Megami Tensei

[xS]

I slapped this together in under 10 mins , so excuse me if it isnt well written.
OMG! There is no game like Phantasy Star 0n ur NES!
Lol! How often do we see this in those NES/SMS argument threads?=p Yes, Phantasy Star was the best 8 bit RPG that was localized, but there was one game was probably at least as good if not better than the aforementioned Sega game that had never made it stateside.

Megami Tensei, developed by Atlus, published in 1987 for the NES by Namco was first in the line of Japans third most popular RPG series. Unlike most RPGs back then,(and sadly enough even today) the games plot did not involve around ‘save the princess’ or ‘ lets get these 6 crystals and save the world’ crap , it was much deeper taking place of modern day Japan , and a story involving Western (as in Judea/Christian) religion in Japanese settings , not unlike the oft venerated Xenogears. The meat of the plot-without giving too much away- was that a hacker had stumbled across devils like Lucifer,Set, and Loki into the world. Armed with his devil summoning program he must vanquish these devils before they cause too much havoc in the human world.




Shin Megami Tensei , the sequel to this game was released in Japan in 92 for the Super Famicom and was never localized. =(. But now, thanks to the fine folks at AGTP this game has been ROM hacked and is available for play in English.
Much like the 16 bit Final Fantasies, and Phantasy Stars this game was much better than its eight bit predecessors. The story was far superior to the originals, not only continuing with the devils/hackers theme, but also had some of the open endedness that was exclusive to PC rpg’s. I remember someone on these boards talking about some Ultima game having you seek out enlightment . This game once again has you stumbling across devils like in the 8bit game, but it presents both sides of the argument equally allowing you to make the choice, much like in the Ultima game.

The battle system was much better than that used in 16 bit FF or PS. You had the ability to talk to monsters, alongside the normal beat the crap out of baddies stuff used in other RPG’s. This alone had put it far ahead of 95% of the RPG’s in that era , as mindless leveling up would never be enough to get to the end.
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/smt/smt-01.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/smt/smt-02.gif[/thumbnail]

If you have any problems with finding the game or patch, give me an IM.

Several other SNES games in the series were released in Japan , continuing the same themes as the first 2 games. Unfortunately I have never played them as no hacks have been done yet.
Almost every other game in the series is a spin off to the main MegaTen series.


The Another Bible series is the strategy RPG branch of the series, released for the original clunker boy. I haven’t played these games, but I don’t expect much from an 8bit Strat Rpg.

Devil Summoners/Soul Hackers is another branch of the series, and just like the others has never made it Stateside. Rumor is that the first game was on its way but was rejected by Sony. ( at least that’s what the GIA used to say). However, all is not lost as our beloved ROM h4x0r$ at AGTP are working on fan translation.

heres what they have to say……
A long time ago (okay, three or four years ago) Atlus had released Persona 1 in the states, and they posed the question to the fans "Hey, we have this game called Soul Hackers that's kinda related to Persona. Do people want to see it in the states?" and the fans said "HELL YES!" So, Atlus began to localize the game. When it came down to the wire, Atlus submitted it to Sony for approval, and Sony laughed in their face and declined. So we're going to do let you see exactly what sony (the bitches!) didn't want you to! Anyways, I really don't know what Soul Hackers is about yet. I know that you're a hacker in a group called "The Spookies" and I know that the heroine of the game gets possessed by a demon named Nemissa ^_^ Hacking-wise, the game's a piece of cake, and there's only two or three issues remaining that will keep it from looking -really fucking good- but I'll work on those

Devil Kids is another spin off of the series, and apparently is a parody of the main series. Seems to be like how Parodius is to Gradius.I haven’t played them so I cant really comment on this either
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/devil-children-ps/devil-01.gif[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/devil-children-ps/devil-02.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/devil-children-ps/devil-03.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/devil-children-ps/devil-07_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]




Persona is one of the 2 branches of the series that actually made it Stateside. This explanation from here should explain things best.
2. Shin Megami Tensei/Persona

90% of you have just said, ‘WTF?’ while the other 10% are like ‘Alex is my new favorite vg writer.’



Simply put Persona is heavily based in the works of HP Lovecraft and the styling of Hideyuki Kikuchi. The games revolve around heavy philosophy and morality, reality and religion, and allow you customization beyond your wildest dreams.



Devil Summoner and Soul Hacker are only in Japanese because Atlus was a nip too afraid to bring them over what with the titles and themes of using Demons to defeat an even greater evil. But Persona made it here. The first game, Revelations Persona allows you to pick a team of school kids who have to solve the riddle of what makes reality well, real. What is fiction? What is truth? Who are we when it comes down to it? That is Persona. Persona 2 takes the plot even further by giving you TWO versions of it: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. Both games are alternate versions of each other, but only EP has made it into English even though Atlus is bombarded with emails for an English IS. Go email them for me people. It needs to be released.



