Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
alt title(s): Mega Ten 
Translated as True Reincarnation of the Goddess (and also known as simply MegaTen), the twenty-year-old Shin Megami Tensei series by Atlus is one of the greatest JRPG franchises around today, and in Japan its popularity and fame is right up there with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Originally based on a novel called Digital Devil Story, the games tend to involve the use of computers (or similar cyberpunk elements) to summon and control demons that are plucked from practically every mythology on the planet. Post-apocalyptic ruins, engaging and heartbreaking storylines and far-out monster designs are cornerstones of the series.
The main character is usually unable to use magic. To make up for this, he has the ability to talk to demons and recruit them into his own party. The games usually have only a couple human characters in your party, so amassing a small army of demons who can use magic is essential for progress. These demons either don't earn experience points or earn them at an incredibly slow rate, so to create stronger demons in a practical timeframe you have to fuse two or more of your demon allies together, creating a brand new demon.
A huge part of the series is the emphasis on following your own beliefs: "You are the only one who knows what is right." The games generally involve factions based on the alignments of Law and Chaos battling it out for supremacy, and the game gives you complete freedom in deciding which side is "right". If neither side takes your fancy, you can even kick both their butts and declare yourself as supreme ruler. The factions are usually the Christian worldview with a heavy dose of God Is Evil, in what's probably an edgy take on exotic mysticism in Japan but closer to mindless naysaying in the West. At least the later games do more interesting things with the concept.
The games also tend to be Nintendo Hard. Elemental affinities, buffing and debuffing are much more important here than in regular JRPGs: they can make or break battles. In Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, for example, hitting an enemy with an element they were weak against would deal more damage and give you an extra turn. Hitting an enemy with an element they were strong against would cause you to lose all your turns. In a subversion of Useless Useful Spell, instant death and ailment attacks are both effective and encouraged.
The Shin Megami Tensei series has multiple spinoffs: the Persona series, the Devil Summoner series and Digital Devil Saga are the best-known in the US. Others include Majin Tensei, Last Bible, and Devil Children/ Demi Kids. It also has an MMORPG called Shin Megami Tensei: IMAGINE. Despite being spinoffs, many include references to other Megaten games or feature character cameos.
The games have been released outside Japan under the Shin Megami Tensei label since Nocturne, while in Japan only three of the games bear that name; the rest are unofficially known as MegaTen titles.
The latest entry into the series, Shin Megami Tensei:Strange Journey ditches the Tokyo setting for one set on the south pole, in a dimension known as the " Schwarzwelt".
A very extensive article about the games in the series can be found here: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/megaten/megaten.htm
There's a comprehensive database of all the games, but it's in French only: http://shindds.free.fr/index.php
Games with their own articles:
The massive character sheet is under construction here.
Examples: This section is for universal tropes related to the series as a whole. Please place tropes related to specific games in their own article, if it exists.
- All Myths Are True
- Alternate Continuity - No less than three major continuities currently running:
- First is the "main" SMT continuity, going SMT 1- Imagine - SMT 2 - Nocturne, and Strange Journey may hook into that (as it's one of the few titles in Japan to have the actual SMT name attached to it, see Market Based Title below), although it's not yet totally clear if that's true.
- Then, thanks to the What If in Shin Megami Tensei If, you get the Devil Summoner/Persona branch, which absolutely includes the aforementioned If, all four Devil Summoner games (original DS, Soul Hackers, and both Raidou games), has a 98% chance of including Persona and Persona 2 (If's main character makes a direct appearance in both, working for the detective agency from the Devil Summoner games), and a somewhat muddier chance of including Persona 3 and Persona 4 (and the nearly-inevitable Persona 5 direct sequel). If the latter Personas are not in the Devil Summoner continuity, they form their own universe (arguably the most successful one thus far).
- Digital Devil Saga stands more or less on its own ( although there are some hints that it may be the same world as SMT 2). Devil Survivor also seems to be intended as a seed for another offshoot continuity, although currently it is only one game.
