Devils May Cry when Dante Enters the World of “Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne”

by Louis Bedigian

“There are over 100 demons you can persuade into your party each with their own special skills and magic.”

It started like any other night.  (Kind of like that upcoming Tom Cruise movie, but with Tom Cruise and his artificial gray hair.)  Everything seemed normal.  Then suddenly you find yourself trapped in a world that has been nearly annihilated by a global catastrophe called the Conception.  And all this time I thought that conception was how life started!

So goes the story of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, a role-playing game with a dark storyline.

You won’t see a bunch of happy, high-pitched bunny children save the day in this one.  The Lifestream won’t be there to help either.

The Nocturne version of the game is based on the special edition director’s cut.  Will any changes be made?  Will the violence be reduced to conform to the norm?  We asked Atlus’s marketing manager, Gail Salamanca, who told us: “The game will remain unchanged from the Japanese version.”

Feeling at ease now that we know the game will not be altered, we decided to throw a few more questions at Gail, hoping to unearth more deadly details about the game.

The Shin Megami Tensei series is new to game markets outside of Japan.  Give us a little history on the series, and tell us why you've decided to bring the third game to the States.

Gail Salamanca: The Shin Megami Tensei series started out on the Super Famicom (SNES) which were recently remade on the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance.  Since then there have been numerous spin-offs such as the Devil Summoner, Devil Children (also known as DemiKids) and the Persona series which we localized for the PlayStation.  Altogether the series has sold well over 4 million copies.

Racking up points with pixel-perfect attacks.

At first glance the most striking thing about the game is its artistic style.  What was it derived from?  Who or what was the source of inspiration?

GS: Kazuma Kaneko is the man responsible for most of the character designs in most of the games in the Shin Megami Tensei series and its spin-offs, including the upcoming SMT: Digital Devil Saga.  As for where it was derived from and what was the source of his inspiration I think that’s best left for the artist to answer.

I hear that the star of Devil May Cry is featured in the game.  How did this come to be?  Is there an unknown story connection to both series?

GS: The following was taken from an interview from Kozy Okada at TGS 2003:

“One of the staff members, who happened to be a big fan of the DMC series, came up with the idea of including “Dante” from Capcom’s in an upcoming “SMT” game.  At first I thought it was a crazy idea, but realized that Dante is a “devil hunter” and this might actually work out and presented the “Nocturne” game concept to Capcom. 

“Before we presented the idea, we created a movie with Dante in it, so that Capcom would have a better understanding of how we would like to incorporate Dante in our game.  The movie is the scene where Dante jumps off of a building and lands behind the main character with guns drawn.  We used strategy guides and other reference materials to create the movie. It turned out great and we were confident that Capcom would like it.  Just as we thought, they loved it and the rest is history.”

Ready to take on the devil-slaying master?

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne has a great feature that allows players to persuade demons to join their party.  Tell us more!

GS: The “persuade” feature has been present in almost all of the Shin Megami Tensei games and its spin-offs with the exception of the upcoming SMT: Digital Devil Saga.  In Nocturne, the main character and some of your support demons that you recruit have the ability to talk to the demons.  Also, some demons have special “negotiating” skills such as “haggle” and “seduce” which can be good in certain situations with certain demons.  Technically, there are over 100 demons you can persuade into your party each with their own special skills and magic.  You can also fuse different demons together to create a more powerful version of that demon or a completely new one.

Can you play as Dante?

GS: Yes, you can eventually get the son of Sparda to join your party.

If you fail to persuade a demon, or decide not to, will a battle ensue?

GS: You don’t even have to initiate a conversation; sometimes demons will talk to you if they want a particular item or just want to be your friend.  But, if you fail to persuade them into your party, one of three things can happen:  A) They’ll fight you.  B) The demon will run away. C) They’ll give you an item or money.

If you attempt to fight me evil horse, I will cut you off your hooves!

Head, I mean head!  I will cut off your head!

What does the Magatama customization system involve?

GS: Magatama are basically parasites which the main character equips (only 1 at a time) and will give the main character different stat boosts as well as different strengths and weaknesses against different spells and attacks.  Also, each Magatama come with their own different spells and skill sets that you can acquire once you reach certain levels.  However, you can only have 8 of those spells or skills at a time (which you keep regardless of what Magatama you have equipped), so once you’ve maxed out you’ll have to choose which skill or spell to drop in order to add a new skill or spell. You can acquire new Magatama from shops, defeating bosses and certain side quests.

Over the course of this 50-hour game, what is it that players will primarily be doing?

GS: In this mammoth game, you’ll be doing a lot of demon negotiating, dungeon exploring, demon fusing, character customizing, side-questing, enjoying 2 hours worth of storyline driven by the game’s in-game engine and most importantly… having fun!

Thank you for your time.