Another day, another time to see if one of the last franchises I collect remains as strong for me as when I started... while others have been on the decline (or put out to pasture by their publishers), I have to say we have a shining ray of sunshine here. Figures I would call a game about summoning and fighting demons such a thing, but yes, this game really is that good. Come on in.
Story: Much like Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse is in essence a direct sequel to the other game to share it's name and number. If you played Shin Megami Tensei IV, you already have an idea of the setting and even the current events going on in this game.
To recap, Tokyo is now an underground city, sealed away with demonic hoards running rampant through it. Those left behind survive in enclaves made out of places like subway stations and underground malls guarded by the remains of the human forces who had fought the demons off when they first arrived. These forces have since been divided into three major factions: the Hunters Association, the Ashura-kai, and the Ring of Gaea, each with their own distinct political slant in how the world should run and vying for control. This created an odd balance of power for the city.
Yet above this chaos and on the surface of the world is the kingdom of Mikado. This is a holy land built by holy men who ensured a peace for the people via a holy order of guardians called Samurai. And had all things gone according to the plans from on high, the divided world would never meet, their secrets buried forever.
However in lands run by human beings, forever never lasts.. and one day a group of Samurai would be sent down below their holy kingdom to route out a threat to their world... and discover just how much humanity has been buried and abandoned setting up the story for SMT IV. Apocalypse takes place during the later part of that game and from the view of one of the newest hunters in Tokyo. At this time, the leading forces of both the Ashura-kai and the Ring of Gaea have fallen, leaving them in dissaray and only the Hunters as a solid faction to protect humanity. Flynn, the protagonist of the IV, at this time has been rallying the people to rise up and stand on their own, both against the demons plaguing Tokyo and the angels who have resided like dictators over the kingdom of Mikado. It is time for mankind to say "enough!" and be their own master.
At this time, you are one of the recruits in training for the Hunter Association. You've been on the field, but never really in combat. Your roll instead is to forage supplies and food to help the people near and dear make it day to day. And in an unfortunate encounter during one of these missions, you were killed.
In the space between life and death, an unknown god named Dagda greeted you and offered you a choice. Live as his puppet, or die. Choosing death (which you can do) ends the game, but choosing to live will set the stage. Events following shortly after will see you at the center of a struggle between demons, angels, and ancient exiles gods who return with a promise of salvation, but at the terrible cost of literally the entire universe. You have one month to stop them before everything is over.
You will not do this alone, however. Throughout your adventure, you will find yourself surrounded with allies from Ashia, your friend from childhood and fellow hunter, to the ghost of a warrior with a less then honorable past, to even the mythological Flynn (the hero you played in SMT IV) himself. The end result is an incredibly epic quest filled with a cast of characters who will stick with you well past the rolling credits. And you will need them all to ride the twists this game throw at you until that moment. Enjoy.
9/10
Graphics: If you have played the original SMT IV, you have a good idea of just what you are walking into. Originally designed to be as much an expansion to the original game as a sequel, this should be more then expected. When you first start this game, you will be greeted with a descent looking CGI cutscene followed by the true star of why this game can look amazing: the hand drawn art. Everyone you encounter that gets a close up on the screen in this game is drawn with an anime style that absolutely shines to make this game look amazing, and you can expect to see these often... be it a cutscene like the game starts you with to set the stage for the game, little bits here and there or even mid-combat. This game LOVES showing this art off and does so brilliantly.
Not that the world they inhabit a slouch either. When in these scenes, most of the time they will be to a backdrop that is hand-painted of the world you are in making a more then suitable backdrop. It is not as eye-catching as the art it frames, but it looks pretty good. Nor is this all you will see since every character also has sprite work you will see often when they are not the speaking character. These are a bit more of a mixed bag. Some character sprites are large, bold, and absolutely gorgeous, while others tend to be much more of an ordinary deal. But they are also one of the most common things you will see at these points, especially as most of this view will involve combat.
When not in these still images, you will find yourself in a 3D rendered world with the camera setup behind your character. Again, much like the 2D scenes, the areas you will find yourself in are vast and insanely varied: from the streets of Tokyo to underground bases, to even completely other dimensions. And this is a title that pushes the 3DS to show off that world despite it's limitations. True, you will not be impressed compared to many games released today, but it's clean, looks really good for the tech available on the mighty little hand held, and runs smoothly. The only fault I can really give this here is that encounters are a bit vague, showing up as a form made of a mess of blocks, almost behaving like static. It works well enough and gives the game a hybrid of random encounters with enemies on the map, but it would have been cool to see your enemies for what they are before running into them.
Still there is one real disappointment graphically: the map scenes. When you are not in a location you can explore directly, you are generally going to find yourself wandering the streets of Tokyo. These are done in the tradition of the game series with an overhead view of the world and a pointer to represent where you are. It's serviceable, but compared to the gorgeous artwork you got to see aside from this, it just stands out in the wrong way.
