If this hasn't started warning sirens in your head, you obviously don't know Remiel.
The title is apparently quite hard to translate, due to having a number of concepts and meanings tied into it, but in its simplest form it reads "New Goddess Reincarnation". The subtitle of the series is much easier to comprehend (being English...): Digital Devil Story
Before I go any further, I'd better put in some warnings. To say that SMT is theologically dodgy is an understatement of truly monumental proportions. There seems to be three main reasons for this:
1) You summon demons from your computer. That's how you fight, how you meet people (you negotiate with other demons to join you), how you proceed through the game. Basically your 'party' consists of you and whatever demons you choose to summon. Note that 'demon' in the context of this game is any supernatural creature. SMT has literally hundreds of 'demons' taken from religions/stories all over the world or as original creations.
2) You choose which 'side' you wish to support. The story does not force you to be on the side of 'good'. Nor does it force you to be on the side of 'evil'.
3) In SMT 2, at least, good and evil are represented by something that at least resembles the Christian concept of heaven and hell. Compare this to (2) and work out who your opponents might be for the 'boss fights' .
However, on the plus side:
1) The story is truly open. The various individuals you meet have their own agendas and it's up to you to decide which you want to help
2) The array of demons/creatures you meet is very impressive. Each has its own skills and the 'fusing' system adds to the complexity. Some demons can only be obtained by fusing demons that you have already found.
3) Lots of story, lots of gameplay. The translating site estimates an average of 50 hours game play for SMT 1.
To the best of my knowledge, there are two games for the NES ("Megami Tensei"), three for the SNES ("Shin Megami Tensei", "Shin Megami Tensei: 2" and "Shin Megami Tensei: If") and, more recently, "Shin Megami Tensei: 3" for the PS2, "Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children" for the GBA and "Shin Megami Tensei: Nine" (note: word not number) for the X-box.
All of these are, of course, only available in Japanese.
But... SMT is the kind of game which attracts somewhat... fanatical... fans. Hence, a fan translation of SMT 1 is available both as a text file (written by Remiel) and as a complete [mod] for the SNES rom. The same site is planning on releasing an SMT 2 translation patch within a couple of months. Important note: Do not read the page on SMT 2 on that site unless you want to be completely spoiled for the end of 1 (*sigh*).
Consequently Kazuhiko, Amarel, Hisoka and Rin are currently heading off into Tokyo to see what they can find...
O.o Tokyo? ^^; ..and who might the latter three personages be? - MoonShadow
Sorry, I'm not very good at describing these games am I. With SMT 1, and I believe the others as well, you start off in Tokyo and the surrounding area. The story so far concerns a girl being murdered in a park near your house. The police have roped off a large area around you so the only locations I have been able to get to so far are a hospital that is currently closed and the local shopping centre. Meanwhile, Steven (don't ask me, I have no idea) has been sending me a demon summoning program and I've been having dreams where I was asked to name three other characters (Hence: Amarel, Hisoka and Rin) but so far I have only met them briefly in dreams. I don't think I took the name 'Amarel' from anywhere, but I imagine you recognise the others :) --Kazuhiko
You know, Kazuhiko, if one takes the "Meanwhile" in the above as indicating a total change in subject, one could get even more scared of you than one might already be... StuartFraser made comments on your dreams ;) --AlexChurchill
Scaredofme? 0:) Having said that, this would not be a game I would want to confuse reality with... :) --Kazuhiko
The continued, brief, story: I died. To be more precise, on my second trip through the 'world map', I met three groups of demons. The first I killed, the second I ran away from and healed myself, the third I could neither defeat nor escape from. A YouHaveDied screen within 15-20 mins gameplay. Did I mention that Remiel likes his RPGs difficult? o_O
Oh, but I do know that Rin is the girl who lives next door to me and appears to be the daughter of a mad scientist... :) --Kazuhiko
On a semi-related note, has anyone found a good way of linking a PS controller to a USB port on a PC? I've found a couple on lik-sang, but it's hard to tell from the site if they are actually any good. Anyone had experience of this? --Kazuhiko
I'd say it was usually cheaper to just buy a new USB controller... I know that DreamCast and XBox controllers are both trivial to connect to USB, they are electrically compatible - but PlayStation ones I don't think are, so they'd need drivers. --Vitenka
[This] is the best I have found so far and only comes to about £13 including shipping. It would seem to suggest that even the analogue is supported, although I think it doesn't support the vibration effect (which some others do). Looks pretty good, but as I said, it's hard to tell --Kazuhiko
MoonShadow has a beastie that allows him to plug PS controllers into his PC, I think by the USB port. It's been working fine so far, but you'd need to ask him to find out what it is. I think it was lik-sang's - SunKitten
MoonShadow has two, actually. They work great under Linux, never tried them under Windows - they come with a driver disk, which is still in its wrapping. They come from lik-sang. The one quibble is that the digital pad is detected as four buttons, not as a D-pad, which some games aren't happy with.
Wai! PS Joy convertor + [Joy to Key] = Happy Kazu blowing up stuff... Very easy to set up different configs for MAME and Snes9x :)
As a quick note for anyone looking for something of this variety. Play.com is now selling a two PS2 controllers into 1 USB [box] for £6.99 with no shipping cost. I have no idea how good it actually is however. --Kazuhiko
*twitch* Now that, I was not expecting. This game does not pull its punches.
Things learned so far:
Level up to beat a boss? Hah. You have to level up to step outside your front door... Things do become rather easier after you have gained a few levels though.
Don't stint on weapons/armour if at all possible. Early equipping is not a luxury.
Not all barriers are created equal.
Negotiating with demons is a fine idea, but I have yet to actually make it work :/
The psychiatrist's bill for this little group must stretch into the millions (or will soon)...
Well, I managed to persuade a small Brownie to become my devoted follower; she doesn't really do much, but if I put her at the front, sometimes the big horrible demons take a moment to squish her before moving on to me... (tjm has just started playing it, too).
Well done, it took me ages to get any to join me. It does get a lot easier though. Basically most of them respect power (or run away from it) so you need to level up quite a lot before they will join you... Only after writing the above did I discover that, (a) you cannot control any demon with level higher than yours, (b) no demon with intelligence higher than your main character will join you. Get two or three demons and then head off to a Jakyou (fusion chamber) for much fusion fun... --Kazuhiko
So as not to clutter this page (any more than it already is ^^;;;) some screenshots of gameplay and some of the demons can be found on the /Screenshots page --Kazuhiko
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