History VideoGame / ShinMegamiTenseiIf

[[quoteright:224:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Smt_if.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:224:Right from the get-go, you know this'll be something different.]]

-->-- ''Shin Megami Tensei if...'' intro.

The game has a cell phone prequel called ''Shin Megami Tensei: if... Hazama's Chapter'', which details Hazama's past and [[spoiler:his rise as the Emperor until it eventually splits into its own take on the ''if...'''s story.]]

-->-- ''Shin Megami Tensei If...'' intro.

''Shin Megami Tensei: If...'' was the third GaidenGame to be spun off from the ShinMegamiTensei franchise (the first being the little-remembered ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''Last Bible'', which came to America as ''Revelations: The Demon Slayer''). The title refers to two things: first is the concept of the game, which is a WhatIf scenario in the SMT universe, namely "what if a school was suddenly thrown into the Demon Realm?" The title and logo are also references to the arthouse British film ''Film/{{If}}'', where the developers seem to have gotten the school concept from (although all similarities really stop there, with one possible [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer exception]]). Sadly, this game will [[NoExportForYou never be released outside of Japan]] due to this, but Aeon Genesis has announced a fan translation of this game is ongoing, [[http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smtif currently at eighty percent completion]]. [[IncrediblyLamePun If you]] can find an English patch available, sound off!

If this sounds [[VideoGame/{{Persona}} just a bit familiar]], it should; many of the concepts introduced in ''If'' would eventually be expanded upon in ''Persona 1'', and the formerly anonymous main character of ''If'' even became a character in the early Persona games, putting Persona in the same continuity as ''If'' and the ''Devil Summoner'' games (which detail what'd happen if people knew about demons ''before'' a certain event in SMT 1, thanks to the events of ''If''). In other words, what started as one GaidenGame ended up dovetailing into a huge AlternateContinuity that has ''eclipsed'' the original Shin Megami Tensei games in popularity.

The game has a cell phone prequel called ''Shin Megami Tensei: If... Hazama's Chapter'', which details Hazama past and [[spoiler:his rise as the Emperor until it eventually splits into its own story.]]

** It gets another one with ''Hazama's Chapter''. [[spoiler: Where Hazama is playable alongside the other human characters.]]
* BigBad: The Demon God Emperor. [[spoiler: Whose true identity is the Zoroastrian Deity Zurvan.]]

* CanonName[=/=]DivergentCharacterEvolution: In ''If'', you are given the option of naming your character, selecting their gender, and more or less defining their personality through gameplay. The ''Persona'' series, however, defines the Protagonist as a fairly upbeat girl named Tamaki Uchida.

* [[LawyerFriendlyCameo Lawyer (Un?)Friendly Logo Cameo]]: Potentially a reason the game has never gotten a Western release; the lettering of the "if" in the game logo is lifted ''directly'' from the [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/If_movieposter.jpg movie of the same name]], and parts of the game concept also seem to borrow heavily from the movie as well (such as the school setting itself and [[spoiler: a major character rebelling and bringing down punishment on the school after [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer constant abuse]] - Malcolm [=McDowell's=] character in ''if....'', and Hazama in ''SMT If'']]).

''Shin Megami Tensei: If...'' was the third GaidenGame to be spun off from the ShinMegamiTensei franchise (the first being the little-remembered ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''Last Bible'', which came to America as ''Revelations: The Demon Slayer''). The title refers to two things: first is the concept of the game, which is a WhatIf scenario in the SMT universe, namely "what if a school was suddenly thrown into the Demon Realm?" The title and logo are also references to the arthouse British film ''Film/{{If}}'', where the developers seem to have gotten the school concept from (although all similarities really stop there, with one possible [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer exception]]). Sadly, this game will [[NoExportForYou never be released outside of Japan]] due to this, but Aeon Genesis has announced a fan translation of this game is ongoing. [[IncrediblyLamePun If you]] can find an English patch available, sound off!

The game begins with your main character (who you can choose the name and gender of, although canonically the Protagonist is a girl named Tamaki) as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent at Karukozaka High School who is just about to go home for the day... and then, suddenly, things go very ''[[ItGotWorse wrong]]''. Your school doesn't seem to be on Earth anymore, demons roam the hallways, and a student named Hazama has gone missing... except he seems to be appearing to you as a kind of astral projection, taunting you. It'll be up to you and a partner of your choosing to get to the bottom of what is going on - and what Hazama may have planned for the school and the world.

* ItGotWorse: Whoever is in control of the Demon World seems to be doing this ''deliberately'' to the poor students of Karukozaka High. [[spoiler:Turns out Hazama is attempting to punish them for what he perceives as each of their sins against both him and society.]]

* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Everyone begins as this. Then [[ItGotWorse stuff happens]].

* EverythingsDeaderwithZombies: Undead students and school faculty appear in the game as enemies. You may also encounter undead dogs outside the school gym.

