Megami Tensei, known internationally as Shin Megami Tensei (previously called Revelations), is a Japanese video game series created by Aya Nishitani, Kouji "Cozy" Okada, Ginichiro Suzuki, and Kazunari Suzuki. The series is mainly developed and published by Atlus. It includes several subseries and covers different types of role-playing games, such as tactical role-playing, action role-playing, and online games where many players join together. The first two games were published by Namco (now Bandai Namco Entertainment), but Atlus has published most games in Japan and North America since the release of Shin Megami Tensei. In Europe, Atlus works with other companies to publish the games.
The series began as a science fiction novel series called Digital Devil Story, written by Aya Nishitani. The name "Megami Tensei" comes from the subtitle of the first book. Most games in the series are separate stories with their own characters. Common features include story choices that affect the plot, the ability to fight and recruit creatures (such as demons or Personas) in battles, and themes from philosophy, religion, mystical beliefs, and science fiction.
Although not as well-known as series like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, Megami Tensei is very popular in Japan and has a strong fan base in the West. It is praised for its artwork, challenging gameplay, and music but has also faced criticism for its mature content, dark themes, and use of Christian religious symbols. Other media related to the series include manga, anime films, and television shows.
In Japan, some games in the series do not use the "Megami Tensei" name, such as the Persona subseries. Early games were not translated into English due to potentially controversial content, such as religious references, and later because of their age. Since the 2004 release of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, English versions of the games have used the name "Shin Megami Tensei."
Titles
The first game in the franchise, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, was released on September 11, 1987. Most later games are not connected to each other, except for shared themes and gameplay ideas. The Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei games form the main series, while other series like Persona, Devil Children, and Devil Summoner are side series that are part of the franchise. Some games are completely separate from the main series.
Two games were released for the Famicom: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei in 1987 and Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II in 1990. These games have different stories and introduced the basic gameplay and story ideas that became important for the series. Three games were released for the Super Famicom: Shin Megami Tensei in 1992, Shin Megami Tensei II in 1994, and Shin Megami Tensei If… in the same year.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2. A special version called the Maniax Edition was released in 2004 in Japan and North America, and in 2005 in Europe. The number "III" was removed for the North American release, and the title became Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call in Europe. Shin Megami Tensei IV for the Nintendo 3DS was released in 2013 in Japan and North America, and in 2014 in Europe as a digital-only game. Another game in the same universe, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, was released for the 3DS in Japan in February 2016. Shin Megami Tensei V was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021. An improved version, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, was released in June 2024 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Other games in the franchise include side series. Shin Megami Tensei: Nine was released for the Xbox in 2002. It was originally planned as a multiplayer online game but was later split into a single-player and multiplayer version. The multiplayer version was delayed and eventually canceled. Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine, a true multiplayer online game, was released for Microsoft Windows in 2007 in Japan, 2008 in North America, and 2009 in Europe. The Western version was shut down in 2014. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey was released for the Nintendo DS in 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America. Its Japanese service ended in 2016. A smartphone game, Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2, was released in 2018.
The Persona series is the most popular side series from Megami Tensei. The first Persona game, Megami Ibunroku Persona (originally called Revelations: Persona), was released in 1996 in Japan and North America. Persona 2: Innocent Sin was released in 1999 in Japan, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment was released in 2000 in Japan and North America. Persona 3 was released in 2006 in Japan, 2007 in North America, and 2008 in Europe. Persona 4 followed in 2008 in Japan and North America, and 2009 in Europe. Persona 5 was released in Japan on September 15, 2016, and in North America and Europe on April 4, 2017. The Persona series also includes games like Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, Persona 4 Arena and Arena Ultimax, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Persona 5 Tactica, Persona 5 Strikers, and rhythm games like Persona 4: Dancing All Night. In the West, Persona 3 and 4 used the Shin Megami Tensei name, but it was removed for Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Golden to make the titles shorter.
