History of the Shin Megami Tensei series. Part 2. Shin Megami Tensei 1
Man is the peak of the evolutionary chain. We have developed and are developing at incredible speed, inventing truly incredible things. But the more advanced humanity became, the more we tried to simplify things.
And this simplification reached our ideologies, which the developers of Shin Megami Tensei were extremely unhappy with. People like to divide everything into black and white, because it’s easier that way. After all, it’s easier to consider all Germans during the Second World War as evil, and their opponents as good. It’s easier to consider faith in God as good and atheism as evil. It’s easier to consider yourself good and others bad. It’s easier this way. We find it difficult to think about balance. And it was this topic that became the main feature of the first SMT, where we learn all the stupidity of the radical parties.
In the second Megami Tensei, we saw traces of the protagonist’s unrealized worldview system, and this system was expressed in the presence of two endings. And now, two years later, in 1992, Koji Okada’s team presents us with a reboot of the Megami Tensei series – Shin Megami Tensei. In it we will finally see the worldview system that the developers are so proud of, but first, about the plot.
The main character has a strange dream where he meets two guys, one was on the cross, and the other was almost killed by a demon. The player is allowed to name all these three, and as I said in the 1st issue, everything is complicated with names, so we’ll just take one of the options that was offered to us in one of the game guides. And so, the main character’s name is Kazuya, the almost crucified guy is Yuji, and the one who almost became a victim of the demon is Takeshi.
Then they find a naked girl in the pond – Yuriko, who calls the hero her eternal companion. Suddenly Kazuya is awakened by the voice of his mother, who urgently needed coffee. In addition to the important task of buying coffee, Kazuya discovers a message on his computer from a certain Steven, who warns about the invasion of demons, along the way he sends everyone a program that will help fight evil spirits. But who will believe it?
Looking around a little more, we realize that we are playing for a young guy of about 18 years old, who is now on vacation. At the moment, he lives with his mother and dog Pascal, and the guy has never seen his father, since he divorced Kazuya’s mother when the protagonist was infancy. In any case, Kazuya actively helps his mother in everything, today she asked him to go get coffee.
In the city, a guy meets a beautiful girl from a recent dream – Yuriko, as well as a strange creature that killed a random passerby and immediately ran away. In any case, after running around his home district of Kichijoji, Kazuya returns home and immediately goes to bed.
At night he dreams again with Yuji, Takeshi and Yuriko. This time they stumble upon a strange ritual where an unfamiliar girl is going to be sacrificed. It’s strange, but Kazuya manages to save the unknown by shouting her name, which the player can come up with himself, but we’ll call her Yuka.
After stopping the ritual, Kazuya wakes up from his sleep again. This time the guy decides to better explore his area, because extremely strange things began to happen. Demons began to appear on the streets, fortunately the hero already has a small knife, which he took from the corpse of yesterday’s poor fellow, and a program for summoning demons, which was sent to him by a certain Steven.
In the park, Kazuya meets a strange old man who admires the protagonist’s insane potential. He also shows the hero a possible future where he, Yuji and Takeshi fight against an unknown demon and die. However, this is just a possible future, so the old man advises Kazuya to become stronger.
Unfortunately, now Kazuya is not even close to strong, so the police find him and lock him up in the hospital, since his prints were found on the corpse of the guy who was killed by a strange creature. In a makeshift prison, the hero will meet the guy from the dream – Yuji, who was locked here for a similar, strange reason, like Kazuya.
Having cheated a little, the guys escape from their cells, and walking through the hospital, they stumble upon a very strange man. Kazuya and Yuji meet Steven, a man in a red tuxedo and in a wheelchair. It was he who created the program for summoning demons, and unfortunately, his inventions led to the opening of a portal to the world of demons, so he sent his program to everyone he could so that people could stand up for themselves. Well, or come to an agreement with the demons, because his program is capable of translating the speech of evil spirits.
But this is not even the biggest danger for people. A certain Goto has taken control of the terminal system and is preparing to create his own army of demons. After instructions, Steven opens all the doors for the heroes so that they can escape from the hospital and stop Goto.
After running around the city, Kazuya and Yuji find a gang beating up a defenseless guy. When the hooligans, or rather criminals, left the poor guy alone, Kazuya, Yuji and this guy realize that they have already seen each other… in a dream. As it turns out, the beaten man is Takeshi, who is eager to fight off the invasion of demons, and he is also wildly curious about what connects him with Kazuya and Yuji, so the guy immediately becomes part of the team. And now we can slow down and talk a little about the gameplay and other little things.
In terms of gameplay, the game as a whole has not changed much compared to MegamiTensei. We also fight demons, recruit them and fuse them into more powerful creatures. However, the game has a new and extremely important thing for the series – alignment (Alignment).
In SMT games, all creatures and characters have an alignment, and the main character has the privilege of independently choosing which path he is ready to take. There are three types of worldview – law, neutrality and chaos. People and demons of the law are adherents of God and his ideas, for example, all archangels are creatures of the law. Chaos is represented by cruel, immoral people and demons. And neutrality is the destiny of those who do not look for strength in the parties. They choose their own path, seeking their own balance.
Each type of worldview has three varieties – light, neutrality and darkness. That is, we may have a demon of light law, or maybe of dark chaos. In the first case, these are demons who are revered by thousands of people in their religion, and in the second, demons who are considered true evil in their religion. And demons with the neutrality subspecies are not such significant gods or even ordinary spirits, which always fade into the background in legends and myths. And knowledgeable people could already notice that this whole worldview system was based on a similar thing in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
Kazuya’s worldview will change as a result of his actions. Initially, the protagonist starts with a neutral worldview, but by choosing certain lines as the story progresses, his affiliation with one or another worldview will change. This will also be influenced by what kind of demons Kazuya will use, because if you use, say, an Angel with affiliation with the law, then your worldview will gradually lean towards this demon.
The developers decided to personify two opposite sides, law and chaos, in Yuji and Takeshi. The first one always appears as a good-natured and gentle guy, even his design is very bright and attractive.
Yuji’s image, despite the overall free visual image, is complemented by various tightening straps, locks and other things, as if showing that the outwardly open guy independently restrains himself with various rules and responsibilities.
On the contrary, Takeshi looks menacing, and he behaves very harshly. In addition, he wears a gray camouflage raincoat, which gives him a militant disposition. Takeshi’s image is angular and repulsive, but at the same time open, and without any unnecessary or constricting details. What does it say about how a guy is not afraid to show others his not-so-nice personality?.
And also his face was drawn by Kazuma Kaneko in 5 minutes, when he peered intently into the face of Kazunari Suzuki, the screenwriter of Shin Megami Tensei.
By choosing between these guys, we will shape our path, but we don’t have to choose at all. The game invites us to reject any help from the sides of law and chaos, following the path of neutrality. And due to the fact that the protagonist is a blank slate and can take either side, Kazuma drew Kazuya as an extremely ordinary guy who doesn’t stand out in anything special.
Due to the fact that in the first Shin Megami Tensei the paths of law, neutrality and chaos are slightly different, I will talk about them at the same time, noting where exactly the differences between the three paths appear.
You’ve probably already noticed that I call absolutely all creatures in SMT demons, even when it comes to angels. And the reason is simple: Koji Okada does not really like the concept of one God, as in the Bible, who decides who is an angel and who is a demon. For him, God is God, not because he is kinder, more honest and holier than everyone, but because he is stronger than everyone. It is he who has absolute power and it is he, and not objective factors, who determines who is an angel and who is a demon.
The developer did not like this division based on great power, so in his game he decided to call any creature a demon from Satan to Jehovah. For in his eyes, all these creatures are equal and there is no obviously “good” race of these creatures.
Because of his extremely atheistic worldview, Koji Okada, and then the rest of the developers, came across an extremely interesting book – “A Brief History of Time” from Stephen Hawking. In it, the scientist rejected the creation of the world by God and talked about the formation of the universe from a scientific point of view. Okada really liked this book, because it clearly described those things that the developer believed in almost from childhood. Therefore, Okada decided to immortalize the name and image of Stephen Hawking in his game, which actually criticizes the fanatical belief in God. And that’s how the character Stephen appeared in the game, who, like the famous scientist, was confined to a wheelchair.
Stephen is a very mysterious character. He will appear every now and then in almost all parts of Shin Megami Tensei, leaving behind a lot of questions. Therefore, we will meet with him again, because now there is nothing special to say about this creator of the program for summoning demons.
While exploring Tokyo, Kazuya decides to stop by his home for a while. There he discovers that his mother was brutally murdered by a demon. Having dealt with the killer, Yuji and Takeshi begin to calm Kazuya down. It’s funny, but initially the death scene of the protagonist’s mother was very dark and extremely bloody, but it really scared the SMT beta testers, so Koji Okada decided to remove this scene, which he still regrets a little.
Fortunately, not only bad events overtook the heroes. Pascal, Kazooie’s dog, is eager to help his owner. If the player decides to take the dog to the Cathedral of Shadows for the fusion of demons, then there Pascal will be able to take on his new appearance as the demon Cerberus, again referencing Akemi Nakajima’s first demon. Moreover, the game says that this dog was given to Kazuya’s family by someone Nakajima, but this is nothing more than an Easter egg. Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei do not take place in the same universe. And it’s also funny that the dog’s original name was Pascal, in honor of the programming language of the same name that Nakajima loved so much.
