References in Megami Tensei

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This is a list of references in Megami Tensei franchise to other media and pop culture.

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei series

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

• President Suzuki and the Suzuki Company are named after board game designer Ginichiro Suzuki, the father of Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II writer Kazunari Suzuki.

Shin Megami Tensei series

Shin Megami Tensei

• The character Stephen is named after the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking who strongly rejected the idea that a god created the universe.

• The name Louis Cyphre is a reference to a character from the 1987 movie Angel Heart of the same name.

Shin Megami Tensei II

• The character Mekata was named after a female reporter from the Japanese news network NHK.

• The name Red Bear is a reference to the antagonist group of the tokusatsu film Aikoku Sentai Dai-Nippon, "the Red Bear Empire".

Shin Megami Tensei if...

• The names Reiko Akanezawa, Shinji Kuroi and Yumi Shirakawa are references to retired members of the inactive professional baseball team, the Tokyo Senators.

• The character Ideo Hazama's name is a reference to the protagonist of the manga Black Jack, Kuro Hazama.

• The character Akira Miyamoto's given name is a reference to the character Akira Fudo from the manga Devilman, as both characters summon and fuse with the demon Amon. This connection also inspired the choice for Akira Miyamoto's family name, which is a reference to the theater director Amon Miyamoto.

• Sato, the computer club member who assists the protagonist in activating the Demon Summoning Program, is named after physicist Katsuhiko Sato who helped translate and introduce Stephen Hawking's theories into Japanese.

Shin Megami Tensei IV

• In Club Milton, near the end of the game, there is an NPC sprite based on The Dark Knight's depiction of the supervillain Joker.

Shin Megami Tensei V

• When attempting to recruit a demon with the "Hee-Ho" Speech Pattern, the demon can strike a pose, one of the responses being to strike a more fierce pose. If chosen, there is a possibility for the demon to join the Nahobino's party unconditionally and state "I see real bizarre adventure in our future, ho!", a reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the series' distinctive characteristic of having characters strike eccentric poses.

Persona series

Persona 3

• Various consumable items are parodies of food and drink names:
  • Cielo Mist is a combination of Sierra Mist (which is more similar to Japanese cider drinks) and Cielo from Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner. In Japanese, it is called Yotsuya Cider and is a parody of Mitsuya Cider with "yo" meaning 4 and "mi" meaning 3.
  • SoBay is a combination of SoBe and eBay. In Japanese, it is called Gokenbicha and is named after Sokenbicha, a blended tea.
  • Starvicks is a combination of coffee company Starbucks and Vicks cough medication. In Japanese, it is called Minimum Coffee, a parody of Max Coffee.
  • Cylon Tea is named after Ceylon Tea. In Japanese, it is named 255 Teas and is a parody of a tea drink called 16 Teas.
  • Aguafeena is a combination of Aquafina and the Spanish word for water (agua). In Japanese, it is called South Funabashi Artificial Water and is a parody of South Alps Natural Water.
  • Dr. Salt is a parody of Dr. Pepper in both English and Japanese.
  • Moonkist is a parody of Sunkist.
  • Nastea is a combination of Nestea and the word nasty. The Japanese name, Gokocha (halo tea), is a parody of Kirin's Gogocha (afternoon tea) line.
  • BauerBar is a parody of PowerBar. In Japanese, it is called Calorie Blend, a parody of Calorie Mate.
  • 1UP is a parody of 7 Up in both English and Japanese.
  • V6 is a parody of V8. In Japanese, it is named Vlad Tepes after Vlad the Impaler and the description mentions it is a tomato juice made in Romania.
  • Mad Bull is a parody of Red Bull. In Japanese, it is called Moronamin G, a parody of Oronamin C.
  • Fountain Dew is a parody of Mountain Dew. In Japanese, it is called Manta, a parody of Fanta, and the description mentions the manta ray.

Persona 3 Portable

• A man resembling Vincent Brooks from Atlus's puzzle game Catherine appears at Club Escapade and hints at the events that happen in his game. As Atlus revealed on a web show in 2011, that's not actually Vincent, but rather a lookalike with a mole.

