The Shin Megami Tensei franchise has become synonymous with publisher Atlus. It’s an international hit, despite proudly sporting a mouthful of a Japanese name. These days, practically every entry in the series makes its way into English — most recently Strange Journey Redux, a new Nintendo 3DS remake of a 2010 cult favorite.
That hasn’t always been the case, though. Shin Megami Tensei (which fans frequently call “MegaTen”) has been around for more than 30 years. Yet only within the past decade or so has Atlus made a concerted effort to translate everything MegaTen. For many years, American and European role-playing game fans knew of the series as little more than a footnote, an import obscurity. MegaTen’s slow and spotty localization history (not to mention Atlus’ tendency to produce more side works than numbered, core titles) had saddled it with a very confusing English-language legacy.
Although all MegaTen games share certain elements, each individual release approaches those concepts from a different angle. It can be hard to know what mix of game concepts and mechanics you’ll be getting when you pick up a new MegaTen game. For example, a fan of Persona 5’s character-driven school simulation is likely to be disappointed by the old-school combat-focused dungeon crawling of Strange Journey Redux or the tactical combat of Devil Survivor, and vice versa.
What defines MegaTen, exactly? The series has given us platformers, strategy games, action RPGs … even puzzle games. Even their titles aren’t always consistent — in Japan, Persona and Devil Survivor appeared under the name “Megami Ibunroku” rather than “Shin Megami Tensei.” What unites these dozens of disparate works? You can always count on finding some or all of these four fundamental pillars in each of these games.
Role-playing
Not every MegaTen game falls under the role-playing banner, but for the most part, this is where you’ll want to file the series. Atlus has explored nearly every possible facet of the genre with these games: dungeon crawlers, dual-version Pokémon clones, classic console RPGs and more. Basically, everything but a roguelike.
MegaTen RPGs take a serious approach to the format, making use of the full suite of RPG mechanics, especially elemental affinities, status effects, buffs and debuffs. Shin Megami Tensei is never afraid to challenge players, and nearly every entry in the series has its own infamous “brick wall” boss designed to test players’ understanding of the underlying systems and mechanics. If you just choose “attack” over and over, you’ll never get any further.
Demons
Having originated with a novel about summoning demons with a computer program, MegaTen has always and invariably dealt with the occult. The mechanisms for gathering demonic allies vary from game to game, but they usually involve technology, be it a computer, a cellphone or a television. Really, the term “demon” is somewhat misleading: The allies and enemies you face cover the gamut of historic pantheons, from figures of Celtic or Japanese folklore to Hindu deities to famous Christian entities like Yahweh and Lucifer.
The series’ demonic bestiary has accumulated over the years, with new demons joining old. Many characters (especially mascots like Jack Frost and sexy female demons like Angel or Nekomata) still use designs that illustrator Kazuma Kaneko drafted decades ago. They’re almost as iconic for series’ fans as Dragon Quest’s slimes or Pokémon’s Pikachu.
The series’ emphasis on demonic summoning likely accounts for its slow entree into the U.S. market. Satanic panic swept through parts of the U.S. in the ’80s, and far more innocuous games fell under the watchful eye of police and parent watchdog groups. Despite the prevalence of demons here, however, any fear that the series somehow encourages children to explore the occult is unfounded. Indeed, the “correct” path through most MegaTen stories is the neutral path in which the player rejects both gods and demons alike.
Fusion
The demonic recruiting in MegaTen differs from capturing Pokémon in a few critical ways. For starters, you don’t capture demons — you make pacts with them. They’re deadly partners, not lovable pals. And you don’t treat them as friends, either. Demons quickly reach their growth limits as they gain combat experience, and the only way to keep your team up to par is to add new demons. While you can recruit stronger demons, the true secret to success in MegaTen is to destroy the one you’ve already allied with in a process known as fusion.
This is exactly what it sounds like: You take two or more demons and mash them together to create a different demon. There are complex formulas at work to determine the outcome, but they’re worth mastering: A fused demon can inherit skills from its “parents,” giving it access to abilities that type of demon would normally never be able to use. These aren’t just active powers, either: You can often pass along passive boosts, such as elemental resistances or other combat effects that can radically alter the shape of a battle.
