Shin Megami Tensei (the 1st one) out on iOS

At the moment, I'm playing the first Shin Megami Tensei game. It's out in English on iOS now, available on iTunes.

First there was "Megami Tensei"; it was a 1980s game based on a novel, and I've got (and seen) an OVA related to it - demons come out of computers... btw that OVA wasn't very good.

But based on that idea, some other folks created "Shin Megami Tensei" on the SNES, and it eventually SMT started spawning spin-off series (e.g. Persona) and the franchise became massive.

The key features of the overall series are:

• Someone will manage to connect to the demon realm by writing computer software
• There's an epic battle between demons and god, and you represent the humans caught between, and can join one side or the other; or do your own thing.
• It does branching storyline right. The choices are fairly clear, and the outcome really affects the story in a meaningful way, with really different endings possible.
• It's set in contemporary Japan turned to chaos, rather than some fantasy world.
• You can recruit your enemies and have them fight alongside you (they were doing this before Pokemon!)
• The world will probably end, but shopping mall buildings and underground rail stations will probably remain intact (how depressing, humankind's legacy!)

This iOS version is actually based on the later enhanced Gameboy Advance release of SMT, so it's got little extra features above what's in the SNES English fan-translation. So I get to watch bonus cutscenes... actually, in this first clip, you get to see how a loved one died; is that really such a reward?

Considering how many games there are in the extended series with spin-offs and such, I haven't really played that many of them. I've played quite a long way into SMT III on PS2 (that was a long time ago!), a spin-off called "Demikids" on GBC (that was even longer ago!), I started Persona 3 but never got along with it enough to continue... started an MMORPG called SMT: Imagine (but not for long), and recently played through Devil Survivor Overclocked on 3DS, which seemed to take me about a year - mainly because I took myself down a route that made it a really really tough game. However, Devil Survivor Overclocked is my favourite RPG on 3DS (sorry Pokemon). It's really good!

I'm really enjoying SMT. Every time I play one, it seems so fresh and atmospheric. I love the fact you can have little conversations with the demons to try and recruit them; the way you get a feeling for their personalities, and the way they are so inhuman in their responses and behaviour. Demons are psychologically interesting! I like the way that it's set in Tokyo so the recognisable world is warped - somehow the world of 1990s Japan overrun with demons and full of cults, bars, and fierce weaponry... is more believable than a fantasy world of "normal people".

I also really like the way the hero characters have swords and guns and magic, where swords and guns are different weapon slots with different use, rather than just having "attack" and magic.

I really wish this wasn't on iOS though. For one thing, I'm borrowing an iPad again, then on-screen controls emulating a joypad make my hands feel weird after a while. I wish this had been ported to 3DS (with in-game maps on the lower screen) or on Vita (because the storage capacity on the device is better and there's a better user accounts system on PSN).

Still, I hope this does well enough that they decide to localise the iOS version of SMT II into English.

I just bought myself an American 3DS XL on import (it's a gold Legend of Zelda special edition I found 2nd hand on Amazon.com) so I can eventually play SMT IV - because it seems like it's never coming out in Europe. I already have the special edition of the game which comes in a nice box with strategy guide and CD. It's not set in a contemporary period, but I expect it to be great.

One thing I do worry about a little; as well as playing SMT, I've been playing Disgaea 3, watching Highschool DxD, watched another OVA based on SMT (called Tokyo Revelations) and just got a copy of Tecmo's Deception IV for Vita in the post... perhaps I am spending too much time with demons, I'm tending slightly towards the chaotic...

Megami Tensei / SMT / Persona / DDS / Demikids info

Someone posted a link to this on a forum I was reading. It contains a lot of information about the Megami Tensei series that I didn't know.

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/megaten/megaten.htm

I didn't even know that the Megami Tensei anime OAV that I saw was based on the novel which the Megaten games are based on. I thought it must have been based on the first game just because I don't know anything about it. ^_^;;

See how little I knew?

See also:
Digital Devil Story novels by Nishitani Aya, translated into English

Shin Megami Tensei game translation patch

Shin Megami Tensei II game translation patch

Wikipedia page

Shin Megami Tensei Imagine MMO now in beta

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine: the free-to-play MMO (developed by Cave), based on Atlus's Megami Tensei series of RPGs is now in the process of being localised to English by Aeria Games, and is now in closed beta. Actually, it has been since the beginning of December but I didn't get round to installing it until this weekend (I've been busy!)

Although it's a closed beta, Filefront are giving away 20000 free access keys, so it's not very closed if you want to join in! I got one of those keys last week, then got sent an invite from Aeria games on Friday via email, so now I have the access key spare. :/

All character data is going to be erased when it goes to open beta, so I'm hesitant to put much time into it. All I've done so far is create a character, follow the tutorial and do the first mission. My character is level six.

I was thinking, from the MegaTen games I've played, and from people's descriptions of the game, that it would be kind of like an online and demon-filled, dark, grown-up version of Pokemon. The reality is that it feels like a cross between Phantasy Star Online and playing as a beastmaster in Final Fantasy XI, and I get the feeling that the game may have borrowed some of the stylistic elements from the .hack games/anime. Well, I don't know really, since this MMO fits in the storyline between the 1st and 2nd SMT games and I only started playing at the 3rd game, so I don't know the style of those older games.

It seems that you can only summon one of your demons at a time, and you fight alongside it. You choose how to allocate stat points to your character as you level up, and which skills to train up in as you fight, and in this way you mould your character into a melee fighter, long-range shooter, or magic user. I'm completely undecided as to what I'd like to be at the moment! Before I started playing, I was under the impression that I would be controlling the demons, not both the player and their summoned demon both at once.

There's only one server (Cerberus), containing several "channels", and their load has always been labelled "sparse" when I've gone in, however it's still a bit laggy (sometimes it becomes somewhat unplayable), and there's something on the front of the site saying that everyone should suffer fewer disconnect issues now. Another issue - I did notice that during the tutorial mission, the final cutscene was subtitled in Japanese rather than English (NB: it is easy to work out what happened even if you can't understand the language). So it's definitely a work in progress. But, worth a look if you're at all interested at getting to play this part of the MegaTen series, and it's free! :D