While ATLUS has been spending a lot of time over the past decade focusing on, and ultimately remaking, the modern-era Persona series, understandable given it serves as arguably the most popular offshoot of the Megaten franchise, they have occasionally gone back and remastered other PS2-era games in the franchise. In 2021, that was the HD remaster of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, and while I was hopeful it would see them deviate to the Digital Devil Saga duology closely following that, ATLUS has finally, in 2025, offered RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, which brings the 2006 action RPG to modern-day platforms. Complete with dual-audio voice acting and some enhancements from the original release, does this game still hold up in 2025? Read on to find out!
Set in an alternate reality Taishō era, RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is set in an era where the modern conveniences of the time are overlaid with a level of mysticism and mystery, one in which you are very much a part. You start the game as the freshly appointed Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, apprenticed at the Narumi Detective Agency and covertly serving the Yatagarasu, aided by your sardonic feline partner Gouto, who provides colourful commentary and guidance. Early chapters lean into a noir supernatural detective cadence: the sudden plea and abduction of heiress Kaya Daidouji by red-armoured soldiers sets a hook that the game pays off by looping seemingly tangential cases into a central thread, meaning that you won’t spend the game being a pointless gumshoe. The atmosphere is a standout: rebuilt period streets, recurring NPCs, and the oscillation between human districts and the Dark Realm cultivate a convincing sense of a living capital haunted just beneath the surface. Newly inserted or adjusted lines of dialogue clarify formerly murky plot beats without rewriting the core of the 2006 script, and ultimately result in a slightly more accessible narrative for newcomers.
As momentum builds, the narrative deliberately trades grounded occult detective work for increasingly bombastic and surprising tangents and approaches, which make the game feel like it embraces the classic SMT surrealism of a time before Persona hit it big. The brisk, lean runtime means revelations cluster in a back‑loaded rush; objective markers and Gouto’s generous hinting accelerate chapter turnover while eroding the satisfaction of genuine deduction. Characterisation remains functional rather than deep: Raidou’s silent presence and iconic design anchor the period aesthetic and once again serve as that “silent protagonist” for players to cast themselves on. Emotional attachment can feel thinner than in party‑driven Persona titles, yet the setting’s cohesion and the strange, escalating stakes keep curiosity engaged. But overall, it is an entertaining yet delicately rich mystery that starts strong and finishes strong as well.
While RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is pitched as a remaster, the finished release, much like Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster before it, straddles that line between new and freshness, keeping the authentic design language of the original PlayStation 2 release, edging perhaps more towards the latter. Some of the more aged design elements have been updated, so backdrops are now fully navigable 3D spaces. Meanwhile, Kazuma Kaneko’s stylised, sharp-lined character and demon aesthetics are also retained, with a bump in resolution so you can enjoy them on your modern televisions. Period signage, transport nodes, and militaristic trappings convey an early-modern capital in flux. At the same time, the selective reuse of camera framings may be controversial, as they are still somewhat janky, but are an element of the era. Minor blemishes persist in less-detailed background NPCs, and sporadic performance dips have been reported on less powerful systems; however, the net result is a cohesive, atmospheric presentation that both respects and meaningfully builds upon the 2006 foundation.
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army’s score also suits its period, fusing brassy noir jazz motifs, propulsive percussion, and tense rock undercurrents with those subtle approaches to music composition that are quintessentially “Shin Megami Tensei”. Investigation zones lean on smoky, laid‑back progressions that underscore legwork without numbing momentum, while combat tracks pivot to tighter rhythmic hooks. There are some tracks that you may wish had a longer loop, especially the central town theme, but the design respects the era of gaming in which it was first released, even if it doesn’t hold up against the Persona-esque soundtracks that followed.
A brand new addition to RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is the inclusion of a voice-over track, with voice actors Ray Chase (Gouto), Lucien Dodge (Narumi) and Dawn M. Bennett (Tae Asakura), among others, all doing solid performances for their respective characters. Like Nocturne, while the dub is newly recorded, it has something that makes it feel not only like an element of the chronological era it is set in, but as if it had always existed for the game. Late story explanations are easier to follow because the actors emphasise the key words instead of presenting walls of text. A few minor lip-sync slips or slightly compressed lines appear, but they pass quickly and don’t break immersion.
