Nintendo Switch 2 Just Quietly Added the Most Exhilarating Demon-Capturing RPG

The PlayStation 2 remains the greatest video game system of all time, thanks in no small part to the absolute glut of fantastic RPGs that populated its run. So many of those games have been lost to obscurity, no way to play them unless you somehow have a working PS2 and manage to find an elusive hard copy. But with Raidou Remastered, it feels like Sega has found a winning formula for bringing back classic Shin Megami Tensei games, a blueprint that could be carried forward for so much of the series’ lost history. More a remake than anything, Raidou Remastered breathes new life into one of SMT’s best spinoffs — even if some of the warts are still there. It’s also the perfect RPG to break in a new Nintendo Switch 2.

Raidou takes the gothic storytelling and demon-fighting of Shin Megami Tensei and transposes that against the historical backdrop of Taisho-era Japan (roughly 1931). That historical flavor really helps Raidiou stand apart from not just other SMT games but other RPGs at large, as the game makes liberal use of both the era’s style and topical themes — mainly the political upheaval of the time.

You play as Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, the latest in a long line of Devil Summoners, tasked with protecting the capital of Tokyo against demonic forces. To this end, Raidou, along with his talking black cat familiar Gouto, joins the Narumi Detective Agency to tap into the city and its people.

Raidou is a silent protagonist, although he does have some layer of personality and inflection that’s layered into the narrative. But the story of the game mostly plays out through learning about the people of Tokyo and unraveling the supernatural conspiracies that are permeating the city. There’s a lot of intrigue at the core of Raidou, and even though its story is a slow-burn it builds into something really special. While the narrative is mostly untouched in this version, there are some additions and extra context added near the end of the game, which mostly help to enhance things. It’s especially fun to see the bonkers leaps in logic that happen later in the narrative, and how those juxtapose with the historical setting.

But the big focus of this remake is streamlining the experience, and adding on a heaping helping of quality-of-life additions that drastically improve the experience.

The most obvious alterations here are completely redone graphics and full voice acting, making Raidou feel more like a modern game. But this game, in particular, manages to avoid something that I felt was a big problem with last year’s Persona 3 Reload.

A lot of SMT games manage to nail a kind of grungy vibe and tone. The original Persona 3 had that, but it felt like Reload strove to hard to apply the shiny veil of Persona 5. By aligning too much with the artistic style of Persona 5, it felt like Reload lost some of that grungy personality. I don’t feel that way about Raidou, however. The dusty streets of Tokyo still feel fittingly worn and lived-in despite the leap in graphics.

Unlike most SMT games, which are turn-based RPGs, Raidou is a full-on action-RPG, and that’s by far where the remake’s biggest enhancements stem from. The combat system in Raidou Remastered is almost entirely different from the original PS2 game, playing a lot like the Tales RPGs now. You now have full control over the camera, and move Raidou around a 3D arena.

Raidou has his own weapons, combos, and skills, but also summons a party of two demons into battle to help out. The main conceit of combat is juggling your skills with those of your demons, making sure you’re building up your magic meter with basic attacks so your companions can use your skills. You can also swap demons at any time, so adapting on the fly is crucial. There’s a Pokémon-esque layer to the game where you’re constantly striving to capture the strongest demons and improve them, but with a dark twist. The beloved demons you capture can be used as fodder in a fusion ritual to create even bigger and stronger demons.

A lot of the bigger changes in this “remaster” change the format of the game in a huge way, like entirely removing random battles. In the original PS2 game, you’d be drawn into battles both in the human realm and the Dark Realm, but here you see enemies directly in the world, and can avoid them if you want.

This integrally changes the entire pacing of the game, giving you more freedom to explore the world and tackle side quests at your leisure — and it’s the change I personally love the most. Exploring the dingy streets of Tokyo makes this world feel alive, even if it doesn’t feel as mysterious as the original game did. A big part of the reason for that is how Raidou Remastered now groups side content into something called “Cases.”

Everything is much more guided, giving you vague directions on where to go, what to do, and which demon abilities might help you. It makes sense that you’d want a more streamlined experience with this more action-focused version of the game, but it loses some of the mystique of puzzling things together.

It’s honestly a little bizarre to call Raidou a remaster, as it feels like such a drastically different game. Those changes are, by and large, good, but it’s undeniable that some of the original game’s charm gets sanded off in the process. At the same time, it feels like Raidou is stuck in some kind of middle ground, where it wants to be both a remaster and a remake.

While I miss some of those rougher edges of the original, I simultaneously wish Sega had taken reimagining this game even further. But the charm of Raidou still shines through, and it feels like the perfect RPG to grind out in chunks, especially on a system you can play whenever you want. That’s especially true considering the Nintendo Switch 2 version absolutely runs like a dream, with no frame-rate drops, and it looks gorgeous on the handheld screen.

More than anything, as good a game as the first Raidou is, it feels like this reamster/remake formula could be pushed even further to bring back more of Atlus’ forgotten back catalog. The sequel to Raidou, Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, is largely considered one of the franchise’s best spinoffs — and at this point, it feels like it’s just begging for the same treatment. But the Digital Devil Saga trilogy is also languishing in the past, and this same kind of iterative remaster could breathe new life into those games as well.

But for the time being, there’s a twisty conspiracy to uncover at the heart of Tokyo — and Raidou Remastered makes it more of a joy than ever to experience.

8/10

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army launches on June 19 for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Inverse played both the PS5 and Switch 2 versions.

INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.