Video game fans of all ages worldwide are hotly anticipating various video games that are due to be launched in 2021. With this, here is a look at Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei V, one of the most eagerly awaited video games set to debut on various video game platforms next year.
Developed and published by Atlus, Shin Megami Tensei V is an upcoming role-playing video game that is part of the Shin Megami Tensei series.
A part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise, Shin Megami Tensei V is scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch in early 2021.
Shin Megami Tensei V is produced by Shin Megami Tensei IV director Kazuyuki Yamai and is designed as a hybrid between Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and Shin Megami Tensei IV, featuring returning gameplay mechanics such as raising and fusing demons.
Furthermore, Shin Megami Tensei V is a role-playing video game set in modern-day Tokyo. It will feature returning gameplay elements from previous Shin Megami Tensei games, such as the ability to fuse demons, along with new mechanics.
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus
Producer: Kazuyuki Yamai
Series: Megami Tensei
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Release: 2021
Genre: Role-playing
Mode: Single-player
Development
One of the development team’s goals with the game is to depict and sympathize with the “characteristics of the times,” such as unemployment, unease about retirement, terrorism, and nuclear weapons, and problems at home.
Shin Megami Tensei V is developed as a hybrid between the “profound charm” of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and the demon-raising gameplay in Shin Megami Tensei IV.
Development is done using the game engine Unreal Engine 4, a first for Atlus.
According to Yamai, moving to Unreal Engine, 4 changed the way they create games, as the ability to create something and immediately saw it within the game allows them to spend more time on trial and error and coming up with ideas.
The decision to develop the game for the Nintendo Switch was made as Yamai liked its portability combined with its capability for high-definition graphics, although there were some challenges involved since Shin Megami Tensei V was Atlus’s first time developing for the platform.
The higher hardware capabilities of the Nintendo Switch meant that the demons in the game are developed to match and take approximately three times as long to develop compared to demons in previous Shin Megami Tensei games for older platforms.
The Shin Megami Tensei V title was announced in October of the same year, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original Shin Megami Tensei, along with a new trailer showing a modern-day Tokyo train station and a post-apocalyptic city scene.
By February 2018, Yamai described the project as having entered “full-scale development,” with more and more Atlus staff joining the production.
In July 2020, a trailer was shown during a Nintendo Direct presentation, announcing a simultaneous worldwide release date for 2021.
Thus far, here are few reactions of video game geeks to Shin Megami Tensei V: