Raidou Remastered producer and director Yamai Kazuyuki and assistant director and system planner Sugizaki Hiroki discussed Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army in an interview in the 26 June 2025 issue of Weekly Famitsu.
The interview, which was conducted before the game’s release, begins by asking how they feel about the release and fans’ expectations, Yamai answers saying that while he knew that Raidou had many hardcore fans, the reaction to the announcement was still bigger than expected, and is very thankful for their passion. He also notes how the reactions included new fans saying that they had heard of Raidou and are looking forward to playing it for the first time, and old fans saying that they want Avatar Tuner next.
It is next brought up how Raidou Remastered was made available to players at the event which let players try out the Switch 2 in April, and Yamai says that they got favourable responses from players who had never played the game before. Conversely, players of the original version stumbled over changes like demons now automatically using skills, and the staff had to guide them on the changes. Sugizaki adds that many were also surprised by the new ability to jump, saying that people who had not played the original got used to the new version faster.
The interviewer next asks about the changes to the battle system, and Sugizaki says that the intention was to make Raidou himself feel stronger. The original release had a lot of problems, and while its sequel (Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon) made improvements to it, demon skills became the focus of that game’s battle system. While that might have not have been wrong in a “summoner” sense, he thinks that it put too much of a focus on them, and so Raidou Remastered was made so that Raidou himself would feel like more of a main character, doing all sorts of things to support his demons.
The original game already had the idea of Raidou growing stronger by drawing out the power of his sword, and so they introduced the sword skills in Remastered to expand on this concept. Adding elements to the skills was due to how the element bullets in the original were not very useful. He thinks that adding the skills expanded the range of tactics based on Raidou’s actions the player can use.
Next, the interviewer points out that MAG consumption is quite high with two demons out, and asks if Sugizaki has any advice on managing, and he points out that MAG use is set to be quite high with healing skills. As such, a good way to reduce MAG consumption is to dodge enemy attacks. When demons are damaged they have to spend MAG and time on healing and are unable to attack, resulting in a negative cycle. He also says that it helps to prioritize using items rather than skills for healing.
The interviewer next switches to discussing the enemies, particularly how different bosses behave. Sugizaki says that a large factor in this is the battlefields being 3D in the new version, and them needing to change the tempo of the game to match the wider fields, making characters move faster. This led to them also needing to adjust animations and the ranges of attacks as well. Yamai adds that since boss battles last longer in the new version, bosses having the same patterns as the original would make them feel repetitive, and so they added new attacks and animations.
In regards to the demons the player can summon, Sugizaki says that their AI was redone from scratch. They now consider more factors such as remaining HP and MAG or buffs to consider whether to attack, heal, or use support skills. For example, when attacking, they consider the target’s remaining HP, whether they are stunned, or whether they are shielding their weakness to decide which attack would be most appropriate. If an enemy has low HP remaining they will not use a big move and instead just use a regular attack to finish them off, if they have a shield they will prioritize taking it down, and if they have a weakness they can exploit they will. Yamai adds that the player can still give the demons orders through the menu like in the original version of the game, but Sugizaki says that the AI was made with the idea that the player will never have to.
The interviewer says that the changes to the battle system make it seem to completely outstep the boundaries of a remaster, and Sugizaki says that they felt that they had to fix things that needed fixing in this day and age for the game to be given credit as an action game, and so in regards to the battle system they treated it like a full remake. Yamai mentions that this was influenced by playtesting conducted in North America, where the early version had more emphasis on menus, and they received feedback that having to pause battles repeatedly would mean the game would not sell in NA.
Yamai says that they were driven on when they learned that there are passionate Raidou fans in NA as well, but Sugizaki says that the feedback they received was very honest, critical and biting, and he wished they went easier on them. Yamai notes, however, that Sugizaki himself also provided opinions on development in a similar manner.
It is also brought up how voiced lines for the demons also contribute to the feel of battles, and Yamai says that there are over 700 clips, with some lines from both the original game and its sequel rewritten and re-recorded. The interviewer says that having demons tag along outside of battles also helps to make the player grow attached to them, and Yamai says that this mechanic is key to expressing the distance between Raidou and the demons, and a unique detail that breathes life into the game, with the voice clips and animations when using their skills also contributing.
