RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army - Reviews Thread

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Game Information

Game Title: RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army

Platforms:
  • PlayStation 5 (Jun 19, 2025)
  • PlayStation 4 (Jun 19, 2025)
  • Xbox Series X/S (Jun 19, 2025)
  • Nintendo Switch (Jun 19, 2025)
  • PC (Jun 19, 2025)
Trailer:
Developers: Atlus, Sega

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 79 average - 78% recommended
Metacritic - 77 average based on 7 reviews (PS5 version)


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Critic Reviews


DualShockers - Murillo Zerbinatto - 7 / 10
Quote not yet available


Game Hype UK - Aaron Jones - 80 / 100
Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army combines a unique setting with a good mix of action and exploration thrown in. If you want something different from the Persona series without worrying about a timer and trying to cram as much activity into a day as possible then Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army could be the game you are looking for to take off the edge.


Manual dos Games - Luiz Henrique Silva - Portuguese - 8.5 / 10
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of The Soulless Army succeeds in staying true to the original 2005 game, bringing some quality-of-life improvements and new content without significantly altering the original experience. Although combat remains the weakest aspect of the paranormal detective's first solo adventure, RAIDOU Remastered does a great job of introducing the franchise to a new generation of fans while welcoming back longtime followers who have been waiting for the series return.


Nintendo Life - Mitch Vogel - 8 / 10
Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is a wonderful retread of a forgotten classic, smartly polishing up its best parts and modifying its worst parts to make for an overall more enjoyable experience. Though the visuals are just 'okay' and the detective gameplay can be a bit plain, the action-packed combat, reworked demon fusion, and interesting story all come together to make for a gripping adventure.I'd recommend you pick this one up if you're curious and you think it may be up your alley. I've never played anything quite like Raidou, and it offers a very unique take not just on the standard SMT formula, but action RPGs on the whole.


PSX Brasil - Thiago de Alencar Moura - Portuguese - 90 / 100
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is an excellent remaster of one of the best forgotten PS2 classics and one of the brightest gems in Atlus' catalog. The gameplay, visuals, and quality of life improvements elevate the game and make it even more of a must-have for fans of the genre.


Pizza Fria - Matheus Jenevain - Portuguese - 9.3 / 10
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, readers, really managed to fulfill its goal of modernizing a classic title that, given the time it was released, is still very fun to play.


PlayStation Universe - Garri Bagdasarov - 7.5 / 10
Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is another solid update to Atlus's long-running Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Raidou Remastered overhauls the combat system for modern players and includes plenty of quality of life upgrades. It's a nice addition for those looking for a more supernatural detective story set in the Tensei universe.


Push Square - Robert Ramsey - 8 / 10
Raidou Remastered gives one of Atlus' most experimental PS2 outings a deserved second chance. Better described as a remake, a huge list of improvements, including a superbly reworked combat system, make this a must-try for the developer's modern audience. Raidou remains a uniquely weird and compelling action RPG, and this is its definitive form.


The Beta Network - Anthony Culinas - 7 / 10
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army brings the trench coat back in black: with smoother controls, quality of life improvements and even more demons to make Lucifer sweat.
 
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Raidou Remastered overhauls the combat system for modern players and includes plenty of quality of life upgrades
Good! As long as they haven't fucked up the atmosphere and vibes of the original, this will be a great remaster. The original game's combat is dogshit so having that improved makes this a must for me.
 
Not sure if I'll get this at full price, but getting it I will. I adore this era of Atlus games. Glad to see they've kept the peak character designs mostly intact. Eyeliners, eyeliners for EVERYONE! 😁
 
Listen I played the OG on PS2 back in the day, it was a solid game back then, but it doesn't work as a remaster because it's an action game with PS2 animations and clunkiness, it feels super outdated on modern systems. Also For 50 bucks it should've had both 1 and 2, 50 for just 1 is ridiculous, but I'm thinking this game will drop quick.
 
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Listen I played the OG on PS2 back in the day, it was a solid game back then, but it doesn't work as a remaster because it's an action game with PS2 animations and clunkiness, it feels super outdated on modern systems. Also For 50 bucks it should've had both 1 and 2, 50 for just 1 is ridiculous, but I'm thinking this game will drop quick.
Not saying you're wrong about the combat as I just go off second hand info. But I think this remaster is a borderline remake as they've apparently changed quite a bit.

