50 Fun Facts About Shin Megami Tensei

Which demon, one of three brothers in a Halloween-themed Megami Tensei spin-off, is developer Atlus's corporate mascot?

Jack Frost fights by throwing snowballs in that spin-off. The snowman-like demon also turns up as a hidden character in SBK: Snowboard Kids.

Strange Journey swapped Shin Megami Tensei's usual Tokyo for which continent, partly to appeal to overseas players?

Antarctica let the developers field an international cast. An earlier plan to set the game in New York City was vetoed for offering too little variety.

The Maniax edition of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne added demon hunter Dante from which Capcom action series?

Devil May Cry's hero was approved because his job as a demon hunter fit the setting. A later edition swapped him for Raidou Kuzunoha of the Devil Summoner games.

The red-eyed demon Mothman in Shin Megami Tensei comes from 1960s monster sightings in which American state?

West Virginia witnesses around Point Pleasant reported the creature from November 1966 to December 1967. Skeptics blame misidentified owls and cranes.

Which Megami Tensei spin-off about Japanese high schoolers became the franchise's largest and most popular subseries?

Persona began in 1996 and trades the main games' battles between gods for interpersonal relationships and the psychology of a group of young people.

Which 1982 John Carpenter horror film inspired the crew's character drama in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey?

The Thing shaped how the stranded crew interact, and the borrowing did not stop there: some of the game's equipment was inspired by James Cameron's Aliens.

Which recurring Shin Megami Tensei demon is named for the tempter who tried to stop the Buddha reaching enlightenment?

Mara is said in Buddhist legend to have sent an army and visions of beautiful maidens, often called his daughters, to distract the meditating prince.

Designer Masayuki Doi worked elements of which film series into the main characters' designs in Shin Megami Tensei IV?

Star Wars touches were blended with Japanese and Western fashions by Doi, who had made his name on the Trauma Center surgery games.

Which hit series inspired Devil Children, the child-friendly Megami Tensei spin-off sold abroad as DemiKids?

Pokémon's popularity prompted the kid-friendly series, which is even sold in paired versions. Megami Tensei itself had let players recruit monsters since 1987.

Artist Kazuma Kaneko drew on world mythology and which Japanese movie monster when designing Megami Tensei demons?

Godzilla and other pop-culture monsters fed into Kaneko's designs, though he also looks up each subject's mythological background before he draws it.

In the first Shin Megami Tensei, the hero's pet dog Pascal can be fused into which mythical hound?

Cerberus has been a series regular since the 1987 original, and Atlus later built a 3D test demo of the demon to try out the PlayStation 2 hardware.

In Shin Megami Tensei IV, the book-spreading Black Samurai turns out to be which demon, also known as Yuriko?

Lilith used the same Yuriko alias in the original 1992 game, where she hoped to found a new age with the hero as its Adam and herself as its Eve.

Which demon, eager to leave a hospital for Yoyogi Park, is the Demi-fiend's first recruit in SMT III: Nocturne?

Pixie tries to part ways at the park but stays if asked. In the Maniax edition, a player who keeps her to the end can see her become a level 80 powerhouse.

Which Fiend blocks the Demi-fiend's road to Ikebukuro in the Great Underpass of Ginza in SMT III: Nocturne?

Matador appears as a skeleton in a bullfighter's costume and talks of fighting with style for an audience, even in an empty wasteland.

Which girl demon, revived by doting uncles Belial and Nebiros, haunts Roppongi in the first Shin Megami Tensei?

Alice takes her look from the heroine of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland books. Her two guardians killed Roppongi's citizens and bound their spirits there to keep her company.

In Shin Megami Tensei IV, which deified rebel samurai lends the power that forms the rock dome sealing Tokyo?

Masakado was a real Heian-period rebel, and the shrine to his severed head still occupies some of the most expensive land in Tokyo's financial district.

On the Law route of Shin Megami Tensei IV, the samurai Jonathan merges with the archangels to become which being?

Merkabah is named for God's chariot. Its Chaos counterpart is born the same way, when fellow samurai Walter merges with the lord of the demons.

In Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, which Irish deity revives the slain hunter Nanashi to serve as his godslayer?

Dagda later reveals his real aim: hijacking the Cosmic Egg to make a universe of fully independent humans, a plan his own mother Danu opposes.

In the novel that inspired Megami Tensei, which god does bullied student Akemi Nakajima summon by computer for revenge?

Loki breaks free of Akemi's control when the boy refuses to offer classmate Yumiko as a sacrifice, and he returns as a boss in the 1987 game.

Which Hindu deity, freed from prison by the hunter Nanashi, leads the Divine Powers alliance in SMT IV: Apocalypse?

Krishna claims to be saving humanity but plans to destroy the universe and hatch a new one from a giant Cosmic Egg.

Which international body sends the task force to investigate the spreading void in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey?

United Nations planners send four vehicles of soldiers and scientists, but only one survives the entry, leaving its crew stranded inside.

What name is given to the expanding void that threatens Earth in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey?

Schwarzwelt is German for Black World, and the spaces inside it represent humanity's many vices as a critique of them.

Which vehicle in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey was modelled on the one in the 1977 film Damnation Alley?

Red Sprite is an amphibious craft and the hero's base. Its three sister vehicles, Blue Jet and Gigantic among them, are destroyed on the way in.

In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, which shipboard AI takes command after Commander Gore is killed?

Arthur gradually develops a personality as he learns, and on two of the story routes he destroys that new self to save the hero.

