Old Fashioned RPG With a Twist: The MegaTen Series Hits American Shores
User Rating: 7.8 | Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne PS2
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is the first proper title in the series to make it to US shores. For those not in the know, Shin Megami Tensei (often referred to as MegaTen) is a collection of games that has been around since the days of the Super Nintendo. Though they often star completely unique game worlds, they tend to share similar themes and art design. We got a touch of the series on the Playstation earlier with Persona and Persona 2 (which have more in common with the recently released Digital Devil Saga), but Nocturne is a more traditional entry of the original series. For old-school RPG fans looking for something old-fashioned but still unique, there’s a lot to like about Nocturne’s dungeon crawling and character building. The game concept is simple yet decidedly unique: The world (at least the world around Tokyo) ends so that a new world can begin. Very few humans survive the end of the previous world, and you play the role of one of them, and you just happened to have been transformed into a half demon. Now, the remaining humans are left in the desolate, inside out remains of Tokyo to decide the direction of a new world which will be born of the old. As you progress through the game, you must decide what kind of new world you’ll be fighting for, and defeat those whose plans contradict your own. While the game is mostly linear with a number of optional dungeons, the choices you make throughout the game determine what kind of world you’re fighting for. In all, it’s not your standard RPG tale, and while the story isn’t told masterfully, its originality makes up for a lot of slow storytelling. The game itself plays like a cross between an old fashioned dungeon crawler and Pokemon. You retain control of your main character and have total control over which stats he develops, but for the rest of your party you must recruit demons you battle on the way. Instead of just trapping them in a ball, though, you must actually speak with them and convince them that your cause – or your power – is strong enough to get behind. After getting a demon to join you, they gain experience as you would, though at a slower rate. As they level up they gain new spells and abilities, but to keep your allies on a comparable level you must often fuse them together into new or stronger demons. The combat is a rather simple turned based affair with a couple of strategic twists. Just like the Final Fantasies of old, all characters have elemental strengths and weaknesses. It’s to your benefit to exploit these weaknesses not only because it makes your attacks more potent, but also because hitting an enemy’s weakness or making a critical hit can increase the number of turns you have in combat. You can also pass your turn with an ally to give another character the chance to go again. Although these elements are nothing dramatically new, they add a lot of depth to an otherwise standard turn based RPG combat engine. The locations themselves are similar: old-fashioned, but with a twist. You traverse from location to location via a minimalist overworld map, and all of the locations – even towns – are infested by monsters. Most of your time will be spent in dungeons, which run the gamut from boring to interesting. Many of the levels are simple corridor crawls, though as the game progresses the designers at least added some variety in traps, puzzles, and bosses to the assortment of levels. Make no mistake, though, you will get sick of hallways as you play the game. Graphically, the game is a love-it-or-hate-it-affair. While the corridors do get old after a while and the environments can feel a bit empty, the game definitely has its own artistic direction and it’s very pronounced in the characters and enemies. Character designs can be truly bizarre, from elephant swordsmen to paper demons to four armed warrior princesses who are on fire. The game uses a pseudo-cell shaded effect to better represent the original character designs and surreal game world. Spell effects and character animation are all pretty standard, though plentiful in variety. The graphics may not make you stand up and take note, but they are unique enough so that you’ll never forget the game’s one of a kind look. In terms of sound, the game is rather forgettable. There is pretty much no voice acting to speak of, though the wide variety of demons have their own grunts, yells, and otherworldly noises. The music is somber but electric and fits the neon-goth like feel of the game well, but despite all the different battle themes and dungeon melodies, there’s nothing here that’s going to make you want a soundtrack. One element worth noting, though, is that a couple of the boss themes seem to have indiscernible vocal tracks that were done with the “underwater” voice from Apple’s old SimpleSpeech. Weird. When all is said and done, you will probably spend over 40 hours questing through Nocturne’s unforgettable, though often traditional, RPG world. The game breaks many RPG conventions, but its battle system and character development system all play rather traditionally. The game even seems a bit longer in the tooth than it should be (not helped at all by some horrifically long load times before battles, which can be as long as six seconds). It’s not overly difficult and even supplies some ingenious battles, but it may wear out its welcome to all but the RPG enthusiast. For those who know what they’re getting into, though, Shin Megami Tensei is worth their time.
