I honestly didn't expect this game to be this good.
Incredibly enjoyable if you use a guide and like both dungeon crawling and monster collectible.
The alignment thing is a bit messed up tho, but it was innovative for an 80s game.
Despite the plot being narrated by very few lines of dialogue, that didn-t stop me from getting attached to my characters and finding the story interesting.
Incredibly enjoyable if you use a guide and like both dungeon crawling and monster collectible.
The alignment thing is a bit messed up tho, but it was innovative for an 80s game.
Despite the plot being narrated by very few lines of dialogue, that didn-t stop me from getting attached to my characters and finding the story interesting.
As 2023 folded into 2024 I sat thinking about what new experiences I could have that I've missed out on and then uh I suddenly was like "wow I want to replay Shin Megami Tensei 1" so here I am and I finally played through the GBA port that fans graciously worked to have the only official script the game has had so far from Atlus and I put this on my 3DS of all systems just to add onto this.
Shin Megami Tensei 1 is the most influential video game I have played so far in my life as someone who likes to make games to be quite honest, back when I got into the series I initially started the SNES version of this game after years of wanting to play it (and the iphone version) when I was 15 but I was too much of a anti-fun baby to sit down and just get all the stuff set up. After playing this game I immediately made my own game that took a bunch of ideas from this one to the point that I'd say it's a clone, my imagination was just blown wide open by how this game combined horror and dungeon crawling beautifully and 5 years later I'm still in love with it frankly.
The best way I can describe what makes this game good is that it's a JRPG set in a metropolitan setting, buildings and traversing the city and world itself are confusing and you could very well end up being stuck down a winding path that could kill you if you take a bad turn. Shin Megami Tensei is a game that thrives in a Super Famicom-era sense of maturity with not only this very realistic setting but also an almost David Lynch-esc obsession with creating a dream-like situation blended with very apparent Akira and Devilman elements. I haven't really played a lot of PC games but looking at those games at the time and playing even a bit of Wizardry, what I can say is rather than Dragon Quest being simplification for home consoles of a dainty adventure in a mystical world Shin Megami Tensei takes very direct RPG elements and weirdo PC gameplay ideas for the home console (or in this case now ported to portable) experience.
That being said the weakest aspect of this true RPG by the numbers design comes down to alignments, a system determining which specific faction in the game you side with which can determine what enemies you can recruit and what options you have in the story even but is determined by story actions and battle-to-battle situations, which this port alleviates (at least based on my memory of the SF original). Another minor flaw that only crept into this replay is that the game is very easy to break once you know a few tricks to where I'd say this was the smoothest SMT experience I have which is kind of funny. I genuinely believe that (spoiler for mechanic that you can exploit here) the use of stunning enemies with ice and electric attacks was probably something that made the later Press Turn system exist so in of itself SMT1 is rough and very early but man yeah idk SMT Nocturne really kind of flipped everything in this era of the franchise on its head yet I still find the archaic aspect of this era in the franchise very appealing (Soul Hackers is indeed the most addicting megaten game in my opinion).
Going to this port now, wow besides having the GBA sound chip this is a stupidly good port and from all the evidence I've gathered this was based on the Playstation 1 port so maybe just play that one instead lmao. What's added only on this version of the game (that I still don't know how to use) is small story content you get from defeating bosses which is very cool and jarring if you've only played the Super Famicom version like I did lmao.
Overall: I am still a Shin Megami Tensei maniac lol
Shin Megami Tensei 1 is the most influential video game I have played so far in my life as someone who likes to make games to be quite honest, back when I got into the series I initially started the SNES version of this game after years of wanting to play it (and the iphone version) when I was 15 but I was too much of a anti-fun baby to sit down and just get all the stuff set up. After playing this game I immediately made my own game that took a bunch of ideas from this one to the point that I'd say it's a clone, my imagination was just blown wide open by how this game combined horror and dungeon crawling beautifully and 5 years later I'm still in love with it frankly.
The best way I can describe what makes this game good is that it's a JRPG set in a metropolitan setting, buildings and traversing the city and world itself are confusing and you could very well end up being stuck down a winding path that could kill you if you take a bad turn. Shin Megami Tensei is a game that thrives in a Super Famicom-era sense of maturity with not only this very realistic setting but also an almost David Lynch-esc obsession with creating a dream-like situation blended with very apparent Akira and Devilman elements. I haven't really played a lot of PC games but looking at those games at the time and playing even a bit of Wizardry, what I can say is rather than Dragon Quest being simplification for home consoles of a dainty adventure in a mystical world Shin Megami Tensei takes very direct RPG elements and weirdo PC gameplay ideas for the home console (or in this case now ported to portable) experience.
That being said the weakest aspect of this true RPG by the numbers design comes down to alignments, a system determining which specific faction in the game you side with which can determine what enemies you can recruit and what options you have in the story even but is determined by story actions and battle-to-battle situations, which this port alleviates (at least based on my memory of the SF original). Another minor flaw that only crept into this replay is that the game is very easy to break once you know a few tricks to where I'd say this was the smoothest SMT experience I have which is kind of funny. I genuinely believe that (spoiler for mechanic that you can exploit here) the use of stunning enemies with ice and electric attacks was probably something that made the later Press Turn system exist so in of itself SMT1 is rough and very early but man yeah idk SMT Nocturne really kind of flipped everything in this era of the franchise on its head yet I still find the archaic aspect of this era in the franchise very appealing (Soul Hackers is indeed the most addicting megaten game in my opinion).
