Atlus' next big JRPG, Shin Megami Tensei V, may be set to launch on November 11 (update: this was true, read our review!) according to a reported leak on the game's Japanese website. The same leak has also uncovered early Shin Megami Tensei V story and gameplay details, though the wait for official confirmation on at least some of these things likely won't be long.
Megami Tensei is one of the oldest ongoing JRPG series, with its first title, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, premiering in 1987. The first "true" Shin Megami Tensei game debuted on the SNES in 1992. For years, the series was kept out of North America due to its controversial religious themes, and the first mainline game to ship overseas was 2003's Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. Many North Americans are more familiar with the spinoff Persona games, the first of which reached the West in 1996. Skipping ahead to 2021, Shin Megami Tensei V is being planned to merge some elements of Shin Megami Tensei III and IV.
Details for Shin Megami Tensei V - including a November 11 launch date - were reportedly pulled from a broken, mistakenly updated version of the game's website, says Persona Central. The main character is said to be a high school student who wanders into a desert world called Da'ath and fuses with a mysterious character to become a Naobino, a "forbidden being" caught in the middle of a war between gods and demons. Players will apparently use various Naobino and demon powers to survive and uncover the truth. Da'ath is said to contain over 200 demons, among them several new types drawn by Masayuki Doi. The leak also purports a limited edition of Shin Megami Tensei V with special bundles is planned, but it's unknown if they'll ship outside of Japan.
Similarly, it's uncertain if November 11 is only a Japanese launch date. Atlus has previously promised a simultaneous global release in 2021, however. Even Shin Megami Tensei V's available in Japan first, other regions could get the game soon after. More concrete information is likely to come on June 15, as that's when Nintendo's E3 2021 Direct is scheduled, and publishers rarely avoid mentioning launch dates at E3 if their games are planned to launch during the same year.
The new JRPG is currently being marked as a Switch exclusive title, so it could even potentially be used as a showpiece for Nintendo's rumored Switch Pro. The latter almost certainly won't be announced at E3, but it could be revealed before or afterward with plenty of time for players to save up for a rumored holiday release. Shin Megami Tensei V would likely be compatible with both platforms, since the Pro is rumored to be an upgrade that supports features like 4K upscaling when docked rather than an all-new console.
Shin Megami Tensei V will be available for Nintendo Switch in 2021.
Source: Persona Central