Shin Megami Tensei IV (Nintendo 3DS)
 

So the 4th main installment in Atlus' JRPG series has been announced today. This is the magazine scan confirming the existence of the title:

http://storage.siliconera.com/wordpr...mtiv_thumb.jpg

No other info has been revealed at this time, but as a guesstimate, I would assume we will see this game available sometime next year in both Japan AND North America.

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Personally, while I would like to give this game a try, my opinions on the overall Shin Megami Tensei franchise are very mixed right now. My only two experiences with the franchise are with the Persona games and the Devil Survivor games. The former I love, and the latter I hate.

Ultimately what what will convince me to give this a try is if there's a difficulty selector and the battle system is remotely similar to P1 and P2's, since I know those are closer to the main series than 3 & 4 are.

If not though, as much as I would like to experience it's plot, I'm gonna have to skip out. I can't enjoy a game when it's not any fun to play. :uhoh:

Quote my post from the P4G thread
and you never played SMT III: Nocturne? i think you should try it if you think Gameplay is more important than plot since Nocturne have better battle system than Persona series. and if you want a Nocturne-like game with better story, try Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga.

and btw, why did you hate Devil Survivor?

However it goes, I expect it to be ball-bustingly hard. x_X

No I've never played SMT: III. Truth be told, I don't actually like most RPG games, Japanese OR Western. Usually I'm just unable to find them enjoyable to play. I have exceptions of course.

The same reason I dislike Disgaea and Fire Emblem. Grid-based SRPG's I find frustrating and no fun to play at all.

>3ds
oh god why ._. That's one handheld that I really don't want to get solely because they have that stupid region lock thing >_>;

About the gameplay.. I don't mind if it's anything except if it's similar to strange journey in terms of dungeon crawling :( Seriously, that one was pretty harsh for me.

When i saw this news i was like : ... Oh sh*t... Why on this support and not on the PS3...

And teaser site is up.

http://megaten4.jp/

Given what handhelds are capable of nowadays I'm not surprised. Developing for consoles is too expensive for many small Japanese developers.

Uh, they said in the past the Strange Journey was Shin Megami Tensei 4, despite it not having a number.
I don't get why people have to complain every time a high-profile JRPG is released on a handheld console. Does it matter that much? Some would even say that they prefer JRPGs to be portable.

Because most players have an home console, and if you don't have this handheld, you're forced to buy it that's why it sucks... :uhoh:
... Nearly 1 decennie after Nocturne, hope this one be at least as good as his precessesor.

That's their plan :heh:
Which is why I find it a bit weird that Sony didn't pony up the money for this exclusive, they need some meat on their system

Though, it could be that games for the VITA seem closer to developing for a console game than the 3DS, so yeah this is just a show of the times.
Also remember that the 3DS is selling like hotcakes right now, and they probably want to get in on it without having to go through the troubles of creating a full console game.

All well and good, but when are we getting Persona 5?

Persona 4 came out five years ago. It's a long time to wait. In fact, by the time it comes out, the PS3 will probably have already met the end of it's life.

In the meantime all we've gotten is a dozen handheld titles and Catherine. They have a current gen engine so...

You do know SMT3 is almost a decade ago right? As much as I am a fan of Persona, I say that a sequel to the main SMT is much more overdue than Persona.

Besides, Eternal Punishment and P3 had a 6 year gap, or 7 if you play the English versions. FEEL MY PAIN! :p

(For the record, I won't hold my breath for any more Persona rpgs for this generation's consoles, considering Atlus announced they're developing flagship SMT, Devil survivor, and Persona on the 3ds. They've confirmed 2 out of the 3, and since I don't see anyway for them to milk P4 by doing another spinoff, I'm pretty confident P5 will be in 3ds)


As for SMT4 itself, I personally don't care much about the main series, as having your battle party mainly composed of demons isn't my cup of tea (I like party members with human-like personalities).

What I do care about is that the flagship series is being released on a handheld. Which doesn't bode well for the lesser spinoffs getting a console release. But I guess that's to be expected, where it just costs too much to develop for consoles when RPGs on the whole are becoming more and more niche.

P4 also came out at the end of the PS2's life, actually even after the PS3 came out

Persona 5 "recently" (by that I mean last year's November or so) entered full production. It's going to be a while.

Also, whether you like it or not, Strange Journey is a spiritual sequel to the mainline series so it has been 3/4 years since a main game came out.

Japan is not North America. I would actually think that they would have more handhelds than home consoles.

I always thought Strange Journey ws meant to be SMT IV.

Personally, with the critical success of Persona 3, and particularly 4, I would have thought the best business move would have been to quickly come up with a follow up on a current gen console. Most RPG players know about Persona, and would have leapt on it, a bit like how Dark Souls did really well after the critical success of Demon Souls.

Persona is perhaps the only really interesting JRPG franchise at the moment. A good release, with a decent marketing campaign would be a license to print money.

I hope it won't be a handheld release though. Don't care if the graphics aren't amazing.

Not in Japan, they don't. And Japan's the main market Atlus cares about when it comes to SMT. And besides, it's not like the larger amount of home consoles in the West translate has translated to even more MegaTen game sales. Come on, it's been a long enough time for everyone to realize this and realistically set their expectations.

I don't think they can really afford to do it considering their current financial status.

I'd put the blame more on the fact that Vita's been selling less than 10,000 units a week in Japan for some time now.

It was relegated to the same status as If... (main series, but not part of the numbered) becuase it wasn't set in Tokyo :rolleyes: Well, at the very least we got a condition for when a mainline MegaTen game gets a number.

I'm pretty sure they can pony up the cash if they need to. But you are right as to whether they could afford to do it, because I figure it would only be viable if it would guarantee sales.
And it's only been selling poorly because nobody cares about the games they have on it, the VITA isn't attractive when the PSP is still being supported. This can only be supplemented by getting more games people want, if companies jump ship, Sony has to start grabbing them and have them make games for them.

That's true, most Japanese gamers don't have a home console. They live in very small and spartan setting compared to people out west and they still have overcrowding issues in their cities. It's a reason why the PSP and DS took off so well over there and why things like Spotpass and adhoc actually work so well in Japan. It's why I had to facepalm hard when Microsoft pushed Kinect to Japan and thought it would sell. Even if it was desired there's simply no room in most Japanese househds in the city to take advantage of the technology. So yes, this makes huge sense that they would release it for a handheld. No surprise it's on the 3ds, the vita is getting PS4 Golden and they want to foster a fanbase on the 3ds and not push away their fanbase from the DS that will eventually get a 3ds.

As for the vita selling not to shabby, there are number of reasons. It's still quite expensive and many are still waiting for more games that they would want to play to be made/released for it. Such as the making of an updated version of PS4 on the vita will help the vita gain more traction in Japan, don't know about the west. Don't forget that the 3ds didn't do too hot on its release and the following months than the games started coming out and they had a price cut. Since the 3ds can play ds games and is price in a similiar vein as the later ds version means that more are willing to get it over the ds.