Shin Megami Tensei is a long-running role-playing series with demonic overtones that has attracted a cult following thanks to the Persona series. However, there is a mainline series that hasn't seen a new entry since Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, which came out for PlayStation 2 in 2004. Since then, the series has seen numerous releases, including Devil Survivor, which came out on DS last summer.

The series is getting its next mainline entry next year in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, which is due out in North America on March 23 exclusively for Nintendo DS. The game, originally slated for a March 9 release, was pushed back two weeks to avoid the release of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. To make up for this, Atlus is including the soundtrack of the game with every copy.

Strange Journey is similar to past games in the series, as it features turn-based combat and a focus on demon negotiation, collection, and fusion. The big difference is that the story has a science-fiction feel to it. You travel to the South Pole with a group of researchers to investigate a strange area. Things go awry as your intrepid hero is transported to another world where demons are prevalent. As you travel through the area, you assemble a party of demons, collect items, and uncover the mystery.

Built off of the Etrian Odyssey engine, Strange Journey is a first-person RPG. You explore areas, searching for items and more. The most important item is Forma, which can be used to create new equipment. The touch screen is a map, but unlike Etrian Odyssey, you don’t have to draw the map yourself.

Combat is also from a first-person view as you take your four-person party into battles. Your main character is a human, and the rest of your party is made up of demons, which you can recruit and combine. It is your standard RPG fare, with the addition of demon negotiation.

The game will end if the human character dies, and he is the only party member who can wield guns, which have special attacks. The hero also has a Demonica suit that is upgraded in a Metroid-like fashion as you progress, giving you different abilities and letting you reach different areas.

The biggest addition to the combat is Demon Co-Op. When you attack an opponent that is weak against your element, every other demon in your party with that alignment gets an extra melee attack. If used effectively, you can get multiple hits from each character every turn. Also, if you’re in a fight with weaker opponents, you can press the X button to speed up the fight by making your characters just use melee attacks until the fight is over.

All characters have skills that are basically magic attacks, ranging from elemental attacks to stat buffs. Everyone has a different elemental focus and different strengths and weaknesses versus other elements. You can learn about demon’s weaknesses by interacting with them and unlocking more information about them in the Demon Compendium, which is a comprehensive database for all sorts of demon information.

There are a lot of demons to collect, and it seems to echo that “gotta catch’em all” feel of Pokémon. You can even give your friends some of your demons, producing a password that will duplicate the demon in another copy of the game. The negotiation aspect of demon recruiting is especially amusing, largely thanks to the translation of Nick Maragos. You go through dialogue choices as you try to appease different demons, and they talk back and join you, leave you, or fight you depending on what you say.

Strange Journey promises 40 to 50 hours of gameplay, with a long quest and over 60 side missions. It’s coming out on March 23, and will retail for $34.99 with a soundtrack CD included.