Franchise / Shin Megami Tensei

What will you do? Burn a path of Chaos with the flesh of the lawful, pave a road of Order with the blood of Demons, or create your own future?

"'What’s at the end of the universe? Is there an end?' I think most people have asked this sort of question at some point in their life. Personally, I just love thinking about things like that. Even though humans are part of the universe, nobody knows why the universe exists, or how humans came into being. A philosophical approach is the only way we can reach some kind of conclusion. That’s exactly what myths are-philosophical explanations of the universe and man-and why I love myths so much. The demons in the Megaten series all appear with these questions. It’s not wrong to put everything into simple “good” and “evil”, like in other games, but what’s right and wrong can be completely different, depending on your position and perspective; it’s very ambiguous. So I say, why not let each player tackle that question of what’s right and wrong?".

—Kazuma Kaneko in an interview for The Escapist

Shin Megami Tensei (Japanese for "True Reincarnation of the Goddess", though it has been kept as an Untranslated Title in English releases), also known as MegaTen, is a long-running series of JRPG Dungeon Crawlers and spinoffs developed and published by Atlus. In Japan, it has been a direct competitor to Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy since The '80s, while in the West it only gained real popularity with Persona 3 in 2006, despite numerous localizations going all the way back to the 1990s.

Originally based on a novel series called Digital Devil Story, the games tend to involve using technology to summon and control mythological figures from nearly every culture on the planet, as well as the end of the world, deconstructions of common RPG storylines and far-out monster designs.

Thematically, the series emphasizes following one's own beliefs: plots tend to revolve around the forces of Order and Chaos battling it out for supremacy, and the player is generally given complete freedom in deciding which side is "right". If neither side takes their fancy, the player can even kick both sides' butts and declare humanity (temporarily) free of either. Depending on the game, there may be other options.

The games also tend to be Nintendo Hard. Elemental affinities, buffing, and debuffing are far more effective than in most JRPGs and can make or break battles. In an aversion of Useless Useful Spell, instant death and ailment attacks are both effective and encouraged repeatedly. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne further introduced the Press Turn battle system to the series, where hitting an enemy's elemental weakness will reward the player with more actions whereas hitting their elemental strengths will cost the player actions. Variations of Press Turn went on to be adopted in multiple later MegaTen games, such as the "One More!" system in Persona 3, 4 and 5.

Although a majority of these games were released outside Japan under the Shin Megami Tensei label from Nocturne (2003) to Devil Survivor 2 (2011), in Japan only a handful of main series titles bear that name; the rest are spin-offs unofficially known as MegaTen titles. The Persona, Devil Summoner, Digital Devil Saga, and Devil Survivor series are the best-known of these spin-offs in the West. Catherine, despite not being a series due to only being one game, is also a well-known MegaTen game. Regardless, many include references to other MegaTen games and intra-franchise character cameos.

