Trivia / Shin Megami Tensei V

• Acting for Two: In the English dub of Vengeance, Erin Yvette will voice Sophia and Yoko Hiromine.
• Acting in the Dark: In an interview during the launch celebration event, Casey Mongillo stated that they were under the assumption that their role would be fairly small due to the short amount of time that was booked for recording their lines. It wasn't until they were in the recording booth that they were told that they were voicing the protagonist of the game.
• Author's Saving Throw: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is intended to be this for both fans and the game's developers. One of the main criticisms of the original game was its sparse story and the developers being unable to implement most of their ideas, so Vengeance is their way of rectifying that with new story and content, as well as various quality of life improvements such as reworking the infamous level scaling.
• Content Leak:
  • On June 4th, 2021, Atlus updated the Japanese website of the game and accidentally leaked details about the game, such as the setting, information about the main character and the release date. The error was corrected not long after, but the leaked information was still floating around the internet by the time the E3 trailer was released.
  • On February 19th, 2024, the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea accidentally listed Vengeance on their website. Two days after, the game would be officially announced.
• Creator Backlash: With the unveiling of Vengeance director Shigeo Komori admitted that the development team were disappointed in how they were unable to implement or fully execute many of their ideas for V and aim to make Vengeance a more robust title.
• Development Hell: Announced in 2017 when the Nintendo Switch was revealed, the game wouldn't get a release until 2021. Part of the delay involved the team getting used to the Unreal Engine as it was never used in any Atlus titles prior to V.
• Dueling Games: Vengeance is slated to be released on June 14, 2024, one week before the release of Elden Ring's highly anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree DLC expansion.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition:
  • The Japanese limited edition of the game, called the "Forbidden Nahobino" box, comes with a special case, a 116-page artbook, a mini-soundtrack featuring select tracks from the game, a medley string quartet arrangement of various songs from past games, and a t-shirt based on the Nahobino's design.
  • The Fall of Man Premium Edition for overseas audiences comes in a collectible box with a steelbook case for the game, a 2-disc soundtrack, an artbook, and a slingbag featuring Jack Frost's silhouette.
• Meme Acknowledgement:
  • Atlus West's tweet announcing the release of the game in the West says "You've rejected, attacked and dethroned", referencing the "One more god rejected" meme from Nocturne and the series-wide "Attack and dethrone God".
  • Continuing from memes shared with Nocturne, Atlus West's tweet about SMT V being in the Game Awards referenced the ''Vote for Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne'' ad that aired for another game awards show decades prior (which their Youtube account already acknowledged as per the comments section), telling fans to vote for SMT V for the low cost of signing into The Game Awards. The account even lampshades this trope by asking its fans if they got the reference.
  • A tweet about Mothman merchandise had Atlus West acknowledge the "Muito Real" meme which came about from the SMT Portugal fan page's reaction to Mothman's reveal in the game, joking that anyone who replied with it was obligated to buy the sweaters.
• Missing Trailer Scene: In the first trailer for V, the protagonist and Tao are shown walking together through the station, and in another scene, are attacked by a group of Daemons. Both scenes are missing in the game.
• The Original Darrin: Wataru Takagi returns to voice Mastema in the Japanese version of Vengeance having last voiced him in IV as Toshiyuki Morikawa, who voiced him in ''Strange Journey Redux'', already plays Aogami in V.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Odin was voiced by D.C. Douglas in Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, but in this game he's voiced by Keith Silverstein.
  • Dagda in Vengeance is now voiced by Hidenari Ugaki after being voiced by Shūichi Ikeda in Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.
• Refitted for Sequel: Kazuma Kaneko originally wanted Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne to be more of an open-world game but canned the idea due to the technological limitations of the PS2. Here, SMT V is fully open-world.
• Release Date Change: Vengeance was meant to be released Worldwide on June 21st of 2024, but nearly a month after its announcement, Atlus announced that it would release a week earlier.
• Role Reprise:
  • In Japanese, Shin-ichiro Miki, Atsushi Miyauchi and Subaru Kimura respectively return from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux to voice Lucifer, Odin and Zeus. Vengeance also sees Atsuko Tanaka returning to the role of Lilith, having previously voiced her in IV.
  • On the English language side of things, Paul Eiding returns from Nocturne HD as Lucifer. Vengeance sees Doug Erholtz return from IV as Mastema.
• Sequel Gap: 8 years have passed since Shin Megami Tensei IV back in 2013 and this game released in 2021. Even counting Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (2016) leaves a 5-year gap.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The game was aiming for a 2020 release around the Olympics, but it may have gotten delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Aogami has a full combat animation set hidden in the game files suggesting that he was either meant to be playable or a boss at some point during development.
  • From interviews, Yamai was alluding to the game having a story meant to focus on modern social issues, to "reexamine the characteristics of the era”, defined by a broad set of troubles “such as troubles both at home and abroad, such as anxiety about finding a job and getting old, or terrorists and nuclear weapons". None to very little of this show up in the final product.
  • Files in the game indicated that Dagda, Krishna, and Maitreya were planned to be in the game as DLC◊, but never came to fruition. So far, Dagda is set to return in Vengeance as DLC.
  • Hayataro was originally going to be the Nahobino's first demon, and was going to be involved with a plot point that ultimately never was included in the final game. The idea of riding on the back of the demon was considered as well.
  • Yoko Hiromine, one of the new characters in Vengeance, was originally supposed to appear in the original game, but was ultimately scrapped.
  • Dummied Out files indicate the Nahobino was apparently going to have the Canon Name of Kei Amemura, but it was scrapped.

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