The party members are something I honestly hated about Apocalypse. It just feels so un-SMT to me to have party members who are characterized like that.

This is going to sound weird, but the cast being "boring" in SMT4 is one of my favorite things about it because it normalizes them. It's the only JRPG I've ever played with characters who didn't feel like walking gimmicks. At least not until the end of the game. It's why I want to play Noctorne and Strange Journey and why I like Kaneko. His art seems to bring out that "'bland" characterization I like so much that counter acts all of the hyper personalities JRPGs and anime tend to have.

I'm only ~20 hours in, so maybe it gets worse, but so far I already like the cast more than anyone in IV. 

To your point though, that is fair, since tropes are a problem with a lot of these games. My problem is more the opposite though. If the cast is boring, I don't really have a reason to root for them. 

I've had this conversation over movies, anime, manga etc, over whether the characters or plot should drive a story...and I'm definitely on the character side. I can understand if others don't feel the same...but if a story's characters don't interest me...the whole experience will fall flat. That was my big issue with IV...I felt I was constantly watching these tragic scenes that I felt like I was supposed to care about...but just didn't. If the cast was more fleshed out, it would have gone a long way, and I think it would have helped me actually feel the impact the game was trying to convey.

Don't get me wrong though...it's still a solid game, and I highly recommend it. It's just when it comes to characters alone, I didn't find it to be a very stong title.

It's going to be a mobile game.

Could still be 3D... but yeah. I'm not interested then.

Yeah, I totally get your criticisms though. I still felt like they were extremely 1 dimentional, but that didn't bother me because I felt like they were so likable.

My problem with Apocalypse isn't that I don't like them - I do. I just feel like they don't belong in a main SMT game.

Which tragic scenes, though? I feel like the only ones that were in that game revolved around situations wrather than party members, at least until the end, but I don't think you're supposed to feel bad for anyone except maybe Isabeau, depending on the ending.

I'm been thinking about SMT a lot recently due to the back to back to back releases of TMS, SMT4:A, and P5 (in japan). It just makes me want to try everything SMT, but more than that, it really is making me impatient for SMT5.

This will likely be the first time that a mainline SMT game will be on HD hardware, so it's so exciting to think about. Especially when it comes to presentation. TMS had some of the best battle animations I had ever seen in a JRPG, and P5 looks exactly as great in that regard. So what do you want to see?

Here's what I want:

1. Make SMT macabre again

So I won't dwell (heh) on this too much, because I think I've talked about it in enough detail, but I just want SMTV to feel like SMT. Apocalypse didn't, so I'm really hopeful that SMTV will again.

2. Bring back Kaneko as the creative director and lead character/demon designer

This is going to sound silly because I've actually never played any of the games he's directed, but fan response tells me that people really enjoy his directoral works. Outside of that though, you don't need to play his games to appreciate his art. He makes really striking designs that feel so distinctly SMT. I actually don't dislike Doi's work at all, but his very stereotypical anime-styled art. It's very, very good, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't unique the way Kaneko's does.

Nothing else looks like Kaneko's artwork, so I'd love to see it return, especially in HD. Also, especially since his work evolved pretty significantly between Nocturne and Strange Journey, if you have a keen eye, so I want to see how it's evolved further since then.

3. No more 2D mugshots for dialog/anime cutscenes - do it all with in game models

I don't dislike telling astory like that, but I always just considered it more of a concession because of the 3DS's hardware. The fact though is that P5 does both on more powerful hardware, so it's more of a stylistic choice than that. One of the reasons that Noctorne is so beautiful to me is because of how well animated its story scenes were. They used only in-game models too, so I'd love for them to go back to that. It also makes the game feel like it had higher production when it only uses in-game models.

4. Keep and expand upon the world design of SMT4/4A

One of my favorite thing about these games is how the dungeons seem integrated into the overworld. It makes Tokyo really feel like its been taken over by demons. I'd like to see them make this connection run even more deeply. In an ideal world, Tokyo would just be one demon-infested open world, but more realistically I'd be over the moon if they just blew up the scale of what they've already done with the 3DS SMTs. Just take the ideas of the overworld areas and make them bigger and more detailed, hopefully with fewer screen transitions.

Since there would probably still need to be a traversable overworld map screen, while I guess they could leave it relatively alone, it would be awesome if they could spice it up somehow. Persona has done an awesome job spicing up menu screens, and that's basically what the overworld map is, so I'm sure there's something that could be done, even if it ends up a bit gimmicky.

5. Demons in the overworld

I just want to see them. I don't mind blobs, or suits of armor, or pixelated whatevers, but I'd love to just be able to see the demons you'll actually be fighting roaming the overworld. It should be easy enough to implement since all of the models are being made in 3D, so the assets would be there. If there's more than one demon, just have the "lead" one be the representative in the overworld, while the others just drop down once the battle begins.

6. Do something different with the morality

Whether what the games needed was more nuance or something else, the morality for both SMT4 and A weren't very good. I'm hoping they'll do something else this time around. I've heard that Noctorne focused heavily on the Chaos route, so maybe SMTV could do the same for Law? Or maybe they could do something even more different. Maybe have more than 3 routes.

7. Customizable character

If they're going to let you name your avatar and and make him a blank slate anyway, may as well make him/her customizable. I've been playing SMT1 and, since you can't see how your player looks like, it's made my playthrough far more personal. I've named the law hero, the chaos hero, and the heroine after personal friends of mine as well, and it just gives the experience this usique feel that I can't get in the newer games. Now it would probably be too controvercial to ask to let all of your companions (hopefully there are less of them if any at all) be customizable as well, but I'd be perfectly content if just the MC was. Just let me have dreads.

8. Don't set it in Toyko

Nothing wrong with Tokyo - I just think that there are other places in Japan where they can set an SMT game. Doesn't have to be Tokyo every time. Yokohama or Osaka for example.

9. Voice acted demon negotiations

This is a little thing, but demon negotiations would be so much more immersive if they were voice acted.

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*** Bonus ***

Everyone will get mad at me, but it would be neat if players could battle demons against each other like in Pokemon, but that would require a complete rebalancing of the entire battle system and would likely piss most people off, so it wouldn't be worth it. Wouldn't make sense thematically either.

But it would be neat.

(that was a joke)

That's fair....I haven't played many SMT titles so I can't really speak to whether or fits the identity of the overall series or not.

Isabeau was the main one I was thinking of, though I felt the same about Jonathan and the childhood friend who's name escapes me (the kid that wanted to be a samurai but didn't make the cut). I felt like I wanted to know more about these characters, but never got the chance to. I did like Walter, but even his sacrifice didn't really move me as much I felt it should have. This could be because I only chose Chaos Route, and never felt like attempting the Neutral route.

This reminds me of something else I'd prefer not to see again. I love the multiple routes...but Neutral Route in IV seemed too complicated to achieve without a guide, which I refuse to use due to the break it immersion it causes. I did like how Devil Survivor did it, in which you are given a clear option to choose your ending, and unlock multiple options based on your choices, so I'd hope SMT V includes something like that rather another invisible point system.

Everything you said, but forgot to add: on PS4!

I want to see a current gen SMT. Kaneko art, very dark and mature but with that colorful aesthetic of old.