And all of this is only what the top screen offers. The bottom offering either a simplified map you can glance down at while exploring or profile pictures of the demons in your current party (which all look fantastic btw) when in battle. It's important information, but kept neatly out of the way of the main game this way, striking a very nice balance of function and form.
8/10
Sound: Like the graphics, the sound scape of this game borrows heavily from it's predecessor as well. The music is once again in the hands of the same composer and you will recognize the style as soon as the game picks up, mixing somber tones with alien wave and industrialistic metal throughout the music. For example the opening track on the title sets the tone for a dark and moody trail into this demon-overrun world which you are about to set foot brilliantly. And the mood can also pull into even a chill moment or two when you find yourself in a safe place to buy gear or talk to fellow hunters.
But the mood can pick up the tempo quickly as you will also discover in combat for some high stakes high energy moments, although to be fair, these can sometimes venture close enough to the previous game I actually took the time before writing this to listen to BOTH game's battle music and confirmed while the music is technically not the same, it is pretty much a technicality.
Still the soundtrack is far from the only star. Much like the previous game as well, all the cutscenes in this game are fully voices with many side-sections also having solid voice work backing them.. and solid is definitely the best way to describe it. The cast of your allies alone this time will be almost a dozen characters, each with their own personalities and each played brilliantly: from the shy and quiet Hallelujah to the haunty and arrogant Gaston, this is arguably one of the most variant and vibrant group of characters I've seen in a game in quite some time! Enjoy this one.
9/10
Gameplay: Once again, SMT IV Apocalypse takes a lot here from it's predecessor, and also once again this seems to me by design. But where as the the visual and audio parts of the do so almost to the point of cloning the original, here the developers took what they had the first time and built on it, smoothing things out and improving the gameplay in so many small ways that just make this the better game.
Before I get ahead of myself if you haven't played either game before, this is a turn based RPG through and through... you will spend the majority of this game exploring the world, getting into combat, and completing goals to progress the story along. And this story, as noted above is exceptionally well paced to what the game will ask of you.
The overworld is easily the most similar to the last game, in that you will basically move a pointer around a map of the underground Tokyo to get from place. You are free to explore the city and the game gives you a lot of space and reason to do so. Treasures litter the world for the taking if you can find them, and your character is smart enough to leave behind things he can't pick up for later. There are hidden locations which can offer you greater challenges and better shops if you find them, and of course this is a place you can use to grind and level up as you may need as enemies will spawn on this map.
However, this is one of those places where a small change makes a huge difference. In the previous games these encounters would come running at you and luck would decide who attacked first, making them an annoyance if you were just trying to explore (and a potentially dangerous one on anything but the easy skill level). This time around, luck still plays a roll, but it's much more balanced, almost always with no advantage to either side and it's you're call if you want to engage... they stay in place until they disappear. Don't get me wrong, their placement is strategic so there will be times you will have to take a demon in your way down to continue to move around but the control is now in your hands a lot more while wandering.
And that combat will be a large portion of what you are doing while playing. This is to be expected for a turn-based RPG and works very well. When a battle starts, your party and your enemies will display on the screens, top one for the enemies and bottom one for profiles of your party with health and magic on each picture. It looks great and is a very clean interface, but depending on if you got the hit on the enemy (more on this later), they got the jump on you, and a little bit of luck, the game will decide who goes first and who on either side gets to start with a "smirk" status. The enemy will have to get the jump on you to go first and levels play a roll in who gets that smirk. You will want this advantage as often as you can get it (and to avoid the enemy getting it just as much). When you have it, your next attack is going to be a critical while denying the same to an enemy hitting you. It will also give you protection from weakness attacks, rendering both as simple normal attacks. But this is only scratching the surface, making this status one you will love to see on your side and dread on the reverse, but we will get to the mechanic later.
And thankfully you will spend relatively little time in this map vs the 3D rendered areas you will visit from there. These sections are viewed from the camera behind your character (although you can adjust the angle) and you will run around in real time exploring, collecting items, interacting with characters, and, of course moving in to attack or fight back from demon attacks. And these items are important as unlike most RPG games, you will not get money from combat. Your main source of income will be from these searches in the form of finding relics. When you visit any store, you will automatically turn in these relics for their cash. And of course in this mode, getting into combat is a lot more interactive then the Tokyo map. Now, you will be wandering the area with these demons. If you can attack them before they see you, you will have a chance to sneak up on them, not only giving you the first turn, but giving you the chance to have members of your party smirk before it even begins. But if the enemy can charge you without you attacking them first, they have a chance to do the same.
Once combat begins you will notice like many games in this franchise, SMT 4 Apocalypse uses the Press System. You and your enemy will be granted one turn per living member of their respective party with each action taking one of these turns. (Bosses and "hoards" will often get 2 or 3 instead, but I digress). That is, of course unless you do a few specific things. If you have your party member pass their turn, they will use half a turn instead of a full one, leaving the next character access to it instead. In addition, if you can either hit with a critical attack or the weakness of whoever you hit, you also get to use half a turn in stead (as well as potentially gaining smirk status). But pay attention to your actions because the reverse is also true. Missing will cost you two turns instead of one, as will happen if you hit a monster with an attack that they can nullify or reflect (in which case you just hit yourself on top of it). Even worse, if this happens, you could cause your enemy to get a smirk status, which can be devastating.
