintendo Switch 2

Code kindly provided by SEGA for review purposes