Popular Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne was announced earlier this year to be receiving a long-awaited remake. The remake, which will feature updated graphics, some rewritten dialogue, and significantly more voice acted segments, will be debuting for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in Japan in 2020, and internationally in 2021.
Nocturne, similar to other titles published by developer Atlus, gained quite the reputation for its notorious difficulty. The playable character is forced to undergo a constant barrage of battles against fiends and demons which have invaded our world, including some infamously tricky boss fights with a steep difficulty curve. While the original version of Nocturne sold well and gained international popularity, some fans felt turned away from the game due to concerns regarding this challenging play style.
In an interview conducted during the all-digital Tokyo Game Show 2020 event, Shin Megami Tensei series director Kazuyuki Yamai officially announced that the remake of Nocturne will feature a less difficult “Merciful Mode”. Due to the amount of work required, Merciful Mode is still in progress and will be released as DLC sometime after the game’s release. Yamai specifically described Merciful Mode as “less demonic” than the original Nocturne‘s standard difficulty, and recommended it to fans who wanted to experience all of the game’s multiple endings without having to constantly slog through tricky fights.
Yamai admitted that fundamentally altering the game so significantly was not an easy process for the development team behind the Nocturne remake. However, the series director feels that this is a worthwhile decision, as it will bring more fans to the Shin Megami Tensei series who were not previously able to enjoy Nocturne’s highly praised story.
Additional DLC for Nocturne has been confirmed to add Devil May Cry’s Dante in a small but crucial role, restoring another highly praised element of the original game.