Continuing to explore the city plunged into chaos, the heroes learn about a strange abandoned building, where they decide to head. In it, the group discovers the same strange ritual from the introduction, in which the heroes were defeated. But this time, the trio was able to repel the demon, thanks to which they received a terminal system at their disposal, with which they can move between certain points. Unfortunately, Cerberus didn’t like the terminal for some reason, and he started growling at the device, and the terminal, in response, teleported the poor dog to an unknown location.
It’s not known for sure, but maybe Cerberus doesn’t really like Kabbalah? After all, at SMT the developers decided to enhance the terminals not just with functionality, but also with symbolism. All these devices in SMT and subsequent games in the series have a strong connection with the Tree of Life, which, with the help of the sefirot, united all the worlds ruled by God. And the terminals themselves really connect the whole world, allowing you to teleport between them.
In any case, although having lost Cerberus, the heroes teleport to the only accessible point – the laboratory. In it, the trio again meets Steven, who says that it was here that the terminal system was created. The scientist will also kindly improve Kazuya’s device for summoning demons.
Having escaped from the laboratory, the heroes realize that their city has already become strictly divided into two sides – law and chaos. At the moment, the law is represented by American soldiers led by a representative of the West – Tormen. And chaos is represented by the Goto people that Stephen told us about. And in this tinsel, the heroes find a third party – the Resistance, whose leader is the girl Yuka, whom Kazuya saw in a dream.
Yuka says that the clash between American forces and Goto’s army will destroy Tokyo, so the guys must help the Resistance. But everything immediately goes awry, because Yuka is mysteriously kidnapped by Yuriko.
The heroes learn that the girl is going to be publicly executed, but this is not destined to happen. Kazuya and his partners, to spite Yuriko, free Yuka, making their way through the crowd of demons. Yuriko, disappointed in Kazuya, retreats, and the freed girl thanks the heroes from the bottom of her heart. She also tells Yuji where his missing girlfriend is, and Takeshi the location of the Ozawa gang, with whom the guy has unresolved business.
Now Yuji and Takeshi have their own goals, so they split up, leaving Kazuya with Yuka. The girl asks the protagonist to help persuade the representative of Tormen and Goto to stop the local war, otherwise Tokyo will be destroyed.
And in this segment of the game there is the first choice that will affect Kazooie’s worldview. The player can listen to both sides of the conflict – Goto, who wants to stop God’s plan to recreate the Millennium Kingdom, and Tormen, who wants to stop Goto from summoning Lucifer to this world.
Kazuya can choose three paths:
Kill Goto by choosing the path of law.
Kill Tormen while leaning towards chaos.
Or kill both, since both sides adhere to extremely radical sides, which it is unclear what consequences can lead to.
By the way, Tormen and Goto are https://zoesbingo-casino.co.uk/ based on real people… Well, almost. Goto was completely copied from the novelist Yukio Mishima, who, like the character from the game, tried to stage a coup d’état, taking control of the country. And Goto would obviously have succeeded, because the army of demons is much stronger than any army of people.
And the situation with Tormen is generally funny, but we need to return to the plot. No matter who Kazuya and Yuka decide to help, the American representative still decides to give the go-ahead to launch nuclear warheads towards Japan, since there are too many demons in this country anyway. However, if we recall history, we can notice that it was the 33rd President of America, Harry Truman, whose name is similar to Thorman, who decided to use atomic weapons against Japan during World War II. It’s a bold reference, but it’s not a reference.
After the release of the game, the developers honestly admitted that this was a very beautiful coincidence and nothing more, in fact, Tormen is called that way, because the representative of America is the god of thunder Thor in disguise. The Scandinavian god was sent by Yahweh to punish people by causing an apocalypse in Japan. And this is also part of the plan that will hasten the implementation of the Millennial Kingdom.
The confrontation between Tormen and Goto carries a huge reference to history.During World War II, America and Japan were bitter opponents. Back then, America and Japan represented two extremes, just like Tormen and Goto in SMT. That’s why the latter is so carefully portrayed around traditional Japanese elements to highlight that he is Japanese.
It would seem that escaping from a nuclear explosion is not possible, and the heroes can only say goodbye to their lives. However, Yuka manages to teleport Kazuya to a safe place while her body is destined to burn in a nuclear flame.
Kazuya wakes up in a place other than Tokyo or Japan. This place doesn’t even look like our world, because the guy woke up in the Diamond Kingdom. Here Kazuya meets Yuji, Takeshi, who in a strange way were also brought here, and En, but Ozuno. En no Ozuno is a character from Japanese legends who started his own religion and helped his students find the path of life. The sage also wants to guide the three heroes, because this place, the Diamond Kingdom, in Buddhism helped a person find his way in life.
