Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army

After 19 years, Atlus/Sega has finally brought back the PS2-exclusive Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army as a remastered edition, boasting a host of remarkable new features.

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army marks the return of Atlus' action role-playing game, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, although it feels more like a remake in many respects - more on that later. The original game was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006, but it wasn't released in Europe until 2007. It is the third game in the Devil Summoner series and part of the larger Shin Megami Tensei franchise.

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is set in 1930s Tokyo, during the Taisho period. The protagonist, Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, is a high school student who works as a 'Devil Summoner' - someone who summons demons - for the Narumi Detective Agency. He is assisted by his talking cat, Gouto-Douji. In the game, a young woman approaches the agency with a bizarre request: to kill her. Soon after, however, the girl is kidnapped. This is a case for Raidou. During his investigation, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the entire country. The search takes place in the 'real world' as well as in the 'Dark Realm', a parallel world full of demons.

As he investigates, he collects clues, interviews witnesses and solves puzzles with the help of demons who have special abilities, such as mind reading and eavesdropping. There are over 120 demons that can assist with combat and investigations. These demons can also be fused together to create new, more powerful creatures. Combat is based on real-time battles in which Raidou and two demons simultaneously fight enemies, and the selection of demons is crucial to exploit opponents' weaknesses. However, many missions follow a predictable pattern, becoming repetitive due to a lack of variety and interesting supporting characters. This shows up the outdated gameplay design.

First and foremost, the remaster offers visual improvements. As well as higher resolution and smoother frame rates, the character models and environments have been improved; the original pre-rendered 2D backgrounds have been replaced with new 3D environments, and a free 3D camera has been added. However, the graphics options on PC are very sparse. New Japanese and English voiceovers have been added to the main story, and subtitles are available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese (simplified and traditional). The English voice actors are Stephen Fu (Raidou Kuzunoha XIV), Ray Chase (Gouto-Douji), Dawn M. Bennett (Tae Asakura), Kayli Mills (Kaya Daijouji), Chris Okawa (Rasputin) and Joe Zieja (Munakata).

On the other hand, the combat system has been fundamentally reworked and modernised, to the extent that this part of the remaster is almost a remake. It is now possible to have two demon partners at the same time, as in Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, and Raidou can perform additional special actions. The old MP system has been replaced by a central MAG bar for Raidou, which serves as a resource for the accompanying demons' abilities in battle. This bar can be replenished by light attacks or by exploiting weaknesses, among other things. Fusions have also been made more accessible. These changes make combat more flexible and slightly more strategic. Last but not least, enemies are now visible on the map, eliminating surprise battles. In terms of quality of life (QoL) improvements, there are now free save points, improved objective tracking, four difficulty levels, additional help systems to make it easier to get started, and a revamped UI.

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, was released on 19 June 2025 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S. Plaion is responsible for distributing the physical versions for PlayStation 5, Switch and Switch 2.

Conclusion

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is an unexpectedly elaborate and worthy remaster. Clearly, it is not a half-hearted attempt.

Features

• Elaborate remaster of Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
• Significantly revamped combat system
• Numerous QOL improvements and English voice acting