History VideoGame / ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney

* MainliningTheMonster: Every scrap dropped by demons in battle can be sold to the lab, both to increase your Macca and to help them keep developing new weapons and armor.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: In some SMT games, Law and Chaos are downplayed to "live freely" or "live for others." In this game, they're taken UpToEleven: Law is "mindlessly worship the holy authority" and Chaos is "degenerate into bloodthirsty savages that are basically the same as demons." There's no way ''either'' of them could be construed as "good," because they take it way too far. Playing Neutral will have you feel like you're the OnlySaneMan. The new endings in ''Redux'' slaps some sense into the alignment's representatives, allowing them to come up with a more beneficial approach to Law and Chaos.

* AdultFear: Fitting for the entry focused on working adults in the military instead of youths and students as in most ''SMT'' games, the overall themes of ''Strange Journey'' drop the usual ComingOfAge undertones and anxieties of students in favor of an exesitential dread about Earth's future. ''Strange Journey'' therefore strikes fear in those who are concerned about the Earth's many issues, from overpopulation to overconsumption and the dastardly results they have on the global environment. The dungeons in this game reflect this as they are designed after human vices, such a giant shopping mall that reflects humanity's constant desires and pressures to keep spending even when it is entirely unsustainable, which ought to ring the anxieties of many playing it.

* DownInTheDumps: Sector Delphinus, a sprawling and poisonous garbage dump [[ConveyorBeltOfDoom full of moving floors]], [[BlackoutBasement pitch-black hallways]], [[HatePlague a nasty parasite that drives those infected by it to violent insanity]], and some [[DemonicSpiders fairly nasty demons]]. Ironically, this sector is ruled by [[ChaoticEvil Asura]], [[SocialDarwinist who intends to "polish" the human spirit by reducing the entire world to a state of savage barbarism]]. In the game's story, riots have started in South Asia due to the catastrophic spread of pollution.

** Your ships are heavily inspired by the all-terrain vehicle design from the post-apocalyptic film ''Film/DamnationAlley'' and the Demon Hunter Cars from ''Manga/{{Devilman}}''.

** Your ships are heavily inspired by the all terrian vehicle design from the post-apocolyptic film ''Film/DamnationAlley''.

* BonusBoss:
** On the second playthrough, you get to punch out [[spoiler: the Gnostic Demiurge, a level 99 kick in the nuts]].
** Also, [=EX=] Missions given to you by demons or crewmen can lead to these.
** In ''Redux'', several more are added, but one EX Mission presents the successor to [[spoiler:the Demiurge]] on a second playthrough. [[spoiler:Or rather, ''successors''; there are no less than four ultimate bosses stronger than the Demiurge: Nebiros, Belial, Lucifuge, and Beelzebub, all of whom are at Level 99 and guard the new ultimate equipment. Their stats are upwards of ''twenty'' points higher than the Demiurge and even the new TrueFinalBoss, and generally require either using DLC or ''days'' of dedicated Incense grinding to bring your team up to snuff. Beating them all leads to unlocking Magellan, a sub-app that automatically maps everything, but doesn't count unexplored territory as travelled.]]
** ''Redux'' also adds a new BonusBoss that, while nowhere near as tough as the above, is still notable as it ties in to the story. [[spoiler:By beating Alex at her full power in one of the old endings and completing the Womb of Grief in a NewGamePlus to reach the BossRush again, you get to fight Amon, who is killed by Alex and used as one of her demons in the story, as a full-fledged solo boss.]]

* MultinationalTeam: The Schwarzwelt Investigational Team consist of an african american (Gore), a japanese or american depending of the version (the MC), a russian (Zelenin), a hispanic (Jimenez) and a few other memebers from other countries like a texan (Irwing), a chinese (Chen) a british and an italian among others.

* CerebusRetcon: ''Redux'' pulls one for [[spoiler: the original Neutral Ending, the only one where humanity didn't get brainwashed or reduced to the level of animals. Turns out all that effort spent closing the Schwarzwelt went to waste when it manifested again, this time with nobody to stop it... except for Alex, who went back in time to undo that whole mess by killing the main character. The new Neutral Ending properly puts an end to the Schwarzwelt's threat, but now the immortal MC is tasked with destroying each instance of the Schwarzwelt as it recurs, and humanity ends up relying on another immortal being for their safety.]]

* ISurrenderSuckers: Occasionally at the beginning of an encounter, one of the enemy demons will offer to join you free of charge. Most of the time, it's legit, but sometimes its actually this, and they'll actually [[WhatAnIdiot call you out]] for falling for it.

** When you fight [[spoiler:Zelenin]] in the Neutral and Chaos routes, one of her attacks is [[spoiler:the MindControl song that Mastema has [[WorldOfSilence such big plans for]]. It, naturally, [[StandardStatusEffects inflicts Charm]].]]

** In the battle with Asura, the HatePlague he's been inflicting on your squadmates takes the form of Asura Roga, an attack that inflicts [[StandardStatusEffects Rage]] upon random party members.

* StandardStatusEffects:

[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[SuperSoldier "You see before you the state-of-the-art demon fighter of tomorrow.]] [[DungeonCrawling This multidirectional, unitized,]] [[PoweredArmor high-tech fighting machine]] [[OurMonstersAreWeird is salt-free, tuna-safe]] [[PowersAsPrograms and comes complete with 15 megabytes]] [[AppliedPhlebotinum of double-density, wafer-thin alloy]] [[{{Technobabble}} forming a virtual reality]] [[OneManArmy of modern demon extermination...]] [[Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei need I say more?"]]]]-]

* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:About midway through the operation, [[BlackDudeDiesFirst Gore]] is actually ''restored'', and will be your main ally in the Neutral scenario. Not that he'll live past that, but...]]

