Update: One brave bilingual fan, Brent, has already put together an English patch for Synchronicity Prologue. You can download it here. To install it, simply extract its contents (one .dat file), open your Synchronicity folder, open the 'data' folder within it, open the 'font' folder within that, and drag the new .dat file into it. A prompt will ask if you want to replace the file, which you do. Confirm this prompt, boot up the game and you'll be good to go, sans kanji.
Finally, Shin Megami Tensei has come to the PC … is what I'd love to write, but Atlus' stellar JRPG series is still tied to consoles and handhelds. Though you wouldn't know it from Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue, which released on PC today. Synchronicity is a free side-scroller by Krobon Station, makers of Pharaoh Rebirth+, intended to drum up the upcoming release of Shin Megami Tensei: Deep Strange Journey on 3DS, a remake of 2009's Strange Journey. It started as a short gag in a trailer for Deep Strange Journey, but it's actually a legitimate game.
Promotional or not, Synchronicity is a pretty fun side-scroller. It stars Jack Frost and Pyro Jack, two of the most iconic demons in the SMT series, and features many familiar systems like elemental weaknesses. It's also very Metroid, complete with keys to collect and square-based maps to explore. Fan favorite demons like Alice, the queen of the death arcana (and nobody is going to tell me otherwise), and old faces like Girimehkala also make an appearance.
It's mostly in Japanese, but the important bits are in English so it's perfectly playable. The controls are simple as can be, too. By default you move with the arrow keys, Z is attack, X is jump, C uses your current skill, V swaps characters, and Space pauses the game.
You can remap everything or switch to gamepad controls when you boot up the game, which you can download here. Just download it, extract it, click through to the Synchronicity application and run it. And do it relatively quickly; as Gematsu reports, Synchronicity will only be available until December 24.
