ANALYSIS: Shin Megami Tensei Switch Reveal Trailer!

Atlus is releasing an ALL-NEW Shin Megami Tensei game on the Nintendo Switch, and we’re here with a head-to-toe breakdown of all its secrets!

Fans of Atlus games have been waiting since 2013 for the next numbered entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series. This past January the waiting seems to finally be over as Atlus announced a new Shin Megami Tensei game for the Nintendo Switch with a surprising reveal trailer that showed off many of the series’ signature demons...and many more things you probably missed! While it’s true this trailer doesn’t reveal a lot about the game and Atlus hasn’t released any details about it since, there’s still more than enough details in the trailer to keep rabid Shin Megami Tensei fans like us satisfied for another 3-6 months.

So with help from user take_a_hit_1962 from the Recreational Vehicles subforum of the CamperCommunity.com BBS, we were able to bring you a COMPLETE analysis of the the demons’ identities and any other hidden details so easy to overlook that we guarantee no one else noticed them!

Let’s get things started! 

The trailer kicks things off with a look inside of some kind of building that has clearly seen better days (1). Right away we get the apocalyptic setting the series is known for, so whatever this game ends up being you know it’s going to be a real Shin Megami Tensei game. Through the large windows we can clearly see other buildings. This may be a reference to the previous game in the series, Shin Megami Tensei IV, which also featured many high-rises in its backgrounds; could this game be set in the same universe as Shin Megami Tensei IV and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse?

Next, the camera pans over to the Atlus logo (2), which is circled by a blooming rose plant. Atlus is the company that makes Shin Megami Tensei, so it makes sense that the company logo would be one of the first things you see in the trailer. After all, they have made every prior game in the series so they want people to know that this new game will be up to the same standards as previous entries in the series. It’s a good sign that this game, presumably Shin Megami Tensei V, will be as beloved by fans as previous Shin Megami Tensei games. We’ll come back to the significance of the roses in a bit.

As the camera continues to pan to the right, something brand new appears, the logo for Shin Megami Tensei’s 25th anniversary (3). This logo is interesting for a number of reasons. First, we have the star in the middle of the logo. While there are so many stars in this series, this particular star and the way it spins should be very familiar to series fans, as it is identical to the way the demon Decarabia looks and animates. Decarabia is a powerful demon of Hell, so will he be the central villain of Shin Megami Tensei V? He could be, but we think it could be something more, that Decarabia has a chance of being the main character of the game, given the star’s prominent central placement in the series’ anniversary logo.

As for the second interesting thing about the logo, there are the dates and the roman numerals beside those dates along the inside perimeter of the square. These could mean anything, but we are willing to guess that these will have significance for the final release of the game. Will the game take place across four time periods? Will there be four Tokyos, each for 1992, 1994, 2003, and 2013? Since Atlus games are known for having surprising twists, we would expect a similar one to be in store for us in Shin Megami Tensei V.

After the 25th anniversary logo disappears another logo appears, for something called Unreal Engine (4). While we weren’t able to figure out exactly what Unreal Engine is, it probably means that this will be the engine used by the game. All games need an engine to work, that’s just one of the rules of modern game development. Perhaps it’s a reference to the PlayStation 2’s Emotion Engine and Shin Megami Tensei V will intentionally be a throwback to that golden era of Shin Megami Tensei games. But we whatever this engine turns out to be, we feel Atlus will put it to good use.

Next, the trailer turns back to the empty, decrepit office before rose petals fly into the room through the window (5). These petals and the blooming rose plants surrounding the Atlus logo as mentioned before must certainly be significant for them to appear so prominently in the trailer. For that meaning, we came to two possible explanations. The first is that the roses are a reference to the Rose of Versailles, the manga Isabeau is reading in Shin Megami Tensei IV. If this is correct, then that would possibly suggest that Shin Megami Tensei V is a continuation of the Shin Megami Tensei IV universe. The second is that the roses refer to Tiki’s Bloom Palace in Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, meaning that Shin Megami Tensei V would be a continuation of that game’s story. Who would have expected a post-apocalyptic Tokyo Mirage Sessions? Not us, and that’s exactly the kind of surprise dark direction we expect Atlus to take with this game.

