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Shin Megami Tensei, translated literally as 'True Goddess Reincarnation' or sometimes as 'The Reincarnation of the True Goddess' is a long-legged console RPG series from Japan. The series began as a spin off from a series of light novels titled 'Digital Devil Story', a set of nine light novels, though the original game only borrows (spuriously) from content from the first two or three. The first game Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei for the NES was named after the title of the first novel of the series, though the story in it more or less merely condenses some elements from the first three novels. Megami Tensei II would break almost entirely from the novels and begin to move into its own beast. The first game of the series when it moved on to the Super NES, Shin Megami Tensei, would cement the series even more as its own creature, easily overwhelming the novel series that spawned it in popularity.
The game plays like many older RPGs, specifically dungeon crawlers like Wizardry: most exploration occurs in a first person view, with a party you need to outfit and attempt to have a working balance and chemistry for. The main draw of the Megami Tensei series, and the main element that has endured even since the first game on the NES, is that your party build is far different from most dungeon crawlers. While most games of this genre have you creating your party, assigning them a beginning fantasy race and class, in Shin Megami Tensei you build your party by talking with and recruiting the demons you're fighting. While your main protagonist is himself human, and you'll have fellow human party members, these members won't stay with you forever, and you'll find yourself having to rely on your ability to talk and relate to the monsters your fighting to recruit them to your side. Alongside this, while your protagonist and human party members will level up just like in a regular RPG, your demons (at least in the older installments of the series) will not. Instead, you have to 'fuse' the demons you've gathered to your cause together in a ritual, causing them to become newer, stronger demons.
While the game has roots almost as old as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and trails just a bit behind them in Japan in terms of popularity, the series had a hard time setting foot outside its native country. Only a few games made it to America, initial under the title 'Revelations', such as Revelations: The Demon Slayer on Game Boy Color and, more notably, Revelations: Persona and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on the Playstation. The series wouldn't start receiving much mainstream attention among western fans until Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was released on the Playstation 2 in 2004 in American and 2005 in Europe. There are several reasons that could be attributed to these games not reaching Western shores sooner, simply financial reasons being one of them, but the fact that you recruited and fought alongside 'demons' wouldn't have set well with many good Christian mothers, at the very least.
Though, in truth, there are parts of the game that would have stirred far more ire than just that, as we'll see as we go on.
The first game was unreleased Stateside for years, though an English translation was made available in 2002 by translation group Aeon Genesis. However, considering the growing popularity of the series in the states, an official translation was produced and released by Atlus in 2014, only a mere 22 years after the game was first released.
So it's the horrible demon worshipping and fighting game our moms always thought Pokemon was? Cool.
Well, kind of sort of. "Demonic Pokemon" is a comparison that's often used for the Shin Megami Tensei series , and it doesn't help that series tried to bank on that comparison itself a few times. Exploiting elemental weaknesses and paying attention to your own elemental defenses in battle is an important point of ensuring success in Shin Megami Tensei. It's a core factor.
Or at least it is in later installments, starting primarily in the Persona series and being solidified in Nocturne. The earlier games, especially Shin Megami Tensei I and II, play far more like more standard dungeon crawler games. There are spells of differing elements, sure, but most of them are important because different elemental spells can cause status effects alongside sheer damage. The original releases of 1 had no elemental weakness/defense system that I am aware of; later releases of 1 did add some elemental weakness/defense mechanics, but they're still nowhere near as important as they are in later games. We're mostly interested in slugging it out in damage races and praying we don't get hit by status effects than we are in planning strategies around elemental factors.
That being said, there are still quite a few mechanics than just 'hit that/shoot that/set it on fire' that go on to the game, such as Alignment and different story paths that we'll get to in turn.
So you sound pretty familiar with this game. You've played it a lot?
Well. Kind of sort of. If I had to call this LP anything, it sure wouldn't be professional. We'll be calling this a half-blind run.
The hell does that even mean?
I mean I've played the game a lot, mostly on emulator...until about the halfway point, at which I've always had something come up that's kept me from finishing the game. With the official release of the game, I want to try and make a go at finishing the game in full, and hoping this project will help motivate me to do so.
So which version is the official one?
Throughout it's life span, Shin Megami Tensei has been released on several platforms: SNES, Sega CD, Playstation, and Game Boy Advance. The version that was released to America was a translation of the iOS port of the game, which itself appears to be a port of the Game Boy Advance version. It includes quite a few updates from the original, which I'll point out where I can.
So you talked about Alignments and different endings. What's that all about?
We'll talk about it in more detail as the game goes on, but in brief: the battle in Shin Megami Tensei isn't considered one necessarily between good and evil, but between values, expressed as the battle between Law and Chaos. There are three different paths we can take: Law, Chaos, and Neutrality, and each has a different outcome and ending associated with it, as well as some story differences.
