Guidelines:Media Order

The media order policy of Megami Tensei Wiki outlines how media titles should be ordered in sections and lists on pages.

Overview

Because of the vastness of the Megami Tensei franchise and its high frequency of recurring elements, Megami Tensei Wiki adopts a particular order for how series and individual media titles should be ordered in page sections, lists, infobox fields, galleries, categories, etc. This ordering follows a stacked tier based on media type appearances order; followed by series order; whether the title is a mainline, spin-off, or mobile title; and lastly, media title by Japanese release order. This ordering is generally only considered for recurring subjects, such as characters and Demons, that have appeared in more than one title or have appeared across multiple series, and is designed to keep pages organized and intuitive when searching for particular content.

While the tiered order listed below should generally be kept most of the time, there may be some exceptions to this rule that would be more beneficial for a particular subject's coverage. Refer to the exceptions section below.

Appearances Order

As defined in the article writing guidelines, pages are constructed in a particular order of sections. For character, Demon, skill, item, and location pages, the Appearances sections are kept in this order:

==Game Appearances==
==Audio Drama Appearances==
==Novel Appearances==
==Anime Appearances==
==Manga Appearances==
==Appearances in Non-''Megami Tensei'' Media==

Each section is self-explanatory for which media types they cover. Sections that are not applicable to the subject should be omitted.

Series

If a subject has appeared across more than one series, then media within the Appearances section are ordered by series. This is in the release or debut order for each series:

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei series
Shin Megami Tensei series
Last Bible series
Majin Tensei series
Devil Summoner series
Persona series
Devil Children series
Digital Devil Saga series
Devil Survivor series

Sub-Series

Certain series have lower sub-series within them that further divide their entries. The order of these placements are honored according to their sub-series, where the sub-series takes the place of its first game within the regular order.

In the case of the Devil Summoner series, this is as follows:

Soul Hackers series
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha series

In the case of the Persona series, the latter three main entries in the series and their versions (I.E. Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Revival, etc.) should be considered their own groups. Spin-off series, namely the Persona Q and Persona Dancing sub-series, should also follow in this order, where they take the place in the regular assumed order of the first game of their respective sub-series:

Persona 3 versions
Persona 4 versions
Persona 5 versions
Persona 4 Arena series
Persona Q series
Persona Dancing series

To further clarify, every Persona spin-off game that released after these specific sub-series would be placed after every sub-series listed here in line with the regular media order for spin-offs, as they released after the first entries of each of these sub-series. Following mainline entries in the Persona series should be placed after Persona 5 and its other versions and before the spin-off entries as detailed in the sections below.

Mainline, Spin-off, and Mobile Titles

For ease of organization and editor convenience, media titles within series are also grouped by their distinction of being a mainline, spin-off, or mobile title. Mainline titles are listed first, followed by spin-off titles, and lastly mobile titles. Mobile titles are technically considered to be a kind of spin-off, but receive their own grouping for distinction.

In the event that a video game was simultaneously released for both mobile and non-mobile platforms, namely in the case of Persona 5: The Phantom X, it will be counted as a standard spin-off title and receive a higher order placement.

Media Titles

Finally, after considering all other applicable order placements, individual media titles are ordered by their original Japanese release dates. This data can easily be found either on the media title's own page in its infobox, or in the respective series page.

To bring all of this into a simplified example, the Demon Lucifer's Game Appearances section would be ordered as:

==Game Appearances==
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei II
Shin Megami Tensei: Nine
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
Shin Megami Tensei V
Last Bible
Last Bible III
Majin Tensei
And so on...

Exceptions

Some subject pages may require an exception where breaking the defined order above would be more beneficial for their coverage.

Debut in Non-Game Media

If a subject first appeared in non-game media, then the debut title's media type should be listed first in the Appearances section and other appropriate listings.

For example: Akemi Nakajima and Yumiko Shirasagi first appeared in the Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei series of novels before subsequently appearing as the protagonists of the video game adaptations. As such, their Appearances section should have Novel Appearances listed first, then Game Appearances.

Debut in a Particular Series

If a subject first appeared in and plays a significant role in a particular series or sub-series, and subsequently made guest appearances in another series, then media from their debut series should be ordered first instead of the proposed series order.

For example: Raidou Kuzunoha XIV is the protagonist of the Raidou sub-series, and has subsequently made guest appearances in certain versions of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. In normal circumstances, the Shin Megami Tensei and Devil Summoner series would be listed first by their release order; however, as Raidou Kuzunoha XIV first appeared in and has a significant role in the latter series, then entries from the Raidou sub-series should be listed first.