People will point toward Final Fantasy II regarding hostile worlds and a very downbeat atmosphere talking about NES RPGs, but Megami Tensei I & II take the cake for me.

The first game takes place entirely in interiors, I know it's a dungeon crawler but it's the way it builds an entire megadungeon that takes around 30 hours to complete, with infrastructure design that makes a lot of sense (there is a sky city that can attatch itself to certain areas, and in those floors there is always a square shaped hole where the city would be located for example) and demonstrates a lot of attention to detail.
There's not a lot of thematic depht in the first game, but it's compensated by a nice level of personality as a first in a looooong franchise I still haven't touched apart from this one, the dialogue shows you are dealing with very opportunistic entities, and enticing a demon to join your party is appropiately uncomfortable and dynamic, even if after a while you notice repetition in the texts. Boss fights are an extreme uphill battle as you are on the edge of your seat because of how intensely difficult they are from early to mid game. My biggest complain with the game is that it becomes very "80's game criptic" at points and the enemies towards the end don't give you enough energy source ("magnetite") to feed your high level demons that deplete it fast, so you go around with them taking 1HP every step.

Megami Tensei II is an ambitious step forward, on the base of the previous game, the story is more detailed, kind of like a lesser version of the second half of Final Fantasy VI: a postapocalyptic world where people either gather around what they proclaim as divinities, desperate for protection; or your own human allies can get lost in their chase for who they were following, seeking for glory under their direction, even if they end up doing things that are not moral. You end up confronting God himself who lets the world rot without doing anything (it got quite edgy in that point) so that humanity can have a chance at rebuilding society again "through its own strenght", or, what's very interesting, you can follow god and live in his paradise even if all the other people who are still following other gods remain in the ruined place you came from. It's still told in a very superficial manner, where I expected things to get more focus regarding this idea of the concepts we dedicate ourselves into, but what it presents in the scope it does so for a 1990 NES game it must have been spectacular (a custom music chip for the cartridge even allowed for more complex output than regular NES games even)

This SNES remake of the first two games has included a new automap feature that I think it wasn't in the NES versions in this convenient manner, and even then however, this is a brutal game that doesn't let down. In the second title, there's an obligatory story moment where your arm gets torn off and must rush to an implant hospital with your main character unable to fight and bleeding his HP out. If Megami Tensei doesn't demonstrate that this world is not merciful with this story beat, I don't know what does it for you apart from Lisa the Painful

MT1: 5/10
MT2: 6/10

(I completed MT1, i close to finishing MT2 but i'm waiting to get the dungeon crawler itch to beat it)
(Edit: I returned and finished MT2 like a month ago, started a PS1 SMT1 run, and i'm once again taking a break from dungeon crawling until the itch comes back.)

It's outdated, repetitive, grindy, confusing and for some reason i love it. It requires a special kind of brainrot to enjoy this stuff and i have it, i have fun autobattling while running through samey looking hallways trying to find where to go and fiilling squares on a map.

If you look up discussion of these games in forums or reddit, you’ll often find people asking if they’re worth going back to or if they’re a good place to start with the series, and obviously, gamers being gamers, the answer is always a huge “no.” I never see anyone ever recommending these games, even these SNES remakes. Always described as too clunky, too difficult, simultaneously too simple and too opaque, just all around too old. And it’s true on some level that if you’re used to most post-nocturne SMT games then I don’t think that what you get in especially Megami Tensei I is going to particularly resemble the series you love. If, however, you’re a fan of WIZARDRY, well then do I have a very cool little evolution of that strand of late-80s famicom RPG design for YOU.

The Megami Tensei duology exists in such a weird little liminal period in time for Megami Tensei The Franchise, and it shows in the game itself. It’s popularly known that this franchise in general pulls its aesthetic and setting inspirations from Nishitani Aya’s Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei novels, some of which have complete fan translations and are totally readable if you want to seek them out! They’re kind of sick! People don’t really like them these days and I do understand why; they’re unabashedly trashy in all respects, and the main character is pretty genuinely repulsive and not in a sort of “ah this boy will learn to be better” sort of way. It’s also easy to see why they were such a big hit in Japan, though. Certainly they were part of a larger boom of overtly horrific occult-based media at the time, and they were part of a larger planned multimedia push that included a now-famous OVA adaptation and finally, of course, these games. But they are themselves brimming with a weird energy, mixing the vibes of a transgressing western-style anti-christian occult sensibility with classical mythology with modern technology in a schlocky soup that any teenager would be happy to slurp down. The OVA captures this vibe and translates it perfectly into the kind of bristling erotic violence that OVAs of that era are now infamous for.

