GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES
For the past few months I’ve been obsessing over this game, while not actually sitting down to play through it. Not too long after I had dipped into Ridge Racer Type 4 I became interested in other racing games, and eventually learned about Daytona USA. An iconic arcade racer that- immediately took my interest. The aesthetics, soundtrack, and arcadey nature made me raise an eyebrow. I wanted to try this.
But only now have I actually gone through every track in the original game, after playing the first two levels on and off for about two months. Some of that is due to Daytona’s skill curve. I wouldn’t call it as easy to pick up and play as Ridge Racer. The way drifting works is significantly more difficult to pick up on, and overall this game has more emphasis on needing to learn all of its mechanical intricacies to play properly. That being said, you can still do okay-ish enough by knowing only the basics, even on automatic transmission.
Gameplay wasn’t the main factor for my interest in the game, though. I was much more curious about everything else. Daytona USA is absolutely seeping with SEGA’s energy from the 90’s. Bright blue skies loom over you, as head bopping tunes, some of Sega Sound Team’s pure finest, play in the background. Takenobu Mitsuyoshi’s fantastic vocals for every track elevated the score, and with the Saturn version, made his voice fully realized in the realm of CD quality audio. The soundtrack is mainly comprised of three songs, The King of Speed, Let’s Go Away, and Sky High, all of which are FANTASTIC. Both the arcade and Saturn versions of these tunes are some of my favorites in video games period, reminding me of similar Sega soundtracks like Sonic R and Sonic CD. Just music that is riding with both energy, creativity, and depth.
The 1994 Saturn port of the game isn’t well regarded, and while for good reason too, it’s still very solid. The technical aspects of the game are a bit annoying, such as the drop from 60fps to 20fps, and the limited draw distance being- very apparent. It still plays great, though, and it also introduces the arranged soundtrack. I think considering the crunch development cycle of the Saturn version in order for it to release on launch, alongside the limitations of Saturn hardware compared to Sega’s technical beast that is the Model 2, it’s a lot better than it could’ve been. Nowadays, if you have a PS3 or Xbox, you can just play a modern port of the arcade version for about ten bucks, which isn’t a bad price. There still is merit to trying older versions of the game, but if you had to pick one version… it’s probably that. I still adored the Saturn version, with it’s cute little limitations, shadows and other visual effects simply being a very obvious dithering effect, and overall comfiness. It is worse than the arcade version, but it still offers that core Daytona experience.
Little side tangent, can I just say that the box art for both of the Daytona USA ports on Saturn in Japan look fantastic? The 1994 one is oozing with color, while the Circuit Edition one has this amazing evening sky. The NTSC-U box arts by comparison are… fine, but a little generic.
Daytona USA is a special game to me. It’s not my favorite racing game (I still think RRT4 is), but it’s a game that reminds me of why I loved Sega in the 90’s and 2000’s, especially with those bright blue Sega skies. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully be able to explain what this game’s aesthetics mean to me, but it makes me happy and I guess that’s all that really matters. Please play this, if you can, it’s less than 30 minutes long if you play all the tracks, and it is really fun.

IT'S NOT MY FAVORITE GAME NO THIS ISN'T HAPPENING IT ISN'T A STUPID ASS RPG THAT'S LIKE 100 HOURS LONG THE STORY IS SIMPLE IT RUNS ON STUPID BUT THE PROBLEM IS I LIKE STUPID WHAT DID THIS GAME DO TO ME AFTER I BEAT IT I TRIED TO PLAY A JRPG MY FAVORITE PASTTIME BUT I PLAYED BRAVELY DEFAULT FOR A COUPLE HOURS AND THOUGHT "GOD DAMN THIS SUCKS ASS WHY AM I DOING THIS" THIS SHIT IS BRAINWASHING SOFTWARE DESIGNED AS A GAME IT FUCKING DERADICALIZED ME OFF OF JRPGS HELP
(I initially said that I would write a more coherent review of this later but no review I could ever write can capture my feelings better than this one)

You wouldn't DOWNLOAD a DEMON.

It's hard to overstate the importance of Megaten's PlayStation 2 golden age on the development of the franchise. It was a period of reinvention, one so effective in modernizing the Megaten experience that many of its newly introduced systems remain an indelible part of the franchise's identity. The Press-Turn battle system is still the bedrock upon which every new release builds, often in small, incremental ways. Even Persona owes much of its success due to Persona 3's introduction of time management and social systems.