* BaseOnWheels: The Red Sprite, the Blue Jet, the Elve, the Gigantic, and the Lightning. A couple of stories tall, heavily fortified, can emit [[DeflectorShields plasma shields]], amphibious, and come with [=VTOL=] jets for short-distance flight. The interior is equipped with sickbays and laboratories, and each vehicle is run by an autonomous {{AI}}. Also qualify for CoolShip with a mix of TankGoodness and a large side of AwesomePersonnelCarrier. They can also [[spoiler:split in half, each with its own [=VTOL=] capabilities: the bow carries the main command bridge, living quarters, and sickbay; the aft contains the manufacturing lab, power core, and auxiliary terminals for Arthur]].

* ShoutOut: The translation team, [[http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5948 stuck at what exactly Makurein was meant to be]] (as it could have been "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS McClain, MacClane, MacLaine or any of several other Scottish surnames"]]) went with the assumption it was a shout out to ''Film/DieHard''. Two [[{{AI}} AIs]] are named [[Creator/ArthurCClarke Arthur]] and [[Creator/JulesVerne Verne]]; the manga gives a third the name [[Creator/IsaacAsimov Isaac]].

->''The outset of the 21th century... Earth is a planet teeming with life. Mankind, 7 billion strong, continued to prosper.''

A [[VideoGameRemake remake]] for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS called ''Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux'' was released in Japan in 2017. This update improves the visuals and adds voice acting, a number of new characters and recruitable demons, and new ending routes. It released in North America on May 16 2018.

* GaidenGame: One of two direct spinoffs to the mainline ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games, the other being ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf''.

* GenreShift: While most SMT trappings are present, ''Strange Journey'' switches up the setting with a military science fiction theme in Antarctica instead of UrbanFantasy, and the focus is on working adults instead of youth.

** You can no longer just carry 99 of each in-battle consumable. Medicines and Life Stones cap at 50, while things as potent as Somas or Beads of Life cap at 5 or 10. This encourages a player to use their items more, as excess copies found in chests or as gifts are automatically discarded, on top of reducing the protagonist's support capability in protracted battles.

* AdultFear: This game is designed to strike fear in those who are concerned about the Earth's many issues, from overpopulation to the dastardly results it has on the global environment.

There's a manga side story known as ''Deathtament: Shin Megami Tensei Deep Strange Journey -Another Report-'' by Yasuo Kanou, which centers on another team that lost contact with Red Sprite and is forced to investigate Schwarzwelt without any backup.

* GenreShift: While most SMT trappings are present, ''Strange Journey'' switches up the setting with a military science fiction theme.

* BolivianArmyEnding: At the end of ''Deathtament'', [[spoiler:the Strike Team of the Gigantic that stayed in the Womb of Grief to rescue Jin are waiting for the ship to return, unaware that demons hiding among the crew blindsided the rest. The Womb itself slowly saps the strength of everything trapped within it and then petrifies them... but Louisa Ferre's ending narration implies that they may find an alternate path.]]

* DoomedByCanon: The ''Deathtament'' spinoff is about the crew of the Gigantic; [[spoiler:the ship is found near the end of the game, inoperable and deserted. The end of the manga shows most of its crew being slaughtered by demons hiding among them while they were escaping the Womb of Grief; the only surviving members are the Strike Team who stayed behind expecting its return...]]

* BaseOnWheels: The Red Sprite, the Blue Jet, the Elve, and the Gigantic [[spoiler:and the Lightning]]. A couple of stories tall, heavily fortified, can emit [[DeflectorShields plasma shields]], amphibious, and come with [=VTOL=] jets for short-distance flight. The interior is equipped with sickbays and laboratories, and each vehicle is run by an autonomous {{AI}}. Also qualify for CoolShip with a mix of TankGoodness and a large side of AwesomePersonnelCarrier. They can also [[spoiler:split in half, each with its own [=VTOL=] capabilities: the bow carries the main command bridge, living quarters, and sickbay; the aft contains the manufacturing lab, power core, and auxiliary terminals for Arthur]].

** This gets turned around later when you find out what [[spoiler: Captain Jack and his men]] are ''really'' doing in the Schwarzwelt. [[spoiler: Let's just say that the demons are actually portrayed in a sympathetic light for once even as they [[HumansAreBastards curse humans]] for being mutilated, torn apart, and put back together. It actually tugs at your heart when you turn off the cultivation tank they're in and put them out of their misery.]]

*** Alternatively, Captain Jack and his lieutenant Ryan could be a reference to Tom Clancy's character Jack Ryan.

* SuperPrototype: [[spoiler:The Lightning, rebuilt with technology (and weaponry) far more advanced than the Red Sprite and its brethren]].

** The various Schwarzwelt sectors are code-named from A to H as the Red Sprite navigates them. In turn, each initial denotes [[StellarName the name of a constellation]], like '''A'''ntlia, '''B'''oötes, '''C'''arina, '''D'''elphinus, and so on. And if that wasn't enough, [[spoiler: the sectors that occur after you locate the Vanishing Point ('''F'''ornax, '''G'''rus, and '''H'''orologium) are all the names of constellations in the ''southern'' hemisphere, while the first four sectors' titular constellations are located in the ''northern'' hemisphere!]]
** The Red Sprite, the Lightning, Elve, Gigantic and Blue Jet are all named after atmospheric phenomena.