So which of them are we going to play through?
Well, I haven't really decided yet. I'd like to do all three, but the game is long, especially for a SNES RPG, and I-
We shall traverse the path laid with wisdom: that most pleasing unto the LORD.
Alright, what the hell was that?
As I said, this is kind of-sort of a blind play through. Because of that, I have a couple of friends here to help me make a few decisions and point some things out for me, since the game can be, you know, tricky.
To call the program you are about to invoke and start 'tricky' is to downplay how dangerous it is to a blasphemous fault! It is a dangerous 'game' and in playing it you risk losing your very humanity.
My, uh...my friends are a bit opinionated. They won't be talking too often, only when necessary and-
I speak only the truth, and only to keep you from falling.
Alright then. So...should I let you introduce yourself or
Very well! Behold then, oh children of man, the very countenance of glory!
Behold, I am Metatron, the very Voice of the LORD Himself! You, oh man, in your ignorance believe that that which you create, the stories you produce, are but mere tales for amusement, be they told in your streets or within books or etched into the circuitry and programming of your machines just as your ancestors etched them within stone.
You come to false conclusions especially in regards to your technology. You believe your state has changed now from when you dwelt in caves and mud-thatched huts, that the tales your ancestors knew in their bones and their souls were in truth but mere superstitions, frivilious and unimportant and, more importantly, unrepeatable in the world you dwell in now, of which you are the master. Of which you believe that the technology you have mastered and the science you study is the actual hidden hand that guides the world.
But I tell you the truth - those stories are as true now as they were then. Becoming truer each moment. Your cities and your monuments and your governments and your institutions and your sciences and your learning are just as they always were and are still pillars upon which we hide and persist. We have never truly left you, though you in your vanity no longer seek us. We have always been here.
We are here still.
You recognize us no longer, and in part this is because you are so certain we never existed. But always are we among you.
But some of you remember us, acknowledge us, and when you truly seek power you so often reach out to those most wicked and blasphemous of us. You are vain and weak creatures, oh children of Adam, and always do you return to us, whether it be those who wish for you to prosper or those foul creatures who'd wish for your destruction. You return.
Your reliance and love for your own blood is the same as it ever was, has ever been, and still it avails you not, not for what you actually wish in your own greed.
Always do you in the end rebel against authority, the rulers appointed by and before you, who see to your protection. You continue to march to your own destruction, in praise of your own autonomy.
I think they get it. It, uh, it might be time to wrap it up.
Quiet I have something going here. You'll have a chance to speak when I am done.
You are shameless creatures, needing of guidance in order to ensure that your own inequity does not lead down the path of utter destruction.
It is His will always, the will of the Lord that even in your selfishness and sin, you might be saved. Salvation and purity shall always have its sacrifices; but know that always He has made it that it is achievable. He has willed it so.
But it is a hard path.
But come, I shall lead you, and under my guidance you shall not falter. What you call a 'game' is in truth a story, and a war, older than you can imagine, even though it has been bequested unto you to be the deciding factor in it. When we endure this, we play no game. Rather, we follow down a path towards truth and the creation of a new and glorious world.
But in your vanity, as always oh man, you consider it a game. Very well then.
Come.
Let us 'play'
Do you think they understood my message?
Yeah. Yeah. It was good.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annotations
Considering how old a series SMT is and how steeped in lore it is, as well as the many references it makes to the real world, the occult, and mythology, I'll be ending each update with an annotation section to point out these references, as well as add information on the demons we encounter each update. As this is just the introduction, there isn't much that is needed for annotation. There is, however, one thing people might be curious about.
El Elohim.....Agla Amen: The phrase that appears in the computer during the opening crawl upon starting the game is apparently a passage from an occult text referred to as the Grimoire of Armadel, which itself is associated with the Key of Solomon, a text popular for (though not only used for or containing spells on) the conjuring of demons. The passage listed here comes at the end of the Grimoire as part of a summoning technique and, roughly translated, reads as follows:
Our eternal Lord, our God Sebaoth
Glorious things are spoken in the name of our God Adonai
And in the name of the Tetragrammaton that cannot be spoken
O Theos, Ischiros, Athanaton
You, O Lord, are mighty forever. Amen.
The passage itself is considered to be an example of "Barbarous Names", which were long strings of unintelligible words that were frequently found in medieval magical texts. More information on this technique can be found here. Much of the information and understanding of this passage was also found at this fantastic fanpost talking about the use of the passage in the opening.
