Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army review: a faithful yet meaty remaster that’s not quite faultless

I’m a huge Atlus fan, and when Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army was revealed back in March, I was absolutely over the moon. See, I never got a chance to play the original JRPG – which first released on the PS2 – but had always hoped to get in on some demon-filled investigative action.

And Atlus has truly served up a full-blown remaster of Raidou’s first adventure, bringing the Devil Summoner’s story to just about every modern platform with full voice acting, fleshed-out 3D environments, enhanced visuals and audio, as well as evolved combat.

Atlus has produced banger after banger for decades, including some of the best RPGs like Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 5 Royal. So, can the Switch 2 game Raidou Remastered rise to those same heights

Well, perhaps not quite. But it’s still a fantastic remaster. Here’s what I made of the game after spending more than 30 hours playing it on Nintendo Switch 2.

Where lies man, so lies dark

In 1930s Japan, a young lady approaches the Narumi Detective Agency with a shocking request. She wants you to kill her. But before you can hear exactly why, she’s kidnapped by mysterious individuals in red capes.

So, in steps Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, an apprentice detective at the Narumi Detective Agency who aims to serve the capital – not only by helping citizens with their day-to-day needs, but also by keeping things in check within the Dark Realm – a curious juncture between the real world and the netherworld, where demons lurk.

And now it’s down to Raidou and his allied demons to solve the mystery of the kidnapped girl… which, in turn, leads you to unveil a far greater conspiracy than you could ever imagine.

Of course, I don’t want to give away too many details plot-wise. But I can assure you that there are plenty of twists and turns as the mystery unravels – and that mystery remains gripping throughout. In addition, you don’t have to sit through hours of warm up before the story really gets going.

Yep, you’re flung straight into the middle of a dark case, in a city flooded with characters in need of your support – sometimes in the main story, and other times through brief, yet enjoyable side quests called Case Files. And you’ll meet a real range of individuals throughout the game’s runtime. No really, I ran into everyone from a yakuza captain through to a zany demon-fusing scientist – and that’s just in the real world!

These characters help to expose many of the game’s key themes, which are tightly interwoven with the 1930s setting. There are frequent questions around the morality of war and the role of economic injustice on people’s everyday lives, for instance.

And I felt that I could connect to the cast thanks to newly added voice acting – one of the best inclusions in this remaster. Whether it’s the somewhat lazy, yet playful Detective Narumi or rival Devil Summoner, Rasputin, expressive voice acting injects so much more personality into each character. Even the demons have some incredibly entertaining – sometimes bizarre dialogue that add so much whimsy to the experience. The commanding voice of Hayataro or the iconic hee-ho’s of Jack Frost even made me reluctant to fuse them into something else.

Your feline companion, Gouto, is also at hand to guide you through the case’s key plot points and provide pointers if you get a bit stuck. Those tips are often handy, and generally, Gouto is far less invasive than a certain other cat that Atlus fans will be well acquainted with. I won’t name names of course… but it starts with ‘M’ and ends in ‘organa’.

Raidou’s revamped

So, there’s an engaging plot and intriguing cast to match, but what about gameplay itself. Well, this is where the picture starts to get a little more mixed.

I’ll start with combat. You’re not getting the turn-based press turn battle system from Shin Megami Tensei titles, with this game instead taking a real-time action approach. However, the combat system has been significantly overhauled in Raidou Remastered, when compared to the original game.

There are no more pesky random encounters, Raidou can now use two demons in battle (as opposed to one in the original), you’ve got the ability to lock on to enemies, and much, much more. These alterations are all most welcome and have made combat feel way more fluid than before.

When doing battle, you’ll want to focus on draining MAG, which is expended when demons use magic attacks, such as the fire spell Agi or volt attack Zio. In order to get your MAG back, Raidou can dish out light attacks, which fill up the bar swiftly, enabling you to regularly exploit enemy weaknesses, and as a result, stagger them for an easier route to victory.

Other than those light attacks I mentioned, Raidou can use heavy attacks, fire his gun, cast magic abilities of his own (Summoner Skills) and unleash highly punishing moves like Devil’s Bane and Spirit Slash. You’ll gain new Summoner Skills as the game progresses, and you’ll also be able to allocate stat boosts to Raidou when he levels up across strength, magic, vitality and luck.

I went for a mixed strength / magic build, and my main strategy in battle was to whack out as many light attacks as possible, fueling one demon’s use of healing magic and another’s devastating elemental damage. You can also use items in battle, but I basically never needed to do this.