''Shin Megami Tensei: If...'' was the third GaidenGame to be spun off from the ShinMegamiTensei franchise (the first being the little-remembered ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''Last Bible'', which came to America as ''Revelations: The Demon Slayer''). The title refers to two things: first is the concept of the game, which is a WhatIf scenario in the SMT universe, namely "what if a school was suddenly thrown into the Demon Realm?" The title and logo are also references to the arthouse British film ''Film/{{If}}'', where the developers seem to have gotten the school concept from (although all similarities really stop there, with one possible [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer exception]]). Sadly, this game will [[NoExportForYou never be released outside of Japan]] due to this, but Aeon Genesis has announced a fan translation of this game is ongoing. [[AWorldwidePunomenon If you]] can find an English patch available, sound off!

* WombLevel: Guttony has this as the real boss in the world is a demon within the stomach of the headmaster who now looks like a pig.

** The worlds, in order: [[spoiler:Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy OR Wrath (depending on your partner) and Greed.]]

* CanonName / DivergentCharacterEvolution: In ''If'', you are given the option of naming your character, selecting their gender, and more or less defining their personality through gameplay. The ''Persona'' series, however, defines the Protagonist as a fairly upbeat girl named Tamaki Uchida.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist / ContinuingIsPainful: Dying simply gets you a new Guardian and bounces you back to the start of the current dungeon, which can be good or bad depending on how high your Guardian gauge was and how far in you were.

* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler:Hazama in Reiko's path.]]

** Of course, this isn't just played for laughs: [[spoiler: in Reiko's ending it's revealed that Hazama fell desperately in love with her, but she rejected him as she felt a relationship with him would be wildly inappropriate; this is suggested to be the snapping point at which he decided to open the portal to the Demon World. It's also the reason that she's around to heal you even when bad things happen to all the other students and faculty, though; hurt and emotionally crippled as he is, Hazama can't bring himself to harm Kayama in any way.]]
* ItGotWorse: Whoever is in control of the Demon World seems to be doing this ''deliberately'' to the poor students of Karukozaka High. [[spoiler: Turns out Hazama is attempting to punish them for what he perceives as each of their sins against both him and society.]]

* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: [[spoiler: The Final dungeon in Reiko's Path. There is also SoundtrackDissonance as the Law theme from ShinMegamiTensei 1 and 2 play while you trod through Hazama's mind.]]
* KickTheDog: [[spoiler: Akiko rejected Hazama's love letter and tore it up, badmouthing him to her friends.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In the World of Wrath, [[spoiler: after finding Ryuuichi and Akiko were turned to stone, the villain claims that smashing the stone ''might'' free them. If you don't take the bait, your partner [[ButThouMust does it instead]] -- killing the pair instead of freeing them. Cue {{Evil Laugh}}ter from Hazama and MyGodWhatHaveIDone from your partner.]]

** The worlds, in order: [[spoiler: Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy OR Wrath (depending on your partner) and Greed.]]
* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: Practically everything that happens in Sloth turns out to be pointless, beyond giving you access to the next area.]]

* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler: Ryuuichi and Akiko. If you take the 'Wrath' path, It Gets Worse.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Both Otsuka and Hazama suffer from this in the end, Otsuka welding ever wilder cybernetics to his flesh while Hazama can't believe that he isn't omnipotent in the Demon World. If you have Reiko with you, you get to see all the steps of his breakdown that ''led'' to this whole mess.]]

* WhereItAllBegan: If you take the three SuperNintendo-based SMT titles (SMT 1, SMT 2, and ''If'') as a kind of "trilogy" this applies after a fashion. SMT 1 begins in the dreams of the Protagonist of that game; [[spoiler: the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon of ''If'' is the Mindscape of Hazama, using the same "dream" graphical effect from SMT 1]].

* [[YankTheDogsChain Yank The Dog's Chain]]: Cruelly used in [[spoiler: Sloth, when Hazama declares [[ILied he lied]] about setting free whoever found the ring hidden there.]]

''Shin Megami Tensei: If...'' was the third GaidenGame to be spun off from the ShinMegamiTensei franchise (the first being the little-remembered ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''Last Bible'', which came to America as ''Revelations: The Demon Slayer''). The title refers to two things: first is the concept of the game, which is a WhatIf scenario in the SMT universe, namely "what if a school was suddenly thrown into the Demon Realm?" The title and logo are also references to the arthouse British film ''Film/{{If}}'', where the developers seem to have gotten the school concept from (although all similarities really stop there, with one possible [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer exception]]). Sadly, this game will [[NoExportForYou never be released outside of Japan]] due to this, and there are apparently no active fan-translation groups actively working on the game. [[AWorldwidePunomenon If you]] can find an English patch available, sound off!

* CanonName / DivergentCharacterEvolution: In ''If'', you are given the option of naming your character, selecting their gender, and more or less defining their personality through gameplay. The Persona series, however, defines the Protagonist as a fairly upbeat girl named Tamaki Uchida.

* SamusIsAGirl: After a fashion. Not only was ''If'' the first game in the SMT franchise to offer the option of a female protagonist, the Persona series retroactively made Tamaki the first ''canon'' female protagonist of an SMT game.

