Previews
[Hands-On Preview] ‘Shin Megami Tensei V’ is Shaping Up to Be a Modern Spin on ‘Nocturne’
Shin Megami Tensei V is the latest entry in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise coming to Nintendo Switch on November 11. This series, while having a sizable fanbase, has been overshadowed by its spin-off franchise, Persona. The last fully original 3D game in the series was 2003’s Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne for the PS2, which was remastered for modern hardware back in May this year.
Sega and Atlus provided Bloody Disgusting with a hands-on preview of the opening hours of Shin Megami Tensei V, and so far, it’s a return to form that invokes the feeling and familiarity of arguably its most beloved entry, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. However, Shin Megami Tensei V also supplements that with modern gameplay mechanics, making this title one of the potential highlights of 2021.
The opening of the game mirrors Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne quite closely. The protagonist attends school and then within the first half-hour or so, Tokyo goes to hell and gets pulled into the Netherworld, an arid, sandy area littered with ruined buildings. Then you’ll meet Aogami and fuse to become a being called the Nahobino, which is a divine being that has the ability to fight off Demons, the enemies in the Netherworld.
The game utilizes the classic Press Turn battle system that the franchise is known for, and the basic fundamentals are largely unchanged. Exploiting an enemy’s elemental weakness or landing a critical hit with an attack grants you an extra turn for you and your ally Demons to act. This is true for enemies as well. Utilizing this mechanic is key to ending battles as quickly and safely as possible. But be careful, enemies can make quick work of you if they manage to chain weaknesses and extra turns themselves.
A new addition is the Magatsuhi Gauge, which is sort of like an “ultimate attack” similar to what other games have. As a battle goes on, attacking Demons slowly fills the meter up. The one ultimate skill that we had access to was called Omagatoki: Critical, which ensures that every single attack, including magical ones, inflict critical hits until the end of your turn. This ability was the perfect way to turn the tide of a battle in a pinch, or to start off a particularly tough one on a good note.
Speaking of tougher battles, you’ll come across entities called Abscess. These are huge creatures that obscure large portions of the map in certain areas. Engaging in these means you’ll have to fight some Demons slightly above your pay grade, but defeating them gets rid of the Abscess, clearing up your map.
Throughout the Netherworld, you’ll come across Leyline Fountains, which act as save points. You also fast travel between any of the Leylines you activate, so it should always be your prerogative to find the next one as you venture further out into the world.
Demon Negotiation is back, and this is a mechanic that many Persona 5 fans will be familiar with. You can talk to enemies during battle and choose dialogue options or bribe them with money or items to try and convince them to join your party. One complaint I have is that the negotiation seems too random. In many scenarios early on in this game, you don’t know whether a certain response could lead to successfully recruiting a Demon or them rejecting you.
Additionally, we came across two important NPCs, Gustave and Sophia. Gustave is a creepy, ecstatic green creature who is the game’s shopkeeper in the Cadaver’s Hallow. Sophia runs the Shadow World, where you can fuse together captured Demons into new ones or use a new feature called Apotheosis, which consists of two things: Miracles and Essences (more on that a bit later). They can be accessed any time you interact with a Leyline.
All across the Netherworld, there are hidden collectible creatures called Miman that grant you a certain amount of Glory when finding them. Glory is a currency used to purchase Miracles, which are permanent passive abilities that can help you in battle. One such example is Fell Swoop, which slightly increases the Magatsuhi Gauge when inflicting a weakness or landing a critical hit.
You can also receive Essences, which are spiritual cores that hold the power of other Demons. They have the skills and elemental affinities of specific demons, such as the Pixie, and you can fuse them with the protagonist to learn new skills and switch up their affinity. You can implement Essences into other Demons in your party to customize them as well.
One of the main criticisms I had about the Nocturne remaster was that it was a barebones port that didn’t consider modern conveniences from gameplay innovations in the nearly 20 years since its release. It didn’t even add a much-needed mini-map! Well, I’m glad to say that Shin Megami Tensei V does have one, much to my relief! It also has objective markers, which is great because, in Nocturne, it was notoriously and frustratingly easy to get lost and not know where to go next.
