Nostalgia Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, is a role playing game developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2 and released on 2003. Shin Megami Tensei games tend to present dark themes aimed for more mature audience, and Nocturne is no different. In fact, because the game may raise some controversy over religion and philosophy, it was actually rated M for Mature.

The Story

You, the player, are The Protagonist, a common Japanese high school student on his way to meet with a couple of his friends and to visit your sick teacher in the hospital.

When you arrive at the hospital, you find your friends, but the hospital itself is mysteriously deserted. You finally locate your teacher, who tells you that she is a part of some ceremony that will end the world in order to let it be reborn again.

What happens next, is something that usually never happens in JRPG games — The end of the world actually occurs, or as it’s called in the game: The Conception.

After The Conception being set in motion, everyone outside of the hospital is killed instantly and turned into souls. Tokyo is uprooted and twisted into a spherical world known as Vortex World, which is inhabited by demons.

A mysterious young boy, plants a “Magatama” — the essence of demonic power — into the protagonist’s eye; allowing the parasite entity to merge with him, resulting in the birth of the Demi-fiend — a being with the body of a demon and the heart of a human.

The fate of the world rests on your decisions

As in most Shin Megami Tensei games, the personality of the main character is blank. He has no defined ideas or motives.

During the game, his personality develops depending on your choices and it’s your role to determine what philosophy will form the natural laws in the new world, and what will be your part in it.

You will meet different people and demons, each with its own unique style, design, story and agenda.

The main character from devil may cry, Dante, also appears in the game as a guest character (It appears that one of Atlus’ developers was a fan of the game and suggested the idea which was approved by Capcom.)

Pokémon for adults

As a newly born demon, the Protagonist can now use demon’s abilities by consuming “Magatama”, which can change his statuses and the skills he will learn by leveling up.

There are 25 different “Magatama” in the game and a large variety of possible skills to learn.

The good news is you are not fighting alone! Surviving in the new world is hard, so you’ll recruit demon to help you out. How do you get demons to join your party? You just ask them to! Whenever you fight a demon, you can choose the “Talk” command and ask them to join you. Some demons will negotiate with you first, asking for money and items, or ask you a question. Some will not like your answer or just take your money and run away, so not every recruit is successful.

You can also go to a place called “The Cathedral of Shadows” and merge two or more demons to create more powerful creatures.

Know Your Enemy

The battle system in the game is Atlus’ Press Turn system. Press Turn is a typical RPG turn based battle system, but it allows you to get more moves per turn by exploiting the enemies’ weaknesses.

Icons on the top of the screen indicate the amount of actions you can take per round. Their number is determined by the number of your party members. Performing an action will consume one icon, and when they’re all gone, the phase will switch to the other side. Whenever you perform an action the enemy is weak against, or land a critical hit, the icon will start to blink instead of disappearing, effectively giving you another action to perform this turn.

Miss or use a magic the enemy is strong against, and you’ll lose Icons, and sometimes the entire phase.

Whenever played right, you can finish battles without even giving the enemy a chance to act. Make the wrong move, and it may result in the “Game Over” screen, even if its just a simple random encounter.

This game is not easy, even if you play on Normal mode. I can guarantee that you’ll die more than once. It’s mostly all about trial and error, and coming prepared to boss battles. The game doesn’t even explain you the basic mechanics, which is ok if you’ve ever played a Shin Megami Tensei game, but may be confusing for newcomers.

Some other thoughts

Graphically the game is not one of the best on the console. However the unique design of the characters and environment is more than enough to make the game visually appealing. Each character has its own memorable design, especially the Protagonist, and some of the demons look amazingly detailed. Their design is based on mythological beings and creatures from religions and cultures all around the world.

The world itself has a post-apocalyptic feel to it, and every place differs from another.

The soundtrack in the game is incredible, with different music for each area and various tunes for battles and boss fights. Shoji Meguro, the composer, did a great job, mixing different music styles. When you hear this boss tune, you know you’re in trouble!

Unfortunately, the game has no voice over, and the only voices you’ll hear are the demons’ cry in battle. It’s not a big deal, but it would be appreciated to hear the characters talk once in a while, and not just see their lips move..

Following only the main quest, the game will take about 50 hours to finish, with 6 different endings to unlock, depending on your choices throughout the game. Play through the side quests, and you’ll easily get more than 80 hours of gameplay. Given they actually expand the story even more, there’s no reason not to finish them.

Nocturne is an excellent game, with an outstanding story, character design and challenging gameplay. It’s definitely not for everyone. But if you enjoy RPG games, and can appreciate a good story, this one is a game you must definitely try.