Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse

Did You Know?

• The game was first teased through the main website for Shin Megami Tensei IV: when a specific hashtag was forwarded through Twitter 15,000 times, a rocky surface hiding the title would break and reveal its secret.
• 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.
• The game was released in the PAL region by Deep Silver.

Gameplay

The player controls the demon hunter Nanashi as they explore a post-apocalyptic Tokyo and the medieval kingdom Mikado. The setting, most demons, and many mechanics are carried over from Shin Megami Tensei IV. The player navigates local environments from a third-person perspective, with an overhead worldmap. Battles are from a first-person perspective and are triggered through story sequences or by encountering enemy sprites. The party gains experience points and levels by winning battles and completing quests. When the protagonist levels up, skill points are allotted to five statistics that affect battle performance. In battle, Nanashi has a party of three demons and a Partner, an automated companion with a unique demon roster. Actions are governed by the Press Turn System: exploiting weaknesses or landing critical hits grants an extra turn, while absorbed or blocked attacks cause a turn loss. If a party member ambushes the enemy, strikes a weakness, or gets a critical hit, they may enter Smirk status, which temporarily increases damage, eliminates elemental weaknesses, and guarantees the next attack as a critical hit. Demons can be persuaded to join the player's side through negotiation. If a demon agrees but Nanashi's level is too low, another demon takes its place. Once in the party, demons can grant skills and bonuses. Two or more demons can be fused into a new form, with the player choosing which skills to retain.

Synopsis

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse takes place in 2038 in Japan, twenty-five years after a devastating war between angels and demons. A great rock dome was created to protect Tokyo, but resources became scarcer while angels and demons ruled over humans. The story incorporates deities such as Krishna, Maitreya, Odin, and YHVH. The silent protagonist is the teenage demon hunter Nanashi, who is killed on a demon hunt and contacted in the afterlife by the demon Dagda. Dagda offers to restore him to life in exchange for becoming his godslayer. Nanashi is manipulated into freeing Krishna from a prison made by YHVH. Krishna forms an alliance of polytheistic deities called the Divine Powers, claiming to save humanity and oppose Merkabah and Lucifer. The storyline follows from the neutral route of the previous game: Flynn and Isabeau ally with Tokyo's people, while Jonathan and Walter become hosts for Merkabah and Lucifer. There are multiple endings, with the primary endings being neutral. In Tokyo, Nanashi is killed by demons and resurrected by Dagda. He and his friend Asahi are manipulated into unsealing Krishna, who intends to destroy the universe and create a new one free of YHVH. Krishna takes Asahi hostage and unleashes the serpent Shesha to harvest human souls. Nanashi and Asahi set out to defeat them.

Development

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse was created because the developers wanted to explore the characters from IV further, opting for a new title rather than an upgraded re-release. Production began after development ended for Shin Megami Tensei IV in 2013. The team looked at player feedback, aiming to make the number one RPG on the 3DS. Multiple staff from the original game returned, including producer Kazuyuki Yamai, character designer Masayuki Doi, and composer Ryota Kozuka. Satoshi Oyama, main programmer for Shin Megami Tensei IV, was assigned as director. Kazuma Kaneko created the world and basic scenario, while Yusuke Miyata wrote the script. The story's main themes are making or breaking bonds and the advent of inevitable reality, with deicide as a key concept. An element involved polytheistic deities fighting back against being subsumed by monotheistic Abrahamic deities. Demon designs from the previous game were refined, including Medusa, Merkabah, and Lucifer. Doi designed deities based on their native mythologies, with coloration influenced by beliefs from their native lands. The human forms of Merkabah and Lucifer were based on monotheistic factions drawing power from human faith. The protagonist was originally designed as much older, but was made a teenager to better relate themes of immaturity. The protagonist comes from a lower-class, less elite force than the protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei IV. Ryota Kozuka handled the music, working on Apocalypse alongside arranging tracks for Persona 4: Dancing All Night.

Reception

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse received generally positive reviews from critics, according to Metacritic. It was the highest selling game in Japan during its debut week, with an estimated 96,300 copies sold, about half the debut sales of Shin Megami Tensei IV, which was noted as good performance for a non-numbered entry. Reviewers praised the visuals: Heidi Kemp of GameSpot noted an amazing sense of visual design, Jeremy Parish of USGamer called it one of the most uniquely realistic games on 3DS, and Luca Forte of Eurogamer Italy said the visuals were detailed and pleasant. Chris Carter of Destructoid, however, called the graphics drab, attributing this to 3DS limitations. Quality-of-life upgrades were widely commented on: Parish praised modifications to gameplay, Forte noted improvements to the map system, and Kemp praised a host of improvements to core gameplay. The in-game universe was criticized for being too similar to the previous game; Daniel Tack of Game Informer commented that not a whole lot is new other than the story. Morgan Sleeper of Nintendo Life described it as a sequel-of-sorts, while Forte wrote it was not a sequel or DLC but a masterpiece.