Which primordial mother goddess creates the world-reshaping Cosmic Eggs in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey?

Mem Aleph unleashed the void after seeing humans abuse Earth's environment and, in doing so, corrupt her own dimension.

Which composer gave Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey its film-like score of synthesised choir music?

Shoji Meguro set aside his usual contemporary sounds after the director asked him to score the game as if it were a motion picture.

Which Greek goddess rescues the wounded hero in Strange Journey Redux and sends him into the Womb of Grief for Fruit?

Demeter steps in after Alex, a woman who has travelled back in time to assassinate the hero, nearly kills him.

Which demon lord, named in the European title of SMT III: Nocturne, watches and tests the Demi-fiend in many forms?

Lucifer's Call was the game's subtitle in PAL regions, and its designers made him a gentlemanly observer who sets tests, not a standard villain.

Which Japanese gaming giant bought Index Corporation, the bankrupt parent of Atlus, in 2013?

Sega bought the bankrupt owner and renamed its game division Atlus in 2014, keeping alive the brand that Megami Tensei had built.

Atlus developed the first Megami Tensei game in 1987, but which arcade giant published it?

Namco published the first two games, after which Atlus released nearly every later entry itself, starting with Shin Megami Tensei.

The Atlus series title Megami Tensei translates into English as what of the Goddess?

Reincarnation carried over to the later Shin Megami Tensei games, whose title has been officially rendered as True Goddess Metempsychosis.

Shin Megami Tensei V launched in 2021 as an exclusive for which console before reaching other platforms in 2024?

Nintendo Switch owners had the game to themselves until the expanded Vengeance edition brought it to other consoles and Windows.

Atlus's crossover game Tokyo Mirage Sessions pairs Shin Megami Tensei with which tactical fantasy series?

Fire Emblem characters appear as friendly Mirages who merge with Tokyo teenagers working under the cover of a talent agency.

In the first Shin Megami Tensei, what delivers the demon-summoning program to the hero after a strange dream?

An email attachment carries the program, written by Stephen, the scientist who accidentally opened the portal to the demon realm.

Which Shin Megami Tensei demon lord, right hand of the ruler of Chaos, is named after a Philistine god of Ekron?

Beelzebub is known in demonology as the Lord of the Flies, and the occultist Johann Weyer wrote that he once led a successful revolt against the devil.

Which battle system, introduced in SMT III: Nocturne, grants bonus actions for striking an enemy's weakness?

Press Turn cuts both ways: an attack that misses or is blocked costs the attacker turns, and the enemies play by the same rules.

Which Japanese author wrote the 1980s science-fantasy novels on which the Megami Tensei games are based?

Aya Nishitani oversaw the move into games with his publisher Tokuma Shoten, and he is credited as one of the franchise's creators.

Which creator god do the heroes of Shin Megami Tensei II fight and kill aboard the spaceship Eden?

YHVH was cast as the villain because artist Kazuma Kaneko saw the Old Testament deity as the base from which the world's other gods grew.

The amnesiac hero of Shin Megami Tensei II, known at first as Hawk, earns his living as what in the Valhalla district?

A gladiator who wins Valhalla's tournament gains citizenship in the luxurious Center, the prize that sets the plot moving.

In SMT III: Nocturne, what is the moon-like object whose shifting phases hang over the Vortex World?

Kagutsuchi is more than scenery: anyone hoping to remake the world must present themselves to it and prove their worth.

Which items, which sometimes act violently inside him, teach the Demi-fiend new skills in SMT III: Nocturne?

Magatama also explain the spike on his neck, a design inspired by the theory that a person's aura looks like a shark fin seen from the side.

In Shin Megami Tensei V, the student hero merges with the proto-fiend Aogami to become which sword-wielding being?

Nahobino is the game's name for a demon-like being who has regained divine Knowledge, drawn as a balance between the human hero and his otherworldly partner.

Flynn, the hero of Shin Megami Tensei IV, serves as a samurai in which feudal kingdom secretly run by angels?

Mikado sits on top of the rock dome over Tokyo, where time runs faster: over a thousand years pass there while only a couple of decades go by below.

What name does Shin Megami Tensei V give the post-apocalyptic realm of warring angels and demons?

Da'at is fully explorable on foot, divided into open areas that each have their own environmental theme and roaming enemies.

In which Megami Tensei spin-off do the Embryon tribe gain demon powers from a virus and devour rivals to reach Nirvana?

Digital Devil Saga unfolds in the Junkyard, a combat simulator program where it always rains and six tribes fight over territory.

Which Shinto creator deity is the goddess of the title Megami Tensei, embodied in the story's heroine Yumiko?

Izanami was the novelist's choice because he came from a region of religious significance to her.

In Shin Megami Tensei II, which biblical figure is temple knight Zayin revealed to be after merging with the demon Set?

Satan is cast here as an instrument of divine wrath whose task is to judge and eradicate humanity, rather than as a rebel.

Which Chaos-aligned cult battles the Order of Messiah for control of ruined Tokyo in the first Shin Megami Tensei?

Ring of Gaea members prize freedom above all, and after the great flood they hold the basement floors of the cathedral their rivals built.

Atlus picked which outside game technology over an in-house one for Shin Megami Tensei V, prolonging production?

Unreal Engine came by invitation: Epic Games Japan was seeking studio partners at the time, and Atlus accepted its offer after six months of prototyping.

Which Strange Journey crew member sides with the angels and ends the Law route worshipped as humanity's channel to God?

Zelenin is a Russian scientist, and in the remake's extended ending her song removes humanity's desire for conflict.