This Ain’t Your Dad’s Pokemon
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was first released in North America on October 12th, 2004. However, this version was not the original version. By that point, Nocturne had been available in Japan for almost two years, as their street date was February 20th, 2003. North America received a slightly updated version of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (from this point on referred to as just Nocturne). The equivalent version to this in Japan would be the “Maniax” version.
In this Maniax version, some cut content was added back in, alongside some extra features. This includes a completely new ending obtainable after completing an additional dungeon. The most memorable change in this version overshadows this though; the addition of Dante from the Devil May Cry series. For Maniax, Dante replaces all instances of Raidou Kuzunoha, although they largely serve the same role in the game.
Regardless of the version you play, you’ll be exploring the Vortex World with your companions of demons throughout the course of the game. During this time, you’ll learn about the ideologies that the various characters you meet hold, and what they would do if given the chance to remake the world in the way they deem “correct”.
Satanic Panic
Now if that last bit was a surprise, I’ll attempt to give some background as to what exactly the Shin Megami Tensei series is. Most games alter the gameplay formula at least a little bit, but quite a lot remains the same between entries.
First and foremost, the main appeal of the SMT series is the ability to recruit various creatures and deities from a large swathe of religions. In this game, regardless of the historical or cultural background, these companions are called “demons”.
Each demon possesses innate strengths and weaknesses to different types of skills. Some demons are better suited to wind skills while others are better for buffing or debuffing other demons. It’s a unique spin on the typical roles in a JPRG mixed with the type matchups of Pokemon.
Speaking of Pokemon, you may be old enough to remember the moral panic that swept the United States called “satanic panic” that was largely the focus of mass media between the 1980s and late 1990s. In fact, Pokemon was one of the franchises to receive a lot of criticism for its gameplay and premise. Dungeons & Dragons also received a lot of heat for its ability to allow players to interact in a fantasy world where they could wield dark powers and do whatever their heart desired.
Having played a couple Shin Megami Tensei titles at this point, it probably was very smart to not localize this series until Nocturne. If it had released any earlier, the reception would have likely convinced Atlus that further localization should be avoided to not garner outrage from anyone. If Pokemon’s main focus of garnering friendship between colorful creatures and attempting to improve oneself warranted that much outrage, a game about literally recruiting and fusing demons would have had people calling for outlawing of Atlus games.
Differences from SMT V
Having began my journey through the SMT series with the very latest entry, at times I did find myself missing some of the more streamlined mechanics and reduced tedium that a newer game in the franchise could provide. On the other hand, as my play time increased, and my familiarity with the game improved, I also began to realize just how many unique mechanics Nocturne had that SMT V didn’t.
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A common mechanic that has been present in every SMT game I’ve played thus far is the inclusion of a meter that tracks the current moon phase. There are 9 phases the moon transitions between, which advance steadily as you navigate areas within the game. The Moon phases begins with a New Moon (0/8), working up to a Half Moon (4/8), peaking at a Full Moon (8/8), and then reversing the phases until a New Moon is reached once again.
I was aware of this mechanic in SMT V, but in all honesty there was practically no reason for me to care about what state the moon was in during any segment of my playthrough. I knew that there were certain effects that specific Moon phases had on a couple of things, like making certain demon negotiations easier, but I never really took advantage of that mechanic in the game.
In contrast, while playing Nocturne I was almost constantly aware of what my current Moon Phase was and whether it was ascending or descending in its cycle. Not only do demon negotiations improve during a Full Moon, but conversation with certain types of demons aren’t even possible unless it is the correct Moon. While initially awkward to incorporate into my planning, I began to get a feeling of satisfaction whenever I was able to utilize it to my advantage. It honestly made me rethink my experience with moon phases in SMT V, and how it could have added another layer to the experience. Unfortunately, not every additional layer of mechanics was appreciated during my Nocturne playthrough.
How do I get to that screen again?
A big initial hurdle to me enjoying this game was internalizing the individual menus in the game and how to find the information I was looking for. Stat menus for party members had a dedicated screen, and there was only one specific option within the menu to view those stats. While this screen listed both stats and moves, if you needed to recall what a particular move did, you would be forced to yet again back out of the menus and select an entirely separate option.
If you’re familiar with how most JRPG party screens are laid out these days, one would expect to see a button within the stats screen to navigate the skills. This is a luxury Nocturne lacks. In addition to the clunky party UI, there were several other menus that seemed to either not present every piece of information I would hope to see there, or that entire menu options were effectively redundant.