Player agency
Finally, the vast majority of Shin Megami Tensei games give players the power to determine their story’s outcome.
At the most basic level, you must choose a moral path. Usually, this amounts to order, chaos or neutrality, putting you in the camp of (and at odds with) different supernatural forces and the story characters who have taken up one side or another. Some MegaTen games take a more nuanced approach, most notably Nocturne’s incredibly complex moral alignment system. And then you have the Persona games, which are less about morality than about the friends you make along the way.
Whatever the case, the choices you make almost always have a massive impact on the game’s outcome.
The Shin Megami Tensei franchise got its start in 1987 with a game called Digital Devil Monogatari: Megami Tensei (which translates to Digital Devil Story: Resurrection of the Goddess). Developed by Atlus and published by Namco, Megami Tensei took its inspiration from a novella by Aya Nishitani in which a disaffected Japanese teenager discovered a computer program with the ability to summon and bind demons. The game adaptation took the form of a first-person dungeon crawler for the Famicom (Japan’s equivalent of the NES). It was a fairly by-the-numbers RPG, but it did include one notable feature: Nearly a decade before Pokémon debuted, it allowed players to capture monsters to serve as party members.
Atlus wrote the first Megami Tensei (and its follow-up) as sequels to the original novel. That source material — whose title refers to the protagonist’s love interest, who turns out to be the new earthly incarnation of the goddess Izanagi — is a rather grim and mean-spirited work. The games largely leave its ugliness behind, having grown increasingly focused on questions of morality and the place of humanity’s free will in a universe dominated by warring supernatural entities.
When the series leapt to 16-bit hardware, Atlus took over publishing duties from Namco and rebranded the franchise Shin Megami Tensei (“shin” meaning “new” in Japanese). The creative team behind the series — most notably game designer Cozy Okada and artist Kazuma Kaneko — remained the same, but Shin Megami Tensei effectively cut all ties to the source material and began exploring similar themes under the umbrella of its own original narratives. The first two Shin Megami Tensei games told a connected story, but the series quickly branched off into numerous unrelated spinoffs and side stories that presented new takes on the same basic concept.
MegaTen was slow to make its way to the U.S. and Europe. In fact, the first entry to be localized into English was 1995’s oddball Virtual Boy action game Jack Bros. (featuring the series mascots, a pair of demons called Jack Frost and Pyro Jack). The first MegaTen game to catch the notice of American RPG fans, however, was the original Persona for PlayStation, which came to the U.S. as Revelations: Persona in 1996. Even then, it wasn’t until 2004’s Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne for PlayStation 2 (the third core MegaTen game) that Atlus began to localize the franchise consistently — especially once Persona 3 became a respectable mainstream hit, despite not reaching the U.S. until the PS2 was well into retirement.
Once Persona 3 proved itself a global hit, Atlus kept its eyes overseas. Today, roughly three dozen Shin Megami Tensei games have made their way west (occasionally under the name “Revelations”), and the stream of releases shows no sign of slowing down. Atlus has at least five new and remake MegaTen projects in the works, and all of them seem likely to reach the U.S. and Europe.
For those who find it easiest to deal with this franchise’s taxonomy by grouping the games by title, MegaTen does have plenty of sub-series. These divisions are largely illusory, though: Very few of the games within these groupings have any direct connection to the games with which they share a title. Names don’t even give a sense of the style of gameplay to be had. For example, the Persona games encompass dungeon crawlers, traditional console RPGs, rhythm and fighting games, and RPGs that place a heavy emphasis on life simulation and character relationships. To make matters worse, many of the games released in the U.S. under the Shin Megami Tensei label had other titles in Japan (e.g., Shin Megami Tensei: Persona was called Megami Ibunroku: Persona). Yeah, it’s confusing. Still, this is as good a place to start as any …
Shin Megami Tensei
The core, numbered MegaTen games only show up once every decade or so, and their design reflects these gaps. None of these games play alike. However, all of them explore the same narrative concept. Set in near-future Tokyo, these games invariably force the player to come to terms with the end of the world, as demons invade our reality and destroy life as we know it.
