Shin Megami Tensei II

Shin Megami Tensei II

Cover art for the Super Famicom release, featuring the archangels and several of the main characters.
Developer(s) Atlus
Publisher(s) Atlus
Artist(s) Kazuma Kaneko
Composer(s) Tsukasa Masuko
Series Megami Tensei
Platform(s) Android, iOS, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, Super Famicom
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Shin Megami Tensei II (Japanese: 真・女神転生II, literally "True Goddess Reincarnation II") is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus. It was originally released for the Super Famicom in 1994 in Japan, and has since been ported to multiple platforms. It is the second game in the Shin Megami Tensei series, which is a subset of the larger Megami Tensei franchise.

Gameplay

A player fighting a demon (shown in the top half), with two human characters and one allied demon in their party.

In Shin Megami Tensei II, players take the role of the gladiator Hawk, who is able to communicate with demons.[1] The gameplay is similar to that of the first Shin Megami Tensei:[2] the game is controlled from a first-person view,[3] and has players exploring dungeons and battle against demons. Players are also able to speak to demons instead of fighting them, and can try to form an alliance with them. They can fuse multiple allied demons together into a single stronger demon; the new demon can "inherit" abilities, including ones it would normally be unable to have, from the demons that were used when fusing it.[4] Players are also able to fuse demons with weapons.[1]

Depending on the choices players make throughout the game, the protagonist's alignment changes; the different alignments in the game are "law", "chaos", and "neutrality". This affects the way the plot progresses.[1]

Plot

Setting

At the end of Shin Megami Tensei, the protagonist decided to create a world where both Law and Chaos would exist equally, and people would have the freedom to choose and believe whatever they wished. Fifty years later, the world was plagued by disasters and over time, the air became unbreathable. Because of this, people flocked to an encapsulated city built by those who preach the Messian religion. That city was called Tokyo Millennium.

Story

This game follows the story of Hawk, a battler in the Valhalla district of Tokyo Millennium. The citizens of Valhalla compete in a tournament in hopes of gaining citizenship in the Center district, which is out of the reach of demons. Hawk fights in the tournament and wins. He gains citizenship in the Center district and has a personal meeting with the Bishop of the Messian religion. During the meeting, he is told that he is actually the Messiah, who will one day save mankind from the current bleak world and bring about a paradise called the "Thousand Year Kingdom". Hawk, whose true name is revealed to be Aleph, is sent on missions from the Center to eradicate demons and prepare the world for the Thousand Year Kingdom. Yet while he travels across Tokyo Millennium, he witnesses first-hand the atrocities the Center inflicts on the people and must decide whether to follow his pre-determined destiny or fight against it in the hope of creating something better.

The creation of the Thousand Year Kingdom is the focal point of the game's storyline. According to the Center, it would be a paradise of God that would exist for a thousand years, created by a chosen one called the Messiah. However, during the course of the game it is revealed that only the chosen few whom the Center deemed worthy would be allowed to live in the Thousand Year Kingdom; everyone else would be abandoned and left to die. The Center was designed as a prototype of what the Thousand Year Kingdom would be like: those who survive in the grueling Colosseum battles are allowed to live in the luxurious safety of the Center, while everyone else must live in the demon-infested slums surrounding it. The luxury of the Center comes at the cost of freedom, as those who live inside must adhere to the strict laws of the Center while those outside can do whatever they desire.

If the player follows the Law alignment of the game by recruiting Lawful-aligned demons, making decisions consistent with a Lawful outlook on life and completing the objectives of the Center, then Aleph succeeds in becoming the True Messiah and creates the Thousand Year Kingdom by using Eden—a vast spaceship hidden inside Tokyo Millennium—to destroy all remaining life on Earth and start life anew with those specially chosen. If the player follows the Neutral or Chaos alignments, then Aleph is dubbed a false Messiah and commits the "ultimate sin" by destroying YHVH, who had created everything in such a way that the world would be subjugated under him forever.

Development

Atlus visited Taira no Masakado's grave (pictured) and Hariti's temple during the pre-production to get cleansed.