- Then there's a couple of "dead" continuities (that Westerners don't need to worry about for the most part): the original Megami Tensei continuity, which was the novels and the games adapted from them; the Majin Tensei strategy games; the Devil Children/DemiKids continuity of Pokemon-like kid-friendly Mons games; and the Last Bible series of Dragon Quest-esque games, only one of which ever came to America (as they are all of somewhat debatable quality). Most of these sub-franchises haven't seen a title released in over a decade (Devil Survivor, in fact, seems intended as a Spiritual Successor to Majin Tensei, using the lessons learned from the later Persona games); the last Devil Children game, Messiah Riser, was released in 2004 and Atlus dropped the franchise like a hot potato afterward. Very few of these games were really that good (aside from maybe Majin Tensei) and their continuities don't really cross over into the "big" SMT/Persona continuities, so new fans don't need to pay them much mind. (Given how tangled things are already, this is a bit of a mercy.)
- There's also a few one-shots like Shin Megami Tensei NINE (not actually the ninth game of the franchise) and Giten Megami Tensei, but by general agreement we don't really talk about these.
- Then there's references to the main SMT games when you go time-hopping in the Raidou Kuzunoha games, except we know that something is different about its history since the Taisho era went at least five years longer than it was supposed to. Rasputin was sent to fix that, but apparently decided not to.
- Amnesiac Dissonance - Zain in Shin Megami Tensei II, Serph in Digital Devil Saga 2.
- Armless Biped - The recurring demon Take-Minakata.
- Ars Goetia - Mined extensively as a source of demons ever since Shin Megami Tensei I at the very least.
- Artifact Title
- Artificial Human - Every single main character in Shin Megami Tensei II, everyone in Digital Devil Saga. Aigis in Persona 3 is also said to have some sort of human consciousness, which is necessary to summon a Persona. Naturally this spawns shaking sproutlings about just how that was accomplished, since she was built during the tenure of Mitsuru's grandpa, who is not exactly noted for being a humanitarian . The Devil Summoner games have Rasputin, who's some kind of android or cyborg. Either way, he can summon demons as well as any human.
- As Long As There Is Evil - Try as you might, as long as at least one person believes in him as a god, YHVH can never be destroyed.
- Nor can you truly destroy Nyarlathotep, Nyx, Erebus, Izanami, or Shinato ; their existence come from weakness in the human heart. Sort of like YHVH, really, except applied to Eldritch Abominations instead.
- In a minor subversion of the trope, Izanami (and her offshot, Ame-no-Sagiri) say they'll be able to recorporate but concede the philosophical point to the heroes and agree to stop their plans for the time being after getting their asses kicked in royal fashion. And then there's Shinato, who basically decides he's underestimated humanity after you give him a sound thrashing, and changes his mind about punishing the world for its lack of faith. Shin Megami Tensei: you can't destroy evil, but you can apparently punch it into submission!
- Bittersweet Ending - A lot of the games have your best friends undergo Evil Makeovers, forcing you to kill them. Actually, most games in the franchise have one of these, to the point where people were genuinely surprised that Persona 4 had a completely happy ending.
- Bonus Boss - Lucifer in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne and Raidou Kuzunoha Vs King Abaddon, The Demi-Fiend in Digital Devil Saga, Satan in Digital Devil Saga 2, Elizabeth in Persona 3 and Margaret in Persona 4. Each one requires an absolute understanding and mastery of the gameplay mechanics, and even then there's a degree of luck involved.
- Bonus Level Of Hell
- Bottomless Bladder - Even the few games where you can use the restroom are not mandatory - you could play the entirety of, say, Persona 3 without ever going once. Poor Minato.
- Which makes Persona 4's resident Butt Monkey, Yosuke, having to use the bathroom in high-stress situations even funnier.
- Persona 3 and 4 are notable in deftly working around this trope, as well; while things like eating or bathroom usage are never mandatory per se, the "segments of a typical day" style of gameplay, with visual transitions between parts of the day, leave room for things like eating, waste excretion, etc., and you even go to bed at home (almost) every night. A lot of Social Links and plot segments have scenes over meals and the like, too, giving the world of both games a very realistic feel.