Rather than the turn-based battle system that virtually all Shin Megami Tensei games of the generation had, RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is a proper action RPG where you control the titular protagonist, with demons controlled by AI, as you tackle enemies that are also actively attempting to defeat you. The combat system focuses on you juggling resource flow and positional awareness rather than menu rotations. Light sword strings and well‑timed gun shots refill the shared MAG gauge that fuels both Raidou’s elemental signs and your demons’ skills; heavier swings, jump strikes and weakness hits cash that reserve out for stagger windows and shield breaks. Perfect dodges (or a timely guard) trigger empowered follow‑ups that shower you with MAG, so staying aggressive while reading telegraphs is consistently rewarded. Two active demons on the field also allow you to pizzaz up your party formation with two additional DPS, a DPS or a support unit, or ultimately move demons in and out to target specific enemy weaknesses at a moment’s notice.
While there is the occasional difficulty spike that feels unfair, boss encounters are the highlight, forcing you to make split-second decisions as you read wide telegraphs, yank demons back with Safeguard and find the valuable moments to attack enemy weaknesses with the loop of stun → unload → repeat. Weapon archetypes (sword / spear / axe) shift heavy attack cadence and reach, while Sword Alchemy adds incremental stat bumps, Combat Skills on cooldown, and passive Sword Skills. Yet, Raidou’s core moveset stops evolving well before the end of the credits. By default, the mid-to-late game can feel under-tuned outside of optional challenge chains.
Demon management is streamlined, with the confinement of demons now faster and less gated than before. The expanded 120+ lineup of demons (including newer series additions) encourages tinkering and some degree of experimentation. Still, negotiation friction is gone, capture success is near‑automatic if the level / MAG check passes, and to a degree, fusion can feel like a chore rather than something you actively want to play around with.
Exploration splits between period urban districts, dungeon pockets, and the Dark Realm, which echoes the modern world. Removing random encounters instantly increases readability: you see demons, flank for advantage, or slip past if you are fatigued by routine battles. Meanwhile, case files repackage side content into clearly scoped errands – some simple retrievals, others short combat gauntlets or chains tied to newly added demons – feeding XP, materials and flavour without bloating runtime. The demons you use once again become essential to exploration, as well, with their field abilities (mind read, emotion stir, scout, fly, etc.) all potentially providing a solution to the following case and mystery being solved. The investigation fantasy, however, is softened by objective markers and context prompts that auto‑slot the correct demon, reducing the satisfaction of deducing “who” and “what” yourself into an “I am glad I don’t need to try this 5th demon to see if they work” for better… or worse.
Quality‑of‑life reforms dictate overall pacing. Autosave + manual quicksave, express streetcar fast travel, universal demon EXP gain, instant demon swapping, retry options and visible encounters strip out a great deal of PS2‑era downtime. While some result in a less authentic experience, what it does for the most part is deliver a solid 20-30 hour action RPG experience that offers a little more for those who are after that platinum trophy or every achievement, but also an experience that better respects your time. The result? A modernised action RPG loop that prioritises pace and approachability, even if some of the original’s texture and friction are casualties of the update.
In the end, RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army validates ATLUS’ decision to look beyond the monolith, which is Persona, and give other PS2-era experiments a chance to shine once more on modern hardware. Players of this remaster can look forward to a solid facelift, dual-audio voice work that feels native, and an action framework that, despite some late repetition and over-eager streamlining, still distinguishes it from the turn-based spine of the wider Megaten family. Here’s hoping that other Shin Megami Tensei games from the era and others – your Digital Devil Sagas, your Devil Survivors, heck, even the never-released-outside-Japan Nine have the opportunity to be looked over once more, and enjoyed by a brand new audience of gamers.
Final Score for RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army
This review was conducted on a PlayStation 5 digital copy of RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, using a PlayStation 5 Pro retail unit. Comments around performance on other platforms are based on community comments. A review code was provided by Australian distributor Five Star Games to facilitate this review.
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is now available on the Nintendo Switch 1|2, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
