Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Preview (DS)

The DS has been host to a surprising number of good RPGs, and on March 23 of 2010 it looks like another one will arrive under the title Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. You play as a special government soldier sent to investigate supernatural incidents that are being kept hidden from the public, and soon find yourself immersed in a story that mixes some sci-fi elements with the traditional demon-centric themes of the Shin Megami Tensei series. Best thought of as a dungeon crawl similar to Wizardry or perhaps Etrian Odyssey, the latter of which this game shares an engine with, Strange Journey looks to be a rather engaging RPG.

Strange Journey’s main draw is the dungeon crawl aspect, giving you several areas to explore and fight demons in. While your character is the only human fighting on the ground, he’s not alone; there are a huge number of demons to encounter and many of them can be convinced to join you if various requirements are met. Getting a good mix of demon allies with a variety of skills is important, since some will be very effective against some enemies but not very useful against others. This places a strong emphasis on making sure you have a variety of attack elements (fire, ice, darkness, etc.), party buffs, healing, and so on. They can also learn new abilities as they gain experience, letting you customize your demons to your liking.

While exploring each area with your new demon friends is the main point of the game, Strange Journey does have a plot that unfolds as you play. You have some say in what happens, as you get to pick your main character’s response to various things and even the most generic demons have at least a basic personality. There was only so much of the story on display in the preview build, though Atlus pointed out there is some depth to it, with the nature of humanity and its moral structure coming up in at least a few places; there seem to be a few points where this has an interesting relation with the invading demons trying to get to Earth.

Nonetheless, combat and preparing for it are a major focus in Strange Journey. It’s not enough to just get a good team of demons, you also have to track your character’s equipment and pick which special abilities you want installed in his suit; there are all sorts of bonuses to pick from, but only so much space is available to install them so trade-offs must be made. For that matter, why settle for the demons and equipment you currently have? Strange Journey lets you unlock new items by finding materials known as ’Forma’ in your explorations, and merge demons with one another to get wholly new types of creature to add to your team. If you find a demon you really like, you can record its password and share it with friends by word-of-mouth, email, and so on. When they enter the password, they’ll be given a duplicate of your demon; it has the same stats, same attacks (even if they’re different from the norm for that demon species), and so on.

Well aware of the usual flaws in this genre, the Strange Journey developers have added a few things to make random encounters less irritating. The most noteworthy is an auto-resolve feature; tap the button a few times and the battle will immediately play itself out, reducing what would normally take a few minutes down to only lasting a few seconds. You can also try to talk to demons you encounter, some of which will be convinced to join you. And if you talk to a demon type that is already represented in your party, there is a chance the enemy will agree to just walk away or even give you an item and let you be on your way in peace.

Atlus was showing off a preview build and not the final version, so not everything was able to be seen or tried at this time. Nonetheless, what they showed looked very promising and Strange Journey could be another fine RPG for the DS. We’ll know for sure when the game releases on March 23, 2010.