Shin Megami Tensei // World Is A Fuck, Kill Em All

Shin Megami Tensei is a game series first released in 1987. Megami Tensei was an adaptation of a sci-fi novel Digital Devil Story by Aya Nishitani. Shin Megami Tensei was released on the Super Famicom in Japan in 1992 and has since had dozens of titles released in the main series and in spin-offs.

With a few exceptions the story-line of each game usually involves a young male protagonist who is forced to participate in a war between Demons of Law and Chaos – two ideologies which are constantly opposed – and asked to side with one side or the other.

The main series SMT games are dungeon crawling RPGs with monster (demon) befriending and fighting. Key aspects of the series include but are not limited to: Demon Negotiation, Demon Fusion, and Multiple Endings.


(I think negotiations are breaking down)

Apart from the mainline SMT games there are several spin-offs with sometimes wildly different genres and focuses.

Persona

Focusing more strongly on the bonds between people, facing the demons within yourself, and (as of P3) some mild dating-sim elements, Persona is probably the most popular spin-off in the SMT series. It’s so popular that I almost feel like it should have its own thread.

Devil Survivor

Devil Survivor is a Strategy RPG with a tone similar to both Persona and mainline SMT. There are only two games in the series currently (both on the DS with 3DS enhanced ports). The plot involves a disaster striking Tokyo and a group of humans who try to survive. Devil Survivor games have a strong emphasis on replayability and typically have more endings than mainline SMT games.

Others

Devil Summoner is a series I never really got a grasp on. In a sense it is more like a mystery/crime solving game but functionally it doesn’t adhere to one particular genre. The first two games in the Devil Summoner series are standard dungeon crawling RPGs and the Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha games are Action RPGs set in early 1930s Japan.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a relatively new game created as a partnership between Atlus and Intelligent Systems. There is a Let’s Play going on right now :siren: in this thread. It has elements of Persona, mainline SMT, and Fire Emblem with an Idol/Entertainment Industry wrapper and an awesome aesthetic.

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Persona 5 is coming out on April 4th this year :siren:

Post your favourite SMT game
Tell everyone if you prefer Law, Chaos, or other ideologies somewhere in between
Please tag spoilers :slight_smile:

Let’s not post about how Persona isn’t real SMT

PS This is my first time posting a thread so if there’s anything you think I missed just tell me and I’ll try to slot it into the OP. Thanks

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First thing is really important is that we all need to take a moment and realize just how much ass the Megami Tensei 1/2 OST kicks. This thing takes the famicom sound chip and makes some of the best tunes out there

Aside from that:
Favorite games: Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne, Persona 2
Law/Chaos: Neutral when I can

Yes! The soundtracks for SMT games is out of this world.

My favourite SMT game is probably SMTIV. The story really hooked me and the atmosphere is really good.

I actually wanted to bring something up re: Law/Chaos. Whenever I play SMT games I always end up either Law or Neutral. Ultimately I disagree with both Law and Chaos but in the moment I often see Law answers as the correct ones. Sometimes I think it’s a flaw in the game (killing opponents in the arena is Chaos but sparing them is Law. Ultimately Neutral is more about saving human lives and Law really has no regard for human life as we know it ) and sometimes I think it’s just how I feel philosophically.

I love the SMT series, though the fact that I don’t own any handhelds has left me a bit deprived of it lately. I did manage to track down a copy of the second Raidou Kuzonoha game though, so I should play that.

I think my favourite memory of the series is back when Digital Devil Saga 1 came out. I had been in a cycling accident that left me with a bruised spine, so I had to spend most of my time on strong painkillers lying in bed. DDS was the perfect game at the perfect time - a bit trippy, no twitch gameplay, and if I dozed off mid-battle it was fine. Plus all the awesome side-content. I’ve never been more excited for, or disappointed in, a sequel - it just didn’t grab me at all.

Hi! I’m here now! I live here now. It’s me, the boy who played and enjoyed SMT1 and 2. Though, 3 is probably my favorite.

