Between Persona 5 Royal and Scramble, Atlus has been pumping out new titles for one of their biggest worldwide hits of all time. The last time we saw anything from Persona’s mother series, Shin Megami Tensei was back in 2018 with the remastered edition of Strange Journey (released as Strange Journey Redux) for the Nintendo 3DS. Shin Megami Tensei V was first revealed in January 2017 as part of an early line of Nintendo Switch titles in development, and then later showcased again in October the same year.
The day before the July Nintendo Mini Direct, fan accounts and community hubs for Persona and Atlus on Twitter started a chain tweet saying, “SMT V will come in the latest direct” accompanied by a photo of Tatsuya Suou, the protagonist of Persona 2: Innocent Sin.
https://twitter.com/GleoGlex/status/1285067660884049921
Persona 5: Scramble may have been highly anticipated, having been released five months ago in Japan and still not even receiving a seasonal target release for the West. Yet, several hundreds of tweets with no basis have ironically paid off as Shin Megami Tensei V was the final game revealed in the Mini Direct, showcasing a new trailer with news of a simultaneous worldwide release in 2021. This will be the first time an Atlus game can be enjoyed by audiences at the same time, throughout the world.
While still very little detail is known about Shin Megami Tensei V, the trailer opened with a pan shot of Lucifer (Shin Megami Tensei II, devil design) and his army, announcing the god mankind has worshipped for centuries is finally dead. Lucifer declares the world’s destruction and makes an offer to the player, stating they can reshape the world from within the chaos if they take hold of their own destiny, and that the choice is up to them.
Timeline placement is unknown, but Atlus hasn’t always been consistent with game timelines (outside of Persona, at least), usually making every game their stand-alone story even if they co-exist in the same universe as others. Odds are, Shin Megami Tensei V will follow the precedent set by previous games being in their own universe.
Shin Megami Tensei V arrives in 2021, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
That wasn’t all Shin Megami Tensei fans had to look forward to from the Mini Direct…