Shin Megami Tensei II was developed by Atlus for the Super Famicom.[5] It was directed by Koji Okada, produced by Hideyuki Yokoyama,[6] composed for by Tsukasa Masuko,[7] and written by Ryutaro Ito.[8] Kazuma Kaneko designed the game's characters, but was also involved in the planning phase.[9] During the game's pre-production, the development staff visited Hariti's temple in Zōshigaya and Taira no Masakado's grave to cleanse themselves. They had done this before, first during the development of the first Shin Megami Tensei; after one of the staff members got robbed, they decided to do it regularly. The inspiration to do this came from Go Nagai, who was said to have exorcised a spirit with the help of Hariti while he was writing Devilman.[8]

During the game's planning, it was decided that Shin Megami Tensei II should not be directly connected to Shin Megami Tensei, to make sure that the game would be interesting independently of the first game; because of this, Kaneko envisioned the game as a story loosely based on Shin Megami Tensei's future. At first, he imagined it to take place ten years after the first game, as he thought it would take roughly that amount of time for society to rebuild after the events of Shin Megami Tensei, but another staff member wanted it to take place hundreds of years after the first game. Kaneko disagreed, saying that culture would have changed a lot over a hundred years, and that he could not even imagine what the world would look like a hundred years into the future or what it was like during the Meiji period. Kaneko and the other staff member had different ideas about the timeline of the series, but eventually decided to just have the game take place "several decades" after Shin Megami Tensei.[9]

According to Kaneko, the reason for choosing the Judeo-Christian god, YHVH, as the game's antagonist, was that he saw YHVH as the base for all other gods around the world. Kaneko had observed that various mythologies around the world have some motives in common, such as the flood and the creation of the world, and thought that there had originally been one mythology that different peoples had taken with them when moving, changing it to fit the geography of their current settlements, which would have led to the modern-day myths. Kaneko imagined the original mythology to be the Old Testament, which is why he thought YHVH to be the folkloristic base of all gods. Despite casting YHVH as the antagonist, Kaneko did not see YHVH as being portrayed as evil incarnate in Megami Tensei.[1] According to Ito, the game's focus is the tree of life in the Old Testament.[8]

Character design

The character of Aleph was created to be an embodiment of the world in Shin Megami Tensei II, with a design based on what the world looks like in the game; for instance, he has a portable computer and a visor that he controls demons with, and carries swords, guns and armor for use in battle. His computer was designed to look compact, and the visor was designed to be wireless; this was to show that the game takes place in the future. Kaneko decided to not give Aleph a personality, partially because he is controlled by the player, and partially because he is portrayed in the game as an artificial being created by scientists in the Center.[10] Beth and Daleth were designed to look similar to the Heroine and the Hero, respectively, of the first Shin Megami Tensei, with use of the colors blue and green, respectively.[11] Lucifer is visually portrayed as an elegant gentleman, as Kaneko does not see him as evil, only as a character who tempts and tries the player. According to Kaneko, some theories portray Lucifer as a beautiful twelve-winged angel; Kaneko designed him as a six-winged angel, saying that he has a total of twelve wings across his appearances in both Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei II.[10]

Several characters were based on real people: Aleph's mentor Okamoto was named after the owner of the building Atlus occupied during the game's development; Matsumoto got his from Ito's first landlord in Tokyo; and Mekata got hers from a reporter on NHK. Red Bear got his name from the evil organization in the superhero film Aikoku Sentai Dainippon.[8] Some characters were designed to make full use of the hardware's capacity. For instance, Kaneko designed three different poses for the Twelve Heavenly Generals; by picking the graphics for the heads and the held items from these poses, as well as changing the color palette, he could get twelve different combinations. As the generals are a group, he reasoned that they were supposed to look similar to each other anyway.[9]

Reception

Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
Famitsu28/40 (PS/GBA)[12][13]

Writers for the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu appreciated the amount of freedom players have. In their reviews of the PlayStation and the Game Boy Advance versions, they said that the gameplay still holds up. They found the demon fusion system to be excellent and fun, and did not think it felt outdated.[12][13] Kurt Kalata and Cristopher J. Snelgrove of Hardcore Gaming 101 appreciated the game's lowered difficulty compared to that of the first Shin Megami Tensei.[2]

