Shin Megami Tensei Liberation Dx2 review

Developer: Sega

Price: Free
Version: 1.4.0
App Reviewed on: Nexus 5X

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Overall Rating:

Shin Megami Tensei Liberation Dx2 doesn’t waste any time throwing you right into the action, tossing you into demon-hunting mode right from the start. This spinoff of the original role-playing series takes you through an investigation into a series of demonic disturbances, mixing story with turn-based battles.

As someone who isn’t familiar with the Shin Megami Tensei series, I still found plenty to enjoy. This is a well-polished RPG, and anyone who is a fan of the genre would not find their time wasted to at least take a look at what Liberation has to offer. The storyline feels both engrossing and entertaining enough to keep you coming back, while still keeping the experience light enough for mobile.

Fans of the series will obviously get more out of the experience, but beneath the trappings of the original is a solid mobile game with a fair amount of depth to it. In the time I played there were definitely elements of the free-to-play model that crept in, and the reminders of the various currencies and offers within the game did get somewhat annoying. But it never felt necessary to make a purchase to advance.

The game is meant to be played in portrait mode, and occasionally this makes the information on the screen feel a little cramped and hard to read – though that will also depend on the size of your device. Overall, though, the interface has the smooth polish you’d expect from a game from Sega.

The same is true of the quality of the sound and music within the game. All the voices are in Japanese, with English subtitles, and as far as I saw all the translations were clean and well done. The sound and music are a good match for the overall atmosphere of the game, leaning towards an electronic-sounding aesthetic.

If you like the series, this one should definitely be on your list, and if you’re completely unfamiliar with Shin Megami Tensei, it’s still worth checking out if you’re a fan of RPGs in general. Undoubtedly there’s some grinding to be done the further you get - especially if you want to avoid microtransactions - but that’s fairly standard for this type of game, rather than being unique to Liberation.