For many gamers today who have
heard of Japanese videogame developer Atlus, they might say that their favorite
titles from the company are the “Persona” series. The franchise’s five main
games plus multiple spinoffs in over 20 years have seen players guide
characters supernaturally manifesting various mythological heroes, creatures
and even deities from their souls. Such is the pervading popularity of “Persona”
with the mainstream gamer community that earlier Atlus titles such as “Shin
Megami Tensei” (of which “Persona” itself is a spinoff of) are either forgotten
or relegated to portable gaming platforms instead of consoles. That changes
next year.
That is because, as Yahoo News reports, the latest
installment of Atlus’ original flagship franchise “Shin Megami Tensei” is
coming out in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch. The iconic game console developer
revealed this during their latest “Nintendo Direct mini” on Monday, July 20.
This was an online presentation of upcoming game updates from their partner
software developers. The big newsmaker of the multiple announcements during the
“Direct mini” was “Shin Megami Tensei V,” to be released on a (hybrid) console
some 17 years after the last one, “Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne” (NA-localized
version) on the PlayStation 2 in 2004.
Atlus started the “Shin Megami
Tensei” series on the Super Nintento back in 1992, as a soft franchise reboot
of the original “Megami Tensei” games on the Family Computer. The early
installments remained only in Japan, with the lack of English versions being
attributed to the dark themes and supernatural elements of the plot, mainly
involving the characters aligning with either divine or infernal factions and
portraying the light faction (including Judeo-Christian angels) as
over-controlling figures. Not until “Nocturne” on the PS2 did the franchise
reach western shores, only for the “Persona” series to steal its thunder
several years later.
Part of Nintendo’s previews
includes a teaser trailer for “Shin Megami Tensei V,” starkly contrasting in
terms of visual and audio. The trailer follows presumably the main playable
character, a seemingly ordinary high school student, living in an ordinary
world that is about to be changed forever. Franchise regular character Lucifer
himself gives a narration about how God is dead, causing Tokyo to be reduced to
a wasteland with the hero under attack by demons. Just as the fallen angel asks
(the player) what path he would choose when the Creator is gone, the hero is
rescued by a figure that resembles the main character of Nocturne, who then
cryptically offers the MC his hand.
While the simultaneous worldwide
release of “Shin Megami Tensei” on the Nintendo Switch will not be until next
year, Atlus also adds that they are releasing an HD Re-master of “Shin Megami
Tensei Nocturne,” also on the Switch as well as the PlayStation 4, coming 2020 to
Japan and the rest of the world 2021.
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