Shin Megami Tensei
Original release: 1992, Super Famicom
Play it on: iOS
The first of the series only made its way into English recently. It plays out as an old-school dungeon-crawler and set the tone and themes for future games.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Original release: 2003, PlayStation 2
Play it on: PlayStation 2 Classics
Many fans regard Nocturne, a modern-style console RPG with stylish 3D graphics, as the pinnacle of the franchise. It took a radically different (and never duplicated) approach to the series’ morality structure, allowing players to take up with one of many distinct factions that embodied more subtle distinctions than the usual chaos/order/light/dark approach.
Shin Megami Tensei 4/Apocalypse
Original release: 2013/2016, Nintendo 3DS
Play them on: Nintendo 3DS
Presented as an enormous fake-out, this adventure appears to take place in a medieval kingdom before revealing its cataclysmic reality. Its follow-up, Apocalypse, offers a different perspective on the story events that leads to some very different outcomes.
Shin Megami Tensei 5
Original release: TBD
Play it on: Nintendo Switch
We know nothing about the fifth “true” MegaTen, except that it’s coming to Switch at some point. Based on previous experience, though, we can predict that Tokyo is in for another rough day.
Persona
The Persona games differ from the standard MegaTen series most notably by placing their focus on human allies rather than on demonic pacts. You still deal with otherworldly entities, but you do so with the help of school friends. These games are also typically set in current-day Japan (not just Tokyo!), and don’t get quite so apocalyptic as the core MegaTen titles.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
Original release: 1996, PlayStation
Play it on: PlayStation Portable
Like other earlier MegaTens, this is an old-school dungeon crawler, this one set largely in schools and shopping centers around Tokyo. Atlus published an improved remake for PSP that’s worth exploring (if only because it restores an enormous alternate story that was removed from the original U.S. PlayStation release). It introduced the concept of Personas, unique spirit entities bound to the main cast as a reflection of their inner selves.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment
Original release: 1999/2000, PlayStation
Play it on: PS1 Classics, PSP
There are two games called Persona 2, and each tells a different side of a story involving the same cast of teenagers as they try to unravel the mystery of Joker, an entity capable of turning rumors into reality. This duology is a bit of a mess in the U.S. (Atlus only published Eternal Punishment on PS1 and Innocent Sin on PSP), but worth exploring regardless.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3/FES
Original release: 2006, PlayStation 2
Play it on: PlayStation Portable
The big breakout title for MegaTen in the West, Persona 3 shook up the franchise by placing its emphasis on the main character’s relationship with their classmates as they work their way, day by day, through a year of high school. This isn’t some Animal Crossing life sim, though: At night, the heroes travel into an alternate world to challenge a towering demonic dungeon called Tartarus. It’s a fascinating take on the RPG, and rightly deserves its reputation as a classic of the medium.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4/Golden
Original release: 2008, PlayStation 2
Play it on: PlayStation Vita
Following in the footsteps of Persona 3, this sequel takes a similar approach with a new cast of characters in a small Japanese town. It has even more focus on characterization as it rectifies many of its predecessor’s pain points. If you liked P3’s premise but found Tartarus too much of a slog, P4 was made for you.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5
Original release: 2017, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
Play it on: PlayStation 4
The most recent entry in the series is less about school, and more about subverting all that’s wrong with society through late-night trickery … and combat.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Original release: 2015, Vita
Play it on: Vita
This Persona 4 spinoff casts the teenage protagonists in their own rhythm action game, performing Bust-a-Groove-style timed button presses to some high-energy J-pop.
Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night/Persona 5: Dancing Star Night
Original release: TBD
Play it on: PlayStation 4
Atlus will be revisiting the Dancing All Night concept with this upcoming pair of rhythm games, allowing you to boogie down with the casts of the other Persona games.
Persona 4 Arena/Ultimax
Original release: 2012, PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
Play it on: PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
Lots of one-on-one fighting games make a big deal about their stories, but Arena goes all-in. It contains a ton of dialogue and plot … and all of it is canon, making this a must-play for Persona fans.
