sabertoothalex Agreed! Apocalypse’s combat is incredible and the final boss and ending are easily the best in the series IMO.
It has a real boring mid-to-late game + last dungeon though, just full of the worst grind ever with very limited variety of enemies (feels like they really wanted me to buy that EXP DLC), and I really really didn’t like the friends that are always accompanying the player and constantly chattering and just full of the worst cliche anime moments. Thankfully there’s a (very very late) story path where you kill them and can continue unbothered. Besides them, the plot and themes are interesting though and also seems to have inspired a lot of SMTV.
Though I think the overall initial hook of SMT IV is stronger, Apocalypse’s plot about several deities and factions fighting it out over the destiny of mankind and all their schemes to eventually overthrow god and change how the universe works is so much more memorable. SMTV’s late game story approaches that idea, but never fully executes it as well as Apocalypse does.
Also the most interesting part of SMT4A to me though is how the story is almost like a fanfic of the original SMT4. The events of Apocalypse start in the literal last five minutes of SMT4’s Neutral Ending, with the new main characters just coming in and utterly fucking everything up, ruining the end that 4’s Hero worked so hard to achieve, and unleashing a new terror on the world besides Angels and Demons. I love the brazenness of it, just making a sequel that starts right at the end of your favorite thing and then just fucking it all up and taking it in a whole new direction. What a rad, refreshing idea.