Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner

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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner is a 1995 role-playing game for the Sega Saturn, and the first entry in the Devil Summoner series.^[a] It was developed and published by Atlus and released on December 25, 1995. It received a port for the PlayStation Portable on December 22, 2005.

To date, neither version of Devil Summoner has seen a release outside of Japan nor a translation patch.

Blurb

闇の中で闘い続ける者どもの黙示録が、今幕を開ける。	Yami no naka de tatakai tsudzukeru monodomo no mokushiroku ga, ima maku o akeru.	The apocalypse of those who continue to fight in the darkness is about to begin.

闇の中で戦い続ける者共の黙示録が、再び幕を開けるー。	Yami no naka de tatakai tsudzukeru monodomo no mokushiroku ga, futatabi maku o akeru.	The apocalypse of those who continue to fight in the darkness begins again...

Synopsis

In the coastal city of Hirasaki, Japan there lives a young man. He sets out to meet his girlfriend, Kumiko Hatano, at the local library. There, she asks that he goes and picks up amusement park tickets for the two of them. On the way there the man is attacked by demons, though he is saved just in time by Kyouji Kuzunoha, a Devil Summoner. Kyouji informs him that the city is overrun with Demons. Shortly after he and Kyouji part ways Kyouji mysteriously dies. Following this the young man encounters a Dark Summoner, Sid Davis, who promptly kidnaps and then murders him. The man awakens in the world of Charon. Charon brings him back to the realm of the living, though within the body of Kyouji Kuzunoha. It is now up to the man (hereafter referred to as though he were the true Kyouji Kuzunoha) to uncover the goals and ambitions of Sid Davis. Joining him on this case is Kyouji's trusted partner, Rei Reiho.

See full plot...

Gameplay

The gameplay of Devil Summoner employs many of the staples established by previous Megami Tensei titles, such as turn-based combat, first-person dungeon crawling, and demon negotiation. However, the game lacks an alignment system for the player character along with the multiple routes and endings said system brings (there being only one ending with slight dialogue tweaks depending on a decision made within its final scene). With the alignment system for the player missing from the game, the demons instead use a loyalty system. Demons will act differently depending on how high their trust level is with the protagonist (starting at 1 and maxing out at 10). Demons that trust the protagonist less will be less likely to listen to the player's commands and may sometimes do another action, loaf around, or other special interactions depending on their personality type. Demons that trust the protagonist more will follow the player's commands without hesitation. Raising trust can be done through participating in battles, receiving items as gifts from the player, or through being a lower level than the protagonist; this depends on their Race's loyalty type.

Version Differences

PlayStation Portable

Several quality-of-life features such as choosing between showing the game pixel-for-pixel (Normal), stretching it to fill the whole screen (Wide 1; this is the default), or scaling it to fit the screen vertically while maintaining the aspect ratio (Wide 2); unlimited save files; and bug fixes.
The music uses new instrument samples.
A new bug is present in which if the player is to save in front of a door that cannot be opened and then re-boot the game, the door will be able to be opened.
A proper Demon Compendium, in which the player may exchange Magnetite for previously obtained Demons in the Goumaden.
The Back-Upper now has unlimited uses, but had its price increased from 200 yen to 1000.
Four new bosses found within the Astral World. Each of them is based on a form of Zeed, being David (Human 2), Enoch (Angel 2), Leviathan (Dragon 2), and Skoll (Beast 2).
Defeating the four Zeed-based bosses will yield the Death Tally, an item that halves all Magnetite costs in the Demon Compendium.
A new difficulty known as "Hard," in which foes inflict 1.5× damage, bosses have twice as much health, the Back-Upper can only be used on a New Moon, and summoning a Demon through the Compendium costs twice as much.
Many spells had their HP/MP costs tweaked.
Demons now display their Loyalty type via coloring their Personality Type a certain way. Blue is Level Difference, purple is Materialistic, and orange is Companion.
Every demon has 20 more MP.
The in-game interface is changed to more closely resemble that of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers.
A new main menu screen, featuring artwork done by Kazuma Kaneko.
A new "Special" option on the main title screen, allowing players to view the intro movie for Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army.
The general graphics have been touched up, though with this came the censorship of four demons (Angel, Waxwork, Todomeki, and Rahu).
The player's movement speed is faster.
Areas of the city now use a fixed angle instead of the camera being adjustable.
The font is different.
All items that increase loyalty increase it twice as much as in the original.
Items and skills that had their names spelled in hiragana in the original now have them spelled in kanji.
Traps such as warp tiles and pitfalls are shown on the auto map.
Game settings can be changed from the menu instead of only at the Detective Agency.
The controls are different to account for the PSP having fewer buttons.
Several sound effects are different.
Some typos were fixed.
Barbatos had its base stats (Strength, Intelligence, Magic, Endurance, Agility, and Luck) changed; previously, they were identical to those of Botis.
Some derived stats (such as magic defense) may be off by 1 point due to truncating at different times in the calculation.
It is no longer possible to obtain more than one Dolly Kadmon; in the Sega Saturn version, due to an oversight, the game will give another Dolly Kadmon after defeating a Gargantua boss if Shei has already been fused into a Hero.
Early-game bosses had their stats lowered.

Listings

Characters

Bosses

Demons

Resistance Types

Skills

Items

Equipment

Locations

Development

This section is a stub. You can help Megami Tensei Wiki by expanding it.

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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner was designed as an extension of Shin Megami Tensei if..., being in a parallel world compared to Shin Megami Tensei. Additionally, there was a stronger focus on characters compared to the previous installments in the Shin Megami Tensei series.^[1]

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages
Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	真・女神転生デビルサマナー	True Goddess Reincarnation: Devil Summoner

Gallery

See Gallery

Notes

↑ At the time of release, it was considered an entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series. It retroactively became part of the Devil Summoner series with the release of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers.