The heroes will have to fight their way through the demons of law or chaos, depending on who the player previously supported. And if Kazuya chose the path of neutrality, then the group is destined to fight both sides, while losing the unique weapons of law and chaos.
Having passed cruel tests, the heroes return to their world… 30 years later. During this time, the world has changed very much, especially Tokyo, which became the epicenter of the whole nightmare. Also, two sides stopped hiding their existence – the Order of the Messiah and the Ring of Gaia. The latter perform exactly the same role as the Maiden Cult in Megami Tensei 2, only the name of this cult is more interesting.
Gaia is the ancient Greek goddess of all living things, naturally, and the earth itself. In mythology, she appeared first along with the god Eros, Tartarus and Chaos itself, which existed before any order. And when this order came, namely when Zeus, Poseidon and Helios appeared, Gaia went against the gods because of the deaths of her children. The members of the Gaia Ring chose this name for their cult to denote their close connection with chaos, human nature and their hostility to the law.
In any case, while exploring the destroyed Tokyo, the heroes begin to hear more and more frequent mentions of the name Ozawa, with whom Takeshi still has unresolved matters. Having found the already quite old Ozawa, we learn that he has taken control of the entire Shinjuku region, and also that he is brainwashing people with the help of demons.
At the same moment, the group is about to fight Ozawa’s demons, but nothing works out for them. Disappointed in his strength, Takeshi decides to retreat and try to merge with the demon in the Cathedral of Shadows. And he succeeds!
Takeshi becomes a half-demon with an updated design. Kaneko based the demonic guy on the image of Piccolo from the anime Dragon Ball. He also took a hairstyle from this anime that can easily be called “Super Saiyan”. Well, continuing the Goto theme, now Takeshi looks like a classic Japanese samurai.
Takeshi becomes a half-demon with an updated appearance. Kaneko’s demonic design was based on Piccolo from the Dragon Ball anime. He also took a hairstyle from this anime that can easily be called “Super Saiyan”. Well, continuing the Goto theme, now Takeshi looks like a classic Japanese samurai.
The half-demon Takeshi’s design, unlike his original design, is made in bright colors, his clothes are quite loose, although closed, but are complemented by constricting heavy armor and a belt. We can conclude that the general change in scale is an indicator of how Takeshi finally became happy, having gained the opportunity to take revenge on Ozawa, because now he is strong, and no one else can stop him.
Well, earlier in the game it was planned that Takeshi would be able to change his form at any time between a demonic and human form. However, the developers decided to leave his transformation permanent to signify Takeshi’s determination to make radical changes.
Thanks to the demon’s power, Takeshi was finally able to defeat Ozawa. The man asks to save his life, but the half-demon mercilessly kills him, because Ozawa had previously beaten and humiliated him. But now the half-demon has proven that he is not a weakling. Unfortunately, Takeshi decides that Kazuya and Yuji are too hesitant in their actions. In addition, they will most likely slow down Takeshi, so the half-demon decides to go further alone, joining the Ring of Gaia.
As I said earlier, Ozawa brainwashed people and his victim also became a strange girl to whom Kazuya is unnaturally drawn. Deciding to save the girl from physical and mental imprisonment, the guys free the telepath who was able to help people come to their senses. Actually, that’s why Ozawa was locked behind bars.
The telepath helps Kazuya and Yuji enter the girl’s mind, where they kill the demon Arachne, who was literally weaving a web in the prisoner’s head. Having come to her senses, the girl says that her name is Yuka. Yes, this is the same Yuka who saved Kazuya from the atomic warheads. After her death, the girl was reborn in a new body, but she lost all memories of her past life, but she remembered one thing – Kazuya is very dear to her, and she must help him on his journey.
Since the girl was reborn, her design also changed, and now the artist took American football as the basis for Yuki’s image… There is no special meaning here, Kazuma just liked the uniform in American football.
In addition, in Yuki’s design we can see a dark jumpsuit, covered with red straps, and a flowing white and blue cape. Such details and colors of clothing are a mixture of designs from two sides – law and chaos. The girl will not adhere to any side of the conflict in advance. Yuka will follow Kazuya, her worldview will match his. Therefore, the design shows us that a girl has the potential to be an adherent of any side.
Unfortunately, reuniting with Yuka doesn’t make things any easier for the heroes. While exploring Tokyo, the team ends up in the Roppongi area, which is under the control of the Red Earl and the Black Baron. These two resurrected the little girl Alice, and wanted to create a paradise for her in this place. Therefore, all the people here are zombies with whom the girl can play for days on end. Alice herself was based on the heroine of "Alice in Wonderland". There is also a Scandinavian legend where the girl Alice died, having acquired powerful magic, but at the same time this power drove her crazy. After this, the girl’s spirit began to visit children and kill them so that they would become her friends in the afterlife.
