Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: Difference between revisions

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There, you witness the Conception: the [[The End of the World as We Know It|destruction of the old world]] and its transformation into an embryonic state- [[After the End|the Vortex World]]- to prepare for its eventual rebirth. [[Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe|Tokyo becomes a spherical world]] populated by demons and the wandering spirits of those who died during the Conception, with a glowing sphere suspended in its center. You have survived... but during the Conception you encountered a mysterious young boy who [[Deal with the Devil|forcefully implanted you with a creature]] called a Magatama, [[Transformation Trauma|transforming your body]] into that of a demon.

Waking up in the hospital with your new demonic body, your struggle for survival in this new, hostile world slowly becomes a battle to determine what form the new world will take. On one side is the Assembly of Nihilo, who wish to create a world of [[World of Silence|complete stillness and peace, devoid of emotion]]. Opposing them is the Mantra, a powerful gang who believe in ruling by [[Social Darwinist|strength, passion and fear]].

As the legendary Demi-Fiend, you have the power to decide the fate of the Vortex World. Will you side with one of the emerging armies to help make their idea of a perfect world a reality? Or will you [[Kill'Em All|destroy them all]] and [[End of the World Special|take the power of creation into your own two hands]]?

The game is largely a dungeon crawler, as you make your way across the ruins of Tokyo looking for answers and your missing friends. Gone are the cyberpunk elements of the previous [[Shin Megami Tensei]] games; as your character is a demon you have no need to use a computer to translate and summon. Your party is made up of the main character and [[Character-Magnetic Team|the demons that you have recruited to your cause]]. By talking to demons, you can convince them to give you money, items or to join your party. Most will demand money and items as a bribe before they will listen to you, but some will also pose a philosophical question that you must answer to their satisfaction.

As demons level up extremely slowly, the quickest way to maintain a strong team is to [[~~Hot~~ ~~Skitty-On-Wailord~~ ~~Action~~|fuse your demons together]] at the Cathedral of Shadows, creating entirely new demons with new powers and some inherited from their previous forms. A handful of demons will also evolve once they have reached a certain level. The Main Character develops by equipping different Magatama, each of which has a set of abilities that will be learned upon leveling up. An additional degree of difficulty is added by the fact that your character can only know eight skills at any one time, and must forget moves to learn new ones; once they are forgotten, they are [[Lost Forever]].

As demons level up extremely slowly, the quickest way to maintain a strong team is to [[Improbable Species Compatibility|fuse your demons together]] at the Cathedral of Shadows, creating entirely new demons with new powers and some inherited from their previous forms. A handful of demons will also evolve once they have reached a certain level. The Main Character develops by equipping different Magatama, each of which has a set of abilities that will be learned upon leveling up. An additional degree of difficulty is added by the fact that your character can only know eight skills at any one time, and must forget moves to learn new ones; once they are forgotten, they are [[Lost Forever]].

Battles are conducted with the Press Turn system, where at the start of each round you receive a number of actions equal to the number of characters in your battle party. A normal action consumes one Press Icon, but inflicting a critical hit or attacking the enemy's weakness only consumes half a Press Icon. Thus, by attacking the enemy's weaknesses you maximize the number of turns you get in one round. Unfortunately, attacking an enemy with an element that it is strong against- or missing entirely- consumes two Press Icons, and if the enemy repels or absorbs the attack you lose all your Press Icons. This also applies in reverse; the enemy can attack your weak points to win additional actions for itself and loses actions if you defend yourself correctly. This battle system would go on to be used in ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'' and in a scaled-down form- the "One More" system- in ''[[Persona 3]]'' and ''[[Persona 4]]''.

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* [[Breath Weapon]]: Fire, Ice and Fog Breath. Only the first two deal actual elemental damage, though.

* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: [[Non-Action Guy|Jyoji Hijiri]]. The man has complete access to the [[Akashic Records]] and knows more about what's going on than anyone else and could probably [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb stomp]] the [[Person of Mass Destruction|Demi-fiend]] with what he's learned. But he never reveals much and doesn't seem to realize he could create his own [[Fisher King|Reason]]. Justified, {{spoiler|since God cursed him. When he finally realizes that he could create his own Reason he dies again.}}

* [[Canon Name]]: The Main Character is called Naoki Kashima in the radio plays based on the game.

* [[Character-Magnetic Team]]

* [[Collector of the Strange]] - The Collector Manikin likes to collect human-made knick-knacks.

