Majin Motherfuckin' Tensei!!
For the uninitiated, this is pretty much Shin Megami Tensei's first foray into the SPRG genre way before Devil Survivor was a thing. If what I just said doesn't make a lick of sense to you and you're REALLY uninitiated, think Persona x Fire Emblem but on a grid instead of being an idol game.
So, to preface this review, I only played up until I defeated Minotaur, so this 2.5 star review is ONLY for the beginning 8 scenarios; I hear the game gets WAY worse, and if you want a great review of this game, I point you to @MarshSMT's review on Youtube. Dude just straight up makes the most down-to-earth reviews that are legitimately some of the best on the entire site, I highly suggest you check him out.
Well, enough about that. Let's talk about mechanics.
If you've ever played a traditional SMT, you have a vague idea of how things go. You get your main protag who can't use magic that's specced into strength, and then you get your girl protag who you spec into magic. Now, you could always be funny and not do the optimal thing when it comes to stat allocations, but this game DRAGS a ton so I would suggest not prolonging it any more than you need to unless you're some kind of sick freak.
At the start of the game, you're given a COMP that comes with the Demon Summoning Program. This COMP is pretty much vital, as it's how you're able to summon Demons you recruit. You can also use it to view stats, equipment, items, and damage effectiveness; and that last part is actually kind of strange, because instead of each type of demon having their own damage weaknesses, weaknesses are decided by their race. If you're familiar to Fire Emblem or Unicorn Overlord, it's kind of like how fliers are weak to arrows except that in Majin Tensei, there's about 20 different classes you need to account for.
Then there's the Moon Phases; I'm a sucker for moon phases and SMT is too. There's two main things the Moon Phase does in this game. The first is that it determines how much damage a demon will do, and this I'm not a terribly big fan of, mostly because it incentivizes stalling until a full moon passes before making your move. I could see it being a more interesting mechanic in another game, but here in Majin Tensei, the maps kind of just make you run away from the enemies until you can hit them back. It's not a lot of fun but it didn't really get in the way much in all 8 scenarios I played. The second use is that it determines how friendly demons are when you try to recruit them. If it's a full moon, prepare to get turned into a human sock puppet by some of these guys. If it's a new moon, recruiting them is almost guaranteed unless you get stupidly unlucky. It makes waiting out turns much more interesting because you're kind of put under a time limit to recruit enemies or neutral demons before they become rowdy again.
Speaking of neutral demons, they are actually pretty interesting. On top of having a banger theme, they don't really attack you or the enemy demons. They're mostly there just for you to recruit and I think that's cool. It's funny to think about how this game did yellow units before Fire Emblem 4; maybe Kaga copied some of Majin Tensei's notes? Who knows!
Anyway, I had a really fun time with Majin Tensei, so I think I can walk you through a little bit of my experience.
So starting off with a frankly incredible intro sequence that mirrors a computer and even shows a typo that gets fixed! It may seem like such a minor detail, but I think it's a cool touch that got me immersed in the game a bit.
In this computer screen, I get a message from some guy called Takeuchi, telling me that Earth and the Underworld have been linked and that the battle has just begun. Crazy shit, but he sent a Demon Summoning Program with the email so I do what any sane person would do and download files I got from a random email onto my COMP.
So you'd think the game would ease us in and give a little exposition on the world before getting into it but– NO! This is Majin Motherfuckin' Tensei we're talking about! What do you think this is, Devil Survivor? This is a REAL game that gets down to it immediately. No tutorial, no explanation as to how anything works, it's up to you to figure out what the hell you need to do. If FE7 Lyn Mode had a polar opposite, it's this.
So checking to see what the hell Takeuchi sent in this comp, we got one Pixie– scratch that, TWO Pixies, and we also get the main man himself: Orthus. If you've ever played a Fire Emblem game, Orthrus is your Jagen for this game. If you've ever played SMT1, Orthus is your Cerberus for this game, just with a new coat of paint. If you've ever played neither, well, uh... He's basically just your carry unit for the game. He's fast, he hits hard, and most importantly, he can soak up hits like he's an Oxiclean sponge for damage. If you ever play this game–which I really don't suggest you do past Minotaur–USE HIM.but also let your mc get exp he needs it
So, for the majority of these earlygame missions, it's just me, Orthrus, and the two Pixie for healing. Maps at this point are kind of bland and uninteresting with a lot of empty space that just serves no purpose; a common thread you'll see in Majin Tensei's map design. Eventually, we have to go find a lab and we enter a short map gauntlet that eventually culminates with us freeing a woman. Cool.