UPDATES:
Update One | Update One Annotations
Shin Megami Tensei, translated literally as 'True Goddess Reincarnation' or sometimes as 'The Reincarnation of the True Goddess' is a long-legged console RPG series from Japan. The series began as a spin off from a series of light novels titled 'Digital Devil Story', a set of nine light novels, though the original game only borrows (spuriously) from content from the first two or three. The first game Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei for the NES was named after the title of the first novel of the series, though the story in it more or less merely condenses some elements from the first three novels. Megami Tensei II would break almost entirely from the novels and begin to move into its own beast. The first game of the series when it moved on to the Super NES, Shin Megami Tensei, would cement the series even more as its own creature, easily overwhelming the novel series that spawned it in popularity.
The game plays like many older RPGs, specifically dungeon crawlers like Wizardry: most exploration occurs in a first person view, with a party you need to outfit and attempt to have a working balance and chemistry for. The main draw of the Megami Tensei series, and the main element that has endured even since the first game on the NES, is that your party build is far different from most dungeon crawlers. While most games of this genre have you creating your party, assigning them a beginning fantasy race and class, in Shin Megami Tensei you build your party by talking with and recruiting the demons you're fighting. While your main protagonist is himself human, and you'll have fellow human party members, these members won't stay with you forever, and you'll find yourself having to rely on your ability to talk and relate to the monsters your fighting to recruit them to your side. Alongside this, while your protagonist and human party members will level up just like in a regular RPG, your demons (at least in the older installments of the series) will not. Instead, you have to 'fuse' the demons you've gathered to your cause together in a ritual, causing them to become newer, stronger demons.
While the game has roots almost as old as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and trails just a bit behind them in Japan in terms of popularity, the series had a hard time setting foot outside its native country. Only a few games made it to America, initial under the title 'Revelations', such as Revelations: The Demon Slayer on Game Boy Color and, more notably, Revelations: Persona and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on the Playstation. The series wouldn't start receiving much mainstream attention among western fans until Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was released on the Playstation 2 in 2004 in American and 2005 in Europe. There are several reasons that could be attributed to these games not reaching Western shores sooner, simply financial reasons being one of them, but the fact that you recruited and fought alongside 'demons' wouldn't have set well with many good Christian mothers, at the very least.
Though, in truth, there are parts of the game that would have stirred far more ire than just that, as we'll see as we go on.
The first game was unreleased Stateside for years, though an English translation was made available in 2002 by translation group Aeon Genesis. However, considering the growing popularity of the series in the states, an official translation was produced and released by Atlus in 2014, only a mere 22 years after the game was first released.
So it's the horrible demon worshipping and fighting game our moms always thought Pokemon was? Cool.
Well, kind of sort of. "Demonic Pokemon" is a comparison that's often used for the Shin Megami Tensei series , and it doesn't help that series tried to bank on that comparison itself a few times. Exploiting elemental weaknesses and paying attention to your own elemental defenses in battle is an important point of ensuring success in Shin Megami Tensei. It's a core factor.
Or at least it is in later installments, starting primarily in the Persona series and being solidified in Nocturne. The earlier games, especially Shin Megami Tensei I and II, play far more like more standard dungeon crawler games. There are spells of differing elements, sure, but most of them are important because different elemental spells can cause status effects alongside sheer damage. The original releases of 1 had no elemental weakness/defense system that I am aware of; later releases of 1 did add some elemental weakness/defense mechanics, but they're still nowhere near as important as they are in later games. We're mostly interested in slugging it out in damage races and praying we don't get hit by status effects than we are in planning strategies around elemental factors.
That being said, there are still quite a few mechanics than just 'hit that/shoot that/set it on fire' that go on to the game, such as Alignment and different story paths that we'll get to in turn.
So you sound pretty familiar with this game. You've played it a lot?
Well. Kind of sort of. If I had to call this LP anything, it sure wouldn't be professional. We'll be calling this a half-blind run.
The hell does that even mean?
I mean I've played the game a lot, mostly on emulator...until about the halfway point, at which I've always had something come up that's kept me from finishing the game. With the official release of the game, I want to try and make a go at finishing the game in full, and hoping this project will help motivate me to do so.
So which version is the official one?
Throughout it's life span, Shin Megami Tensei has been released on several platforms: SNES, Sega CD, Playstation, and Game Boy Advance. The version that was released to America was a translation of the iOS port of the game, which itself appears to be a port of the Game Boy Advance version. It includes quite a few updates from the original, which I'll point out where I can.
So you talked about Alignments and different endings. What's that all about?
We'll talk about it in more detail as the game goes on, but in brief: the battle in Shin Megami Tensei isn't considered one necessarily between good and evil, but between values, expressed as the battle between Law and Chaos. There are three different paths we can take: Law, Chaos, and Neutrality, and each has a different outcome and ending associated with it, as well as some story differences.
So which of them are we going to play through?
Well, I haven't really decided yet. I'd like to do all three, but the game is long, especially for a SNES RPG, and I-
We shall traverse the path laid with wisdom: that most pleasing unto the LORD.
Alright, what the hell was that?
