5th Shin Megami Tensei RPG for Nintendo DS

Atlus has confirmed that the fifth mainline Shin Megami Tensei RPG is coming to Nintendo DS. The last main entry in the popular series came five years ago in the form of SMT: Maniax and this new project appears to have an extremely strong development team working on it. The Producer is Kazuma Kaneko (who is also working on the Original Concept, as well as the Character and Devil Design), the Director is Eiji Ishida (who worked as Chief Designer for SMT3/Raidou/Raidou2), the game's scenario is being penned by Shogo Isogai (of SMT2/SMTif/Devil Summoner/Soul Hackers/SMT3/Raidou/Trauma series fame), whilst the Shoji Meguro is working as composer.

A strange dimension has opened in the South Pole, with the space being called the "Schwarz Birth" and it starting to expand and consume the world, leading to mass panic. Players take on the role of a Japanese member of specialist team (consisting of Gore, plus a US soldier called Himenes and a Russian scientist by the name of Zelenin) put together by the United Nations in order to tackle the unusual happening. Characters wear some Sci-Fi outfits called Demonica Suits (DEMOuntable Next Integrated Capability Armour) that can be upgraded further into the adventure using applications and they all travel around in a strong vehicle that can also fly - the Red Sprite (players will meet up with The Blue Jet, The Alps and The Gigantic along the way).

The top half of the DS will show the 3D First Person viewpoint, whilst the lower touch-screen has a map and support information (with four options: Mission Log, Demonica, Analyse, Icon Help). There are to be more than 300 demons included in Strange Journey, which is a massive 120 more than in SMT: Nocturne on the PS2. In addition there is a negotiation technique in place and a system that appears to be like Press Turn but is in fact slightly different and called 'Devil Co-op' where players that hit a weak point on an enemy during battles (with teams of up to four) can then join forces with demons to set off a devastating combination move. During missions, the team will be able to search around the world to find rare items to use with customising their kit.

The official site can be found here, and below are three video clips of the game: