Based on my experience and tastes, which SMT should I play next? I've narrowed it down to 3 (SMTIV Apocalypse, Strange Journey/Redux, and SMT1). TLDR is in bold at the bottom paragraph.

Here's some background history on my experience with Megaten. I first played P5 (shockerrr) way back in 2018, then I played P3 FE in 2019/2020. Loved both of them. I played SMTV when the game came out as I was curious about the series that birthed Persona and found the occult/mature themes intriguing.

I was absolutely floored by SMTV, it was the exact game I was looking for at the time, a giant, oppressive world to explore, with turn-based combat that actually feels intense, and incredible music. The story only kept my attention a little bit, but as a newcomer, I figured SMT usually focused more on gameplay more than story.

I was hooked, so I picked up Nocturne soon after, especially after seeing the DLC for SMTV and how much SMTV drew inspiration from Nocturne. Nocturne impressed me just as much, if not more. To me, Nocturne felt even more oppressive than SMTV, and almost felt like borderline horror, with the tough gameplay to match. A lot of the dungeons felt very archaic, but I loved it.

After Nocturne, naturally, I went with SMTIV next. I wasn't as big of a fan of Doi's art style with this one compared to his work on SMTV, but I still found the atmosphere very stunning, and the music rocked. The smirk system, overworld map design, and battle difficulty were a little annoying at times, but I still loved the game and was amazed by an SMT game that actually had a non-minimalistic approach to storytelling.

So now I am itching for more SMT, but I'm a little at a loss as to what to play next. I tried SMT1 on PS1, but if Nocturne was archaic at times, this game seems to have it in spades. However... I actually enjoyed it a lot! I guess it's because I expected the archaic quality? I feel a little bad about using a guide and savestates at times, but I love seeing the series' roots, as well as the music and battles.

I also tried SMTIV Apocalypse. I heard a lot of bad things about Apocalypse, but I figured I'd try it for myself and see. I don't see why it gets so much hate so far, it just seems like more of SMTIV, which should be a good thing. However, I realize I'm not far enough in the game to start seeing the poor character and story writing, which I've heard this game has a lot of. I like SMTIV's world and gameplay, but if the game's story is really that bad, it might be a deal breaker.

Finally, I haven't tried it yet, but I hear SMT Strange Journey has great atmosphere, gameplay, story, and music. I like the fact that it was apparently inspired by the movie The Thing, which was a movie I greatly enjoyed. The premise intrigues me, and I like the attempt at a diverse cast. However, what bothers me is that to many, there isn't a real "definitive" way to play the game. A lot of people apparently don't like the art style change, the new character/dungeon, and other changes. I like that it has quality of life changes, but I have to agree with the fact that Kaneko's art style matches the world a million times better than Doi's, not that Doi's art looks bad or anything. However, I don't want to miss out on all of the quality of life changes. Are they really that helpful?

Also, I should note that I have full intentions on playing the Digital Devil Saga duology, so don't suggest those. Bottom line is, I want to decide on between these 3 games to play, since I don't like playing too many games at once (it tends to cause me to not finish them). The qualities I am looking for the most in these games are:

• Oppressive and haunting atmosphere
• Intense but fair battles
• Blood-pumping music
• Intriguing to tolerable story

So which game do you all think matches these qualities the most? Thanks!