Shin Megami Tensei: NINE

Shin Megami Tensei: Nine
Developer(s) Atlus
Nex Entertainment
Publisher(s) Atlus
Director(s) Kazuma Kaneko
Producer(s) Koji Okada
Artist(s) Yasuomi Umetsu
Kazuma Kaneko
Composer(s) Masaki Kurokawa
Takahiro Ogata
Series Megami Tensei
Platform(s) Xbox
Release date(s)
  • JP 5 December 2002
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Shin Megami Tensei: Nine (Japanese: 真・女神転生 NINE) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for Xbox on December 5, 2002, in Japan. It takes place in the year "202X", both in Tokyo and in a virtual reality. The player takes the role of Kei Azuma, a "debugger" who tries to stop a demon invasion in the virtual world.

The game was initially planned as an online game, but due to problems with the development, it was divided into a stand-alone offline version and an online version; the offline version was published, but development of the online version was halted. Among the staff working on the game was producer Koji Okada, director and character designer Kazuma Kaneko, character designer Yasuomi Umetsu, and composers Masaki Kurokawa and Takahiro Ogata.

Gameplay and setting

Shin Megami Tensei: Nine is a role-playing video game.[1] It takes place in the year "202X" in Tokyo and in a virtual reality called Idea Space, which is based on a 1990s Tokyo. The main character is Kei Azuma (アズマ ケイ Azuma Kei), a "debugger" who tries to stop a demon invasion in Idea Space;[2][3] the player can choose Kei's gender, and can change their name.[2]

The player is able to walk around in the game world, and can move between different districts by using a menu. The game's battles take place in real time.[2] The player is able to summon demons; the amount of demons they can summon depends on the player's and the demon's "kilodevil" value. For instance, a player with 100 kilodevil can summon two 50-kilodevil demons. The player can compress their demons by visiting the Cathedral of Shadows; doing this halves the demons' kilodevil values, allowing the player to summon more demons.[4]

Development

The game was developed by Atlus.[5] It was produced by Koji Okada and directed by Kazuma Kaneko.[6] Kaneko also designed the demons in the game, while Yasuomi Umetsu designed the remaining characters.[7] The music was composed and arranged by Masaki Kurokawa and Takahiro Ogata.[8] Shin Megami Tensei: Nine is not the ninth game in Shin Megami Tensei series; the "Nine" in the title refers to the number of moral alignments that are available in the Shin Megami Tensei games.[2]

Shin Megami Tensei: Nine was announced in June 2002 at an Xbox conference.[9] Initially, it was planned to be an online game, but in August 2002, Atlus announced that they would divide the game in two parts: one stand-alone offline version, and one online version. The reason given for this was that the development team did not have enough time to integrate all online functions they wanted to include in the game, and that Atlus did not want to delay the game's release.[10] The offline version was published by Atlus for Xbox on December 5, 2002, in Japan.[1] Atlus also planned to release the online version in 2002 for Xbox, but put development on hold due to the high costs of developing an online game, and postponed the release until 2003.[11] In August 2003, they announced that they no longer had any plans to publish the online version for Xbox, due to problems relating to development and the profitability of online games. They said that they still planned to develop an online version of the game for personal computers (PC) due to the size of the audience of online games on PC, and due to the broadband infrastructure of PCs.[12]

Reception

On release, Famitsu magazine scored the game a 31 out of 40.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 "真・女神転生 NINE （スタンドアローン版） (Xbox)". Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kalata, Kurt; Christopher J., Snelgrove. "Spinoffs". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 2016-01-03. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
  3. ↑ "序盤のストーリーが判明！　『真･女神転生NINE』". Famitsu (in Japanese). 2002-05-18. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  4. ↑ "悪魔についての新事実が判明！　『真･女神転生 NINE』". Famitsu (in Japanese). 2002-06-24. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  5. ↑ "真・女神転生NINE (スタンドアローン版)" (in Japanese). Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2010-05-19. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  6. ↑ "岡田、金子コンビが『真･女神転生NINE』発売記念トーク＆サイン会". Famitsu (in Japanese). 2002-12-05. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  7. ↑ McCarroll, John (2002-11-25). "Previews - Shin Megami Tensei 9". RPGFan. Archived from the original on 2015-09-20. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  8. ↑ "Shin Megami Tensei NINE Premium Soundtrack". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on 2012-04-10. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  9. ↑ "【Xbox Conference 2002 Summerリポート】『真･女神転生NINE』や『ディノ クライシス3』などXbox向け注目タイトルも大挙発表！". Famitsu (in Japanese). 2002-06-11. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  10. ↑ Long, Andrew (2002). "Atlus Splices Shin Megami Tensei Nine". RPGamer. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  11. ↑ Niizumi, Hirohiko (2003-05-23). "Atlus puts Shin Megami Tensei Nine on hold". Gamespot. Archived from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  12. ↑ Niizumi, Hirohiko (2003-08-11). "Xbox Live version of Shin Megami Tensei Nine canceled". Gamespot. Archived from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  13. ↑ Xbox - 真・女神転生 NINE (スタンドアローン版). Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.108. 30 June 2006.

External links

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