So 2 weeks later and I've put about 16 hours into SMT4. I have to say, I'm pretty infatuated. Going into this, I knew it would be similar to P5 which I had played for 50 hours or so, and was looking for a pokemon-like experience and as someone who loves data, this is hitting the right notes for me. If 'spreadsheet game' was a label, I would apply it to SMT4. The depth to the press turn system that compounds with the time spent designing and crafting your team to cover as many different scenarios as possible.. I ramble but it's because I'm having such a fun time.
I think I'll push through until credits and then look at some of the other SMT titles. There is a pull to go hard on the compendium collecting and spend time fusing even more powerful demons but there are other games to play and I'd honestly prefer to throw 100+ hours getting into NG+ etc on SMT5 due to Switch form factor (I loathe the dinky little 3DS screen and controls). Plus I imagine SMT5 would come with more of the QoL features that Persona 5 seems to have around menus and world exploration.
The good:
Demon art design is pretty great. The combat system is a lot of fun particularly when you get into a rhythm with a certain team, and generally speaking I don't mind the need to try battles again if a boss wipes my team because it usually means I'm planning out demon combos to abuse enemy attacks/weaknesses/press turn system. I have experienced press turn system in P5 but my experience with that game was 80% life/dating sim, 20% fighting so the primary focus on fighting in SMT4 suits my sensibilities.
The moment after making my way into the depths, fighting demons to come up against the Medusa who wiped my team a couple of times, and finally overcoming her to descend further into... Tokyo. It was a great reveal which I knew was coming at some point due to the visions at the beginning of the game. But still, that idea of this tower above Tokyo that acts as a conduit to the tunnels beneath a medieval castle was a good story hook. Walking through Tokyo in knightly armour fighting demons whilst shooting them with a handgun - great times.
The bad:
I feel the difficulty is a bit all over the place in the first 14 hours up until fighting the Medusa and getting to Tokyo where the experience started to flow much faster. There would be full sections where I was having no issue and then go through a door and get ambushed from a demon off-camera which would KO 3 of my guys in the opening attack. It wasn't frustrating but those moments felt incongruous with the general difficulty. Since I'm 16 hours in, I'm curious to see how balance plays out but feeling pretty optimistic about the game and overall mechanics
The controls are a little clunky where some things can be done with circle pad whilst others require the d-pad. Menu navigation isn't elegant as well (I noticed this coming from P5 where I felt the menu was easy to navigate through with good shortcut buttons).
I have a question about experience and macca and the DLC that you can get to speed up those processes. Is the DLC useful if I just want to reach credits with this game? If I was looking at filling out my compendium and creating some nasty combos then I would pick them up as I imagine they'd save enough time to make it worth it, but for just finishing the main story I'm not sure.