Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

This often overlooked PS2 game is arguably one of the best RPGs ever made. It's game play is Paradise Lost meets Pokemon and it's story includes a non-binary morality system that challenges the player to question what they value in life most.

The game kicks off by destroying the world in the first 5 minutes. Without the world to save, what's an RPG protagonist to do? The cryptic words of the previous Earth's God indicate that someone with conviction and a vision must rise above the chaos to shape the new world. However, you're dumped into a world filled with demons and horrors and really your only thoughts in the beginning of this very challenging game is to survive.

Nocturne is an equal opportunity game.

As you progress through the story you are reunited with your friends who survived with you. You watch them change and grow with the new experiences of the destroyed world. They develop their vision and you see how they came to their conclusions. All three ask you to help them realize their vision of a perfect world.

The three visions are:

Shijima: Is a very Buddhist inspired vision about creating harmony by sacrificing individuality for a oneness with the universe. Everything is orderly and peaceful, but without passion or individual thought is the peace worth it?

Musubi: This vision achieves peace by isolating everyone. Each person would be the god of their own personal dream. But without the joy and pain of interacting with others would this selfish world truly be fulfilling?

Uh... ya, you're beautiful. Don't hurt me please?

Yosuga: This vision is all about might makes right. Those who can rise to the top and obtain the most power are the ones worthy of happiness. The weak will be culled.

You can choose to follow one of the three visions present to you or you can reject them all and either recreate the world as it was, siding with a distinctly Christian-like God figure or you can reject him as well and choose the path of ultimate freedom, independence, chaos, and destruction; the path of Lucifer.

Everyone loves Lucifer!

No path is "good" or better than the other paths in the view of the game. All are presented showing the positive and negative aspects of each vision.

I initially decided to follow the path of Yosuga, because I liked the character who held that vision. I followed the correct choices to join that path until the very last option. A revolutionary leader of an enslaved race was lying there begging me to not kill him and to help him free his people and I knew I had to kill him in order to follow that vision, but... I just couldn't. I failed to follow that vision.

In the end I completed all the steps for the secret special ending and I joined Lucifer to fight to end this horrible game heaven was playing with humanity.

But that was just my experience. To others, Shijima might seem like the ideal world, or Musubi. The game makes no judgments.

What is right and what is wrong is not a simple thing. It's not "Do I save the orphans or do I kick this puppy?"

The game makes you think about your life and the world. What is a "perfect" world? Is that even possible?

Your "spam attack" strategy won't fly here.

Beyond the amazingly deep morality system, there is a difficult, highly strategic combat system with hundreds of demon allies you can recruit and combine together to create new allies. No matter how powerful you are, one wrong move and enemies half your level can still kill you. You have to always be on your toes and boss battles can be multiple hour long events which will require several tries to hone in your strategy and win.

Uzume: The Japanese Shinto goddess of joy and happiness.

The game draws from cultures from all over the world, all their Gods, Demons, Spirits, Fairies. It fearlessly mixes Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian ideas. I learned a ton about other cultures through the different demons and Gods I obtained as companions.

The music is absolutely top notch.  Seriously go look it up. That's Shadow of the Colossus level stuff right there.

This game is both beauty and brains and I love it 100%

<3 Jami Lukins, UI Artist, Zombie Studios