About two and a half years ago, I made the following thread:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/will-i-like-shin-megami-tensei-if-i-like-persona-a-beginners-guide-to-shin-megami-tensei-and-if-you-might-like-smtv.508290/
The concept of this thread was a little over a month before the release of Shin Megami Tensei V on the Switch, and the purpose of it was to answer a question I saw so often in threads about the game: "Will I like this if I like Persona?" This is becoming relevant again due to Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance being a little about two months away. I figured now was a more relevant time than ever to do an updated version of that thread, rewrite some of it, and adjust for what games have released in the time since then.
What is Persona?
I figure it's probably better to start with defining Persona, for anyone reading this thread that is also unfamiliar with Persona. Persona actually started from the mainline Shin Megami Tensei franchise with a spinoff game called Shin Megami Tensei if… SMT if… took place in an alternate "What if?" timeline from the one that SMT and SMTII occur in. There's even references to the protagonist in SMTI in the game. The story revolves around you being a student in Karukozaka High School. You can actually pick male or female, but the female protagonist is considered the "canon" one. Hazama, a troubled student, throws the school into the demon-filled Expanse and declares himself Demon Emperor. You have to choose one of the available humans to team up with, and go explore the domains based on the seven deadly sins, and defeat Hazama. Depending on which human you teamed up with, what happens at the end will be different. This game had a mechanic called Guardians, where every time you die, you're assigned a new Guardian that affects your stats for the protagonist, and for the human partner you choose, affects their stats AND gives them some spells to use. This system sounds very similar in concept to Personas, but it has differences like death being the only way to get new Guardians, and the quality of the Guardian is based on a meter that fills up based on how long you lived. Sometimes it can be worth it to fill the meter to full and then intentionally die just to get a better Guardian. From this timeline, the Devil Summoner series took place in this same continuity, as well as a little game called Megami Ibunroku Persona. It roughly translates to "Strange Tale of the Goddess: Persona". Persona was not the only franchise that would ever use the "Megami Ibunroku" name, Devil Survivor also used it for the first game.
Persona continued from SMT if… using the idea of having the human cast be students in high school, with some catastrophe involving the school or town they live in. At the start of the game, you're given an explanation of what a Persona is from Philemon. It's the manifestation of one's ego. People wear many masks, and those that can use Personas have this represented by the multiple Personas. This was changed a little in later games, but I'll tackle that in a bit. Persona played like a first person dungeon crawler, like most of the Megami Tensei games up to this point, but battles took place in a third person isometric view. You had a party of up to five people, all wielding their own Personas. There was a grid system used for positioning your characters to get the most out of their weapons or Persona skills. You could negotiate with demons, and one of the most important aspects was negotiating Spell Cards out of them. They would be a Spell Card of that demon, and fusing these together in the Velvet Room gets you a new Persona.
Persona actually connects to the SMT if… continuity largely due to a character that cameos in both Persona 1 and 2: Tamaki Uchida. She is the canon female protagonist from SMT if… The Persona 2 duology also has a Kuzunoha Detective Agency, which has the Kyouji from Devil Summoner possessing the Chief's body.
Persona would continue into Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. These games had mostly new casts of characters, but would have some appearances (some playable) by characters of the first game. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment actually had a cast of adults and was the only game in the franchise to have one.
Persona 1 and 2 were largely headed up by three people: Kazuma Kaneko, Kouji "Cozy" Okada, and Tadashi Satomi. After finishing Persona 1 and 2, none of them would touch the series again after that.
Six years after the release of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, a new Persona game would finally be released. Persona 3 was quite a departure from the previous games. Only the protagonist could change their Persona, there was a new calendar system where the protagonist would attend school, part of the focus was forming Social Links with people, as well as other features that are staples of the series today. After Persona 3, Persona 4 would release two years later, followed by Persona 5 eight years after that.
To this day, Persona continues the format that Persona 3 started with. There's a calendar system where you attend school and have to make friends, in addition to using your time wisely to explore dungeons.
So, what's the bullet points on what makes a Persona game? I think it can be boiled down to these:
What is a Shin Megami Tensei game?
Shin Megami Tensei was a franchise that Atlus created after creating the Megami Tensei games. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei was using the license of the first book by Aya Nishitani, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. Megami Tensei II was the sequel to the game. In 1992, Atlus would create their own franchise away from the book license: Shin Megami Tensei.
A Shin Megami Tensei game usually involves some kind of apocalyptic scenario from the start of the game or close to it. The mainline games largely take place in Tokyo, with the exception of Strange Journey which takes place in a void called the Schwarzwelt in Antarctica. The focus is more on the demons and humanity as a whole dealing with the situation, and choosing what philosophy to rebuild the world under. The games typically have some variant of Law, Chaos, and Neutral alignments. Note that games like Nocturne and NINE are the exceptions to this. Nocturne has a series of Reasons that end up more like shades of Chaos, and there's a couple of options that are not Reasons. NINE has Law, Chaos, and Neutral, but presents on a chart involving Dark and Light. The game's title refers to the fact that there's NINE alignments.
Law generally refers to a society of peace, but enslavement of humanity. Usually a theocracy is involved with this.
Chaos is about freedom, but also the issues that come with it such as society being well…chaotic. Little prevents people from killing each other, things like that. This is usually Lucifer's thing.
Neutral is usually telling the demons to go away and returning humanity back to normal, but the potential price of this comes from humanity possibly ruining itself again.
Dark and Light refers to the general methods of executing the above's goals. For instance, let's say there's a Dark Law demon that would want something from someone. They would likely do something like stabbing them in the back to take it. Meanwhile a Light Law demon would try to brainwash them into giving it up. Law, Chaos, Light, and Dark aren't necessarily good or evil, it's really up to you to decide that.
The games all involve negotiating with demons to try to recruit them to join you. You have conversations with the demons, and since demons can be fickle, the conversations can be kind of chaotic. Try to tell by who the demon is, and their general demeanor what answers they want to hear. They'll often ask you for money, items, or your health before they join you. Then you can fuse these demons together to get new ones. The results are calculated by what race of demons you're fusing, and their level. The level in many games is their base level, but sometimes it's their actual level. The base level means what level you would get that demon from a random encounter. It's a system I like to think of as atomic numbers from the periodic table of elements. Let's say for example a Jack Frost is of the Fairy race at level 12, and Nekomata is of the Beast Race at level 14. In my hypothetical example, Beast + Fairy makes Divine. You would get the next demon up the chain of that race from the average of those two levels. In my example, it's going to be Principality, but he's level 15. The last demon in the Divine race was Angel at level 9, so that's why we're going all the way up to 15 here.