- Bragging Rights Reward - The Pierce skill in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, the Amala Ring in Digital Devil Saga, the Magatama Ammo in Digital Devil Saga 2, the ultimate Persona in Persona 4. The Demi-Fiend especially has infamously been called the most difficult JRPG hidden boss ever by many seasoned gamers.
- Call Back - Quite a few demons in later games were major characters in earlier ones. A major example is Alice, who shows up in the Persona series. Complete with a skill called "Die For Me!"
- Cast From Hit Points - Physical attacks cost HP to use.
- Character Magnetic Team
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe - In Persona 2, rumors become reality.
- Colon Cancer - :if..., :IMAGINE, :LAST BIBLE, :Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. _____, etc.
- Color Coded For Your Convenience - Law is blue and white; Chaos is red and black.
- Combination Attack - In Digital Devil Saga 2, Persona 2 and Persona 3.
- Cute Monster Girl - Majority of the female demons. Not all of them, though.
- The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard - And how! Generally shows up in two ways:
- Council Of Angels - Notable in that, from SMT 2 onward, they practically become the cosmic Butt Monkies of the franchise; in SMT 2 they're basically abandoned by God and are running Tokyo Millennium in a hilariously inept fashion and orchestrated the creation of the Messiah and crew in the first place, which blew up in their faces when Aleph carved their shit in; then, in Digital Devil Saga 2, they show up as bonus bosses - talking about the events of SMT 2, no less - except that now they've been put into mutated human bodies and hunger for the blood and flesh of man just like any other demon. You'd think they'd give the Big Man the finger after all that.
- This is, of course, played straight in SMT 1, where they become quite powerful allies if you're on the Law path, and attempt to stop you if you're on any other path; Seraph Michael serves as the game's penultimate, hardest boss in that case. Also played perfectly straight in Devil Survivor, where the top Angels and the Big Man himself are far less assholish than franchise standard and will help you out unless you're on on the blatantly evil/chaotic routes.
- Creepy Child - Louis Cypher in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, and Pharos in Persona 3.
- Crossover: Dante shows up in Nocturne... and promptly attempts to kick your ass. Later on, though, you can talk him into signing on with you. In the Updated Rerelease of Nocturne, Raidou Kuzunoha appears instead, for all kinds of continuity wackiness.
- Crossover Cosmology: Sure, you can summon Joan of Arc, Kali, Amaterasu, and Quetzalcoatl to beat the crap out of Lucifer, Loki, a Vampire, and Ra.
- In Raidou Kuzunoha Vs King Abaddon, bring an Asura into battle against a Mahakala. They'll have an interesting discussion about the fact that they're the same god, just from two different eras, then agree to fight it out to determine which is more deserving.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome - Go check
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Degraded Boss
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu - Played straight in some, subverted in others.
- Hell, Cthulhu itself is usually a Random Encounter, so you get to punch it out repeatedly!
- Doppelganger Spin - Used in both Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne (where you can use the shadow cast by a full moon to suss out the real one and Digital Devil Saga (which you can suss out the real one with the help of your Waif Prophet).
- In Persona 2, you can do this by attempting to run. The camera will then FOCUS ON THE REAL ONE as she taunts you. Oops...
- Enemy Within - In Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, the timid Hitomi gets possessed by demonic Dark Action Girl Nemissa, and they immediately go on a shopping spree for black leather. In Raidou Kuzunoha Vs The Soulless Army, Kaya is cursed to be possessed by a demon, but actually gets taken over by a future Raidou Kuzunoha from the SMT timeline. Happens somewhat more literally in Persona 3 with the members of Strega; if they don't take inhibitor drugs, they'll lose control of their Personas. What this would entail is demonstrated by Chidori about halfway through the game, wherein her Persona attempts to strangle her during withdrawl.
- End Of The World Special
- Everything Trying To Kill You
- Eviler Than Thou - All three "main" Shin Megami Tensei games have everyone trying to one-up each other.
- Evil Makeover - Word of advice: don't get too attached to anyone.