So it’s interesting that Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei The Video Game kind of doesn’t even try? What we get is something I might call “loosely inspired by” its namesake rather than an adaptation of it. You have the same main characters in roughly the same roles – the same people act as reincarnations of goddesses, Cerberus and Loki and Set are here being Important Guys, but beyond these superficial trappings there’s nothing else really anchoring us to the original premise of “kid with school shooter energy summons demons and ruins everything instead of doing a school shooting, slow-motion tragedy unfolds.” It’s not quite doing its own thing either, though; only two of the original three novels were out at the time this game was released, and dialogue here suggests this is kind of an original sequel capstone to those books? Maybe even just the first book. Characters at the very least seem to be familiar with each other, and based on how heroically you behave in the game I guess we’re kind of massaging Nakajima’s image too. It’s all very strange, taking a story that’s about a gross, pulpy horror scenario playing out mostly inside of a school building and instead making it an epic quest to destroy Lucifer inside of his massive labyrinth in the demon world.

That’s not to say I don’t LIKE it though. As we have established, I looooove Wizardry, and this game makes explicit a lot of the shit that early Wizardry asks you to kind of do the mental legwork on yourself. The entire game takes place inside this evil labyrinth and it’s stacked with weird fuckers to hang out with. There’s whole towns inside the labyrinth, and all these cool little details about the kinds of people and demons you’ll meet in there, not all of whom will be hostile regardless of your recruitment game mechanic. Deeper down these towns stop being safe zones from random encounters, but they’re still often populated by guys who might have crucial advice or shop stock or hints for you.

Otherwise it’s a pretty smooth ride. Gameplay is simply for anyone with a passing familiarity with RPGs, with ultimately every single fight in the game ending up as a sheer contest of who can make the biggest number the fastest, but there is satisfaction in being the guy who can make the biggest number the fastest. I love Wizardry but I also love Dragon Quest 1. Eventually you have to be able to cover yourself from things like level drain and instant death spells but that’s about as complex as magic gets here beyond healing and occasional status afflictions that rarely have huge impact on a fight.

The Kyuuyaku versions at least (idk about the famicom original) do have the magnetite system, where you gain a second currency by winning encounters that drains with every step you take based on the number of demons in your party and how high their levels are. Once it runs out your demons will start taking damage every step instead, and MP is a precious resource so you really can’t have that. I find this system frustrating because the balance never feels quite right – ideally for something like this you would be feeling some pressure about it, like you need to weigh your options and figure out whether pushing it too hard will tip the scales away from you. Here though I feel like I’m always either completely in danger of tapping out or I’m so abundant on the stuff that I’m not even checking it. Ultimately it’s not a huge deterrent and there are plenty of ways to get powerful demons when you need them but I do think ditching this system later on and letting player level be the determining factor in how fucked up of a guy you can make was a wise move.

I imagine that the biggest barrier to these games for many people will be the dungeons themselves, but I think a lot has been done in these SNES versions of the games to make them pretty smooth. The auto-map feature is a game-changing addition, and when the late game dungeons start adding things like teleporters, one-way doors, and illusory walls it goes from necessary convenience to essential feature. When you can be punted as many floors as this game is willing to fuck you with I can’t imagine having to chart your own shit. There’s also a series of backtracking-based quests to find hidden items associated with every boss that will make them significantly easier to fight, and it’s actually required to do this in by far the most difficult area of the game to be able to kill the final boss at all, which is, I’m not too proud to admit, very tedious when you feel the end coming up in your bones.

I did like Megami Tensei I and I’ll admit that I’m really easy to please when it comes to the kind of very straightforward blobber that it succeeds at being, but the real star of this package is the sequel, which starts directly after the ending of the first game, no credits, no booting you back to the menu, just the ending screens for the first game, following by one of the most startling nuclear apocalypses in games. A flickering, screaming facsimile of a human face flashing in monochrome under an image of the missiles striking. It doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Now everything you were doing only moments ago seems smaller. Oops! You got some Shin in my Megami Tensei! Fully leaving any pretense of the novels or their original premise behind, the team behind the original game leap the story ahead 30 years to post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where humans live in underground bunkers, fearful of the demons that rule the wastes, or aboveground in cities where they live in communities that serve and worship cults and armies of demon warlords.

