After just two weeks, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance enters Steam's highest-rated JRPG chart

Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance Nahobino
(Image credit: Atlus)

Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, the juicy mega-re-release for (obviously) Shin Megami Tensei 5, has already wormed its way into Steam's best-rated Japanese role-playing games chart a mere two weeks after its launch.

For those not in the ShinPersonaHackers camp, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance practically bolts on an entire second campaign called the Canon of Vengeance, in addition to the base game's Canon of Creation storyline, as well as new demons to fight/recruit, new dungeons, new characters, and several other major tweaks to progression and the turn-based combat.

With so much new newness added to the landmark game, it's no surprise to hear that it's now one of best-rated JRPGs on Steam. Sitting at an 'Overwhelming Positive' score based on almost 2,500 user reviews, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is now the storefront's twelfth high-rated game in the subgenre's charts, beating both classics (Final Fantasy 9) and newbie heavyweights (Yakuza: Like A Dragon) alike.

The only JRPGs with better ratings are this year's Granblue Fantasy Relink, classic remake Star Ocean The Second Story R, Astlibra Revision, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Final Fantasy 14 and the OG Final Fantasy 7, HD-2D pioneer Octopath Traveler 2, Nier Automata, and a trio of bangers at the top of the list: Persona 3 Reload, Persona 5 Royal, and Persona 4 Golden - which are all, funnily enough, Shin Megami Tensei spin-offs.

The mammoth re-release isn't just a critical hit, though. Vengeance sold a whopping 500,000 copies in three days alone, which means it's actually inching closer to the big sales numbers that its more popular spin-off series Persona normally manages. Total Shin Megami Tensei 5 sales numbers sit at a comfortable 1.6 million.

Shin Megami Tensei 5 director echoes FromSoftware’s stance on hard games: “Our intent was never to make things difficult for difficulty’s sake.”

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

Read more
Two Skells flying around a lush green area in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition.
Sci-fi JRPG Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is tied with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as the 3rd highest-rated game of the year on Metacritic so far
Best JRPGs: the characters in the game Dragon Quest 11 S
The best JRPGs to play in 2025
Metaphor: ReFantazio's protagonist smiles at his fairy companion, Gallica in an anime-style cutscene.
After dominating 2024 with Sonic, Persona, Yakuza, and Metaphor, Sega is the first company to become the year's best-rated publisher 3 times
Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds debuts as the highest-rated game of 2025 with a 90 Metacritic score, and it's the top-selling game on Steam ahead of launch this week
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Steam launch was "fantastic" analyst says after PC players sent the JRPG port flying to the US best-selling spot in the week of its release
Goro Majima takes the helm of his ship in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii review: "Sun, surf, and treasure hunting takes the series to new places at the right time"
Latest in JRPG
Somehow this keeps happening: Another game with a Persona 5 collab is going under, and this time it's JRPG comrade War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail
Final Fantasy 14 patch makes an effort to combat mods that can enable harassment, but players report it's "very easy" to reverse newly hidden account IDs
Lunar Remastered Collection
"Will today’s players still enjoy a game from 30 years ago?": JRPG icon Kei Shigema says he was thrilled to see Lunar getting a remaster even after all this time
A screenshot of a pink-haired protagonist in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, surrounded by other BLADE soldiers and a Skell.
I spent 10 years waiting for the answers to Xenoblade Chronicles X's haunting cliffhanger ending, and it was worth the wait
Metaphor: ReFantazio anime cutscene screenshot shows Strohl, the protagonist, Gallica, and Hulkenberg looking ahead with shocked expressions.
Metaphor: ReFantazio dev once thought turn-based JRPG combat "was starting to get outdated," but now thinks the format has a "long future ahead"
The Legend of Dragoon
Beloved PS1 JRPG Legend of Dragoon wasn't meant to be a Final Fantasy 7 killer, Super Mario RPG's battle designer just said "I want to make a new RPG"
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"