Persona 4

• In the Japanese manual for Persona 4, the protagonist's name is Kōsuke Tsukimori after a character in Atlus's Trauma Center series.
• When Kinshiro Morooka meets the protagonist on the first day of school, he says he will put him in his "rotten orange book". This is a reference to the Japanese drama, Mr. Kinpachi in Class 3B. During the camping trip, Morooka goes around asking if there are any rotten oranges who are out of their tents. Rotten oranges comes up again when describing Morooka's death in Void Quest. In the English version, Morooka instead calls the orange book his shitlist during the protagonist's introduction, says rotten apples during the camping trip, and rotten oranges during Void Quest.
• Before the game begins, Chie Satonaka lends Yosuke Hanamura a DVD called Trial of the Dragon. In Japanese, this is named The Legend of Seiryū. This is a reference to a Japanese TV drama about a female martial artist called Seiryū Densetsu: Legend of St. Dragon but replaces the 聖龍 in the title with Jackie Chan's Chinese stage name (成龍) with Chie still pronouncing it seiryū (which is the on'yomi reading of Jackie Chan's Chinese stage name, though Jackie Chan is not actually called this in Japanese).
• Teddie begins calling the protagonist "sensei". This is a reference to the Japanese version of Looney Toons and how Kappei Yamaguchi—the 6th Japanese voice actor for Bugs and also Teddie's voice actor—performs Bugs's "What's up, doc?" line with "sensei" being the Japanese localization for "doc".
• Tomoe's yellow jumpsuit is a reference to the outfit worn by martial artist Bruce Lee in Game of Death. One of Chie's victory lines is also a reference to Bruce Lee quote, "Don't think. Feel."
• When Naoto talks about the Shirogane family, Chie responds that it reminds her of Kindaichi, referring to the fictional detective Kosuke Kindaichi and the The Kindaichi Case Files. Because Kindaichi is not as well-known in the west, in the English localization Chie instead says that it reminds her of a Kuzunoha that she saw in a movie before.
• Shadow Mitsuo has skills called Whisper, Prayer, and Chant. These are references to a message that appears in Wizardry when you revive dead characters or cure paralysis at the Temple of Cant.
• When Shadow Mitsuo transforms into Mitsuo the Hero, his third command is Spell which casts Gigadyne. Gigadyne is a reference to the spell Gigadein (also known as Kazap in English) from Dragon Quest.
• In order to fight Shadow Mitsuo, the Investigation Team must find the Orb of Darkness. This is a reference to the Sphere of Light from Dragon Quest.
• When the protagonist interacts with the pile of bones to get the Gaia Sword, a message appears that says, "No response. It must be a tile, not an object." This is a reference to how in Dragon Quest, when the hero interacts with a pile of bones or a dead person, a message appears that says, "There's no response. It's just a corpse."
• The Envious Giant is modeled after Tokyo Tower.
• Upon maxing Naoto Shirogane's social link, she gives the protagonist a Detective Badge then mentions that it has no special functionality. This is referring to the Detective Agency Badge from Detective Conan which has a built-in communicator.
• The description for the Heavy-Armor Agni mentions that it is red and moves three times faster. This is a reference to Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam who pilots a red Zaku and is said to be three times faster.
• One of the consumable food items is called the Seaweed Cracker and the description mentions penguins. In Japanese, the seaweed cracker is Norimaki Senbei. While this does mean seaweed wrapped cracker, it is also the name of a character from Dr. Slump which takes place in Penguin Village.
• Quelorie Mate is a parody of Calorie Mate. In Japanese, it is called Calorie Friend.
• A few drinks from the vending machines are parodies of Japanese drinks and they were also localized in English to be parodies of North American drinks:
  • Dr. Salt NEO is a parody of Dr. Pepper in both English and Japanese.
  • Second Maid is a parody of Minute Maid. In Japanese, it is called Bon Juice, a parody of an orange juice called POM Juice.
  • TaP Soda is a parody of TaB. In Japanese, it is called Ribbon Citron and is a form of Product Placement instead of a reference.
  • Orange Smash is a parody of Orange Crush. In Japanese, it is called Ribbon Napolin and is a form of Product Placement instead of a reference.
• One of the quests is to collect an item called Culurium. This is a reference to a metal in Atlus's Trauma Center series.
• During a quest, the protagonist can receive a Tankiriman Sticker from Nanako Dojima and the description mentions it shows eight heroes defeating a great evil. This is a combination of Lotte's Bikkuriman stickers (wafers that came with bonus stickers) and Neclos Fortress (another candy toy by Lotte that came with two cards and a small toy) which took place in Tankiri and involved eight heroes.
• The English localization for the book Witch Detective describes the plot of Twilight. In Japanese, the book was called Magical Detective Loveline and it was not a reference.
• As discussed in episode 12 of the Persona Stalker Club, parts of Tohru Adachi's character were inspired by the main character of the Japanese detective drama, Bayside Shakedown. The main character, Aoshima, is a detective in a green mods coat and red tie who works on Odaiba and has a model gun collection. Adachi is a detective in a red tie and yellow mods coat who used to work in Iwatodai (which is partially based on Odaiba) and also collects model guns.