Like many, I was introduced to Megaten through this era of games. But while Nocturne might be my first Shin Megami Tensei, there were in fact others before it... I mean, you know that. You're on a page for one that came out in 1992, why would I even word the review like this? I'm sorry, it's just that, like, i found out my mom was a demon and it took me to a pretty bad place and i fused the family dog with a pixie and it speaks english now, and i'm just under a lot of stress

CHAOS: I will destroy everything I don't understand.

If modern Megaten is defined by how "difficult" it is, then pre-PS2 Megaten is downright obtuse. This is felt almost immediately in how you interface with the world, which is viewed through a first person perspective. If you've never played a dungeon crawler before, especially one of this era, it can be incredibly overwhelming. Maps are large and labyrinthine, composed of a sparse number of repeating facades and lacking in definable landmarks. You feel like a rat in a maze. A maze which happens to be occupied by other, larger, more mean-spirited rats that want to shake you down for money and call you an idiot. I can't blame anyone for bouncing off of Shin Megami Tensei early, especially if they've never played a dungeon crawler of this era before. In fact, I only made it about an hour in during my initial attempt before getting horribly lost in the starting area and giving up.

Patience and persistence is key, as is unlearning all you understand about these games and opening yourself up to Shin Megami Tensei's idiosyncrasies. You have to learn to rely on your automap, then accept that the automap is useless outside of darkened areas as it doesn't mark teleporters or slippery floors, and then graduate to using graph paper your friend bought for you because she was too sick of hearing you bitch about getting lost in a game from fucking 1992.

Even systems that have carried over into later entries are (understandably) more vague and antiquated. Take the alignment system, which allows you to follow Law, Chaos, or Nautral paths towards one of three different endings. In many of the modern games, your choices and actions during key events influence your standing with each faction. Shin Megami Tensei, on the other hand, gets more microcosmic. Sure, your dialog choices matter, but so does which store you get groceries from. Frequenting establishments with a particular alignment will further associate you with that faction, as does summoning and fusing demons of a particular persuasion. Dismissing, killing, or even conversing with demons can shift your standing ever so slightly before you ultimately hit the alignment lock, so if you want a specific ending you have to be extremely mindful of every action you take, or make efforts to intentionally game the system.

Outside of which ending your alignment earns, you'll open up and potentially block off certain paths in the final dungeon, and come into conflict with the Law or Chaos heroes. Settling on Neutrality will allow you to see the most, however, and is considered the canonical ending. It also happens to be the one I got, because I believe in nothing, I fight for no man.

LAW: Place your faith in the systems and mechanics of the beast.

So you want to make friends with demons, huh? That's great, that's really nice. It's good to have friends. I don't have any because I ran out of Magnitite and they all kicked me in the shins and left me laid out by the Gaia temple. Some might call that a "transactional relationship." You won't be summoning Lucifer through the power of your bonds. No, you pay people to be your friend because you're a sad little loser kid. Not even Jack Frost wants to hang out with you... not unless you got that sweet, sweet Magnitite.

Magnitite has largely been phased out of Megaten, but it plays an important role in the SNES games, acting as a secondary currency used for fusing, summoning, and keeping demons active in your party. Every step you take drains Magnitite proportional to the requirements of your active party, adding a thin layer of resource management. This system sounds great in theory, but in practice it's mostly useless. During the early parts of the game you'll have human companions eating up party slots, reducing the need to have demons summoned. Once your friends start having political opinions and stop talking to you, then you'll need to keep track of Magnitite more, but I found I had so much banked by this point that it was really a non-issue.

Theoretically, managing Magnitite should make the game more tense as a whole given the lack of safe zones and the frequency of random encounters, which some might say is ridiculous. Borderline stupid, actually! Onis are falling out of the walls and from the ceiling and when they get up they're mad as hell and they want to fight, and it's like, dude, I'm just trying to find a cop to report my girlfriend missing, please stop!

The non-stop encounters wouldn't be quite so irritating if Shin Megami Tensei's battle system was more involved, but it's pretty rudimentary and easily gamed. Buffs and debuffs do matter, but weaknesses and defenses are poorly communicated, and you can mostly ignore them anyway and spam Zio since it has a high probability of paralyzing enemies, which is profoundly beneficial. I also believe most enemies are inherently weak to electricity anyway, so there's no reason to not use it constantly. Hey, what do you think a Pryo Jack is weak to? Bufu? No it's Zio. What about Beelzebub? Probably want to hit him with Hama. No! It's Zio!!! FUCK! I JUST TOLD YOU THIS!