As I said, this is kind of-sort of a blind play through. Because of that, I have a couple of friends here to help me make a few decisions and point some things out for me, since the game can be, you know, tricky.
To call the program you are about to invoke and start 'tricky' is to downplay how dangerous it is to a blasphemous fault! It is a dangerous 'game' and in playing it you risk losing your very humanity.
My, uh...my friends are a bit opinionated. They won't be talking too often, only when necessary and-
I speak only the truth, and only to keep you from falling.
Alright then. So...should I let you introduce yourself or
Very well! Behold then, oh children of man, the very countenance of glory!
Behold, I am Metatron, the very Voice of the LORD Himself! You, oh man, in your ignorance believe that that which you create, the stories you produce, are but mere tales for amusement, be they told in your streets or within books or etched into the circuitry and programming of your machines just as your ancestors etched them within stone.
You come to false conclusions especially in regards to your technology. You believe your state has changed now from when you dwelt in caves and mud-thatched huts, that the tales your ancestors knew in their bones and their souls were in truth but mere superstitions, frivilious and unimportant and, more importantly, unrepeatable in the world you dwell in now, of which you are the master. Of which you believe that the technology you have mastered and the science you study is the actual hidden hand that guides the world.
But I tell you the truth - those stories are as true now as they were then. Becoming truer each moment. Your cities and your monuments and your governments and your institutions and your sciences and your learning are just as they always were and are still pillars upon which we hide and persist. We have never truly left you, though you in your vanity no longer seek us. We have always been here.
We are here still.
You recognize us no longer, and in part this is because you are so certain we never existed. But always are we among you.
But some of you remember us, acknowledge us, and when you truly seek power you so often reach out to those most wicked and blasphemous of us. You are vain and weak creatures, oh children of Adam, and always do you return to us, whether it be those who wish for you to prosper or those foul creatures who'd wish for your destruction. You return.
Your reliance and love for your own blood is the same as it ever was, has ever been, and still it avails you not, not for what you actually wish in your own greed.
Always do you in the end rebel against authority, the rulers appointed by and before you, who see to your protection. You continue to march to your own destruction, in praise of your own autonomy.
I think they get it. It, uh, it might be time to wrap it up.
Quiet I have something going here. You'll have a chance to speak when I am done.
You are shameless creatures, needing of guidance in order to ensure that your own inequity does not lead down the path of utter destruction.
It is His will always, the will of the Lord that even in your selfishness and sin, you might be saved. Salvation and purity shall always have its sacrifices; but know that always He has made it that it is achievable. He has willed it so.
But it is a hard path.
But come, I shall lead you, and under my guidance you shall not falter. What you call a 'game' is in truth a story, and a war, older than you can imagine, even though it has been bequested unto you to be the deciding factor in it. When we endure this, we play no game. Rather, we follow down a path towards truth and the creation of a new and glorious world.
But in your vanity, as always oh man, you consider it a game. Very well then.
Come.
Let us 'play'
Do you think they understood my message?
Yeah. Yeah. It was good.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annotations
Considering how old a series SMT is and how steeped in lore it is, as well as the many references it makes to the real world, the occult, and mythology, I'll be ending each update with an annotation section to point out these references, as well as add information on the demons we encounter each update. As this is just the introduction, there isn't much that is needed for annotation. There is, however, one thing people might be curious about.
El Elohim.....Agla Amen: The phrase that appears in the computer during the opening crawl upon starting the game is apparently a passage from an occult text referred to as the Grimoire of Armadel, which itself is associated with the Key of Solomon, a text popular for (though not only used for or containing spells on) the conjuring of demons. The passage listed here comes at the end of the Grimoire as part of a summoning technique and, roughly translated, reads as follows:
Our eternal Lord, our God Sebaoth
Glorious things are spoken in the name of our God Adonai
And in the name of the Tetragrammaton that cannot be spoken
O Theos, Ischiros, Athanaton
You, O Lord, are mighty forever. Amen.
The passage itself is considered to be an example of "Barbarous Names", which were long strings of unintelligible words that were frequently found in medieval magical texts. More information on this technique can be found here. Much of the information and understanding of this passage was also found at this fantastic fanpost talking about the use of the passage in the opening.
UPDATES:
Update One | Update One Annotations
UPDATE ONE 1/3 - Dreamscaping
Date: 2015-06-23 05:43 am (UTC)Hello, and welcome to the first update of Let’s Play Shin Megami Tensei! As with all great adventures, we start ours one step at a time. And like those adventures, this first step is into a winding hallway that is painted an apartment Pepto-Bismal Pink.
Don’t worry though. We’ll have something new to look at in a minute.
Speak to me thy name.
This dour fellow who materializes out of nowhere is a part of Shin Megami Tensei’s proud tradition of grim bald headed entities(1). He may not seem like much for now, and I’m not sure we’ll see him again much after this part of our journey, but if I were you? I’d keep him in mind.