This woman is basically the magic user of the group and comes with great spells, so I specced her with mostly magic with some Vitality to make sure she doesn't explode from one attack. She'd practically be my only magic attacker for my short playthrough, so she was pretty damn useful.
Once I got her, it was a straightforward set of maps before I ran into a map with Neutral Demons. Now this map gave me some interesting choices and I actually picked up a few. Of note, I picked up 3 Goblins just so that they could soften up enemies for my MC to kill (since Orthus kept 1-shotting them all), I picked up a Sylph which was just a better Pixie, and I also picked up this strange-looking demon called Tanki.
Now, I don't know what it was about this guy, but his charming good looks and his sweet personality captivated me. Tanki is the man, and I knew I would make use of him when possible; I mean, just look at him. What is he supposed to be, some kind of serpent sea-turtle with a long human head and mermaid frills? What a fascinating design.
So the next map immediately jumpscared me with a BANGER. Seriously, Majin Tensei has some of the best soundtracks I've heard come out of the SNES; it's a massive shame they're kind of wasted on this game. But back to the topic at hand, the moment I heard this I knew something was about to pop off; lo and behold, I see Tyrant Minotaur challenge me to combat and I knew shit was about to get real. Now, for all the shit I give to Majin Tensei's maps (rightfully so), I actually really like this map design. You're essentially cramped into this tiny 1-tile wide mountain valley with beast demons at the sides of the mountains. This is important to note, as only Beast units and the flying Fairies can cross mountains; everyone else is forced into that tiny 1-tile wide corridor. By forcing you to use Orthrus to keep the Beasts away from your squishy units, you can't rely on him to deal with Minotaur. As a result, you're put in this really interesting position where you have to rely on the rest of your shitter squad to deal with the main threat. For having had such stagnant map design for the majority of it's playtime, this good map design actually surprised me and made me use all of my units wisely.
Essentially, my gameplan to deal with Minotaur was this: I would use the Goblins I got to act as chokepoints to stall Minotaur while Orthrus and my man Tanki handled the beast units at the side. Together, the two Beasts were downright UNSTOPPABLE. But they didn't just stop at the Beast demons! I decided to have them also take down Minotaur's Fairies surrounding him in order to prevent him from healing himself back up.
Now see, the hubris of man is folly. I got cocky here and I inadvertedly put Tanki in a compromising position next to the valley on top of a half-dead enemy. So when that half-dead enemy happened to run into one of my Goblins and killed itself, freeing up that slot for Minotaur... Tanki suffered a terrible fate at the hands of Minotaur, breathing his last as a result of a horribly stupid move I did.
In an act of vengeance, I moved my protagonist over to land the killing blow on Minotaur, having been chipped down by the goblins three; however, I MISSED the attack, blinded by my tears at the loss of Tanki. Having put myself in a compromising position and getting hit by the Minotaur's counterattack, I was surely dead to the next attack.
However, Orthrus came to my rescue, sneaking up behind the Minotaur and slaying the beast in one fell swoop. It was as if he was personally telling me "Do not say, 'I’ll do to them as they have done to me; I’ll pay them back for what they did' (Proverbs 24:29)". And I realized something important. Revenge can often blind those who pursue it; it is important to remain calm in the face of adversity, even at our lowest point. I thank you, Orthus. And I also thank you, Tanki. May your soul rest in peace.
Thus, my experience ends there. Though the loss of Tanki was a crushing blow to my psyche, I had always intended to stop after beating Minotaur. It was honestly pretty cool seeing the roots of what would later become Devil Survivorand arguably Persona 5 Tactica lol.
As for complaints... Well, I've got a couple.
First, the game is SLLLLOOOOOOOOW. Now, I'm the kind of guy who sits down and watches real-time FE4 and Tellius enemy phases without feeling the itch to pull out my phone, so me saying this should hold some considerable weight. The fact you can't turn off animations is just baffling honestly, but then again, this was a pretty experimental concept so I can't fault them for it. Regardless, bring a book or pull out a subway surfers gif on the corner of your screen, you're in for a long haul in these enemy phases.
Secondly, the controls feel weirdly unresponsive and clunky? It feels like I have to wait half a second before moving around in menus. It's not enough to the point where it feels super delayed but it's just barely noticeable to tick me off.
But yeah, that's about all I have for this game. For being a really old game, I think they had some novel ideas that would later be perfected down the line, but it definitely did not stand the test of time. Well, maybe the music did, but that's about all I can say.
Colorblindness Rating: A?
As far as I can tell, there's no color-related issues with the game, as red, blue, and yellow units are pretty hard to get mixed up in my personal opinion. Now, if there's green units or whatever down the line, THEN I could see issues, but from the 8-scenario snippet I just played, that never came up so... Yeah.
