Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse | |
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Developer(s) | Atlus |
Publisher(s) |
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Director(s) | Satoshi Ōyama |
Producer(s) | Kazuyuki Yamai |
Programmer(s) | Yuichi Yoshida |
Artist(s) | Masayuki Doi |
Writer(s) |
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Composer(s) | Ryota Kozuka |
Series | Megami Tensei |
Platform(s) | Nintendo 3DS |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Role-playing |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse [a] is a 2016 role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the sequel to Shin Megami Tensei IV , set in a post-apocalyptic alternative world. The game is part of the Shin Megami Tensei series, the central series of the Megami Tensei franchise. The game features gameplay mechanics from previous Shin Megami Tensei releases, such as the Press Turn battle system, where players and enemies fight and exploit weaknesses, allowing either side to gain additional turns or lose them.
The story is set in an alternate timeline of Shin Megami Tensei IV, and focuses on the demon hunter Nanashi, a silent protagonist who dies and is resurrected by the demon Dagda in exchange for becoming his "godslayer". Development began shortly after the release of Shin Megami Tensei IV. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the game's feel and quality of life changes from Shin Megami Tensei IV. The game sold approximately half of the debut sales for Shin Megami Tensei IV during its first week, which was still considered successful for a non-numbered series entry.
In Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, the player controls the demon hunter Nanashi as they explore locations including a post-apocalyptic Tokyo and the medieval kingdom Mikado. The setting, most demons, and a large number of mechanics are carried over from the game's predecessor Shin Megami Tensei IV . [1] [2] The player navigates local environments with a third-person perspective, with the aid of an overhead worldmap. Battles take place from a first-person perspective, and are triggered either through story sequences or encountering enemy sprites in the environment. [2] [3] The party gains experience points and levels up by winning battles and completing quests. When the protagonist gains a level, he is given skill points allotted to five different statistics which alter how he performs in battle. [1] [4] When in battle, Nanashi has a party of three demons and a "Partner", an automated companion with a unique demon roster, giving them a different set of abilities. [4]
During battle, both player and enemy actions are governed by the turn-based Press Turn System, a battle system carried over from previous entries in the Shin Megami Tensei series. The system revolves around exploiting physical or elemental weaknesses, and landing critical attacks: if a character strikes another character's weak point or deals a critical hit, the party gains an extra turn, while if the attack is absorbed or blocked, they lose their turn. If a party member from either side ambushes the enemy, strikes a weakness or gets a critical hit, they may enter "Smirk" status: Smirking temporarily increases a character's damage, eliminates their elemental weaknesses, and guarantees their next attack will land as a critical hit. It also grants temporary bonuses to a character's skills. [1] [2] [4]
In addition to fighting demons, they can also be persuaded to join the player's side, as the only way to gather a party. If a demon does not immediately attack, it is open to negotiation and can be persuaded to join. If a demon agrees to join but Nanashi's level is too low, another demon is called in to take the first demon's place. Once part of the party, demons can engage in dialogue, and grant skills and bonuses to Nanashi. Certain abilities also effect the demon's health, magic and elemental resistances, with certain attack types either inflicting penalties or granting additional status buffs. Two or more demons can be fused into a new form, granting new abilities. During fusion, players can choose which skills are retained and which are discarded. [1] [4]
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse takes place in 2038 in Japan, within the same setting as Shin Megami Tensei IV. [1] Twenty-five years prior, a devastating war was waged between the angels and the armies of Lucifer. To protect Tokyo from damage, a great rock dome was created. While it protected Tokyo, resources became progressively scarcer over the following years, while angels and demons ruled over humans.