The Devil Summoner series began in 1995 with Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner. It was followed by Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers in 1997 and Soul Hackers 2 in 2022. Two prequels set in 1920s Tokyo were also made: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army in 2006 and Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon in 2008.
Other side series include Last Bible, a series for younger players with fantasy themes; Devil Children, inspired by the Pokémon series; and Majin Tensei, a strategy game series. Stand-alone games include Jack Bros, an action game, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, a crossover with the Fire Emblem series.
Many games in the franchise have been adapted into anime and manga. Persona 3 had a four-part movie series and a spin-off anime called Persona: Trinity Soul. Persona 4 had an anime called Persona 4: The Animation and a
Common elements
The Persona series and other games in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise share some common features, even though many games take place in different storylines. A key similarity is that most games are set in modern-day Tokyo, a city that looks like it does today. Post-apocalyptic settings, such as worlds after disasters, often appear in these games. This choice was made to make the games different from other fantasy-based games of the time, as modern Tokyo was rarely shown in games. The Persona series is unique because it only takes place in this setting and focuses on the stories of young people.
Shin Megami Tensei II is an early exception, as it is set in a science fiction future instead of modern Tokyo, though it still includes fantasy elements. The Last Bible series shifted to a full fantasy setting. More recent exceptions include Strange Journey, which takes place in Antarctica to show global threats, and Shin Megami Tensei IV, which features a medieval society separate from modern Tokyo. The Devil Summoner games are set in modern detective stories rather than post-apocalyptic settings.
The series title, "Shin Megami Tensei," translates to "Reincarnation of the Goddess." This theme continues in the current series, officially called "True Goddess Metempsychosis." "Metempsychosis" means the cycle of rebirth, a concept tied to many stories in the series. The reborn goddess in the title represents a female character in each game and also shows how locations change during the story. Reincarnation themes appear in both the stories and gameplay. Fans often call the series "MegaTen" as a shortened name. In Chinese, the Persona series is named "Nǚshén Yìwénlù," which means "Alternate Tale of the Goddess."
Gameplay in the series is known for its difficulty and recurring mechanics. Since the first game, players can recruit demons to fight alongside them and combine two demons to create a stronger one. These systems appear in later Persona games. A key battle system, the Press Turn system, was introduced in Nocturne. This system gives players or enemies extra turns for hitting weaknesses or landing critical hits, but can also cause them to lose turns if attacks miss. A Moon Phase System, where the moon's phases or weather affect enemies, is also used in many games.
The first two Megami Tensei games had different layouts. Megami Tensei used a 3D first-person perspective, while Megami Tensei II combined 3D battle scenes with 2D maps for navigation. This change was made to avoid confusing players in large 3D environments. A 2D/first-person view continued until Nocturne, which switched to a third-person perspective to reduce "3D sickness," a condition similar to motion sickness. A first-person view returned in Strange Journey and was used in Shin Megami Tensei IV alongside 3D environments.
Each game explores how the extraordinary enters the ordinary world, though the two main series focus on different themes. Shin Megami Tensei centers on a protagonist gaining power to survive in a world ruled by tyrannical gods, while Persona focuses on relationships and group psychology. The main character is usually male in Shin Megami Tensei, though some games allow for female leads or gender choices. The series includes ideas from Gnosticism, world religions like Christianity and Buddhism, science fiction, Jungian psychology, and cyberpunk aesthetics. Philosophical concepts help blend these diverse themes.
Stories in the core Shin Megami Tensei games often involve fighting against a tyrannical god. Storytelling methods vary, using cutscenes and dialogue (as in Persona) or minimal text to emphasize atmosphere (as in Nocturne). A tradition in the series is to focus on a single main character rather than a group. Lucifer, a fallen angel who opposes God, appears in many forms to represent his power. Since Shin Megami Tensei II, the series uses a morality-based system where player choices affect the story. Early games had two alignments: "Law" (God's forces) and "Chaos" (Lucifer's army). Later games added a "Neutral" route where players could avoid both sides. Some games are tied to specific alignments, such as Shin Megami Tensei II focusing on "Law" and Nocturne aligning with "Chaos." Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse limits players to "Neutral" but still offers multiple endings. The three-tiered alignment system was used in Strange Journey and continued in Shin Megami Tensei IV.
