No I don't like games where you have to backtravel to warp points to get to the one of two recovery locations in the game no sir.
Or games that have spells that level you down (in a game where levels matter quite a lot).
Or games that disorient me way too fucking often.
Or games that constantly stunlock my entire party.
Or games where I feel like my stat distribution means jack shit because the two primary protagonists do almost nothing compared to demons.
Or games with the wimpiest spells I've ever seen. I swear to christ I maxed out Yumiko's wisdom straightaway and any spell she cast did jack shit.
I'll admit the first hour/dungeon were pretty neat and mechanically this is pretty impressive for the famicom of all things, but by Mizurka path I was pretty fed up. Hoping the Super Famicom version is better but im not keeping my hopes up entirely.
By the time i finished the second dungeon I had seen that playing it as though you explored every nook and cranny as though you were completing the maps on your own would help with your levels. Yet even after doing so, in the next dungeon (Valhalla Corridor) I finished that area fine (by the by, boss exp drops in this are the most flaccid thing, i know boss fights in this are generally pretty easy but god the exp/money drop is so flaccid you make about as much exp going through 3 mook fights than some of the big bads) about 8 levels behind what the recommended level range was which i guess means a lot in Mizurka since my party members got rinsed constantly and bombarded by stoning the one party member with a portable status healing move (which she only gets after 25+ levels of this fucking game) on top of enemies that constantly wanted to drop my already low levels multiple times in one fight. To be quite honest I'd rather not spend another hour or so just running back and forth between the same two doors to spawn enemies that'll give me somewhere between a 1/20th to 1/40th of the exp i need to my next level depending on what rng.
Even with as rough as a game Dragon Warrior is on the original NES I at least feel like its simplicity led to more digestible experience that sated my curiosity on what was my first game ever and the progenitor of an entire type of RPG. Here it feels less like im playing the roots of the Megami Tensei franchise and more like I'm playing some weird demake of a megaten game and while I think SHIN Megami Tensei 1 is rough at points I can see where that game becomes more than just another 3D dungeon crawler, with a pretty cool scenario, good environment/world and a simple yet intriguing alignment system with demon/character designs that have stylistically held up fairly well.
This game doesn't have Jack Frost though so, like, it's pretty much less of a megaten game than Tokyo Mirage Session tbh.

The original Megami Tensei is a pretty rough initial effort. It carries the series' trademark difficulty though does so in a way that doesn't exactly constitute engaging strategies. You spend the whole game in first-person which is already a pretty strong turn-off for me, since it is immediately disorienting with no real visual landmarks to help guide you through areas. The game is also require a significant amount of grinding. I had had my fill once I realized three levels in that the combat and story were not going to evolve, and it seems like the game still requires hours upon hours of grinding even after this. I played the SNES version which mercifully cut back on the grinding and added a mapping feature, but it was still a relatively dull experience. It puts a damper on the clever ideas the game has too, like the fusion system, which I didn't realize had existed from the very beginning. I don't know that there was anything else like this at the time, so it was pretty cool. It isn't well-realized unfortunately since options are quite limited, unfortunately. The music also bangs hard. 2/6

can't believe i actually did this

i'm an idiot who enjoys grinding and this game gave the formula a spin by turning it into a metatextual capitalism simulator by forcing you to give rag like 200 amethysts (of which you can only hold one at a time) just to not get murdered by demons in like 3 different dungeons

about as good as persona 5 and this should be ported to all modern systems

Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei Remaster
A game that while it took me a while and was very grindy, had an atmosphere, OST and history that made it all worth it
This has been something I've fucked about with for close to 4 years now and after the last week or 2 of just blasting it out it's finally done, I've beaten the remaster of Digital Devil Story
Fuck what to say about this game apart from it's a solid first person dungeon crawler that has given me such a massive appreciation for the entire MegaTen series as a whole
Was it hell, yes
Did I like it, also yes
Genuinely cannot recommend this game to anyone since a lot of it is just grinding till you can take down the next boss but fuck it I liked it for some reason
An amazing OST, atmosphere to die for is what makes this game, if you don't fuck with it completely understandable
But I ate that shit up even if it did take me a while
Another checked off the list
A good one, not one I regret

difficult for me to put a meaningful rating on this in 2022. if i'd been able to play this in 1987, it might've changed my life. this weird, occult, seemingly very japanese interpretation of wizardry stands in stark contrast to other rpgs from japan in the mid/late '80s. (instead, my first atlus rpg would be nocturne. "it changed my life" might sound over the top, but it absolutely has informed my tastes in the time since.)

