How Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne Became One of Gaming's Greatest Memes

Atlus made two Shin Megami Tensei related announcements during the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase. In addition to a trailer for the long-awaited Shin Megami Tensei V, finally announced to be coming in 2021, the company also announced an HD Remaster of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne will be released in the Spring for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Nocturne was originally released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 in Japan, where it was a hit. The director's cut of the game, released the following year, was the first mainline edition of the franchise to be released in the West. The game received rave reviews at home and abroad, but that's not its only legacy. Aggressive marketing of a guest character helped make it an unintentional meme.

Devil May Cry's Dante was added to the director's cut of Nocturne after a DMC fan at Atlus suggested he'd be a good fit due to his job as a demon hunter. Atlus pitched the crossover to Capcom with a video that featured Dante confronting Nocturne's hero, the Demi-fiend. It won Capcom over, and it signed off on Dante's guest appearance.

Like most team-ups in Shin Megami Tensei, Dante starts out at odds with the protagonist. He's been hired by a mysterious benefactor to hunt some demons down, including the Demi-fiend. After multiple battles between the two, he abandons his attempt to take down the Demi-fiend, offering his services to him instead. If the player chooses to hire him, Dante tosses the coin from Devil May Cry 2 to decide what his payment is. If you call tails, Dante gets half of the in-game currency (called Macca) that you've accumulated. If you call heads, he gets a single Macca.

Once Dante joins the player's party, he's there permanently. Unlike the demons players recruit to fill out their party, he can't be fused with another demon (a key play mechanic in SMT and its spin-off, Persona) or summoned from the Demonic Compendium during a new cycle, the game's version of New Game Plus. He also does not play a role in the plot moving forward, not showing up in any of the game's endings.

Dante's lack of impact on the story made European publisher Ghostlight's overbearing sticker advertising his appearance in the game meme fodder. In the years since, memers have photoshopped it onto many other game covers. Sometimes, the seal itself is the joke. Other times, it's part of a deluge of branding and references. Combining it with "& Knuckles" is particularly popular. There's also the elegant simplicity of slapping the badge on an actual game that prominently features Dante, like last year's Devil May Cry 5 or his return to SMT in the mobile game Liberation Dx2.

However, it might finally be time for the Dante sticker to lay down its burden. Microsoft recently unveiled an "Optimized for Series X" sticker that is similar overbearing and will be featured on the box-art for games built for its upcoming console. If nothing else, it might star alongside the Dante sticker in memes to come.

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