Origins The
Megami Tensei series began life as a media expansion of the
Digital Devil Story series, a trilogy of science-fantasy novels written by Aya Nishitani during the 1980s. Soejima's first work for the series was as part of the digital coloring team for the first
Devil Summoner. He later had minor roles in artwork and character design in the first
Persona and
Soul Hackers. He later did the secondary characters for the
Persona 2 duology, and was also part of the team checking over the PlayStation ports of the first three
Shin Megami Tensei games, as well as minor work on
Nocturne. Soejima was chosen as the lead designer for
Persona 3 by Kaneko, as Kaneko wanted the younger staff members to gain experience.
Persona 3 proved challenging for Soejima as he needed to refine his drawing style and take the expectations of series fans into account. He would go on to design for
Persona 3/FES and
Portable,
Persona 4, and
Persona 5. Soejima's drawing style is recognized as being lighter-toned than Kaneko's work on the
Shin Megami Tensei games. Other designers have also worked on the series. For
Nine, the developers wanted to have a new style to suit the game's original vision, so the characters were designed by animator
Yasuomi Umetsu. the new main designer for the series is Masayuki Doi, who had made a name for himself with the
Trauma Center series; and designed the main characters for
Shin Megami Tensei IV. Inspired in his work by Kaneko's designs, he created the main characters' clothing to be a blend of Japanese and western fashions while incorporating design elements from the
Star Wars series. After the success of IV, he went on to become the main demon designer for
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and
Shin Megami Tensei V, while still retaining his job as lead character designer. For the
Devil Survivor games, Atlus were aiming to appeal to a wider audience and reinvigorate the
Megami Tensei franchise, hiring
Suzuhito Yasuda as character designer for this purpose. Some monsters in the second
Devil Survivor were designed by manga artist
Mohiro Kitoh.
Localization For a long time, the
Megami Tensei franchise was not exported to western territories despite there being a recognized market. The original reasons were the heavy religious themes and symbols used, which were considered taboo in western game markets, and Nintendo's strict content guidelines for overseas releases. Later, many of these early works were prevented from coming overseas due to their age, which would have put them at a disadvantage in the modern gaming market. Early entries on the PlayStation were also blocked by Sony of America's then-current approval policies. The first title in the franchise to be localized was
Jack Bros.; the first role-playing game in the franchise to receive an overseas release was the first
Persona game. This was done to give Atlus' North American branch a flagship RPG franchise that could compete with the likes of
Final Fantasy,
Suikoden and
Breath of Fire. According to Okada, the naming of creatures and enemies was adjusted from the main series and original Japanese release of
Persona to make it more acceptable for an overseas audience. Though it managed to establish the franchise overseas, the localization was a taxing task due to a small staff and the need to change multiple aspects to suit a North American audience, including removing references to Japanese culture and changing one character from Japanese to African-American. This, and other changes were fixed in the re-release on the PlayStation Portable. The first
Persona 2 title,
Innocent Sin, needed to be passed over due to shortage of manpower and the fact that development was focused on the second title,
Eternal Punishment.
Nocturne was the first release in the
Shin Megami Tensei series to be released overseas. After the release of
Nocturne, Atlus' overseas branches decided to add the
Shin Megami Tensei moniker to future releases within the
Megami Tensei franchise to help market the games. Despite many of the original games not bearing the moniker, it ultimately worked in Atlus' favor as, regardless of title differences, the games chosen for localization were all part of the larger
Megami Tensei franchise, and using the core
Shin Megami Tensei moniker kept all the titles under a single banner. Before this decision was made, the series was given the localized title
Revelations, used for the first
Persona and the first
Last Bible. Later, changes to titles were made to make them less unwieldy, such as with
Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army. Called
Raidō Kuzunoha vs. The Super-Powered Army in Japan, the title was altered as it sounded "goofy" in English. By the time
Strange Journey was in development, the franchise had a strong presence overseas, so the team created
Strange Journey with localization in mind: the two aspects actively linked with this were the game's setting in Antarctica as opposed to modern-day Japan, and the fact that it was not given a numeral. Starting with
Shin Megami Tensei IV, the company decided to actively promote the franchise overseas to North America, Europe and mainland Asia. After 2016, due to Atlus USA's merger with Sega of America,
Sega took over North American publishing duties, although the Atlus brand remained intact. In general, Atlus publishes
Megami Tensei games in Japan and North America, but as they lack a European branch, they publish titles in the region through third-party companies such as Ghostlight and
NIS America. Their latest partnership, after their deal with NIS America ended with the publication of
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, was with European publishing firm
Deep Silver to publish multiple titles in the region, including
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and
Persona 5. Atlus has occasionally published titles digitally in Europe. ==Reception==