Hi, it’s me. I preordered a Nintendo Switch because they teased a new SMT game for it that doesn’t even have a release date :smiley:

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I have learned a lot of patience since waiting so long for SMTIV to be released in Australia. I will hold off until the Switch SMT has a release date at least.

I’d love to experience more of Shin Megami Tensei games, but I’ve only played Persona 3 and Persona 4 myself. I adored them both greatly, getting very far within each but not being able to reach the endings due to the loss of my memory card… although I have since watched Let’s Plays of both games to finish the experience for myself.

I think I’d pick Persona 4 as my favorite of the two, being a big fan of the slight goofiness of the plot, the characters, the music, and the general stylishness that Persona seems to exhibit naturally.

I’m massively excited to see Persona 5.

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I’m in that same group that has only really completed Persona 3 & 4/Golden. I started SMTIV and bought Apocalypse, but I haven’t really had time to sit down and really invest a whole lot of time into IV. It was almost kind of shellshock-y the difference in difficulty that I’ve noticed between any of the Persona games vs a “mainline” SMT title, being I had my ass absolutely handed to me for the first handful of hours I put into IV.

Honestly though in terms of my favorite, I think it’s a tossup between P3 and P4 thusfar, leaning individually toward P3 for overall game mechanics and P4 for the characters and story. I really want to find more time to put into SMTIV, because I hear Apocalypse was pretty okay as well.

And I refuse to acknowledge that I live in a universe where Persona 5 got delayed. I’ve had my ‘i spend too much money on video games’ collector’s edition of it reserved since it was available, and I die a little inside when I think that I could have been playing it in a little under two weeks.

i need it i need the style

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I am currently playing SMT4:Apocolypse (a pseudo-sequel to SMT:4, it is…complicated) and it is easily my favorite one! There are 5 different difficulties so if it is too hard or easy you can switch it up at any time; wireless demon fusion with other people which itself gives super helpful items; the game tells you there are routes pretty early and it is pretty easy to figure out which one you are going down; awesome characters and demons and a story that actually makes sense! I suggest at least reading a plot review of SMT4 before playing but I highly recommend it!

Also neutral route all the way; stupid angels and demons…

Megami Tensei was an adaptation of a sci-fi novel Digital Devil Saga

Guess you mixed up the names the novels are called Digital Devil Story!

Anyway, I got into the franchise from playing Persona 4 first, and ended up backtracking to the rest of the MegaTen PS2 games (except for Raidou, since I couldn’t find it) and the nintendo + psp games afterwards.

My favorites are Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga and P4. I also have a massive soft spot for Soul Hackers and even Strange Journey.

Despite my love for a lot of MegaTen games I feel like it’s been losing its appeal to me after the extensive P4 spin-offs and just the general direction it’s been taking lately. TMS hammered the final nail into the coffin for me with the reveal trailer, but I want to be proven wrong and I’m following the LP and hope that I’ll end up liking the game.

Can’t say much about the Switch trailer except that the models look fabulous, but I do hope the game will be good. I like it when things are good.

Right. I fixed the OP.

I definitely wasn’t a fan of the direction SMTIV: Apocalypse went in. I think the gameplay was fun for the most part but the story and characters didn’t hook me at all. I just feel like the characters were too “tropey”

That said P5 looks good from what I’ve seen and Devil Survivor 2 was right up my alley so I have faith that SMT Switch and SMT 3DS will be good

Yeah, that’s one criticism I read in several reviews before I actually bought Apocalypse. Most of the reviewers had commented that the gameplay was still pretty okay, but the story and characters kind of went off on some shounen-anime power-of-friendship tropefest to an extent.

Yeah, some of them were pretty generic and one note, but I can remember their names at least!