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* [[Demonic Possession]]: {{spoiler|Aradia}}, a goddess from an [[Alternate Universe]], possesses {{spoiler|Ms. Takao}} halfway through the game.

* [[De-Power]]: Subverted in the Freedom ending. {{spoiler|Judging from Lucifer's words, the main character is still very much powerful despite losing his tattoos. He says to stay strong for the upcoming day where he'll have to fight again.}}

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: If you go to the Third Kalpa chamber and talk to Black Frost with a full roster, he will remain waiting until you come back with an open spot for him. If you ''already'' have a Black Frost, though, he will get annoyed and leave.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: In the True Demon ending, the Demi-Fiend {{spoiler|not only kills Kagutsuchi, essentially an avatar of God, but simultaneously annihilates ''every Kagutsuchi in every vortex world'' effectively ending the cycle of creation and destruction}} and then goes out to top himself by {{spoiler|succeeding Lucifer as the General of the [[Legions of Hell]] and goes to wage war against God himself}}. He doesn't just punch out Cthulhu. He has the power to ensure Cthulhu will never get back up again.

* [[Disc One Final Dungeon]]: The Obelisk. It's huge, the puzzles are tricky (even the bosses are a puzzle in a way), you finally get to rescue Yuko, finishing it will turn off the Nightmare System...oh, yeah, and then there's all the stuff after it.

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* [[Good Is Dumb]]: Recruited demons always join as the lowest level possible, making them forget skills they possessed normally; bosses fused have a fraction of the HP they normally have.

** Additionally there are several skills like Dragon Eye that you can never use.

* [[Groundhog Peggy Sue]]: {{spoiler|Played with Hijiri. He gets to live, over and over and over... but he NEVER gets to ''win''.}}

{{quote|''[[Fate Worse Than Death|"A task as endless as scooping water out of the sea with a cup... Watch, and record, the history of the world... Witness the entirety of the endless war between order and chaos... That is your punishment for your unforgivable sin..."]]''}}

* [[Guide Dang It]]: Double whammy since not only is it difficult to know where you're supposed to be going, but the actual guide is very little help.

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** The terminal theme is the same as ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'''s terminals.

* [[Musical Spoiler]]: If you're in the Third Kalpa of the Labyrinth {{spoiler|1=and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngUfhhoRh84 Dante's theme] starts playing, it means he's about to catch you.}}

* [[Mythology Gag]]: You get 65535 experience points after beating {{spoiler|Lucifer}}. This was the maximum amount of XP you could earn per battle in [[Shin Megami Tensei II]] because of the variable type that was used in the game.

** Dante uses the same coin when playing Heads or Tails that he did in [[Devil May Cry]] 2, {{spoiler|meaning if you pick heads, you always win the gamble.}}

** In [[Digital Devil Saga]], the last boss has an Amala Drum on its forehead. Given it's an avatar of God, it could spawn orchards of [[Epileptic Trees]] by itself.

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* [[Updated Rerelease]]: ''Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniax''

** The limited edition of ''Devil Summoner: Raidō Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon'' includes a new version of ''Nocturne'', in which Raidou replaces Dante.

*** [[No Export for You|Only in Japan]] because Sony shot down the idea of porting that edition to the [[~~Play Station~~ Portable]] for Western audiences early on in the update process.

*** [[No Export for You|Only in Japan]] because Sony shot down the idea of porting that edition to the [[PlayStation Portable]] for Western audiences early on in the update process.

* [[Useless Useful Spell]]: Averted. You're cruising for a bruising if you don't use [[Status Buff|buffs]] and debuffs during boss fights.

** Averted to the point that the most (arguably) useful spell {{spoiler|Fog Breath, which reduces all enemies' accuracy by half}} can be learned at level 21, from the second magatama.

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* [[World of Silence]]: Hikawa's Reason of Shijima seeks this. Unusually, the normally-chaotic demons ''love'' the idea as it means ''everyone'' will be just like God, in essence triggering an universal Enlightenment.

* [[Yet Another Stupid Death]]: Combine [[Nintendo Hard]] with the sometimes long distances between save points and the tendency to get used to certain types of enemies, it's quite possible to frustratingly die like a chump just by having the wrong magatama equipped or the wrong demon in your party when you get to a new game level with different adversaries. Many players have sad stories of ignorance or hubris lamenting a particularly painful [[Game Over]].

* [[Ye Olde Butchered English]]

* [[You Are Not Alone]]: {{spoiler|Lucifer grants you his protection for choosing his path, and offers you his blessings.}}

* [[You Can't Thwart Stage One]]: Practically the poster child.