Some of the games are known to be challenging, but I think some of the more notorious ones are actually not that hard, it's really just pushing you to engage with the mechanics available to you. For instance people often cite Matador in Nocturne. He's not a really hard boss once you actually look at the tools available to you, and one of them even can be encountered right in front of where you meet Matador! You'll probably get destroyed on your first try, but now you know what he does and can come prepared.
The bullet points for mainline SMT:
What do these series' have in common?
Given the nature of Persona starting as a SMT spinoff, they still retain loads of similarities to this day. The games all involve the same convention of spell names and they all have the demon designs by Kazuma Kaneko. The combat still has some kind of element of hitting weaknesses and getting something good out of it. For instance in Persona 3/4/5, hitting enemies with their weakness knocks them down and gives you a "1 more". In SMT III/IV/V, it uses the Press Turn system where hitting an enemy with its weakness only consumes a half Press Turn, effectively giving your party an extra action. That may sound confusing at first, but it makes sense when you see it visually. You get as many Press Turns as the size of your party. You have the option to pass to the next party member, which only consumes half a press turn, but if you hit a weakness instead, it also only uses half a press turn. A little example of this: Let's say you have 4 press turns because you have 4 party members (H means half-turn):
* * * *
One of them uses a skill the enemy is neither weak to, nor resists in any way:
* * *
The next one hits an enemy weakness:
H * *
Next character passes:
H H *
But the next character gets their attack drained by the enemy, and takes away three press turns, so now you're down to zero.
Modern Persona and modern SMT share this in common, where the combat involves getting extra turns in some way.
Both games also have fusion and it works very similarly. In Persona 1, 2, and 5, you have to negotiate with enemies to potentially get more Personas.
If you like Persona, I think there's a good chance you'll like SMT and should at least give it a try!
Spinoff Games
There's many MegaTen and even Persona spinoffs, spanning many different genres. I won't go into detail on all of them, but I'll touch on some in the "Game Recommendations" section.
What is the difference between Shin Megami Tensei V and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance?
Note: I could not find the English box art anywhere for the PS4 version, but the game is in fact being released on PS4.
Shin Megami Tensei V was the original game, that released back in November 2021 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. The game was actually announced all the way back in 2017! The game was a bit divisive among the community, but (and this is with no actual data, just my anecdotal observations), the majority seemed to enjoy it. However most acknowledge that elements of it were unfinished and the story was underbaked.
Back in February 2024, in the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance was announced. You may have heard of Atlus doing enhanced re-releases of their games before. It's something they have frequently done, but they don't ALWAYS do it. In this case, it does seem to be pretty significantly different from their usual fare on these re-releases. Games like Persona 5 Royal or Persona 4 Golden have some extra scenario usually tucked somewhere near the end of the game. In Persona 3 FES, The Answer/Episode Aigis was a scenario that took place after the base game. SMTV:V's difference is that it's new path is an entirely different storyline and campaign. You'll get two paths to choose from: Path of Creation and Path of Vengeance. Path of Creation is exactly the same as the original game on Switch, just with some gameplay improvements. Path of Vengeance is the new path. While it can't be said for certain yet, it looks like it will incorporate more story, make more use of some characters that were barely used in the original, new characters, new demons, and many other surprises. Both games start off the same, and at the end of the first area of Da'at, they split. Vengeance also includes at least one new area of Da'at and at least one new dungeon.
One of the first differences you almost certainly noticed was that the original game was on Nintendo Switch, but Vengeance is on Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, Steam, and Windows Store. That's right, it's fully multiplatform. On more powerful platforms, the game will definitely run better. It's already been shown at 60FPS or higher in some of the trailers.
Edit: On 5/9, Atlus put out a presentation that lays many of the differences out in a concise video. It's 15 minutes long, but is great for answering many common questions about the difference between the original and Vengeance or for newcomers. I highly recommend it. It discusses how the story splits off for Vengeance as well as a section that goes over 50 new features.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGpbTXCVkwQ
Should I play the original Shin Megami Tensei V first?
The answer is 99% likely to be "no". Vengeance comes out in merely two months and already is shaping up to be the better game. It still contains the route that's the original SMTV, but also the Vengeance path looks quite exciting. I'll update this answer if things change later on, but for now, just wait for Vengeance. Plus Vengeance will be available on every currently relevant platform: Nintendo Switch, PC (Windows Store and Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5.
Another aside on this topic though, if you didn't like the original SMTV, this could change your mind. The Vengeance path seems to basically be a new game and may be something you like.
Recommended First Games
SMTV: Vengeance can always be your first game, but it's worth highlighting some others. Note that given the premise of this thread is trying to educate people that have only played Persona, I'm not going to recommend P3/4/5 here. I make an exception for P1 and P2 for reasons I'll explain.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster
This is a crowd favorite among the mainline games. Don't let the memes intimidate you, the game really isn't that hard as long as you engage with the tools given to you. Brute force isn't going to work. The game has an incredible atmosphere, art, and storyline. Nocturne was originally released on the PS2 (and the PS2 version is available as a PS2 Classic on PS3), but the HD Remaster is available on Steam, PS4 (and 5 with BC), and Nintendo Switch. There are some minor issues with the HD Remaster, but I think it's definitely the way to go for playing this game. The truly best way to play it in my opinion is on PC, with the 60FPS mod! The game is locked at 30 on PC by default, but with the 60FPS mod you can change that, and it's beautiful.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
A very newcomer friendly mainline game. It does start out a little difficult, but gets progressively easier. It's a game with an atmosphere that's so much fun to explore, and the story was quite enjoyable. The biggest downside to this game is that it's a 3DS game, and therefore you can't buy it on the eShop anymore. If you can find a physical copy for a reasonable price, go for it, but a quick search on Amazon at the time of this writing, I saw it for $64 USD. Note that SMTIV: Apocalypse is actually a sequel to this game, and is an entirely different game with the same setting. Play SMTIV first if you want to play Apocalypse.
Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2
The DDS games are a spinoff, telling a very different story about some people in a desert called the Junkyard trying to fight the other tribes to ascend to Nirvana, while DDS2 picks up where the first ends. It's definitely necessary to play DDS1 before DDS2 as DDS2 assumes you know everything that happened in DDS1. This has to be the only RPG I know of about cannibalism.
