Move over SVU, the cool kids are hangin' with SMT this season.

Dun dun.

My first post takes us back in time to the late 90s, early 2000s. Prior to the advent of Youtube, Facebook and Blogger, the internet was in its adolescence, quickly becoming a formidable medium being adopted into people's lives. Everyone had a Geocities page and tacky webpages filled with animated gifs were all the rage. The arrival of the internet brought about mind blowing revelations, as many learned the truths behind the tripe mega corporations spoon fed us. Many RPGamers were still reeling from the numbering ordeal that was Final Fantasy 4/2 and 6/3. (Unfortunately, some of them still are these days...)

In the gaming scene, it was the twilight years of the PS1, with "next gen" hovering about the horizon and people throwing around buzz words like "anti-aliasing" like its going out of fashion. The PS1 had an impressive catalogue, especially when RPGs are concerned. We saw many many traditionally Japan-only RPG series being localised for the first time. I am talking about SaGa, Front Mission, Star Ocean, Tales, etc. Many RPGamers also discovered emulators and ROMs, which expanded our catalogue ten fold from the RPG-starved early 90s.

Of course, a few gamers whom were "too cool for skool" gravitated towards the then unknown (in the non Japanese speaking world) Shin Megami Tensei series (also known as MegaTen or SMT), whose RPG hardcoreness had to be measured in the ability to read and play a game in Japanese. When Persona 2 Eternal Punishment for the PS1 was released in English, more and more gamers started showing interest in SMT games, though most of them were purely interested in finding out more about Persona 2 Innocent Sin instead, the "controversial" prequel. (But that is a tale for another day, I promise.) I however, was never hardcore enough to even try any real SMT at the time.

Lucifer's Call. An example
why PAL games cannot
be trusted. Why go
changing names for?

My first real SMT game was SMT3 Nocturne for the PS2 (I would imagine I am in the majority of RPGamers), although it was the European version named Lucifer's Call. But for all intents and purposes it's the same game. I had only played a few hours, got through the first dungeon. I found the game very grindy and the demon fusion thing required more maintenance than I was willing to work for at the time. So it quickly went back on the shelf. (And now it has hit ebay. Go grab yourself a bargain!)

These days SMT is arguably about as well known as Dragon Quest in the west. Atlus has done an admirable job shoving them in our faces that most RPGamers would have at least tried out 1 or 2 of them, although the Persona sub series remains the most popular of them all, so much so in fact, it's spawning several spin offs of its own. Milk it for all its worth, Atlus. I mean hey, it worked for the Kardashians!

So what is a Shin Megami Tensei anyway? While I am no expert I will throw my 2c in anyway. Shin Megami Tensei translates to "true reincarnation of the goddess". It started with a game named Megami Tensei ("reincarnation of the goddess") on the Famicom (aka NES) in Japan, based on a published novel about a girl whom was the reincarnation of Japanese deity Izanami. It was popular enough to spawn sequels and spin offs.

YHVH, or God. Looks more
like Professor X to me.

When the Super Famicom (SNES) came out, the first Shin Megami Tensei was released. It had its own story not actually related to any reincarnation of any goddesses, but I guess they kept the name as sort of like its legacy *shrug*. The game features many angels, demons and deities of myths, legends, religion, folklore and popular fiction, and through your actions in the game they may become allies or enemies. What is interesting is that unlike most RPGs where your choices moved you towards good or evil, SMT's choices are about law and order, or chaos and freedom. The morality of the choices are up to interpretation, and are more like shades of grey. In my opinion though, they're sort of all evil.

What really appeals to me is how mature some of the content are. I don't mean bad language, blood and gore or tits and fanny. (Amateurs!) Although there's a fair amount of that, the real meat comes in the form its gritty post apocalyptic setting and the consequences of the actions you make. It's not so much "say the wrong thing and the girl dies" like most other RPGs, but to give you an example, some choices will have you picking between what ends up being "euthanasia for all" or "slavery for all". You know something big is brewing when the movers and shakers of the series are religious heavyweights such as "God" (yes, "the" God, whom I also call "my way or the highway" Uncle Sam) and his high ranking angels, and Lucifer (whom I call Uncle Luc, cuz he reminds me of my mum's friend whom used to give me a bag of coins to play at the arcade). Of course, some liberties were taken to make the story even more interesting, for example God seems like the type that likes a side of extra crispy French fries with his genocide for brunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I would LOVE to know what reaction devout Catholics will have with this series, it'll be an..... interesting experience to say the least.

Next time. My relationship with SMT. Aka, flaunting my collection. Stay tuned. #shamelessselfpromotion