Shin Megami Tensei

References

Shin Megami Tensei series contain a lot of characters from Western mythology, including YHVH, the God of ancient Israel, who later also became God the Father in Christianity (!). This was one of the reasons why the series never saw green light for North American or European releases.

Title translation

Shin Megami Tensei roughly means "True Reincarnation of the Goddess". The game itself has nothing to do with any reincarnations of goddesses: the title refers to the first game of Megaten universe, Digital Devil Monogatari - Megami Tensei for NES.

Translation patch

On June 30th, 2002, Aeon Genesis released a complete Japanese-to-English patch for the SNES release.

Version differences

Shin Megami Tensei, originally appearing on Super Famicom (SNES), was later ported to Turbo CD, SEGA CD, PlayStation, and GBA. Here is an overview of the changes made to the game in different releases: * The most faithful port is the Turbo CD one. Almost nothing was changed, graphics are roughly the same quality, interface, and gameplay are totally the same. The only addition is some voice acting during the intro;

• The SEGA CD port got an important graphical overhaul. It featured a brand new intro and other cut scenes with digitized graphics and voice-overs. Dungeon graphics became much more refined (dungeons were composed of simple tiles of different colors, without any decorations, in SNES and Turbo CD versions), with unique design patterns for different dungeons. It was possible to see multiple enemies of the same kind on-screen during battles. Perhaps most importantly - character graphics were completely redone. Instead of simple sprites SEGA CD version features digitized portraits;

• The PlayStation release does not include the intro and the character art unique to SEGA CD version. Instead, it features more detailed graphics. Rooms that were empty in SNES and Turbo CD versions, and had a couple of token furniture pieces in SEGA CD version now actually look like real rooms. Dungeon scrolling became much more smooth, in a 3D fashion. Dungeon graphics look differently from both original and SEGA CD versions, but with high resolution graphics. There is also a new, easier difficulty level. The interface was updated to look like in Shin Megami Tensei II;

• Lastly, the Game Boy Advance version looks pretty much the same as the PlayStation one, minus some graphical details and the additional difficulty level.

Another interesting fact is censorship level. There is one particular scene in the game where three robed summoners are performing a ritual. In Turbo CD and SEGA CD versions the two helpers are naked below their waists. However, they wear pants in SNES and PlayStation versions.