I've personally coined the term "Serph's Law": Almost no one ever has a bad time with Digital Devil Saga.
The games aren't as well known as some of the others, but most people agree that these games are great. I've even seen people say they dislike Nocturne, but love DDS.
Instead of recruiting or fusing demons, your characters transform into demons! You can customize them by investing money into different Mantras that give them a new set of skills available in their skill pool. You have to complete the Mantra to get the skills by earning Atma Points, and it's easiest to get the most points by finishing off enemies with Hunt skills. A little word of advice: Invest in Mantra paths that contain skills each character is weak to for that character, it will pay off for you big time later in both games.
The games lifted Nocturne's combat, Press Turn at all, so if you're at home with Nocturne, you'll immediately understand what's going on here.
These games are currently available on PS3 as PS2 Classics. They do have some performance issues there, but it might be worth looking up how to do the secret PS2 BC menu and adjust some of the settings to help performance.
Devil Survivor 1 and 2
Unlike Digital Devil Saga above, Devil Survivor 2 is not a direct sequel, and actually takes place in an entirely different continuity. Unlike the previous games I've recommended, Devil Survivor is a strategy RPG! Both games are excellent. The gameplay is kind of like Final Fantasy Tactics, only there's a huge MegaTen aspect on it. You get demons from auctions instead of recruiting them. You have teams for each human, with two demons being alongside them. The humans take less damage while the demons are still alive. Attacking or being attacked initiates a mini battle in a first person perspective. You have to try and hit weaknesses to get Extra Turns and try to prevent the enemy from doing the same. The encounters play out the initial turns, and then play the Extra Turns, then end. Attacks can be initiated again on the next turn if all the combatants weren't wiped out. They have an alignment system in these games, but more often it's like routes of who to side with. You have "free time" slots during the day which you can choose who to talk to, or what battles to go fight. For instance, you might learn something happens at a certain time, and it may be necessary to be at a certain place at a certain time to keep someone from dying permanently. All in all, I absolutely recommend these games. They're both on DS and 3DS, which means that it can be difficult to find physical copies, but if you didn't own them previously on eShop, that's your only option given that the eShop shut down. As for DS vs 3DS, absolutely play the 3DS versions. They're better in every single way. They add things like voice acting and a new postgame scenario that doesn't interfere with the main game. I see Devil Survivor Overclocked on Amazon for $70 USD right now, and Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker on Amazon for $64 USD.
Recommended Second Games
These are games that are good to play after you play your first game. Some of them are here for reasons like that they're harder, or they use more obtuse mechanics that may be hard to grasp if you don't know the basics. You can still play these first if you want, I just suggest you play one of the games above.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Soul Hackers is actually a sequel to the original Devil Summoner. Devil Summoner was released on Sega Saturn and PSP, neither of which got an English localization unfortunately. A fan translation patch is in the works, but it's unknown when or if it will ever come out due to the fact that people work on this for free and have real lives, jobs, and families to balance. Soul Hackers was released on Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and 3DS. Only the 3DS version has been localized in English.
You don't really need any knowledge of Devil Summoner to play Soul Hackers. If you don't know a particular reference, you can just look it up on the Internet. The premise of Soul Hackers is that you're in a futuristic city run mostly by one megacorporation. They're creating a virtual world called Paradigm X. You're part of a hacker group called the Spookies. As you explore Paradigm X, suddenly you're pulled into a Vision Quest by a coyote in a movie theater and are officially pulled into the plot to save the people of the city from what Algon Soft (the megacorporation) is planning. A demon named Nemissa possesses Hitomi, a friend of the protagonist. To be honest, Nemissa might as well be the real protagonist of this game. She's even front and center on the box of the 3DS version. The 3DS version has voice acting and I think the voice actor does an excellent job bringing Nemissa to life.
The reason for putting this in the "second games" section is some of its mechanics. It uses a row system much like the older MegaTen games, but also it has mechanics like having two types of currency, demon personalities, and others. The game isn't particularly difficult, and I absolutely recommend playing this one. I can't quite say the same for Soul Hackers 2 as it ended up being kind of mid, but I personally had a good time with it.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
I put this one on second games because it can be pretty brutal, but is absolutely worth your time. It doesn't take place in Tokyo, and is back to being a first person dungeon crawler. The art and atmosphere here is some of the strongest the story has. It has an atmosphere closer to John Carpenter's The Thing, and they even cited that as an inspiration for it.
The game is available on DS and 3DS as Strange Journey Redux. I personally prefer the DS version over the 3DS version, despite the fact that the 3DS version has more content. I think the new content in the 3DS version interferes with the plot too much and then has an ending that is just kind of…nothing. Also the art style had a huge downgrade in the 3DS version. I do like that characters that did not have portraits version in the DS version got portraits, but overall it's inferior. I mean just look at this…
Like the other 3DS games, the eShop is closed so you can't buy it digitally. Unfortunately, searching on Amazon, the DS version goes for the low low price of….$210 USD. Strange Journey Redux is $70 USD on Amazon, if you're willing to pay that price hike for it.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Soulless Army
I'll be up front, I personally did not like this game. The combat really put me off of it. The story, art, and atmosphere were great though. I know a lot of people do love these games, and maybe you'll like them if you try it.
Third Games
It's probably good to have a few games under your belt before playing these.
Shin Megami Tensei
The original Super Famicom game. It has an official localization ... .on iOS exclusively ... .and removed from the app store…..and not even compatible with modern versions of iOS. Getting your hands on this version is near impossible. However, for a few versions of the game, they have a fan translation. The Super Famicom, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation versions all have a fan translation patch. My recommendation is the PlayStation version, but I get why some people are partial to the SFC version, and some are partial to the GBA version. There were other ports of this game too, namely on Sega CD and PC Engine, but those ports are untranslated.
This info shared by LordHuffnPuff , thank you!: You can actually export the localized script from the iOS version through scripts and graft it onto the GBA version. Definitely something you would have to look up how to do. For what it's worth, the iOS version was actually the GBA version, but with the (superior) PlayStation music.
SMTI is a good game, but it can be a little rough around the edges. I will say a part with an absurd encounter rate broke me on this game and I did not feel compelled to keep going. Seeing the way the world goes to shit right before your eyes is still impressive to this day, and had to be mind blowing back in 1992 when this was released.