Most of the time, my strategy proved to be a sure-fire way to win battles, meaning that combat could get a little repetitive. Also, despite enhanced battle mechanics – which includes more fluid maneuvering – I found that Raidou could feel a little clunky to control, especially in the air. This was rarely a huge issue, but if you’re expecting incredibly seamless, ultra-smooth movement from this title, you might be a little disappointed.

Boss fights are still good fun, though, and can often pose a decent challenge. Here, I found that blocking and dodging was a bit more important. Just spamming my light attacks and expecting my demons to do the rest was rarely good enough. I’m sure this would ring even more true if you’re playing on hard mode, but I played on Private Eye difficulty – which is essentially the standard level of challenge.

Before we continue talking gameplay, though, I just wanted to flag that this game has a great soundtrack – there are some seriously catchy tunes here. I still can’t get the theme from Narumi’s Detective Agency out of my head.

Battling our demons

Anyway, let’s continue chatting gameplay – and the real highlight here, for me, is filling out the demon compendium and fusing the most powerful creations imaginable.

You can recruit demons pretty much hassle free – not always the case in other Atlus entries (I’m looking at you, SMT 4). And you can also request the help of the peculiar Dr. Victor in the Goumaden, who enables you to fuse multiple demons together and forge new, stronger companions to take into battle. You can also fuse swords, spears or axes for Raidou, which come which come with fresh abilities as well as differing stat boosts.

During demon fusion specifically, you can pass on abilities and passive skills which will help you target the weaknesses of opponents in the Dark Realm – just make sure you keep an eye on their Investigation Skills, which will come in use outside of battle.

And that brings me onto what is, without doubt, the weakest part of Raidou Remastered – solo investigations. These occur when Raidou is unable to progress through an area himself, and he instead enlists the help of his demons (which most humans are unable to see in the real world). You can send a demon out to gather clues or investigate blocked off locations, which sounds interesting, but ends up being just boring.

Most demons move pretty slowly, and the sprint button doesn’t work when they’re out investigating. On top of that, retrieving clues usually just consists of pressing a single button to search an area, read a mind, or squeeze into a tight area. I just wish that these parts of the experience were more interactive, especially given that being a detective is central to the game’s plot.

Finally, a quick note on the experience playing on Nintendo Switch 2. Typically, I played with my Joy-Con 2 controllers, and the game controlled nicely. Switching between targets while locked on took a bit of getting used to – it could, at times, feel a little rigid. But everything else, from using attacks, summoning demons, sprinting and dodging felt totally fine.

Similarly, performance was very strong – though I would expect this given it’s hardly the most demanding title out there. It runs at a maximum of 60fps at 1080p, which looks solid, though the lack of 4K may disappoint some.

Overall, though, I love how the game remains faithful, visually, to its PS2 roots, while still ensuring characters and backgrounds look polished. Oh, I also rarely experienced frame rate issues – that is unless I performed Raidou’s ultimate attack, Spirit Slash. This would sometimes cause a little bit of slowdown, but never to a degree that it cost me a battle or anything.

In the end, I had a blast with Raidou Remastered. I was keen to complete almost every Case File, the main story had me hooked, and of course, I loved summoning some of my favorite demons from the SMT series. Combat, though fairly layered, could sometimes get a little samey and I really wish solo investigations didn’t feel like a chore. But overall, Atlus did an excellent job with this remaster and I’m grateful that it’s enabled me – and so many other fans – to solve this mystery for the very first time.

Should you play Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

The game includes subtitles, button remapping in the controls section, a control stick sensitivity slider, and the ability to toggle vibrations on and off. There are some other subtle changes you can make, such as the option to simply hold the A button, rather than press it repeatedly to confine a demon. There are four difficult modes, including one which makes combat extremely basic for those who want to essentially focus on story alone. There isn’t a colorblind mode for anyone seeking that out, though.

How I reviewed Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army:

I spent more than 30 hours with Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, playing through the main story and the vast majority of Case Files. I had the game set on Private Eye difficulty – essentially normal. I’ve played a ton of Atlus titles before, from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne through to Persona 3 Reload, so I was already plenty familiar with systems like demon fusion.

I played the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, which I downloaded digitally via a code supplied by Sega. Usually, I played in docked mode in 1080p at 60fps, but I did try playing for a while in handheld mode too. When docked, I had my Nintendo Switch 2 connected to the Sky Glass Gen 2, with audio playing from the Marshall Heston 120 soundbar.

First reviewed June 2025