We see something similar in Shin Megami Tensei, because Alice is only happy that she is surrounded by zombies like herself. In this place we can even find the girl Yuji, who has also been dead for a long time, but remains in this world in the form of a zombie. The only way to help her is to free her soul.
Alice realizes that she really liked Kazuya, Yuji and Yuka, so she wants them dead. And this should be done by the Red Count, who is actually the demon Belial.
Having suffered a little with the demon, namely by imprisoning him in a jar… yes, Yuriko suddenly bursts onto the scene, takes the jar with the demon and also unexpectedly disappears. Besides her, we meet an irritated Black Baron who kidnaps Yuji.
In search of the lost, we find the soul of a guy who had already been killed by the Black Baron. Kazuya and Yuka decide to take revenge on the Baron. Just like the Count, the Baron is actually the demon Nebiros, but in any case, revenge overtook the killer. Having killed the Count and Baron, the heroes free all the dead souls, albeit at the cost of a friend.
Having met Steven a couple more times, who somehow survived the cataclysm and did not even age, the heroes again cross paths with Takeshi. Although the guy wants to see Kazuya and Yuka as friends, he is loyal to the Ring of Gaia, so first he takes these two to Lord Yama.
Yama must check whether Kazuya and Yuka are dangerous, and here everything will depend on the hero’s worldview. If Kazuya is a follower of the law, then a battle with the demon is inevitable, and if the player chose the path of chaos, then the heroes will be honored as guests. However, if Kazuya adheres to neutrality, then Yama will give us a choice – to help the Ring of Gaia or a mortal fight with Yama.
Whatever the player chooses, this decision only affects Kazooie’s alignment. Later we cross paths with Yuriko and her acquaintance Louis Cypher. Yuriko is sad because Kazuya chose to travel with Yuka and not with her. In anger, the girl even shows her real demon form – Lilith, but still restrains herself and runs away. Louis apologizes for his friend and promises to meet again.
At this stage, the player again encounters a fork in the road, because he will definitely stumble upon Echidna and the angel Haniel. And not only on the angel, but also on Yuji, whose strongest faith in God helped him to be reborn and become one of the main representatives of the Order of the Messiah.
After becoming the Messiah, Yuji’s design also changed to an angular and streamlined design, done in cool white and blue tones. Yuuji’s clothes almost completely hide his body, showing how the guy became a follower of God, without his own personality or opinion.
By the way, you can notice an interesting detail. Initially, Yuji’s design is made in red and blue colors, which is more in line with chaos, and Takeshi wears cold, white clothes, which on the contrary is more in line with law. This shows that although law and chaos are always at war, at the end of the day they are just two radical sides that cannot and do not want to hear each other.
Yuji explains that he is helping the world move closer to the emergence of the Millennium Kingdom, where heaven will come and hell for sinners.
Everyone will decide for themselves who to help and who to kill. After choosing a path, Kazuya and Yuka learn that the construction of the Great Cathedral, essentially a throne for God, has been completed. If we chose to support the Order of the Messiah, then the angel will help us get to that Council, the same with Echidna, who will send us there to stop the actions of the saints.
But what should those who prefer to stick to balance do?? Kazuya must remember the old man who at the very beginning of the game showed him the future, warning the guy. This old man is located quite quickly, and he is glad that Kazuya and Yuka decided to follow their own path – the path of balance. Therefore, the sage happily sends both to the Great Cathedral, where the forces of law repel the attack of chaos.
Then everything follows approximately the same scenario. Kazuya and Yuka must meet the Four Heavenly Kings, who in Buddhism represented all four directions of the world. If the player is on the path of law or neutrality, then the kings will have to be killed, but if Kazuya chose the path of chaos, then on the contrary, the kings will become the guy’s demons.
But in any of the scenarios, the four kings, the guardians of the earth, left their posts and this allowed God to cause a global flood, killing everyone who was not in the Great Council. The situation is heating up to the limit and the duo of heroes have to act decisively. If the player chose the law, then he must kill the head of the Ring of Gaia – the demon Asura; on the path of chaos, Kazuya must finish off the archangel Michael. And on the path of balance you need to kill both.
In the process, Kazuya and Yuka will meet their former, or not so, friends. The Hero of Chaos will have to fight Yuji and kill him accordingly. While the hero of the law is destined to collide with Tekeshi, and then with his friend Ree, who turns out to be Yuriko in disguise, or rather the demon Lilith. And what does the hero of neutrality do, I think you already guessed. Unfortunately, even cooperation with the “right” party will not save Yuji and Takeshi from their fate. On the path of law, Yuji will be brutally killed by Takeshi, and on the path of chaos, the power-hungry half-demon will put on a powerful Devil Ring, which will overload his body, leading to death.
