Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army Review – More Than Just a Remaster

With the Shin Megami Tensei series having so many spin-offs, you’d be forgiven for not remembering Raidou Kuzunoha. The young detective/devil summoner had two great games on the PlayStation 2 before being forgotten by Atlus. However, he enjoyed his fair share of cameo appearances in other SMT titles, with fans clamouring for a new Raidou game for nearly two decades. 

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is Atlus and Sega’s attempt to revitalise the spin-off series and introduce it to a new generation of fans. Fans who grew up with the Persona series should expect fairly different gameplay from these games. Although their gameplay is unique to the SMT series, their stories and atmosphere fully embrace the dark and otherworldly vibes. 

So, how does Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army (henceforth Raidou Remastered) hold up in 2025? Does it succeed at bringing back a beloved character from obscurity, or does it stumble like so many remasters before it?

TL;DR

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army proves that remasters can have more than just graphical improvements. It fundamentally improves a classic Shin Megami Tensei game by making it more enjoyable to play, thanks to redesigned combat and expanded accessibility features.

Story – Episodic Detective Story

Raidou Remastered is a much different game compared to Persona or the mainline SMT games. Instead of world-ending threats and wars between Heaven and Hell, the Raidou games have a more personal story. 

You play as an unnamed protagonist who becomes ‘the next Raidou Kuzunoha’ at the beginning of the game. This is a title passed down through generations of Devil Summoners, individuals who protect the capital of Japan, Tokyo, from demons threatening to destroy it. 

As the 14th Raidou Kuzunoha, your job is to travel to Tokyo and become a part of a detective agency, allowing you to explore the city and solve crimes without anyone suspecting you’re anything more than a young high school student. While Raidou Remastered does have a bigger story that spans the whole game, every chapter, or episode, is dedicated to a different case. 

You’ll find missing persons, uncover conspiracies, solve murders, and work your way through an army of demons infesting Tokyo. It’s an easy story to follow, and you’ll enjoy spending time with Raidou and his detective friends as you progress through the game.

Simple but Fulfilling Story Progression

Unfortunately, Raidou Remastered stays pretty simple in its structure throughout the 25-40 hour runtime. While there are many ‘side cases’ you can solve for extra rewards, these can hardly be called side quests. 

They often involve giving someone a specific item or visiting a location, and that’s it, quest complete. Thankfully, the main story is intriguing enough to keep you hooked, and just like any SMT game, you can use side content to grind and gain new demons.

Gameplay – Embracing Action Combat

Raidou Remastered is an action game with RPG mechanics. If you ever played Tales of Arise or any of the previous Tales titles, you’ll be right at home here. Combat takes place in closed arenas where you’ll fight multiple enemies using swords, guns, and magic. 

You’ll always have two demons to aid you, evening the odds and making for some exciting and chaotic combat scenarios. To people who exclusively played Persona over the last few years, this might come as a surprise, since the series is known for its high-quality turn-based gameplay. 

Raidou is a different beast, and Atlus specifically built the spin-off with action combat in mind. This means you’ll have to dodge attacks, use combos, but also order your demons if you want to have more control over every battle. Alternatively, they’re pretty good at automatically using skills and following your lead.

Solving Mysteries Across Tokyo

Raidou Remastered shares the same DNA as SMT and Persona but handles the formula differently. You can summon two demons to aid you in combat and one demon to help you during investigations. 

Every demon has specific skills that allow it to be helpful during exploration or interrogation. For example, some demons can read minds or go into small spaces, while others can fly or use raw strength to move heavy objects. You’ll always want to have a good variety of demons in your party so you can handle various situations. 

This can also be frustrating because if you don’t have a specific demon at the moment, you’ll have to backtrack and find one with the skills you need for a side quest you’re doing. It’s a small nitpick, but with the number of improvements Raidou Remastered brings to the table, it’s strange this feature wasn’t developed a bit further.

Fusing Demons and Crafting Weapons

Just like traditional SMT games, Raidou Remastered allows you to fuse demons to gain more powerful allies. Demon negotiation is simplified this time around, so it doesn’t interfere with the flow of combat. You can easily gain new demons while fighting, and you can then mix and match different elemental affinities to gain brand-new demons. 

Raidou Remastered also lets you choose which skills the new demons will inherit from the existing ones. Thanks to the game’s loyalty system, fused demons will often leave letters, items, and various other gifts for Raidou when you sacrifice them. It’s a neat little trick that makes you feel a little guilty about the demons you used to create new ones.

You can craft brand-new weapons to help you in combat. Raidou can use swords, spears, and axes, and you can create brand-new weapons with the materials you gain from side quests. These weapons unlock new skills and improve your attributes, making them worthwhile to create. While the system isn’t as deep as demon fusion, it’s a great addition to the formula that naturally belongs to Raidou’s detective world.

Visuals – Rebuilt from the PlayStation 2 Original

Shin Megami Tensei games have a certain visual style that makes them age gracefully. In the case of Raidou, the game is nearly 20 years old at this point. This meant that Atlus would have to rebuild its visuals to ensure they’re in line with modern gamers’ expectations. Raidou Remastered is beautiful to look at and runs like a charm on the Nintendo Switch 2. The game runs at a smooth 60 FPS and 1080p with very short loading times when changing locations. 

It’s also merciful toward the Switch 2 battery, running for almost 5 hours before you’ll need to charge your console when playing in handheld mode. Raidou Remastered runs well in both handheld and docked mode, making the upgrade to the Nintendo Switch 2 a no-brainer if you’re still on the original. 

Character models are stylised in the signature SMT fashion, and the environments are immersive and varied. The fictional version of Tokyo of the early 20th century is fun to explore, and you’ll enjoy the fixed camera angles featured in most environments. Overall, this is more than a simple remaster, as Atlus went the extra mile to fully modernise the beloved classic.

Audio – Fully Rerecorded Voices and Soundtrack

As a PlayStation 2 game, the original Raidou sounded great in 2006. Thankfully, Atlus fully remade the audio for Raidou Remastered, both in terms of the game’s voice acting and soundtrack. You can play the game with English and Japanese voices, and both sound great, featuring professional actors who you’ll recognise if you’re playing a lot of JRPGs. 

The same can be said for the game’s soundtrack, which was fully remastered and cleaned up for modern consoles. Raidou Remastered features signature SMT music with atmospheric electronic music and moody tracks accompanying every dungeon and combat encounter. 

Given the game’s focus on the detective genre, you’ll also hear a lot of flamboyant and upbeat tracks to accompany Raidou as he investigates various cases around Tokyo. Overall, it’s a catchy and memorable soundtrack, but not on the same level as Persona 5 Royal—very few soundtracks are, after all.

Conclusion – Should You Play Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army?

Raidou Remastered is a great time if you’re a fan of Persona, the main Shin Megami Tensei series, and Atlus’ other titles like Metaphor ReFantazio. Even if action combat isn’t your first choice when it comes to JRPGs, Raidou will win you over with its charming characters, mysterious story, and original setting. 

However, don’t expect an expansive, 100+ hour game. Raidou Remastered is a compact, focused, and mostly linear experience. Its side quests are barely worth that title, and its story progresses through a series of episodes just like a season of a TV show. Whether you’re already invested in SMT or looking for a short and sweet JRPG to dive into, Raidou Remastered is a good time. 

We can only hope this means the future is bright for Raidou and a brand-new, third game is in the works sometime soon. Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is now available on all previous and current gen platforms, as well as PC.

Huge thanks to Zegetron for sponsoring our review!