Shin Megami Tensei II
While it is technically a sequel to SMTI, it takes place many years in the future and I don't think you necessarily have to finish the first one before playing this. I recommend this one as I absolutely loved it. It's the best of the three Super Famicom SMT games. The setting, atmosphere, story and hell, even some of the dungeons, were all excellent. You always hear people talk about who the final boss of this game is, but there's a detail I won't spoil about the story that came as much more of a shock to me that people don't talk about. This game was released in Japanese on Super Famicom, PlayStation, GBA, and iOS/Android. Currently, only the SFC version has a fan translation patch.
Touhou: Artificial Dream of Arcadia
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2248430/Touhou_Artificial_Dream_in_Arcadia/
[record scratch] "Hylian, you dingus, this isn't even a MegaTen game!"
You're right Strawy McMann, it's not, but just take a look at this game for a minute and you'll see exactly what it is. It's a game made in the style of the Super Famicom SMT games, with some quality of life. It's a Touhou fangame, which fans are allowed to make and sell. The game bleeds respect for SMT, and uses many elements of SMT while still having its own flair and charm. It was released last year and is only $10 on Steam, and that's a steal to be honest. It's been on sale for as low as $8 before.
I tried the demo of this game before buying it and I was absolutely in love with it. Just walking around the dungeon, getting one encounter, and hearing the music made me feel right at home like it was an SMT game. They absolutely nailed the music here.
Instead of demons, there are Sleepers, zombie-like clones of Touhou characters. You don't talk to them to recruit them, but instead you hijack them by playing a shoot-em-up bullet hell minigame. Don't worry if you're bad at bullet hell games, there's ways to help make it easier for you, including even a mechanic of lowering their HP without killing them making the minigame easier. You can still fuse Sleepers just like MegaTen, and there's even mechanics that are pretty much the Apotheosis system from SMTV: Overwrite Sumireko's (the protagonist) affinities, and copy skills from Sleepers to Sumireko.
I think Marsh put it best:
View: https://youtu.be/3Et4AALT_PM?t=230
The game is still available on Steam, and is even going to get updated by the developer to include a custom dungeon editor! This was easily one of my favorite games of 2023.
Persona 1
Persona 1 is a solid game that comes with caveats. It can be frustrating with absurd encounter rates, and some particularly frustrating dungeons. One example is a dungeon where it's a pitfall maze to get to the bottom. You make it to the end and the boss says "Good, now do it again!" and kicks you out to start all over. I definitely think you should give it a try, and if you can't stomach it, that's fine. I do think it's worth your time. There is no calendar system in this game.
There are two versions of Persona 1. The PlayStation version was localized as "Revelations: Persona" and heavily modified from the Japanese version going so far as to try to make the characters look more American. It's also missing the entire alternate story, the Snow Queen Quest. The PSP version actually kept all the characters and Japanese culture references unchanged, making it just like the Japanese version. Snow Queen was available as well. I would say as of right now, the PSP version is the one to play, but there are some issues with it. A lot of the atmosphere is affected, mainly due to change in sound effects, and the music attempting to go for a more Persona 4 vibe, when the game is not that at all.
Persona 2
Persona 2 is two games: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. Eternal Punishment is a sequel to Innocent Sin. The games have some of my favorite RPG casts, in addition to excellent writing. Innocent Sin's biggest issue is how stupidly easy it is, and it can get boring as a result. However I recommend that you stick with it, the story goes places. There's no calendar system in these games either, and if you want a good sales pitch that contains mild spoilers: Ain't no one going on dates when Hitler has showed up with a Battalion of Nazis that were all chilling (literally) in Antarctica, trying to seize a Mayan temple that's on top of a Japanese mountain now.
After Innocent Sin, you should play Eternal Punishment. EP is a game I consider S-Tier MegaTen in my book. The difficulty is near perfect. Bosses don't feel frustrating if you die to them, and you absolutely can do it if you pay attention. It's such a rewarding game to play.
As for obtaining these games, it's a little weird. Let's talk about Innocent Sin first. Innocent Sin did have a fan translation of the PSX version back in the day, and that's still around, but I'm not sure if I would recommend it over the PSP version that was released in 2011. The game did not come to the west back on the PlayStation supposedly due to lack of resources, but it's also theorized that a certain villainous faction in the game might have been too controversial. Physical is currently very hard to find. In fact it's not even available on Amazon, only the collector's edition which is a cool $400 USD. However it's available digitally on the PlayStation network, and you can play on your PSP or Vita.
Then you have the weird situation with Eternal Punishment: The PSX version was localized for the west, but the PSP version was not. However the PSP version got a translation patch a couple of years ago. I personally recommend that PSP version. They fixed a lot of the issues I had with the PSP version of Innocent Sin, such as the menu sounds, hiding the nature of the combat being based on repetition, and other things. The PSP version also has the extra Tatsuya Scenario, a three volume bonus campaign where you play as just Tatsuya in the first two, and then the whole gang in the final one. Finding the PSX version in a physical copy is doable as it's on Amazon for the mere pocket change price of $750 USD (Yes, that is the real price), but it is also available on PlayStation Network and can be played on PSP, Vita, or PS3.
Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue
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This is a weird one. It's a semi-Metroidvania made by an indie developer. Atlus initially showed this game kind of as an April Fools joke while promoting Strange Journey Redux…and then they actually released it! Before it was confirmed to be a real game, I wished it was one so badly because it looked great. The game was available for free as a download on Atlus' website, and even had a fan translation put out very quickly. They pulled the download off of their website after a while, but you can still easily get the game elsewhere on the Internet. It's short, but a very fun time. It sort of takes place in the Strange Journey setting, where you start out as Jack Frost, then Jack O'Lantern joins you, and you'll get other things like becoming Demonee-Ho. The gameplay involves switching Jacks for the appropriate situation. For instance if an enemy is shooting ice at you, you want to switch to Jack Frost to absorb the hits, then switch back to Jack O'Lantern to attack with fire skills. There's cool boss fights, and overall a game that feels fun to play. I put it down here in the third games section just because I thought of it, but honestly you could put it anywhere here.
Conclusion
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is out in a little over two months at the time of this writing. I hope this thread helped you determine if Shin Megami Tensei is something you're interested in, and decide if you want to preorder SMTV: V.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/will-i-like-shin-megami-tensei-if-i-like-persona-a-beginners-guide-to-shin-megami-tensei-and-if-you-might-like-smtv.508290/
The concept of this thread was a little over a month before the release of Shin Megami Tensei V on the Switch, and the purpose of it was to answer a question I saw so often in threads about the game: "Will I like this if I like Persona?" This is becoming relevant again due to Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance being a little about two months away. I figured now was a more relevant time than ever to do an updated version of that thread, rewrite some of it, and adjust for what games have released in the time since then.
