The History of the Megaten Series Part 1: The Dark Ages - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 08 August 2009 / 6,580 Views
Background:
I have been a fan of Japanese RPGs for more than a decade now, and am always trying to find new games that I love. Had you asked me what my favorite RPG was back then I would have said one of the many Final Fantasy games, because at the time they were the pinnacle of RPG achievement. Now some ten years later, I still love Final Fantasy, but another series takes my top spot...
Fans of Japanese style RPG have flocked to games like Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, and the “Tales of….” Series for many years. These are the games that seem to get the media attention, rabid fans, somewhat casual appeal, and brand recognition. One JRPG series has always stayed in the subterranean fringes of the genre despite creating legions of devoted fans. This series is the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) series. Called “Megaten” for short by many of its fans, the SMT games have been alive and kicking since the Famicom (NES) days way back in the late eighties. Many did not know this, as the series was completely unheard of in the west until Persona, a spin-off game for the Playstation rolled stateside with heavy edits in place.
The origins of the series lie in the release of a group of science fiction horror novels called “Digital Devil Story” by Aya Nishitani. The series was originally owned by Namco, and later sold to Atlus. If you would like to check out those original stories, few English speaking fan sites such as this one have translated it:
Namcot (another name for Namco) took ideas from the book, and expanded on the cyberpunk and gothic horror themes found within, creating something special. The added “Megami Tensei” (which translates to roughly “Reincarnation of the Goddess”) moniker came from the fact that the heroine of the first game was actually a reincarnation of the Shinto goddess Izanami. This moniker has stuck even though later games have little to do with the title.
The Megaten series is notable for the way you recruit and keep your party. In most games in the main series, you have the ability to talk to and recruit just about any demonic creature in the game. Some creatures with no intelligence are not so easy to convert, and others will try to extort you for items and money. Once in your party, the monsters will not level up as human characters do, but are only made better by combining them together into new monsters. This makes the games both immensely deep, and fairly long. Both of these features were a revolutionary design for their time, and you can see similar monster wrangling systems in later games like Pokemon and Monster Rancher. Another quirk about the way the game is presented lies in the actual visual presentation itself. While most Japanese RPGs follow the norm of having a third person fixed camera (either far above the protagonist's head or over the shoulder) The Megaten games until recently all had a first-person view typically associated with Western RPGs. Because of this, the game almost shares more with games like the Elder Scrolls series than Final Fantasy. This can be seen as one of the major reasons for the series' success as of late, as SMT: Nocturne was given rave reviews despite most media networks not having a taste for JRPGs.
The NES Era and the Censorship of American Videogame Companies
I remember looking at various video game magazine “most wanted” polls around ten years ago, and seeing almost everyone into JRPGs want Megaten games. The editor would then chime in with a snarky “that ain’t happening” and that was that. Obviously the series had the potential to be popular around here, but there seemed to be a stopping block that I was unaware of. Why is the game series shunned by western game companies? The answer is simple; the content of the games was the main stopping block.
In the land of the old notions like “gaming is only for children”, mature-themed games were almost unseen on the NES, and Japanese-styled RPGs were deemed too hard by eastern companies for the American and European market. In this climate, the Megaten games had two strikes against them from the beginning. Most Megaten games revolve around a traumatic post-apocalyptic world where the last remnants of humanity cling on for survival in a nightmare world of risen gods, and demons. This was immediately a hard situation to win over, as any games with even the most minor religious overtones were generally edited heavily at the time. A game like the original Megami Tensei contained such plot points as an epic battle with a vengeful God named “Yahweh” and the eventual choice between becoming good and evil.
Such references to religion found in games have been criticized by religious groups of specific denominations for many years. This has gone so far that many games have been edited before release to appease whatever group it is that feels offended. Most recently this has happened with games such as Little Big Planet and Zack and Wiki, but this has gone on for a long time. Games such as Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Castlevania, to name a few, were edited down because of crosses, the word “monk”, and even holy water of all things. On the more extreme end, games such as Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics and Grandia II contain references (even outright criticism) to Christianity and organized religion in general. Often, role-playing games in particular make use of a corrupt and powerful church body and even parishioners as the game’s antagonist. This has almost become a cliché for many RPGs, but Megaten seems to take it a bit further, as the villains are not a misguided cult, or mysterious occult leader, but actual Judeo Christian gods, as well as ones from other religions.
The following is from the actual content guidelines that Nintendo of America set forth on gaming 20 years ago, a set of rules that paved gaming for generations, and held back many games from a U.S. release.