Development and history
The Megami Tensei series began as an expansion of the Digital Devil Story series, which was a set of science-fantasy novels written by Aya Nishitani in the 1980s. The expansion was managed by Nishitani and his publisher, Tokuma Shoten. The game was created by Atlus and published by Bandai Namco (then called Namco). Although the team wanted to include as much of the original story as possible, the limited power of the Famicom console made this difficult. The series was created by Kouji Okada (known as Cozy Okada in English), Ginichiro Suzuki, and Ginichiro’s son, Kazunari. The game became popular in Japan and started the Megami Tensei franchise, with a more ambitious sequel released in 1990. During the development of Shin Megami Tensei, the team aimed to create a Super Famicom game with the company’s brand, but they also wanted to challenge the usual ideas in gaming. Despite this, they considered Shin Megami Tensei a remake of Megami Tensei II. Many Atlus staff members made appearances in earlier games.
Most Megami Tensei games were developed by Atlus’ R&D Department 1. Other companies also contributed, including Multimedia Intelligence Transfer (for the Last Bible series), Lancarse (for Strange Journey), CAVE (for Imagine), Nex Entertainment (for Nine), and Arc System Works (for Persona 4 Arena). Until 2003, most games were handled by Okada, but when he left to start his own company, Gaia, Kazuma Kaneko became the series’ creative director. Two main writers for the franchise are Shogo Isogai and Ryutaro Ito. Ito worked on Megami Tensei II, joining the team after the game was made to write the script and help with debugging. Isogai’s first work was the script for Shin Megami Tensei II. Ito later wrote the game If…, which took place in a school setting, and also created the first Devil Summoner game. Isogai worked on Shin Megami Tensei II, If…, and later on multiple Devil Summoner games, Nocturne, and Strange Journey. The music for the first five main Megami Tensei games was composed by Tsukasa Masuko. For Nocturne, Shoji Meguro was brought in, and he later became famous for his work on the Persona series.
The art styles for Shin Megami Tensei and Persona were shaped by two artists: Kazuma Kaneko and Shigenori Soejima. Kaneko had worked on the original Megami Tensei games and became well-known for his work on Shin Megami Tensei, where he designed character and demon artwork. He also helped create the game’s darker themes. Before designing each demon, Kaneko researched their mythological backgrounds and used those ideas in his designs. His work was influenced by creatures and deities from world mythology and monsters like Godzilla. Kaneko also designed characters for the first three Persona games. His style is described as "cold" and "stoic," and he uses pencil sketches that are later digitized for other artists to work on.
Soejima first worked on the Devil Summoner series as part of the digital coloring team. Later, he helped with character designs for Persona and Soul Hackers. He also designed secondary characters for the Persona 2 games and worked on the PlayStation versions of the first three Shin Megami Tensei games. Kaneko chose Soejima to lead the art team for Persona 3 to give younger staff experience. Soejima’s style is lighter compared to Kaneko’s work. Other artists, like Yasuomi Umetsu for Nine and Masayuki Doi for Shin Megami Tensei IV, also contributed. Doi blended Japanese and Western fashion in his designs and later worked on Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and V. Suzuhito Yasuda designed characters for the Devil Survivor games to attract a wider audience, and some monsters in the second Devil Survivor game were designed by manga artist Mohiro Kitoh.
For many years, the Megami Tensei series was not released outside Japan because of its religious themes, which were not accepted in Western markets, and Nintendo’s strict rules for overseas games. Later, many older games could not be released abroad because they were too old to compete in modern markets. The first Persona game was the first role-playing game in the franchise to be released overseas, helping Atlus’ North American branch compete with games like Final Fantasy. Changes were made to the Persona games for Western audiences, such as adjusting names and removing Japanese cultural references. A character was changed from Japanese to African-American. These changes were later fixed in the PlayStation Portable re-release. The first Persona 2 game, Innocent Sin, was not localized due to limited staff and focus on the second game, Eternal Punishment.