Your characters here are Gamers, who accidentally unleash the demon Pazuzu from the video game he was trapped in by the demon Bael (lmao). He says hello everyone I am PAZUZU and I work for GOD from THE BIBLE don’t worry about it I’m super chill and since you freed me you must be THE MESSIAHS please go kill Bael and don’t think about how he’s the most powerful demon in Tokyo and if he was dead I would be the most powerful demon in Tokyo okay see ya later. And your characters are like yeah that checks out I guess we are the saviors of the world! They’re so fucking stupid it rocks. It’s not until the third main character shows up and is like “have you guys considered that Pazuzu is obviously turbo evil” that you are even given the option to be like oh yeah shit that’s so true but even then your buddy will do the classic megaten move of breaking up with you and threatening to kill you next time you meet. Pazuzu even gives you Orthrus to hang out with! That’s Cerberus’ evil pallet swap! MR POLICE I GAVE YOU ALL THE CLUES, and other things of that nature. This isn’t the only time your protagonist demonstrates the brain power of my recently deceased pet cats either, like another time in the middle of the game you have to go get a thing and the thing is inside of the mouth of a big evil statue with blood all over it and you stick your WHOLE ARM IN THERE, and not only that but the arm that has your demon summoning computer and everything!!! And the statue of course fucking bites it off!!!! OBVIOUSLY. But you do get the status effect LOSARM out of this whole situation, as you have to scrabble your way back to the local mad scientist so he’ll make a robot arm for you, taking damage every step and unable to fight or summon new demons until you do. This whole sequence takes maybe fifteen minutes but it’s all time good SMT shit for me. This is also the diagetic way that the game comes up with for upgrading your demon capacity. You got more ram in your robot arm I guess.

Considering that Megami Tensei I is such a clear first run at an idea that feels very within the scope of what one might imagine both a first run at this franchise to look like and also what that would look like on the famicom, it’s kind of wild that Megami Tensei II just IS essentially a modern Shin Megami Tensei game almost fully formed from the ether. The setting is here, you’ve got your shitty friends who stick with you or ditch you based on your alignment choices (although the alignment system for the player character isn’t actually here yet – you’re essentially playing out a scripted version of what would today be considered a sort of combination neutral-law story), the ending is affected by key decisions that would be a little esoteric if they weren’t so obvious, Lucifer is here and behaving much more in tune with how he’s gonna act in almost all of his future appearances – a frustrated guy who sees humans as similarly beleaguered to his own people, if not still generally at the bottom of the worth-pyramid according to his own personal philosophies (in early games, at least). The kitsch comedy is dialed up, the mad science and esoteric fantasy are more heavily emphasized, and the horror is less overt and more ambient, based more in the smog of having the curtain peeling back on the knowledge that your existence isn’t your own and that resistance to the power that governs life is nearly unthinkable. But also like 70% of sapient life would be down to eat you. Both things.

There’s a degree to which SMT as a series but especially the core entries are just telling the same stories over and over again, filtering characters and details but with core identifying elements and story beats and character archetypes, to in my opinion a much greater degree than a lot of series that do a similar sort of thing. I might have expected a kind of bare take on that framework from a Famicom originator of many of those ideas but even today Megami Tensei II feels pretty fresh! In particular I like what the first half of the game is cooking, the post-apocalyptic Tokyo here being the domain of demon lords all jockeying for power against each other in a perpetual status quo rather than there being a real sense of alignment-based organization between the forces of law and chaos. There’s no big war happening right now, the war’s over, this is just the way things are at the moment, especially with no leaders present for most of the game, so it makes sense that it’s only when Pazuzu arrives on the scene to scam a bunch of idiots into starting shit with the biggest guy in town that things really start to spiral out of control. Pazuzu himself is the most interesting character in the game, because I leave it all genuinely uncertain about whether he actually is a representative of God or not? It initially all seems like a scam, one that he has other demons in on like Orthrus, but he DOES give you that special ring to signify your party’s places as messiahs, and later on an angel does speak fondly of him. He does seem to be mostly interested in seizing power for himself though, and for a demon to switch sides with an ulterior motive is equally interesting. The game leaves it ambiguous, or at least I didn’t talk to the right people to know for sure, and I think it’s really cool! There are a lot of NPCs with a ton of personality in this game, enough for the world to feel rich, to have me doing things like speculating on motivations and making observations about cultures and laughing at individual quirks of specific guys. Really impressive stuff.