For the uninitiated, this is pretty much Shin Megami Tensei's first foray into the SPRG genre way before Devil Survivor was a thing. If what I just said doesn't make a lick of sense to you and you're REALLY uninitiated, think Persona x Fire Emblem but on a grid instead of being an idol game.
So, to preface this review, I only played up until I defeated Minotaur, so this 2.5 star review is ONLY for the beginning 8 scenarios; I hear the game gets WAY worse, and if you want a great review of this game, I point you to @MarshSMT's review on Youtube. Dude just straight up makes the most down-to-earth reviews that are legitimately some of the best on the entire site, I highly suggest you check him out.
Well, enough about that. Let's talk about mechanics.
If you've ever played a traditional SMT, you have a vague idea of how things go. You get your main protag who can't use magic that's specced into strength, and then you get your girl protag who you spec into magic. Now, you could always be funny and not do the optimal thing when it comes to stat allocations, but this game DRAGS a ton so I would suggest not prolonging it any more than you need to unless you're some kind of sick freak.
At the start of the game, you're given a COMP that comes with the Demon Summoning Program. This COMP is pretty much vital, as it's how you're able to summon Demons you recruit. You can also use it to view stats, equipment, items, and damage effectiveness; and that last part is actually kind of strange, because instead of each type of demon having their own damage weaknesses, weaknesses are decided by their race. If you're familiar to Fire Emblem or Unicorn Overlord, it's kind of like how fliers are weak to arrows except that in Majin Tensei, there's about 20 different classes you need to account for.
Then there's the Moon Phases; I'm a sucker for moon phases and SMT is too. There's two main things the Moon Phase does in this game. The first is that it determines how much damage a demon will do, and this I'm not a terribly big fan of, mostly because it incentivizes stalling until a full moon passes before making your move. I could see it being a more interesting mechanic in another game, but here in Majin Tensei, the maps kind of just make you run away from the enemies until you can hit them back. It's not a lot of fun but it didn't really get in the way much in all 8 scenarios I played. The second use is that it determines how friendly demons are when you try to recruit them. If it's a full moon, prepare to get turned into a human sock puppet by some of these guys. If it's a new moon, recruiting them is almost guaranteed unless you get stupidly unlucky. It makes waiting out turns much more interesting because you're kind of put under a time limit to recruit enemies or neutral demons before they become rowdy again.
Speaking of neutral demons, they are actually pretty interesting. On top of having a banger theme, they don't really attack you or the enemy demons. They're mostly there just for you to recruit and I think that's cool. It's funny to think about how this game did yellow units before Fire Emblem 4; maybe Kaga copied some of Majin Tensei's notes? Who knows!
Anyway, I had a really fun time with Majin Tensei, so I think I can walk you through a little bit of my experience.
So starting off with a frankly incredible intro sequence that mirrors a computer and even shows a typo that gets fixed! It may seem like such a minor detail, but I think it's a cool touch that got me immersed in the game a bit.
In this computer screen, I get a message from some guy called Takeuchi, telling me that Earth and the Underworld have been linked and that the battle has just begun. Crazy shit, but he sent a Demon Summoning Program with the email so I do what any sane person would do and download files I got from a random email onto my COMP.
So you'd think the game would ease us in and give a little exposition on the world before getting into it but– NO! This is Majin Motherfuckin' Tensei we're talking about! What do you think this is, Devil Survivor? This is a REAL game that gets down to it immediately. No tutorial, no explanation as to how anything works, it's up to you to figure out what the hell you need to do. If FE7 Lyn Mode had a polar opposite, it's this.
So checking to see what the hell Takeuchi sent in this comp, we got one Pixie– scratch that, TWO Pixies, and we also get the main man himself: Orthus. If you've ever played a Fire Emblem game, Orthrus is your Jagen for this game. If you've ever played SMT1, Orthus is your Cerberus for this game, just with a new coat of paint. If you've ever played neither, well, uh... He's basically just your carry unit for the game. He's fast, he hits hard, and most importantly, he can soak up hits like he's an Oxiclean sponge for damage. If you ever play this game–which I really don't suggest you do past Minotaur–USE HIM.
So, for the majority of these earlygame missions, it's just me, Orthrus, and the two Pixie for healing. Maps at this point are kind of bland and uninteresting with a lot of empty space that just serves no purpose; a common thread you'll see in Majin Tensei's map design. Eventually, we have to go find a lab and we enter a short map gauntlet that eventually culminates with us freeing a woman. Cool.