Anyway, it seems he wants a name before he’s going to let us go any further. Remember, the game takes place in Japan, so in order to fit in we’ll need to think of a culturally appropriate name.
Or we can go with Adam. Nothing wrong with that, it’s a good strong name. Also, I’m pretty sure there’s a way to get lower case letters, but I was tired and anxious when I did this, so I didn’t bother experimenting to see how to switch to lower case. Either way, we’re important enough that people out to be shouting our names when they say it anyway.
We’re now allowed to customize our stats. We have six base stats: Strength, Vitality, Intelligence, Agility, Magic, and Luck.
Each of these six stats affect our others stats. For example, increasing strength gives us bonuses to physical attacks and health, Vitality gives bonuses to defense and health, Agility to evasion and gun attacks, Magic to magic attack and MP, Intelligence to our magic defense, and Luck helps influence criticals and a few other factors. Intelligence has another benefit too, but we’ll talk about it when we get there.
In later entries of the series, you can do a lot of things with customization in how you want your character to play based on the skills you can learn. Thing is, in the early games your main character doesn’t learn skills. No magic, no special abilities, nothing. He’s just a dude with a tude and the ability to summon demons. That being said, you want to mainly focus on his physical stats, especially strength and agility, though you want to focus at least a bit on intelligence as well, for earlier said special benefit and for increased magic defense. That being said, we pump most our points into strength and agility, and some into vitality and intelligence.
Already we can see that, whoever this dude is, he’s already got a bit of a lean towards law. Still, he seems to be giving us the choice of how to do things, so hey he can’t be too bad a guy, right?
As for what awaits us past this door, it’s more pink hallways.
And then as always a cross flies by.
Considering what we’re being told and this poor dude’s position, it seems like we’re pretty lucky that we’re getting the chance to decide where we stand.
A great gift, indeed, and one that you should treat with care. To make own’s one decisions is a gift, not a right.
Anyway, it looks like we’ve met our first buddy in this adventure. Let’s think about his name and give him a wake up call.
Yeah that feels like it fits.
And now we get to fix up our new buddies stats. Unlike us, Jonathan here has the powers, which I guess are a perk of being devoted to God. He can cast magic, and he seems like a dude more attuned for magic than general weaponry, so we’re going to be focusing on magic, intelligence, and agility for him, with a couple of points in strength and vitality for good measure.
Yeah, crucifixion will do a number on your memory, I’d reckon.
Whatever’s going on, it looks like it’s important. Not only that, but it seems we’re just pulling people to us. Maybe the right to have a ‘choice’ in our lives, and who we are and where we end up, is a lot rarer than we’d care to think.
Anyway, it’s a bit more wandering down these vomit hallways before a demon just pops its ass up right out of the crowd with this poor shmuck.
Got to admit, for a great adventure known of these dudes are looking so hot. Got to wonder if we’re really getting that good a crew, but might as well call this guy’s name.
Dude totally looks like a Walter if you ask me.
And now we assign Walter his stats. Like Adam, he feels like he’s a dude more attuned to getting down and dirty, with maybe a couple magical tricks up his sleeve. We focus on strength and vitality, putting a few points into agility and magic for good measure.
Yeah, you’re welcome. Dick.
We’ve got a little more walking through these endless halls before we manage to someone sneak up on some poor woman just trying to take a bath.
Woman: Who's there?
Yeah, sorry about that. Gimme a minute and I’ll just…
Whatever this is, however it happened, it’d seem that the people coming together here are doing so because of fate. What we were told at the beginning of this may have made us think we were one of the few with a choice on things about our life; it kind of looks like that choice may not be as evident or real as we thought it was.
But we’ve got our group now. Looks like we can find out what’s going on and-
Mom: Just because you’re off school doesn’t mean you can sleep all day! It’s time to get up!
Oh. Or it can just be a dream. I guess that makes sense.
Careful in how you speak. Often have dreams been a portent of things to come, and of revelation.
Yeah, yeah, we heard you the first time mom, calm down.
UPDATE ONE 2/3 - E-Mails and Errands
Date: 2015-06-23 06:16 am (UTC)Of course, being a teen, the first thing we’re going to do is check out what messages we got while we were asleep.
E-Mail: At present, we humans are facing an immense threat. The demons from legends and myths have awakened and are poised to attack. The only way to fight the demon threat is to make use of demons ourselves. This program is the key. I hope that some brave soul will take this program and rise up… The demons must be fought to save humanity.
Oh. It’s just junk mail. That’s a disappointment. Dude probably wants like a donation to help keep the demons at bay or-
Of course this hunk of junk downloads spyware onto our computer.
Or not.
