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Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer`s Call Review
Jon Wilcox
06/07/2005
Ubisoft brings Atlus` demonic RPG franchise to Europe...
The third title in the Shin Megami Tensei series, Luciferās Call is the first original instalment since the 16-bit days of the SNES and the first to be released outside of Japan. The Megami Tensei franchise has proved to be exceptionally popular in the Far Eastern territory and is today considered to be one of the major series of games in Japan with several sub-series created from the original title including Devil Summoner, Persona, and Majin Tensei. The developer has spent many years developing Luciferās Call (known as SMT: Nocturne in North America), with several new gameplay features added with the aim of further immersing gamers into the demon populated Vortex World.
Set in modern day Tokyo, Luciferās Call begins with the gamer choosing a name for their character, a male high school student who sets off to meet two of his friends and link up with his teacher in the local hospital, although pretty quickly though the entire world ends with the event known as āThe Conceptionā. The act, which was instigated by a group known as the Gaea Cult, sends the characters (and what is left of Tokyo) into the Vortex World, which is inhabited by demonic forces. As a result of those events, the playerās character is transformed into a demon with access to a range of different powers and the ability to develop additional onesā¦and did we mention that Capcomās Dante plays a part throughout the game?
As with most RPG titles the main character and every character in the party is broken down into a series of attributes including Strength and Agility, as well as Health Points and Mana Points. In Luciferās Call, the demonic powers are determined by the Magatama, parasites that pass on the abilities to the host; twenty-four different types of Magatama are available in the game including Marogareh (imparts stronger physical attacks) and Wadatsumi (which imparts ice spells) with gamers able to change Magatama at any point outside of battles. Although the game is very much of a Japanese origin given that players arenāt able to select their persona from a range of classes (a la Morrowind and KOTOR), the style will still be familiar to fans of the genre and probably makes the game more accessible for RPG newcomers.
The game is played through two different points of view, and for the first time Atlus has refrained from integrating a first-person perspective into the Shin Megami Tensei series; instead when gamers explore the various buildings throughout the Vortex World Tokyo, Atlus keeps the player in the third-person, which reinforces the notion that they are in fact playing interactive anime and makes the experience far more visceral. Moving from one building to another, the game pulls back into a map perspective with gamers then controlling a floating top representing the party. Battles can still occur in this viewpoint, and this view achieves the goal of allowing players to travel across the ruinous streets without having to endure lengthy encounters with barren landscape in a third-person perspective. It proves to be a very successful feature of the game, although for some it may cause a separation of immersion ā“ overall though the technique proves to be very successful in its intentions.
Of course combat features heavily in the game, which does suffer from the scourge of all RPGs ā“ re-occurring battle syndrome. This is a condition that a lot of RPG titles have and itās when after defeating an enemy, the player returns to the main viewpoint and begin to move in the environment only to change their mind and double back on themselvesā¦which then causes another battle to initiate causing some frustrating gameplay for the player. Switching between various characters in their party, players are able to launch various strategies against the 100 different demon types encountered through the course of the game. As with most RPGs of this type, Health Points and Mana Points can all be affected by the playerās moves, with various objects picked up along the way able to replenish the lost stats both in and out of battle.
The control system allows for a lot of movement for the player, allowing them to see the environments in different angles fluidly and responsively; navigating the character skills menu is simple and concise with easy access to all areas of attributes and options ā“ from changing Magatama to summoning characters to the active party. The gameās map shows the gamer where their character is and also the direction that they are pointing (which certainly comes in handy in certain indoor environments), as well as showing exactly where save points, health replenishments and other key locations can be found.
One of the really neat features of Luciferās Call is that it allows gamers to blend together some of the demons in their party in order to form more powerful demons. Done correctly, the effects can be significant and whilst the new demon will inherit certain powers from the two component demons, it is worthwhile to know that some powers can be cancelled out. In terms of gameplay, this feature allows for amazing potential as players can build up a party of severely powerful forces that will help to eradicate some of the foes faced throughout the game. There are explanations in the game that help to understand some the process so at least players wonāt be left completely in the dark but itās also not as straightforward as an ādemon1 + demon2 = demon3ā equation either.
There is certainly a lot of āgameā in Shin Megami Tensei with Atlus boasting a game experience of approximately fifty hours ā“ over double the length of some recent efforts including high profile titles such as KOTOR2, and Fable, and as with most Japanese RPG titles, the story is strong enough to keep your interest levels up. There are also multiple endings to the game, which are dependant on the decisions made by the player through the course of the story ā“ nothing new there, and with the lengthy span of the story the question is raised of whether players will go back to the beginning and take one of the other paths.
Pure anime ā“ thatās the visual style of Luciferās Call. A niche market in the UK, the anime/mange genre of animation is as youād expect in Japan, huge, and thereās also a respectful amount of fans in the US too. For anime lovers, this is probably the closest game so far to integrating the style of the sub-genre, with Luciferās Call sometimes feeling more like an interactive animation than a videogame. The character modelling fits the rest of the gameās style, with the little details such as the demonic marks on the main character changing colour depending on his state of health lending a neat visual dynamic and a helpful gameplay element. Although textures are generally kept to a minimum the environments donāt feel too samey with the range of locations actually quite diverse considering that the game takes place in the same city. Having said that the battle arenas all look the same and there is very little to distinguish them apart, which does break the flow and consistency of the rest of the game.
All of the conversations utilise text-boxes, which leads to the same old problem faced by most RPGs ā“ the vicious circles of conversations. Although the anomaly has been broken in the forthcoming adventure title Fahrenheit, it should be something that is phased out and the fact that itās used in Luciferās Call (together with some of the other previously mentioned techniques) just makes the gameplay seem a bit old and tired. That is definitely where the game is a bit weak ā“ in its gameplay originality. In terms of storyline there isnāt anything like it, and the visual style will certainly attract attention amongst the cult followers of anime in the UK.
