Megami Tensei

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Megami Tensei logo.
Enlarge
Megami Tensei logo.

Megami Tensei (Japanese:女神転生, often abbreviated as MegaTen) is a Japanese computer role-playing game series, and is one of the major franchises of the genre in its native country. Megaten games are generally set in a contemporary Japan plagued with supernatural events and demonic creatures. One of the most important features of these games is the ability for the player to make moral choices that affect the game's storyline and the ending. The games are published by Atlus, with the exception of the Famicom games, which were published by Namco.

Megaten games are full of mythological references: gods and creatures from Norse, Celtic, Judeo-Christian, Egyptian, Chinese, Hindu and Japanese mythologies are featured, waiting to be battled or recruited by the player.

The main series (the Shin games, some other Megaten games have been released to the US) has long been passed up for US release. However, Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne Maniacs (the director's cut edition) and Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner have both seen a stateside release. Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 was also recently released in the U.S.

Megami Tensei translates to "Reincarnation of the Goddess". The heroine of the first game was actually an incarnation of the Shinto goddess Izanami. This story feature does not occur in the other games, despite having the same name.

Shin Megami Tensei (真女神転生) is often translated as "Reincarnation of the True Goddess" the Shin in the case being a pun on the shin (新) used in the titles of many SNES games the same way Super is in English.

Majin Tensei (魔神転生)(one of the spinoffs) can be translated as "Reincarnation of the Demon God".

Kyuuyaku Magami Tensei (the Super Famicom remake of the original two MegaTen games) translates to "The Old Testament to the Resurrection of the Goddess".

It should be noted that "Reincarnation" is a simplified version of what "Tensei" actually refers to. The Buddhist term that the word refers to is "Rinne", while a satisfactory Western equivalent, "Metempsychosis", has been used in some English-language media. Both words mean the cycle of life, death, and reincarnation found in some Eastern religions.

[edit] List of games

The first Shin Megami Tensei was ported to the PC Engine Super CD, Mega CD, PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. Shin Megami Tensei II was ported to the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. And Shin Megami Tensei If... also came out on the PlayStation.

[edit] Spin-offs

Several sub-series were created from the original material. They are:

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/e/g/Megami_Tensei_7f28.html"
In other languages