History VideoGame / MegamiTensei

** There is no Dark element spell and the Light element spell deals damage, rather than being an instant kill spell.
** A small but important one: none of the Jack Brothers appear in this game, even the beloved Atlus mascot, Jack Frost.

* DamselInDistress: Yumiko Shirasagi

* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Hinokagetsuchi Sword, the best weapon for Nakajima. Unlike the game's other optimal equipment, which can be won by defeating Set and found or bought in the Infini Palace, getting this sword takes some backtracking, knowing that the special item you have for opening secret passages isn't just meant for finding the last couple of bosses, and making your way through a hidden part of Bien full of teleportation traps.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The plot's connections to the first two ''Literature/DigitalDevilStory'' novels and the lack of any post-apocalyptic elements, multiple endings, or anything having to do with Order versus Chaos alone gives ''Megami Tensei'' this. Gameplay-wise, there are ties to the 16-bit ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games, like the presence of the COMP and having a male protagonist armed with a COMP and a magic-using female protagonist, but the spell names are completely different, lacking the distinctive ''[=MegaTen=]'' names, and there's far less emphasis on buffing/debuffing magic. The ''Old Testament'' remake changes this somewhat, by renaming the spells and introducing ''Shin Megami Tensei'''s auto-mapping system.
** Also in this game there is no Dark element spell and the Light element spell deals damage, rather than being an instant kill spell.
** A small but important one: none of the Jack Brothers appear in this game, even the beloved Atlus mascot, Jack Frost.

Something of an oddball in the franchise despite [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness being the game that started it all]], ''Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei'' tends to be overshadowed by ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI.'' No doubt this is at least partially because it still is heavily connected to the franchise's roots in the ''Digital Devil Story'' novel series, and has very little to do with the post-apocalyptic, order versus chaos themes that would come to define the franchise. Also its continuity has been "dead" for some time, and indeed the game barely has any continuity links with its own immediate sequel, ''Megami Tensei II'', much less later installments.

After the events of ''Digital Devil Story 2: Warrior of the Demon City'', the programming genius Akemi Nakajima who first invented the Demon Summoning Program and his friend Yumiko Shirasagi, a reincarnation of the goddess Izanami, learn that a mysterious labyrinth has appeared in Asuka. The demon lord Lucifer has resurrected Nakajima and Yumiko's old enemies, Loki and Set; has imprisoned the goddess Izanami; and demons are again threatening to invade the human world. Nakajima and Yumiko must delve into the labyrinth and its six regions, free Izanami, and defeat Lucifer and the five Tyrants, including Set and Loki.

* DiscOneNuke: Cerberus, who can be recruited on the first (and last) floor of the dungeon's first section, Daedalus Tower. He's not quite the nuke he is when you first have him in ''ShinMegamiTenseiI'', but he's considerably stronger than any demons you can recruit at that point and even better than most if not all of the demons you'll likely be able to fuse then. He also has the [[MythologyGag game's resurrection spell Recarm]], something no demon you'll probably be able to recruit or fuse soon will have. Likely enough you'll want to keep him in your active party up until you get at least halfway through Valhalla.

''Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei'' is the first game in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' franchise and was [[Main/AlternateContinuity a sequel]] to the first two ''Literature/DigitalDevilStory'' novels. It was developed by Atlus and released by Namco for the Famicom in 1987. In 1995, an updated version for the Super Famicom was released along with an update of its 8-bit sequel ''[[Main/MegamiTenseiII Megami Tensei II]]'' as ''Kyūyaku Megami Tensei'' (''Megami Tensei: The Old Testament'' in the English fan translation). To date, even with the popularity of the ''Megami Tensei'' franchise, the game has never received an official translation in the English-speaking world. The original version has gotten a fan translation from [[http://yojimbo.eludevisibility.org/ Stardust Crusaders Translations]] while a translation of ''Megami Tensei: The Old Testament'' was finished and released by [[http://aerie.wingdreams.net/ the Romhacking Aerie]].

* EarlyGameHell: A staple of {{RPGs}} like this, but especially true here. Just outside the game's starting point, Micon Village, one Gnome can wipe you out with one Zan spell.