Welcome to one of the big staples of Shin Megami Tensei: the Demon Summoning Program. We’ll learn a little bit more about what the demon summoning program is in this game later and why it exists, but we’ll point out a few basics to begin with for now. While the exact ways the Program works can differ from game to game, the basic idea of the demon summoning program is this: it runs a system of programming strings that act and emulate summoning rituals, allowing the summoner to forego the actual ritual themselves and summon their demons quickly and easily. Remember the string of words we saw in the opening update, when we talked about barbarous names? That’s a part of the demon summoning program and how it operates. There are other features of the program, other specifics on how it works, based around which Shin Megami Tensei game we’re in, but the basic gist is that it’s like a music player program, if iTunes just happened to summon higher spiritual forces instead of playing Abby Road.
The program is pretty much our ticket to survival. Unlike our other human companions, we’re just a guy with grit and gusto, and our main leg up is that while we can’t use magic, our demons sure can and can back us up. The Demon Summoning Program is the reason why we can summon and communicate with them in the first place; most other humans would have no hope of making a contract with them. This feature of the game is as old as the original NES games themselves, and we’ll have an annotation section in a few updates talking about its origins and its programmers. It’s just enough to know for now that this program is essential to us staying alive, and it was sent to us by a dude named Stephen who apparently is terrified as hell of demon invasion, which hey, aren’t we all.
Continuation Text - Mother’s Voice: ADAM, aren’t you up yet!?
Yes mom give me a minute! I’m just preparing for the apocalypse, yeesh.
After mom hollers at us one more time we’re dumped into the screen for our room. This room will essentially serve as our base camp. We can use our computer, save our game, and sleep to restore our health here. We can also leave the room, but it’s so safe maybe we’ll just stay in here.
Usually checking our computer doesn’t give us much, but we’ve already got another message waiting for us so lets check it.
Stephen: My next program isn’t quite complete, so you’ll have to be patient for that. Until then, the e-manual I’m sending for the Demon Summoning Program should explain how to use it.
>Downloading…
Looks like Stephen’s got something else cooking for us that we’ll see in a bit. Why he didn’t send us the manual for how to use the demon summoning program with the program itself is beyond me, but no harm no foul. I’m sure not too many other people have gotten it, and I’m sure it’s not so important they really need the manual.
Anyway, what follows is an explanation of the conversation system you use to speak with and recruit demons. We’ll talk more about that when we actually get down to it later on.
Anyway we’ve left mom waiting long enough let’s go show her we are in fact up.
You’re the best mom.
And now we even have our first quest. Now we’re cooking.
After this I head back to my room to save before going on, but forget that heading back to my room triggers another scene with mom since I’m supposed to be out buying coffee. I’m not very good at this questing business.
The more we here the more disarming a lot of what we’re seeing is. First we have a dream of people we’ve never known and of someone who’s certain they were always meant to be with us, then we get a program that summons demons, and now our peaceful community has had a murder in it. Kind of hard to think these things aren’t connected.
Kind of sending me some conflicting messages here, mom.
And now we can see the inside of our house, and our basic UI for when we’re walking around the world. Like a traditional dungeoncrawler, we see things from a first person view that mimics a three-dimensional environment. On the bottom of the screen is a display of our party make-up and status; above that is a bar that shows us how close we are to running into a random encounter. When the bar is blue, that means we’re safe; yellow means we’re in danger of running into a random encounter, and red means a random encounter will be coming up in a few steps. This bar wasn’t in the original SNES version of the game, but was added to later versions.
On the top of the screen we have a counter telling us what phase the moon is in, what cardinal direction we’re moving in, and a little box labeled “MAG”, which is short for magnetite, which is important for demon summoning. It and the moon are mechanics that won’t come into play until we’re dealing with demons, so we’ll talk about them then.
Just looking around, we can tell our house is a little bare, but otherwise nice. And since dad doesn’t seem to be in the picture, it really appears to be up to mom to both keep up a job and maintain the place. It’s pretty clear our mom works her butt off to help take care of us. We should remember that with some of the decisions we’ll make later.
Anyway, it’s time to meet the best character in the game.
This is our dog, Pascal, and he owns bones. There are a lot of contenders for greatest video game dog, but they all pale to Pascal.
Anyway, we're not walking him. We have coffee to get.
This is our world map. Unlike most JRPGs of the time, which would tend to have relatively vast fields/wilderness areas that your characters would trek across from town to town, Shin Megami Tensei goes for a more minimalist approach. Most of your activity takes place through different cities and wards of Tokyo(5), so there isn’t much wilderness travel. Rather, you and any random NPCs are represented as these little pointer people who look like pieces straight out of The Game of Life, with basic streets and buildings drawn to show you where you can walk and the buildings you can enter. It’s within these buildings that you’ll encounter actual detail and do most of your adventuring, instead of much massive exploring of the streets, though there is some.