And so, having killed Asura or Mikhail, or both, the player can only see what the outcome of his journey led to. At the end of the law we are told that the Millennial Kingdom has come. Now those who worship God will not know suffering, but there are still those who do not believe. Therefore, Kazuya and Yuka must preach faith in God to the rest of the world so that everyone can be reunited with their father, just like Yuji did. Yes, although our old friend died, his faith, his actions for the good of God allowed him to live in paradise, and soon the rest of the world will be there.
At the end of the chaos, we are greeted by Louis Cypher, who congratulates us and shows us his true form – the devil Lucifer. Lucifer, almost from the very beginning, observed all actions in the human world, disguised as a man. Although his human name, Louis Cypher, clearly hinted at who he was. By the way, this name was taken from the movie “Angel Heart”, where there was also Lucifer with the same human name. In the human world, the devil even created Yuriko to try to persuade Kazuya to chaos. As a result, Lucifer is incredibly grateful to the heroes, and he promises that in a world of chaos, people and demons will learn to live in harmony. Yes, there will be sacrifices from such an alliance, but because of these sacrifices, both sides will become stronger, which will help people, demons and Lucifer defeat their final enemy – God.
In the neutral ending we are met by Lao Tzu, the same old man who sometimes helped Kazuya in his adventure. Lao Tzu Chinese philosopher who was soon elevated to the status of a god. Lao Tzu is considered the founder of Taoism, where the Tao is revered. Tao is everything. It is the beginning of everything, and it is everywhere and rules everything. Tao unconsciously obeys everything living and nonliving in the universe. Tao is the principle and the path, and according to Lao Tzu, every person has his own Tao. We choose our own path and no outside interference, be it God or the devil, should push us off this path.
Also, the most interesting thing about Taoism is the scientific nature of this faith. Many scientists have noticed that descriptions of the concept of Tao are very similar to dark matter and the big bang itself. Namely, Stephen Hawking talked a lot about these things, which inspired the developers when creating the game.
Lao Tzu congratulates Kazuya and Yuka for finding their Tao, their path. However, there are many people left in the world who have lost the meaning of life and now the main characters have to teach them to live and follow their path.
Shin Megami Tensei was released in 1992, and as you may have noticed, the game is very similar to Megami Tensei 2. Bombing of Tokyo, apocalypse, global flood and the Millennium. However, the developers themselves position Shin Megami Tensei as the perfect form of the two previous games. Indeed, in addition to technical improvements, the game plays more skillfully with mythology and the basic idea of the worldview.
It’s also worth noting how the role of the protagonist’s partner has changed. Like in Megami Tensei, in SMT Kazuya and Yuka are reincarnations of Adam and Eve. If in MT 2 it was the heroine who inclined the protagonist to chaos, then in SMT this is done by Yuriko. The girl passionately wanted to become Kazuya’s partner, and even appeared in the guy’s first dream, apparently this was the influence of Lucifer.
Yuriko sincerely loved Kazuya and wildly hated Yuka out of jealousy, because in fact Yuriko is the demon Lilith. Lilith was Adam’s first wife, but she was soon kicked out of the Garden of Eden because she ate the forbidden fruit. After this, Lilith became the goddess of everything terrible and snakes began to be associated with her. There are even versions that it was Lilith who sent her serpent to Eve so that she could taste the forbidden fruit. Therefore, in the game, Yuriko is also called the “Heroine of Chaos”, since, unlike Yuki, the goddess goes strictly against the god.
Shin Megami Tensei was developed with great enthusiasm, and all the developers were passionate about the project, which sometimes caused problems. For example, when writing the script, Koji and Kazuma often argued about the ideology of chaos and law, because they emphasized both extremes in different ways. But as we see, the developers came to an agreement, although over time the scriptwriters admit that they are not happy with Yuji and Takeshi. The first one is disgustingly correct and blinded by faith, and the second one is too emotional, as if the guy was stuck in puberty.
Previously, the plot of the game was supposed to cover the whole world, for example, the Great Cathedral was supposed to appear not in Tokyo, but in Israel, on sacred land, according to the Bible. But on the other hand, the developers were happy with this decision, because for 30 years every SMT number part has been produced strictly in Tokyo. Koji explained this tradition by the fact that historically, various types of disasters occurred in Tokyo very often. Therefore, first of all, it would be most expected to see this city in ruins at the time of the apocalypse.
In addition to this tradition, the first SMT gave us Jack Frost. Yes, this demon was still in Megami Tensei 2, but it was in the reboot that Jack received his usual design, which Okada liked so much that the demon soon became the official mascot of Atlus.
