In anticipation Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD RemasterRelease on PlayStation 4 and Switch next month, publisher Sega has provided the internet a beautiful version with high resolution of the “With Dante from the Devil May Cry series ”from the box art of the original PlayStation 2 in North America. The image has inexplicably used in memes since then, most recently in conjunction with other absurd internet humor like Big Chungus
“The development team initially thought it was a crazy idea to pursue a crossover between two different publishers,” Nocturne director Kazuyuki Yamai explained on the PlayStation blog. However, they were also fascinated by the idea that the two characters ran into each other and their struggles ensued. So they brought the proposal to Capcom, and the rest is history! “
Like the more popular Person series of spin-offs, Nocturne focuses on befriending and enslaving a host of supernatural entities collectively known as demons. These potential party members are generously drawn from global mythology and religion; it is possible in Nocturne, for example to build a team that does not encompass alone Devil May Cry antihero Dante but also the popular West Virginian cryptid Mothman and the Abrahamic archangel Gabriel.
While I would normally be all “Silence, fire” on something like this, I’m also a sucker for high-resolution reproductions of artwork that is otherwise hard to find. Sega is smart to embrace the Dante meme from a marketing perspective (ugh, sorry, just writing that sentence makes me sick), but more importantly, it’s good to have these kinds of historical artifacts readily available for archival purposes .
And the memes too, of course. I can’t forget it.