What is Persona?
I figure it's probably better to start with defining Persona, for anyone reading this thread that is also unfamiliar with Persona. Persona actually started from the mainline Shin Megami Tensei franchise with a spinoff game called Shin Megami Tensei if… SMT if… took place in an alternate "What if?" timeline from the one that SMT and SMTII occur in. There's even references to the protagonist in SMTI in the game. The story revolves around you being a student in Karukozaka High School. You can actually pick male or female, but the female protagonist is considered the "canon" one. Hazama, a troubled student, throws the school into the demon-filled Expanse and declares himself Demon Emperor. You have to choose one of the available humans to team up with, and go explore the domains based on the seven deadly sins, and defeat Hazama. Depending on which human you teamed up with, what happens at the end will be different. This game had a mechanic called Guardians, where every time you die, you're assigned a new Guardian that affects your stats for the protagonist, and for the human partner you choose, affects their stats AND gives them some spells to use. This system sounds very similar in concept to Personas, but it has differences like death being the only way to get new Guardians, and the quality of the Guardian is based on a meter that fills up based on how long you lived. Sometimes it can be worth it to fill the meter to full and then intentionally die just to get a better Guardian. From this timeline, the Devil Summoner series took place in this same continuity, as well as a little game called Megami Ibunroku Persona. It roughly translates to "Strange Tale of the Goddess: Persona". Persona was not the only franchise that would ever use the "Megami Ibunroku" name, Devil Survivor also used it for the first game.
Persona continued from SMT if… using the idea of having the human cast be students in high school, with some catastrophe involving the school or town they live in. At the start of the game, you're given an explanation of what a Persona is from Philemon. It's the manifestation of one's ego. People wear many masks, and those that can use Personas have this represented by the multiple Personas. This was changed a little in later games, but I'll tackle that in a bit. Persona played like a first person dungeon crawler, like most of the Megami Tensei games up to this point, but battles took place in a third person isometric view. You had a party of up to five people, all wielding their own Personas. There was a grid system used for positioning your characters to get the most out of their weapons or Persona skills. You could negotiate with demons, and one of the most important aspects was negotiating Spell Cards out of them. They would be a Spell Card of that demon, and fusing these together in the Velvet Room gets you a new Persona.
Persona actually connects to the SMT if… continuity largely due to a character that cameos in both Persona 1 and 2: Tamaki Uchida. She is the canon female protagonist from SMT if… The Persona 2 duology also has a Kuzunoha Detective Agency, which has the Kyouji from Devil Summoner possessing the Chief's body.
Persona would continue into Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. These games had mostly new casts of characters, but would have some appearances (some playable) by characters of the first game. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment actually had a cast of adults and was the only game in the franchise to have one.
Persona 1 and 2 were largely headed up by three people: Kazuma Kaneko, Kouji "Cozy" Okada, and Tadashi Satomi. After finishing Persona 1 and 2, none of them would touch the series again after that.
Six years after the release of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, a new Persona game would finally be released. Persona 3 was quite a departure from the previous games. Only the protagonist could change their Persona, there was a new calendar system where the protagonist would attend school, part of the focus was forming Social Links with people, as well as other features that are staples of the series today. After Persona 3, Persona 4 would release two years later, followed by Persona 5 eight years after that.
To this day, Persona continues the format that Persona 3 started with. There's a calendar system where you attend school and have to make friends, in addition to using your time wisely to explore dungeons.
So, what's the bullet points on what makes a Persona game? I think it can be boiled down to these:
- Focus on relationships between characters, this even applies to the first two games.
- Humans fight with their Personas rather than demons.
- Takes place in one town or city.
- (modern Persona) Involves a calendar and attending school.
- (modern Persona) Only gives the protagonist the ability to change Personas.
- (modern Persona) Scenario isn't immediately apocalyptic, usually only being that way near the end.
What is a Shin Megami Tensei game?
Shin Megami Tensei was a franchise that Atlus created after creating the Megami Tensei games. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei was using the license of the first book by Aya Nishitani, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. Megami Tensei II was the sequel to the game. In 1992, Atlus would create their own franchise away from the book license: Shin Megami Tensei.
A Shin Megami Tensei game usually involves some kind of apocalyptic scenario from the start of the game or close to it. The mainline games largely take place in Tokyo, with the exception of Strange Journey which takes place in a void called the Schwarzwelt in Antarctica. The focus is more on the demons and humanity as a whole dealing with the situation, and choosing what philosophy to rebuild the world under. The games typically have some variant of Law, Chaos, and Neutral alignments. Note that games like Nocturne and NINE are the exceptions to this. Nocturne has a series of Reasons that end up more like shades of Chaos, and there's a couple of options that are not Reasons. NINE has Law, Chaos, and Neutral, but presents on a chart involving Dark and Light. The game's title refers to the fact that there's NINE alignments.
Law generally refers to a society of peace, but enslavement of humanity. Usually a theocracy is involved with this.
Chaos is about freedom, but also the issues that come with it such as society being well…chaotic. Little prevents people from killing each other, things like that. This is usually Lucifer's thing.
Neutral is usually telling the demons to go away and returning humanity back to normal, but the potential price of this comes from humanity possibly ruining itself again.
Dark and Light refers to the general methods of executing the above's goals. For instance, let's say there's a Dark Law demon that would want something from someone. They would likely do something like stabbing them in the back to take it. Meanwhile a Light Law demon would try to brainwash them into giving it up. Law, Chaos, Light, and Dark aren't necessarily good or evil, it's really up to you to decide that.
The games all involve negotiating with demons to try to recruit them to join you. You have conversations with the demons, and since demons can be fickle, the conversations can be kind of chaotic. Try to tell by who the demon is, and their general demeanor what answers they want to hear. They'll often ask you for money, items, or your health before they join you. Then you can fuse these demons together to get new ones. The results are calculated by what race of demons you're fusing, and their level. The level in many games is their base level, but sometimes it's their actual level. The base level means what level you would get that demon from a random encounter. It's a system I like to think of as atomic numbers from the periodic table of elements. Let's say for example a Jack Frost is of the Fairy race at level 12, and Nekomata is of the Beast Race at level 14. In my hypothetical example, Beast + Fairy makes Divine. You would get the next demon up the chain of that race from the average of those two levels. In my example, it's going to be Principality, but he's level 15. The last demon in the Divine race was Angel at level 9, so that's why we're going all the way up to 15 here.
