Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster is coming to PC on May 25. The 2003 RPG joins Persona 4 Golden in the slow, steady drip of Atlus games finally making their way to PC—Steam, more specifically.
The update features remastered 3D models and backgrounds, additional difficulty settings (some confusing messaging on that below), a suspend option for saving and resuming play at any point, Japanese and English VO, and an "alternate branch featuring Raidou Kuzunoha," whatever that means. (A little wiki diving reveals Raidou is a guest character in Nocturne, and the star of two Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner spin-offs).
Shin Megami Tensei 3 isn't quite as bubbly or chill as the Persona series, even if they share a very similar cosmology. The models and names for personas and demons are largely the same across both series. The similarities carry over to combat too: you summon, collect, and fuse these entities in SMT and Persona.
In SMT3NHDR a super apocalypse is kicking off in Tokyo and demons are running all over doing demon stuff (killing, laughing, being rude). You play as a half-demon, half-human set on saving the world, or at least finding a reason to keep on living in it. This is a game lauded for its grim, surreal theme, and I'm all about it.
ABOVE: What the original PS2 version looks like.
But I like my misery baths to focus on theme more than play, and SMT3NHDR is a notoriously punishing game, so the new Merciful difficulty might be just what I need. Strangely, the press release lists the Merciful mode as part of the $69.99 Digital Deluxe version.
The feature list is at odds with a Famitsu interview with director Kazuyuki Yamai, who indicated the mode would be free. However, the interview is from last summer's Switch port announcement, so it's possible things have changed. I've reached out for clarification and will update if I find out more. In the meantime, celebrate, because it feels like Atlus is finally giving the PC some overdue love. Let's just hope Persona 5 makes the jump soon so people actually have a reason to play Persona 5 Strikers, a sequel and spin off that landed on PC earlier this year.
