It took sixteen years to review Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, one of the RPGs of its era and perhaps of history as a whole, return to a playable console without cathode ray tubes or strange emulators.
At the time it took almost ten to see a sequel to the previous chapter of the saga in internal numbering. Between Shin Megami Tensei II and III passed two consoles, a spatial dimension, five or six alternate chapters and indeed several years.
The effort made at the time was almost epochal when you think about it, with Atlus managing in some way to three-dimensional impalpable atmospheres of the two previous chapters within a video game destined in its own way a write history of the genre and video games made in Japan.
Shin Megami Tensei: Night it had (incredibly by the standards of the bran) success at the time, so much so that it was also exported first to America with the same name and then later to Europe. Here he changed his face slightly, making himself adapt in different languages (without español) with the name of Shin Megami Tensei III: Lucifer’s Call.
There are three reasons today why rwe remember with love the title in question: for the beauty of the work, For the absurd difficulty of the game also to normal and to have a certain character among the playable characters Dante Alighieri (from devil may cry series direbbero i memomani).
Now let's take a nice leap forward: sixteen years have passed and, suddenly, in July 2020 during a Nintendo Direct not too interesting Atlus wakes up from numbness and throws two bombs in a row: a date for Shin Megami Tensei V (because yes, the saga continued) e Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster per Playstation 4, PC e Nintendo Switch.
Driven by the stunning success of the brand Person (here you can find the review of Persona 5 Royal, one of the pinnacles of today's JRPG), Atlus has decided to try to re-propose to his audience one of his absolute hits and today, we at WelcomeGaming.com, we will try to tell you what this game is like.
Make yourself comfortable and cast all certainty, the journey into the world of SMTIII: It's night something that is not easily forgotten.
Apocalypse, demons, religions and occultism
Like any good self-respecting Shin Megami Tensei, Nocturne also begins by leaving the player in the complete disarray.
The protagonist of the story, the player, is nothing more than an ordinary teenager, unfortunate enough to survive the so-called conception. This is nothing more than a version of the apocalypse, necessary to allow the world to avoid a situation of stasis in order to achieve a rebirth.
In this story, already in itself decidedly out of the ordinary, the player will be transformed into a half demon and, after surviving the end of the world, will find himself willy-nilly to be thetip the scales for the future of existence itself.
Yes, because in post-conception Tokyo things work weird to say the least.
The world is represented as the inner part of a sphere, the demons walk free and on the street only the souls of the dead can delight us with some tales of sadness and despair.
The world is still, however malleable, you just need to have enough Magatsuhi and a strong enough reason to paint the future as you want it.
Here the player's path stands out, puppeteer of a crazy story that mixes religion, philosophy, violence, occultism and surreality in one incredible intertwining.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, despite a very oriental writing (pass me the term) in terms of characterization and dialogue, it manages to rival in some moments with the more noble western narrative productions of the good old days, offering a raw, mature, strong and impactful story without ever falling into pomp and exaggeration.
This maybe he could time to displease the average public, made up of players looking for a new Final Fantasy.
Today this feature is an added value because the average gamer is aged, just like the developers. Any gamer tired of Japanese RPGs stuffed with fanservice should purchase Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster soon because it is deviant, a little crazy, violent and outspoken, all in spite of some too many abstractions.
Chiaki, Takao, Isamu, Hikawa, Hijiri and company singer are not charismastic characters in the classical sense that will be remembered in history for making the player fall in love. They are more than the plausible "virgils" for a journey from the hell of post-conception Tokyo to the hell of the next reality.
In all this it is important to underline how Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Hd Remaster, while not adding anything to the narrative level to the original, has perhaps the most desired addition for us Italian speakers: the española translation.
The level of this is good, with a more than interesting adaptation in most cases. The adaptation, finally, allows those who are not very familiar with English to approach all morally complicated events that intertwine along the 50 hours duration of the title. However, the longevity is slightly greater, given the presence of secondary contents and the presence of many endings, even quite different from each other.
We also gladly emphasize the presence of the possibility of switch between English and Japanese dubbing, with the first being listened to and the second being the one we recommend for the enjoyment of the gaming experience.
How many game overs are you ready for?
Okok, we understand that from a historical narrative point of view this is a title to play but, since we are at it, how to play?
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster is a Japanese RPG in shifts: no hybridization with real time, no chessboards to keep an eye on, none of this. Only precise shifts to be respected, with an incredibly interesting twist
This twist is called press turn and it is nothing more than a game system which then evolved into the design philosophy that made the Persona fortune.
The basic concept is very simple: if you hit an enemy with an attack type to which you are weak you get an extra turn, if, on the other hand, the attack is useless, a turn is lost.
This principles also apply from opponents to the player's party, which forces everyone to create a group of demons (because yes, there is no room for humans in here) balanced even in weaknesses. Each demon in the team has its own abilities, its own statistics, its own weaknesses for a melting pot of enormous complexity, dosed with skill within the duration of the game.
