Kyūyaku Megami Tensei

Kyūyaku Megami Tensei remakes the old world first two Megami Tensei games, the first monster taming games ever made, and also the most barebones and brutal. It spruces up the graphics and adds some much needed QoL stuff like automapping and more save points, but at its heart, it's still those RPGs, warts and all.

Kyūyaku Megami Tensei

Megami Tensei

The first game is a serious dungeon grind. You play as Akemi Nakajima and his girlfriend, Yumiko Shirasagi (which by the way, he's god Izanagi's reincarnation while she's goddess Izanami's, or in other words, the Megami Tensei ), and you dive into a massive mazey tower to stop some demon nonsense. The plot connection to the original books is kinda loose, so mostly you're just wandering, and I mean wandering. The whole game is one gigantic dungeon with a few tiny towns sprinkled in. There's no overworld, your goals are vague and you'll be backtracking constantly to find items you didn't even know you needed. It's the definition of a slog, but there's a strange charm to it if you're into mapping things out and soaking up that bleak isolated atmosphere.

Where the game gets interesting is the demon stuff. This is where the whole recruitment and fusion system started, so y'know what to expect. You can talk to demons, try to befriend them and fuse them together to make stronger ones, which is the core of the whole series, but here it's pretty basic. Demons only get a few skills, magic is mostly useless outside of healing and they don't level up, so you just replace them as you go. The magnetite system, where you need this resource to keep demons summoned can be a real pain, forcing you to grind just to afford to walk around. Combat itself is… not thrilling. You'll rely on autobattle for 90% of fights because strategy boils down to having bigger numbers than the enemy. And some enemies have cheap tricks, like permanently draining a level from you, which is straight up cruel.

Megami Tensei II

Megami Tensei II is where things get way cooler and start feeling like the SMT we know. It kicks off right after the first game (with an awesome intro) and jumps 30 years into a ruined Tokyo. You get an actual overworld to explore, more story, and characters who actually talk and have motivations. The plot is still a bit of a messy «betrayals everywhere» kind of deal but it's engaging enough. You're these gullible guys tricked by Pazuzu into starting a war, and it's fun to play as someone who's kinda dummy . There are some memorable moments, but I'll let you experience them yourself!

Gameplay improves, but it's still archaic. Random encounters are hella frequent and while guns and better weapons make combat easier, it's still mostly about autoattacking all the way. The demon system is more fleshed out and the world feels alive with quirky NPCs and distinct demon factions. The late game does fall back into a repetitive «fetch the item, beat the boss» cycle, and the final dungeon is oddly underwhelming, but the journey there is way more compelling than the first game's endless maze. So, it's serviceable.

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