One lovely side-effect of nearly every game coming to PC these days is that Nintendo Direct showcases tend to be full of great new announcements for us. Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is one that falls especially near and dear to my heart.
Released way back in 2006 on the PlayStation 2, it’s a historical spinoff from Atlus’ venerable Shin Megami Tensei series. The first half of a duology of games about a paranormal detective solving crimes (and averting the occasional apocalypse) in 1930s Tokyo.
And now it’s coming to PC. This June, in fact, and hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we get the second half of the adventure. Take a look at the announcement trailer below, showcasing the spinoff’s big divergence from classic Shin Megami Tensei design: Real-time action RPG combat.
Interestingly, this appears to be more of a full remake than a remaster. The original game featured pre-rendered backdrops for town scenes that honestly looked a little blurry even for their time (and look much worse when emulated), while the walking-about-town gameplay shown in the trailer above appears to be real-time 3D. Immediately a visual step up. The combat is looking somewhat flashier too, although it still looks to retain a bit of that PS2 stiffness.
But what really made the Raidou Kuzonoha series great wasn’t the combat or visuals (although Kazuma Kaneko’s sharp-edged character designs are still exceptionally cool), but rather the setting. 1930s imperial-era Japan makes for a politically complex backdrop, and they really don’t pull any punches about growing pre-war tensions. Plus, it lets them mix in a bunch of real-life figures (Rasputin is a major figure in these games) and some fictional ones. Your demon-fusion mentor is Victor Von Frankenstein, after all.
The games also had some fun in how you used your cadre of demons, devils and spirits. While you can see all things supernatural and can hop between the physical and spiritual realms, most people are oblivious to the supernatural. That doesn’t mean they’re unaffected. Meet someone that’s too dejected to talk? Summon a flame imp to stoke the fires of someone’s heart and they’ll perk right up. And this of course ties into the whole supernatural detective angle.
It’s great to see the series getting another chance in the spotlight, and it looks like they’re really putting some time and effort into this remake, including an all-new english voice cast. The only downside is that this being Atlus, the price tag is a bit intimidating. The Steam store page is already taking preorders at £45/$50 for the regular edition, and £55/$65 for the deluxe, which includes a handful of extra demons, a bunch of challenge missions to unlock extra skills and a bunch of booster items.
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