4cr Preview – Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

We’ve been long-overdue for a new entry in the proper Shin Megami Tensei series. The Persona games are incredible, and even the spin-offs like Devil Survivor have been fun, but it has been a while since the release of the last core Shin Megami Tensei game. The latest DS title, Strange Journey, may carry a subtitle, but it truly is Shin Megami Tensei 4.

Sure, the developers can call it whatever they want, but Strange Journey completely deserves that legacy. The science-fiction setting may be new, but it’s a coat of paint over what is unmistakably a grand ol’ dungeon crawler. Strange Journey is a return to form that melds the challenging gameplay of a rouge-like with a noteworthy storyline and dialogue.

Atlus gave us a demo of the game this morning, and I left feeling pretty impressed. Want to know the details? Read on, space cowboy.

Strange Journey is set in the near-future of our own Earth. The current state of affairs is, for the most part, similar to our own. The key difference? A massive void has opened up in the sky, and it’s growing bigger every day. The government, aware of the growing threat, sends in their own probes only to find out that things are even worse than they seem. A demon invasion is impending, and you’ve been sent in as part of a team tasked with dealing with this threat. You’re a stranger in a strange land, with only your DEMONICA – I have no idea what the acronym stands for – suit between you and a host of demons.

The latest Shin Megami Tensei game is a good old-fashioned first-person dungeon crawl, a big step back to the series’ roots. The core engine is based on the same one used in the Etrian Odyssey (which is a great game, if you’re at all curious about the genre), so there are some definite similarities between the games. You’ll explore a fairly detailed three-dimensional world on the top screen, guided by a map on the bottom screen. You can move the map around with your stylus, but you unfortunately can’t doodle notes on it.

Once you shift into a battle, the view switches from 3D environments to 2D sprite-work. I’m not the raging fan of DS 3D that some of our staff members are, but the game does look great. The levels that you explore are surprisingly atmospheric and the 2D artwork is, as I expected from this series, both creepy and attractive.

The area that we got to see during today’s demo was called Antlia. You’ll be sent into this city early in the game to find some sort of energy source to repair your ship. Antlia is a ruined industrial area, full of what looks like broken down factories. Snow pours down the entire time, which provides a nice contrast to the bright red sky in the background. Unlike some dungeon crawlers, all of the maps and environments are preset. Some players will probably cry foul at this, but it enables Strange Journey to take another step away from the norm – the game is extremely plot-heavy for a dungeon crawler. Your mission-log will be stuffed with quests, both with tasks that push the storyline forward and subquests that you can find by stepping off of the beaten path. Dialogue is incredibly important, and not just in the sense that dialogue is a delivery option for the plot. Your choices and actions will shift your alignment along a spectrum between chaotic and lawful. Dialogue is even important during battle, where you can attempt to negotiate a truce with an attacking demon.

You’ll have to negotiate to survive, as your character will be thrown into the demonic void alone. By winning negotiation, that creature will join your army. You can only have three demons in your party at any time, so you’ll want to choose carefully. Each demon has their own alignment, as well as element-based strengths and weaknesses. Pay close attention to those alignments. If one of your demons uses an elemental move that is super-effective against an enemy, all party members of the same alignment as the attacking character will immediately initiate a bonus melee attack against the enemy (this is called a “demon co-op” move). As you fight the same types of demons over and over, you’ll learn more about them, and you’ll be able to defeat them more easily. An analysis bar slowly fills, and at certain thresholds, it’ll tell you about the enemy demon’s HP, weaknesses, and attacks. That same analysis will also make negotiation easier. There are over three-hundred demons in the game to collect, and by generating a password, you can trade them with your friends. There are actually a few demons that are only accessible via password, and Atlus has some cool ideas for how to get those codes out to the public.

Of course, you aren’t completely helpless. You’ll have your DEMONICA suit, your guns, and items to keep you on your feet. Items come in two forms – expendables and forma. Expendables are your standard RPG items, things that will give you some health back or a temporary buff. One thing to keep in mind is that your human character is the only one that can use these items. Demons have to use their own abilities for the same kind of effects. Forma are relics that are hidden around the map (or dropped by powerful demons). You can take forma back to your ship and exchange them for powerful upgrades. These relics provide a pretty good incentive to actually search every corner of the map.

Your human character gains offensive and defensive capabilities from their gun and their suit, both of which are upgradable. Your gun comes with different elemental attacks, things like lightning or ice beams. Your suit can be upgraded with “apps,” programs that will come in handy while out in the void. Some of these include a proximity alert (tells you if enemies are nearby), forma search (tells you if forma are hidden nearby), and a utility to open locked doors. In addition to the permanent apps, you also have ten slots for “subapps.” These utilities will do things like restore health and energy, and some take up multiple slots. Like with forma, you’ll really have to go and explore each area to stumble across them.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey looks like it’ll be a great, meaty dungeon crawler that addresses my main beef with the genre – awful or non-existant storylines. The dialogue is great, and I love that your choices actually carry consequences. I totally dig the concept of growing your party by actually negotiating with the demons. The battles are challenging and exciting, and the wealth of hidden relics and abilities make the exploration side of the game worthwhile. Plus, there seems to be a lot of game here for a portable. The developers promise thirty to forty hours of gameplay, far more if you’re serious about collecting everything. Fans of dungeon crawling (and really, just about any RPG fan) should be all over this game when it hits stores in March 2010.

Official Website
Video Review – Persona (PSP)
Review – Persona 4
Interview – Nich Maragos (Atlus localization editor – old interview, but interesting if you want to know more about the localization of the SMT games)