Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance has a lot of new mechanics and content compared to the original 2021 version, but one thing hasn't changed: you still can't form relationships with humans or demons in the game.
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance – 6 Things You Need to Know
The game may have some romantic-looking cutscenes or spicy camera angles, but romance has no bearing on the story, character stats, or game progression in SMT V: Vengeance. There are a few friendly smiles and hugs, but no romance mechanics as a gameplay factor. Since we're still playing through the game and don't know the full plot, any romance would likely be purely for story purposes and have no impact on gameplay. So while there may be romantic cutscenes, romance as a gameplay mechanic is not a part of the game.
The lack of such a system may surprise Persona fans, since it's a spin-off of Shin Megami Tensei and features both social and romance systems. In Persona 5 Royal, for example, you could unlock powerful perks and additional abilities for characters you romance, making these interactions worthwhile even if you don't care about the story. But none of the mainline Shin Megami Tensei titles ever featured romance as a mechanic, and Vengeance follows in that trend.
In an interview for Famitsu earlier this year, SMT developers said that they wanted Vengeance’s quests to explore characters’ relationships and motivations more deeply than the original. The addition of Yoko, for example, helps with understanding this story. But this exploration didn’t lead to any romance mechanics.
