Cognition Dissemination: Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is Harder to Obtain Than It Should Be

Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is hailed as one of the best Japanese RPGs to grace the PS2 according to most who’ve played it, due to how unique and uniquely good an experience it was — even within the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. It was one of the darkest games in the genre on the market when it released, one which used those themes to create a dreadful version of Tokyo that felt like a unique hell on Earth. Additionally, its demon-capturing and summoning systems, copious labyrinthine dungeons, the tough-but-fair challenge level, and harrowing post-apocalyptic environment and story surrounding made it a memorable experience.

The development team at Atlus took the franchise and make a project that stood out compared to previous games and other RPGs that were on the market. Though it took years for it to get off the ground, its qualities helped it shine as one of the best games in Atlus’ catalog.

So, it’s so peculiar to see how difficult it is to play these days, something worth reflecting on for the 15th anniversary of its Japanese release. Nocturne was expected to be in short supply on PS2 thanks to Atlus’ niche status, especially outside Japan. It received a few reprintings, which arrived shortly after the original run and near the end of the PS2’s lifeline worldwide.

But following that time, you wouldn’t think a game with this level of acclaim would be this difficult to play. This became a problem not only when the PS2 started becoming scarce, but also when backwards-compatible PS3 models were phased out. The game was eventually released on PS3 as a PS2 Classic, but the emulation wasn’t perfect, as it suffered from framerate drops, slowdown, and crashes in specific areas. PS3 also doesn’t quality as a modern system thanks to it being out of production, and there’s no way to play the game on current systems despite the popularity of the Shin Megami Tensei brand.

The difficulty is simply due to Atlus’ business practices in a nutshell, as they aren’t the biggest fans of rereleasing games on modern consoles all the time. When they are fans of it, they’ll sometimes port it to niche systems, like they did for Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden on PSP and Vita, respectively. But they don’t always preserve them. The question being posed for Nocturne to Atlus in this post might apply more to the recent Persona games, even though it’s easier to play the aforementioned two ports thanks to them being playable on a PlayStation TV. But Nocturne is more sought out because plenty of would-be fans missed out on it the first time it released, especially outside Japan.

Honestly, I was hoping Atlus would take this anniversary as an opportunity to announce a remake of some sort. I imagined the kind of remake or enhanced port Atlus usually likes to make, with slightly enhanced graphics, voice overs, new demons, and a potential new dungeon. It could have also received some rebalancing to buff statistically underpowered demons while slightly nerfing overpowered ones, to force players to shuffle up their tactics. They could also add a new female character or demon if they wanted, something Atlus loves doing, as shown through ports like Persona 4 Golden, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, and the upcoming Catherine: Full Body.

If they felt that was too much work, a basic remaster would have sufficed. There was actually a lower chance of this happening, since the company produces these kinds of remasters even less.

Director Kazuyuki Yamai hinted that the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V for Switch will take some cues from Nocturne’s presentation in a small interview shortly after it was announced. That’s certainly the impression I received from the trailer, and the developers assuredly realized that it’s the most well-received game in the franchise — perhaps over the Shin Megami Tensei IV games. It would have been nice if they could port or remake the inspiration so we could easily play or replay it.

Heck, I just wish Atlus cared a bit more than they do about preserving their archive in general, with good emulation. Other publishers could also use this criticism, and it doesn’t help when the organizations like the Entertainment Software Association stomp their feet in protest against game preservation, sometimes against all logic. It’s odd how every entertainment industry is interested in preserving and archiving their work except for the video gaming industry, but hopefully talented outfits like those at the new Digital Eclipse can make some meaningful breakthroughs.

It’s nice that Atlus didn’t forget about Nocturne for its anniversary, along with the 14th anniversary of the enhanced release of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniacs in January (the version localized for western territories). (And if you like long names, don’t forget Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniacs -Chronicle Edition-, which came with Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon when it released in Japan.) But here’s hoping they allow us to revisit this game, and other classics in their library, soon.

P.S. Meanwhile, you can have a good time playing with Nocturne protagonist Demi-Fiend’s skin for Persona 5’s protagonist in Persona 5: Dancing Star Night. Demi-Fiend wouldn’t be the kind of person to dance like this, but then, most characters from Persona 3 and Persona 5 wouldn’t be either. Hopefully the remixes are good.