Was Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse Worth It?

To celebrate the remastered version of Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne, we’re taking a look at recent Megaten games. Today we’ll be asking “Was Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse Worth It?”

Table of Contents

Background

Shin Megami Tensei IV released in 2013 and did pretty well, shifting well over half a million copies. Atlus followed it up with this game in 2016. It’s easy enough to get ahold of this game nowadays, so my judgment will be more on whether the game is worth your time.

Where is it in the timeline?

This game picks up during the neutral ending of SMTIV. Flynn has gotten Masakado’s katana but hasn’t dealt with Merkabah and Lucifer yet. The events that kick off in the beginning of this game diverge into a different timeline where additional gods come into play, and that’s where everything goes off the rails.

If you’re paying attention during the dialogue and the timelines don’t sync up, there’s a reason. Tokyo is in close proximity to a black hole (the Yamato Perpetual Reactor), which dilates time. The actual in-game number doesn’t quite add up (probably a translation error), but that for every day that passes in Tokyo, 75 pass in Mikado.

What’s different?

There are several quality of life changes, notably:

More save slots
Dagda will revive you, instead of needing to pay Charon (this is more of a story/gameplay integration)
The routes are outright choices, no more point balancing
The world map has been improved
Early game is very smooth compared to IV
Partner AI has been improved (no more Walter casting Agi on Minotaur)

There is one downside to this entry, and that has to do with demon skill inheritance. I’ll admit that I got spoiled in IV, and in this game they’ve made it harder to build demons that can do everything. Demons have affinities, which is roughly the same as the player character’s skill ranks. Higher affinities mean stronger effects with a lower cost, while negative affinities will have the weaker effects or a higher cost. Many demon resistances have also been nerfed, which also encourages diversity in team building.

What does it do well?

I’d like to avoid repeating some of the same points I made in the article for Shin Megami Tensei IV. To be succinct, I would say that it capitalizes on the strengths of the previous game, while fixing some of the first game’s issues. The route selection is also much more clear.

What could it do better?

There’s one glaring issue about this game: it doesn’t really stand on its own. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a full game. However, there’s a pretty big burden of knowledge required since it builds on the events of the first game. If you go directly from one game into the other, it can definitely feel repetitive.

My other big complaint with this game is that there isn’t an option to side with the guest/spoiler characters. I can understand why it wasn’t an option, but I would have liked the flexibility.

Is it fun?

This title is among my favorite Megaten titles. If you’re invested in the Shin Megami Tensei IV story, then this is more of the same.

Value?

These two games pretty comparable when it comes to length. I’d say you probably want to run through Apocalypse twice: once for Massacre ending, and once for the Bonds ending. You can’t miss these endings, as they’re determined through dialogue choices. However, if you choose an ending that doesn’t jive with how you’ve been acting all game, then the game will inconvenience you a bit.