One of the staff members in Japan, who happened to be a big fan of the DMC series, came up with the idea of including “Dante” from Capcom’s in an upcoming “SMT” game. At first I thought it was a crazy idea, but realized that Dante is a “devil hunter” and this might actually work out and presented the “Nocturne” game concept to Capcom.

Before we presented the idea, we created a movie with Dante in it, so that Capcom would have a better understanding of how we would like to incorporate Dante in our game. The movies is the scene where Dante jumps off of a building and lands behind the main character with guns drawn. We used strategy guides and other reference materials to create the movie. It turned out great and we were confident that Capcom would like it. Just as we thought, they loved it and the rest is history.

Shin Megami Tensei (pronounced "shin MEH-gah-mee TEN-say") is a Japanese phrase that translates as "True Goddess Metempsychosis". An unusual piece of philosophical jargon, "metempsychosis" refers specifically to the unending process of birth, death, and rebirth that is of central importance to the Buddhist religious tradition. Even deities are slaves to the cycle of metempsychosis in Buddhist thought, and this belief features prominently in the plotlines of the various Shin Megami Tensei games. Who exactly the titular "goddess" is supposed to be is usually left up to the player. Each SMT game features a female character that the title could be referring to, or it could be taken as a reference to radical transformations that Japan itself experiences during the course of a game.