In addition to Israel, the creepy Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, who were supposed to appear in Tokyo Disneyland, were cut from the game. Maybe the developers were afraid of copyright scandals or thought that this was too savage, even for a world with demons.
And such savagery had to be avoided or inserted carefully, because Megami Tensei were unique in that they were not horror, but they were no less creepy. And in Shin Megami Tensei, the developers took this horror to a whole new level. If in the first games we started the game in the abstract castle of Lucifer or in the destroyed Tokyo, then in SMT we start the game in an ordinary house, with an ordinary mother and an ordinary dog. And the first day we are simply allowed to run around the Kichijoji district, where, by the way, Kazuma Kaneko lived throughout his childhood, and therefore he was able to complement this area plot-wise and visually. For example, in the game we are often told about an abandoned building where demons are rumored to roam, and this urban legend was added by Kazuma himself from his childhood. Also in Kichijoji, in addition to demons, Kazuya will often be attacked by the Yakuza, as the artist has often seen members of criminal gangs in the area before.
Because of this closeness to the everyday, the creepiness in SMT reaches its peak, especially during the brutal murder of Kazuya’s mother. It’s funny, but when it was released in Japan, all sorts of rumors began to circulate around Shin Megami Tensei. Allegedly, this is a cursed game or the worldview system in the game is a psychological test that reliably determines the essence of the player.
And all this resulted in a fairly well-known myth, which is as follows:. There is a chance that when you start Shin Megami Tensei, the game will start to lag unusually and restart, and it will all end with an unexpected loud sound and a screen that will repeat one word “TURN IT OFF NOW”.
Whether this is true or not, we will never know. Perhaps this is just a fake, or a terrible Easter egg, or even protection from pirates, but in any case, this legend around the game created the desired effect. Playing the first SMT, especially in the early 90s, was unsettling, and that makes it even more interesting.
This was also contributed by Tsukasa Masuko, the game’s composer, who, with minimal experience with the SNES console, produced, in my opinion, one of the most memorable soundtracks in the entire series. His music is intense, majestic and even groovy at the right moments. I would especially like to note that, from ordinary sounds, Tsukasa was able to reproduce as much as an entire choir in some compositions, which sounds great, but at the same time uncomfortable. After all, you definitely hear a choir, but you also understand that it’s not people singing, but something electronic.
The combination of modern and fantasy worlds once again distinguished Atlus from its competitors. In addition, now the developers have decided to bring players even closer to the world of the game by adding ordinary elements to the first half. Also, the feature of worldview has become key in the series, because it is this element in SMT that all players will highlight. The developers even encouraged the fans themselves to argue and talk among themselves about the ideologies of the paths of law, chaos and neutrality. And with each subsequent game in the series, these conversations flared up with renewed vigor.
In general, Atlus’s plan to create the perfect version of Megami Tensei 1 and 2 was clearly 100% successful. However, Koji Okada and Kazuma Kaneko still could not calm down, because even Shin Megami Tensei they were not completely satisfied, and they criticized their own product in technical terms. And it’s not that the first SMT works or looks bad, even now the pixel art in the game looks amazing, but the developers believed that they could do better.
Having originally released on the SNES, Shin Megami Tensei just a year after release, the game was released on TurboCD, where they just added voice acting. And already in 1994, a port was released on SegaCD, where all the dungeons in the game were redrawn so that the apartments looked like apartments and not square boxes. Character portraits, small cutscenes, new and reworked old sprites were also added.
And in 2001, a version was released for the first PlayStation, where the game was partially transferred to 3-dimensional space, and honestly, the soapy textures of those years look much worse than the stunning pixel art from Kazuma Kaneko.
Well, with the release of this version, Kazuma Kaneko updated the design of the main characters so that their style corresponds to the modern style of the artist, and the entire series accordingly.
And in 2003, the most interesting version of SMT of all was released – a port on the Game Boy Advance. Although the visuals were the same as the PS1 version, so-called “Ghost Items” were added to the game.These objects give us access to scenes that happened, so to speak, behind the scenes.
The most interesting of them are the scenes of how Lucifer instructs Yuriko to persuade Kazuya to chaos, how a demon in the guise of a policeman killed the protagonist’s mother, how Ozawa seized power in the criminal world after a cataclysm, how Cerberus searched for Kazuya after his disappearance, how Yuji was resurrected by the archangel Gabriel, considering him worthy, how Takeshi recruited the forces of chaos, how Goto gradually seized power throughout Japan and how Yuka was reborn in a new body.
In addition, among these scenes there are also very small ones that are not so important to the plot. However, with the help of even such scenes, the developers were able to humanize the world of the game and their characters. Adding some more clear motivation, for example, like how Yuji loved stories about God and the Messiah since he was a virgin, or how Takeshi was often beaten for his unwillingness to stand aside. These scenes make it even more believable that both of Kazooie’s partners inevitably brought themselves to their deaths.
