Seriously, Pokemon was, like, a really good idea.

Atlus USA announced today that Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) will include a demon-sharing system that allows players to swap custom-made monsters via unique passwords. So if you take the time to generate a winged, four-armed, superpsychic hellbeast for your RPG party, you can now give me a code so I can add that exact creature to my game.

Atlus will also release their own codes for players to collect, unlocking “rare, otherwise inaccessible demons, adding yet another layer of deep customization and endlessly addictive demon collection.” Shades of Pokemon Rumble or the original Animal Crossing!

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is scheduled to invade your DS next spring. My new plan is to buy the game a year later and then input all the mega-powerful demon codes you guys create, enabling me to sail through this M-rated, hours-engulfing sci-fi RPG in record time! Bwah ha ha ha!

ATLUS REVEALS DEMON PASSWORD SYSTEM FOR UPCOMING NINTENDO DS™ SCI-FI RPG SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI®: STRANGE JOURNEY™
Open, sesame…
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA — DECEMBER 2, 2009 — Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today revealed that its upcoming sci-fi RPG for Nintendo DS™, Shin Megami Tensei®: Strange Journey™, will feature a potent demon password system, allowing players to generate and exchange codes representing their customized demons, and introducing an all-new facet to the franchise’s beloved “collect every demon” gameplay.

Due to the game’s in-depth demon management system, which includes the ability to level, specialize, and uniquely fuse demons for use in battle, players can eventually craft a distinct party of rare demons on their mission to save Earth. With the demon password system, all of those important levelling and customization decisions can be provided to fellow Strange Journey players through easily exchanged passwords. Need a powerful chaos-aligned demon with fire attacks? A friend with just such a member in their party could generate a unique password that, when entered into the demon compendium, will unlock said demon for the player.

Moreover, Atlus will release a very limited number of passwords for use in the demon compendium which will unlock rare, otherwise inaccessible demons, adding yet another layer of deep customization and endlessly addictive demon collection. Fans are encouraged to be on the look out for these finite codes, as they may not necessarily all come at the same time or even from the same source.

“We’ve been using passwords to unlock demons at Atlus for ages,” disclosed Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales at Atlus. “We’ve grown exceedingly cautious in recent years, though. There was this one time when we wanted a tester demon, but because we screwed up one tiny part of the password, we ended up with a big slime that ate half of our QA team, significantly delaying the release of a game.”

More details about the demon passwords will be released closer to the game’s Spring 2010 launch.

For more information about Strange Journey, visit the game’s official website at http://www.atlus.com/strangejourney.