I've never seen an SMT route as amazing as Akira's route, and likely never will again. Play SMT: If, beat it, and when you do a NG+ you can unlock Akira's route. Whereas the normal game had several different areas to beat in a regular storyline, Akira's route is just you and Akira going through a completely unique giant dungeon while being taunted by the antagonist, with completely new bosses not seen in the original routes, who will each actually put up a decent fight. You'll never see such completely separate routes nowadays in SMT games.