The story incorporates folklore from ancient religions, including deities such as Krishna, Maitreya, Odin, and YHVH. The game's silent protagonist is the demon hunter cadet Nanashi. He is killed while on a demon hunt and he is contacted in the afterlife by the demon Dagda, who offers to restore the protagonist to life in exchange for becoming his "godslayer". [5] When returned to life, he is manipulated by Dagda and Odin into freeing Krishna from a prison made by YHVH, who forms an alliance of various polytheistic deities called the Divine Powers, for the claimed purpose of saving humanity and opposing Merkabah and Lucifer. [6] The storyline takes follows from the beginning of the previous game's neutral route: protagonist Flynn and his companion Isabeau have chosen to ally with the people of Tokyo, while Flynn's former companions Jonathan and Walter have respectively become the hosts for Merkabah, leader of God's angelic forces, and Lucifer, ruler of the demon hordes. [6] There are multiple endings, with both of the primary endings being neutral; the game's law and chaos endings serve as abridged conclusions to the story. [7]
In post-apocalyptic Tokyo, Nanashi is killed by demons. In the afterlife, a demon named Dagda offers to resurrect him in exchange for his service as a Godslayer. Shortly afterward, Nanashi and his friend Asahi are manipulated into unsealing Krishna, a ruthless deity who intends to destroy the universe and create a new one free of YHVH's influence. Krishna takes Asahi hostage in order to force Flynn to surrender to him, intending to force Flynn to become his own Godslayer. He also unleashes the monstrous serpent Shesha to begin harvesting human souls for his plans. Nanashi and Asahi set out to defeat Krishna and Shesha.
The Divine Powers activate the Tokugawa Mandala, an ancient seal placed in Tokyo, which disables the Hunters' Demon Summoning Program and leaves them helpless; however, thanks to Dagda's power, Nanashi remains able to summon demons. The Divine Powers attack the humans' underground shelters and Asahi's father is killed. Nanashi and his companions break the Tokugawa Mandala, defeat Krishna and Shesha at his base in Tsukiji Konganji, and rescue Flynn. The party then sets out to defeat Merkabah and his angels, as well as Lucifer and his demons. Nanashi has the option of siding with Merkabah, Lucifer, or humanity. Supporting Merkabah will destroy Tokyo and transform Mikado into the new Kingdom of God, while supporting Lucifer will destroy Mikado and plunge the world into anarchy. Nanashi can lead humanity to victory if he kills both Lucifer and Merkabah in a massive three-way battle.
During the celebration afterwards, Flynn murders the surviving Demon Hunters. He reveals himself to be Shesha, reincarnated in Flynn's form, and explains that Krishna faked his own defeat to manipulate the Hunters into eliminating the angels and demons; the real Flynn remains in Krishna's clutches. Shesha murders Asahi and transforms into the Cosmic Egg, a giant object that will hatch into Krishna's new universe when the full moon rises. The party storms the Cosmic Egg to defeat Krishna and his Divine Powers once and for all. Inside the Egg, Dagda reveals his plan to hijack it and create his own universe where all humans are completely independent from one another, and demands Nanashi's aid in his plan. Dagda's mother Danu opposes him, and wants Nanashi to destroy the Egg.
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse was created as the developers wanted to see what they could do with the characters from IV. They decided to make a new title as opposed to an upgraded re-release. Production began after development ended for Shin Megami Tensei IV in 2013. [6] [8] As part of their development, the team looked at player feedback with their goal being to make "the number one RPG on the 3DS". [6] Multiple staff from the original game returned, including producer Kazuyuki Yamai, character designer Masayuki Doi, and soundtrack composer Ryota Kozuka. Satoshi Oyama, who had worked on Shin Megami Tensei IV as main programmer, was assigned as director. [8] [9] The game's world and basic scenario were created by Kazuma Kaneko, while the script was written by Yusuke Miyata. [9] [10]
The story's main themes are making or breaking bonds with others, and the advent of "inevitable reality", with a key word in the story being "deicide". [6] An element of the story was the idea of deities from polytheistic deity factions fighting back against being subsumed by the monotheistic Abrahamic deities. [8] Demon designs from the previous game were refined, including the characters Medusa, Merkabah and Lucifer. Doi designed the deity figures based on the traditions surrounding them in their native mythologies. The coloration of polytheistic deities was likewise influenced by beliefs surrounding colors from their native lands. The human forms of Merkabah and Lucifer were based around the idea of the monotheistic factions drawing power from human faith. [6] [9] [11] The game's main protagonist was originally designed to be much older, with his adult design carrying over into one of the game's non-playable characters. Instead, the protagonist was made into a teenager so as to better relate the game's themes of immaturity. [8] [11] Tying into the game's themes is the fact that the main protagonist comes from a far lower-class, less elite force than the protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei IV. [11] The music was handled by composer Ryota Kozuka, who had previously worked as composer for Shin Megami Tensei IV. He worked on Apocalypse alongside his work arranging tracks for Persona 4: Dancing All Night . [8]