Going to this port now, wow besides having the GBA sound chip this is a stupidly good port and from all the evidence I've gathered this was based on the Playstation 1 port so maybe just play that one instead lmao. What's added only on this version of the game (that I still don't know how to use) is small story content you get from defeating bosses which is very cool and jarring if you've only played the Super Famicom version like I did lmao.
Overall: I am still a Shin Megami Tensei maniac lol
I'm definitely very grateful for the unique story direction this game took and the way it influenced all subsequent mainline games. Especially considering how the conflicts in megami tensei II aren't morally gray (at least intentionally).
But there is no denying that you need to be a specific kind of person to enjoy this kind of game. Combat is extremely uninteresting, mostly revolving around either auto-battling or switching through slow menus, and yet the encounter rate is still rather high. I like simple dungeon exploration but I definitely think that a lot of people who would like that might get filtered by the former issues with combat.
But there is no denying that you need to be a specific kind of person to enjoy this kind of game. Combat is extremely uninteresting, mostly revolving around either auto-battling or switching through slow menus, and yet the encounter rate is still rather high. I like simple dungeon exploration but I definitely think that a lot of people who would like that might get filtered by the former issues with combat.
CRAZY ONLY OFFICIAL US RELEASE OMG I played this on my iphone 4 (that eventually got stolen otherwise I'd be playing it again) and it's just an upgrade to the original. Good luck playing it now :^)
The GBA version is pretty much the same as the PS1 version, but on inferior hardware, and with some added exposition.
This review contains spoilers
for my first time ever playing this game, i made a few fatal errors. one, i played the gba version, two, i took the chaos route bc i thought itd be funny, and three, i streamed it. not a great way to experience this for the first time, ill be honest. that being said, i feel very conflicted on smt1. i loved the characters, story, spritework (even if it was a bit crusty on gba) and character designs. of all the smt games ive played so far, this one has my favorite protagonist designs by far, all of them are REALLY good. the beginning "chapter" was also really good, 199x is a super great introductory segment to get you used to all of the games core mechanics and the like. its once you get to the apocalypse, in 20xx, where things take a turn. the game takes away all your money, party members, pits you against monsters way stronger than you, drinks your juice and calls you a bitch. which, to be fair, i guess thats how things would go in a real apocalypse, so it fits in that regard. but the difficulty really spikes here for me, everything is so expensive, especially reviving and healing party members. not to mention, you get so little money from encounters that it takes ages to even get enough to revive one guy. equipment was really expensive too, and that felt like the one way i could maybe stand up to some of the tough enemies in this section. the dungeons also got really mean after a certain point, stuff like the girl's mind dungeon, where there are no ways to save and Arachne can just charm you and make you hit yourself to death, forcing you to redo the entire dungeon, or Tokyo Destinyland, where one bad roll can cripple you and force you to walk allllll the way back to the Kaifuku to get it fixed for an exorbitant fee. this all culminates in the worst dungeon in the entire game by far, the Basilica, which is so colossal and full to the brim of backtracking that it took me over 6 hours to get through this god forsaken hellhole, and that was WITH a map. of course, there were a couple things that i probably could have done to minimize my frustrations, and probably the most important one was just... not streaming it. when you're streaming something, you can't really take breaks the same way you can when you're just playing a game on your own, at least not in the way that i stream stuff, so my play sessions usually boiled down to these grueling several hour grinds through dungeons, when the game really isn't meant to be played that way. as such, i feel like i can't really give this game a proper review in the state that my playthrough was in, so i definitely plan to write a second one after i do another playthrough on my own time. also, while the GBA version is a pretty cool oddity, it is not the ideal way to play this game. everything looks super crunched down and washed out, and the iffy musical renditions aren't helping. again, not the best way to play the game for the first time. also, i didn't know where else to put this, but the demon negotiation, fusion, and battle systems overall just didn't really click for me in this one. compared to the other smt entries ive played things were just pretty barebones and boring here. that being said, it is a little unfair to compare one of the first entries in the series to the later ones in that regard, considering it was working off of what the first two MegaTens had and not much else, so i'll let this slide. one thing i WON'T let slide, however, is that Energy Drain attacks from DDSt:MT are in this one for some god forsaken reason. you can inflict me with statuses or use Hama on me all you want, but NEVER take away my levels. that should be considered a war crime.
to conclude, this review is moreso about my experience streaming this game, rather than an actual review of the game itself. i'll save that for its own review when i play through the SFC version on my own time. that being said, streaming Shin Megami Tensei was one of the most grueling, mentally taxing, and frustrating experiences ive ever had streaming a game, but it still had some fun moments sprinkled in there. and again, a lot of my issues with this game stemmed from a comedy of errors on my part, and were no fault of the game itself
to conclude, this review is moreso about my experience streaming this game, rather than an actual review of the game itself. i'll save that for its own review when i play through the SFC version on my own time. that being said, streaming Shin Megami Tensei was one of the most grueling, mentally taxing, and frustrating experiences ive ever had streaming a game, but it still had some fun moments sprinkled in there. and again, a lot of my issues with this game stemmed from a comedy of errors on my part, and were no fault of the game itself