Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne reinstates Dante’s badass status

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster is out in Japan right now, with the international release to follow suit sometime in 2021. It comes with improvements one would come to expect such as better graphics as well as the inclusion of voice acting. However that is not what we are going to touch on today.

One of the more memorable features of the original release was the inclusion of Dante from the Devil May Cry series, which has been immortalised with its own meme.

While his appearance can be considered a cameo, Dante was so heavily incorporated into the main plot that he may as well have been just another character in the game. With crossovers being so rare back in the day, Dante’s inclusion was quite the big deal as well. Unfortunately, unlike how his reputation precedes him, Dante was not exactly the best playable unit (in the vanilla version), which was apparent for those who sought the True Demon Ending.

As veterans will already know, the boss in question, Lucifer, had resistance to all types of damage. This could only be circumvented with the Pierce passive. As you may have already guessed by now, Dante didn’t have this ability. This was to be then addressed in the PSP version of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, when Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV took over from Dante. Raidou had just about all of Dante’s abilities from the vanilla title, with some minor tweaks. More importantly however, was Raidou having Pierce via the skill “Raidou the Aeon”.

Fast forward to the present day, it would appear that Atlus had right a wrong by doing something that they should have nearly two decades ago. Do note that this is the Traditional Chinese version of the game that we found it, but when the International version drops, it should be the same as well.

As you will see from the screenshot above, our boy Dante (但丁) here is performing a 贯穿 (Pierce) attack in all its glory as underlined in red.

Said ability is inherited via the 以父之名 (Son’s Oath). So what does this all mean? While it might not seem that big a deal, but for fans, this serves as a form of redemption of sorts, as one of video gaming’s coolest protagonists has finally had his status of badass reinstated in his first crossover game.  It is worth noting that unlike the original game, Dante is a paid DLC character in the remaster. Acquiring him in turn replaces Raidou entirely, including cutscenes.

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