- Fan Nickname - The protagonists of Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha Vs The Soulless Army, Nocturne, Persona, Persona 3, and Persona 4 are nameless in the game, but fans often use the names given to the characters in various manga and drama CD's based off the games.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink
- Gag Penis - Used frequently in many of the demons. The Buddhist demon Mara is a giant penis on a golden carriage. Also, Cthulhu in this game is a green squid with a totally human penis sticking out from under the tentacles. Really.
- When this troper saw Cthulhu she could've sworn that wasn't just a penis. It was a tongue penis.
- Isn't there an incubus demon with a very prominent appendage, too?
- Arioch. Oh God, so horrible. More of a Gag Vag, though.
- Gateless Ghetto
- Global Currency - Macca in most of them, usually games not set in modern day Japan.
- God - Shows up in Shin Megami Tensei II as the final boss, (arguably) again in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne as the final boss and in Digital Devil Saga 2 as, again, the final boss. See directly below.
- God Is Evil - Though the creators have said that he's not the "ultimate source of evil", having him as the final boss in more than one game tends to raise a few eyebrows.
- Indeed, many of the game seem to indicate that Lucifer / Chaos is the best choice to make, since almost always YHWH and the angels have the policy of Kill Em All and start over whenever things look like they're getting out of hand. Even when you kill God, he usually gives a speech along the lines of "As long as humanity is too weak to look for their own answers, their weakness will create a belief in me that brings me back to life again and again and again! MWAHAHAAH!"
- At least in the games for SNES (in which the Law-Neutral-Chaos system possibly plays the most prominent role) Chaos is not shown as the best choice. For example, in the original Shin Megami Tensei many traditionally heroic choices (choosing to give money to the beggar, choosing to spare the life of local dictator after defeating him and his demon in battle, choosing to save the female protagonist in the dream despite the apparent risks posed by armed guards) tend to be considered Lawful decisions. Also, one of the downsides of pure Chaos is the possibility of sufficiently strong and ruthless individual/party becoming an oppressor (as shown in the case of Ozawa in the world After The End). Ironically, the whole "might makes right" issue may be one of the main reasons behind YHVH's position in the continuity of Shin Megami Tensei I-II and Shin Megami Tensei: IMAGINE. Also, the depiction of Lucifer in Nocturne/Lucifer's Call may be too ambiguous to be considered either the best or the worst possible choice. It may be that the only game in the series where Lucifer is shown clearly in the positive light is the second game in the series, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II *
(while in the direct romanization of the Japanese title "Story" would be replaced with "Monogatari", it seems that "Story" is the official choice of word when writing the title in the Latin/Roman alphabet) for Famicom/NES.
- It's also worth noting that ever since the franchise started picking up lots of steam in America (to the point that Persona games sell nearly as well in the States as they do in Japan), this has been dialed back significantly with every successive game since Nocturne, to the point that in the recent Devil Survivor, God and his top angels are actually decidedly in the protagonist's camp (unless he decides to become a demon lord himself or just tries to run away from his responsibilities). The rest of the angels are still massive asshats, but Remiel and Metatron (and by extension, their boss) are far more supportive of the player and genuinely want what's best for humanity. This is all presumably to better match up with the Western view of God not being a ceaseless jerk.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: The demons, angels, monsters, and spirits only exist in many of the games because people remember and believe in them. Oddly, if the supernatural creatures believe hard enough, they create fake duplicates of other supernatural entities.
- The Persona games use this to explain why various incarnations of death and madness are ready to end the world... they're doing it because humanity (or sometimes a few select individuals) secretly wants them to. If not for that, those Eldritch Abominations would be completely harmless.
- Good Is Boring
- Hello Insert Name Here - Most of the protagonists in the series are nameless until you name them.
- Heroic Mime - The main protagonists are almost always one of these. Which made Persona 2 quite entertaining considering that the protagonists of Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment only have dialogue in the game they're not starring in.
- Holy Hand Grenade
- Horsemen Of The Apocalypse - In Raidou Kuzunoha Vs King Abaddon, you help unseal them, then beat them, then can summon them yourself. In Nocturne, they're optional bosses and later, special fusions. It's justified fairly well in the case of Nocturne - after all, you are in the midst of the actual Apocalypse.
- Hot Skitty On Wailord Action - Though it's technically fusion.
