Shin Megami Tensei

"Now I understand why this is Japan`s third most important rpg series."

The Megami Tensei series is Japan`s third most important video game series, being Dragon Quest the most important and Final Fantasy in the second place (yes, Final Fantasy is not as important as Dragon Quest believe it or not).

Yet, even being so important, in occident we haven`t seen a single game in the series (I mean a true Megami Tensei games, because there are lots of spin offs). Why?, well, some say because of its occult themes involving religion (if there is something North Americans can`t stand is someone talking about Catholic religion, and then they say they are tolerant), anyway, I think that isn`t the problem, at least not with this first game because while yeah there are a lot religious themes and such, they are done in a very ambiguous way, I think that the reason is that this is a very Japanese game, it has a lot of Japanese names, icons, locations etc etc etc that are impossible to translate and need to be left the way they are to make sense, so they though this game would only appeal to Japanese people, and what is worst is that they are right, most occidentals lack the patience and the taste that are required to play truly legendary games such as this one.

Story 10/10:
I have read a lot of things about Megami Tensei, but no matter where you read, they always say that the story is amazing, well, now that I have played I have to say that the story is MUCH more than amazing, considering how old this game is the story not only is way WAY ahead from any other game of that age, I think that even nowadays Shin Megami Tensei`s story is way ahead most rpgs out there. It is unbelievable, there are so many plot twist and so many unexpected situations that it is really hard to believe that this game is so old.

The only thing that hurts this great and totally involving story is that fact that sometimes we have to explore a lot before the next great event or sequence, but even with this (something that can be easily forgiven due to the age of the game), Shin Megami Tensei`s story is fantastic, one of the best I have ever seen.

Graphics 8/10:
Pretty simple, but also very good looking. Most of the time we see the same backgrounds, there are like four five different, and yeah I know that sounds boring, but it isn`t really, and it was the only way to do it, and this is only during what can be considered as dungeons.

Where the game looks great is during the combats, well, ok, the enemies are the only ones who look great, because during the combats we are not even going to enter any battle arena of anything. Anyway, the enemies are excellent, they are done is a very realistic way (I mean, given the circumstances, I know saying that a Kobold or a Dryad look realistic is something a bit odd), they even have animations, very simplistic animations of course, but even if they are simple, like in Breath of Fire that little movement makes them look terrific. And another thing that is terrific is their design, truly magnificent and inspired.

Music 10/10:
As this was my first Megami Tensei game I didn`t knew what to except here, but I was surprised because the soundtrack is cool as hell. During the combats we have superb hard rock themes and during the rest of the game we have soft but nice and even sometimes catchy themes mixed with truculent ones. Sounds like a weird and not too appropriate mix right?, maybe, but it works truly great. The only little problem is that due to the high encounter rate sometimes it will be hard to listen to the melodies, which is a real pity, but it is something that always happens when a game has lots of encounters.

Gameplay 9/10:
Shin Megami Tensei is a first person rpg, like Wizardry, excepting that, fortunately, this is not a dungeon crawler, that the interface is a million times better, that it is a billion times easier, and a trillion more entertaining, not to mention that it has one of the better plots I can remember. If the gameplay is not perfect that is only because of the age the game was released, what I mean is that we have the typical little flaws early Snes rpgs had like the lack of information about what you are buying in the shops as well as the utility of our spells, items, weapons, etc, then we have to be constantly looking at our map and we have press a lot of buttons to open it because there are`t any hotkeys or anything, then we have the insanely high encounter rate, and things like that. These are more annoyances than a flaws, and fortunately the good guys who translated the game also included a list with all the spells and most of the items, so don`t forget to check it out.

The combats are Dragon Quest style only that deeper, a lot deeper, we have the typical magic, attack and etc options, but we also have the possibility to use guns with a really huge variety of bullets and the possibility to summon four or five demons to aid us in our battles. The demos have their spells as well as nice variety of unique special abilities, and will also help us while battling enemies of their same kind, if we have a dwarf as a companion, and we meet another dwarf, by talking to him we can avoid the fight, and sometimes they are even going to give us money or some other things.