This kind of early, wizardry-like first-person dungeon crawler exists in a tough spot, where for people who really like the genre and play a lot of these games I think these remakes that simultaneously preserve the really old, simple mechanics but also provide a lot of quality of life improvements, might be a little too simple to hold interest from a play perspective, even with the demon summoning and negotiation element grafted to the top. For players familiar with modern SMT or who are more general RPG fans though, I think even these simpler, easier dungeon crawlers might be a little bit more opaque and unforgiving than they’re used to and comfortable with and I understand that being a turnoff, even if I do think it’s a hump worth getting over (I did and I’m having a wonderful time exploring this genre). Megami Tensei’s personality is truly the thing that sets it apart; visually, sonically, personality-wise, there wasn’t much else even trying to do this kind of shit at the time and it still has a strongly individual vibe, strong enough that I think this collection is totally worth looking into, even if you skip to the second game. But if you’re already a fan of the series, I can’t emphasize enough that it’s really a nonstop parade of treats. I’m begging everyone to play old games. They’re so cool. Everybody wins.

Comenzaré con el primer juego, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. En cuanto a trama, la verdad es que es bien simple ya que podría decirse que es una continuación chafa en juego de una serie de novelas. Para mí, el punto fuerte de este juego es su gameplay. Que a pesar de que en el sistema de combate es aún más simple que Shin Megami Tensei, la pasé muy bien explorando las zonas laberinticas del juego, al puro estilo dungeon crawler. Shin Megami Tensei tiene un mapa de mundo en el que entras a la zonas, pero TODO el primer Megaten es una mazmorra gigante que, para mi, fue muy placentera de explorar. También aún con la simplicidad de su trama, dentro de esta se presentaron pequeñas situaciones interesantes que mantuvieron entretenido el juego. El OST según recuerdo no es la gran cosa, pero en este remake los gráficos si se me hicieron muy bonitos

Paso ahora con Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II. Este título lo considero un balance entre lo bueno que es el gameplay del primer Megaten, y la trama de Shin Megami Tensei. Aunque en ninguno de estos apartados se compara a los juegos ya dichos, lo cual me hace tenerlo como el título más intermedio, pero a la vez más bajo. Al introducir el mundo abierto, pierde mucho de la chispa del dungeon crawling que me generó el primer Megaten. Pero olvidándonos de los otros juegos y enfocandome en lo que este me ofrece... También está chido explorar el Tokyo post apocalíptico en este título, se presentan situaciones muy interesantes que no tienen los otros títulos. Y no quiero hablar de más o spoilear, pero el trayecto final del juego es muy bueno y emocionante, sobre todo si te jugaste el anterior. Como me encantó esa batalla final

En fin, si tuviese que poner a los Megaten en un top, quedaría tal que...
1. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
2. Shin Megami Tensei
3. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

"Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei" is a remake of the first two Megami Tensei games released for the Famicom console. This remake doesn't change many things from the original games, but it does improve certain serious issues they had.

Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei 1:

The first Megami Tensei is a torture machine, it's a game so unfair in many ways that your own mental health ends up being affected by the pile of crap that hits you from all sides. In this remake, things change: demon levels are a bit more balanced, there's an automap, the game gives clearer hints, there are more healing and fusion zones, and they made it so that demons that drain experience levels don't use the spell as much. If you want to play the very first "Megaten," then try this remake, so you won't end up losing your mind and having mental wounds. That said, it's still just as tough, rough, and claustrophobic as the original version.

Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei 2:

Megami Tensei 2 improves many things from its predecessor and adds elements that would later inspire the creation of the "Shin Megami Tensei" franchise. In this sequel, we are presented with a highly appealing open world, many new demons to recruit,  and a fresher story for the time. This remake doesn't change much from the original game; they simply balanced the bosses and demons, and there was a reduction in the encounter rate of demons... which is still just as high.

Oh, they also added an Easter egg with Jack Frost, if you follow the steps correctly, you'll be able to recruit very strong demons to make the final stretch a bit easier.

If you're curious and want to experience the origins of "Shin Megami Tensei," play Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei, the suffering isn't as intense, and in the end, you won't have the desire to gouge out your eyes and ears. Unfortunately, the remake clings too much to the original versions, so there are no changes in gameplay, making it feel quite outdated even for its release time.

An amazing experience through and through, be it as a survival horror game or as a surreal, supernatural mystery story. Its solid combat and resource management go hand in hand with the dark, oppresive atmosphere you’d expect from any great survival horror game, which are then further elevated by the game’s visuals and presentation, as well as the many psychological horror elements. The story and its mystery are the game’s core, however, and they’re easily my favorite aspect of the game which had me eager to see what happens next after every session.

