In present day Tokyo, some strange things have been happening.  Yoyogi Park is closed, and the rumor has spread that someone murdered a few people there.  Hikawa, the president of a communications company building a tower in the park, has disappeared without a trace. Shinjuku Medical Center is said to be run by a cult seeking the end of the world, and it just so happens that your teacher is ther recovering from an unspecified illness.  You (yes, you are the main character), along with your friends Chiaki and Isamu, go to visit her.   This visit brings upon the Conception: the end of the world and the preparation for its rebirth under the Reasons (a set of natural laws) the humans will conceive in this vortex world.

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne contains a story that differs from most TAGs in quite a few ways.  All of the story is viewed from the main character's point of view when events occur.  The game also provides no CG cutscenes, but rather portrays everything with in-game graphics.  The story also benefits from mature themes such as slavery, the conflict between warring factions of differing ideologies, creating a world, racism, and other such elements.  Most of the characters seem to follow one ideology, and they don't really change throughout the game. Overall, the story provides a little bit of enjoyment to the game.

Although story may interest some people, we must look at the gameplay to determine whether the game is enjoyable or not.  In terms of combat, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne plays like many other TAGs, but Atlus R&D1 has implemented an additional gameplay system called the Press-Turn battle system.  This is basically a system that provides the player with up to four actions per turn, depending on the number of members in your active party.  The beauty of this system is that it adds profoundly to the tactics in the game by rewarding you for exploiting weaknesses and scoring critical hits.  If one of the members of your party attacks an enemy with a spell they are weak against or a critical attack, then your party will only use up half a turn.  This means that you will gain another action against the enemy force. Of course, the same thing holds true for the enemy force, as they can also use up half turns by doing the aforementioned actions.  Also, if one of your party members or an enemy dodges an attack or is hit by an attack they can void, absorb, or repel, the attacking party will lose two turns instead of one.  This seemingly simple addition to traditional turn-based combat makes even the lowly random battles fun, as it makes you think about your next attack.

Another feature that adds to the tactical nature of the game is the use of Magatama.  These Magatama are bug-like creatures that, when ingested, increase the main chracter's stats.  This makes them a sort of replacement for traditional equipment.  They also perform various actions when the main character levels up, such as healing him, healing the party, boosting one of the main character's stats, or even cursing him.  Magatama also allow the main character to learn various physical, magical, and support skills every time he levels up, but he can only use up to eight skills at a time. This is somewhat limiting, as if you give up a skill, then you cannot get it back.  More important than adding stats, Magatama also convey resistances from elements and bad status to the main character, while also weakening him to other types of attacks.

Probably the one gameplay feature that has differentiated the Megami Tensei series from other TAGs is the ability to converse with your enemies, so you can get items from them or have them join your party.  Other than the main character, all the members of your party consist of demons that you recruit from encounters.  Conversations follow this basic formula: you speak to the demon, and they will ask for Macca (the currency in the game), items, or even your life force, and then the demon might ask you a question, of which the answer may or may not convince them to join you.  Sometimes the demons join you even when you give them an unfavorable answer to their questions.  Your allied demons can also speak to the opposing demons, and some will have a greater chance of recruiting certain demons than others.  Some restrictions on recruitment exist, as demons with a level higher than yours will not follow you, and demons aligned towards evil will not join you.  One of the weird things about the combat system is that when Kagutsuchi shines its brightest, demons will act like they are stoned when they speak, and they will sometimes join you without effort when you speak to them.

When it comes to using demons as party members, they function mostly as temporary members that help you defeat enemies within a particular dungeon.  In a similar fashion to the main character, demons also contain strengths and weaknesses to certain attributes, grow with experience, and also gain abilities when they level up.  Some demons will even transform when the main character and that demon reach a certain level.

Demons can also be fused together to create stronger ones.  Fusing demons also has the benefit of carrying over skills from the two parent demons to the new one.  Although this part of fusion may seem interesting, the skills chosen in the process are random.  If you want certain skills to be transferred to the new demon, you need to exit out of the result screen and re-select the two demons you want to fuse. When Kagutsuchi is full, you can sacrifice a third demon in order to make the demon you want to create stronger. Two special demon types, Element and Mitama, can also be fused to demons.  Elements turn demons into stronger ones of the same race, while Mitama increase a demon's stats.

Enemy A.I. in the game acts like A.I. in many other TAGs, with them using mostly random attacks against your party. It didn't really impress me either way, as it did not deter from the combat or add to it.  For those of you that worry about how challenging the game is, you should be pleased that Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne allows you to select from two difficulty modes: Normal and Hard.  I played the game on Hard mode, and I felt the thrill of death quite regularly.  Part of this is due to the fact that if the main character dies, then the game ends. This does not sound so bad because of the resistance bestowing Magatama, and also because of the numerable save points found within the dungeons. It seemed as though every part of each dungeon had a save point, which cut the tedium of wandering the dungeons down to a minimum.

Even though combat is a vital part of a Tactical/Adventure game, the exploration of dungeons completes the experience.  Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is no different, as it is basically a dungeon crawler.  At first, the dungeons seem somewhat bland, as they contain little or no interesting features.  This changes, however, as later dungeons become weirder and more involved than their earlier counterparts.  Two dungeons have fake corridors that will teleport you back to the beginning of an area, while another dungeon forces you to enter a mirage, which is a grayer version of the dungeon and also upside down.  One dungeon, called the Obelisk, forces you to work puzzles based on the phases of Kagutsuchi in order to proceed on the paths the puzzles are connected to.

In terms of graphics, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne contains few, if any, flaws.  When compared to the character artwork, the in-game character and demon designs pull off the transition from artwork to game flawlessly.  It seems that Atlus R&D1 uses some sort of cel-shading to portray all the characters and demons, which truly suits Kaneko's (the artist) designs.  A weird thing I have observed about the graphics is that some sort of mist is pervasive in all areas in the game.  This mist adds to the atmosphere of the vortex world, as it is otherworldly.  The game also runs at a constant 30 frames per second, so at least that is not an issue.

The game contains only a small amount of voice acting, which is confined to demon battle voices. The music, however, is not as sparse, but is rather quite varied. It ranges from Techno, Metal, and some atmospheric music. Many of the dungeons contain music that suits those locals, and the many battle themes within the game provide some variety to those battles.