The top left of the screen again shows the phases of the moon, which will come into play when dealing with demons, and the lower right shows us both our encounter meter and which part of Tokyo we’re in.
We’re supposed to head to the mall, which is the large gray building to the right of us, but first lets check in on our neighbors.
That's okay, neighbor who runs a shady practice out of his house. I'll check in on my childhood friend later, you just keep on doing your thing.
If we check one of those little blockades on the streets, we end up running into the five-o. Seems like this murder has everyone rightfully on edge, because they’re not letting anyone in or out of the area until they catch their man.
We head to the mall. Technically, it’s meant to be an arcade with an open air main area and shops scattered about, but the design is one big inside area. Place isn’t much to look at, so we’ll just check out some of the stores, starting with the café.
That’s some…great news. Think it’d be better if you told any of the multitude of cops about it, but thanks for the heads up. I won’t be hanging out around there.
Considering this used to be a place that used to be so calm and quiet, a lot of things are coming unhinged really quickly. We should keep that in mind about the hospital for later. We might have to look into it. Anyway, let’s go get our coffee.
That’s nice of you. Kind of defeats the purpose of me coming here, but hey at least I’m free to goof off for a while! Let’s check out who else is in the café before we head out.
Well this news just keeps getting better and better.
Oh hey it’s you! So it wasn’t just a dream! Wait up a minute, I have so much to ask that I-
Oh. Well. Never mind. Let’s see who else is here.
Did you hear there was a knife wielding maniac behind the drug store?
We’ve talked to all the folks we can in the café, lets check out what other sights there are in the arcade.
UPDATE ONE 3/3 - The Sights and Sounds of Kichijoji
Date: 2015-06-23 06:31 am (UTC)Like any shopping center, we have a survivalist store run by a man terrifyingly paranoid of the end of the world. Not that we can blame him after how our day has gone.
There are four armor slots for the game: head, body, arms/hands, and legs. We’ll be buying a piece of each. Mom told us not to spend our allowance all in one place, but I think she’d be proud of our investment to protect ourselves, considering the knife wielding maniacs and people about babbling about the end of the world.
I’ll be holding you to that. Gotta say, as weird as he was he was a pretty nice guy.
These thugs we run into aren’t though. We better leave them alone for now.
…..Old lamps? Really, you’ve kind of got me there. Maybe this antique store will be worth checking out.
Man: It was creeping me out, though, so I delighted it really soon after. I hear the file’s somehow ending up on people’s computers. Have you checked yours?
Huh. This DDS-Net sure sounds popular, a lot more so than you’d usually think. At least it’s looking like the demon summoning program is ending up in more hands than we would have thought of. We should keep an eye on that.
There’s also a weapon store…or, rather, ‘knife shop’, that we can buy melee weapons from. Unfortunately, we splurged a bit too much on defensive gear to afford something for now. Oh well, maybe later. Know what? While we’re still going, let’s check that antique store out, see what might be up with that. It sounds like it might be more than it seems.
Huh. I guess that other dude was just talking out of his ass. It’s just antiques here, and this guy seems like he’s on the up and up. Nothing more to see here.
Y’know, we were told not to go behind the drug store, but I’m sure that guy is probably gone by now. With how out in force they are the cops must have caught him by now, so let’s go have a look see.
Shit.
You’re not sounding too good there, fella.
Slowly, the man’s body begins to fail, fading out as blood runs down his throat as he slumps to the ground. Behind him…
A demon appears. Our first for the game(6). I could swear that the Aeon Genesis’ fan translation of the SNES original had a line about the Preta tearing the man’s throat out, but its been years since I’ve played that version and I could be wrong. Either way, the demon took care of the local crazy man for us and now he’s gunning for us. Maybe we should have saved enough to get a weapon after all…
Luckily for us, the demon doesn’t really feel like fighting and runs away shortly thereafter. It still actually does about five points of damage to us before it leaves, though. In its wake…
I’ll be taking that, thank you.
Well, it’s been a long day. We’ve heard about murders, met a weird stalker lady who manages to penetrate our dreams, been harassed by thugs, and been attacked by a mad man and a horrible monster, and kind of sort of ran the errand we were out for. I think it’s time to head on home and get some sleep.
Night, mom. We’ll see you tomorrow.
NEXT UPDATE: MORE ADVENTURES IN DREAMS, AND WE MIGHT EVEN FIGHT A DEMON THIS TIME!
UPDATE ONE ANNOTATIONS
Date: 2015-06-23 07:06 am (UTC)That being said, if you don't mind that, let's go.