Some of the games are known to be challenging, but I think some of the more notorious ones are actually not that hard, it's really just pushing you to engage with the mechanics available to you. For instance people often cite Matador in Nocturne. He's not a really hard boss once you actually look at the tools available to you, and one of them even can be encountered right in front of where you meet Matador! You'll probably get destroyed on your first try, but now you know what he does and can come prepared.
The bullet points for mainline SMT:
- Apocalyptic scenario
- Tokyo (except for Strange Journey)
- Focus is more on the demons than the humans, but the humans still play an important role.
- Choose an alignment with which to build a new world.
- Talk to demons to recruit them
- "Attack and dethrone God"
What do these series' have in common?
Given the nature of Persona starting as a SMT spinoff, they still retain loads of similarities to this day. The games all involve the same convention of spell names and they all have the demon designs by Kazuma Kaneko. The combat still has some kind of element of hitting weaknesses and getting something good out of it. For instance in Persona 3/4/5, hitting enemies with their weakness knocks them down and gives you a "1 more". In SMT III/IV/V, it uses the Press Turn system where hitting an enemy with its weakness only consumes a half Press Turn, effectively giving your party an extra action. That may sound confusing at first, but it makes sense when you see it visually. You get as many Press Turns as the size of your party. You have the option to pass to the next party member, which only consumes half a press turn, but if you hit a weakness instead, it also only uses half a press turn. A little example of this: Let's say you have 4 press turns because you have 4 party members (H means half-turn):
* * * *
One of them uses a skill the enemy is neither weak to, nor resists in any way:
* * *
The next one hits an enemy weakness:
H * *
Next character passes:
H H *
But the next character gets their attack drained by the enemy, and takes away three press turns, so now you're down to zero.
Modern Persona and modern SMT share this in common, where the combat involves getting extra turns in some way.
Both games also have fusion and it works very similarly. In Persona 1, 2, and 5, you have to negotiate with enemies to potentially get more Personas.
If you like Persona, I think there's a good chance you'll like SMT and should at least give it a try!
Spinoff Games
There's many MegaTen and even Persona spinoffs, spanning many different genres. I won't go into detail on all of them, but I'll touch on some in the "Game Recommendations" section.
What is the difference between Shin Megami Tensei V and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance?
Note: I could not find the English box art anywhere for the PS4 version, but the game is in fact being released on PS4.
Shin Megami Tensei V was the original game, that released back in November 2021 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. The game was actually announced all the way back in 2017! The game was a bit divisive among the community, but (and this is with no actual data, just my anecdotal observations), the majority seemed to enjoy it. However most acknowledge that elements of it were unfinished and the story was underbaked.
Back in February 2024, in the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance was announced. You may have heard of Atlus doing enhanced re-releases of their games before. It's something they have frequently done, but they don't ALWAYS do it. In this case, it does seem to be pretty significantly different from their usual fare on these re-releases. Games like Persona 5 Royal or Persona 4 Golden have some extra scenario usually tucked somewhere near the end of the game. In Persona 3 FES, The Answer/Episode Aigis was a scenario that took place after the base game. SMTV:V's difference is that it's new path is an entirely different storyline and campaign. You'll get two paths to choose from: Path of Creation and Path of Vengeance. Path of Creation is exactly the same as the original game on Switch, just with some gameplay improvements. Path of Vengeance is the new path. While it can't be said for certain yet, it looks like it will incorporate more story, make more use of some characters that were barely used in the original, new characters, new demons, and many other surprises. Both games start off the same, and at the end of the first area of Da'at, they split. Vengeance also includes at least one new area of Da'at and at least one new dungeon.
One of the first differences you almost certainly noticed was that the original game was on Nintendo Switch, but Vengeance is on Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, Steam, and Windows Store. That's right, it's fully multiplatform. On more powerful platforms, the game will definitely run better. It's already been shown at 60FPS or higher in some of the trailers.
Edit: On 5/9, Atlus put out a presentation that lays many of the differences out in a concise video. It's 15 minutes long, but is great for answering many common questions about the difference between the original and Vengeance or for newcomers. I highly recommend it. It discusses how the story splits off for Vengeance as well as a section that goes over 50 new features.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGpbTXCVkwQ
Should I play the original Shin Megami Tensei V first?
The answer is 99% likely to be "no". Vengeance comes out in merely two months and already is shaping up to be the better game. It still contains the route that's the original SMTV, but also the Vengeance path looks quite exciting. I'll update this answer if things change later on, but for now, just wait for Vengeance. Plus Vengeance will be available on every currently relevant platform: Nintendo Switch, PC (Windows Store and Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5.
Another aside on this topic though, if you didn't like the original SMTV, this could change your mind. The Vengeance path seems to basically be a new game and may be something you like.
Recommended First Games
SMTV: Vengeance can always be your first game, but it's worth highlighting some others. Note that given the premise of this thread is trying to educate people that have only played Persona, I'm not going to recommend P3/4/5 here. I make an exception for P1 and P2 for reasons I'll explain.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster
This is a crowd favorite among the mainline games. Don't let the memes intimidate you, the game really isn't that hard as long as you engage with the tools given to you. Brute force isn't going to work. The game has an incredible atmosphere, art, and storyline. Nocturne was originally released on the PS2 (and the PS2 version is available as a PS2 Classic on PS3), but the HD Remaster is available on Steam, PS4 (and 5 with BC), and Nintendo Switch. There are some minor issues with the HD Remaster, but I think it's definitely the way to go for playing this game. The truly best way to play it in my opinion is on PC, with the 60FPS mod! The game is locked at 30 on PC by default, but with the 60FPS mod you can change that, and it's beautiful.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
A very newcomer friendly mainline game. It does start out a little difficult, but gets progressively easier. It's a game with an atmosphere that's so much fun to explore, and the story was quite enjoyable. The biggest downside to this game is that it's a 3DS game, and therefore you can't buy it on the eShop anymore. If you can find a physical copy for a reasonable price, go for it, but a quick search on Amazon at the time of this writing, I saw it for $64 USD. Note that SMTIV: Apocalypse is actually a sequel to this game, and is an entirely different game with the same setting. Play SMTIV first if you want to play Apocalypse.
Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2
The DDS games are a spinoff, telling a very different story about some people in a desert called the Junkyard trying to fight the other tribes to ascend to Nirvana, while DDS2 picks up where the first ends. It's definitely necessary to play DDS1 before DDS2 as DDS2 assumes you know everything that happened in DDS1. This has to be the only RPG I know of about cannibalism.
I've personally coined the term "Serph's Law": Almost no one ever has a bad time with Digital Devil Saga.
The games aren't as well known as some of the others, but most people agree that these games are great. I've even seen people say they dislike Nocturne, but love DDS.
Instead of recruiting or fusing demons, your characters transform into demons! You can customize them by investing money into different Mantras that give them a new set of skills available in their skill pool. You have to complete the Mantra to get the skills by earning Atma Points, and it's easiest to get the most points by finishing off enemies with Hunt skills. A little word of advice: Invest in Mantra paths that contain skills each character is weak to for that character, it will pay off for you big time later in both games.
The games lifted Nocturne's combat, Press Turn at all, so if you're at home with Nocturne, you'll immediately understand what's going on here.
These games are currently available on PS3 as PS2 Classics. They do have some performance issues there, but it might be worth looking up how to do the secret PS2 BC menu and adjust some of the settings to help performance.
Devil Survivor 1 and 2
Unlike Digital Devil Saga above, Devil Survivor 2 is not a direct sequel, and actually takes place in an entirely different continuity. Unlike the previous games I've recommended, Devil Survivor is a strategy RPG! Both games are excellent. The gameplay is kind of like Final Fantasy Tactics, only there's a huge MegaTen aspect on it. You get demons from auctions instead of recruiting them. You have teams for each human, with two demons being alongside them. The humans take less damage while the demons are still alive. Attacking or being attacked initiates a mini battle in a first person perspective. You have to try and hit weaknesses to get Extra Turns and try to prevent the enemy from doing the same. The encounters play out the initial turns, and then play the Extra Turns, then end. Attacks can be initiated again on the next turn if all the combatants weren't wiped out. They have an alignment system in these games, but more often it's like routes of who to side with. You have "free time" slots during the day which you can choose who to talk to, or what battles to go fight. For instance, you might learn something happens at a certain time, and it may be necessary to be at a certain place at a certain time to keep someone from dying permanently. All in all, I absolutely recommend these games. They're both on DS and 3DS, which means that it can be difficult to find physical copies, but if you didn't own them previously on eShop, that's your only option given that the eShop shut down. As for DS vs 3DS, absolutely play the 3DS versions. They're better in every single way. They add things like voice acting and a new postgame scenario that doesn't interfere with the main game. I see Devil Survivor Overclocked on Amazon for $70 USD right now, and Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker on Amazon for $64 USD.
Recommended Second Games
These are games that are good to play after you play your first game. Some of them are here for reasons like that they're harder, or they use more obtuse mechanics that may be hard to grasp if you don't know the basics. You can still play these first if you want, I just suggest you play one of the games above.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Soul Hackers is actually a sequel to the original Devil Summoner. Devil Summoner was released on Sega Saturn and PSP, neither of which got an English localization unfortunately. A fan translation patch is in the works, but it's unknown when or if it will ever come out due to the fact that people work on this for free and have real lives, jobs, and families to balance. Soul Hackers was released on Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and 3DS. Only the 3DS version has been localized in English.
You don't really need any knowledge of Devil Summoner to play Soul Hackers. If you don't know a particular reference, you can just look it up on the Internet. The premise of Soul Hackers is that you're in a futuristic city run mostly by one megacorporation. They're creating a virtual world called Paradigm X. You're part of a hacker group called the Spookies. As you explore Paradigm X, suddenly you're pulled into a Vision Quest by a coyote in a movie theater and are officially pulled into the plot to save the people of the city from what Algon Soft (the megacorporation) is planning. A demon named Nemissa possesses Hitomi, a friend of the protagonist. To be honest, Nemissa might as well be the real protagonist of this game. She's even front and center on the box of the 3DS version. The 3DS version has voice acting and I think the voice actor does an excellent job bringing Nemissa to life.
The reason for putting this in the "second games" section is some of its mechanics. It uses a row system much like the older MegaTen games, but also it has mechanics like having two types of currency, demon personalities, and others. The game isn't particularly difficult, and I absolutely recommend playing this one. I can't quite say the same for Soul Hackers 2 as it ended up being kind of mid, but I personally had a good time with it.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
I put this one on second games because it can be pretty brutal, but is absolutely worth your time. It doesn't take place in Tokyo, and is back to being a first person dungeon crawler. The art and atmosphere here is some of the strongest the story has. It has an atmosphere closer to John Carpenter's The Thing, and they even cited that as an inspiration for it.
The game is available on DS and 3DS as Strange Journey Redux. I personally prefer the DS version over the 3DS version, despite the fact that the 3DS version has more content. I think the new content in the 3DS version interferes with the plot too much and then has an ending that is just kind of…nothing. Also the art style had a huge downgrade in the 3DS version. I do like that characters that did not have portraits version in the DS version got portraits, but overall it's inferior. I mean just look at this…
Like the other 3DS games, the eShop is closed so you can't buy it digitally. Unfortunately, searching on Amazon, the DS version goes for the low low price of….$210 USD. Strange Journey Redux is $70 USD on Amazon, if you're willing to pay that price hike for it.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Soulless Army
I'll be up front, I personally did not like this game. The combat really put me off of it. The story, art, and atmosphere were great though. I know a lot of people do love these games, and maybe you'll like them if you try it.
Third Games
It's probably good to have a few games under your belt before playing these.
Shin Megami Tensei
The original Super Famicom game. It has an official localization ... .on iOS exclusively ... .and removed from the app store…..and not even compatible with modern versions of iOS. Getting your hands on this version is near impossible. However, for a few versions of the game, they have a fan translation. The Super Famicom, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation versions all have a fan translation patch. My recommendation is the PlayStation version, but I get why some people are partial to the SFC version, and some are partial to the GBA version. There were other ports of this game too, namely on Sega CD and PC Engine, but those ports are untranslated.
This info shared by LordHuffnPuff , thank you!: You can actually export the localized script from the iOS version through scripts and graft it onto the GBA version. Definitely something you would have to look up how to do. For what it's worth, the iOS version was actually the GBA version, but with the (superior) PlayStation music.