- Ho Yay - Meet Persona. Hell, meet Nocturne. If it's Mega Ten, there's porn of it. Usually in this variety.
- Incredibly Lame Pun - Ja-aku Frost (Woolseyed but Lost In Translation as Black Frost), the black Jack Frost. "Ja-aku" (邪悪) means "evil" and also a romanization of Jack.
- Infallible Babble - Becomes an actual plot point in Persona 2, where spreading rumors actually causes those rumors to become reality.
- Intercontinuity Crossover - Quite a few games have overtly featured characters from a different continuity in a major role.
- Its All Upstairs From Here - In almost every single game
- Jesus Taboo - For it's use of nearly every mythological character, the closest the series gets to Jesus is in Persona 3 as an amalgam of concept of The Messiah as a whole. Admittedly YHVH and his dragon lean closer to the view Judaism has on the two (except for the "evil" bit).
- Karma Meter - "Your mother has been possessed by a demon and pleads with you to end her suffering. Do you kill her?"
- Lawyer Friendly Cameo - Jack Frost in other series. In SMT 2, "Mr. Thriller" aka Michael Jackson can be met dancing in a disco and talking about how much he loves toys and children.
- In the first 2 Shin Megami Tensei games, you're given the Demon Summoning Program by a wheelchair-bound man with glasses and gray hair. He calls himself "Steven". Any resemblance to a famous scientist is surely coincidental.
- Lighter And Softer - The Devil Children spinoff franchise. Most demons, gods, and spirits are redesigned to be more Kawaii and marketable to kids. For instance, Scylla is, instead of a sea monster with the heads of dogs attatched, a cute little girl walking a bunch of puppies.
- It does not make them any easier.
- Limited Move Arsenal - Of the second type, with the exception of Digital Devil Saga, which uses the first.
- Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards: Magic attacks are generally much more useful than Physical attacks in the newer SMT games, due to the Press Turn system, which awards extra turns to the attacker if the attack exploits an elemental weakness. Few enemies are weak to Physical damage.
- Louis Cypher - Shows up in all three "main" Shin Megami Tensei games, and Raidou Kuzunoha Vs King Abaddon.
- Make A Better World - Persona 2: Innocent Sin (though it doesn't exactly work, setting up the sequel) and the entire point of Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne (though the definition of "better" varies from faction to faction).
- Market Based Title - In the West, from Nocturne onwards the games have been branded under the Shin Megami Tensei label. In Japan, though every game is considered a MegaTen title they aren't marketed as such.
- In the series' first Western push in the mid-90s, the SMT title was replaced with "Revelations" (from the section of the Bible of the same name), as in "Revelations: Persona" in an attempt to try and find an English word that would carry the same impact as SMT does for Japanese people. After Persona took a lot of flack for its somewhat Macekre'd localization, however, the series fell off the radar for a few years before abandoning the Revelations name with Persona 2 and adopting the proper SMT name with Nocturne.
- Mascot Mook - Jack Frost. He's even the official mascot of Atlus itself, making this a literal example of the trope.
- Mechanical Lifeforms
- Metal Slime - The Omoikane in Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2.
- Mons - A Darker And Edgier occult take on Mons. Devil Survivor in particular.
- It may also be the original monster-collecting based videogame series, making it Pokemon's Grandpa.
- It "may" be? Pokemon Red and Blue (and Green, too) came out on the Game Boy in 1996. Which means that Shin Megami Tensei is at least four years older, if the release of Shin Megami Tensei I is any indication, not even counting any of the Megami Tensei games that came before it; if the games before Shin Megami Tensei are taken into account, the entire series is nine years older.
- Multiple Endings - Many of the games change the ending based on factors such as your alignment or other choices you made in the plot.
- The Multiverse - Nocturne mentions in the bonus dungeon that the current game's world is just one out of billions of possibilities due to the world constantly being destroyed and remade. These other worlds may be the various sub series.
- There are other hints at this as well, such as the seraphs showing up in Digital Devil Saga 2... and explicitly talking about the events of SMT 2 (granted, this went over the heads of many new fans of the franchise) or Raidou Kuzunoha being referenced directly in Persona 4. Never mind Hiriji in general in Nocturne - they never come out and say it directly but there's a lot of implication that he's SMT 2's deicide-riffic hero.