Another thing I want to mention is that the game is pretty challenging, even on Casual mode. While enemies are easier to deal with in this difficulty because they deal less damage, you can’t be mindless about fights. They can still wipe you out by exploiting your elemental weaknesses if you’re not careful.
It’s very reminiscent of Nocturne’s steep difficulty curve, which many series veterans are fans of. However, Atlus and Sega did note that upon launch, there will be DLC that adds an even easier difficulty mode, Safety. This one is for players who just want to experience the game’s story by presumably further making enemies easier to take down. Additionally, Shin Megami Tensei V is a standalone tale, so newcomers can feel assured knowing they don’t have to play the previous entries in the franchise to understand the plot.
The opening hours of the game are incredibly promising. It really does feel like an upgraded version of all the previous games that came before it, particularly Nocturne. It has all the hallmarks of what makes the series stand out such as its difficulty and battle system. Shin Megami Tensei V is sure to appeal to both series veterans and newcomers alike—I can’t wait to play more of it!
Shin Megami Tensei V preview code provided by the publisher.
Shin Megami Tensei V will be released on Nintendo Switch on November 12, 2021
In the past 10 years since the release of DOOM (2016), we’ve seen a surprising amount of evolution on the core concept of the series. DOOM brought the series back with a clever push-forward combat system with a glory kill system that forced you to stay in the fray. DOOM Eternal added wrinkles to the combat by giving you tools that exploited specific enemy weaknesses, while also increasing the focus on precise platforming and narrative.
DOOM: The Dark Ages slowed things down a bit without decreasing the intensity, giving you a shield that added defensive verbs to your arsenal in a way that allowed you to be even more aggressive. It’s very clear throughout all these titles that id Software is very thoughtful about the ways they try to replicate the experience of original games in a modern context.
Recently, id hosted a virtual event to show off the latest iteration of the DOOM series, Revelations, an upcoming DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages, which they promise will be a celebration of the entire series. Set after the conclusion of Dark Ages, the Doomslayer finds himself trapped in a purgatory, forcing him to rip and tear his way out of a prison of his own mind with the help of a mysterious ally. While they emphasized that this would be a narratively pivotal chapter for the story of the Doomslayer, they were keeping details under wraps, instead focusing on the level structure and combat feel of the DLC.
A More Demanding Challenge
One thing they wanted to make clear about Revelations is that they are going to be pushing the level of difficulty higher than the base game, challenging even the most seasoned series veterans. Game Director Hugo Martin wanted to emphasize that they’ve been listening to fans, so while it will be more challenging, the ramp-up of that difficulty is more gradual than in the DOOM Eternal Ancient Gods DLCs. The difficulty and accessibility sliders from the base game will all be sticking around, so you’ll be able to customize your challenge level however you want, if you find the game too punishing.
In order to prepare you to meet this challenge, they’ve introduced a new weapon, the chain spear. This can be swapped into your left hand, where you also use the shield from the base game, giving you a new suite of options for your tactical arsenal. Not only does it allow you to parry projectiles like the shield, but it also adds a grappling hook and dash to your toolkit, giving you ways to move around the battlefield quicker than before.
If you’re more comfortable with the shield, that will still be available to you, but Martin said by the end of the campaign you’ll need to be integrating the spear into your repertoire, as upgrades make it essential to your survival.
While id still wants to retain the slower, more brutal feeling of Dark Ages, they’re hoping that the spear will feel like strapping a jet engine to a monster truck, combining the best of the last two games into one violent package. It’s hard to say how this will feel without getting my hands on it, but a lot of the new skills appeared to add a dynamism to the encounters, particularly the clever-looking orbit ability that allows you to attach yourself to a monster and revolve around them, almost like an aerial version of the z-targeting lock-on from Metroid Prime.
