Hands up who's heard of the Megami Tensei series? If you haven't, the chances are you're probably not alone. Originally based on a Japanese novel series, the Shin Megami Tensei games may be somewhat niche titles over here, but in Japan, they're up there with the likes of gaming gods Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in terms of popularity. The demon-recuiting role-playing games have spawned many sequels and spin-offs over the years, with the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei IV - now confirmed to be coming to Europe - marking the first brand-new entry in the main series for over a decade.
Set partly in the fictional country of East Mikado, and partially in futuristic Tokyo, you join the ranks of a mysterious order of samurai who fight demons in secret in order to keep the populace safe. As with most of the other Megami Tensei games, Shin Megami Tensei IV is promised to have an epic story and characters, with multiple endings to play through, dependent on the choices you make. Whether it's the different factions you side with, or even something you say to the creepy Black Samurai, everything has a consequence, and has the potential to take you down a different path in the story. On a more light-hearted note, you'll also be able to customise your characters by dressing them in a myriad of different costumes - after all, nothing strikes fear into your enemies' hearts quite like a samurai in a bunny hat.
For a secret society, their meeting place isn't all that secret...
Battles are entirely turn-based, meaning you have plenty of time to calculate your next move from a list of various actions, while the series-staple 'Press-Turn' battle system means that when you exploit your enemies' weaknesses, you can net yourself a bonus extra turn as a reward. To further turn the tide of battle, your characters can also choose to perform little smirks that boost their stats and shield their weaknesses - although the catch is that your enemies can grin too.
Perhaps the single most important part of your Shin Megami scuffles are the demons - kind of like the Pokemon games, there's a whole host of beasties to fight, who'll join you in battle if you can woo them enough. With some 400 demons to recruit, each with their own personalities, and a fusion system which lets you mix multiple monsters together to get another more powerful one, completionists will certainly have their work cut out.
While the Shin Megami Tensei games have a bit of a reputation for being a bit on the hard side, Shin Megami Tensei IV will include multiple difficulty levels to make it more accessible for newbies - the save point system has also been eliminated in favour of saving and loading wherever and whenever you choose, making it much more suited to portable play. If only more Japanese role-playing games would follow suit...Shin Megami Tensei IV is due out in America on the 16th of July, although when we should expect it to land on European shores, we don't know. Considering it took nearly two years for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked to hit UK 3DS' we think we may be in for a long wait, especially as Nintendo of Europe's Satoru Shibata didn't mention any specific release dates in yesterday's Nintendo Direct web broadcast.