Kalata and Snelgrove did not think the game's story started "with the same pizzaz" as Shin Megami Tensei; they thought that "the amnesiac savior" is a "lame cliche", and that the idea that Western religion is evil has been worn out. They did however also say that Shin Megami Tensei II came out before these elements were overused, and that they "undoubtedly" were fresh at the time.[2] In his book Game Magic: A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice, Jeff Howard used Shin Megami Tensei II as an example of a video game with allusions to Kabbalah, with its use of Hebrew letters as character names; he said that this contributes to the atmosphere, and gives a feeling of depth or mystery.[14] Famitsu's writers appreciated the game's theme, which they called grand and unique, and the dark worldview and scenario, which they called profound.[12][13]

Chris at Square Enix Music Online disliked the game's music: he called it the worst in the whole series, and said that the music pieces tend to be monotone and based on repetition of nothingness. He said that slowly building ambient pieces such as "Title Demo", "Title", and "Memory Recovery" are effective in context, but that they are too simple and repetitive to be enjoyable as stand-alone music. He did however find the pieces "Disco" and "Casino" both humorous and catchy.[15] Kyle Miller and Damian Thomas, both writing for RPGFan, were more positive to the music. Miller found the soundtrack well made, but worse than that of the first Shin Megami Tensei. The pieces he liked the most were "Heretic Mansion" and some battle themes. He also liked "Casino", which he found catchy and thought worked as an effective contrast to the dread of the other pieces.[16] Thomas found the soundtrack to be excellent, and said that while several pieces are short, they have solid melodies.[17] Kalata and Snelgrove appreciated the music that is played during battles.[2] Famitsu's writers thought the PlayStation version's graphics looked cheap.[12]

Sales

By the end of 2002, the PlayStation version was the 267th best selling video game of the year in Japan, with 36,341 copies sold.[18] The Game Boy Advance version did on the other hand not enter the yearly top 300 list of best selling video games in Japan at all during its debut year, 2003.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Series History; An Interview By You". Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne: The Official Strategy Guide. DoubleJump Publishing. 2004. pp. 384–387. ISBN 978-0974170046.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kalata, Kurt; Snelgrove, Christopher J. "Shin Megami Tensei I & II". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
  3. ↑ Kalata, Kurt (2008-03-19). "A Japanese RPG Primer: The Essential 20". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2014-11-11. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  4. ↑ "真・女神転生II［iPhone］". 4Gamer.net. Archived from the original on 2015-04-06. Retrieved 2015-07-14.
  5. ↑ "真・女神転生II (スーパーファミコン)". Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  6. ↑ Atlus (1994-03-18). Shin Megami Tensei II. Super Famicom. Atlus. Scene: Credits roll.
  7. ↑ "Shin Megami Tensei II Sound Relation". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on 2012-04-10. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Shigihara, Moriyuki (2007-11-06). "CHAPTER.04 Ryutaro Ito". Game shokunin: Dakara Nihon no Game wa Omoshiroi (in Japanese) 1. Micro Magazine Inc. ISBN 4-8963-7267-0.
  9. 1 2 3 Kazuma Kaneko Works II (in Japanese). Shinkigensha. 2005. pp. 1–4. ISBN 9784775303504.
  10. 1 2 Maragos, Nich (2004-09-20). "In Character: Kazuma Kaneko". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-15. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
  11. ↑ Shin Megami Tensei II Akuma Daijiten (in Japanese). Takarajimasha. 1994-09-01. ISBN 978-4796608411.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "真・女神転生II (PS)". Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2014-06-20. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  13. 1 2 3 "真・女神転生II (GBA)". Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2013-05-23. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  14. ↑ Howard, Jeff (2014). "6 - Game Design Lessons from Occult Magic". Game Magic: A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice. CRC Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-1466567856.
  15. ↑ Chris. "Shin Megami Tensei II Sound Relation :: Review by Chris". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on 2011-08-25. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
  16. ↑ Miller, Kyle. "Shin Megami Tensei Sound Collection". RPGFan. Archived from the original on 2014-08-02. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
  17. ↑ Thomas, Damian. "Shin Megami Tensei II Sound Relation". RPGFan. Archived from the original on 2014-08-02. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
  18. ↑ "GEIMIN.NET／2002年テレビゲームソフト売り上げTOP300". Geimin.net (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-06-27. Retrieved 2015-07-09.
  19. ↑ "GEIMIN.NET／2003年テレビゲームソフト売り上げTOP300". Geimin.net (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-06-27. Retrieved 2015-07-09.

External links

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