* LouisCypher: [[spoiler:Conspicuous only in his ''total absence''. He never shows up to talk, you don't fight him, he isn't TheChessmaster, you can't even fuse him as a bonus demon or anything; he simply isn't in the game ''at all'', making ''If'' one of the tiny handful of SMT games where he doesn't make some kind of appearance. This has caused ''all kinds'' of [[EpilepticTrees guessing]] about certain aspects of the game.]]
** [[spoiler: But he IS avaiable through fusion. At level 99, of course.]]

* WombLevel: Guttony has this as the real boss in the world is a demon within the stomach of a pig like being.

''Shin Megami Tensei: If...'' was the third GaidenGame to be spun off from the ShinMegamiTensei franchise (the first being the little-remembered ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''Last Bible'', which came to America as ''Revelations: The Demon Slayer''). The title refers to two things: first is the concept of the game, which is a WhatIf scenario in the SMT universe, namely "what if a school was suddenly thrown into the Demon Realm?" The title and logo are also references to the arthouse British film [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_(film) if....]], where the developers seem to have gotten the school concept from (although all similarities really stop there, with one possible [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer exception]]). Sadly, this game will [[NoExportForYou never be released outside of Japan]] due to this, and there are apparently no active fan-translation groups actively working on the game. [[AWorldwidePunomenon If you]] can find an English patch available, sound off!

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Smt_if.jpg
[[caption-width:224:Right from the get-go, you know this'll be something different.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Both Otsuka and Hazama suffer from this, in the end, Otsuka welding ever wilder cybernetics to his flesh while Hazama can't believe that he isn't omnipotent in the Demon World. If you have Reiko with you, you get to see all the steps of his breakdown that ''led'' to this whole mess.]]

* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: Played with in the Greed world, where there are about dozen or so chests outside the boss room, [[spoiler:opening none of them gets you a fight with an underleveled fox, taking all of them will force you to fight an overleveled god-like [[MultipleTailedBeast nine-tailed]] {{Kitsune}}, with various forms in-between.]]

* SevenDeadlySins: Sort of. The dungeons are based on a major sin ([[spoiler: these being the punishments Hazama wishes to deal out to those who have "wronged" him]]), but there are only six sins represented. [[spoiler:One could make an argument for the "empty school" being symbolic of Pride and Hazama's mind being Wrath given how pissed he is at everything, but this isn't stated outright.]]

* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind:[[spoiler: The Final dungeon in Reiko's Path. There is also SoundtrackDissonance as the Law theme from ShinMegamiTensei 1 and 2 play while you trod through Hazama's mind.]]

* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: [[spoiler: The Final dungeon in Reiko's Path, There is also SoundtrackDissonance as the Law theme from ShinMegamiTensei 1 and 2 play while you trod through Hazama's mind.]]

Mechanically, the game is built on the engine of ''ShinMegamiTenseiII'', and even recycles a large number of art and musical assets from that title. Dungeons are navigated in a first-person view, demons are negotiated with, and fused in the Cathedral of Shadows. Perhaps the biggest change mechanically is the introduction of the idea of "guardian spirits"; souls of demons that will save you from death and upon entering your body, strengthen it and even give you and your compatriots magical powers.

* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: Played with in the Greed world, where there are about dozen or so chests outside the boss room, [[spoiler:opening none of them gets you a fight with an underleveled fox, taking all of them will force you to fight an overleveled god-like [[MultipleTailedBeast nine-tailed]] ((Kitsune)), with various forms in-between.]]

* AGodAmI - Hazama.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist / ContinuingIsPainful - Dying simply gets you a new Guardian and bounces you back to the start of the current dungeon, which can be good or bad depending on how high your Guardian gauge was and how far in you were.
* DiscOneNuke - Surprisingly, Reiko's starting Guardian has Agilao of all things. Despite the high MP cost, it's extremely useful and will save your ass many times.

* FreudianExcuse - [[spoiler:Hazama in Reiko's path.]]

* {{Jerkass}} - Charlie. He's perfectly happy to screw the whole school over if it means getting home. [[spoiler:Which is ''exactly'' what the two of you do in his ending.]]
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind [[spoiler: The Final dungeon in Reiko's Path, There is also SoundtrackDissonance as the Law theme from ShinMegamiTensei 1 and 2 play while you trod through Hazama's mind.]]

* LouisCypher - [[spoiler:Conspicuous only in his ''total absence''. He never shows up to talk, you don't fight him, he isn't TheChessmaster, you can't even fuse him as a bonus demon or anything; he simply isn't in the game ''at all'', making ''If'' one of the tiny handful of SMT games where he doesn't make some kind of appearance. This has caused ''all kinds'' of [[EpilepticTrees guessing]] about certain aspects of the game.]]

* {{Meganekko}} - Reiko.
* MultipleEndings - Each partner has their own route and ending.

* RecurringBoss - [[spoiler:Professor Otsuki, who keeps rebuilding his body in order to defeat you.]]

* SecretCharacter - [[spoiler:Akira]], whose path becomes available after beating the game.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon - [[spoiler:The last dungeon in Reiko's path is Hazama's ''mind''.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds - [[spoiler:Hazama, as you discover in the last dungeon of Reiko's path.]]