For its Western release, the subtitle was changed from "Final" to "Apocalypse". The localization took their time to select a name that would give the same implications as the Japanese title while being easier for Western players to understand. Among the titles that needed to be turned down were "End War" due to copyright issues and "Holy War" due to potential backlash. As an "A" symbol was incorporated into the logo, they decided on a word beginning with A. The title "Apocalypse" was reached after much discussion. For about two weeks during this process, the team considered dropping the game's numeral as had been done with Nocturne. [12]
The game was first teased through the main website for Shin Megami Tensei IV: when a specific hashtag had been forwarded through Twitter 15,000 times, a rocky surface hiding the title would break and reveal its secret. [13] The game was eventually revealed on October 5, 2015, [9] when development was approximately 90% complete. [6] The game was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on February 10, 2016, [5] and in North America on September 20, 2016. [14] It was also released in the PAL region by Deep Silver, [15] on December 2, 2016 in Europe and on December 9 in Australia. [16] North American pre-orders and launch day copies included a set of three metal emblem pins in the forms of a peace symbol, an anarchy symbol, and Dagda's mark. [17]
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | 84/100 [18] |
Publication | Score |
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Destructoid | 8.5/10 [3] |
Eurogamer | 9/10 [19] |
Famitsu | 35/40 (9, 9, 8, 9) [20] |
Game Informer | 85% [21] |
GameSpot | 9/10 [4] |
Nintendo Life | 9/10 [22] |
Polygon | 7.5/10 [2] |
USgamer | [23] |
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse was generally well received by critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. [18] It was the highest selling game in Japan during its debut week, with an estimated 96,300 copies sold. These sales figures were approximately half of the debut sales for Shin Megami Tensei IV, and were noted by Siliconera as a good performance for a Shin Megami Tensei game outside of new, numbered entries. [24]
Reviewers were impressed with the games visuals, with Heidi Kemp of GameSpot stating Apocalypse had an "amazing sense of visual design". [4] USGamer 's Jeremy Parish praised the game and called it one of the most "uniquely realistic games on 3DS". [23] Luca Forte writing for Eurogamer Italy called the visuals detailed and pleasant and a definite improvement from IV. [19] However, Chris Carter writing for Destructoid stated the graphics were "drab", attributing this to the limitations of the 3DS. [3]
The game received a lot of comments on its quality of life upgrades from those found in the previous title. Parish praised the modifications to gameplay, while Forte noted the improvements to the game's map system. [19] [23] Kemp for GameSpot praised the game for its "host of improvements to its core gameplay that immensely improves the experience of demon hunting and exploration". [4]
The in-game universe of Apocalypse was criticized for being too similar to that of the previous game. Writing for Game Informer , Daniel Tack commented that "other than the story, not a whole lot is new" with Apocalypse. [21] Morgan Sleeper, however, for Nintendo Life described it as a "sequel-of-sorts" whilst Forte wrote that the game was "not a sequel or even a DLC, but a masterpiece". [19] [22]
Megami Tensei, marketed internationally as Shin Megami Tensei, is a Japanese media franchise created by Aya Nishitani, Kouji "Cozy" Okada, Ginichiro Suzuki, and Kazunari Suzuki. Primarily developed and published by Atlus, and currently owned by Atlus, the franchise consists of multiple subseries and covers multiple role-playing video game genres including tactical role-playing, action role-playing, and massively multiplayer online role-playing. The first two titles in the series were published by Namco, but have been almost always published by Atlus in Japan and North America since the release of Shin Megami Tensei. For Europe, Atlus publishes the games through third-party companies.
Shin Megami Tensei is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for the Super Famicom. Originally released in 1992 in Japan, it has been ported to multiple systems and eventually released in the West for iOS in 2014. It was released on the Virtual Console service in Japan on Wii in 2007 and on Wii U in 2013, as well as Nintendo Switch Online in 2020. It is the third game in the Megami Tensei series and the first in the central Shin Megami Tensei series. The gameplay uses first-person navigation of dungeons and turn-based battles against demons. The player can recruit demons as allies by talking to them rather than fighting them, and two to three demons can be fused to create new demons.
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei refers to two distinct role-playing video games based on a trilogy of science fantasy novels by Japanese author Aya Nishitani. One version was developed by Atlus and published by Namco in 1987 for the Famicom—Atlus would go on to create further games in the Megami Tensei franchise. A separate version for personal computers was developed and published by Telenet Japan with assistance from Atlus during the same year.