The modern DOOM series has always been about finding just the right balance of giving you enough tools to make combat both tactical and reflex-based without making too much complexity as to overwhelm you. It looks to me like the chain spear will be a solid addition that adds exciting ways to close the distance or get around an arena, rather than forcing you to remember the utility of each weapon like DOOM Eternal did.
Six Levels and an Endgame Built for Experts
Revelations will feature six levels, including the hub, and will provide about 10 to 12 hours of content, roughly the same size as the two-part Ancient Gods DLC from Eternal. As Martin explained it, this will be divided between the main campaign and the endgame content, with the main campaign taking up about 60% of the overall runtime. After completing the main campaign missions, you’ll be given access to a wide variety of challenges that will continue to increase in difficulty until you unlock what Martin called the Uberboss. I’m curious to see how substantial this endgame content feels, as it sounds like it will take you on new paths through the previous levels rather than providing completely new content, but id seems confident that the challenge and spectacle of these encounters are going to be worth it.
The team said that exploration is going to be one of the highlights of the DLC, which is a fun prospect for me. The best DOOM levels are the ones that are littered with satisfying secrets, and they’ve promised Revelations will be full of them, including hidden recreations of classic levels. After hearing fan feedback for DOOM: The Dark Ages, they decided not to mark these secrets on the map, allowing you the satisfaction of finding them yourself. Every level is designed to be fairly maze-like, requiring you to retrace your steps as the campaign goes on.
There’s even the promise of Metroidvania-like exploration in the hub level, opening up more and more of the space as you gain abilities. The dragon and the mech will not be showing up in the DLC, but leaving them behind feels like a good decision to me, as they exhausted those gimmicks in the base game.
Smarter Enemies, Tougher Fights
Over the course of the presentation, they showed off a few more enemy options that are being added into the mix. In addition to an all-new Wizard enemy type, there are variants of enemies seen in the base game featuring new behaviors that change up the encounters in meaningful ways. Importantly, they said that there would be a focus on giving more enemies evasive AI, pulling you around the arena space to keep you from hunkering down in one place. DOOM has always been a fast-paced game of tactical chess, requiring you to scan the battlefield and prioritize the various targets, so hopefully adding more enemy behaviors to the mix will make for a fun way to add challenge to their already challenging combat.
In addition to the difficult endgame, id is releasing a 3.0 version of the Ripatorium, the customizable endless mode that was seen in the Dark Ages. This will add new maps, new levels, and deeper customization to the fan-favorite mode, allowing you to run through some particularly diabolical encounters. While I personally would prefer more focus on the main campaign of the game, it seems they are trying to cater to people who want more ways to push the challenge of the series as far as they can, and Ripatorium 3.0 looks like the culmination of that effort.
Final Verdict
The DOOM series is so much about how it feels in the hands, and while I didn’t get to experience that, they closed the presentation with a combat sizzle reel that looked like an exciting evolution of Dark Ages, a game that I thought felt great to play. The new grapple function of the spear allowed the arenas to have a bit more verticality than those found in the base game, and the visual design of the enemies remained consistently readable, allowing you to understand the encounter at a glance. The orbit ability in particular looked fun as hell, allowing you to dynamically move around the environment while still staying focused on offense. It’s looking extremely promising, but it’s impossible to judge until I get to play it myself.
After experimenting with the formula for over the last decade, id is hoping that Revelations is the culmination of the series from both a mechanical and narrative standpoint. They closed by saying that Revelations is to The Dark Ages what DOOM Eternal was to DOOM (2016), which is both exciting and worrying for me. In my mind, there’s a dial they’ve been tuning over the course of this reboot series. The dial felt perfect in DOOM, then turned too far up for me with Eternal, before reaching a great point with The Dark Ages, though not quite as perfect as where it started.
Time will tell where it lands on this spectrum, but the new chain spear seems like it’s going to be just as welcome an addition as the shield was in The Dark Ages. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait too long to find out.
DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations will be available for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and the PC via Steam on July 7.
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