Raidou Remastered Is a Stunning Upgrade of a Seminal PS2 Game
Putting the cult in cult classic.
The PlayStation 2, to this day, is still one of the greatest video game systems ever made — not just because of its sales success, but because of how many revolutionary video games were released on it. In particular, the PS2 was a real wonderland of RPGs, and few franchises flourished there as well as Shin Megami Tensei. And while the likes of Persona tend to get all the attention, a little 2006 game called Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army is one of the most overlooked cult classics of the era. After playing four hours of the upcoming Raidou Remastered, it feels like this gem is finally about to get teh due it deserves. It’s a gorgeous update that isn’t quite a remake, but definitely more than just a remaster.
If you’re familiar with the SMT series, you’ll immediately be familiar with the setup of Raidou. Like many of the games in the franchise, it's all about recruiting demons to your team, powering them up, and then fusing them into increasingly more powerful demons. But Raidou is actually a bit of a fascinating outlier in SMT for two distinct reasons — a unique historical setting and the fact that it’s one of the series’ only action RPGs.
Raidou takes place in the Taishō era of Japan, in the year 1931 to be exact. This was a period of significant cultural revolution for Japan, directly leading to the country’s rise to prominence on the world stage — just before WWII. The setting gives Raidou some fantastic historical flair, both in terms of visual aesthetic and storytelling. The game heavily explores the cultural upheaval that was happening at the time, but tinges it with that dark edge of demons and the supernatural.
You follow the story of Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, a high-school-aged detective who’s the latest in a long line of Devil Summoners. After assuming his family’s mantle as the protectors against the supernatural, Raidou starts working at the Narumi Detective Agency in Tokyo, and it’s solely up to him to stop the capital from plunging into darkness.
There’s a real sense of intrigue to the story of Raidou, and while it’s not quite a story-heavy as something like Persona, there’s a lot of personality packed into the game’s cast of characters. That’s the first big improvement of this remaster, completely new voice acting for the entire game. These don’t just replace original voice lines, but drastically increase the number of voiced lines across the game — adding in even more personality. That’s coupled with a complete overhaul of the game’s visuals, making everything feels much more crisp and clean.
Raidou sets its story on the backdrop of one of Japan’s most fascinating time periods.
But what I’m really happy about is that the visual upgrade still holds some of the grunginess of the original PS2 game. That was my biggest problem with Persona 3 Reload: how that remake’s art style made everything feel too shiny and lost the depressive edge of the blocky PS2 game. That issue doesn’t feel present at all in Raidou Remastered, as the visuals almost feel like there’s a layer of dirt over everything. It’s different than the original, but still has the same spirit.
That holds doubly true for Raidou’s combat system, by far the biggest update to the game. While the ideas and style of combat are the same, this remaster feels almost completely different to play. The easiest comparison to make is the Tales games, with you controlling Raidou during battles while your party of demons fights alongside you.
The original game had a fixed camera in battles, but now you duke it out in 3D arenas with full movement and control. Raidou has a light sword combo that does low damage but restores your magic points, and a heavy attack that’s slower but causes more damage. On top of that, you have elemental abilities that can be used to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses, opening them up to more damaging combos. There’s also a huge emphasis on swapping your demons on the fly, adjusting your combat strategy to fit the moment.
New voice acting and visual make Raidou feel modern, but still retains its classic spirit.
It’s hard to overstate just how much of an improvement this combat system feels like, completely altering your experience with the game. There’s far more control over both Raidou himself and your demon party, integrating some light strategy rather than just hacking and slashing. If you look at the original and remaster side-by-side, they might look similar, but the actual minute-to-minute combat of this new version feels drastically more satisfying.
But demons aren’t just for fighting, as one of the more interesting aspects of Raidou is how capturing demons dynamically affects exploration and story. Any demons you capture can be used while exploring the world, in two different ways.
The remaster’s combat is a monumental improvement from the original, practically feeling like a different game entirely.
Most people can’t see demons, so occasionally you can send your creatures out to investigate somewhere. For example, if you want to eavesdrop on a conversation, you can simply have your demon head over to the door and listen, when Raidou can’t. But each demon also has its own skills that you can use on NPCs for a variety of effects. A fire demon has the “fire up” ability, which instills great courage in whoever you use it on, or the Pixie’s ability lets you read people’s minds. You’ll need to use these abilities in both side content and to advance the main story at times, but it creates a fun little puzzle layer to the story. This helps give Raidou its unique flavor in the franchise, especially as it feels like you’re building more of a relationship with your demons, versus mostly using them as summoning fodder.
Raidou is a fascinatingly weird little game in so many ways — from the way it melds real history with the bizarre, to the surprisingly deep demon capturing. While the original is rightly beloved, it did feel rough around the edges in a lot of ways. Raidou Remastered feels like it's been given careful consideration on what rough edges to fix, what can be overhauled while still keeping the game’s quirky spirit alive. For my money, it feels like this remaster has already found that sweet spot.
