Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

“Humans bleed pointless blood! Humans breath pointless air! Humans think pointless thoughts!”

— Mitras

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Developer	ATLUS
Publisher	ATLUS
Genre	JRPG
Platform	Nintendo DS Nintendo 3DS
Release dates	October 8, 2009 March 23, 2010
Chronological Order
Previous	"Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne"
Next	"Shin Megami Tensei IV"
Map

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is the sixth installment in the Shin Megami Tensei series. The protagonist is Tadano Hitonari and the main antagonist is the Three Wises Men. Mem Aleph's Children serve as the villainous faction of this game.

Strange Journey is a standalone game in the Shin Megami Tensei world, not influenced by any other game or series. It is set in Antarctica in a black hole world known as the Schwartzwelt and continues the same themes of the other SMT games.

Strange Journey originally released in Japan on October 8th, 2009 for the Nintendo DS. It was subsequently released in the US on March 23, 2010.

The game was remsastered for the 3DS in 2017 titled Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux. It featured upgraded graphics and an alternate story route with new characters.

It is preceded by Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and followed by Shin Megami Tensei IV.

Official Description

A mysterious black hole has appeared on the region of the South Pole and is expanding day by day. Concerned about this event, the United Nations sent a collection of elites from around the world to investigate the area called Schwarzwelt. Inside, the U.N. Schwarzwelt Investigational Team finds that the area has been infested with supernatural beings known as demons that threaten to cross into the human world. As the team delves further into the Schwarzwelt, they find strange and repulsive callbacks to human society.

Summary

Strange Journey is set in a world threatened by the expansion of a phenomenon called the Schwarzwelt, which threatens to envelop the Earth. The United Nations send in multiple teams, led by a man named Gore, to investigate and eradicate the phenomenon. During their attempt to enter the Schwarzwelt, all ships but the Red Sprite are destroyed. During their missions, the crew is helped by Arthur, who gradually accumulates knowledge of the Schwarzwelt and develops a personality. During an early mission within the Schwarzwelt, Gore is killed, leaving Arthur in charge. As the protagonist and members of the Red Sprite's crew explore the regions of the Schwarzwelt, they slowly uncover the truth behind its existence. In ancient times, humans were controlled by the forces of God. His rule over them was broken when the Mother Goddess Mem Aleph destroyed him, breaking his hold on Earth. Residing within the Schwarzwelt, Mem Aleph saw humans abusing Earth's environment and consequently corrupting her dimension. Determined to remove those humans responsible for the corruption and return the world to its ancient state, Mem Aleph unleashed the Schwarzwelt. The remaining forces of God, mainly represented by Mastema, intend to use the Schwarzwelt to spread their influence across the world, removing free will to create a united utopia. Key items are the Cosmic Eggs, objects created by Mem Aleph that can reshape the world when combined with the core of the Schwarzwelt.

Zelenin and Jimenez respectively side with Law and Chaos, while a resurrected Gore is neutral to both. Depending on the choices made during the game, the protagonist has the choice of allying with either Mastema and Zelenin, Mem Aleph and Jimenez, or continuing with the original mission. If he sides with Law, the protagonist and Zelenin defeat both Jimenez and Mem Aleph before using the Eggs to create a World of Law, with Zelenin worshiped as a channel to God for humanity. In the process, humanity is forced to abandon their free will. If he sides with Chaos, he and Jimenez help Mem Aleph defeat Zelenin and Mastema, using the Eggs to fulfill the Schwarzwelt's original purpose and create a world where humans and demons live together in a primal world where only the strong survive. In both the Law and Chaos routes, Arthur chooses to destroy his new personality to save the protagonist after the Red Sprite is damaged by Gore. If the protagonist rejects Law and Chaos, Gore transmits the necessary information for the destruction of the Schwarzwelt to him before truly passing on. After defeating Zelenin, Jimenez, and Mem Aleph, the protagonist and surviving crew escape in the Red Sprite while Arthur sacrifices himself to ensure the destruction of the Schwarzwelt, although there is a chance of it reappearing if humanity continues its abuse of the Earth.

The Redux version of the game introduces new storyline content focusing on a mysterious woman named Alex. In the early stages of the investigation, Alex suddenly ambushes and mortally wounds the protagonist. He is saved by a friendly demon named Demeter, who tasks him with traversing a location called the Womb of Grief and collecting objects called Fruit. As the protagonist explores the Womb of Grief, it is revealed that Alex has traveled back in time to assassinate him, Jimenez, and Zelenin in order to prevent an apocalyptic future from coming to pass.