Negotiating with the demons is something really cool, you`ll need to convince them with money, magnetite, different items, etc or by intimidating or being friendly with them, that is up to you. If you succeed they will join you. Later we can fuse our minions and discover new ones, there are quite a lot of demons to discover, we have to be cautious while fusing anyway, we have to fuse demons that share our alignment or have neutral ones or they will not obey us later, also their levels need to be at least the same one our main characters has or we are not going to be able to fuse them. You will have to experiment because the most powerful and unique demons can only be obtained by fusing them.

The auto-battle option is truly a bless, I would even say that without it this could have been a nearly unplayable game, later in the game the encounter gets so annoying that you will just want to finish as quickly as possible, something that can only be done with this option.

Now, don`t think, not even for a single second, that is some kind of Pokemon with a plot, never, this Monster System works a lot more like in Dragon Quest V, only that having minions here is a lot more important. The monster are wonderfully designed, they are truly great creatures, not just stupid looking and cuddly tamagochi-like things, they are fiery creatures that are not going to hesitate while they are insulting (and they do this a lot) or intimidating you, they don`t keep shouting puu puu or pika pika all the time like morons, they talk more like Bruce Willis in Die Hard with a Vengeance, that is, four of their five words are offensive, the way it should be.

Now about the flaws, well, aside from the above mentioned ones and that there is no use on talking about them because they can be found in every single ``very old`` Nes and early Snes rpgs, there are very little. There are two anyway, that are really huge flaws, tremendously huge flaws I would say, the first one is the lack of saving points, that sure is a flaw because even if you think you are the most powerful guy around there is always the possibility to get annihilated in no time, and only if it is one of your companions who died, to revive him we have go back to a mall and look for the right place to revive him, pay, loose time, etc, and this something that leads me to the other enormous problem, in your maps, you can see where the exits and ladders are, we can even see if they go up or down, but what you can`t see is where are the shops, Terminals (save points), and some other really important places like Churches and such, and the maps, including the mall (consider them towns), are H-U-G-E, and what is worst, they are full of monsters, yes even inside the service areas.

So, there are only like five or six saving points in the whole game, I don`t like rpgs where you can save anywhere anytime, but being Shin Megami Tensei the game it is, that is the saving system this game needed, there are some dungeons that are huge as hell, and you can`t save until they are completely finished, after beating the boss and everything.

These problems are not as bad as they sound, or at least not for me, yes they make the game go very slowly, and sometimes the encounter rate together with the monsters that are constantly poisoning or paralysing you are going to make you want to throw the game against the nearest wall just to spit over it, but they are never enough to ruin the great experience this game is.

However, it is more than clear that Shin Megami Tensei is not for everyone, that is for sure, patience as well as an interest in these kind of games is needed, but this ``not for everyone``, unlike it is usual, doesn`t mean an insufferable game that only ultra-extreme freak level fans are going to enjoy, never, because together with the involving and intriguing plot, this is a very interesting game, and fun also, and you are not going to get lost because of the lack of information about what to do like it is usual, I mean, I got stuck a few times, but after exploring a bit I found out what to do without using a guide or anything, and while as we are constantly in places with similar environments and everything, this game is far from being monotonous or repetitive.

My conclusion:
Shin Megami Tensei is full of annoying flaw, bugs, it is very difficult, and slow as hell, and maybe giving it a perfect ten is crazy, but considering how old it is, considering that it was one of the first rpgs on the Snes, considering how great its plot is, and considering how deep and innovative the gameplay is, even with its flaws, Shin Megami Tensei is one of the coolest games I have ever played, I just can`t wait to play more games in the series, because if this one was good I don`t even want to imagine how good the other two for the Snes are going to be, hope they translate them soon.

Now I consider myself a MegaTen fan, which is a pity because I am European, and it would be easier to see Charlston Heston making a bonfire with his collection of guns rather than seeing one of these games in this stupid continent, I should have born Japanese, damn.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/04