Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster brings one of the best RPGs to modern consoles, warts and all. The compressed music and occasional crashes are unfortunate, but the small additions and the game itself are excellent all-around. Regardless, this is the best way to play Nocturne.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster
Developer: Atlus
Price: $50
Platforms: PS4 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, and PC.
MonsterVine was provided with a PS4 code for review.
Shin Megami Tensei rules. It’s a hard-as-nails series that trusts its players to figure out how combat works, complemented by incredible demon designs, brilliant atmosphere, and gnarly music. Possibly the best game in the series, Nocturne, contains all of these features, and has finally come to modern consoles in HD. The remaster has got some improvements and some shortcomings, but overall, it’s still the uniquely challenging JRPG classic made more widely available.
In Nocturne, you play as a young man in Tokyo. Upon meeting up with your friends at an old hospital at the behest of your teacher, you quickly come to the realization that something is wrong. Things go south, the world essentially ends, and you become a demi-fiend (half human, half demon.) It’s now up to you to traverse the destroyed earth with the goal of reshaping the world according to your own beliefs– no matter who or what stands in your way. It’s a very macabre and unique story that never takes up too much of your time with extended cutscenes, and I love it for that.
The atmosphere that the story provides is as oppressive as it gets, and there’s nothing quite like it out there. You never feel safe or comfortable, as even the save rooms are dark and sterile. It’s strange that this feeling is so desirable, but Nocturne HD makes you crave more of its harsh aura. The characters all have decent motivation for their mindsets throughout the game, which makes the moral decisions throughout Nocturne feel earned. You can understand why each character feels the way they do about the newly apocalyptic world, as their established personalities explain why they think strength or purity are the best attributes to have.
“Collecting demons to use on your team is an exciting experience, as it allows for a lot of customization in how you approach battles, especially when you take fusion into account.“
Playing Nocturne is a joy, as the press-turn system is as fluid and fun as ever. Exploiting elemental weaknesses in enemies to earn more turns feels rewarding, and makes strategy more important than in other RPGs. Recruiting demons is still as comically random as ever. A demon might ask for Macca (the game’s currency,) items, or health, then bail out of nowhere. , This can be frustrating, but getting a specific demon rarely ever takes more than a couple encounters. Collecting demons to use on your team is an exciting experience, as it allows for a lot of customization in how you approach battles, especially when you take fusion into account.
The most addictive part of Nocturne HD is demon fusion, as is often the case in Shin Megami Tensei and its spin-offs. This process is actually made even better in Nocturne HD, as you can choose which skills to transfer over to a fused demon, unlike in previous versions of the game. Removing the frustrating random factor from demon fusion makes the entire mechanic far more fun, as I found myself grinding levels to summon stronger demons that fit the specifications that I wanted. If that’s not enough customization for you, you can find various equippable magatama (beads) to use on Demi-Fiend to learn different skills to make your own build. How you build your team is entirely up to you, and it makes battles far more enjoyable as a result.
There’s a variety of DLC that comes with different versions of Nocturne HD, which each change the game in different ways. You can have Devil May Cry’s Dante appear in the game instead of Devil Summoner alumni Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, which is a fun decision to make. Both are incredibly badass characters in their own right, so whether you want to pay extra for Dante or not is up to you. There are also two DLC maps that provide you with tons of EXP and Macca, which I think are fine additions to the game. If you mainly want to experiment with demon fusion, these maps let you save time from grinding to make your ideal demon, though they make it very easy to overlevel.
Finally, there’s the free Merciful mode DLC. This makes the game easier, which is nice for newcomers who are intimidated by Shin Megami Tensei’s difficulty. If you’re careful, I don’t imagine you’d have many problems outside of a couple bosses, but it’s good that the option is there for hesitant newcomers. I did experience a couple crashes in the game, which led me to lose my progress between save points. This was rare, but frustrating to say the least, and I hope this technical issue is patched out in the near future.
“There were no real bad performances in English, and I was quite pleased with the passionate delivery of most of the cast.“
Nocturne HD looks quite nice for a PS2 game, as the models and environments look clean and sharp. The pre-rendered cutscenes look a bit rough, but I can only expect so much from the visuals of a 3D game from three console generations ago. Kazuma Kaneko’s designs are still incredible, with Demi-Fiend standing out as one of the coolest-looking main characters in a game. The various demons are all a joy to discover because of their designs, and people who are well-versed in mythology and world religions will find lots of neat details in their appearances.
The music of Nocturne HD is great and suits the game’s chaotic nature; the problem with it is that some of it is horribly compressed. Battle themes and the level-up theme all sound like they were recorded off of a mid-2000’s cell phone. It’s noticeable in the worst way, and I really wish they used higher quality recordings. It’s already been modded-in by fans on PC, so it’s a shame that Atlus didn’t feel the need to update the low-quality recordings. The voice acting is quite impressive, as each character sounds the way you would expect them to from their designs. Isamu is perfectly smarmy, while Hijiri is suspiciously laid-back. There were no real bad performances in English, and I was quite pleased with the passionate delivery of most of the cast.
The Final Word
It has a couple blemishes, but Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster is still the best way to play one of the best JRPGs around. I wish the music was higher quality, but the rest of the additions and changes to the base game make the remaster feel worthwhile. If you’ve yet to play a Shin Megami Tensei game and want to jump in, this is an overall strong starting point.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
