(Image credit: Atlus)

I love Atlus' JRPGs but most of the time, faced with the prospect of actually playing them, I flake out. I loved Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor ReFantazio, and Persona 5 is a modern classic for good reason, but in my opinion none can hold a candle to Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance . Why? Because the latter is a no-bullshit turn-based creature-collecting JRPG with absolutely unrivalled vibes and the bare minimum of character dialogue. You don't watch it and occasionally press X— you play it .

I recommend SMT 5 to everyone, even if they don't care about Atlus games or JRPGs. It was my favourite game of 2024 . I played it on desktop but I can imagine it being an absolutely sublime Steam Deck game.…