Getting Started With Shin Megami Tensei

 I am a big fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series in all of its wonderful little forms.  I don't care if it's mainline, Persona, Devil Survivor, Soul Hackers, I don't give a shit, it's all pretty good stuff.  In recent years too, SMT has seen a sort of surge in popularity thanks to Persona 4 and especially Persona 5, but whenever people talk about this game there's always some ass hat in the comments saying "Playing a real Shin Megami Tensei game, loser" and while this is off putting when phrased as such, I do think that it's something worth doing.  The series has a lot to offer and if you enjoyed P4 or P5 then there's a good chance you'll like at least some of the others.

Whats wrong with Persona?

The short answer is nothing, there is nothing inherently wrong with the Persona games.  As an entry into the series they are actually not bad.  They are, quite frankly, extremely EASY games and for old players who got their starts on the Maniacs version of SMT3 the Persona games are sort of laughable from a game play standpoint.  That's not to say they aren't fun but when a lot of people who have been playing since the PS2 and earlier, they enjoyed this series for the challenge it provided and I can sort of understand that they are upset about the easier, more wholesome spin-off games are getting the attention

Also the Persona "fandom" (fuck I hate that word) has this weird thing where it seems like a great deal of the people posting about Persona....haven't actually played it and if they have only a small portion of them have actually bothered to finish it.  When I finished vanilla Persona 5 a while ago, the trophy for seeing the ending was considered "Rare" and since 2016 it's just become "uncommon"

What's going on is that people see the nice wholesome plot about high school kids being best friends and sticking it to "the man" and get all gushy about it.  Weirdos who are happy to spend more time discussing "ships" and making weird head-cannon for members of the cast rather than just...playing the fucking games.  So I feel that SOME amount of the bile from mainline doesn't come from their dislike for the game itself, but rather the people who claim to like it.  The game is fine, but saying "Persona bad" triggers some idiots, so that's what they say

On Difficulty

One thing that the old guard will always go on about without fail is how "hard" these games are.  Do not be concerned, because like Dark Souls players, they are grossly overstating the games difficulty.  What SMT does require compared to other RPGs is some degree of adjusting.  Spell names are weird, press turn mechanics can be infuriating when they don't go your way and getting used to buffing and debuffing on the regular can be an easy thing to forget and it is VITAL in most of the series.

The reason the difficulty is so overstated I think is because a lot of people started with Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne.  Nocturne in Japan actually has 3 versions, a base version, a "maniacs" edition and a crossover game.  We never got the base version over in the west.  Nocturne in the west is actually the maniacs edition and is actually a slightly more challenging version of the base game with extra content.  Not that the other games aren't challenging, the series sort of keeps up a pretty decent degree of challenge throughout but in most cases outside of Nocturne Maniacs it isn't nearly as hard as people make it out to be

So where to start?

Well it depends what you want.  If you are into Pokemon, let's say, but you find those games too easy or too samey, they start with mainline.  SMT3 is available on PS2 and has a remaster on Switch and PS4 if you want to start the so called "real" way.  The Switch version is interesting because it's actually a re-release of the crossover edition which was a version of Nocturne Maniacs that featured a character from Devil Summoner.  SMT4 is arguably a better place to start since that game is MUCH easier and you can basically break the entire thing in half just by pumping all your stat points into magic.  I built my character NOT knowing that, did a strength build, and still coasted through the game on a chocolate surfboard so as far as starting places for mainline goes, 4 is actually really good.  

If mainline seems a bit daunting to you then, well, play Persona.  Persona 3 and up are very much the "dating sim" spinoff games but they all have extremely good RPGs behind them as well.  Demon Negotiation is less of a thing in Persona and it instead focuses on the bonds you form with people in the world.  Forming bonds makes your demon fusions stronger and there for easier to murder enemy demons in whatever dungeons you have to go through.  Persona 1 and 2 didn't have these dating sim elements but they are still good games, but a bit more....classic? I guess 

If chatting up school mates and romancing the local nurse in the clinic doesn't seem up your alley and you want something a little more traditional, go for the Digital Devil Saga duology.  The follow on from each other so you gotta play them in order but they are basically classic RPGs with a few SMT mechanics put in there.  Demon negotiation and capturing doesn't exist in these titles and instead your characters have a "demon form" that you acquire skills for via a sort of grid thing.  I've heard some people say that this ISN'T a good starting game for a reason I can't quite grasp so they are probably full of shit.  It was personally my second SMT game after 3 and my high schooler brain handled it just fine.

If you want to jump in at the deep end and REALLY go deep into the series, start at the beginning with Megami Tensei on the NES or Shin Megami Tensei on the SNES.  Classic dungeon crawls with the demon negotiation and all that good stuff.  Bring a pen and graph paper.  If you don't want to go that far back there's Strange Journey on the DS which offers a sort of similar experience but with a lot of the quality of life improvements.

If you like your battles more tactical then go for Devil Survivor.  If you like things like FF Tactics or other games in that genre, Devil Survivor should tickle your fancy just right.  If you want something more action oriented then try the Devil Summoner games, since it's just SMT with an action RPG combat system.  Raidou Kuzunoha is also a pretty cool protagonist.

There's a bunch of other games obviously that I haven't mentioned but I feel this smattering of the SMT platter is enough to get you started if you really were curious about playing a "real" Shin Megami Tensei game.

The only other word of advice I have after that is to just ignore the fucking fandom.  If you try SMT mainline, decide you don't like it and play ONLY Persona, that's fine, who gives a shit what BillyTwatface962 on Twitter thinks?  By the same token if you enjoy mainline and you think the Persona fandoms constant ranting about ships and console ports are "cringe", just ignore it.  Go do a no fusion run of 3 or something, it's far more fun and will probably make you feel better (or worse if RNG treats you shitty)

In conclusion: Just play some fucking SMT, it's great