PROS
- Solid survival horror gameplay, mixing great combat with resource management and fun puzzle solving.
- While there aren’t a ton of unique weapons to use, those that we do get are great. The crossbow, flare gun, and hunting rifle are especially satisfying to wield against the Taken. The versatility of flares stood out to me too, once I realized how to use them. They work similarly to knives in the RE games as a way to break free from enemies who’ve grabbed you, but can also serve as a means of stunning enemies when used.
- Great variety of puzzles, ranging from simple number sequences we have to follow, to finding clues in or interacting with the environment, all the way to literal math problems. The reality-shifting puzzles in Alan’s sections are among my favorites, as well as the nursery rhyme puzzles.
- All around excellent horror experience. The top class atmosphere created by the visuals and sound design mix perfectly with the near-constant threat of the Taken. They may not be as numerous as in the previous game, but never knowing when or where they would appear, combined with how dangerous each one is, kept me on my toes throughout my playthrough. The jump scares are fun too and very well done, fitting perfectly with the game’s story and how it presents its different elements.
- The Case Board is awesome. Even the simple task of pinning collectibles onto the board is satisfying for someone who likes organizing information and keeping things neat and tidy. The more involved cases and questions were fun too and go a great way into creating a satisfying detective experience. It also doubles as a very convenient way of keeping track of the various characters and events throughout the game.
- The game expertly weaves together its many dark and serious moments with levity as necessary, and its humor is top notch too. What we get feels uniquely “Remedy” in the best way.
- Terrific performances from the entire cast, especially from Ilkka Villi’s and Matthew Porretta’s combined performances for Alan. Alex Casey and Saga are wonderful characters too, and their friendship is a delight to see. Saga is an awesome new protagonist and I’m hopeful to see more of her in future installments of Remedy’s connected universe.
- Killer soundtrack. The original songs are such a treat to listen to.

CONS
- The game can be buggy. Luckily nothing too bad from my experience, but there’s quite a bit and some even persisted throughout my entire playthrough. It’s not enough to ruin the experience, but they do stand out because the rest of the game is so good.
- While the lack of handholding from the level designers in terms of having “yellow paint” (or something similar) to guide us as we progress through the different locations can provide a refreshing experience, certain areas (forests and the like, usually) are somewhat difficult to navigate and end up requiring one to repeatedly open the map. Luckily, the menus are very quick so it’s a painless experience, but it definitely takes you out quite a bit opening the menu again and again. I am personally fortunate enough to not really need much accessibility options, but it notable as a game in 2023 for it to not have these things.
- Boss fights are decent enough for the most part but it’s definitely one of the areas that still need improvement.

Rage in Peace é, sem dúvidas nenhuma, o jogo da minha vida. Conheço essa obra prima há 4 anos, e até hoje nenhum jogo me marcou igual esse aqui (ou sequer chegou perto).

Apesar desse jogo para mim ser perfeito, vale ressaltar os dois únicos pontos negativos dele, sendo eles a falta de tradução PT-BR e a dificuldade do jogo, que é estupidamente alta, porém, o jogo oferece um modo de jogo mais facilitado, com checkpoints adicionais e menos armadilhas.

Dito isso, os pontos positivos do jogo me fazem esquecer completamente dos negativos, de tão forte que eles são. A começar pelos personagens, são simples, mas conseguem dar um charme bônus ao jogo, assim como sua direção de arte, que é linda de se admirar, além de ser muito bem feita. A trilha sonora é a melhor que já escutei em um game - destaque para as músicas In Hope i Die e Sinking Boat - além de serem muito marcantes, combinam perfeitamente com o clima do jogo. Por fim, temos a história de Rage in Peace, que é com certeza o ponto mais forte do jogo. O jogo dá destaque logo no começo sobre suas propostas: Vida, morte e amor, e ao decorrer da narrativa vemos o quão bem são trabalhados esses temas, e isso causa um impacto direto no jogador.

Eu era um criança no meu primeiro contato com Rage in Peace, obviamente eu não tinha cabeça pra entender alguns dos temas que o jogo aborda, mas mesmo naquela época eu já havia percebido o quanto esse jogo especial. Hoje em dia, estou quase me tornando adulto, e ainda choro igual aquela criança de 5 anos atrás toda vez que re-jogo a história, ou até mesmo escutando algumas das músicas em momentos ruins da vida.

Se você leu até aqui, por favor, considere dar uma chance para esse jogo. Me faria muito feliz. <3

Não esperava muito do jogo e me surpreendi, tenho que dizer que eu mesmo estraguei minha experiência pois eu quis ver no YouTube a platina pra fazer o mais rápido possível por causa dessa PS Plus mensal bosta, me arrependo um pouco, pois é muito legal descobrir as misturas dos slimes, ver quais se odeiam e quais podem conviver no mesmo terreno, e a história também é muito fofa com uma sequência de créditos que foi uma das melhores que eu já vi (tô forçando a barra talvez).
Enfim, pokemon de slime que vale muito a pena.
Um dos melhores jogos que eu já joguei.