(1): Demons and deities in Shin Megami Tensei come in several wild, creative forms and depictions. The most powerful beings, however, tend to manifest this way: as a giant, plain human (or humanoid) face. The beings that take this form are usually beings of such power that they would be at their height, even to other demons and gods, incomprehensible if they did not take such a basic form. A recent example of this would be the final boss of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Babel, a technological program harnessing the divine power of the deific name "Bel". However, most often the beings that take this form are the various faces of the premier being in Shin Megami Tensei cosmology: The Great Will.
Truth be told, the exact nature of the Great Will is under debate, as it's only ever referred to twice: the first time in Megami Tensei II, where it's referred to as a conglomeration of divine presences, and in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, where Lucifer refers to it as the true enemy, and even then it's only mentioned by name in an ending available only in the special edition of the game. On top of this, it's often the brief mention in Megami Tensei II that informs us of how we should consider and identify the Great Will and what it is as mentioned in Nocturne, despite the fact that Megami Tensei II is not, as it stands, canon with the Shin series (one could even argue that Megami Tensei II is ultimately a rough draft of Shin Megami Tensei II, as many of the themes and much of the end game are similar, at least to some degree). That being said, it's a wide held fanon, if it isn't exactly strict canon, that the Great Will is an active entity so far beyond the rest of the world that it makes its will known through various deities who bare similar appearances, such as Brahman at the end of Digital Devil Saga 2 or Kagutsuchi at the end of Nocturne.
That being said, the being that has most often materialized itself in this way has been the Judeo-Christian conception of God, the Tetragrammaton (the game itself spells out the Tetragrammaton when referring to God; for the sake of those who might be upset by that, I myself will be referring to Him as Tetragrammaton when brought up). It could, in fact, be inferred from Lucifer's use of the name "Great Will" in Nocturne that he's referring specifically to Tetragrammaton; however, the information that Tetragrammaton Himself states in Megami Tensei II would contradict this.
For the record, though it won't really come up here, the assumption will be that the Great Will is a genuine entity that Tetragrammaton is a part of, but isn't Himself.
(2): The introduction of our two friends here is, in essence, the introduction of the alignment system and what those alignments stand for. The first friend we meet is the one who stands for Law, or the Law Hero.
Law, in the sense that it relates to Shin Megami Tensei, is the desire to ensure that all things run smoothly, perfectly, perpetually. It is the desire to bring about a system that inherently helps the most people so long as it does not compromise the system supporting them. We'll talk about alignments more when the time comes, but in a nutshell the bottom line is that Law is about the promise and assurance of peace and prosperity at the cost of individuality and personal freedom.
Cost is a part of both Law and Chaos, but in the path of Law it most often takes the form of sacrifice. A system promising paradise can't just make itself: it's built by the sacrifices of those who wished to make it. Law promises peace, but it's likely you won't live to see it; if you're lucky, you'll die knowing that you achieved that peace for those to come after you.
Stripping yourself of your own wants and needs to make sure others needs are assured. That's Law.
(3): Chaos, as our friend here demonstrates, can be a similar beast though it has marked differences. If Law is about assuring peace and prosperity, but only for some, Chaos is about allowing for anyone and everyone to have a shot at proving themselves and rising to great heights, so long as they prove they're worthy of it. Chaos takes a Darwinist approach to life, with might making right, and those who prove their might being the ones who should lead and rule. That being said, Chaos isn't just about mayhem and stupid slaughter, although there are adherents who do view it that way; it's intended purpose is to ensure that those who are found in positions of leadership are, in fact, competent and able for said positions.
Law is defined by bureaucracy. Chaos is defined by meritocracy.
That being said, the image of the demon standing atop our friend's back is a fantastic visual representation of Chaos as well: no matter how powerful you are, how strong you are, there is always something stronger than you. Someone or something waiting to crush you back down and, if it can, prove how meager and weak you always were. There's no stability, no rest; only crushing and being crushed in return.
Freedom at the cost of any assurance of stability. That's Chaos.
(4): Those who have played Shin Megami Tensei IV might recognize the name Yuriko. It's even more pronounced if you remember what she looks like.
It isn't coincidental.
(5): Speaking about coincidences and SMT IV's allusions to I, in Shin Megami Tensei you're a young man living in the quiet Tokyo ward of Kichijoji, watching as and trying to stop your town from being overrun by demonic invaders.
In SMT IV, you're a young man from the small town of Kiccigiorgi in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, who's first assignment is to go home and try to help quell the demonic invaders who have overrun your town.
There's very few things that are out and out coincidences in these games, whether they be symbols or referential material.
(6): The first demon we meet, the Preta, are the ghosts of people who were greedy, jealous, or corrupted in some way. While I remember the Aeon Genesis translation as stating the knife wielding man had his throat torn out by the Preta that shows up, it's also possible to construe the scene as the man himself turning into a demon. Pretas are also the first demons that the Demi-Fiend meets, and fights, in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.
In several games they're also massive pricks who like to steal your hard earned cash.