- Naturally, this all leads to lots of Epileptic Trees about just how the multiverse fits together and what could be coming next. The Persona universe, for example, is rather overdue for seraphs and Messian/Law asshats at this point, since they've already conquered Chaos and the two negative sides of Neutrality in Nihil-As-Death and Nihil-As-Ignorance.
- Then, of course, there's the chance that all this craziness may be occurring in the same universe as Devil May Cry, courtesy of Nocturne. With Dante's replacement by Raidou in the newest re-release of Nocturne, though, the canonicity of Dante's appearance is somewhat questionable.
- Nakama - "We're comrades"
- This trope becomes a major plot point and gameplay element for the third and fourth Persona games. Making friends gives you actual power.
- Nightmare Fuel
- Nintendo Hard - These games have been known to make players cry.
- Numbered Sequels - With the Devil Summoner franchise being the only exception.
- Nurse Jenny
- Oddly Named Sequel
- Older Than They Think - Pokemon: Shin Megami Tensei without the demons or apocalypses.
- One Game For The Price Of Two - The Devil Children (Demi Kids for the two that came to the US) games. Also, Digital Devil Saga comes in two parts. Same with Persona 2.
- Persona 2 somewhat averts this in the U.S. in that the only one that came westside was the second one, Eternal Punishment.
- Order Versus Chaos
- Orochi - Usually a major boss in some of the games and is possible to fuse after beating him.
- Point Of No Return - Annoyingly done in the first few games; more modern games tend to be more forgiving.
- While annoying, it's done with style twice in SMT 1: the first time is when "Ambassador Thorman" nukes the hell out of Tokyo and your hero is sent to a corner of the Abyss to survive until he can return; the second time is when the Mesians flood the ruins of Tokyo to wash away all sin and coincidentally trap you in the massive final dungeon. Sadly, none of the other games that feature a Point Of No Return managed to pull it off with quite the same panache.
- Powers As Programs
- Psychotic Smirk - Tatsuya Sudou, a.k.a. King Leo in Persona 2: Innocent Sin and JOKER in the sequel Eternal Punishment.
- Rage Against The Heavens
- Refuge In Audacity - With Mara being one of the more blatant examples.
- Satan - Shows up in Shin Megami Tensei II and Digital Devil Saga 2, and as the most powerful Judgement-class Persona in the Persona series. There are often several different forms of the same character represented as well, either as a single shifting boss or as multiple demons.
- Satan Is Good - Second game.
- Sequel First - Jack Bros. an obscure Virtual Boy Gauntlet clone spin off, was the first game in the series to be come to the US.
- Shout Out - The games often make sly references to other parts of the meta-series. There are a couple of summonable monsters that are directly taken other works as well, namely Audrey, Betleguise, Chris the Car, and the Old One, Chthulu, and Nylarhoptep. As well as some more obscure ones, like a reference to "Thomas the Tank" as a hero in the second game.
- Summon Magic - The Personas in the Persona series, Naomi's spells in Soul Hackers.
- Summoning Ritual
- Superlative Dubbing - Always a bit subjective, but with both of the Digital Devil Saga games, Persona 3 and Persona 4 getting noted in major reviews for having excellent voicework, the franchise is beginning to pick up something of a reputation for this.
- This is so prominent for Atlus USA that the release of the Persona 1 remake had full voice in all cutscenes when the Japanese release only had text, seemingly because people have come to expect excellent voicework from the franchise.
- Talking The Monster To Death - The standard method of recruitment in MegaTen games, though bribery, flattery and sometimes even dancing can play a part.
- Tarot Motifs - The Persona series, where every Persona has one of the Major Arcana associated with them, which dictates how well each character can use its abilities.
- In Persona and Persona 2, there are even a handful associated with the minor arcana.