now... well, it's very easy for me to appreciate how incredibly cool this looks for a famicom game from that time, but i might be inclined to recommend playing the remade version contained within kyuuyaku megami tensei instead (unless you want to set everything aside and give this game some serious attention (and it helps if you already like the nes)). the main reason for this, really, is just that moving through corridors feels a bit too stiff and disorienting, frame by frame, while kyuuyaku at least adds some animation to your surroundings when turning left or right and moving forward feels a touch smoother. i should add that this may not be true of dds: megami tensei 2 (also part of the sfc kyuuyaku package), which i understand has uniquely great music for a famicom title due to a special chip in the cartridge, but i'll have to find out about that another time.

     「イザナミの優しい瞳に暖かみさが次第に戻って行く。」

By 1987, the Japanese RPG had several sub-categories, each represented by iconic titles: Dragon Quest (1986) and Final Fantasy (1987) were establishing a new standard for the genre, while Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished (1986) followed the formula of Hydlide (1984), with its action-RPG overtones. Alongside these new game design explorations, a series inspired by the novels of Aya Nishitani was born. ATLUS's Digital Devil Monogatari: Megami Tensei is not, unlike Telenet's eponymous computer game, an adaptation of the light novels, but their sequel. Similarly, the gameplay between the two games is quite different, as the Telenet title opts for a hack-n-slash concept similar to Gauntlet (1985), while the Famicom version is in the pure Wizardry tradition. In this seminal opus, the player takes on the role of Akemi Nakajima and Yumiko Shirasagi, two high school students who team up to eliminate the demons that have invaded the Earth, after Akemi had summoned them with the help of an elaborate computer program. In the novels, the two heroes had already triumphed over Loki and Seth, but they have been resurrected by Lucifer, the game's main antagonist. The quest begins in a large pyramidal building, apparently a kind of kofun for the Shirasagi family. Underneath this structure, a labyrinthine network of catacombs, brimming with demons, unfolds. Nakajima and Shirasagi's mission is to free the goddess Izanami, a captive of Lucifer, and to put an end to the evil yoke.

At first glance, the title plays like a Wizardry game. The player must explore the catacombs further and further, acquiring equipment and experience along the way. But Megami Tensei quickly stands out because of the specificity of its characters. While Yumiko is the only one who can use magic – and therefore heal outside of combat – Nakajima has the COMP action, which allows him to recruit and then summon demons to facilitate the progression. A novelty for the time, this mechanic forces the player to find a new balance in their exploration, as they will necessarily have to visit certain places to find specific demons: to acquire the most powerful creatures, demons must be merged, a task that can prove difficult without a guide. While this mechanic provides significant flexibility in dungeon exploration, it comes with its own constraints. Merging demons only works if Nakajima's level is high enough, thus making the exploration of certain areas strictly dependent on an experience grind, as demons are an essential part of the team's firepower. Furthermore, when demons are summoned into the team, they consume a certain amount of Magnetite for each step. To keep this resource afloat, it is essential to fight regularly, at the risk of seeing the demons lose their HP little by little, if the reserve is empty. These features make Megami Tensei a title that, even more than other entries of this era, makes grinding a central component of its gameplay loop.