List of games

• Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei ^note "Old Testament" Megami Tensei. Has an unofficial translation of the Super Famicom version.
  • Megami Tensei (1987, Japan only): A loose adaptation of Digital Devil Story.
  • Megami Tensei II (1990, Japan only)
• Shin Megami Tensei
  • Shin Megami Tensei I (1992, Japan only) ^note has fan translations for the Super Famicom, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation versions; iOS version was officially translated in 2014, but has since been delisted
  • Shin Megami Tensei II (1994, Japan only) ^note has an unofficial translation of the Super Famicom version; iOS version was available in 2012, but in Japanese and has since been delisted
  • Shin Megami Tensei if... (1994, Japan only) ^note has an unofficial translation of the Super Famicom version; iOS version was available in 2013, but in Japanese and has since been delisted
    • Shin Megami Tensei: if... Hazama's Chapter (2004, Japan only)
  • Shin Megami Tensei NINE (2002, Japan only)
  • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (2003) ^note Retitled Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call in PAL regions
  • Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX (2004, Japan only)
  • Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE (2007 to 2016) ^note MMORPG; had a run in the US from 2008 to 2014
  • Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX Devil's Colosseum (2008, Japan only) ^note cellphone game; prequel to SMT 20XX
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (2009)
    • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (2017)
    • Shin Megami Tensei Synchronicity Prologue (2017) ^note originally a fangame made official
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV (2013)
    • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (2016)
  • Shin Megami Tensei Liberation: Dx2 (2018)
  • Shin Megami Tensei V (2021)
• Last Bible sub-series
  • Last Bible (1992) ^note Game Boy Color port was localized as Revelations: The Demon Slayer in 1999, complete unofficial translation for Game Gear port.
  • Last Bible II (1993, Japan only) ^note completed unofficial translation
  • Another Bible (1995, Japan only) ^note completed unofficial translation
  • Last Bible III (1995, Japan only) ^note completed unofficial translation
  • Last Bible Special (1995, Japan only) ^note completed unofficial translation
• Majin Tensei sub-series
  • Majin Tensei (1994, Japan only) ^note completed unofficial translation
  • Majin Tensei II: Spiral Nemesis (1995, Japan only) ^note completed unofficial translation
  • Ronde (1997, Japan only)
• Devil Summoner sub-series
  • Devil Summoner (1995, Japan only)
  • Soul Hackers (1997) ^note was Japan only, until a 3DS re-release in 2013.
  • Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army (2006)
  • Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon (2008)
  • Soul Hackers 2 (2022)
• Jack Bros. (1995, Virtual Boy)
• Persona sub-series^note see the page for full list of installemnts
• Giten Megami Tensei: Tokyo Revelation (1997, Japan only)
• Devil Children sub-series
  • Devil Children: Red Book/Black Book (2000, Japan only)
  • Devil Children: White Book (2001, Japan only)
  • Devil Children: Card Summoner (2001, Japan only)
  • DemiKids: Book of Light/Book of Darkness (2002)
  • Devil Children: Puzzle de Call! (2003, Japan only)
  • Devil Children: Book of Ice/Book of Fire (2003, Japan only)
  • Devil Children: Messiah Riser (2004, Japan only)
  • Devil Children Mobile (2011, Japan only)
• Digital Devil Saga sub-series
  • Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner (2004)
  • Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 (2005)
  • Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner: A's TEST Server (2006, Japan only)
• Devil Survivor sub-series
  • Devil Survivor (2009) ^note originally Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor
    • Devil Survivor Overclocked (2011)
  • Devil Survivor 2 (2011)
    • Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker (2015)
• Catherine (2011)
  • Catherine: Full Body (2019)
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (2015) ^note Formerly known as Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem. A Crossover where Atlus basically made a MegaTen spinoff using the mythology of Intelligent Systems's Fire Emblem franchise.
  • Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore (2020)

List of animated adaptations and installments

• Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (1987)
• Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Revelation (1995)
• Shin Megami Tensei: DeviChil (2000)
• Shin Megami Tensei: D-Children Light & Dark (2002)
• Persona -trinity soul- (2008)
• Persona 4: The Animation (2011)
• Persona 3: The Movie (2013-2016)
• Devil Survivor 2: The Animation (2013)
• Persona 4: The Golden Animation (2014)
• Persona 5: The Day Breakers (2016)
• Persona 5: The Animation (2018)

List of literary works and adaptations

• Digital Devil Story Trilogy (1986)
• Shin Megami Tensei: if... (1995)
• Shin Megami Tensei: Kahn (1995)
• Megami Ibunroku Persona (1996)
• Megami Ibunroku Persona: Shadow Maze (1997)
• Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Konton (2003)
• That's Catch-22 (2005)
• Persona 3 (2007-2017)
• Raidou Kuzunoha Vs The Lone Marebito (2009)
• Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner (2011)
• Persona x Detective NAOTO (2012)
• Devil Survivor 2 The Animation: Cetus's Prequel (2013)
• Shin Megami Tensei IV DEMONIC GENE (2013)
• Shin Megami Tensei IV -Prayers- (2013)

List of live-action works and adaptations

• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (1997-1998)
• Persona 4 Visualive (2012)
  • Persona 4 Visualive the Evolution (2013)
• Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Stageplay (2014)
  • Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold Stageplay (2016)
• Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade (2014-2017)
• Persona 5 The Stage (2019)

For tropes exclusive to the Persona sub-series, as well as the full list of installments, please check this page.

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Examples: This section is for universal tropes related to the series as a whole. Please place tropes related to specific games in their own article, if it exists.

• Tropes A-M
• Tropes N-Z

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Before you stand the paths of Law, Chaos, and every path in-between. Where will you head?

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