As well, Persona allows you over 100 different aspects of one’s self that you can summon. Most are characters or monsters from Mythology and legends. Other are demons, imps, and the like. Hell, you can even get Hastur the Unnameable, and have him duke it out with Nyarlathotep or Shub-Nigguarth in a battle of Lovecraftian Proportions. You can make friends with demons, and even talk, bribe, and dance your way out of fights. Each character is totally unique from the others in your party, and the Velvet Room operetta is hands down the best piece of music ever written for any video game.



Persona 2:Eternal Punishment is hands down the best RPG you can buy in the English language. It’s easily available for the PS1, and has replayability up the wazoo thanks to the ‘Rumours are reality’ system that runs through the game. And like Pokemon, you keep playing even after the game has been beaten.


What he hasn’t said is that first game was completely butchered for domestic release, a 10 ten hour long side quest had been axed!, and many of the religious allegories had been censored. Imagine , playing Xenogears without all of those religious references :consfused:
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/persona2-ep/art-01_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/persona2-ep/art-school_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/persona2-ep/art-chara01_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/persona2-ep/art-chara02_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/persona2-ep/art-persona01_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/persona2-ep/art-maya&maia_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/persona2-ep/art-igor2_sm.jpg[/thumbnail]




Many of you have played Maken X for the Dreamcast. I’m not sure if this is part of the series, but some sources say that it is. For those of you who haven’t played it , it was a pretty neat first person action game with great music and art spanning several different locations from the Vatican to Japan. As far as I can remember ECM loved it back in the day. BenT has a pretty good review of it here



The most recent games in the series have been Shin Megami Tensei 9 and Shin Megami Tensei 3.There have been no announcement for either of the games as of yet.=/ I can see the later being localized as Atlus has brought over a lot of niche RPG’s like Hoshigami , Kartia , Wizardary etc, etc and still continue to bring over excellent niche games from Japan like last years Sky Gunner. *sends millions of emails*

[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/previews/smt9/smt9-1.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://www.rpgfan.com/previews/smt9/smt9-2.jpg[/thumbnail]

edited to fuck and back by Yoshi

Thanks yoshi

[Yoshi]

xS, you may want to fix the broken links though.

[xS]

Which ones? I've linked to 3 sites: Planet DC, 411mania and rpgfan. The links seem to be fine.

[Yoshi]

Odd. Maybe it is just me then. I can't see some of the rpgfan ones.

[MVS]

Almost none of the links work

All to the RPG fan main page.

[xS]

The thumbnail links?
These are the others
http://www.rpgfan.com/previews/smt9/smt9.html
http://www.411mania.com/games/column...columns_id=268
http://www.planetdreamcast.com/games/reviews/makenx/

[NeoZeedeater]

Cool thread.

I played the first game through emulation and I was very impressed. I didn't get far though since it was in Japanese. It's a damn shame it didn't come domestically.

Although I think people(like myself) arguing Phantasy Star's worth have a point. RPGs are unplayable to most North Americans if they aren't in English so obviously when discussing the 8-bit RPGs, it makes sense to discuss the domestically released games. We didn't have translated roms in the '80's. You gotta love that aspect of the emulation scene today.

Also, there was another Famicom Megami Tensei game released in 1990.

[Yamcha]

Thanks for the writeup, very informative. I have to admit I've never played any Megami Tensei/Persona games...even though I've wanted to. It's one RPG series that's always been pushed asied by me...but this is a good reminder for me to try it out...

[Frogacuda]

I strongly disagree that either of the Famicom Megaten games were anywhere near as good as Phantasy Star, butthe series as a whole might be. Shin Megaten is good shit, for sure, as is the persona series. There's alot of other branches you neglected as well, like the S-RPG Majin Tensei series, the Last Bible series, and like a dozen individual games. Off the top of my head there's...

Megami Tensei (Famicom)
Megami Tensei 2 (famicom)
Megami Tensei 1+2 (SFC)
Last Bible (GB)
Last Bible 2 (GB)
Last Bible 3 (SFC)
Another Bible (GBC)
Majin Tensei (SNES)
Majin Tensei 2 (SNES)
Persona (PSX)
Persona 2: Sin (PSX)
Persona 2: Punishment (PSX)
Devil Summoner (Saturn)
Devil Summoner 2 (Saturn)
Devil Summoner- Akuma Zensho (Saturn)
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (Saturn, PSX)
Shin Megami Tensei (SFC, PSX)
Shin Megami Tensei II (SFC, PSX)
Shin Megami Tensei If (SFC, PSX)
Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei
Devil Children Red
Devil Children Black
Devil Children 2 Red
Devil Children 2 Black
Devil Children 1 and 2 (PSX)

There's a genesis one I remember reading about in an EGM many years ago too...

[Shine]

We need more Megami Tensei hre in the states, I wanted to wait til IS was released before I got EP but I doubt that's likely now. As for Persona, I love that game with every fiber of my being.