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus and published by Namco for the Famicom. An enhanced Super Famicom port was developed by Opera House and released by Atlus in 1995. The second entry in the Megami Tensei series, the gameplay features the unnamed protagonist exploring a post-apocalyptic wasteland, battling and recruiting demons as they are pushed into taking part in a conflict between the demonic forces of Lucifer and the army of the One True God.
Shin Megami Tensei II is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus. It was originally released for the Super Famicom in 1994 in Japan, and has since been ported to multiple platforms. It is the second game in the Shin Megami Tensei series, which is a subset of the larger Megami Tensei franchise.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2. It was published by Atlus in Japan and North America, and by Ghostlight in Europe. It is the third numbered entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series, the central series in the Megami Tensei franchise. Multiple versions of the game have been published: the original version was published in Japan by Atlus in 2003, while a director's cut was released in 2004 in Japan. The director's cut was localized and released in North America in 2004 as Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and in PAL regions in 2005 as Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call. A high-definition remaster was released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in Japan in 2020, and was internationally released in 2021 on those consoles and Windows.
Shin Megami Tensei If…, stylized as Shin Megami Tensei if…, is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus in 1994 for the Super Famicom. It is a spin-off from the Shin Megami Tensei series, itself part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. Since release, it has been ported to mobile devices, PlayStation and Microsoft Windows; it had also been re-released on the Virtual Console in Japan on Wii in 2011 and Wii U in 2013, as well as Nintendo Switch Online in 2021. The story follows a student of Karukozaka High School after their school is sucked into the realm of demons by a vengeful student's demon summoning spell going wrong.
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Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine, formerly known as Megami Tensei Online: Imagine, was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Windows. It is part of the Megami Tensei series, and was developed by CAVE and later on GungHo Online Entertainment under license from the series creator Atlus. Originally released in Japan in 2007, it was later released in North America in 2008, then in Europe in 2009. Imagine is set between Shin Megami Tensei and its sequel, in the aftermath of a war which devastated humanity and prompted the arrival of hostile demons split into two opposing factions: Law and Chaos. The player character, a Demon Buster, is tasked with interacting with and fighting the demons that infest post-apocalyptic Tokyo. The gameplay uses real-time combat in open environments similar to other MMORPGs, while carrying over the Megami Tensei series' recurring demon recruitment and fusion mechanics.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nine is a 2002 role-playing video game developed by Atlus and NexTech, and published by Atlus for the Xbox. Forming part of the Megami Tensei series, Nine takes place in the period of time between Shin Megami Tensei and its sequel, with the survivors of Tokyo's destruction sheltering in underground bunkers. Taking on the role of a debugger, the player navigates the Idea Space virtual world set up by the survivors of Tokyo's destruction, which has come under attack by demonic beings called "noise". The gameplay has the player navigating a customized avatar in third-person through the virtual world of Tokyo, battling enemies using a real-time command-based battle system. Despite its title, it is the eighth game in the Megami Tensei series. The game's title instead refers to the number of possible moral alignments available to players.
Devil Summoner, initially marketed as Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, is a video game franchise developed and primarily published by Atlus. Focused on a series of role-playing video games, Devil Summoner is a spin-off from Atlus' Megami Tensei franchise. The first entry in the series, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, was released in 1995 for the Sega Saturn. The series has seen several more games since, with the most recent main entry being Soul Hackers 2 released in 2022.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is a 2009 tactical role-playing game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS. It is a spin-off within the wider Megami Tensei series. An expanded version subtitled Overclocked was released on the Nintendo 3DS in Japan and North America by Atlus in 2011, and in Europe by Ghostlight in 2013. Following a group of teenagers in Tokyo who are trapped inside a government lockdown following an invasion of demons, the gameplay is divided between story events tied to an in-game clock, and tactical grid-based combat with a turn-based battle system. Which events and battles are completed can unlock different endings.
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Shin Megami Tensei IV is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo 3DS. It is part of the Shin Megami Tensei series, the central series of the Megami Tensei franchise, though no direct story connection exists to previous entries. It was released in May and July 2013 for Japan and North America respectively. It was released digitally in PAL territories in October 2014. The gameplay is reminiscent of previous Shin Megami Tensei games, carrying over the turn-based Press Turn battle system, where players and enemies fight and exploit weaknesses, allowing either side to gain additional turns or lose them.
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