Here's an impression of the overhauled combat system from Rpgfan.com:

So right off the bat, battles in Raidou Remastered are leaps and bounds different, and more importantly, way better than the original. It is a completely new combat system that borrows much from its sequel. The camera is now fully controllable, in contrast to the original's locked static camera angle that made some fights very frustrating. The battlefields are big and spacious enough to make good use of this change as well. Second is Raidou's katana attacks. He now has access to the weak and strong attacks from the sequel. Square (on PlayStation) performs a weak (but quick and precise) attack that also recovers MAG, which is short for magnetite. Triangle is now used for strong attacks that do not replenish MAG, but do way more damage. Also returning from the sequel is the ability to give your sword the properties of a sword, spear, or axe, which is reflected in your strong attack, but more on that later. You have to play a balance act between both actions to make sure you do damage, as well as keep your MAG filled.

MAG now matches its role from Raidou 2. Instead of being used to summon demons, MAG is now used as their shared MP pool. Demons can't cast spells unless you have MAG, and you want them to use spells to hit weaknesses and stun enemies. Stunned enemies give twice the MAG back, and take 1.5x damage from strong attacks. Demons will use healing spells on you as well. And yes, I am using "they" as a plural, because now you can dual summon, which was formerly only in Raidou 2. Their AI is so much smarter now, so you won't have to babysit them anymore. Raidou still has his gun as well, but the elemental bullets and the need to stock bullets are gone. Hitting L2 puts you in first-person mode to lock on to a target and ready your shot. The gun is now used as a means to stunlock and stop enemy movement, and it feels much better to use. You are limited in ammo in battle until it replenishes by itself, which it does at a decent pace.
One of the best changes is Raidou's movement in battle. He can now jump to avoid attacks that crawl on the floor, or do jump attacks to surprise attack enemy demons. His dodge roll is now smart: hitting it in the direction of your enemy will dodge behind them to allow you to blindside them and continue your assault. Or you can dodge backwards for a small hop, which, if followed by a sword attack, will thrust you back toward the enemy. Containing demons is super easy now, too, by walking up to them and, if you are at or above their level, holding R1 and either holding or repeatedly hitting the circle button. No more awkward hitting weaknesses and accidentally killing demons. In general, Raidou feels way better to control than he ever did in the original or the sequel.

He has a few new tricks as well. First is his Devil's Bane ability. If you knock a demon off balance with a well-placed assault or dodge one of their attacks perfectly, you will get a prompt to hit circle and X together to do a quick cinematic strike, dealing high damage and stealing a ton of MAG. In place of elemental bullets, Raidou can now use combat skills by pressing R1 with a face button to use elemental attack skills. They are tied to a cooldown and aren't just for attacking. You can learn moves that heal you or replenish MAG and other stuff via sword alchemy. And, last but not least, by hitting enemy weaknesses and building the combo gauge, you will build up for a super move called Spirit Slash. This move hits all enemies for the affinity that will do the most damage and pierce any defenses for enemies immune to it.

Combat-wise, Raidou feels like a modern action RPG that you would expect to play in 2025, and not the slow, clunky mess that existed from the PS2 games. But combat isn't all that has changed.
 
Just realized one of the review places is called Pizza Fria.

Why do shitters like this get any weight?
 
It's a shame that they did not remake this. This game would probably be in 90s metacritic territory if it got the Persona 3 Reload treatment with some QoL updates.
 
Looks like they spent extra effort to go in and censor some of the designs.
rjh7nfydc18f1.jpeg


Couldn't find a good image of the original, but here's a small version.
show


Not a big deal on its own (I think the censorship looks like shit), but you can be sure there will be more.
 
Looks like they spent extra effort to go in and censor some of the designs.
rjh7nfydc18f1.jpeg


Couldn't find a good image of the original, but here's a small version.
show


Not a big deal on its own (I think the censorship looks like shit), but you can be sure there will be more.
Well, there goes a sale. Not supporting this kind of shit.
 
Looks like they spent extra effort to go in and censor some of the designs.
rjh7nfydc18f1.jpeg


Couldn't find a good image of the original, but here's a small version.
show


Not a big deal on its own (I think the censorship looks like shit), but you can be sure there will be more.
God why? Who is this done for? If anyone would be offended by the demon designs this series is known for, they wouldn't get this game in the first place.
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Looks like they spent extra effort to go in and censor some of the designs.
rjh7nfydc18f1.jpeg


Couldn't find a good image of the original, but here's a small version.
show


Not a big deal on its own (I think the censorship looks like shit), but you can be sure there will be more.
Like Capcom did with Onimusha 2. But then again, Capcom is full DEI so it's expected from them. Probably the western arm of Atlus bitching and moaning so in Japan they censor for the "modern audience" and to try get Chinese gamers interested
 
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Downloaded to my switch 2! Can't wait.

