Well, the new victim was Shin Megami Tensei III to be precise. I was finally able to best the last two bosses in the game Friday night. The last boss was pretty easy compared to the boss I had to fight before it (Baal Avatar in my path.) Actually, I only had to fight the last boss twice (I had no idea his 2nd form’s uber attack would be so… uber.)

One of the most interesting things about this RPG is that it’s not about saving the world. Actually, it’s already too late to do that. The world ends in the first 30 minutes of the game. In its place, a temporary world, the Vortex World, is created. Your character and 6 other humans are the only ones to survive the end of the world, although they all become separated. While being transported, you get turned into a Demi-Fiend, a demon with a human heart. Your job, you find out, is to create a world based on a Reason from one of the other humans.

The interesting thing about the three primary Reasons: Shijima, Mosuba, and Yosuba, is that they are all inherently flawed. Shijima is idea to create a world of stillness. It is devoid of emotion. The character behind it believes that such a world would bring people closer to the world. However, as one of the characters remark, such a world would not be able to sustain itself.

Yosuba is the Reason where only the powerful are allowed to exist. The character behind that Reason does it because she no longer wants to be in the lower class (of course, humans are lower than demons on the power scale.) Ironically, there would still be a lower class in the new world, the weakest of the strong. Not only that, but it would be a world of paranoia since one’s standing depends on their strength and there would be constant challenges.

The last Reason is Musubi. It emphasizes the self to such extreme as to preach that everyone should be totally isolated from one another. Looking past the obvious faults of this, it’s just plain ironic. The character behind this gem of a Reason relies on the Demi-Fiend’s help throughout the game. Yea, you can tell I hate him.

The battle system in this game is unique (at least, for a turn-based RPG.) Nocturne uses what Atlus calls its ‘Press turn system.’ This system rewards the player for smart moves while severely punishes him for bad ones. Vague? Yeah. Here’s an example: Say you’re fighting four demons and your current party consists of four, so you each get four turns (your four turns usually iscomes before theirs.) And let’s say one of the enemy demons has a fire weakness. One of your demons attacks said demon with a fire spell. Not only does that fire attack do extra damage, but it also give one half turn to your party. A half turn is almost like a full turn except that it goes away if you choose the ‘wait’ command.

However, say that the demon voided fire attacks instead. Not only could this take away all of your turns, but it could also damage the demon who did the attack. People find, as they play the game, that the use of the right skills at the right times determine victory more often than single battles (alas, the random battles can be as difficult as bosses sometimes, just because you don’t have the right demons.)

All in all, even though I took a huge hiatus near the end of the game, Nocturne may just be one of my favorite RPGs of the PS2 era. Those that are still able to find it are highly recommended to purchase it. In fact, you’re doing a disservice right now by reading this post instead of looking for the game.