Persona Q 1 & 2
Original release: 2014/TBD, Nintendo 3DS
Play it on: Nintendo 3DS
This spiritual crossover with Atlus’ own Etrian Odyssey games returns Persona to its dungeon-crawling roots, with a heavy emphasis on combat, mapping and exploration. It brings together the characters from Persona 3 and 4 and allows them to fight and interact together — making for both a wicked challenge and a heavy dose of fan service.
Devil
These games have little in common, really, except the presence of the world Devil in their titles. But all of them get back to the nuts and bolts of the franchise in their own distinct ways.
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2
Original release: 2004/2005, PlayStation 2
Play them on: PlayStation 2 Classics
A pair of gorgeous and highly stylized RPGs, this duology is in fact simply two chapters of a single story. Called Avatar Tuner in Japan, Digital Devil Saga explores Hindu themes in particular, in a setting that feels far more like advanced science fiction than you typically see in MegaTen.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Original release: 1997, Saturn
Play it on: Nintendo 3DS
A somewhat dated game — the 3DS release is a remake of a Sega Saturn dungeon crawler — Soul Hackers has a strong connection to the original novel that inspired the entire franchise. And its dated style has a certain charm, thanks to its heavy focus on mid-’90s computer and internet tech.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army/vs. King Abaddon
Original release: 2006/2008, PlayStation 2
Play them on: PlayStation 2 Classics
Set in early 20th-century Japan, this action-oriented duo has almost nothing to do with the other Devil Summoner at first glance. But in fact, it carries forward the other game’s mystery and detective themes … and protagonist Raidou Kuzunoha is its hero’s ancestor.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 1/Overclocked & 2/Record Breaker
Original release: 2009/2011, Nintendo DS/3DS; 2011/2015, Nintendo DS/3DS
Play them on: Nintendo 3DS
This pair of unrelated games is the closest we’ve ever come to seeing the Majin Tensei spinoff series in English. Both Devil Survivor games play out as tactical RPGs set in present-day Tokyo (though Devil Survivor 2 quickly expands beyond the city). Players take control of a team of teens who summon and battle demons with the help of a cellphone app as monsters swarm over Tokyo.
Stand-alone games
Even more so than the Devil titles, these games are completely unrelated to one another in any way: narratively, mechanically … even in terms of genre.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey/Redux
Original release: 2009, Nintendo DS
Play it on: Nintendo 3DS
A throwback to the older MegaTen games, the premise of this dungeon crawler might remind you of the movie Annihilation. (Strange Journey came first, though.) Unlike nearly all other MegaTen titles, Strange Journey doesn’t take place in Japan, and it doesn’t center around young kids. Instead, you play as the member of a military expedition sent to determine the cause and nature of a strange phenomenon that has begun consuming the world, beginning with the South Pole.
Jack Bros.
Original release: 1995, Virtual Boy
Play it on: Virtual Boy
A platform-action game starring some of the series mascots (e.g., Jack Frost), Jack Bros. is notable for being such an odd pick to become one of the first MegaTen titles released in the U.S. It’s quite the pricey collector’s item these days.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Original release: 2015, Wii U
Play it on: Wii U
While it’s not really what anyone had in mind when they learned Atlus was creating a MegaTen and Fire Emblem crossover, it turned out well regardless. With an emphasis on pop idols and traditional (rather than tactical) RPG mechanics, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is easily the best RPG on Wii U.
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine
Original release: 2007, Windows PC
Play it on: You can’t
This massively multiplayer online action RPG had a good run, but sadly it’s been discontinued.
Catherine
Original release: 2011, PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
Play it on: PS3/Xbox 360
While not technically a MegaTen game, we’re saying “good enough” thanks to its demonic themes and an interesting character cameo or two. Plus, this story-driven puzzle game features multiple narrative outcomes based on player choices. A remake for PS4 and Vita (yes, Vita) is forthcoming.
MegaTen’s sub-series umbrellas don’t really say much about the kinds of games they are. While you can make a strong guess at the themes and narrative concepts you’ll find in, say, a Persona game, the actual mechanics and even genres of play can vary wildly within a set of games.
