I’ve been passingly interested in the Megami Tensei series for a while.
I’ve been a little intimidated by the number of games that may or may not have been translated and all the ports.
I was hoping someone could give me a rundown of the series and where to start, if I should play with fan translations, or whatever else I should know.
I grew up with the nes and snes, so I’m OK with older RPGs and their nuances.
I’d say SMT4 on the 3DS is a good starting point if you wanted to dive in head-first to the mainline series. Otherwise maybe Persona 3 Reloaded for the Persona games.
Edit: A curveball good entry to the series would be Devil Survivor for the Nintendo DS. It’s extremely easy to emulate with modern phones, physical copies are not as expensive as the 3DS games (but still expensive) and there is no region lock on DS so you have some lattitude to shop around if you want to use original hardware. In some ways that game does Persona better than the Persona games do, all while having a classic SMT mainline story of law vs chaos.
I cannot speak on the rest of the series, but I have played devil survivor 1 and 2:
Devil Survivor 1 does have a bit of a difficulty curve that can take one by surprise with the first major boss and it is like priming the player towards what to expect but its story I personally enjoyed.
Devil Survivor 2 is lighter in tone, well compared to the Devil Survivor 1, but I felt it was a smoother experience - doesn’t feel as tightly packaged but it does compensate with having a better presentation and provides choice in a lot clearer manner.
I liked Devil Survivor 1 story better but enjoyed Devil Survivors 2 gameplay more
Thanks for the recommendation. I was wondering why you recommended SMT4 on 3DS. But I now realize that it is different than persona 4. I guess it is a bit confusing for me still. I think I am more interested in the mainline series. I found an English translation of SMT 1 and 2 for snes.
How different is Persona from SMT?
Persona is heavier on story, has dating sim elements and operates off a calendar system to progress the story. Hard to explain the calendar system but essentially events are timeboxed and there can be dead time if you finish the main mission quickly. Persona games try to emulate an anime.
SMT is the original series. Easier to explain: it’s like pokemon with mythological creatures and a light philosophy story. I don’t know if I’d recommend starting with SMT 1 or 2, even if they are arguably some of the best in the series.
Edit: I also prefer mainline to Persona. Should reiterate that Devil Survivor is definitely worth checking out. Not patient gamers but the new release of SMTV would also be a good starting point.
SMT1 has a great intro but it is confusing and does not hold your hand. Some mechanics are straight up broken so you can steamroll the game if you know about them (electric bullets). All of the games are like that to some extent. SMT2 is less confusing and might have the best story in the series.
Thanks! I do not think I’d like Persona, but SMT sounds cool. I like old RPGs, so I am kinda most excited for them.