As in Wizardry, exploration is divided into several phases. In the first one, the player will map their environment – this is highly recommended, as the title has no automatic mapping –, in the second one, they have to accumulate enough experience to go through the corridors smoothly, and in the last one, they need to reach the dungeon boss and kill them. In the case of Megami Tensei, most of the time will be spent in this second part and it can become very lengthy. Farming sequences have to be interspersed with regular breaks to Micon or Bien, disrupting the progression pace. It is perhaps during the Rotten Sea of Flames segment that the frustration builds up most dramatically, as the return trips tend to be quite protracted. Also, in contrast to Dragon Quest, farming is not such an automatic activity, as some enemies may prove too powerful for the group, due to some of their attacks. Early on in the game, the player learns to avoid as much as possible the demons that can paralyse or turn team members into stone, as this means a mandatory retreat to a town. In the second half of the game, enemies that can permanently remove levels pose the greatest hazard to the group and there is little choice but to flee. It should also be noted that misallocation of attributes during the level-ups can cause some temporary difficulties. Not investing enough in vitality comes at an immediate cost and underestimating Yumiko's Attack or Nakajima's Wisdom proves to be a mistake towards the end of the game.

This cruelly tedious nature is nevertheless compensated for by a unique atmosphere for a console RPG of that era. Admittedly, for obvious reasons, the demons are often rather underwhelming colour swaps and they don't yet reach the eerie esoterism of later installments: but the title manages to have some surprising moments. During the first excursion into Mazurka, the music becomes more ponderous and accompanies the much higher difficulty. This tension culminates in the exploration of the Rotten Sea of Flames, where the walls have an unintentionally very organic texture. The fire damage taken with each step accentuates the viciousness of this place and reinforces the urgency to save Izanami. The final dungeon, meanwhile, has an arcane quality to it, with an all-blue palette that gives way to a dirty red in the final stretch. The various demons and NPCs complement this ambience: the different shops run by humans always impress with their pixel art, which thematically enforces a mood. The equipment shops emerge as restful havens with the fluctuating benevolence of the warm, brown torches. Meanwhile, the healer and especially the House of Heresy play with their purple and green colours to create a sickly impression around the wizards, whose cryptic arcanas cannot be deciphered by the protagonists. It is perhaps the vision of the imprisoned Izanami that contributes most significantly to this eeriness, as the mask that wraps her head draws on the organic imagery of Japanese horror fiction.

This atmosphere helps to make Megami Tensei distinctive and very gritty. With some effort, the player understands what is expected of them and the importance of choosing demons, but the title remains merciless. Unlike Wizardry, whose dungeon is built in a linear fashion, Megami Tensei revels in its convoluted nature. While Daedalus remains classic, it serves primarily to filter players. For those who triumph over the Minotaur, the real challenge now begins and the next sequence opens with a dilemma. Two areas can be explored: Valhalla and Bien. The latter is technically the prime objective, in order to liberate the city and secure a new base of operations. But it is likely that foes within the area are still too powerful, so a preliminary exploration in Valhalla, a region that meanders between two floors, is necessary to acquire better demons. However, venturing too far into Valhalla may prove to be a mistake, because of the walls that can only be crossed from one side. This difficult choice gives an insight into the difficulty of the title and is repeated over the course of the game. Yet Megami Tensei balances the difficulty with its Game Over system, which is very similar to Dragon Quest's, as the player resumes the adventure directly in the first city, only stripped of half of their money. Later on, the different regions also have two entrances, one accessible by piloting Bien's Sky City to land atop the dungeons: this second point of entry eases the exploration and shortens the back and forth to heal one's team.

Despite its very harsh difficulty, Megami Tensei can be tamed by patient players who are not put off by the fusion system. The title has some gentle accents amidst the harshness of its atmosphere and making progress through the various puzzles always brings great satisfaction. Undoubtedly, the title is not for everyone, but rather for the most ardent fans of the franchise or for those in need of archaic dungeon crawlers. For them, Megami Tensei would be a more subtle title than it seems, featuring a very unusual bestiary, its creatures coming from all the mythologies of the world. It is true that the scenario is still very simplistic, but the series proved more ambitious with its sequel, released three years later.