Shin Megami Tensei V

[dope_danny]

So its kind of a weird situation with Shin Megami Tensei right now. Its the quarter century anniversary of the franchise but in most regions of the word only its spin off series Persona is a big deal and as such the reveal of the series going to the Switch -the first home console release since the PS2 days- has kind of sadly been unnoticed and honestly thats a real shame. But not that unexpected. Folks found Niers lineage obtuse and thats nothing compared to this series.

Originating as a sci-fi horror novel trilogy in japan called "Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei" it told the story of Angels and Demons leading to an apocalypse. Initiated by Thor infiltrating the US government and launching its nuclear arsenal and a japanese high school student creating a devil summoning code on his computer to summon an army of his own to combat the forces of both Lucifer and Yahweh.
This lead to the rights being sold to a little known videogame developer called Atlus who made two PC/Famicom rpgs of the same name. Followed by a revamp for the Super Famicom as Shin Megami Tensei or "True Goddess Reincarnation" with a sequel that both served as soft reboots of the Megami Tensei, a virtual boy game and later a pokemon style childrens market take on the monster collecting system idea along with "Shin Megami Tensei If..." which was a stand alone story about a high school student solving a demon driven murder mystery involving the seven deadly sins. Which unsurprisingly lead to the first splinter of the IP into the first Persona game on the PS1 which of course went on to become its own Playstation/Nintendo series up to spin off's like Dancing All Night, Persona Q and most recently Persona 5.
Then after a 9 year gap post Persona 2: Innocent Sin they created Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne on PS2 but delays lead to other spin of IP's like the meiji era series "Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner" and the DS series Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga. Which lead up to the MMORPG Shin Megami Tensei Imagine which was a fun but basic mmo that suffered from a lot of problems and shuttered in the west years ago.
THEN it gets confusing again where the DS then got the 4th 'main' title with Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey set in a isolated location at the north pole in a homage to The Thing which is soon getting a rerelease as Strange Journey Redux on 3DS as Atlus' final 3DS release and then on 3DS we got "Shin Megami Tensei IV" which is technically the 5th mainline game but also again started its own universe line with the first released sequel Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.
Along with a metric assload of Anime, Manga, novels and an actual multiverse timeline that puts Zelda and .Hack to shame.

Then they went silent and focussed more on stuff like Etrian Odyssey and the big P5 push -since nowadays Persona is easily the more popular branch of the Megaten universe- and folks were wondering what was next. With the anniversary going on this year folks expected something but with the 3DS on its last legs the output was uncertain till we got a 'megami tensei' video at the switch reveal and recently the above video confirmed it is in fact SMT5 with what looks like the Persona 5 engine using assets from P5 and SMT:Imagine.

So its no wonder its the lesser known ip when its branching multiverse is kind of a goddamn mess of excellent games.

This is a more concise explanation of the Megaten universe -starring Dante from the devil may cry series of course- that explains this in more depth:


Personally i'm super excited for megaten 5 to be the first proper jrpg on the Nintendo Switch and with so many people just getting into Megaten with Persona 5 its a perfect time to be a volunteer shill and recommend looking up some of the other games. Some like Persona 3 have elements mainstream gamers would find very difficult and others like If... and P2's second release are very dark even compared to subject matter in P5 but right now i would really recommend picking up SMTIV on 3DS as a new players in to the series and if they dig that the Strange Journey rerelease coming soon is a great follow up.

Regardless its a shame not just mmo champion but most forums can talk about Persona for hundreds of pages but SMT gets very little love out of simply not enough people playing it so i gotta recommend the games now we have solid confirmation the 'megaten project' on the switch is in fact the originator of the series heading back to a Nintendo home console for the first time since the Super Famicom.

[Poppincaps]

I dunno, someone described SMT as a darker version of Persona without the high school stuff and it just doesn't seem as appealing as Persona to me.

[dope_danny]

I dunno, someone described SMT as a darker version of Persona without the high school stuff and it just doesn't seem as appealing as Persona to me.

Its more biblical and apocalyptic but Shin Megami Tensei If... scratches the persona itch.

[SinR]

I'm kinda looking forward to SMT5. I need a good JRPG on my Switch.

[dope_danny]

and western release confirmed, not that it was unexpected after sales of IV and P5



The 'new messiah' line makes me wonder all the more if its a revisit to the original digital devil saga idea.