As the trailer’s camera pans right to follow the rose petals, we are finally introduced to the stars of our trailer: the demons, a whole boatload of them (6). There’s probably over 80 in this screen alone. While it’s impressive to see this many demons at once, unfortunately for identification purposes they are all obscured by darkness except for their eerie, glowing eyes. While this made identifying them more difficult than expected, our Shin Megami Tensei experts made relatively short work of sussing out their identities.

A. First, there’s a snake-like woman on the far left of the demon menagerie. Though there are many demons in the series snake-like tails or lower bodies, we’re certain this is Medusa as seen in Shin Megami Tensei IV and Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse.

B. The demon next to Medusa is too dark to make out for sure, but the spike on its head probably means it’s a Unicorn.

C. Next to Unicorn is a floating pair of eyes. It too is dark and obscured, but we know of only one floating pair of eyes in the series and that’s SMT1’s Cyak.

D. Next to Cyak is what appears to be an elephant. Unfortunately, Shin Megami Tensei has too many demons that fit that description, making it almost impossible to identify.

Moving to the far right of the demon spread and things become much easier to see and identify! 

E. Right away, we see a familiar dress: Titania! Curiously, it uses her old Shin Megami Tensei II design rather than the modern design seen in Shin Megami Tensei IV and Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse. Because of this, we think this is actually not Titania and the actual Titania will appear with the newer design, while the demon seen here will be given a new name.

F. Next to the old Titania design you can see a star shape. While there are many stars in the series, we have to assume that, because of another demon we’ll identify shortly, this can only be Agathion, which has a Star of David on its jar.

G. There’s only one more demon you can only see from this angle, and it looks like a collection of spheres or heads. That description can only describe Kami-Otoko.

Next in the trailer, the camera centers squarely on the demons from the center. 

H. THOr

I. To the left of Thor is a pinkish version of Choronzon from Nocturne.

J. To the right of Thor is the demon Ose. You have to wonder, with his codpiece having such a prominent place in the shot, if Ose or what his codpiece is hiding will have a major role in the story. Shin Megami Tensei is a Mature series, so this wouldn’t surprise us.

K. Next to Ose is the infamous Mara, who is an unmistakable, constant presence in the MegaTen fandom. Why? We think she (yes, little known fact: Mara’s a girl!) speaks for herself.

As the camera zooms out, we begin to see even more of the demons that have defined the franchise.

L. Okay, down there on the right is a cat-like demon. While there are many cat demons in the series, this one is certainly Nekomata.

M. Across from Nekomata is the popular demon Cu Chulainn (pronounced “koo-koo-lane”). Cu Chulainn is one of the more useful demons in the franchise, often having an assortment of skills for you to use. Considering he’s in the game, we would not be surprised to see his teacher Scathach also appear in the game considering they are often paired when appearing in the Shin Megami Tensei series.

N. Behind Nekomata is the Scathach (pronounced “scat-hatch”). It’s hard to tell from the darkness, but Scathach wears a mask, signifying her connections to the Persona series.

O.

P. Behind Cu Chulainn is the demon Mitra from Strange Journey. Considering his connections to the demon Mithras, we think it’s highly likely that they will appear together in Shin Megami Tensei V.

Finally, the camera pulls all the way back so we can see the entire group of demons in all their HD glory.

Q. Leading the pack is of course the most famous and cutest demon of them all, Jack Frost. Or at least one of many Jack Frosts. It’s hard to tell because of how dark the trailer is, but this Jack could actually be one of the special Frosts like Melon or Strawberry Frost. Another possibility, based on how he’s animated, is that this Frost is probably the unique NPC Jack Frost Heeho, from Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Could this mean that Shin Megami Tensei V will have connections to Nocturne?

R. This floating head demon up front can only be series regular Masakado, particularly the floating head design from Shin Megami Tensei IV. Masakado represents the fierce Yamato spirit of the Japanese, so for us this all but confirms that this game will take place in Tokyo.

S. To the right of Heeho is Mandarake, a demon so rare it doesn’t seem to have a page on the official wiki!

T. This is Lilith, who appears to be using a new design.

U. To the right of Lilith is Silky, one of the demons with better offense-oriented attacks.

V. Across from them we have the famous cutie Pixie, using her original blue leotard design.

W. Next to Pixie is a goddess. There are many goddesses in the series, but this one is certainly Parvati, only holding Saravati’s guitar. Why Parvati is holding Sarasvati’s guitar is a deep mystery, and will certainly be explored in the game. We can’t wait to find out.