Nocturne was the first Shin Megami Tensei game released overseas. After its release, Atlus added the Shin Megami Tensei name to future games to help market them. Even though earlier games did not use this name, it helped Atlus by grouping all localized games under the same brand.
Reception
Before becoming popular in the West, the game was a major success in Japan, selling more than four million copies by 2003. Excluding the Persona series, the Megami Tensei series sold about 7.2 million copies by October 2017. By October 2018, the main Megami Tensei series had sold approximately 12.4 million copies worldwide, including both physical and digital versions of games. The Persona sub-series sold 9.3 million copies, making the total franchise sales reach 21.7 million units by 2018. Excluding Persona, the Megami Tensei series sold 19.2 million copies by 2023, including digital versions of free-to-play titles. As of March 5, 2024, the Persona series has sold 22.6 million copies worldwide. According to a December 16, 2023 survey by Nikkei Entertainment, the combined fanbase of the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series in Japan has an average age of 32 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 40:60.
Japanese website 4Gamer.net called the series one of Japan's largest role-playing game franchises. UGO Networks writer K. Thor Jensen noted that the first Megami Tensei game was the first to successfully use cyberpunk themes in video games, combining science fiction and the occult to create a unique cyberpunk world. Nintendo Power said Atlus often mixes "familiar gameplay" with surprising settings, using Persona as an example because it features "modern-day horror stories" and "teams of Japanese high-school students." The editor also mentioned that Strange Journey used a similar system, calling it a "science-fiction makeover" of the series. In an article about Japanese and Western gaming culture, 1UP.com listed the Shin Megami Tensei subseries alongside Nippon Ichi Software's Disgaea series. Kurt Kalata wrote: "[They] may not be big sellers, but they've gained underground success and attracted thousands of dedicated fans." GameSpot writer Andrew Vestal called the series the third-largest RPG series in Japan after Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. IGN's Matt Coleman mentioned Nocturne in an article about console RPGs, describing its content as "challenging stuff for a genre that used to focus on saving princesses and fighting evil."
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II and Shin Megami Tensei both appeared on Famitsu's 2006 "Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time" poll at No. 58 and No. 59, respectively. RPGFan's "Top 20 RPGs of the Past Decade" list was led by the two Digital Devil Saga games, followed by Persona 3 in second place and Persona 4 in fourth place. Kalata, writing for Gamasutra, called Nocturne one of the 20 essential RPGs for players of the genre. GameTrailers highlighted the Press Turn system as one of the best JRPG battle systems, especially the version used in Shin Megami Tensei IV.
The series has received both praise and controversy in Japan and abroad. Issues include its demon negotiation mechanic, depictions of suicide and cannibalism, religious criticism, the use of Christian and occult imagery, political references, depictions of homosexuality, and sometimes unusual demon designs. Specific examples were noted by Western journalists. The original release of Persona caused concern due to its religious themes. In 2007, 1UP.com's game awards, published in the March 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, gave Persona 3 the "Most controversial game that created no controversy" award, stating that "Rockstar's Hot Coffee sex scandal and Bully's boy-on-boy kissing pales in comparison to this PS2 role-player's suicide-initiated battles or subplot involving student-teacher dating." GamesRadar included the series on its list of "Controversies Waiting to Happen," noting that the lack of public outcry was due to its niche status compared to other series with similar content. Kalata later traced this use of controversial content back to the Digital Devil Story novels, which included depictions of violence and rape by demons, saying that "Such violence is not particularly rare in Japanese animation, but it became even more disturbing in Megami Tensei II." A Chinese game regulation document in 2021 cited Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse as an example of unsuitable depictions of religious figures.
In a review of the Shin Megami Tensei series in Black Gate, Josh Bycer compared the series to Pokémon, noting that both use an ever-changing party roster. However, he added that Shin Megami Tensei came first and is more mature in both design and storytelling.