In previous installments (and spin-offs of the franchise) there are certain elements known for instant-kill moves: light and dark. This isn't of huge importance early in the game, but makes having demons that are either resistant or immune to these abilities all but essential by the end and rendering the ones weak to one or the other worthless no matter how otherwise powerful they are. Now that is no longer the case, rendering these moves as simply another element to consider... unless you have smirk. Light and dark attacks now will highlight green when a party member with smirk can select them as that instant kill is now an added effect of the status. This also renders other techniques available with such enhancements if you have smirk available as well, letting you capitalize on a particularly good stroke of luck and/or tactical action... but also letting your enemies do the same as well.
With the exception of a critical hit or hitting with a weakness, you will always use up any half-turns available before you use a full one, but these turn-mechanics can be used to up to double your actions before your turn is up, making learning about and knowing your enemies as important as your strength. Thankfully there is a function you will get early on to let you analyze your enemies, provided you have fought and survived against it in the past, so paying attention does not mean memory so much as using your head in combat.
In addition, the game also keeps the system from SMT IV where you have a character backing you up, taking an extra action of their own when your turn is over before the enemy can start theirs, but this too has been refined. Now you don't just have whoever the plot dictates at the moment, but you can select any character who has joined you, taking their specific skills as the possible actions you will see and making this yet another tactical choice you will need to keep in mind while playing. They will gain these skills as they level up with you, as well as their own hit point meter which is important as the enemies can attack them just as easily as they can you and your party this time! Although the game does have mercy here in that they do not kill your ally so much as incapacitate them. They will come back after a few rounds: a very important detail considering you can not use healing items or skills to heal them.
In addition, you now also have a loyalty meter which will go up by one each turn (and possibly be adjusted during boss battles depending on how you respond when a conversation breaks up the battle). When it maxes out, ALL of your allies will collectively do several actions instead of just your chosen backup doing one and finish their combination with an all out assault on the enemies. If those enemies are still standing after the barrage, their turn is canceled you another one (often bestowing the smirk status on random members of your party in the process). This timing can be played as yet another tactic to deepen this combat system even farther since you can see how far along the meter is and plan it's level as part of your preparations. (Sometimes it pays to time an encounter to occur when you are a turn or two away from this happening). Just keep in mind if your ally is taken out, this meter freezes where it is, even maxed out, so the enemy does have a way to delay this advantage and potentially capitalize on it as well.
Further adjusting the balance here is how you gain members of your party. True to the franchise, party members are not characters who join you by story, but demons you convince to join you, and you do so during battle. In addition to fighting, you can also talk the demons you are up against. At first it will just be using the "scout" command to try to get them to join you, but you will learn additional skills which will let you try to gain other things from them as well. If you succeed with the negotiations scouting a demon, they will join your team and be summonable to your party from then on, but that is only one of the potential outcomes including getting an item, or even the demon getting pissed off and ending your party's turn right there.
Once the demon is on your team, they will gain experience and level up with you like you would expect, gaining a fraction of that experience if stored in reserve instead of being an active party member. When they do level up, you will notice they will have icons below their skillset hinting at types of skills, but these are not available yet. Rather they are unlockables that will open up as the demon levels up. However, here again is another balancing act as the demon only has so many slots for skills, so if they overflow, you will have to pick which ones they keep. And when they stop learning new ones, they will offer to teach those skills to your character. This is the only way your character gets new abilities or levels the abilities themselves up (as if a demon and you have the same one when they hit this point, they will upgrade yours). And in addition to that, like other SMT games, there is a fusion system as well, allowing you to at any time you wish combine demons in your collection to form new ones, further adding to the variety available to you at literally any given time.
If this seems overwhelming, you have no reason to worry. This is not a game that will throw all of this at you at once. Rather, it will slowly introduce you to each part of it's systems, giving you a little bit of tutorial to explain each the first time you see it, letting you ease into all of this and letting even newcomers enjoy just how much is here. It is a truly masterful system and arguably one of my favorites to date.
9/10
Bugs: There were no bugs that I could see while playing this game.
Score: It has been noted that when the dev team started work on SMT IV Apocalypse, they went to their fanbase to get all the feedback they could on their previous game. Their goal was to learn from their audience and use those lessons to make the single best RPG on the Nintendo 3DS. I can not say if they succeeded just due to how little I have played on the platform, but if someone told me they did it, I would be inclined to believe them. This game took just about every issue I had with IV and refined those rough spots out, creating what is arguably my favorite game in the franchise so far. Much like SMT III, this is one of those RPG games that any fan of the genre should pick up and play.
9/10
Source: Retail
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