History VideoGame / ShinMegamiTenseiIf

** If you take the three UsefulNotes/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]].

* ForWantOfANail: Arguably the game itself. What started as a simple WhatIf game would later create Atlus' [[Franchise/{{Persona}} most successful franchise]] yet, with said franchise's popularity even ''eclipsing'' the mainline ''Shin Megami Tensei'''s popularity.

* WhatIf: The entire concept of the game. Atlus probably didn't anticipate [[CashCowFranchise what]] this would all [[Franchise/{{Persona}} lead to]] when first making the game.

* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: Played with in the Domain of Greed, 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.]]

* {{Meganekko}}: Reiko.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Chefei draws her power from greed, but should you open all the treasure chests from the previous room, she will feel disgusted at the protagonist's extreme greed and deem them as hopeless (despite having reached her most powerful form thanks to them).

* EvilOverlordList: [[spoiler: Hazama runs into a whole bunch of these over the course of the game; this all springs, naturally, from the fact that he's a high-school kid who ''thinks'' he should be a Demon Emperor and doesn't really have the first clue how such a being should ''actually act''. (Contrast against [[LouisCypher a certain other well-known king of the Abyss in the same franchise]].)]]

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

''Shin Megami Tensei: if...'' was the third GaidenGame to be spun off from the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' franchise (the first being ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''VideoGame/LastBible'', 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 was [[NoExportForYou never released outside of Japan]], but Aeon Genesis has announced a fan translation of this game, which was released on October 25th, 2018.

After many years, the game finally got an English fan-translation, which can be obtained [[https://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smtif here.]]

There's a one volume manga adaptation of the game released in Japan. However, it's been translated by fans outside of Japanese.

* AGodAmI: Hazama.

* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler:The protagonist at the end of Yumi and Reiko's routes, as well as Yumi on her route. After defeating Hazama and returning to the real world, their level(s) return to 1, they lose their Guardians, their equpiment, their items, and most of their macca and Magnetite. Additionally, in Reiko's route, while leaving Hazama's DreamWorld upon its collapse, Reiko tells the protagonist to release all the demons they've recruited thus far.]]

* SoleSurvivor: In Charlie and Akira's routes, [[spoiler:the protagonist is the only one to escape Karukozaka High School alive (joined by Charlie in the former)]].

* [[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.]]

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: [[spoiler: Professor Otsuki, in increasing levels of hilarity and tragedy.]]

** In the Lust dungeon, if you have a female partner (namely, [[TheBigGuy Yumi]] or [[OnlySaneMan Reiko]]) then they will leave the group to chase a beautiful male demon.

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

* 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.]]

''the school thrown into another world?''

* WhatIf: The entire concept of the game. Atlus probably didn't anticipate [[CashCowFranchise what this would all]] [[VideoGame/{{Persona}} lead to]] when first making the game.

** In a meta-example, ''If'' serves as this for the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' franchise, as many elements from ''If'' would later be expanded in the original ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' game, essentially making ''If'' the cornerstone of an ''entire'' AlternateContinuity.

If this sounds [[Franchise/{{Persona}} just a bit familiar]], it should; many of the concepts introduced in ''if...'' would eventually be expanded upon in the original ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'', 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 would have happened 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.

If this sounds [[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona just a bit familiar]], it should; many of the concepts introduced in ''if...'' would eventually be expanded upon in the original ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'', 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 would have happened 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.

* AlternateContinuity: Infamous for spawning [[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona a continuity]] that would end up ''eclipsing'' its "mother" franchise in popularity and profitability.

* ForWantOfANail: Arguably the game itself. What started as a simple WhatIf game would later create Atlus' [[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona most successful franchise]] yet, with said franchise's popularity even ''eclipsing'' the mainline ''Shin Megami Tensei'''s popularity.

** In a meta-example, ''If'' serves as this for the ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'' franchise, as many elements from ''If'' would later be expanded in the original ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' game, essentially making ''If'' the cornerstone of an ''entire'' AlternateContinuity.

''Shin Megami Tensei: if...'' was the third GaidenGame to be spun off from the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' franchise (the first being ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''VideoGame/LastBible'', 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, which was released on October 25th, 2018.

** First off, HP values. As a consequence of running in the same engine as ''VideoGame/Shin Megami Tensei II'', the game makes it so that male characters have naturally higher HP than female characters even when they have literally the same stats. This wasn't a problem in ''II'' as you had a male protagonist that couldn't use magic and a female companion that could, so having more HP than your companion was a way of balancing. In this game however, the protagonist's gender can be selected but if you play as a female you'll STILL have less HP than the male protagonist and no other benefit. And to top it all off, the game's code doesn't only run with "males have more HP than females", but also with "protagonist has more HP than the companion", so even your partner will have more HP if you play as male than if you play as female.

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

* 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.]]

* 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.

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.]]

* HelloNurse: Hellooooooo, Miss Kayama! [[HospitalHottie She's actually a nurse, to boot!]] 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.]]

* ActionGirl[=/=]AmazonBrigade: Tamaki, Reiko and Yumi are the game's most prominent female characters, and are all badass.

* 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.

* HelloNurse: Hellooooooo, Miss Kayama!
** HospitalHottie: She's actually a nurse, to boot!
** 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.]]

* [[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 [[https://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...'']]).

* PurelyAestheticGender: Averted. The female protagonist and partners have much lower HP growths than male characters, though putting enough points into Strength and Stamina can alleviate this problem. And depending on the sex you choose at the beginning of the game for the protagonist as well as how they score on the personality test they'll be given a different lineage of guardians.
** In the Lust dungeon, if you have a female partner (namely, [[TheBigGuy Yu]][[TheChick mi]] or [[OnlySaneMan Re]][[TheSmartGuy iko]]) then they will leave the group to chase a beautiful male demon.

* 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.]]
** The worlds, in order: [[spoiler:Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy OR Wrath (depending on your partner) and Greed.]] The absent sin, [[spoiler:Lust]], could potentially be represented by [[spoiler:Hazama himself, as his feelings towards both Akiko and Miss Kayama being rejected helped drive him into unleashing the Demon World.]]

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

* WhereItAllBegan: If you take the three UsefulNotes/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]].