- That One Boss: Matador and Mot in Nocturne, the golden metal trio in Persona 2, Intrepid Knight in Persona 3, anyone in Digital Devil Saga with the second boss theme and probably a few more. Of course, if you don't use all of the options that are available to you like ailment inducing ammo, buff and debuff skills, buff and debuff cancelling skill, healing skills, elemental and ailments immunity to at least some of the bosses attacks,, then expect lot of bosses to suddenly turn into Nintendo Hard That One Boss. You know what, let's just tell you we have ThatOneBoss/Atlus (where Shin Megami Tensei makes up most of the article) and leave it at that.
- There Can Be Only One
- The End Of The World As We Know It - If the world hasn't already ended before the game started, then it's about to.
- The Fair Folk - Many demons have their designs based on these, as well as their personalities. Shin Megami Tensei games like to remind you every so often that you are definitely not dealing with human beings.
- The Power Of Friendship - Especially prevalent in the later Persona games.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon - The best example of this: the final dungeon of Digital Devil Saga 2 takes place in The Sun.
- Timed Mission - Two of the three Towers in Persona 's Snow Queen Quest.
- Turns Red - Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga have this in the form of a move (Dragon Eye) that gives the enemy four additional half-actions. For the most part, only bosses have it, and you can't learn it.
- Uncanny Valley - Part of the series' aesthetic. While it remains distinctly anime, the characters tend to share the same grayish skin color and nearly all share the distinctive eye design.
- This was noticeably absent in Devil Survivor, that used a more animesque, cartoony style, that severely contrasted with all the High Octane Nightmare Fuel of the game.
- This effect was aggravated even more in the U.S. releases of most of the Mega Ten games (particularly the Persona games) in that every character had their skin color lightened to a nearly frighteningly pale color. oddly enough, this effect seems to have stuck even in the Japanese releases...
- The first two Persona games were the only ones released with an altered skin color, in order to have more appeal to the American audience. The recent pale look is just Kazuma Kaneko's updated style, since he's switched from coloring his art with ink/marker to using computer illustration programs.
- Useless Useful Spell - Completely and utterly averted. Debuff/buff abilities can determine whether you win or lose a fight and the instant death spells are actually damn useful.
- In fact, if your enemy happens to be weak to death/expel, the various death spells are pretty much a guaranteed kill (and are in fact the easiest way to kill certain otherwise-nigh-invincible mooks). Otherwise you still get a 1-in-3 hit rate that you can boost.
- Values Dissonance - The ratings for each game vary greatly by the region. Nocturne (Lucifers Call) and vanilla Persona 3 have significant gaps between the PEGI (12+) and ESRB (17+) rating alone.
- Verbal Tic - A number of demons exhibit distinct speech characteristics: some are intelligent and eloquent, others are thuggish and direct, some SPEAK IN ALL CAPS and some in ToRGo sPEeCh. And then there's the ver-hee recognizable speech pattern of Jack Frost and his fell-ho Jacks and Frosts, hee-ho!
- Visual Pun - Many of the demons and monsters in this series have designs in this manner.
- The most infamous one is Mara.
- We Cannot Go On Without You - A frustratingly high number of these games will give you a game over if your main character gets knocked out, regardless of whether this should make sense in all of them or not. Mudo and Hama spells are particularly devastating in that respect as some of the games give the player almost no recourse against them early on.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic
- What If - Literally embodied a game called Shin Megami Tensei If. Beyond that, the Devil Summoner series is also based around a What If - one which ties into the aforementioned game, which represents the branching point that leads to either the Devil Summoner/Persona continuity or main-series Shin Megami Tensei. If presents a what-if question... and Devil Summoner is the answer to it. On top of all this, the Raidou Kuzunoha prequel games in the Devil Summoner line provide a historical What If scenario, hinging, at least in part, on the Taisho period lasting longer than it did in our world.
- What Is This Thing You Call Love - Digital Devil Saga
- World Of Silence - Traditional goal of Law. In Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne Hikawa (who caused the world to get so screwed up and become the Vortex World in the first place according to Lucifer) and his Reason of Shijima takes this role. In Persona 4 this is the kind of world Izanami thinks the apathetic humans want.
- Yin Yang Bomb (The entire point of Devil Children: Book of Light and Book of Dark for the GBA)
|
|