Next, the interviewer notes that Yamai was the director of the original release 19 years ago, and asks how he feels about the remaster. He says that while Kaneko Kazuma (who was producer on the original release, and also came up with the original idea and character designs) played a big part in the original, with the remaster Yamai himself had grown older and also grown to feel that he could express the topics better, and the story rewrites were focused around this. He cites applying the idea that memories are contained not just in the brain to a certain character who transfers memories as an example, and also talks about how he tried to handle the background of the Yomi-Kugutsu and Red Capes in an urban legend kind of way.
It is next mentioned how Sugizaki only played the original version after he was assigned to Remastered’s project, and the interviewer asks for his impressions of the original. Sugizaki said he found it interesting, and that while he knew about Raidou’s character and popularity beforehand, he did not know that the game was filled with so many occult elements. He also praises the (Japanese) voice cast, saying that they surpassed what he imagined the characters’ voices to be like when he played the (unvoiced) original, pointing particularly to Rasputin being not what he expected.
The interviewer next points out that Yamai handled rewrites and writing new content in Remastered, and asks why Yamai is drawn to the occult and urban legends. Yamai says that he is not quite drawn to the occult as much as he is to the thoughts and feelings behind them. He talks about how the growing influence of the internet, social media and remote work has resulted in a shift towards them as settings for the occult as well, referring to the film “Kisaragi-eki” (2022, with the sequel “Kisaragi-eki Re:” released in 2025) which has its roots in an internet urban legend and how “Hasshaku-sama” (a yokai fabricated in a 2channel thread that went on to inspire Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil) and “kotori-bako” (a similar 2channel internet horror story about a cursed box) similarly had their roots in anonymous message board posts before being further popularized by social media, and compares how many people get excited about them together has similarities with werewolf games or escape rooms, in how people online enjoy something together in realtime.
Yamai says that the subjects of such stories tend to be things that are already scary by the time people touch them, but he is drawn to them as an extension of stories, where one can feel the thoughts and feelings in their background. He lists Origami Kyoya’s “Kanojo wa Soko ni Iru” as an example, saying that the idea of a motive hiding behind a big occult occurrence is something that he likes, and that part of VS King Abaddon was written with that sort of concept in mind. He also lists Ono Fuyumi’s “Ghost Hunt” series and Inagawa Junji’s live horror story performances as inspiration. The interviewer thinks parallels can be drawn to Raidou, and Yamai acknowledges this, saying that while the Shin Megami Tensei series is more about the drama of people being overwhelmed by the ways of the world, Raidou works more from the point of view of individuals, with stories taking place in a more compact setting, meaning the thoughts and feelings of people are given more attention.
The interviewer points out that the real-life ukiyo-e “Tamamo-no-mae” and “Shomakyo” appear in Raidou, and regarding this Yamai says that he hopes that this gives weight to the story that onmyoji, who are also known as devil summoner, existed hidden in history for a very long time. The story does not expand much about how and why Raidou was picked up by the Kuzunoha clan, but points out that one could speculate about this from how Abe-no-Seimei’s mother was said to have been a fox spirit named Kuzunoha. He also thinks one could speculate about things from how the historical figure Minamoto-no-Yorimitsu was said to have fought oni, or that the famous ukiyo-e of the mythological figure Takiyasha-hime summoning a giant skeleton could be interpreted as her being a devil summoner either rebelling against Yatagarasu or perhaps fighting against a dark summoner, and that aiding such speculation was the intent behind the use of the ukiyo-e.
Finally, the interviewer says that fans are looking forward to new Raidou content, and hoping that it will not end here. To this, Sugizaki says that the system in Remastered was revamped so that both old fans and new ones would find it easier to play, and hopes that they start with it. Yamai says that while there are currently no plans at all regarding the future, he hopes that many people will play Remastered, and looks forward to seeing reactions on social media.
