Reviews: I fuse you, Pikachu!
It’s been argued that since Final Fantasy VII came along and re-wrote the book on how an RPG tells a story, the genre has become more cinematic and less gameplay-centric. To an extent, this is the truth, as many role-players use cutscenes and voice acting to tell the story now rather than endless text and countless conversations with NPC’s just to figure out where to go next. Those who yearn for these types of RPG’s? Look this way, at Atlus’ latest product - Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. While not completely old-school, Nocturne has a legitimately old-fashioned vibe going, mixed in with new-era stylings in the visual and storyline department. It’s also the most challenging RPG of the past few years, with even basic random encounters putting your party at risk. Though some perhaps will roll their eyes at the Pokemon-esque Fusion system, SMT: Nocturne will win over many for its challenging, unique gameplay and unusual (yet fairly intelligent) storyline. It will not appeal to everyone, but old-school RPG fans who swear RPG’s changed for the worst 7 years ago will be quite pleased.
Most role-playing games base themselves around saving the world, universe, or maybe a Winnebago, but Nocturne goes a different route, that being the world is actually destroyed within the first 20 minutes or so of playtime. The main character, who you have to name yourself, is meeting up with a teacher at a hospital in Shibuya, Japan. It turns out this teacher is part of a cult that’s going to bring the Conception, an act that destroys the entire world, wiping out all life, and prepares it for a whole new rebirth. It’s a bit…alarming, really. When all this happens, the main character is transformed into a demon instead of dying, one with incredible powers at that. So, with the world already destroyed, what’s a newly-transformed Demon to do? Wield his influence to shape the reborn world, of course. This becomes the basis of the remainder of the game; traveling through the world, figuring out your path and which world you’d like to see brought to life. The whole thing is very dark, rather intelligent, and at times, pretty alarming, and maintains a very old-school feel in that the story is forwarded through NPC conversation rather than cutscenes explaining what’s next. Since the story branches off in different ways depending your actions and responses to certain questions, you’ll be doing a lot of NPC conversing on your way through. There’s also a great deal of religious undertones, so if you’re disturbed by this, I suggest you find another game to play or you may be offended by some of it.
While it’s one of the reasons I’m not totally head-over-heels for Nocturne, the game offers a very unique way of managing the party system. Aside from one particular character from a certain Capcom game that I’ll leave up to you to figure out (or just look on the back of the box), there are no actual ‘characters’ that join your party. Instead, you have to recruit your enemies. Yes, that’s correct, enemies. It’s not quite as bad as it sounds, since many enemies will actually beg you to allow them into your party, but you can recruit them by offering items, Macca (currency in Nocturne) and whatnot to win them to your side. But in many cases, these demon friends are temporary, since you must spend a lot of time fusing them to create stronger enemies (though if you leave some alone, they’ll actually evolve on their own). As the main character levels, he becomes strong enough to control more and more powerful demon companions (as in, some cannot be fused until you’re good and ready, or in real terms, until you’re at a comparable level to that fusion), and thus can visit a Cathedral of Shadows and perform said fusions with two different species – and when the time is right and the ‘moon’ is full (the Kagutsuchi is what it’s called, and actually is a major mechanic of gameplay) you can sacrifice a 3rd demon for the creation of a stronger companion, at the exchange of the risk of the fusion failing. The concept is quite fun and addictive, though it’s just Pokemon Apocalypse if you’re really going to be cynical. It’s all done at the expense of character development since these demons are mix and match enemies that have no real ‘purpose’, which is a downer especially in the light of the fact that the main character also has no personality, but it didn’t turn out quite as bad as I feared it might. If you’re a real hardcore fan of the Nippon Ichi strategy games that have been big hits lately, this may be right up your alley – but don’t expect to find a Prier amongst the bunch.
