For fans of the Shin Megami Tensei series, the wait for a new game has been as punishing as the difficulty its known for. Sure, there have been plenty of spinoffs and titles with the name attached to it, (games like Soul Hackers and the Persona series come to mind,) but the core games have been hard to come by. Thankfully, the wait will be over soon when SMT IV releases in just over a month, but with an opportunity to play it early on the E3 show floor, why not get a little demon slaying practice in ahead of time?
All of the core staples of the series seem to be returning in IV. Playing as a group of samurai, the player’s group will travel through randomly generated dungeons, fighting hoards of demons along the way if you choose to do so. The random battles are triggered in real time, so fights can easily be activated or avoided. Like many RPGs of today, attacking enemies on the map will start the battle with an advantage for the player. Let the enemies get the jump on you however? Then they’ll get the advantage instead, so you’ll want to stay on your toes.
Nine years have passed since Shin Megami Tensei III was released, changing up the formula from the first two games in the process, (which were never given an English translation, so it’s not like we noticed.) SMTIV borrows a few of its predecessor’s features, but seems to focus on the simplicity of the first two games. Like in III, dungeons are explored in third person, but battles have gone back to first person. IV trades in the flashy attacks for a more retro approach, with the bottom screen showing the team’s attack order through character portraits. As usual, each party member has their own sets of attack and magic abilities, which are used, to hurt, heel or boost stats. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but with the lack of JRPG’s worth playing as of late, does it need to?
That’s not to say that SMT IV doesn’t stand out. A party is only as good as its members, and this game literally offers hundreds of possibilities thanks to the return of the demon negotiation system. When in battle, players can give up their turn to negotiate with one of their enemies. Doing so starts a conversation with multiple answers, but only one of them will convince the demon to join your party. The other two will end the talk with a threat or insult, effectively giving up your turn and opening yourself up to an attack. You can try as many times as you want, but if you think it will be as easy as going through a process of elimination, I never saw the same conversation trigger twice, even with the same monsters. There’s no easy way out!
My time with Shin Megami Tensei IV brought back the JRPG fan in me. Games in the genre as of late have traded in strategy, difficulty and satisfaction for flashy moves and hours of cutscenes. Atlus seems to have taken the opposite route with this game, and I couldn’t be happier. While I couldn’t get a read on the difficulty with a short demo, the SMT series is known for its difficulty, so I doubt it will be a let down in that department. Gameplay wise, the demon negotiation brings in a much welcomed twist to the tried and true turn based battles that many gamers like myself grew up with, and I can’t wait to go back to my roots when SMT IV finally hits our shores.
Shin Megami Tensei IV will release exclusively on the 3DS on July 16th.