After the protagonist defeats Mem Aleph in the Law and Neutral routes or collects the Cosmic Eggs in the Chaos Route, Alex approaches him and explains that his actions will not save humanity. In the Law route, humans affected by Zelenin's song will go to war with those not affected by it and result in a massacre for both factions; in the Chaos route, the rule of strength leads humanity to annihilate itself with only Alex surviving; in the Neutral route, humanity grows complacent and is annihilated by the second coming of the Schwarzwelt. If the protagonist refuses to aid Alex, he defeats her in combat and the game ends as normal. If he chooses to help her, she fades from existence with the timeline changed. Demeter appears and reveals that the Fruit are pieces of a fifth Cosmic Egg, and that she is a servant of the Three Wise Men before stealing the Fruit. Louisa Ferre transports the protagonist to the Empyrean Ascent, where the protagonist confronts the Three Wise Men. They fuse into their true form, Root Shekinah, and attack; but the protagonist kills them.

In the extended Law ending, Zelenin uses her song to remove humanity's desire for conflict, leading to an age of peace and harmony for all humans. In the extended Chaos ending, Jimenez uses the Cosmic Eggs to create a world where all humans and demons have infinite possibilities and freedom to choose their own path on equal grounds. In the extended Neutral ending, the protagonist and a surviving Arthur remain in the Schwarzwelt's realm to destroy every incarnation of it to ensure the world's eternal safety.

