After its reveal in January 2017, Shin Megami Tensei V finally got an actual date teased. The Nintendo Direct Mini presentation showcased the launch year of the fifth SMT game which streamed on July 20, 2020.
SMT V is set to officially launch worldwide in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch with no exact date in sight. However, fans are expecting Nintendo to gradually tease updates about the title throughout the year.
The Shrouded Mystery of The Fifth Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei V is a role-playing game developed and published by Atlus. It follows its predecessors by maintaining its occult roots as well as its distinct animation.
It is produced by the Shin Megami Tensei IV director Kazuyuki Yamai. The developers aim to make the fifth SMT game a hybrid of SMT III: Nocturne and SMT IV which may include returning combat mechanics and ‘demon-raising’ gameplay. They also want to tackle the current generation of real-world issues such as unemployment, terrorism, and domestic problems.
Like many SMT games, fans might end up battling against various mythological figures commonly classified as ‘demons’. They may encounter deities from various religions along with their malevolent counterparts. A staple common in Megami Tensei games is being able to recruit demons to fight alongside the protagonist. Another is having the ability to fuse two of them to birth a more powerful one. ‘MegaTen’ games are also one of those rare gems where the choice a player makes has equal parts rewards and consequences which often lead to multiple ending scenarios.
The Occult Franchise That is Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei is a Japanese gaming media franchise and SMT V is the fifth title of its core series. The franchise was created by Kouji Okada, Kazuma Kaneko, Ginichiro Suzuki, and Kazunari Suzuki — primarily developed and published by Atlus. They made games inspired by the occult as early as 1987 with their first title being Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei for the PC and Famicom.
The first game to actually bear the name Shin Megami Tensei was released in 1992 for the Super Famicom, followed by its sequel in 1994. Nine years later the popular Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne was born for the Playstation 2. Soon after the titles made its way through multiple platforms such as the Nintendo DS and 3DS.
A spin-off version of the main series — which gained massive popularity in Sony’s Playstation console is the Persona franchise. The persona franchise also spawned multiple sequels leading to its fifth title Persona 5 for the current Playstation platform.
