A Recreation and a New Creation for Shin Megami Tensei

Nintendo confirmed that a Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase was coming a mere ten hours before it was to premier Sunday night. The short notice was initially surprising, but only if you remembered how they’ve never announced Nintendo Direct Mini installments previously before dropping them. (I forgot this at first.) As more fans remembered this, the hype machine started tuning into overdrive.

Everyone carefully read the “Partner Showcase” part and realized that no first-party games would be shown, and that Nintendo would only be showing previously-announced games. But it didn’t even take an hour for third-party games like Bayonetta 3 and Shin Megami Tensei V to start trending on Twitter, two of the most popular upcoming third-party games coming to Switch. Fortunately, one of those games actually did surface.

The eight-minute showcase didn’t allow for them to show many games. Cadence of Hyrule will receive DLC in late October, and a physical release on October 23rd. Third-person multiplayer shooter Rogue Company was showcased for Switch, which the team teased on Twitter Sunday night. The Early Access version is now available on the system, along with the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Epic Games Store versions. The arcade-style WWE 2K Battlegrounds and its… peculiar art style is coming to Switch alongside every other current platform this fall.

The two big announcements were saved for last. All the Twitter users who posted collages showing how good Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne still looks over the years (particularly through a PlayStation 2 emulator) did some good: Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster is coming to Switch (and PS4). The aesthetics are being remastered for HD resolutions to ensure that it will at least look just as good as in those aforementioned collages, and with a widescreen resolution this time. This version will also have voice acting, though I’d be surprised if there wasn’t an option to turn it off to experience it like the PS2 version.

There’s no word on whether this version will have new content over the previous updated Maniax and the Japan-only Maniax Cronicle versions that themselves contained additional content over the original version. Outside, that is, an easier “Merciful” difficulty mode and voicework. The trailer, however, confirms that the Maniax Chronicle version will be used as a base, showing that Raidou Kuzunoha from the Devil Summoner series will be the bonus character. Sorry to everyone who instantly made a “Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry™ Series!” joke.

SMTIII was the first game in the main Megaten franchise to receive a localization for western territories, and was a breath of fresh air in a sea of similar-looking Japanese RPGs on PS2. (These days, plenty of genre fans miss the time when consoles had a sea of JRPGs, proof that you sometimes never know how good you have it.) SMTIII is one of my personal favorite JRPGs and one of my favorite PS2 games, and it will be a treat to experience it again.

The SMTIII remaster will release in Japan first on October 29th, just before Halloween, and will arrive in western territories in spring 2021. The Japanese trailer, by the way, is two minutes longer than the western one, and Atlus plans to stream more gameplay for Japan this Thursday. They might clarify whether this version will have new content during the stream.

The announcement of the SMTIII remaster led to the resurfacing of Shin Megami Tensei V, shown for the first time since October 2017. The game looks largely identical to the prior preview, though with a much better look at the main character and his very unique flower-patterned uniform. The close-up also shows just how good this game will look graphically. Like every mainline Megaten game (and, let’s be honest, reality lately), chaos grips its world with demons taking over Tokyo. The trailer implies that the main character will make a pact with a demon, though whether he’ll become a kind of half-demon like SMTIII’s Demi-Fiend and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse protagonist Nanashi remains to be seen. This tends to happen often in the franchise.

The trailer’s short length and lack of gameplay means the game is still a little while off, though at least we received a somewhat solid release timeframe. SMTV is due to arrive sometime in 2021 exclusively for Switch, and is planned to be the first game in the franchise that will launch worldwide simultaneously. In the meantime, the SMTIII remaster will hold fans off. The game’s development cycle has been long considering this game was first announced on the Switch software showcase in January 2017. But along with Team Maniax adjusting to HD console work (they’d been doing nothing but handheld games for the last several years), the chance of the COVID-19 pandemic interfering with game development is high. Remember that Japan doesn’t have much of a work-from-home culture.

The SMTIII remaster will take marketing priority in the near future, but SMTV shouldn’t be a stranger from here on. Hopefully we’ll see more soon.

The Nintendo Direct Mini didn’t deliver for anyone who had their expectations too high, but as someone who’s a big Megaten and Atlus fan despite their occasional missteps, the Shin Megami Tensei announcements alone made this worth it. Nintendo implied that the next Partner Showcase Mini is coming soon, so keep an eye out.