Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is a bit of a paradox. It is at once an iconoclastic role-playing game and at the same time extremely well grounded in the formula action that is the hallmark of a turn-based RPG. The story is off the hook, while the turn-based play system will initially seem very familiar to Final Fantasy fans. And while the game is not the second coming of the RPG messiah, it is well worth a look for the hardcore role-playing game fan.

Think you're going to save the world in this game? Forget it! Almost immediately after the game starts the world literally goes to Hell in a handbasket without the handbasket. Or more accurately, Hell seems to have come to Earth. An occult group has started The Conception, a ritual in which the old, sick, morally decayed world dies and a new world is born. This seems to mainly involve letting a whole lot of demons loose in Tokyo.

As the lead character in the story, the player starts out as an average teenager looking for a few friends after a savage riot in a park (turn your brains off for a little bit here). The friends asked him to meet them in a creepy hospital that has been rumored to be a center for strange occult activity. The player finds his friends but also finds the time of The Conception is upon them and everything outside the hospital will be destroyed. When Hell comes to Tokyo, the player is turned into a demon by mysterious forces so he can do battle on a more equal footing with the bad demons that have come to town. It is here events really begin to take off.

The player starts alone, but he will quickly pick up companions to form a group to aid him in his quest to figure out what is going on and how to set things right. Some characters will ask to join the party up front, as is the case of the first pixie the player meets. Other times getting help can be a bit more difficult. As with almost every Japanese RPG, the random encounter and battle is the most ubiquitous event in the game. While the player may choose to simply fight a demon he stumbles into, he can also choose to talk with the demon in an attempt to sway him to his side and join the team. This can be accomplished either by conversation or with a liberal payoff from your stash of money and/or items. In some cases the demons won't talk to you at all and you've just wasted your turn and the demon is going to now show you the error of you ways by putting a hurt on you. Other times the demon may talk for a bit, weasel a few items from you and still decline the invitation to join your party. The best possible outcome is of course a successful recruitment of an entity that will add to your group? overall effectiveness.

While the number of companions you can bring into battle is capped at three, you can have many more in your party. At special locations on the map, two demons (which individually may be a bit of a load) can be fused to create a new and more powerful entity to increase your combat quality.



As stated, combat is turn based. In any turn the player may use his personal physical attack (striking the enemy) or use one of his more special and magical abilities, as well as use the attacks available to his combat-group companions. Early in the game there is an auto-combat feature which can be used to speed up routine combat. I don? suggest using this feature later in the game.

Combat in SMT: Nocturne can be a bit of a challenge. First off, it seems to take place every dozen feet or so. Oh, those pesky random battles RPGs are famous for! Second, the bad demons have a variety of affinities to elements. Thus a demon with an affinity for fire might actually feed on fire if you try to use it against him. Your own character has the means to change his elemental affinity to better battle any demon encountered. Your non-elemental-changing companions don? fare so well. I suppose that is why we have cannon fodder. Having a well-balanced party that does not share an elemental weakness will keep a powerful demon from putting a major hurt on you and your buds.

The quality of the story definitely sets SMT: Nocturne apart from the more common sword and sorcery RPGs out there. If nothing else, with the non-traditional RPG setting, the player at least gets to kill a variety of weaker demons rather than an endless stream of giant rats to get his initial leveling up done. The quality of the story telling is not quite up to par with many other games, the cut scenes are stilted with only text, but the actual story is pretty intriguing.

Graphically the game is sure to strike a cord with almost anyone who gives it a play. You could almost swear that the pictures you?e seeing were hand drawn art reflecting the work of an artist with a distinctive style. The player character, especially after he gets decked out in his demon stripes, moves through the world with fluid grace that belies his demon bad-assedness. The audio may be non-existent in voice acting and lackluster in sound effects, but the music is an incredible combination of widely varying styles that very nicely convey the feelings you?e supposed to be having during game sequences.

Of course being a turn-based RPG, SMT: Nocturne never gives the controller a heavy workout like it would get in an action game. About the only complaint I have is the right analog stick camera control, which often frustrated my attempts to look exactly where I wanted to during third-person exploration sequences. But it is something you adjust to quickly enough.

In the end analysis, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is a game that hardcore RPG fans should surely pick up, otherwise they will kick themselves for missing out on a game that is both a good story and extends the standard turn-based RPG play mechanics with some nice additions. On the other hand, if you?e tried any of the Final Fantasy games and they just didn? do it for you, there is really not enough new and innovative in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne over its RPG brothers to pull in non-RPG fans. So for now, it must stay in the RPG niche and be happy with four sharks.