Persona 4 Golden

• When the Investigation Team rehearses for their live performance, the protagonist can choose to tell them, "The match isn't over until you give up". This is a reference to a quote said by Coach Anzai in Slam Dunk.
• The movie theater in Okina shows new movies every month that are parodies of real movies, such as Loan of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings), Dumminator 2 (Terminator 2), Return of the Dragon (Enter the Dragon), One Missed Text (One Missed Call), Dachiko (Hachiko), Roman Paid Holiday (Roman Holiday), Obatar (Avatar), and Orso Rosso (Porco Rosso). In Japanese, Return of the Dragon is called The Legend of Seiryū: Fired Up after the Japanese title for Enter the Dragon (see the note about Trial of the Dragon under the Persona 4 section). Additionally, Orso Rosso is named The Crimson Bear after Porco Rosso's Japanese title, The Crimson Pig.
• The Heaven's Giant is modeled after Tokyo Skytree.
• The Hachiro Octopus is named after boxer Hachirō Tako, with tako meaning octopus.
• The TV Listing contains multiple references to Japanese TV, based on early 2000s Japanese remote control key IDs (with the exception of Ch 3):
  • The "Blue and Purple Song Battle" is a reference to the New Year's Eve music program called Kōhaku Uta Gassen meaning "red-white song battle". It plays on Ch 1 YHK, a parody of NHK which Kōhaku airs on. NHK also takes up 1-3 on the remote control.
  • Ch 2 is YHK Educational, a parody of NHK Educational.
  • Ch 3 is Inaba Public TV. In some regions of Japan, remote control 3 is NHK, but in other regions, it is the local prefectural TV station, making it plausible that Inaba's local TV station would be on channel 3. The Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz is listed under Ch 3, named after the Japanese TV show, Trans America Ultra Quiz. The hat that Teddie wears while hosting is a hat worn on the TV show by contestants and his nickname for himself is taken from the catchphrase of one of the Ultra Quiz hosts, Akira Fukuzawa.
  • The animated movie viewer, Daily Persaniland, is named after the TV show Weekly Storyland. It plays on Ch 4 OTV, a visual reference to the 2003-2013 Nippon Television logo where the 日 symbol is represented as a ⊙ with Nippon Television being 4 on the remote control and the station that aired Weekly Storyland.
  • Marie's interview corner, Mariko's Room, is named after the talk show Tetsuko's Room. It plays on Ch 5 TV Pers, with 5 being the remote ID for TV Asahi which airs Tetsuko's Room.
  • Ch 6 is called PBS, a parody of TBS, and channel 6 on the remote control. TBS is one of the stations that Persona 4 The Animation aired on.
  • The art gallery feature, Giants of P, is named after the art program Giants of Beauty. It plays on Ch 7 TV Tatsu (Tatsumi Port Island), a parody of TV Tokyo which Giants aired on and also 7 on the remote control.
  • The jukebox, The Hey! Hey! Hoo! Music King!, is named after the music program Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ. It plays on Ch 8 Yaso TV, a parody of Fuji TV which is the station that Music Champ aired on and channel 8 on the remote control.
  • Ch 9 is MOMOM, a parody of WOWOW and channel 9 on the remote control.

Persona 5

• On the sixth of September, Mr. Hiruta will ask a question regarding the phenomenon in which the second hand on a clock stops moving. One of the answers to this is "The World", a reference to The World and its ability to stop time from JoJo's Bizzare Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. This is omitted in Persona 5 Royal.