Getting Into The SMT Series: A Beginners Guide - Persona, SMT, What's the Difference?!

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David W Vincent
PO Box 94192
Las Vegas, NV 89193

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[hey-vk]

The 3ds is the best console for smt right now. You got the master peice that is SMT IV. Then Apocalypse, Devil Survivor 1&2, Strange Journey, Soul Hackers and Persona Q 1&2. Highly consider getting a 3ds for anybody who wants to get into the series.

[Lud]

Something David didn't mention:

The Megami Tensei franchise actually started in 1988, with "Digital devil story: Megami Tensei". It's a game based on the novel with the same name.

The novel is about a high school student known as Akemi Nakajima, who summons various demons like Loki to take revenge against school.

The game introduces things such as demon recruitment, demon fusion negotiation, or having mythological characters as demons.

[jrsanders]

Having played SMT 1, 2, and Nocturne back in the day a friend of mine and I had a running joke that the world was constantly ending in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, but the rest of us never noticed because some silent hero kept resetting things.

[HybridAngelZero]

RPG Nerd in the comments mentioned the 3DS was an amazing SMT machine, and they're totally right! But the PS3 is another amazing way to catch up on the series: Both Digital Devil Saga titles, both Devil Summoners, Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, 3 and 4, and the original version of Nocturne! And they're almost all $9.99 each! It's a heck of a deal on some awesome games

[KalJenko]

Devil Survivor 2 on the DS over here in the UK had to get guaranteed number of sales before it would get released, so Ghostlight put it up for sale on the website with a number attached to it, if it didn't hit the number you got your money back, the game did hit the number and everyone who ordered it got they name put into the manual under special thanks, always proud to have my name on something SMT related, even if its only here in the UK and in a manual

[kamuireina]

Guess that ign review really irked everyone, or official game review in general. Since it doesn’t seem like they know “Shin Megami Tense” in general. Thanks for making this video.

[cencil]

Persona has wayyyy too much "high school" stuff for me. Maybe because I'm not in high school anymore lol. SMT V all the way, been playing it all week and loving it

[PsienceWins]

Matador is a skill check for sure. The son of a gun is probably why SMT isn’t as popular as Persona in NA.

[amurter]

If you don't care much for creature collecting (like me) then that's another reason to go Digital Devil Saga.

[krimsonkatt]

Corrections to various mistakes found in this video:

1: SMT didn't start with Shin Megami Tensei 1 on SNES. It actually started in the 80s on the NES with a game called "Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei" which was one of two adaptions of a Japanese supernatural/Sci-Fi novel. Megami Tensei 2 is a direct sequel to the first game which tells it's own original story seperate from the books, and is where the majority of the popular SMT monsters originated from. Then SMT1 on the SNES was made as a completely original title seperate from the books and the rest is history.

2: The first Persona game was actually Revelations Persona on the PS1, which was actually the first SMT game localized along with Jack Bros for the virtual boy. Before SMT3 Nocturne the SMT series was primarily known as the "revelations" series in the west, and Revelations: Persona was infamous for it's terrible localization where the removed an entire route from the game, whitewashed all the characters, turned one of the party members into a steriotypical black guy for some reason, and americanized everything. It was later remade as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona on the PSP with new music, a new script, re-done localization, and the snow queen route finally bring included.

3: The Persona series did not start with "Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment" like you said. Those were the Persona 2 Duology, in which for the original PS1 releases only the sequel Persona 2 Eternal Punishment was released outside of Japan (who left anyone who played it extremely confused) and then when they did the PSP Remakes only Innocent Sin got localized in a heavily censored form with the Nat see stuff being downplayed, the eternal punishment remake was never localized and still isn't translated to this day. The series started with Revelations Persona on the PS1.

4: SMT If wasn't on SNES, it was only on PS1. Also, fun fact, SMT If is widly considered by fans to be "Persona Zero" as characters from SMT If appear in Personas 1 and 2. It is also the main inspiration for the Persona series as well.

5: The Last Bible spinoff series were not on SNES, all three were on Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

6: The game "Revelations: The Demon Slayer" is actually the localized version of Last Bible 1, and one of only two games to receive the "Revelations" moniker and one of only three SMT games to be released before the success of SMT3 Nocturne.

7: Not all SMT games are self contained. SMT2 is a direct sequel to SMT1, DDS2 is a direct sequel to DDS1, (actually part 2 of a single game, as the game got split in two before release as it was too long) and SMT4 Apocalypse is a direct sequel to SMT4 following a non-existent ending of the later. (which is the canon one since in SMTV God is dead and we kill God at the end of SMT4A) If we count Persona we get even more sequels as P5S is a direct sequel to P5 and P4D, P4A, and P4U are all sequels to Persona 4.

[alwynjaegar]

They really need to remake digital devil saga with a part 3 so we get the fully intended original experience...

Cause those are great jrpgs and they get barely any love whatsoever, even nocturne got more love and that shocked the hell outta me xD

[Matthew]

Thanks David. I'm loving SMT 3 Nocturne on the Switch which is my first game in series. Looking forward to getting SMT 5 tomorrow.

[themarchinggoblin]

Its arriving tomorrow, super excited!
Finally beat tales of arise last weekend so I'm free now. 86 hours it took! What a game!
Good look on your play through, hope you enjoy

[yy-hjbr]

I'm getting more and more hyped to play Persona 5 W/O Heart

[ParasaurolophusZ]

Good overview! I have personally only played Persona 3 and Persona 4, but I always saw mainline SMT and Persona as two completely separate series for how different they are. You can't fault someone for liking SMT and not Persona or vice verse, since they are pretty different.

[fenniken]

i've always been the type to judge games as they are, so i'm probably one of few people who can enjoy a game without being disappointed by expectations or black sheep by being a departure from the rest of a series, even if battle mechanics or skills are similar between smt and persona, i know full well their different things.

[julien]

My entry point was IV after hearing Battle B2 and getting it stuck in my head for days. It's amazing and so is Nocturne

[newvelaric]

Memories!!! My first SMT was Nocturne! I was reading a video game magazine at that time, and thought that it would be a game I would enjoy.

But my usual store did not have Nocturne at release. It took over 3 weeks before I found a store that sold the game used. It took me over 1.5h of riding buses to get to that store. And the owner really gave me a hard bargain. He sold me the used game at new game price. But I was 13, so my negotiation skills were not that great. And the owner even told me point-blank that I overpaid for a terrible game.

Joke was on him since I enjoyed Nocturne a lot! I still have it in my home library right now! So it was well worth the cost!

[Main_Records]

It's neat that Nocturne got you into the SMT series. That was my first introduction into the series as a whole. I love fantasy RPG's but Nocturne was such a breath of fresh air. And I think if I never played it I never would have played the Digital Devil Saga or even the Persona spin-offs. I love how no matter the main series or the spin offs they still keep fusions, many of the same mobs and ideas much like other series. Also I remember trying to explain Nocturne one time to someone. I called it a Macabre adult version of Pokemon meets Final Fantasy :)

[eliotwildermann]

Also love the kirby shirt kirby doesn't get enough love