Characters

Main

Hero

Jimenez

Zelenin

Commander Gore

Arthur

Supporting

Louisa Ferre

Alex

Bugaboo

Mastema

Bosses

Image	Enemy	Description	Dungeon
	Orias	Orias first appears in Sector Antlia as the first boss in the game. He appears as the strike team blasts through the boulder blocking their path to reach the Blue Jet, coming up behind them and either killing or severely wounding some of the strike team members. Later, he appears in the Blue Jet's crash site and threatens the crew. Commander Gore very nearly defeats the demon, who feigns a retreat, but when Gore lowers his guard, Orias sneaks behind and kills him. The protagonist proceeds to fight Orias and defeats him.	Sector Antlia
	Morax	Morax first appears in Sector Antlia as a boss in the B2F of the sector. He has a desire to destroy humanity because of the violence they've caused. He asks the protagonist whether he thinks that the demons are the real heroes for doing this. The protagonist's answer affects his alignment. After the dialogue, the protagonist proceeds to fight Morax. When Morax is defeated, he drops the Rosetta for Antlia and a rare forma that unlocks new Sub Apps in the lab.
	Norris	Upon being dropped into a cell adjacent to Zelenin, the protagonist looks around to find the brutalized bodies of more Strike Team members. The protagonist then bears witness to one of the experiments being performed on Norris. The demons strip Norris of the protective gear of his Demonica which causes Norris to suffer from asphyxia or some other malady caused by the removal of his suit parts. Hoping to see if they could make him like them, the demons doused him with a product named "the madman's blood" in the hopes of keeping him alive; they also mention it came from "the blighted land."	Red Sprite
	Macabre	He first appears as a boss enemy in Sector Bootes inside Mitra's Tower, where the protagonist needs to defeat him, after beating Norris and meeting Mastema. In Sector Carina, he becomes a normal enemy.	Mitra's Tower
	Mitra	The Red Sprite crew uses the Luxury Bell Mitra provided the protagonist with and creates a diversion allowing him to reach the higher levels of his tower and do combat with him. Upon his defeat, he drops Bootes' Rosetta and a Rare Forma. Later, when traversing Sector Delphinus, it becomes apparent Sectors Bootes and Delphinus have been collaborating for extended periods on human experimentation, as seen when upon reaching Mitra's private laboratories, a trophy, the Madman's Stone, has a plaque explaining the bond between Mitra and Asura, Delphinus' master.
	Horkos	Horkos appears as the strongest demon in Sector Carina. He fuses himself with the damaged remnants of the Elve, and with its energy shields becomes able to shrug off all damage, leaving him unscathed. Mastema offered to create the Shibboleth to help them, which will damage his ability to devour the Elve's energy, from two demons (any Megami demon along with any Wilder demon), but states it would need further augmentation to pierce the Elve's shields.	Sector Carina
	Asura	Asura appears as the violent demon lord of Sector Delphinus, initially as a mass of Formless demons scattered throughout Delphinus. These could possess crew members and manifest a form of violent insanity until Zelenin and the protagonist intervened using the MK gun. The fleeting demons began coalescing in giant hives around Delphinus' higher levels. At one point, these Demons also taunt Zelenin by claiming that the Elves' crewmen consider her a sex object, something that deeply unsettles her even after Asura himself is defeated. When a sizable number of them had been destroyed, they gathered in a giant stone statue of Asura, recreating their massive form.	Sector Delphinus
	Maia Ouroborus	Ouroboros is the end boss of Sector Eridanus and one of the Mothers of the Schwarzwelt. She dwells in the Vanishing Point that acts as the top floor of Eridanus, and (supposedly) the Red Spite's mission would be complete and they could make their leave when she was defeated.	Vanishing Point
	Moloch	In Strange Journey, Moloch is the true form of Morax, encountered in Sector Fornax, explaining why Morax is of the Tyrant race rather than Fallen. Moloch appears as a boss and is available through special fusion after defeating him, using Morax and Ose as ingredients in the fusion.	Sector Fornax
	Orcus	Horkos is revived in Sector Fornax by Mother Tiamat; Even after taking his true form Orcus, he still lost. At his death, the Red Sprite's crew recovered his rare forma and Sector Carina's Rosetta. Horkos calls himself "a great prince of Hel" at the first encounter, and repeatedly screams "BUONO!"
	Asherah	Asherah appears in Sector Fornax as the last of the revived Demon Kings that rise again to kill the protagonist. Early in the area, Asura, her earlier form, appears as an invisible demon which cannot be detected by the Demonica; after the events of Jack's Squad HQ (and by proxy, the defeat of Moloch, Orcus and Mithras), the three forma necessary to upgrade the Demonica's Enemy Search System are gathered, allowing the protagonist to strike back and force Asura to the lower levels of Fornax to continue the battle.
	Tiamat	Tiamat is one of the four Mothers of the Schwarzwelt (alongside Maia Ouroboros, Maya, and Mem Aleph) in Strange Journey. She appears in Sector Fornax and is responsible for rebirthing Morax, Asura, Mitra and Horkos.
	Maya	Maya serves as the Sector Boss of Sector Grus. It was her power that twisted Grus' landscape to its warped form; she also threatens Zelenin and the protagonist with her vicious illusions until the protagonist encounters Commander Gore and makes him awaken to the true power of the Ubergestalt. As a result, the two muster enough strength to cast them away.	Sector Grus
	Israfel	Israfel appears as a summonable demon and a sub-boss in Sector Horologium 1F, in Chaos Path. He will burst out of Horologium's main elevator shaft and proceed to attack the protagonist as the first of the final defensive lines of the angels to try and prevent the delivery of the Cosmic Eggs to Mother Mem Aleph in Horologium B9F.	Sector Horologium
	Mastema	In the Chaos alignment, when his plans to raise the Kingdom of Light upon Earth with the Schwarzwelt are utterly ruined, he breaks down and attacks the protagonist as a boss in Sector Horologium, infuriated by the loss of the possibility of ascending to a superior form. As a boss, Mastema features several unique entire-party hitting attacks such as Great Lament, which charms all non-Chaos demons, Judgement, an Expel element instant death attack with a high activation chance, Untainted Wind, a decently powerful wind element attack, and Mel Faize, a powerful Almighty element spell.
	Meta Gore	In the Chaos path, he proceeds to attack the Protagonist for desiring the Schwarzwelt to consume the world. After Gore is defeated, he laments that mankind's last hope is gone and that the demons will enslave all. The Red Sprite is then attacked by the half-demon Jimenez, who corrupts the minds of the crew members with a power similar to that of the Delphinus Parasite so that they will no longer oppose him, and also be free of the shackles of sanity and self-restraint.	Red Sprite
	Pillar Zelenin	If they take the Chaos route, she is the final boss, transforming herself into Pillar Zelenin. She is unfought in the Law route, as the protagonist instead becomes her ally and helps her create a world of Law in which she is worshipped as humanity's channel to God and her song remains forever in humanity's heart.	Sector Horologium
	Soil Jimenez	In the Neutral Path, he is battled in Sector Horologium as Awake Jimenez. In Law Path, Soil Jimenez, his final form, will be fought instead.
	Mem Aleph	For most of the game, she remains asleep in her lair in Sector Horologium B9F. She is usually the final target the protagonist has to destroy to complete his mission in the Schwarzwelt and the game ends after destroying her in the Law and Neutral Routes. In the Chaos Route, the protagonist agrees to carry out her will. In any "New" Routes in Redux however, she must be destroyed before confronting the true final boss.
	Shekinah	The Three Wise Men become one as they transform into their true form of Shekinah using the fifth Cosmic Egg formed from the six fruits of the Womb of Grief, after Demeter delivers it to them. The masculine voice and forms of the three are replaced by Shekinah's feminine voice and a bust made of four female faces, facing off against the protagonist who stands in their way.	Womb of Grief