X. To the right of Parvati is Lenin Sidhe (pronounced “lee-ann…[look up later]”), and I can’t believe I was late on my car payment, dammit. This month has just been too hectic.

Y.  This is Sybil, appearing from the Persona series and 

Z. There are so many elephants in the series. I just can’t know who this is. Airavata, Purski, elephant from Devil Children, maybe someone out there knows, I’m cold.

Moving on the left side there are more demons.

AA. It’s Decarabia or Kaiwan both are stars. That’s all I know.

BB. This is Parvati, why does she appear twice? Well, some demons appear more than once in some of the games. Like, you can fight three Ganeshas at once in some games. What the heck? Demons are mysterious creatures, that’s for sure.

CC. Incubus. I remember seeing them live once.

DD. It’s too dark to see what this thing is. That’s why we think it is probably a Mirage from the game Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, namely Nickelwise, because of its long neck and various bodily protrusions. It’s very bold of Atlus to include enemies from this crossover into a main series game. This also legitimizes #FE as a title within the Shin Megami Tensei franchise!

Now, finally, to the three demons way in the back. 

EE. On the right is a mostly obscured demon whose only visible elements are a pair of horns. While there are many horned demons in the series, based on the placement of the horns, the approximate color palette of the pixels surrounding the horns, the background noise, and its relative position to the other demons, we have to say that it’s the persona Io from Persona 3. Yukari Takeba’s starter persona, Io is a strong choice for making into a main series demon, plus it looks cool, to boot.

FF. In the center is the archangel Gabriel, an interesting choice given her recent history in the series. As you may know, Shin Megami Tensei IV graced Gabriel and the other archangels with new designs more fitting of their status as fearsome angels. But as great as those designs were, we’re totally fine with reverting back to her original design from Shin Megami Tensei II, though we hope we haven’t seen the last of the new designs just yet.

GG. The last demon in our group is the almighty angel Metatron. Metatron’s presence in the trailer undoubtedly means that the eternal Law and Chaos war will be in full effect once again, I’m sure to the excitement of everyone in the Shin Megami Tensei fandom. We know this because of Metatron’s high status in the army of YHVH (pronounced “#$%?@”) and the fact that he wouldn’t appear unless there were legions of demons, led by Lucifer, to destroy. We can’t wait to see how it unfolds!

But that’s not all. The trailer has one more surprise in store, and it’s a big one indeed.  

This of course is Odin (JJ), particularly his new design from Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. Wow. That’s the first thing we have to say about that. This new design is incredibly impressive and cool, and that’s all it needs to be. It’s miles ahead in the cool department from the simple original Odin design that almost all Shin Megami Tensei games have featured. It’s hard to believe it took almost 25 years for that design to be replaced by something better, but now it finally has.

The trailer ends with a flourish of rose petals (LL) blowing past a close-up of Odin’s head. Surely the rose petals will have a major role in the game’s story. Given that Shin Megami Tensei games always deal in some sort of apocalypse, the abundance of roses and rose petals says to us that this time around the apocalypse could have been environmental in nature, such as the effects of a greenhouse effect. Like global warming, the greenhouse effect would cause more and more plants to bloom, including the roses. But it’s hard to know for sure until more information about Shin Megami Tensei V is released!

Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long for another tidbit. When revealing Shin Megami Tensei: Deep Strange Journey, Atlus also teased this piece of concept art from Shin Megami Tensei V.

It shows a huge hand of a statue in a desert environment, along with a utility pole in the front. To us, it couldn’t be more clear: Though there are a lot of deserts in the series, this particular desert and statue look identical to similar scenes in Shin Megami Tensei IV, suggesting that Shin Megami Tensei V will be a continuation of the story from Shin Megami Tensei IV, particularly its alternate future Blasted Tokyo scenario. We couldn’t be more thrilled to see how they flesh out one of the more popular worlds in the Shin Megami Tensei Multiverse.

That’s it from us! Thanks for reading and we hoped you were able to learn something from our extensive look! Please bookmark, share, and like Megaten-Maniax for Shin Megami Tensei content of similar quality!