Raidou Remastered preview — A cool cleanup

Returning from the PlayStation 2 to modern platforms comes Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, a somewhat simpler title than the original Devil Summoner moniker this game held. This is an action RPG set in the Megami Tensei series. Taking place in a more fantastical Taisho period Tokyo, you play as Raidou Kuzonoha investigating various locals for items, dungeon crawl, capture and fuse demons, and other standard Megami Tensei activities. The remaster brings the game back with new visuals, stylish cutscenes, reworked mechanics, including a free camera.

We got to demo a small section of the game alongside Yakuza 0 Director's Cut and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S. Raidou is the only one of the three I had no prior experience in, though I have played a few Shin Megami Tensei games, and to the dismay of some SMT fans, most of the Persona games. I have a passive knowledge of how some of the systems work, which helped, but Raidou certainly isn't the same as the more traditional RPGs in the sibling series.

We're thrown into the midst of an investigation, searching for a red wine item needed to investigate the home our client went missing in. With that bit of context, we're off. I spent most of my demo exploring the overworld. In the overworld, there are NPCs to talk to for info and side quests, and even combat challenges via blood portals. It was actually pretty fun, as Raidou himself is a known entity in the town. NPCs acknowledge Raidou as a cool, helpful detective.

I completed a side quest helping a girl get her cat down from a ledge using a flight ability from one of my demons in reserve. The girl thanks Raidou, noting he's always so helpful and cool. It was a small bit of world-building that I appreciated. Raidou is as stone-faced as a lot of SMT protagonists, but at the very least, you, as the player, can see a direct acknowledgment of helping people.

Eventually, I found the red wine and made my way to the client's residence. In the basement, I discovered a large chimera-like creature that taunts Raidou before initiating the first boss battle of the demo session. Up to this point, I had a small taste of combat thanks to the overworld exploration, but I don't think I was fully understanding it. With the light and heavy attack buttons, you could combo them like a Warriors game, and those generally took down enemies with little resistance.

Your two swappable demon companions can help, as they all have different stats, abilities, weaknesses, strengths, etc. A lot of the enemies encountered in the basement area are weak to fire, so swapping in the demon Ukobach. He'd occasionally cast Agi, and with a held-down ZR trigger, Raidou can also cast magic, which can combo with the demon's magic.

Comboing your magic lets you stun the enemies, popping up a meter timer that lets you deal extra damage to the enemy, and if you deal enough, you can use a special attack with Y+B to pull off a canned stylish attack. It all flows together pretty well, but a lot is happening on screen, so it takes some getting used to.

Shortly after beating the chimera creature, you find a small jail cell. Within you can investigate a dusty bookshelf and, using the power of one of your demons, discover the client's diary, which will presumably help us find her whereabouts. The demo ended right after that with a boss fight against a Skeleton demon with an ill-fitting voice, though that voice acting has mid-2000s cheese I can appreciate.

Given the relatively short demo time and Raidou Remastered being an RPG, it's hard to say I got a full grasp of the gameplay loop but from what I experienced, this is pretty cool. Combat's a bit basic given the easy light to heavy attack combo system but it's stylish, the writing is fine, the world is interesting, and the newly added voice over gave me a dose of nostalgia for the days of corny voice over that only enhances the experience.

I'm interested to see more of Raidou and his demon-based investigations come June 19th. While there were still some cracks showing off the old-school PlayStation 2 structure, there's enough here to say this is a pretty solid remaster with a lot of effort put into it, with plenty of modern sensibilities. Thanks again to Sega for the opportunity! You can expect GamingTrend will be covering Raidou Remastered and more. We also have previews for Sega's Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S if you're interested in those.