Shin Megami Tensei truly inspired and captivated many, and still does. After all, indie developer Toby Fox was inspired by the creations of Atlus to release the sensational Undertale in 2015, which borrowed from the series a dialogue system with opponents and a bit of interface design.
Even then, in the early 90s, Atlus showed their great love for squeezing all the juice out of their product, releasing a lot of spin-offs: manga, novels, mobile ports or even spinoffs. Is it good or bad? Depends solely on the quality of these products, and this is what we are now learning.
In 1993, the manga Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Revelation began appearing, and in 1995, an anime adaptation of the same story was released. And unfortunately, both works are absolutely nothing, and this is surprising, because the screenwriter was Kazunari Suzuki, who was involved in the plot of the games.
The story of the manga tells the story of an ordinary schoolboy who happens to be the reincarnation of the god Masakado. And it was with the help of this power of God that he was able to defeat the demon Ose, summoned to this world. And other demons called Ose to this world, sacrificing the protagonist’s classmate, who in turn was the rebirth of the goddess Konohana Sakuya. And that’s the whole plot.
I was really amazed how in 4 chapters of manga and 50 minutes of anime, the authors managed to tell nothing. The characters are purely functional, the plot is insanely primitive even for the early 90s. There is no SMT corporate atmosphere. The anime is not even particularly dark, and the only cruelty here is small blood stains on the characters themselves. But on the other hand, every 5 minutes we will shove our tits into your frame, with or without reason.
All that remains here from SMT are a few familiar demons and programs for summoning demons, and the latter is just looming somewhere in the background. By the end of the day we have an incomprehensible something that is unclear what it wants to tell and show. Well, if the goal of the anime is vulgar fan service, then the authors succeeded, but I doubt that we are playing SMT for this. Overall, an extremely disappointing thing, especially considering that the anime adaptation of Aya’s first novel was quite good.
From lousy manga and anime to something more interesting and therefore sad. In 2001, Atlus commissioned young writer Yoru Yoshimura to write a novelization for the first game in the SMT series. And unlike Tokyo Revelation, which was for some unknown reason, Yoru’s story is closely connected with the world of the game itself.
The events of Shin Megami Tensei: Jinin the Ruins take place during the 30-year time skip that occurred in the game. The novella tells how the world gradually changed and what happened in it after the invasion of demons and before Kazuya returned.
We see the changed world through the eyes of the protagonist Jin and his friends. The children were kept as slaves, but are soon freed by a warrior with a program to summon demons. He feeds, raises and trains children so that Jin and his friends can fend for themselves in this cruel world.
And this is all sad, because there is no translation of this novel and manga adaptation, and the synopsis sounds very interesting. And this novel received as many as three sequels, which are tied to other parts of the SMT series. But unfortunately, for now, this product is completely closed to those who do not know Japanese. And as much as I don’t want to admit it, we will encounter a similar situation much more often than in the Persona series. After all, not even all the spinoffs in the SMT series have been translated into English, let alone the novellas and mangas.
In addition to the obvious things, such a thing as tabletop role-playing games was tied to the first SMT, and subsequently to the entire series. Starting with SMT 1, each game in the series had its own DnD type game, where players played their characters and followed a plot that was somehow related to the game.
For us, Western players, it is currently unrealistic to get acquainted with all this. There is no translation, and getting a “tabletop” straight from Japan is still a task. But that’s not the most interesting thing. A strong fan community has formed around these board games, which was greatly supported by Kazunari Suzuki, the writer of the series. He even personally supported a fan site dedicated to these games, and soon this site became semi-official.
And the fans had this fun: after playing out a story in a board game using SMT, which, according to all DnD traditions, can last several hundred hours, the most competent player writes a novelization of his game with friends. Writing personal narratives about your play in tabletop role-playing games is not new, a lot of DnD fans do this too.
But then something extremely… cool, but at the same time very strange happens. With Kazunari’s support, Atlus begins officially publishing these fan stories. That is, the company literally started selling fan fiction based on their series – brilliant.
Only with the release of Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne Atlus hired a specific writer who remade the SMT 3 tabletop into a story, without basing this novel on someone’s individual playthrough, as before.
Due to the fact that previously novels based on board games were written by random fans, the SMT series has a very, very, very strange… well, essentially a spinoff, in what sense. A group of fans of SMT and board games based on this series decided to adapt their story as a separate game.
They released an extremely trashy indie game in a genre you won’t believe – hentai. Yes, indirectly, unofficially, through third parties, the SMT series has a hentai spinoff where your goal is to sleep with your family.
