Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (2003)
Atlus's Stark Apocalyptic Tokyo RPG That Introduced the Press Turn Battle System on PS2
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (released in Europe as Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call) is a 2003 PlayStation 2 role-playing game directed by Katsura Hashino, illustrated by Kazuma Kaneko, and scored by Shoji Meguro at Atlus. Set inside an inverted Tokyo desert after the apocalyptic Conception, it cast the tattooed Demi-fiend amid philosophical creation ideologies while debuting the influential Press Turn combat system.
The Conception, Vortex World, and Philosophical Isolation
Arriving nearly nine years after Shin Megami Tensei II on the Super Famicom, Nocturne shattered conventional RPG openings by ending the world within its first half hour. Visiting his teacher inside an eerie Shinjuku hospital, an ordinary high-school student witnesses the Conception—an occult cataclysm that annihilates humanity and curls Tokyo inward into the hollow sphere of the Vortex World. Reborn as the glowing-tattooed Demi-fiend through a Magatama parasite bestowed by a mysterious child, the solitary hero recruits and fuses mythological demons while former classmates champion stark cosmic 'Reasons'—social Darwinism, stillness, or radical solitude—rendered in Kazuma Kaneko's austere cel-shaded minimalism.
Press Turn Tactical Mastery and Dante's Crossover Appearance
Mechanically, director Katsura Hashino revolutionized turn-based RPG tension with the Press Turn system: striking elemental weaknesses or landing critical hits converts action icons into bonus half-turns, whereas missing or hitting an enemy's immunity strips turns away—rules obeyed identically by players and ruthless bosses such as skeletal matador fiend Matador. Scored by Shoji Meguro's distorted guitar riffs and liturgical synth organ, the expanded 2004 Maniax edition—used as the basis for North America's Nocturne and Europe's Lucifer's Call—added the multi-stratum Labyrinth of Amala and a landmark Capcom crossover starring Devil May Cry's Dante as a relentless hunter and recruitable ally.