Megami Tensei Retrospective: Introduction

If you have been a gamer for a long time, I'm sure there's a series that have a special place in your heart; the kind of series in which you have nostalgic feelings attached to it. For me, this is the Megami Tensei series.

For those who are not familiar with this series, Megami Tensei, also called Megaten, is a 20 years old Japanese RPG that made its debuts on the Famicom (NES) in September, 1987. Since that time, around 50 Megaten games and spin-offs have been released. During the Super Famicom (SNES) era, Megami Tensei became really popular within the underground gaming scene. The Megami Tensei series diverges from other rpgs with its extremely high difficulty and its controversial themes.

I don't know Megaten since a very long time, but I still have many great memories of it. When I was living in Japan, I often went shopping for videogames in Den Den Town (the equivalent of Akihabara in Osaka). One day, I saw that blue box of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne in a video game store for only 10$. I was kinda intrigued by it, so I decided to buy it. However, since I was busy, I didn't get to try it out at that time.

A few months later, I met, for the first time, a girl that soon became one of my best friends. Even if she is a cool looking lawyer, she really is a hardcore gamer. One day, we were talking about video games at a coffee shop. She was telling me in Japanese that she always loved that Megaten thing and that she even bought Megaten figurines. At that time, I had no idea what she was talking about.

It's only when I got back home that I realized that the strange blue box that I bought a few months before was actually part of that crazy Megaten thing that she tried to explain to me earlier. Since she loved Megaten so much, I thought it might be good game, so I decided to give it a try. I was completely blown away.

The modern setting was so much refreshing compared to the generic medieval style that I got used to over the years. Also, I absolutely loved the fact that this game got rid of the stupid RPG premise of saving the world by actually starting the game with the end of the world. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is a pure masterpiece from the beginning to the end.

Since that time, I got hooked to the Megami Tensei series and started to collect all the Megaten stuff that I could find. I even started to dig for extremely rare stuff like the Maniacs version of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne for 150$. I soon started to know even more stuff about Megaten then my Japanese friend who first introduced me to that series.

This is my love for the Megami Tensei series that pushed me to start writing this. In my retrospective, I will try to cover every Megami Tensei games ever made (maybe except the cell phone spin-offs). I will write about my experience playing those games, and might also make some gameplay videos. If I'm really into one of those games, while writing about my progression, I will definitely try to get to lvl 99 and do all the optional stuff.

Depending of my free time, it might take a year or two to complete this retrospective, but when I'm playing Megaten games, I'm having such a good time that I don't mind spending all that time. I hope it will become a great source of information and that you will enjoy reading it.

But first, let's rock this thing out with a badass SMT: Nocturne AMV.