"Yeah, this looks like Devil Summoner bro"

Started as an SMT spinoff, but got enough recognition to become it's own thing. Think what happened to Persona but years before when you didn't need to be mainstream to be recognized

the aspect ratio

aren't the soul hackers 2 people the same ones behind tokyo mirage sessions

>the literal SOVL of Megaten that defines the series and still uses 100s of his designs per title
>"muh kaneko"

Not too much, the main thing is regular SMT will always deal with a world in which an apocalypse happens early on during it, or has already occurred, while Devil Summoner is one where the world still has the same kind of world-threatening apocalypses on the verge of happening, but demon summoners (usually your protagonist) are getting in the way of it before any major public effects happen.

you dont have full control over demons.
the majority of devil summoner games are also detective stories.
thats about it really, each entry has its own unique aspects or gameplay features so there is no absolute defining factor versus mainline smt.

yes

>Atlus can't even get Doi to do a handful of humanoid designs for the MCs so they look remotely similar to SMT or DS/SH
The director of this game doesn't want to make SMT games, he wants to make low budget vita shovelware.

Do you think Final Fantasy games can't exist without Amano doing all their art or Uematsu doing all their music?

dude muh kaneko lmao

Devil Summoner is like non-apocalypse SMT, demons slip into normal societies and devil summoners are dealing with them or enabling them. The first two games play like SMT 1 and 2 but with some almost monster raising type quirks. The Raidou Kuzunoha games share a lot of similar design features, except it's a real-time hack and slash, and you're doing detective work with demon abilities outside of fights.

They didn't have him do Devil Survivor either.

They also randomly alternate in other series on Doi vs Soejima as their artist, there's no rhyme or reason to it. They just get someone to do it, and happen to usually have those ones on hand.

No. But they could at least attempt to capture the tone and art direction of a Kaneko/Cozy Okada game, rather than running in a contradictory direction while calling it a direct sequel. If they wanted to make a wholly unique IP they should have, instead of aping on the Megaten pedigree for purely financial reasons.

Kaneko injured his hand and cant design anymore for future megaten games.