Shin Megami Tensei V is back with Vengeance, which saw its director Shigeo Komori talk to GameRadar+ about some of the team’s design choices for the original game and its revenge-fueled revival. Komori, also the director of several Etrian Odyssey games, shared the following:
“Based on our experience in developing RPGs, we believe that battles should be an obstacle that players must find a solution to… They should not be designed in such a way that it is possible to win by simply pressing buttons without much thought. This is perhaps why the series ends up being so strongly associated with high difficulty.”
Revenge was constructed with that philosophy in mind, he added.
“Even for Vengeance, we wanted the battles to have depth and require the player to think in order to win. Our intention was never to make things difficult for the sake of difficulty, but to design combat to be interesting, so hopefully we’ve adjusted the balance properly to achieve that.”
Taking a cue from FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki, another believer in challenge-driven player engagement, Komori sees difficulty as the ability to make or break a role-playing game. But while most Souls games (including Elden Ring) lack difficulty options, SMT V offers several, from the anxiety-relieving “Safety” mode to the new “Godborn” difficulty for the anxiety-inducing Vengeance. The reason for this deviation on Komori’s part may have to do with the game’s target player base. The Souls games are reputable enough that they can afford to lose causal players, while Shin Megami Tensei remains a lesser-known series that is well served by small sacrifices in exchange for wider appeal and greater success. But if modern classics like Cuphead and Celeste are any indication, demand for difficulty is widespread, with many players willing to brave unknown storms for the familiar sense of pride that awaits on the other side.
