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Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne was released in 2004 or if you were in PAL Regions, you might know it as the 2005 released Shin Megami Tensei 3: Lucifer's Call, is the third installment of the Shin Megami Tensei series. It's a spin-off of the Megami Tensei Series which can be considered the first monster collection video game. However instead of having cute lovable monsters to collect and pick up, it had dark mean demons that could insult you as you try to recruit them. Makes sense it didn't have the same appeal as something like Pokémon.
Now that I'm done with my silly little Pokémon tangent, let's talk about Nocturne and how it introduced the world to the Press Turn system. What was so great about the system is how it put every single other turn-based system to shame. So much so that no one has been able to come close to replicating.
Okay that’s a little mean but Press Turn has got to be a personal favorite system of mine. I think it balances the right amount of challenge, player freedom, and knowledge of the game that interacts so well with other systems that it creates this cohesive experience that is unlike any other.
So What Even is Press Turn?
The core mechanic that makes the Press Turn System work is the Press Turn Counters. These Counters denote how many turns a player has and you start off with the number of units in your active party. Your active party can have a maximum of 4 members, but the Demi-Fiend (The Main Character) cannot be switched out. This gives you 3 open positions to slot in demons that will help you in battle.
These Counters are essentially there to denote action economy to the player and are consumed when using an item, switching out a demon, succeeding in a demon negotiation to have them join your team, or landing a successful normal attack.
However, by exploiting enemies' weaknesses or landing a critical hit, not only do you deal extra damage, but you are also rewarded with an additional turn. This bonus is indicated by the Turn Counter blinking instead of disappearing and is considered as a half turn. Half Turns are used by the next demon in your party and allows you to do an action that normally would've used an entire turn. This essentially gives the player an extra turn. If a player is smart about it, they can double their turn count and shift the combat entirely in their favor.
The Press Turn System however is also punishing at times especially when it comes to missing or having an "unsuccessful" turn.
Certain actions or moves can cause you to lose more than one Press Turn Counter. If you miss an attack or you use a move that an enemy can nullify then instead of losing just 1 turn you lose 2.
There are cases where you can lose all 4 turn counters in a single move. These include angering the demon during a negotiation provoking them to attack you, getting attacked by another demon during a negotiation, failing an escape, or using an attack that an enemy can absorb or reflect.
This really forces you to learn type matchups and try to maximize your chances of trying to get a hit on your enemies by any means necessary. By losing an additional turn, one demon with the least agility won't be able to act that turn; if they are your designated healer that could spell the start of a doomed run.
When your press turns are done it switches over to the enemy turn. And when it switches over, you'll see that they too have Press Turn Counters. That's interesting....
Did that enemy just land a critical?
Wait.... did that enemy get a half turn?
This is where the Press Turn System and its fun little quirks start to come alive.
Enemies play with the same base ruleset that you do.
Everything that I mentioned above for the players turn is more or less applicable to the enemy team as well. They are given Counters equal to the number of party members on that team and can exploit weaknesses and land critical attacks to increase the number of consumable turns.
This turn-based equity creates a system that's easy to understand and players can start developing strategies around anticipating their opponents moves. It also allows for battles to feel more balanced and fair. You never feel super outclassed or like you’re up against impossible odds that might otherwise make the game feel cheap and artificially difficult, but you also don't feel like an over-powered God dominating the whole world.
If you think the enemy is overpowered or the match-up is unfair, you remember that they have the same ruleset you do. You can replace a vulnerable demon that enemies might target with a more strategic one, allowing you to turn the tables on your foes. This way, you can shift from being a potential target to becoming the threat yourself, creating an effective and dynamic balance in the gameplay.
Every battle feels like a genuine fight to the death, with even random encounters carrying significant risk. A single missed attack or a random enemy critical hit could end the run, keeping players intensely engaged and focused on the moment-to-moment gameplay. This design discourages players from simply hitting auto-attack and watching the game play itself.
