Help with the Megami Tensei series

[Lokkenjawnz]

Alright guys, I'm starting to get interested in the Megami Tensei universe, and I'd like to play through as many as I can, assuming that I do in fact enjoy playing them as I've yet to actually play any.

Now here's the help that I need: I'd like a list of the games in canonical order (as much as possible), and moreover I'd like to know the definitive versions of each game to play, what system to play them on, etc.

So help me out MegaTen fans!

[Dylan]

There's a great list on Wikipedia that has all of the games and all of the platforms that they were released on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Me ... nsei_media

Megami Tensei is broken up more into different sections rather than a long string of plot-related games. The remakes are generally better than the original incarnations, but I'm not sure if this is always true (the Megami Tensei series is massive). These remakes for the most part only feature upgraded visuals.

A couple notes on the series I have the most experience with:

I'm personally a big fan of the Shin Megami Tensei set of games, but they're not really for everyone. These games are predominantly first-person dungeon crawlers, and somewhat difficult ones at that. They have the feel of a tough, old school style RPG to them. If you don't mind that, then you may find them enjoyable.

The Persona series is probably the most popular and accessible of the games in the Megami Tensei series, the later entries (notably 3 and 4) are well regarded and a good way to get acquainted with the series and its mechanics without the hassle of the earlier entries. I would personally suggest these first.

A few of the other popular iterations are the Digital Devil Saga and Devil Summoner series, but I don't know much about them as I haven't played them.

The Megami Tensei universe is huge, so I wouldn't try to tackle it all right away. Stick with some of the more accessible titles at first and see how you feel about the gameplay, but also the mechanics. Even though these games all share a similar system of party building through monster recruiting, the rest of the gameplay can vary noticeably. Heck, if you don't like one of the series, you might as well try another because of how different they can be.

[skyknight]

Definitely read the article at Hardcore Gaming 101
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/megaten/megaten.htm

First make sure you know which systems to have, as the series wasn't widely released outside of Japan for the earliest games, so the PS2 will be a good beginning spot, PSP has Persona and Persona 3 Portable, and the DS has Devil Survivor and Strange Journey.

[Bradtemple87]

To play the whole series in order you are going to have to do some serious importing. We did not see a US release all the way until Persona Revelations on ps1.

[Lokkenjawnz]

@Dylan: Yeah I'm aware of the massiveness of the games, thus why I asked for the help. I checked out that wikipedia article, and I'm still pretty confused by it, but I think I'm starting to get it a little bit. Since there doesn't seem to be much (if any) continuity, story-wise, I figure I'll just start with whatever seems most appealing, most likely one of the GBC/GBA games, or perhaps the SRPG. Obviously to play those I'll need to grab some translated roms so hopefully I can find some.

@skyknight: I plan to play most of these on my PSP, and as stated before, with translated roms so I can take a crack at the older titles in the series, as those appeal to me a bit more than the more current Persona games.

@Bradtemple87: I wish I could read japanese well enough to import them and play them properly!

Thanks for all the help guys, and if you guys, or anyone else for that matter, has any other input on the series, go ahead. It's a highly confusing series, so any and all information would be greatly appreciated.

[J T]

If you don't speak Japanese, you'll also need these patches to translate your SNES Roms:

Shin Megami Tensei:
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smt

Shin Megami Tensei 2:
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smt2

[Bradtemple87]

If you don't speak Japanese, you'll also need these patches to translate your SNES Roms:

Shin Megami Tensei:
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smt

Shin Megami Tensei 2:
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smt2

Very cool, I did not know of these

[noiseredux]

can the Personas be played out of order, or will they make no sense? Or will the story be ruined? Like, could I jump into a later Persona BEFORE playing the first?

[Bradtemple87]

The story lines are not related but the games get better as the series progresses. Keep in mind Persona 4 has vast improvements over the original.

[J T]

Yeah, each Persona story has a different cast of main characters, but each Shin Megami Tensei game usually has many of the demons and creatures that appear in the other games. The spells often have the same name too. That's kind of what ties them together. They all seem to come from the same universe, though every game has a different story.

So, storywise you can play any of them in any order. Gameplaywise though, it is a little bit harder to jump back in time to an earler game in the series after playing a later one because they have made so many improvements to the game. You might miss some of the options you have in the later games when you go back. Though even the old SNES games are suprisingly deep RPGs.