Ideon
1992
Shin Megami Tensei marks the start of a truly beloved franchise, but does it deserve to be as beloved compared to its younger brothers.
(This review will be Spoiler Free)
TLDR it doesn't
SMT1 is, quite frankly, a pretty bad game. It suffers from poor gameplay the most and the technical limitations that come with being a first person dungeon crawler on a console during the 90s which will not be excused.
Gameplay is uninteresting to say the least, with it being super simple but not fun compared to its younger brother, Press Turn. The main character is the most uninteresting party member you have, and luckily for us we're him, although we do get law hero and chaos hero for the first half of the game and heroine for most of it the main character really only feels useful when using items or spamming gun. Heroine is the key to beating smt1 because you get Mazio and Zionga, the strongest moves in the game fairly early. Now, if you're accustomed to the likes of other Megami Tensei games, you might be wondering why I say that for some of the weakest moves in most of the franchise entries well, it's because it can stun and will stun 90% of the time, leaving all enemies defenseless. This can also be reproduced with any demon you get that can use Zio or Bufu spells. The worst part is once you hit level 50 don't even bother fighting most enemies because you will level up enough times from boss fights alone; you should be near level 80 by the end of the game. Regarding fusion, it's ok and barebones nothing to really speak of.
Now to address the elephant in the room its technical limitations. The most notable is it being a first person game on the Super Nintendo, which is where most of the problems stem. I don't mind first person dungeon crawling if done right. But at the time smt1 was released, it was just not a good idea at all, with navigating feeling more like a chore and getting lost very easily within the world plagued with no unique flair within its dungeons besides the walls and floors having a different color than the last. Another problem is the lack of direction; it disgusts me that I had to consult a guide because of things just not being clarified while in Shin Megami Tensei nocturne you get funneled in certain directions and when it comes time to revisit places NPCs will make when and where clear. On the topic of NPCs this was probably the most irritating thing for me because until you step on the tile that contains an NPC you do not see them and you will be spending so much time walking through rooms just to make sure an NPC with important information is/isn't in it.
Now the above technical problems might not be relevant for the copies that exist on the Sega CD and the Playstation, and after watching gameplay of those I really do wish we got translations of those versions instead of a handheld version that is uglier than the original.
The only good part about this game was its rushed story, which is what helped me get through the game, and for the first mainline outing with Law, Chaos, and Neutral it was pretty good.
I genuinely can only recommend this game for die-hard fans of the Megami Tensei franchise but even then I'd say put it off until you run out of other games to play, in fact, if you haven't played Persona 1 yet I'd say go play it as most the problems that I have on the gameplay and technical side are non-existent or even expanded upon to make for a more enjoyable experience while still being similar.
(This review will be Spoiler Free)
TLDR it doesn't
SMT1 is, quite frankly, a pretty bad game. It suffers from poor gameplay the most and the technical limitations that come with being a first person dungeon crawler on a console during the 90s which will not be excused.
Gameplay is uninteresting to say the least, with it being super simple but not fun compared to its younger brother, Press Turn. The main character is the most uninteresting party member you have, and luckily for us we're him, although we do get law hero and chaos hero for the first half of the game and heroine for most of it the main character really only feels useful when using items or spamming gun. Heroine is the key to beating smt1 because you get Mazio and Zionga, the strongest moves in the game fairly early. Now, if you're accustomed to the likes of other Megami Tensei games, you might be wondering why I say that for some of the weakest moves in most of the franchise entries well, it's because it can stun and will stun 90% of the time, leaving all enemies defenseless. This can also be reproduced with any demon you get that can use Zio or Bufu spells. The worst part is once you hit level 50 don't even bother fighting most enemies because you will level up enough times from boss fights alone; you should be near level 80 by the end of the game. Regarding fusion, it's ok and barebones nothing to really speak of.
Now to address the elephant in the room its technical limitations. The most notable is it being a first person game on the Super Nintendo, which is where most of the problems stem. I don't mind first person dungeon crawling if done right. But at the time smt1 was released, it was just not a good idea at all, with navigating feeling more like a chore and getting lost very easily within the world plagued with no unique flair within its dungeons besides the walls and floors having a different color than the last. Another problem is the lack of direction; it disgusts me that I had to consult a guide because of things just not being clarified while in Shin Megami Tensei nocturne you get funneled in certain directions and when it comes time to revisit places NPCs will make when and where clear. On the topic of NPCs this was probably the most irritating thing for me because until you step on the tile that contains an NPC you do not see them and you will be spending so much time walking through rooms just to make sure an NPC with important information is/isn't in it.
Now the above technical problems might not be relevant for the copies that exist on the Sega CD and the Playstation, and after watching gameplay of those I really do wish we got translations of those versions instead of a handheld version that is uglier than the original.
The only good part about this game was its rushed story, which is what helped me get through the game, and for the first mainline outing with Law, Chaos, and Neutral it was pretty good.
I genuinely can only recommend this game for die-hard fans of the Megami Tensei franchise but even then I'd say put it off until you run out of other games to play, in fact, if you haven't played Persona 1 yet I'd say go play it as most the problems that I have on the gameplay and technical side are non-existent or even expanded upon to make for a more enjoyable experience while still being similar.