Could Shin Megami Tensei 5 be a sequel to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne?
Shin Megami Tensei 5 is enough by itself to direct all the spotlights towards you, especially because it will offer something new, so why the idea of proposing a high-definition version of the third chapter? The suspicion is this is not a simple coincidence but a suggestion, not too veiled, that Shin Megami Tensei V may be a sequel to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, precisely of the True Demon Ending that this director's cut introduced in 2004: remember that the original dates back to the previous year. Obviously, these are assumptions, as Atlus has not yet issued anything outside the trailer, but some interesting details can be seen right inside the trailer.
The end is the beginning
Citing in part the television series Dark, when we talk about Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, there is no better place from which to start the conclusion. The third chapter was on the whole a consolidation and at the same time, revision of the identity of the series; respects the legacy of the previous titles, winning at the same time, an aesthetic and an overall complexity that these were missing, but it is in the final, reaching its maximum peak. The main chapters have always offered multiple endings , obtained by aligning themselves with the ideological position of the two factions in the game - angels and demons - to rebuild the world in their image and likeness.As often happens when you have multiple conclusions, one of them ends up being recognized as the canonical or true: the first chapter chooses neutrality trying to balance a vision of the "dictatorship" of the rule of law in heaven and the formless freedom that is due to the chaos; the second, instead, prefer to align themselves with the chaos, marking the earthly liberation for all those who felt oppressed by God. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne comes to the outstretched leg with his True Demon Ending (omitted from the original version published in 2003) and rejects this linear scale alignment, rejecting the very concept of having to affiliate to the one or to the other party, even in the middle in order to break this continued cycle of destruction and rebirth, thus bringing the universe to its initial state of primordial chaos. An action that does not go unnoticed in the eyes of God, furious with the protagonist to the point that they damn him for eternity: his fate was to be trapped in an eternal succession of suffering, death, and rebirth, forced to witness the creation and destruction of each world without the ability to influence the outcome. Despite its fate, the protagonist has the support of Lucifer and becomes the general, ready to lead the army against YHVH to defeat it permanently.
From Nocturne to SMT V
we do Not know how this battle has ended but the trailer of Shin Megami Tensei V is not only us standing in front of a Lucifer identical to that seen in the course of the True Ending of Nocturne, does it even speak in a way that reminds us that actually the consequences of that finale. The fact that God is dead, according to what it says, it could refer to the fact that the famous battle to the Demon-Fiend (the protagonist of SMT III) he led his armies ended with the defeat of YHVH and the taking of power by the Chaos - as, moreover, he himself emphasizes - through which the world can be born again going to meet an unknown future. Something that was not previously possible because the end of the original SMT and SMT II had a alignment that is precise from the consequences thereof. Having freed the worlds from the control of God, having even destroyed the concept of time in the process, we do not know what is the future and is a result in line with what is considered the conclusion canonical Nocturne.To strengthen this hypothesis of the mysterious figure who lends a hand, literally, with the protagonist in trouble, while the voice of Lucifer reminds him that in a world devoid of its Creator (again, it is supposed to YHVH), he is free to choose and forge your own destiny: a discourse that cannot not bring to mind the Demon-Fiend, and his decision to break an eternal cycle, decreeing their alleged destiny, but in fact making a choice that was only his, and not dictated by some alignment. Not to mention that, at first glance, the figure above refers to the protagonist of Nocturne in spite of the differences: if you want to speculate even more, it is not excluded that he will offer his strength to the protagonist to help him in whatever the venture that will be called upon to perform, making Shin Megami Tensei V a sequel to right.
direct us To this possibility are two aspects in particular: the first, most obvious, and already mentioned, is the choice to bring a HD version of Nocturne making it come first of the fifth chapter, almost in preparation for what awaits us. The second, more smoky, but still we feel that we can take into account, is dictated by the message to the league, the announcement of the remaster to that of SMT V. "And this is not the only adventure on the horizon... Because, in its wake, a new journey is about to begin". They could use any other expression but choose your own "on her trail" may just be a ploy to make us believe that between the two parts there is really a link, or a real clue that suggests an actual link. Trying to reinterpret the sentence in this way - "in The wake [of Nocturne's], [SMT V] is about to begin" - we realize that is not much span for air. In short, the communication around Shin Megami Tensei, both in terms of both content and presentation, itself, is intentionally misleading, but there are a few too many winks to at least not consider that Shin Megami Tensei V is really a sequel to Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