Social RPGs
These games emphasize character relationships over combat mechanics as their primary narrative driving force.
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3/FES
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4/Golden
- Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5
Dungeon RPGs
These games drop you into a first-person 3D maze and force you to fight your way to the end. You’ll encounter plot along the way, but these MegaTen variants are really all about the chewy, delicious combat.
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Shin Megami Tensei 2
- Revelations: Persona
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
- Persona Q
- Persona Q2
- Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Console-style RPGs
If you dig the likes of Final Fantasy or Pokémon, step into MegaTen with these games. They emphasize a central, driving plot, and allow players to go diving into labyrinths and dungeons from a top-down or behind-the-character viewpoint. Rather than taking place in a single small setting, these adventures span a world map packed with towns to visit.
- Revelations: The Demon Slayer
- Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne
- Shin Megami Tensei 4
- Shin Megami Tensei 4 Apocalypse
- Shin Megami Tensei 5
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Innocent Sin
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Eternal Punishment
- Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
- Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
- DemiKids: Light and Dark Version
Action RPGs
MegaTen doesn’t dabble in action-RPG mechanics often, but it’s been known to experiment from time to time. These games put a real-time spin on the franchise’s RPG traditions.
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
- Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine
Rhythm
For those with more of an inclination toward music than toward fighting, these music and dance games will let you get your groove on while sorting through the mysteries of the demonic realms.
- Persona 4: Dancing All Night
- Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night
- Persona 5: Dancing Star Night
Miscellaneous
And then there are the games that don’t quite fit into any other category. These can be a good starting point, too. If you’re not sure you’re ready to commit to super-involved role-playing sagas, you can get a taste of the MegaTen universe here and decide if you’re up for more.
- Jack Bros.
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 1 & 2
- Catherine
- Persona 4 Arena/Ultimax
- Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue
Notable import-only releases
Once you’ve mastered the full breadth of Atlus’ localized MegaTen titles, there are still plenty that never made their way to the U.S. Some of these have been translated unofficially by fans, while others require a fairly extensive understanding of Japanese. How far are you willing to go for your MegaTen fix?
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei 1 & 2
The games that started it all. These 8-bit RPGs (which debuted on Famicom, the Japanese NES) serve as direct sequels to the original novel that inspired the series. Being NES RPGs, they’re a bit clunky and unfriendly. If you’re up for the struggle, though, you can now try the first game in English thanks to a fan translation patch released a few months ago.
Shin Megami Tensei 2
Sadly, one of the few MegaTen games to serve as a direct sequel to its predecessor has never seen an official English release. Shin Megami Tensei 2 follows on from the events of the first SMT, something the series would largely abandon beginning with Shin Megami Tensei 3. Thankfully, it’s also been translated by diligent fans.
Shin Megami Tensei If …
If ... feels in many ways like the precursor to the Persona games. The entire story takes place inside a school and a series of dungeons connected to the building, and it has a far smaller scale than most other MegaTen titles.
Shin Megami Tensei Nine
No, it’s not meant to be the ninth entry in the series. The title refers to the different moral alignments players can pursue in this real-time RPG. Originally intended to be an online RPG, this remains the only MegaTen title developed exclusively for the Xbox family … which makes its Japan-only status all the more remarkable. While not considered an essential entry in the series by most fans, it certainly is one of the most unusual.
Majin Tensei series
The workings of this sub-series — a strategy offshoot of the MegaTen franchise — should feel largely familiar to anyone who has spent time with the Devil Summoner duology. Fans have yet to translate these games into English, although Majin Tensei 2 does have a Chinese-language patch.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
The predecessor to Soul Hackers, this Sega Saturn game explores a similar premise through a similar structure. Set in sprawling first-person dungeons in modern-day Japan, it plays out as something of a detective story. Devil Summoner introduced the demon conversation system that has become a key component of the series, and features some of the franchise’s more interesting characters, so its failure to have made its way into English is a true shame.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children series
We did receive one of these games in English (DemiKids for Game Boy Advance), but the remainder of this Pokémon-style, demon-collecting handheld sub-franchise has been stuck in Japan and shows no indication of ever making its way overseas.
