Between your Shin Megami Tenseis and your Personas, Atlus has grown in renown over the last decade for its demon-summoning JRPGs. But while Persona is the biggest of the SMT spin-offs, it’s far from the only one, and now RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is on the way to revive the Demon Summoner branch of this RPG franchise.
Atlus is no stranger to refurnishing its prior works for new systems, whether with a classic expanded release like Persona 4 Golden or with a more typical remake/remaster like Persona 3 Reloaded. Closing in on two decades since its original PS2 release as Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army, Raidou Remastered is very much in the latter camp, as a full overhaul of the game for modern systems. “Remastered” is really underselling it.
We played Raidou Remastered on Nintendo Switch 2, but this game is coming to pretty much every platform that matters – PS4 and PS5, Switch and Switch 2, PC and Xbox Series X|S, with only Xbox One being left out in the cold.
Alas, we didn’t get to spend too much time playing at the preview event, being dropped in partway through Chapter 1 to just get a taste of the world, the characters and the action RPG battling.
The first thing that stands out about the presentation is that you don’t have control over the game camera, which moves and pans through set paths as you run around, and cutting to new angles as you move between different streets and side passages. It’s distinctly retro and in keeping with the original game in style, but the pre-rendered backgrounds make way for 3D environments, so that the camera can shift into a pseudo chase cam view at times and more actively follow you through the scene, instead of having that classic Resident Evil vibe.
The camera is much, much more dynamic in combat as well, actually following Raidou around, instead of being a fixed point view of the battle arena. That helps a huge amount to give the combat a more modern tone and feel.
Coming from Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, the expectation might be for turn-based battles with summoned demons, but these are much closer to the arena battles of the Final Fantasy 7 Remakes or (a bit more tangentially) Ni no Kuni. You fight as Raidou, dishing out melee attacks with his sword, taking aim to blast away from range with his pistol, and unleashing abilities that build up to your Spirit Slash. Your two summoned demon allies, meanwhile do a bit of their own thing, but can also be commanded to attack or heal and buff.
It’s quick and easy to figure out the basics, but I’m sure more depths will be revealed with a longer play session, and complexities revealed through bigger boss battles.
It’s not just in battle that your demons come out to play, as they also have a role when simply exploring the world and talking to people. It can be reading someone’s mind to reveal a new opening in conversation, using them to retrieve a dog from a roof, lighting a figurative fire under someone to get them to do what you want, and on and on. More demons will be added to Raidou’s collection of allies over time, giving you new abilities in the world, but also boosting combat options.
What’s sure to shine about Raidou Remastered is the setting. This is a fantastical take on 1930s Tokyo, infused with the Dark Realm and all the demons that spring forth from it. Raidou himself has a flash cape and a more Western police style outfit, and there’s a great juxtaposition between this and the more traditional elements of Japanese architecture, dress and culture from the time. There’s cats everywhere, as well, and while most of them will run away when you get close (probably cos of all the demons in your pocket), the black cat Gouto is your companion and guide.
For fans of Atlus’ work, Raidou Remastered is sure to be one of the most anticipated games of 2025, reviving a decades old game for a new audience and giving it myriad modern touches along the way.