Buying on Switch 2, looking good to me!

Man, the Raidou Remaster is...bullshit, 1080p in both handheld AND docked mode ? thefuckoutta here Atlus, this is just lazy shit, at this point you might as well get the S1 version which runs 720p in handheld and still 1080p in docked mode (60fps) AND it also comes on the card compared to the S2 version which is a game card (i.e, digital).
I just to play a proper, high-res game on this 470+ Eurodollars console that isn't Mario or Zelda ffs
 
Based Atlus for adding invincibility equivalent difficulty settings in all their recent RPG's for those who want them.


This Is Delicious So Good GIF by SWR3
 
Looks like they spent extra effort to go in and censor some of the designs.
rjh7nfydc18f1.jpeg


Couldn't find a good image of the original, but here's a small version.
show


Not a big deal on its own (I think the censorship looks like shit), but you can be sure there will be more.
This was originally censored in DS2 on PS2 and they just reused the model from that

Is it lazy? Yes. But it's not an example of new censoring added to this remaster

She's completely uncensored in SMTV for comparison
 
Looks like they spent extra effort to go in and censor some of the designs.
rjh7nfydc18f1.jpeg


Couldn't find a good image of the original, but here's a small version.
show


Not a big deal on its own (I think the censorship looks like shit), but you can be sure there will be more.
Well, she has to have demon pasties under that hair, don'cha know?
 
When you fuse demons they sometimes leave goodbye letters for you. I just had one that said

the letter is illegible and covered in tears

Man... this game... they just don't make em like they used to.
 
This was always a 6-7/10 game. Not a bad thing but always a bit mid-tier. Digital Devil Saga was always the better second-tier SMT series on PS2.
 
Started playing this finally. The IQ is so clean and pristine, looks like a true native 4K/60.

The game also has a "Performance" mode, guessing that's gonna be 120hz, but the Quality seems to run pretty good at 60 so I have absolutely no need to change.

They might as well have called it a remake cause they've taken all the pre-rendered backgrounds of the original and render them in real time 3D now.


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Bought it for Switch 2. Will play it after TOTK.

Hey Wolf, how does it look docked (on a 55" TV) ?
With Atlus being Atlus...this has the same exact resolution on docked mode as the handheld one (1080p) on S2 and I really.dont get why they couldn't have it run at 1440p.
Funny thing is that the S1 version still runs at 60fps AND 1080p docked via BC on S2.

Sorry but I can't condone such lazy practices , will get it on a sale...
 
i'd forgotten how charming & actually interesting this game is. not the most thrilling or exciting experience, but a very unique & unpredictable one (the music's great, as well)...
 
Hey Wolf, how does it look docked (on a 55" TV) ?
With Atlus being Atlus...this has the same exact resolution on docked mode as the handheld one (1080p) on S2 and I really.dont get why they couldn't have it run at 1440p.
Funny thing is that the S1 version still runs at 60fps AND 1080p docked via BC on S2.

Sorry but I can't condone such lazy practices , will get it on a sale...

Im traveling for work right now, so I'm stuck playing on a 25 - 30" 1080p TV
 
Man, the Raidou Remaster is...bullshit, 1080p in both handheld AND docked mode ? thefuckoutta here Atlus, this is just lazy shit, at this point you might as well get the S1 version which runs 720p in handheld and still 1080p in docked mode (60fps) AND it also comes on the card compared to the S2 version which is a game card (i.e, digital).
I just to play a proper, high-res game on this 470+ Eurodollars console that isn't Mario or Zelda ffs
Atlus is truly the worst when it comes to bad business practices I tell ya. Persona 5 Royal "ps5 version" it wasn't enough for them to have people who already bought that game twice already, nope, if you wanted to be able to play that game at 60 fps on your $500 console you would have to buy it again THIRD TIME!
 
A couple of things I wish they address via patches.

- Make the transition of your summon changing quicker, for when you're using one of their ability in the field (like Mind Read etc)
- Let you skip post battle animations with a single button. Edit: apparently, B/Circle does that.
 
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I like the simplistic character models, they look charming and distinct despite having so little 'detail'.



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Finally picking this up after DS2 completion, and dropping BMW on the final chapter.

This game is super charming so far. Music slaps, love the art direction, and the combat is simple but fun.
 
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