In contrast, consider a system like Pokémon's. Most battles in Pokémon are 1v1 or 2v2, with attacks determined by the Pokémon's Speed and the type of move being used. Winning a Type match-up almost guarantees victory, and even without that advantage, over-leveling your Pokémon often allows you to one-shot most opponents.
There are battles in Pokémon where I can simply mash the A button to get through without much thought. The sequence becomes "Battle -> Attack -> Move A," which suffices for the majority of encounters.
Makes Normally Boring Skills Useful!
Due to the high punishment of the Press Turn System when it comes to misses, buffs and nerfs have an actual function in Nocturne. Instead of being relegated to moves that serve as fodder and have a small chance of making a difference in battle, they now become part of legitimate strategies in order to whittle down and destroy enemies.
Being able to take a turn to risk that an enemy's attack that might miss could very well turn the tide of an intensive battle. It creates a satisfying risk/reward system where you build up a plan trying to make your members more likely to hit a critical attack or increase their evasion/accuracy to make sure you can get that extra hit in to defeat an opponent before their turn comes back up.
Reducing Attack Power of enemies also becomes vital as critical attacks can give them additional moves, making them essentially attack twice within a single turn which can deplete your health. Not using these moves forces you to have to move to a more defensive position and you can spend your time trying to heal your team members back to full health as opponents become relentless about dealing damage to you.
These produce a snowballing effect where you start setting up pieces before letting it go to deal absurd amounts of damage to bosses. It manages to make something that would normally be a boring move into an interesting and engaging dynamic. An enemy missing an attack where you know it would have killed you feels rewarding and breathes new life into a battle you previously thought you had lost.
More often than not you will hit a snag in your plan. Whether this setback may be a missed attack or an enemy scoring a critical hit, forcing you to make micro-adjustments . This excitement and uncertainty keep the tension high making every battle feel like a genuinely new experience even upon repeat attempts.
Helps Other Systems Feel More Cohesive.
Due to the Press Turn being dependent on the demons and their weaknesses. It really makes a previously introduced system, Demon Fusion feel much more cohesive to the overall game.
This is where differences between the Remaster and the Original Release start to show up. Demon Fusion in the original game would randomly assign skills to the new demon based on the skills that could be transferred from the base demons. This forces players to either have to try out skills and techniques that they otherwise wouldn’t have or go back and redo the entire fusion process in order to get the skills they wanted.
In the Remaster, the game allows the players to choose what skills are transferred to the new demon.
Even though I love the original, I believe the Remaster improves upon it by enhancing player agency. You're no longer at the mercy of chance; instead, you have greater control.
By allowing players to customize the skills of their new demons, it feels like these creatures are truly your creations, tailored tools for surviving the hellish landscape. When you win a fight, it’s clearly a result of your strategic planning with demon fusion. Conversely, when you lose, it’s because you didn't select the right skills or demons for that battle.
You also care about these personalized demons especially the ones that come into clutch for some of the harder battles. I talk about this in another one of my articles relating to Pokémon Nuzlockes, allowing for interesting emergent narratives that make every run unique from one another. You also tend to learn more about not only your demons but other demons as well you need to learn about your demons' strengths and weaknesses, and it makes strategizing outside of just your top 4 so much more important.
The empty slots in the team become more than cannon fodder, as they are demons that have their own affinities and weaknesses which you can swap out with your current party. It prevents the player from simply being able to steam roll with one particular team, ala Pokémon, and the game does a great job of forcing you to make those changes as well.
The more punishing nature of the combat system ties in incredibly well to the game's narrative as well.
In the story of Nocturne, you are just one of the few survivors and it's up to you to try to build a new world in your own image. Everything is out there trying to kill you dead in your tracks or want you to prove that you are the best one for the job of rebuilding the world, so it feels narratively cohesive and like I actually have to watch my every move. The dark grim nature isn't only in the story and the plot that progresses, but also seeps into the gameplay.
