Shin Megami Tensei: Nine

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Shin Megami Tensei: Nine
Developer(s)	Atlus Research and Development 1 NexTech
Publisher(s)	Atlus
Genre	RPG
Platform(s)	Xbox
Release	Original release Japan December 5, 2002 Platinum Collection Japan October 23, 2003

Shin Megami Tensei: Nine, stylized as Shin Megami Tensei NINE, is a 2002 role-playing game for the Xbox, and the fourth entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series. It was developed and published by Atlus and released on December 5, 2002.

To date, Nine has not seen an official release outside of Japan nor a translation patch.

Blurb

崩壊した現実世界と肥大した電脳世界。その果てに待つものは……。 核により崩壊した現実世界。地下での生活を余儀なくされた人類の希望は、電脳世界に構築された仮想都市によって支えられていた。だが、頻発するノイズと人々の暴走した欲望が、やがて人類をさらなる崩壊の序曲へと導く……。衝撃の物語にキミは耐えられるか？

Hōkaishita genjitsu sekai to hidaishita dennō sekai. Sono hate ni matsu mono wa……. Kaku ni yori hōkaishita genjitsu sekai. Chika de no seikatsu o yoginakusareta jinrui no kibō wa, dennō sekai ni kōchikusareta kasō toshi ni yotte sasaraereteita. Daga, hinpatsusuru noizu to hotobito no bōsōshita yokubō ga, yagate jinrui o saranaru hōkai no jokyoku e to michibuku……. Shōgeki no monogatari ni kimi wa taerareru ka?

The real world has collapsed and the cyber world is bloated. The end that awaits all... The real world has broken down due to nuclear weapons. Forced to live underground, humanity's hope is sustained by a virtual city built in the cyber world. However, the frequent noise and people's rampant desires soon lead humanity to an overture of further collapse... Can you withstand this shocking story?

Synopsis

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Shin Megami Tensei: Nine starts in the year 2028, in-between the events of Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei II. Humans now live in underground cities, and spend most of their times in a virtual space: a recreation of Tokyo as it existed in the mid-90s.

See full plot...

Gameplay

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Development

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Announced on August 27th 2001 at the Xbox Conference Summer 2001 as Shin Megami Tensei: Online, it was built to be an online game, though with a singleplayer campaign which was meant as a tutorial for the online component. The project was renamed to Shin Megami Tensei: Nine in the Famitsu Xbox volume 2 of February 2002. The new name is reference to the game's nine alignments that the protagonist can have due to the addition of the Light-Dark axis, as opposed to the standard three alignments the protagonist can have in other Shin Megami Tensei games (on the Law-Chaos axis only), and with the addition of online play, the developers felt players could "experience a story with real meaning to them". The goal was to have players team up with other players of the same alignment, and fight against players of the opposite alignment. The name was also changed so people didn't have to worry that the game was exclusively online. The team also wanted to avoid making players feel like they were in a "boxed garden", and wanted them to have fun in a way only games could provide and feel the realistic aspects of the Shin Megami Tensei series, despite the real-time strategy elements. Voice recognition technology was being worked on due to the game offering real-time gameplay, though they did not want to be limited by the feasibility of the idea when trying to implement ideas. Additionally, the developers debated on introducing new demons as downloadable content.

For Shin Megami Tensei: Nine, though Kazuma Kaneko was still in charge of the monster design, the team brought in a new character designer, Yasuomi Umetsu, after discussion between Kaneko and the director Kazunori Sakai. Translating Kaneko's designs to 3D proved to be a challenge, in particular in regards to how they would move, since he viewed demons as static characters. However, Kaneko thought players would want more active demons, and didn't mind them moving as much since the game took place in a virtual world. Plus, with the upgrades in graphics brought in by the more powerful Xbox, producer Kōji Okada thought a shift from a first person to a third person perspective was appropriate. Sound was also an important aspect of the game, sine the Xbox could produce 5.1 Surround sound. Atlus had already attempted 3D audio with Maken X on the Dreamcast, though that console could only produce stereo sound with 2 speakers so the 3D audio was more virtual. The sound team was excited about the possibilities these specs brought, and thus created the music and sound design to work best using 5-channel surround. In particular, Takahiro Ogata imagined a sort of pentagram with the player in the middle when creating the music. The RTS segments also feature dynamic music that changes depending on the player's action, with over 300 patterns.

Atlus announced at E3 2002 that while the online component was small, they could not secure the finances for a dedicated server, and they thought that other parties, such as Microsoft, would probably not provide a server for the game. In August 2002, Atlus announced the online components be eventually separated into its own unique release, with its release date postponed to Spring 2003. Atlus stated that they could not finish the online elements in time for the game's release, and they didn't want to delay it. As such, the offline version released on the planned release date December 5th 2002.

On August 11th 2003, Atlus officially cancelled the online components of Shin Megami Tensei: Nine for Xbox, citing "issues with the company's overall network development environment and the profitability of online games". They announced at the same time they would shift developing Shin Megami Tensei: Nine for PC, which would include online aspects, due to the better infrastructure and bigger audience of online PC games. This project eventually transformed into Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine, an MMORPG released in 2007 in Japan, 2008 in the United States and 2009 in Europe.

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	真・女神転生 NINE Shin Megami Tensei Nain	True Goddess Reincarnation: Nine

Gallery

See Gallery

Trivia

• Nine was the first Megami Tensei game for an Xbox console, and the only one until Persona 4 Arena released for the Xbox 360 in 2012. It was the first and the only Shin Megami Tensei game for an Xbox console until Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, which released for Xbox One and the Xbox Series X/S in 2024.
  • It is still the only title in the entire franchise to be exclusively made for a Microsoft console.