Almost twenty years ago, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne released and the very fabric of the franchise it belonged to seemed to warp around it. Press Turn was brilliant and Atlus was very smart to implement versions of the battle system into SMT's many spinoffs.
As for follow-ups in the mainline series, Strange Journey kinda charted its own course opting to not implement Press Turn and taking a lot from Etrian Odyssey, being a throwback to the old school dungeon crawling of the series' origins. Shin Megami Tensei IV came much later, drawing mechanically from Nocturne but mostly focusing on the first two Super Famicom entries for its reference points. As far as trying to directly follow up Nocturne however, it just seemed like Atlus wasn't interested.
That's probably for good reason. Nocturne is a stone cold masterpiece, and I'd imagine with time it only got harder and harder to try and pull a lot of those creatives together to make another game along the same lines. And even then, there's zero guarantee it'd even turn out well. If Atlus would ever try to follow up their opus, it would have to fall onto the team that formed around IV and seeing them develop, as the older teams at Atlus did decades ago leading into Nocturne. They'd have to imprint their own mark on the series, make their own opus.
Only time will tell if Shin Megami Tensei V will stand the test of time as their opus, but right here right now in 2021 I can tell you that it sure fucking felt like one. This is the best JRPG to come out since Dragon Quest XI five years ago, and honestly might beat even that game out when it comes to sheer gameplay. This is one of the boldest, most confident games of its scale I've seen in an incredibly long time and I think the team should be applauded for the incredible work they did over this game's immense, likely grueling development.
With V, I feel like Atlus has finally hit the sweet spot again in creating a take on the Press Turn system that feels genuinely additive to the base battle system and not something like Smirk, which felt like a distraction based in random chance. The magatsuhi skills are a great addition to combat, meaningfully adding to the rhythm of the game, though I think there's plenty of room to iterate in a sequel, making some skills more attractive so you're more often encouraged to not just rely on the Critical skill. It really feels like Atlus knew exactly how fun this battle system was though, given just how many side quests there are that involve a unique boss fight. I just wanted to challenge everybody, it almost makes me wish there was a PvP mode. Essences take a while to get used to, but I came to really appreciate just how customized I could make my party by the end. That stuff is incredibly versatile.
The real surprise here is the game's world traversal and how that factors into the game's structure. This is no mere open world, in fact, Shin Megami Tensei V features dense playgrounds with verticality and secrets at every corner, reminding me in part of Super Mario Odyssey rather than Breath of the Wild. It's exhilarating in a genre that's historically had pretty stale level design. The zones in SMTV also remind me of another personal favorite from Nintendo, Skyward Sword, in that while there are more traditional SMT dungeons, the levels leading to those are also dungeons in and of themselves with their own challenges in traversal. It's brilliant, really well-realized stuff and I hope this becomes the hallmark that mainline SMT is known for going forward when compared to its sister series.
The most controversial part of the game is probably going to be its story, which I think makes a lot of sense. There's not a whole lot of it! It's definitely similar to Nocturne in that way, but I think it's actively going for something very different and it's very clever in how it manages to pull that off. All at once, it's a game that explores the feeling of isolation as well or better than any other entry in the series, invites the oft-dreaded Persona comparison, proves exactly how this game isn't Persona, and provides easily the most metaphysical, cosmic take on the series to date. It's fascinating stuff and do not mistake a minimal story for having none at all.
If I've learned anything in my time with Shin Megami Tensei it's that for as powerful as you become in the gameplay sense, you are often relegated to a passerby in the story. You will never get the complete story on why anyone does anything. You're just left to pick up the pieces and shape the world according to your flawed, limited perspective. You're grasping at straws in an attempt to understand. I've really come to appreciate that about Shin Megami Tensei's brand of melancholy, and particularly V's take on it. The explanations, the character moments are few and they're all the closure you're ever going to get. In these games even when you make your ascension to godhood, you're still a person. You can only know and experience so much.
As for follow-ups in the mainline series, Strange Journey kinda charted its own course opting to not implement Press Turn and taking a lot from Etrian Odyssey, being a throwback to the old school dungeon crawling of the series' origins. Shin Megami Tensei IV came much later, drawing mechanically from Nocturne but mostly focusing on the first two Super Famicom entries for its reference points. As far as trying to directly follow up Nocturne however, it just seemed like Atlus wasn't interested.
That's probably for good reason. Nocturne is a stone cold masterpiece, and I'd imagine with time it only got harder and harder to try and pull a lot of those creatives together to make another game along the same lines. And even then, there's zero guarantee it'd even turn out well. If Atlus would ever try to follow up their opus, it would have to fall onto the team that formed around IV and seeing them develop, as the older teams at Atlus did decades ago leading into Nocturne. They'd have to imprint their own mark on the series, make their own opus.
Only time will tell if Shin Megami Tensei V will stand the test of time as their opus, but right here right now in 2021 I can tell you that it sure fucking felt like one. This is the best JRPG to come out since Dragon Quest XI five years ago, and honestly might beat even that game out when it comes to sheer gameplay. This is one of the boldest, most confident games of its scale I've seen in an incredibly long time and I think the team should be applauded for the incredible work they did over this game's immense, likely grueling development.
With V, I feel like Atlus has finally hit the sweet spot again in creating a take on the Press Turn system that feels genuinely additive to the base battle system and not something like Smirk, which felt like a distraction based in random chance. The magatsuhi skills are a great addition to combat, meaningfully adding to the rhythm of the game, though I think there's plenty of room to iterate in a sequel, making some skills more attractive so you're more often encouraged to not just rely on the Critical skill. It really feels like Atlus knew exactly how fun this battle system was though, given just how many side quests there are that involve a unique boss fight. I just wanted to challenge everybody, it almost makes me wish there was a PvP mode. Essences take a while to get used to, but I came to really appreciate just how customized I could make my party by the end. That stuff is incredibly versatile.
The real surprise here is the game's world traversal and how that factors into the game's structure. This is no mere open world, in fact, Shin Megami Tensei V features dense playgrounds with verticality and secrets at every corner, reminding me in part of Super Mario Odyssey rather than Breath of the Wild. It's exhilarating in a genre that's historically had pretty stale level design. The zones in SMTV also remind me of another personal favorite from Nintendo, Skyward Sword, in that while there are more traditional SMT dungeons, the levels leading to those are also dungeons in and of themselves with their own challenges in traversal. It's brilliant, really well-realized stuff and I hope this becomes the hallmark that mainline SMT is known for going forward when compared to its sister series.
The most controversial part of the game is probably going to be its story, which I think makes a lot of sense. There's not a whole lot of it! It's definitely similar to Nocturne in that way, but I think it's actively going for something very different and it's very clever in how it manages to pull that off. All at once, it's a game that explores the feeling of isolation as well or better than any other entry in the series, invites the oft-dreaded Persona comparison, proves exactly how this game isn't Persona, and provides easily the most metaphysical, cosmic take on the series to date. It's fascinating stuff and do not mistake a minimal story for having none at all.
If I've learned anything in my time with Shin Megami Tensei it's that for as powerful as you become in the gameplay sense, you are often relegated to a passerby in the story. You will never get the complete story on why anyone does anything. You're just left to pick up the pieces and shape the world according to your flawed, limited perspective. You're grasping at straws in an attempt to understand. I've really come to appreciate that about Shin Megami Tensei's brand of melancholy, and particularly V's take on it. The explanations, the character moments are few and they're all the closure you're ever going to get. In these games even when you make your ascension to godhood, you're still a person. You can only know and experience so much.