This woman is basically the magic user of the group and comes with great spells, so I specced her with mostly magic with some Vitality to make sure she doesn't explode from one attack. She'd practically be my only magic attacker for my short playthrough, so she was pretty damn useful.
Once I got her, it was a straightforward set of maps before I ran into a map with Neutral Demons. Now this map gave me some interesting choices and I actually picked up a few. Of note, I picked up 3 Goblins just so that they could soften up enemies for my MC to kill (since Orthus kept 1-shotting them all), I picked up a Sylph which was just a better Pixie, and I also picked up this strange-looking demon called Tanki.
Now, I don't know what it was about this guy, but his charming good looks and his sweet personality captivated me. Tanki is the man, and I knew I would make use of him when possible; I mean, just look at him. What is he supposed to be, some kind of serpent sea-turtle with a long human head and mermaid frills? What a fascinating design.
So the next map immediately jumpscared me with a BANGER. Seriously, Majin Tensei has some of the best soundtracks I've heard come out of the SNES; it's a massive shame they're kind of wasted on this game. But back to the topic at hand, the moment I heard this I knew something was about to pop off; lo and behold, I see Tyrant Minotaur challenge me to combat and I knew shit was about to get real. Now, for all the shit I give to Majin Tensei's maps (rightfully so), I actually really like this map design. You're essentially cramped into this tiny 1-tile wide mountain valley with beast demons at the sides of the mountains. This is important to note, as only Beast units and the flying Fairies can cross mountains; everyone else is forced into that tiny 1-tile wide corridor. By forcing you to use Orthrus to keep the Beasts away from your squishy units, you can't rely on him to deal with Minotaur. As a result, you're put in this really interesting position where you have to rely on the rest of your shitter squad to deal with the main threat. For having had such stagnant map design for the majority of it's playtime, this good map design actually surprised me and made me use all of my units wisely.
Essentially, my gameplan to deal with Minotaur was this: I would use the Goblins I got to act as chokepoints to stall Minotaur while Orthrus and my man Tanki handled the beast units at the side. Together, the two Beasts were downright UNSTOPPABLE. But they didn't just stop at the Beast demons! I decided to have them also take down Minotaur's Fairies surrounding him in order to prevent him from healing himself back up.
Now see, the hubris of man is folly. I got cocky here and I inadvertedly put Tanki in a compromising position next to the valley on top of a half-dead enemy. So when that half-dead enemy happened to run into one of my Goblins and killed itself, freeing up that slot for Minotaur... Tanki suffered a terrible fate at the hands of Minotaur, breathing his last as a result of a horribly stupid move I did.
In an act of vengeance, I moved my protagonist over to land the killing blow on Minotaur, having been chipped down by the goblins three; however, I MISSED the attack, blinded by my tears at the loss of Tanki. Having put myself in a compromising position and getting hit by the Minotaur's counterattack, I was surely dead to the next attack.
However, Orthrus came to my rescue, sneaking up behind the Minotaur and slaying the beast in one fell swoop. It was as if he was personally telling me "Do not say, 'I’ll do to them as they have done to me; I’ll pay them back for what they did' (Proverbs 24:29)". And I realized something important. Revenge can often blind those who pursue it; it is important to remain calm in the face of adversity, even at our lowest point. I thank you, Orthus. And I also thank you, Tanki. May your soul rest in peace.
Thus, my experience ends there. Though the loss of Tanki was a crushing blow to my psyche, I had always intended to stop after beating Minotaur. It was honestly pretty cool seeing the roots of what would later become Devil Survivor
As for complaints... Well, I've got a couple.
First, the game is SLLLLOOOOOOOOW. Now, I'm the kind of guy who sits down and watches real-time FE4 and Tellius enemy phases without feeling the itch to pull out my phone, so me saying this should hold some considerable weight. The fact you can't turn off animations is just baffling honestly, but then again, this was a pretty experimental concept so I can't fault them for it. Regardless, bring a book or pull out a subway surfers gif on the corner of your screen, you're in for a long haul in these enemy phases.
Secondly, the controls feel weirdly unresponsive and clunky? It feels like I have to wait half a second before moving around in menus. It's not enough to the point where it feels super delayed but it's just barely noticeable to tick me off.
But yeah, that's about all I have for this game. For being a really old game, I think they had some novel ideas that would later be perfected down the line, but it definitely did not stand the test of time. Well, maybe the music did, but that's about all I can say.
Colorblindness Rating: A?
As far as I can tell, there's no color-related issues with the game, as red, blue, and yellow units are pretty hard to get mixed up in my personal opinion. Now, if there's green units or whatever down the line, THEN I could see issues, but from the 8-scenario snippet I just played, that never came up so... Yeah.