SMTI is a good game, but it can be a little rough around the edges. I will say a part with an absurd encounter rate broke me on this game and I did not feel compelled to keep going. Seeing the way the world goes to shit right before your eyes is still impressive to this day, and had to be mind blowing back in 1992 when this was released.
Shin Megami Tensei II
While it is technically a sequel to SMTI, it takes place many years in the future and I don't think you necessarily have to finish the first one before playing this. I recommend this one as I absolutely loved it. It's the best of the three Super Famicom SMT games. The setting, atmosphere, story and hell, even some of the dungeons, were all excellent. You always hear people talk about who the final boss of this game is, but there's a detail I won't spoil about the story that came as much more of a shock to me that people don't talk about. This game was released in Japanese on Super Famicom, PlayStation, GBA, and iOS/Android. Currently, only the SFC version has a fan translation patch.
Touhou: Artificial Dream of Arcadia
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2248430/Touhou_Artificial_Dream_in_Arcadia/
[record scratch] "Hylian, you dingus, this isn't even a MegaTen game!"
You're right Strawy McMann, it's not, but just take a look at this game for a minute and you'll see exactly what it is. It's a game made in the style of the Super Famicom SMT games, with some quality of life. It's a Touhou fangame, which fans are allowed to make and sell. The game bleeds respect for SMT, and uses many elements of SMT while still having its own flair and charm. It was released last year and is only $10 on Steam, and that's a steal to be honest. It's been on sale for as low as $8 before.
I tried the demo of this game before buying it and I was absolutely in love with it. Just walking around the dungeon, getting one encounter, and hearing the music made me feel right at home like it was an SMT game. They absolutely nailed the music here.
Instead of demons, there are Sleepers, zombie-like clones of Touhou characters. You don't talk to them to recruit them, but instead you hijack them by playing a shoot-em-up bullet hell minigame. Don't worry if you're bad at bullet hell games, there's ways to help make it easier for you, including even a mechanic of lowering their HP without killing them making the minigame easier. You can still fuse Sleepers just like MegaTen, and there's even mechanics that are pretty much the Apotheosis system from SMTV: Overwrite Sumireko's (the protagonist) affinities, and copy skills from Sleepers to Sumireko.
I think Marsh put it best:
View: https://youtu.be/3Et4AALT_PM?t=230
Marsh said:
The game is still available on Steam, and is even going to get updated by the developer to include a custom dungeon editor! This was easily one of my favorite games of 2023.
Persona 1
Persona 1 is a solid game that comes with caveats. It can be frustrating with absurd encounter rates, and some particularly frustrating dungeons. One example is a dungeon where it's a pitfall maze to get to the bottom. You make it to the end and the boss says "Good, now do it again!" and kicks you out to start all over. I definitely think you should give it a try, and if you can't stomach it, that's fine. I do think it's worth your time. There is no calendar system in this game.
There are two versions of Persona 1. The PlayStation version was localized as "Revelations: Persona" and heavily modified from the Japanese version going so far as to try to make the characters look more American. It's also missing the entire alternate story, the Snow Queen Quest. The PSP version actually kept all the characters and Japanese culture references unchanged, making it just like the Japanese version. Snow Queen was available as well. I would say as of right now, the PSP version is the one to play, but there are some issues with it. A lot of the atmosphere is affected, mainly due to change in sound effects, and the music attempting to go for a more Persona 4 vibe, when the game is not that at all.
Persona 2
Persona 2 is two games: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. Eternal Punishment is a sequel to Innocent Sin. The games have some of my favorite RPG casts, in addition to excellent writing. Innocent Sin's biggest issue is how stupidly easy it is, and it can get boring as a result. However I recommend that you stick with it, the story goes places. There's no calendar system in these games either, and if you want a good sales pitch that contains mild spoilers: Ain't no one going on dates when Hitler has showed up with a Battalion of Nazis that were all chilling (literally) in Antarctica, trying to seize a Mayan temple that's on top of a Japanese mountain now.
After Innocent Sin, you should play Eternal Punishment. EP is a game I consider S-Tier MegaTen in my book. The difficulty is near perfect. Bosses don't feel frustrating if you die to them, and you absolutely can do it if you pay attention. It's such a rewarding game to play.
As for obtaining these games, it's a little weird. Let's talk about Innocent Sin first. Innocent Sin did have a fan translation of the PSX version back in the day, and that's still around, but I'm not sure if I would recommend it over the PSP version that was released in 2011. The game did not come to the west back on the PlayStation supposedly due to lack of resources, but it's also theorized that a certain villainous faction in the game might have been too controversial. Physical is currently very hard to find. In fact it's not even available on Amazon, only the collector's edition which is a cool $400 USD. However it's available digitally on the PlayStation network, and you can play on your PSP or Vita.
Then you have the weird situation with Eternal Punishment: The PSX version was localized for the west, but the PSP version was not. However the PSP version got a translation patch a couple of years ago. I personally recommend that PSP version. They fixed a lot of the issues I had with the PSP version of Innocent Sin, such as the menu sounds, hiding the nature of the combat being based on repetition, and other things. The PSP version also has the extra Tatsuya Scenario, a three volume bonus campaign where you play as just Tatsuya in the first two, and then the whole gang in the final one. Finding the PSX version in a physical copy is doable as it's on Amazon for the mere pocket change price of $750 USD (Yes, that is the real price), but it is also available on PlayStation Network and can be played on PSP, Vita, or PS3.
Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue
This is a weird one. It's a semi-Metroidvania made by an indie developer. Atlus initially showed this game kind of as an April Fools joke while promoting Strange Journey Redux…and then they actually released it! Before it was confirmed to be a real game, I wished it was one so badly because it looked great. The game was available for free as a download on Atlus' website, and even had a fan translation put out very quickly. They pulled the download off of their website after a while, but you can still easily get the game elsewhere on the Internet. It's short, but a very fun time. It sort of takes place in the Strange Journey setting, where you start out as Jack Frost, then Jack O'Lantern joins you, and you'll get other things like becoming Demonee-Ho. The gameplay involves switching Jacks for the appropriate situation. For instance if an enemy is shooting ice at you, you want to switch to Jack Frost to absorb the hits, then switch back to Jack O'Lantern to attack with fire skills. There's cool boss fights, and overall a game that feels fun to play. I put it down here in the third games section just because I thought of it, but honestly you could put it anywhere here.
Conclusion
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is out in a little over two months at the time of this writing. I hope this thread helped you determine if Shin Megami Tensei is something you're interested in, and decide if you want to preorder SMTV: V.
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