References

↑ "——　今回『if…』の後に、『真・女神転生デビルサマナー(以下『デビルサマナー』)』を制作したきかっけは? / 岡田　岡田『真・女神転生II(以下『II』)」のときの壮大なイメージからそのまま『III』という壮大な方向へいく路線もあるけれど、もうちょっと身近な線を狙いたいというのがあって、そこで『if…』の発想があったんです。『if…』のときには、本当に受け入れられるのか、という心配があったんですが、結果として「結構面白い」という反応があったので、そういった考えをしてもいいんだなと。前前から“パラレルワールド”という考え方は持っていたんですが、それが結構いけることがわかったんですね。それで「if…』の延長上を考えたいということがあったんです。それから、主人公とは違った部分で、キャラクターをもっと立てていきたいというのもあったんです。『if…』は、ああいったパートナーという環境があったので、それなりに色は出せたとは思うんですが、『I』や『II』でのパートナーは、ただ横にいて一緒に戦闘に参加しているだけだったでしょ。そういう意味で、悪魔は今まで通り合体の要素があっていい、でもそれとは別に、パートナーや周りのサブキャラクター達も人間臭さを出していきたいと思ったんです。そういう発想から、デビルサマナーと主人公とは違いますよ、という部分を全面に出していこうと考えたわけです。" Translation: "— Why did you decide to create Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner following “if…”? / Okada: We could have followed the epic of Shin Megami Tensei 2 with something similar for 3, but we decided instead to focus on a more familiar setting, hence “if…”. We were worried whether players would accept “if…”, but they thought it was rather interesting and we realised this kind of concept works too. We’d been thinking about parallel worlds for a while and this made us realise it really wasn’t a bad concept at all. We wanted this game to be a sort of extension of “if…”. I also wanted more characters other than the protagonist stand out. We were able to do something similar thanks to “if…”‘s partner system, but in 1 and 2 the protagonist’s partners were just there to help in battle. Demon fusion is the same as before, but I decided to give the partner(s) and other supporting characters a bit more flavour. I wanted to show that the protagonist and the devil summoner are different people." Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Official Guidebook Final (1996), JK Voice. Published by Aspect. Japanese. p. 108. Translation by dijeh. ISBN-13: 978-4-89366-472-3.

Devil Summoner series

Video Games

Devil Summoner • Soul Hackers • Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army • Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon • Soul Hackers 2

Mobile Games

Pinball: Judgment • Soul Hackers: Intruder • Soul Hackers: New Generation

Expansions

Soul Hackers: Extra Dungeon

TV Series

Devil Summoner

Audio Drama

Raidou Kuzunoha vs. Sekigankashin

Novels

Devil Summoner: Fūin Sareshi Tamashī • Gaiden: Chinkon no Aika • Yami no Sairin • Yami no Kyōgeki • Yami no Shūkyoku • Soul Hackers: Shi To Kōrin • Soul Hackers: Nightmare of the Butterfly • Raidou Kuzunoha vs. Shibito Ekishi

Manga

Raidou Kuzunoha vs. Kodoku no Marebito

Supplementary

Material

Devil Summoner: Akuma Zensho • Soul Hackers: Akuma Zensho Dainishū • Devil Summoner Digital Collection

[1] At the time of release, it was considered an entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series. It retroactively became part of the Devil Summoner series with the release of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers.

[2] "——　今回『if…』の後に、『真・女神転生デビルサマナー(以下『デビルサマナー』)』を制作したきかっけは? / 岡田　岡田『真・女神転生II(以下『II』)」のときの壮大なイメージからそのまま『III』という壮大な方向へいく路線もあるけれど、もうちょっと身近な線を狙いたいというのがあって、そこで『if…』の発想があったんです。『if…』のときには、本当に受け入れられるのか、という心配があったんですが、結果として「結構面白い」という反応があったので、そういった考えをしてもいいんだなと。前前から“パラレルワールド”という考え方は持っていたんですが、それが結構いけることがわかったんですね。それで「if…』の延長上を考えたいということがあったんです。それから、主人公とは違った部分で、キャラクターをもっと立てていきたいというのもあったんです。『if…』は、ああいったパートナーという環境があったので、それなりに色は出せたとは思うんですが、『I』や『II』でのパートナーは、ただ横にいて一緒に戦闘に参加しているだけだったでしょ。そういう意味で、悪魔は今まで通り合体の要素があっていい、でもそれとは別に、パートナーや周りのサブキャラクター達も人間臭さを出していきたいと思ったんです。そういう発想から、デビルサマナーと主人公とは違いますよ、という部分を全面に出していこうと考えたわけです。" Translation: "— Why did you decide to create Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner following “if…”? / Okada: We could have followed the epic of Shin Megami Tensei 2 with something similar for 3, but we decided instead to focus on a more familiar setting, hence “if…”. We were worried whether players would accept “if…”, but they thought it was rather interesting and we realised this kind of concept works too. We’d been thinking about parallel worlds for a while and this made us realise it really wasn’t a bad concept at all. We wanted this game to be a sort of extension of “if…”. I also wanted more characters other than the protagonist stand out. We were able to do something similar thanks to “if…”‘s partner system, but in 1 and 2 the protagonist’s partners were just there to help in battle. Demon fusion is the same as before, but I decided to give the partner(s) and other supporting characters a bit more flavour. I wanted to show that the protagonist and the devil summoner are different people." Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Official Guidebook Final (1996), JK Voice. Published by Aspect. Japanese. p. 108. Translation by dijeh. ISBN-13: 978-4-89366-472-3.

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