The most glaring of redundant menus was within healing rooms, where an NPC can restore your party’s HP and Magic for a price. In this room, there is an additional menu option to specifically revive fallen party members. I did not select this option at all during my entire playthrough, as the default healing option revived downed party members anyway. Whether this convenience was included as part of the HD Remaster or if it was always that way I’m unsure. I’ve learned since finishing my playthrough of Nocturne that quite a bit of this game came together in a very short window of time, so I’m fine with giving a pass to this shortcoming of the game. This is a lot easier for me to do when there are points in the game that definitely should have gotten more attention in the design department.
Grab Your Pen and Graph Paper
While Nocturne is certainly more modern than a lot of the older titles Atlus has released for the series, it honestly shares a lot more with those older titles than it does with its newer ones. The most obvious form this takes is in the labyrinthine locations that will occupy a majority of your playthrough. Early dungeons do not lean into this design heavily, but by the end you should not feel ashamed for pulling out a pencil and some graph paper to take notes on where you’ve been and what mechanics the dungeon is trying to teach you.
The biggest shock to me was learning that although I began to hate these types of dungeons towards the end, earlier entries for SMT were even worse. While I consider the combat of SMT games to be the primary reason I enjoy playing them, that enjoyment quickly waned after nearly a hundred encounters in the same dungeon due to a combination of backtracking and re-entering to stock up and heal before the push to the boss. I get that a game needs to sometimes leverage less than ideal game design to guarantee extra playtime or allow for optimal leveling, but it felt like that became the default goal of every late game dungeon.
Without this additional padding and an easier way to earn experience, this game might honestly be a dozen or more hours shorter. I know that a specific goal of playing JRPGs is a slowly building story with lots of developments, but I also believe a game whose mechanics and experience are tighter from start to finish can be as equally important. Ultimately, were it not for the ability to play this game on modern hardware with some additional quality of life changes, I might never had gotten around to playing this absolute gem of a game.
The Importance of Preservation
An interesting part about growing older in the gaming space is seeing games you praised during your childhood receives middling sequels, brand bait with zero substance, and eventually independent derivative works that recapture the spark the original possessed. Rarely, you get to see a long lost game re-enter the modern gaming landscape directly from its creators in the form of a remake or remaster.
In Nocturne’s case, it received an “HD Remaster” in 2021; this is the version I played, and as such my biases formed based upon it. For the most part, it is a faithful port of the “Maniax” version with some slight alterations. For people who knew about Nocturne’s difficulty but still wanted to experience the story, Atlus introduced a “Merciful” difficulty setting. There even was DLC offered to replace appearances of Dante with Raidou, allowing players to experienced a mixed version of the original game and the Maniax edition. Unfortunately, it was past this point in the revisions that most people began to take issue with this port of the game.
When people saw the title included the words “HD Remaster”, it left much to interpretation as to how much was made “HD” in the game. As people got a chance to play it, the extent of the improvements were quickly realized. The game itself was capable of running at much higher resolutions than before. The cutscenes, however, were a different story. To my untrained eye, they were effectively unaltered, playing at the same resolution that someone first experiencing this game in 2004 would have. The audio had an unfortunately similar story. Battle themes sounded like the result of recording a song off the radio to use as your ringtone. Not all was lost though, as fans were to mitigate these issues for the PC release. Mods to upscale the cutscenes and mods to add higher quality music allowed for some of these problems to be remedied.
While this rectifies some of the more glaring issues with the HD Remaster, it cannot affect the versions of the remaster released for the PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch. Those versions will be forever marred by the horribly compressed music and rough cutscenes until those consoles are eventually deemed obsolete, and their digital stores closed. To cap off what can only be described as a minimal effort cash grab capitalizing on the release of SMT V, the HD Remaster of Nocturne is listed on the previously mentioned digital storefronts for $50 USD when not on sale.
Overall, the HD Remaster occupies a weird space in the franchise, with it obviously being an overpriced product of its time, while offering minimal enhancements to justify the cost. Some additional changes were released after the launch of the remaster, the most important of which adds the ability to directly control Skills inherited when performing Demon fusion. There are additional changes beyond that, but nothing as significant in my opinion.
In my personal opinion, the HD remaster is still the best way to easily experience this JRPG classic. If possible, try to wait for a sale that makes the price much more bearable, and gives you the chance to purchase some of the extra goodies offered through the DLC. If you can’t wait that long, then by all means head on down to a retro gaming shop and see if you can’t find the game there.
What’s Next
My journey through the Shin Megami Tensei series is still largely in its infancy, with only two games completely finished. With so many left to try, the choice of what to play next was honestly quite difficult. I decided that my next couple games should dabble in the handheld options available, so my next challenge will be playing through Strange Journey Redux, shortly followed by SMT IV. I know next to nothing about Strange Journey or the Redux version that the 3DS received besides that it is more science-fiction based. That alone has me very motivated to find out just why it’s one that is highly recommended by people in the community.