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A couple years ago, my wife and I thought it would be fun to go through all of the Persona games. So, we acquired copies of the 6 of them in one form or another and played through them all. It was innocent enough (heh heh, insert Persona 2: Innocent Sin joke). Until it wasn’t. Contained herein are the continued results of the both of us going “…but what if we went back chronologically and played just one more?” and the rabbit hole of the Shin Megami Tensei universe (abbreviated to SMT from here on) that I fell into.
What is SMT?
Briefly put, SMT began as a somewhat raunchy novel in Japan involving a self-insert power fantasy about a boy who could summon demons on his computer. Ever read “Ready Player 1?” Me neither; it looked terrible. That being said, you can safely imagine the original SMT novel as the 1986 Japanese version of Ready Player 1. …Just with demons. Shutup.
After the novel, two Japanese-only games were published to the Famicom (NES) which would become the beginning of the hit SMT series as we know it today. The franchise in general is known for giving players three paths to walk (Chaos, Neutral and Law) and unapologetically pitting demons, gods, myths and legends against each other in one world-shaping adventure after another that would put the 1990 Christian soccer moms in a frenzy. There’s a reason this series didn’t come to America initially.
Overall however, it is a fascinating set of games that have grown and evolved over the last 25 years into the product we have now. It has my respect for doing so. Each release of the game takes the old and twists it to try something new. Mechanics are improved and honed over time. Rules are added or tossed out. Things are simplified for the better, or made more difficult to increase challenge. And well, the stories are often pretty fun too even if they don’t make the most sense. So please sit back and enjoy one madman’s retrospective play-through of a media franchise with 70+ titles. Mayhap one day I’ll reach the end. (Spoilers, probably not.)
[Speaking of spoilers, there’s going to be fairly major spoilers throughout all of this, so don’t read anything you intend to play, watch or read fresh yourself first.]