Atlus has revealed details about the development of Shin Megami Tensei 5, and how the studio used Unreal Engine tools in the game’s development. Check out the full video below.
Lead modelling designer Takumi Yoshihara talks about how the team achieved Shin Megami Tensei 5‘s unique art style.
“Our approach was to maintain the dark atmosphere of the Shin Megami Tensei series while adding new 3D depictions of hand-drawn illustrations,” said Yoshihara. “We took graphics with a hand-drawn look and tried layering on Unreal Engine’s signature photorealistic effects to produce a result appropriate for modern game consoles.”
Unreal Engine’s materials system was instrumental in the game’s look. Since Shin Megami Tensei 5‘s demons needed custom materials, the flexibility offered by Unreal Engine’s materials system allowed the team some freedom in making enemies look uniue.
Lead field designer Kohei Onishi took the chance to talk about his favourite Unreal Engine tool—Pivot Painter. The studio used it to create Shin Megami Tensei 5‘s swaying trees, grass, and mysterious objects.
In creating Shin Megami Tensei 5‘s cutscenes, lead event designer Katsuhito Hora called the Sequencer an indispensible tool. “Sequencer made it easy to access and adjust a model’s internal parameters individually and to make changes for a single take, which was really helpful,” said Hora.
And finally, on the programming side of things, lead programmer Yoshiki Oyamada spoke about Unreal Engine’s visual scripting system Blueprints. In the game’s development, Oyamada states that the team threw out its gameplay scripts from Shin Megami Tensei 4 and replaced them with Blueprints.
For more information about Shin Megami Tensei 5, check out our review, where we gave the game a score of 9 out of 10.
