In July of last year, Japanese
game developer Atlus revealed the first trailer of “Shin Megami Tensei V,” the
latest iteration of their mainline mythology-urban fantasy RPG franchise from
which spun off their other current hit property “Persona.” Aside from the
teaser of the main character being a Tokyo high school student, no details on
the game were shared until much recently, when Atlus began releasing more
trailers covering gameplay and story over the past few weeks. As fans of “SMT”
would attest the franchise smacks of references to mythological and legendary
creatures and personages around the world. Now, the introduction of a creature
from Philippine folklore has gotten attention.
According to “Persona” games fan
news website Persona Central, Atlus
live-streamed a “news report” update on all the new info the developers have
been releasing about their upcoming RPG “Shin Megami Tensei V.” In addition to
blurbs about the principal cast of characters aside from the player-controlled
main, the report also featured at least two new supernatural creatures under
the game’s blanket terminology of “Demons.” One of them is a familiar sight to
superstitious (or movie-watching) Filipinos, but given a macabre anime design:
the Manananggal.
The Shin Megami Tensei V website's Demon page has also been updated with a couple of new demons:
— Persona Central (@Persona_Central) July 21, 2021
- Hayataro (Voice: Jouji Nakata)
- Manananggalhttps://t.co/d5rOxNS278#SMTV pic.twitter.com/HWrxdCDxYy
When seen on the official SMTwebsite (in Japanese) under the Devil menu, the manananggal is depicted as how
it traditionally looks: a woman whose upper half sprouts bat wings and
separates from its lower half at the waist, also sporting a long slim tongue
used to penetrate sleeping victims’ abdomens to suck up internal organs or
fetuses in pregnant women. The “SMT” game terminology classifies the Mananangal
as part of the “Kijou”/”Femme” class of demons, which are based on female
entities and monsters. This Manananggal appears to be a minion creature that
can be recruited by the player to fight as a party member.
This being the first blatant
example of Philippine myth being included in a distinctive Japanese videogame
franchise, the presence of the Manananggal on “Shin Megami Tensei V” has started
some excitement among Filipino gamers online. While there is some divide in
opinion on how it looks (character and demon designs by Atlus artist Masayuki
Doi), this is still something of a momentous occasion with regards to
Philippine representation in Japanese games, akin to Josie Rizal from Namco’s “Tekken
7” (2015).
“SMT V” concerns the
misadventures of the player’s high-school student after he is caught up in a
tunnel collapse on his way to school. Awakening to a desert-like
post-apocalyptic Tokyo, he is beset upon by hordes of demons until gaining
powers from a god called Aogami, becoming the hybrid “Nahobino.” Nahobino joins
forces with his surviving classmates and a secret agency called Bethel to
survive in a world whose creator has “died.” The game releases only for the
Nintendo Switch, in Japan on November 11 and worldwide the following day.
Image courtesy of Atlus
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