A lot of Shin Megami Tensei's systems feel rough, and I'm willing to cut it a lot of slack because it's the first game for the SNES and it goes without saying that it's going to lack some serious polish. It is also a game that is so heavily carried by its atmosphere, writing, and visual design that engaging in battle feels like the cost of admission for everything else, and at worst its other systems don't live up to their potential but also don't hinder you.

Random encounter frequency still sucks, though.

COWARDLY CENTERISM (NEUTRALITY): Dumb bitch is named Louis Cypher.

So I've got my complaints, but I don't hate Shin Megami Tensei. Hate is a really strong word. So is love. No, I like a comfortable middle, and that's where this game sits.

Yet again I have out-maneuvered everybody by having a non-opinion. This is the one true path.

However, Shin Megami Tensei does satisfy a very specific mood. It's the kind of game you might find me playing in the middle of a stormy day, when it's cloudy enough to illuminate the room yet keep it blanketed in a dreary grey, the roar of thunder in the distance and the patter of rain against the window completing that gloomy ambience SMT is so well-suited to. This is a dour game, with fits of levity breaking up long stretches of trudging your way through a wasteland you once called home. Even in its most colorful moments - such as trying to appease Alice, a little girl who would really like it if you just died for her - its humor is distinctly dark.

Though Shin Megami Tensei II is comparatively more complex and insistent upon saying something with its narrative, SMT has enough twists and turns to keep you invested, and similar to Nocturne, the atmosphere of its world is enough to keep you moving forward, motivated to see this bombed out version of Tokyo in full. Tsukasa Masuko's brilliant soundtrack plays pitch perfect to the tone of this demon infested hellscape, earning it a spot among my favorite video game scores. To be fair, SMT2 and If... probably edges it out purely on the basis of them featuring many of the same tracks in addition to others, and there are so many ports of Shin Megami Tensei that offer up their own vibe, it's even debatable which specific version of SMT's OST is my favorite. One of those things that changes depending on the day.

PART 4: Oh no-- I wrote how many words about this!?

Shin Megami Tensei is an acquired taste. Unless you're way into dungeon crawlers, then you'll probably only enjoy it if you sit down and repeatedly tell yourself you want to enjoy it. I'm glad that I remained committed, in any case. This is the Megaten equivalent of a religious pilgrimage, and I am better for prostrating my way from Shibuya to Ginza, but that's not for everyone and that's ok, too. Even among the SNES trilogy, Shin Megami Tensei is the most middling entry, with SMT2 improving upon it in virtually every way, and If... finding a zen balance between being terrible and charming.

I'll get to those soon, but in the meantime I'm going to construct my millennium kingdom right here. Thinking it'll be like, a giant pyramid or something. I sure hope I don't get assassinated.

cock is one of my favorite tastes. not only that, but balls smell amazing. it makes me go a little crazy on it to be honest. like, i cannot get it far enough down my throat to be satisfied. i’m only satisfied when i feel those intense, powerful, salty, hot pumps of cum down my throat. when i sit back on my heels, look up at you with cum all over my mouth and slobber running down my neck, hair all fucked up and wipe my mouth with the back of my arm and ask you if i did a good job and you cannot even speak because i’ve drained all of your energy out the tip of your dick….. that’s when i’m satisfied.

It's really odd to me that so much of the writing on backloggd about this game is about whether it is "bad" or "good". Is this why we play games? Just to determine whether they pass a factory inspection test of being better than Mario Bros?

I recognize I am simplifying the process of review here, but isn't it kind of incredible how much influence this game has held over time? How you can see it in modern mystery titles to this day?

Isn't it cool that Yuji Horii played Mystery House and was like, "damn why can't computers talk to you?" and made a non-linear world for you to explore and work through dialogue trees?

Isn't it kind of just....wild that the end of this game is an abstract white walled maze that feels completely tonally offbeat in comparison to the rest of itself??

Is it a pixel hunting game with solutions that are a complete stretch! Totally! It can be a slog to play to be honest!!

But it was also paving the road for a genre and experimenting with what was even possible with an on-screen mystery adventure. Knowing this while I play makes it enjoyable enough for me.