I will say that when I did my Massacre run I actually started to feel things for my partners when I was killing them. In particular as I killed Navarre his last words were haunting and when I “thanked” Gaston as I killed him he also has a tear jerking reply

Awww yeah SMT thread

I’ve been playing SMTIV:A, DDS1 & SMT:II in short bursts lately.
SMTIV:A on hard is pretty fun for bosses but dungeon crawling in that mode is slow.
DDS1 I’ve been playing with encounter cheats cause the rate can be grating.
SMT:II is difficult to follow without a guide directing me.

I figure it must be relatively common, but my first SMT-related experience was Persona 3. I still remember spending hours at a time in my dorm’s living room, working on my MC’s academics while recklessly disregarding my own. (Don’t be like me, kids.) I loved it so much, I had to get Persona 4 as soon as it came out. And I loved that, too, so I got Persona Q. And, of course, I’m really excited for Persona 5!

But aside from Persona, I’ve played a few other SMT games. I tried SMT1 on the Super Nintendo at some point, but… That was too much for me. The map was pretty much useless to me, so I had a hard time navigating dungeons. Hell, I had a hard time navigating the overworld map, too. I don’t remember how far I got before ultimately giving up.

When Strange Journey came out for the DS, I got that right away. Now that was something! Being part of a crew on a mission to save the world by exploring a demonic world based on humanity’s vices, watching how the forces at play affect your team members… That was good stuff! But, well, I got to the last dungeon, and when I got to the part where the map system stops working and you can’t see where to go with no in-game way of solving either, I just couldn’t hang in there anymore. Alas.

And then along came SMTIV. When it grabbed me, it really grabbed me. I really liked the idea of playing as a foreigner in a foreign land, exploring not just the ruins of Tokyo but how society has changed with the circumstances and ultimately the cause of it all. Add in some things like the ability to fuse demons whenever you want and the Press Turn system, and you get a game that made me want to see all the endings. Fuck having to do every single sidequest to get the Neutral ending, though.

Of course I had to get SMTIV: Apocalypse, too. I suppose I can’t really disagree with the criticisms about the cast, but I’m a bit of a sucker for that kind of thing anyway, so I still enjoyed it anyway (except for the last dungeon). Plus, it was nice to see more Isabeau, too. I felt like she didn’t get enough screen time in SMTIV (although that might be because my last several playthroughs were kind of a blur).

Oh, and I almost forgot to include Tokyo Mirage Sessions! I’m also a fan of Fire Emblem, so it was right up my alley. Since there’s a thread for it, I’ll limit my gushing, at least until I check that out.

Overall, if I had to pick a favorite, I think I’d pick Persona 3, specifically FES. Hell, I love it so much, I even respect the mechanic where you can’t directly control your other party members. I mean, I won’t stop anyone from complaining about it, but it really made me feel like I was an individual in the world with the MC as my avatar, rather than the invisible hand guiding a group of people. To put it another way, it made the other characters feel like their own people. Even though I was team leader and I could tell everyone what to focus on in battle, Junpei wasn’t me and I wasn’t Junpei, so his thoughts for what’s best won’t always align with mine. That’s my case and I’m sticking to it.

Phew. Hope that wasn’t too long-winded. It’s been a while since I’ve been part of a proper forum instead of just Twitter. But, hey, more material to work as a springboard for further discussion, right?

…Right?

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I actually really agree with this, and my only real complaints about indirect control come from when a decision is made by the AI that royally screws you over, which doesn’t happen often enough to ruin the game IMO. It certainly feels more exciting that way when the AI accomplishes multiple knockdowns all on their own or makes a smart decision that helps you out a ton.

Even after saying this however, I still usually play with direct control on in Portable and P4. :smile:

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I just finished Persona 1 which has atrocious encounter rates so I totally feel wanting to hack down the encounter rate. You can take maybe 5 steps before an encounter in P1 and battles can take a while so it’s a just no fun at all.

For DDS there’s a couple of points I backtrack to and instead of running through too many dudes I thought I’d just flip it off.

I’m fine with cheating like this as long as i’m not using cheats to one-shot bosses.