While it’s common for gameplay and plot to be distinct elements that intersect occasionally, Nocturne seamlessly melds the two. Each aspect consistently reinforces and solidifies the other, creating an experience where every part of the game feels integral and influential. The game’s unique system is so essential that it’s hard to imagine the game without it
Bosses Feel Like Genuine Threats and Require Strategy.
Bosses are allowed to be more than bullet sponges, acting more like puzzles instead. One of the first boss battles in the game is Matador who hits like a truck and dodge your attacks like a…. well like a Matador. Back when the game first came out, he was declared and heralded as the "hardest early JRPG boss". If you were to look at Game Informer walkthroughs you'd see people telling you to just grind and level up, but grinding is tedious and time consuming, who actually likes doing it? Especially in a game where any single enemy encounter could be your last.
Matador gained his reputation because he uses a move that increases his attack rate and evasion, ensuring you miss most attacks. Missing an attack means losing two turn counters, effectively reducing your four potential attacks to two wasted turns, which Matador can then exploit to lay waste to your entire party.
The game uses this boss to teach players the importance of debuffing enemies. However, it encourages players to discover this strategy on their own. Matador is especially challenging for new players because he not only boosts his evasion and reduces your accuracy but also nullifies any excessive debuffs you cast on him. This forces players to engage with both buffs and debuffs. The game could have made Matador simpler, but instead, it wants players to realize the importance of using both strategies together.
This experimentation makes players feel like geniuses when they finally figure it out. The game trusts players to solve the problem independently, without explicit guidance. You see firsthand how effective your attacks can be when you take the time to buff yourself and debuff your opponent, turning what was once an impossible fight into a satisfying victory.
Due to how the game will kill you deader than dead at any moment to punish you, this lesson sticks to the back of your skull.
Few games present a problem and let you solve it entirely on your own. Nocturne provides the right tools and trusts you to assemble them. You will lose several times in refining your strategy and learning the best demon compositions you need for certain phases of the boss battle, but it all builds up to sweet victory when you finally have the pieces slide into place, and you have a viable strategy to defeat the boss. It turns into the simplest form of input and output that I think a game has ever made me realize, but it just scratches the right part of my brain perfectly.
The game will force you to change up your strategy and play around with your team composition as well. The game does this amazing job of keeping you on your toes and throwing in demon types and compositions through random battles and bosses that require such different strategies that you need to go to the fusion room and get brand new team members in certain situations. It helps the game from being monotone and just being able to steamroll with one particular team forces you to engage and participate with demons you normally wouldn't consider before.
You no longer are just committed to your team of 4-6 and run through the whole game, you look at the slots where you can hold demons as a dynamic arsenal to counter certain enemy compositions and ensure that you can hit their weaknesses and hide your own.
The possibility for emergent story telling by having the 4 active members out at once is so rich and vast. Members who would dominate in certain areas and cover each other's weaknesses could be made into total damage sponges that would allow enemies to get multiple turns wiping your entire party. The game loves to play around with it and throw demons your way that require different strategies so it can feel like constantly modifying and changing your team making the average experience feel satisfying.
Some Bosses and certain enemies feel like genuine threats when they end up breaking this song and dance that the Press System delivers. They stand out so much more compared to most bosses as they have broken the system. These bosses usually use Beast or Dragon Eye in order to use one press turn to give themselves multiple half turns. This forces players to understand the boss so much better, learn their move patterns and what kind of behavior they have depending on their health and player health as well. This also forces players to become so much more effective and make plans for several moves in advance making you feel like a strategic genius when your plan goes off without a hitch.
The system isn’t perfect, however as sometimes with moves like Beast Eye and Dragon Eye can feel like they paid out an enemy's moves turning them into heal bots that don’t attack you, which feels boring, it’s an insanely bold idea that still delivers.
The Press Turn System is used in different ways and has been improved upon in SMT IV, V, Digital Devil Summoner 1-2, and a few others, but for a first stab at a system like this it does an amazing job.
Even the Persona Series, which is a spin-off of SMT, uses this core framework for the basics of it's combat, but instead uses the One More System. (Oh man I'm going to have to write about this aren't I?)
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