SMT games don't have much depth to their actual combat. Most battles its kill before being killed, but it fits in the tone of the games so well, that I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.
And its a thing all SMT games does, but I feel its almost intentionally made that way. You start off with shitty demons with everything wiping you off the face of the map, when you start fusing these kick ass demons and start running train on EVERYTHING, it makes you feel like a God. Its gameplay and narrative fit so well with each other that I can't fault it for not being the deepest combat system on the planet, but passable? Smh. Just because everything isn't etrian odyssey, doesn't make it passable. Would that make something like Final Fantasy 4/6/7/9/10/12/etc just the most complete garbage thing you've ever seen? Becuase those games have average combat in comparison to SMT 4. Or is a defend option really the difference between being good and bad, which is an extremely one sighted opinion to have about the genre that wasn't designed to be like that.
SMT isn't all about strategy, that's not how the games are designed. And even then, there is still some strategy to the boss fights. You can't compare this game to EO because they're nothing alike except for the first person combat style.