Title Screens

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey	Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux

Original Soundtrack

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Original Soundtrack

Media

International Media

Strange Journey

Japanese

United States

Strange Journey Redux

Japanese

United States

Logos

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey logos
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Japanese logo Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey English logo Shin Megami Tensei: Deep Strange Journey logo Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux logo

Spin-Offs

Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Drama CD (2010)
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Drama CD (ドラマCD「真・女神転生 STRANGE JOURNEY) is a drama CD based on the game Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. The drama CD was released on April 21, 2010. Voice actors were Rikiya Koyama, Hiroki Tōchi, Yūko Kaida, Hideyuki Tanaka, Daisuke Sakaguchi, Hiroko Ushida.

Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue (2017)

A game developed by Den-fami Nico Game Magazine’s Ladybug team for PC. The game was a limited time free offer on Atlus Japan's official site from October 16th to December 24th, 2017. Taking place shortly before the events of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Jack Frost is synchronized with the mind of a human in order to traverse and fight demon hordes. He rescues the non-synchronized Jack o' Lantern after he was frozen by Black Frost, who decimated all the Jacks that previously attempted an assault. They meet a small creature who names himself J-kun. The Jacks traverse the different Sectors of the Schwarzwelt to defeat Black Frost, fighting against Bifrons, Decarabia, Alice, and Girimehkala on the way. After defeating the latter, the Jacks meet again with J-kun, who tells them he's remembered he used to be human, until he booted up a synchronicity program sent to him, sending his mind into the body of a demon in the Schwarzwelt. They realize destroying Black Frost is the only way to send J-kun back. The credits show a list of world news, including the death/recovery of a famous programmer (depending on the ending), a mysterious blizzard in Antarctica, and the formation of the Schwarzwelt Joint Project.

DEATHTAMENT: SMT DSJ: Another Report (2018)

A seinen manga spin-off of Strange Journey that released alongside the remake Strange Journey Redux. It was written by Yasuo Kanou and illustrated by Yasuo Kanou and released from January 2018 to May 2019 in Young Champion Retsu across 3 tankoban volumes. Its events happen concurrently with the story of the game, focusing instead of the Gigantic's crew and their attempt to escape the Schwarzwelt. The manga begins with the same intro sequence as the game, with the UN's 5 ships being deployed to Antarctica and attempting to enter the Schwarzwelt. Azazel and Wendigo play the role of the main antagonists, Wendigo being the large obstacle the Gigantic must overcome to escape, and Azazel pulling the strings in an attempt to claim the Rosetta Stone for himself. Jin, Dahlia, and Ash are the last survivors of the Gigantic, their fate left unknown as the story ends.

Trivia

• The American release was accompanied by a soundtrack CD as well as a collectible outer box with all launch copies of the game. Music is done by long-time composer Shoji Meguro.
• A poster was available with the pre-order of the game from GameStop. It is located behind the box art.
• In 2009, a forum thread claimed that the game was developed as Shin Megami Tensei IV according to an interview with Kazuma Kaneko, but since the game's setting does not take place in Tokyo, it is apparently not named as such. However, a new interview with director Eiji Ishida contradicts this. Ishida says that Strange Journey was conceived as a spinoff from the very beginning, but the promotional staff and Kazuma Kaneko thought that its quality was high enough to be called Shin Megami Tensei IV. Ishida ultimately refused to market it as such. Ishida also makes no mention of its setting not being in Tokyo becoming a factor.
• To date, Strange Journey has the fewest playable characters out of any Shin Megami Tensei game excluding fusible demons.
• The vehicles used to explore the Schwarzwelt are based on the Landmasters from a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie called Damnation Alley.

Continuity

• While this game is not directly connected any other mainline Shin Megami Tensei game, it is connected to them through the Amala Multiverse, which was introduced in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
• Lucifer returns in this game, ever briefly as he does, in the disguise of a girl named Louisa Ferre. As revealed in the previous game, Lucifer travels the Amala Multiverse watching the ends and beginnings of worlds and watched over the protagonists of these worlds, in this case it's the Strange Journey characters.
  • Alex, the character added to the 3DS re-release, Strange Journey Redux, is implied to be the daughter of Louisa Ferre.
• Asura is another returning character; however this is not the same character from Shin Megami Tensei I. He was previously the final boss from that game and is a Demon King in this game.

• In the EX Mission "Mara's Desire", Mara will mention that his form is not yet stable and if he overdoes it he might turn into a slime again, referencing his slime form caused by his failed summoning in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.

Gallery

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey announcement teaser

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey title

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Chaos Ending

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey instruction booklet