Shin Megami Tensei 5 in preview: Switch replacement for Persona 5?

First of all, the question that comes up again and again in context: What does Shin Megami Tensei have to do with the Persona series? Quite simply: The Persona games are a spin-off from Shin Megami Tensei and have, at least in the West, clearly overtaken the parent brand in popularity. The last part of Shin Megami Tensei (which by the way is only called Megami Tensei in Japan) was released in 2016 as Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse exclusively for the 3DS - so it was quite a while ago.

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1 old problems, new problems 2 worries about SMT 5 Atlus has been working on the big fifth part of the series since at least 2017, the role-playing game is supposed to appear in early 2021. But so far there has been shockingly little information about the game!

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Persona 5 in the video test: The best RPG of this year? loadVideoPlayer ('73448', '& sAdSetCsategory = article_featured', 12, '16: 9 ', false, 1364720, false, 266908, 260, false, 0,' ',' ', false); Persona 5 from € 29.15 It would still be a shame if Switch owners overlooked this potential gem - so here's a rough look at what JRPG-savvy gamblers might already be able to offer in the first few months of the year.

Old problems, new problems

Demons lurk everywhere! The protagonist of the game can, however, conveniently let the monsters fight for his own ends. Source: Atlus Producer of Shin Megami Tensei 5 is Kazuyuki Yamai, who already did a good job as Director of Shin Megami Tensei 4. Number five in the series is designed to address and depict problems in modern society, such as unemployment, terrorism, worries about retirement and family disputes. Of course, the world has been dealing primarily with a completely new, different problem called COVID-19 since 2020, but the team around Shin Megami Tensei 5 can just as little look to the future as the rest of the world. The Tokyo of the present serves as the setting for the action, but it is standard production with a post-apocalyptic flair and many demons. These creatures are in Shin Megami Tensei, which is a persona in the Persona series: Monsters to send into confrontations.

Welcome to Tokyo, a city we have visited many times (in video games), which we never get enough of! Source: Atlus Although no information has yet been published on the details of the combat system, we would be very surprised if the fifth part of the series deviated significantly from its predecessors. That means: In turn-based duels you send demons into the ring and try to exploit the enemy's weak points. As usual in the genre, there are different types of demons, each of which has various resistances and Achilles heels. You can get to new monsters by negotiating with them or by merging several specimens into a new subspecies - this will also sound familiar to players who have already gained experience with the Persona series. As with the sister series, you are not alone in Tokyo, but meet other comrades-in-arms and, of course, villains on your adventures.

Worries about SMT 5

After the long silence around Shin Megami Tensei 5 worried many players - has the title been discontinued? In 2019, Atlus got rid of these rumors by confirming that the manufacturer and developer were still working on SMT 5 as planned. According to the team, the fact that the work takes so much time is also due to the fact that no Switch game has yet been programmed and that the console is much more potent than the good old 3DS - so the creation of all models is like that of the over 100 demons much more complex. After all, the finished game should look good on both small and large screens!