“The following Game Content Guidelines are presented for assistance in the development of authorized game paks (i.e., both Nintendo and licensee game paks) by defining the type of content and themes inconsistent with Nintendo's corporate and marketing philosophy. Although exceptions may be made to preserve the content of a game, Nintendo will not approve games for the NES, Game Boy or Super NES systems (i.e., audio-visual work, packaging, and instruction manuals) which:
• include sexually suggestive or explicit content including rape and/or nudity
• contain language or depiction which specifically denigrates members of either sex
• depict random, gratuitous, and/or excessive violence
• depict graphic illustration of death
• depict domestic violence and/or abuse
• depict excessive force in a sports game beyond what is inherent in actual contact sports
• reflect ethnic, religious, nationalistic, or sexual stereotypes of language; this includes symbols that are related to any type of racial, religious, nationalistic, or ethnic group, such as crosses, pentagrams, God, Gods (Roman mythological gods are acceptable), Satan, hell, Buddha
• use profanity or obscenity in any form or incorporate language or gestures that could be offensive by prevailing public standards and tastes
• incorporate or encourage the use of illegal drugs, smoking materials, and/or alcohol (Nintendo does not allow a beer or cigarette ad to be placed on an arena, stadium or playing field wall, or fence in a sports game)
• include subliminal political messages or overt political statements”
As you can see, the Megaten series was doomed to stay in Japan through this entire generation and even more. It was not until Mortal Kombat and its clones spun 'mature' gaming as a viable demographic, that Nintendo realized that times needed to change.
Games of this era:
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
(Official description and images)
“Akemi Nakajima is a computer programming prodigy who created a program that can summon demons from Makai. He brings his friend Yumiko Shirasagi to combat the malicious demons he unleashed. The game is assumed to take place after the first two Digital Devil Story books where demons Loki and Set have been defeated. The demon Lucifer has revived them in order to prepare to invade the human world once again.”
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II
(Official description and images)
“The world has been bombarded with missiles forcing the survivors to live in shelters. 35 years later, the war created a dimensional rift that bridges the demon world with the human world. Two people were playing a video game called 'Devil Busters' and then they were approached by a demon called Pazuzu, who declares them as saviors of mankind. Nebiros and other monsters began to raid the shelter and Pazuzu grants the main characters the ability to summon demons to ward them off and begin their journey to salvage the remains of humanity.”
1987 Movie - Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei
Did you know that there was a Megaten Anime? Actually there are a few, but the very first is based on the original Novel. An OVA (direct to video) was produced in 1987 to limited acclaim. The film hasn’t really ever been released over here due to its somewhat lackluster storyline and generic, yet very gory styling. You can find it on fansub sites if you are interested, but I honestly would not recommend it, as it is kind of bad.
"At Juusei Academy, students are given the best education that money can buy… but there's a catch. Unknown to his classmates, the computer genius Akemi Nakajima has misguided plans to revive the demon Loki; and unfortunately for his classmates, teacher and new transfer student Yumiko Shirasagi, this requires plenty of sacrifices -- a job that falls to them. What Nakajima doesn’t know is that reviving Loki is the pretense for many demons to come, and that the fate of the world may lie in his and Yumiko's hands… if they survive long enough to defeat the ultimate evil!"
Stay tuned for part 2 of this series where we explore the 16 bit era, when the series really hit its stride.
source for the censorship info:
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Good article. I don't like first person rpgs like the originals, but I think I would like to check out the novels and anime movie.
I've got a few reviews to do this week so maybe a week from today at the earliest...
Well written and interesting article. Great job!
Just a little mistake in both games' title. It's "Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei" instead of "Digital Devil Saga: Megami Tensei", the same for the sequel. ;)
When will be part 2 available? Can't wait to read it.
i went on to watch the Anime, i can say its not Bad actually.
thought the quality i found it in is pretty bad.
very interesting story. Cant wait for part 2. SMT rocks!!
Great read, thanks.
i am a big jrpg fan but was always hoping that there would be some more mature storytelling than ff or dragon quest.
can exactly remember when i first saw nocturne at the retail shop. hadn't heard about the series before, but thought: "damn this looks good!"
and then i started the game... and couldnt stop for weeks!
hoping for persona 5 on the PS3, but already very happy that persona comes out soon on the PSP
Great read, looking forward to part 2.
Great read only sad that someone else did something like this already:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/megaten/megaten.htm
for a moment I thought it was "The History of the Megaton" !
Great work spdk1!
Great job, I read through all of it. Megaten rules.
hopefully there will be 4 of these, thanks for the comments folks!
Excellent read, spdk. It's nice to read about the origins of the series, how it started and how it came to be the masterpiece after masterpiece Atlus is pumping out. Can't wait to see the next ones
yep, that's a great read.
but I think a better comparison would be Might & Magic and Wizardry than The Elder Scrolls (yes, nitpicking but I had to do it lol)
Can't wait for part 2
Excellent article, thumbs up from me.