All of this happens while you explore dungeons urban long and articulated, often too much, characterized by a certain visual poverty (which however is perfectly part of the dungeon crawler videogame style to which SMT refers) both in third and first person.
Like its predecessors, Nocturne also makes extensive use of a whole series of mechanics that ask the player to create his group of demons and bring him to the fore.
Convince the demons to join the player's group, merge the demons together to obtain more powerful spells and abilities, study the opponents to seize their weaknesses and fight more easily are just three of the things that will be done on a daily basis within Night.
The mechanics of mergers alone requires a certain commitment from the player who will also have to respect the moon phases of Kagutsuchi to understand us.
Without a good support guide it will be difficult for many to get to the end of the game.
Here we have some good news for the player who hasn't followed the announcement or the previews.
Atlus for this re-edition we find an intelligent DLC (!!) intended for all players a little afraid of the reputation around the title: the lenient difficulty.
Anyone who has played Nocturne well knows its devastating level of difficultyI dungeons are huge, save points are scattered and far from each other, the battles are long and difficult.
There is a bossfight specification which, if played on normal difficulty, will put even more experienced players in crisis as it is bastard and complex to approach.
Nocturne is a complicated video game, one of those that nowadays would have made magazines and sites with phrases like Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is the dark souls of JRPG. This time, luckily for us it won't happen because thanks to the forgiving difficulty those who just want to enjoy history can do it.
Only note that it is a defect but in reality it is not: but why make the additional difficulty a free DLC?
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne between additions, removals and… DLC
Here, if there is anything we want to complain about in this regard is its DLC policy.
SEGA and Atlus they will essentially release Shin Megami Tensei on 21/05/2021 in two versions: normal e Digital Deluxe Edition.
The Deluxe contains the following DLC:
- Clement Difficulty (Free)
- Shin Megami Tensei Music Pack (€ 7.99)
- Pity and Expectations Map Pack (€ 6.99)
- Maniax Package (€ 9.99)
We now agree with charging separately for the column are of the game but a little less for the other two packages.
On the one hand we have pity and expectations, two DLCs for lighten the grinding and on the other we have the Maniax package who replaces the secret character Raidou Kuzunoha (originally present in SMTIII: Nocturne Maniax, a kind of revised and corrected version of Nocturne) with Dante Alighieri, the same that we could find for free in Lucifer's Call.
What's the point of including this paid content when they are literally additions to bring the game to the present day as completely as possible?
For the rest we must underline how we couldn't test the lenient difficulty because it would only be unlocked on the day the title was released.
It is legitimate to think that, as happened for Persona 4 Golden, with this difficulty, the title is actually usable by anyone and who loses some fun related to the gameplay in favor of a more relaxed enjoyment of the story.
An addition that we were able to test and that we loved is free rescue.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD allows the player to save freely to a temporary slot that can be reloaded from the main menu.
This is a clever way to simplify the enjoyment of a long game, perhaps done in parallel with others, without allowing the player to invalidate the balance through the abuse of these quick saving mechanics..
Demonic symphonies and metropolitan frescoes
Let's get to the bottom of our analysis with a few words about facelift suffered on a technical level by the title. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster it's a very visually pleasing video game, which while not shining for visual impact manages to remain imprinted in the player's memory thanks to the work done illo tempore by the Atlus art department.
Even today the settings created by Kazuma Kaneko and associates, the characters and atmospheres manage to leave their mark because they seem out of any other canon.
They are metropolitan settings much more magical than the usual enchanting forests, imbued with a reality altered in a very strong way and which are subtly disturbing.
Despite a poor visual variety è impossible not to be fascinated by the style used, capable of transmitting anxiety in an important way and forerunner of a certain feeling which then materialized in things like after hours aesthetics, backrooms, liminal space and so on and so forth.
Compared to the previous chapters of the saga in Nocturne the Cyberpunk element disappears entirely to give more space to a whole substrate of magical reality, occultism and so on and so forth. This is also reflected in the design of the demons, now more bloodthirsty and fleshy as to say; here too it is important to give several applause to Kaneko and associates, capable of drawing some of the most iconic figures of one of the most important brands for the role-playing niche of the last ten years.
The technical sector, specifically, it has been enhanced in a light but pleasant way, improving the quality of the textures and slightly increasing the number of polygons on the screen.
This preserve the atmosphere of the original which, accomplices splendid and disturbing music di Shoji Meguro which further help the immersion process, are infinitely fascinating.
Again it is important to point out that Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster it is not a traditionally Japanese role-playing game and therefore the soundtrack reflects these characteristics with many ambient songs, with noisy inserts and a hard rock theme with a desperate, almost nihilistic aftertaste.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster is a great product, a little bastardized by some funny choices in terms of additional content but that's okay. The title developed by Atlus fifteen years ago is still incredibly enjoyable, fun and profound, with a unique atmosphere and a design that is still difficult to recreate with the same skill and ability. The updated version proposed to us contains the technical improvements that could be needed, together with a softer difficulty to overcome some of the edges that remain compared to the original gameplay. Anyone who wants to enjoy a different dish than usual has just found bread for their teeth.
