Japanese Virtual Boy CoverJack Bros. Isn't a 'real' Megami Tensei title, but rather a cutesy spin-off game starring Jack Frost, Jack Lantern and Jack Skelton (named Jack Ripper in the Japanese version.) Technically, it IS the first time any Megami Tensei related title left Japan, since it predated Persona.

Regardless, this is a pretty simplistic maze game where you run around, shoot bad guys, collect keys, and find the exit. You have a time limit to adhere to, and getting hit will decrease it. At the end of each stage is a boss. That's pretty much it.

The Eastern Kingdom of Mikado is a city of the chosen, sitting on high and protected all around by towering walls. Yet its people are at risk from an ongoing demon threat that the player as a.

It's one of the rarest and most sought-after Virtual Boy games out there, and I couldn't tell you why. There's no 3D in it either - other than the cool scaling effect when you jump down levels, this easily could've been a Game Boy game. Japanese Windows CoverGiten Megami Tensei: Tōkyō Mokushiroku is something of an oddball. Unlike the rest of the series, it's never seen life on a console - it was originally released for the PC98, then upgraded for Windows 98.

It seems to have been published by ASCII and based off the artwork/music of the rest of the series (Kazuma Kaneko is credited as 'original character designs', and they're definitely reminiscent of the designs from the Super Famicom games. There is also a robotic dog in there.) As far as I can tell, it starts off similarly to Megami Tensei II - as a young boy living in a shelter, you and your friends are training to be Devil Busters. Everything seems to be okay, until you begin your training, when one of the programs seems to go out of control. And that's about all I've been able to figure out. There's a lot of obnoxious fetch questing and some very heavy Japanese, so I'm lost on most of it.The graphics in the Windows 98 version are smooth scrolling, although the interface is both keyboard driven (for movement) and mouse-driven (for selecting from menus.) Unlike the rest of the series, character and enemies are visible on the screen at all times, though they aren't scaled properly when you move, so it looks a little silly. The battle system seems to be a weird mix between turn-based and real-time, as enemies will attack you from across the room before you engage them. It's incredibly clunky, especially when issuing orders, but it's definitely a cool idea.

The music is a bit abrasive, but much of it is very similar to older Megami Tensei titles, despite being completely original. Unfortunately, the standard MIDI format means it doesn't sound nearly as cool as the SFC titles. All around, it's unfortunate that this one is so obscure (Japanese PC games are very difficult and expensive to find, although you can find copies floating around the internet), though I certainly wish it were less confusing. Japanese Xbox CoverShin Megami Tensei: NINE, one of the few Japan exclusive games for the original Xbox, is a bit of an outlier amongst the series. The NINE is not to denote that this is the ninth Megaten game (it isn't), but instead it refers the number of alignments in the original series of game (Law, Neutral, Chaos, and Good, Neutral, and Evil.) Like Megami Tensei II, you play as a human living in an underground base after a nuclear disaster. You spend most of your time in the 'Idea Space', a Snow Crash-ish virtual world modeled after 1990s Tokyo.Shin Megami Tensei: NINEThe game sort of resembles an MMORPG, as you walk around parts of the city, customize your avatar, and find other NPCs, each with their own demon following them.

Of course, right as you start, trouble begins, as a disturbance called the 'Noise' is sending evil demons out into Idea Space. You and your friend are drafted as 'Debuggers' to put a stop to this menace. The character designs are provided by Yasuomi Umetsu, who also did the designs for the violent porn/action animes Kite and Mezzo Forte. SumireThe female friend, whom you save from a Noise attack at the beginning of the game.Shin Megami Tensei: NINE tries to be a bit of a throwback to the original Shin Megami Tensei, mostly with the modern setting, although traveling around the districts of Tokyo is accomplished through a simple map menu. Most of the music consists of arranged versions of the original Super Famicom music, which is pretty cool. Most of the shops are also run by friendly Jack Frosts. However, the actual gameplay is very nontypical.

Tree world hack. SeeSpot the worm (caterpillar). He does not look right.Spot's persona: Pick Spot up andclick-place him on the bucket of water beside Ben. At 7:00 am, Sadwickhas to feed Spot. Burping alphabet?Take care of Spot:Exit the caravan. Use Spot on Ben and findout that the water Spot drank is full of starch.

All of the battles are fought in real time, and most of the actions are dictated through AI settings, although you can tell your demons to target specific characters in the middle of the fight. It ends up making you feel very disconnected from the action.This worked in later games like Final Fantasy XII, partially because it was visually engaging. Shin Megami Tensei: NINE is not. The battles are ugly affairs, with barely animated attacks and poorly modeled demons. Even though it's on more powerful hardware, the graphics are pretty bad, and totally fail in comparison to the PS2 titles, even though they came a few years later. All of the backgrounds are prerendered, and look okay, although the spongy controls make navigating them somewhat difficult.There are also 'hacking' segments, which play out using the little 'character' markers usually relegated to map screens.

These are a bit confusing at first but it plays out like a very simplistic real time strategy game.Shin Megami Tensei: NINE was planned as an online title, but a 'Standalone' version was initially released to satiate gamers until the online version was completed. Alas, the online version was cancelled because no one really owned an Xbox in Japan, so nothing came of it. And it makes sense if you play the game - it feels weirdly incomplete. It got into the 'bestseller' line of games over in Japan, although that doesn't necessarily mean much, and it's largely regarded as a flop. It's not really worth tracking down.

Aeria Games presents: Shin Megami Tensei: ImagineConvince, seduce, and intimidate Demons to fight along your side. Fuse Demons together and create new breeds! Use your Demons as mounts to travel the world of Imagine Online.

Discover all 200 of them!Personalize your character's wardrobe in thousands of ways. Dress your character in modern and futuristic Tokyo fashions.

Trade clothes and accessories to create the look you want.Fight alongside your friends using a real-time combat strategic combat system. Choose to slash swords, shoot guns, and cast magic spells. Dodge, parry, and counter with expert combat techniques.Screenshots:Videos:Official Website. Game overall sucks. Character and mosnter models are pretty good, but everything else is just plain awful. The environments are boring and dungeons are just these awful maze rooms that all look alike. Game flaunts different character builds because it's skill based.

However all you can really do is either play ranged guns or melee, because the game is not setup for anyone to play a magic caster as a main because you run out of mana after a couple of spells even if you pump all your stats into int. I found that especially dissapointing.The pet stuff is actually well done at least, that's about the only well done thing in the entire game. I king of like parts of it.Good ideas:1) Is story driven, sorta. Has like 'episodes' like in a anime film.2) Think 3eyes or some terror anime, where demons take over tokio and and a postnuclear-ish world.Implementation:About 1) Story driven don't help much the quest.

You still seems to get 'Kill X of Y' quest. Is a grind game.About 2) For some reason, the designers feel like adding empty space everywhere make sense. You feel like your are 2 cm long walking on your own house.

Everything is big, and takes forever to get there.More interesting ideas:a) Minigame-ish to open box on the map.b) 'Virtual world'c) A pet system has the core of the game (optional)d) Expertise system ( maybe more RPG than Fallout 3, WoW and LOTRO combined)e) The combat seems somewhat JRPG ish, but is realtime. You 'charge' skills, and click to launch it. This make for a arcade 'turn based' feel in real time (WTF?).a - good, but is just a tiny detailb - nicec - nice, not much use than tutorial, trough.d - really nicee - nice, but takes time to 'get it'Main problems:- Is a grind machine- Strange controls or lack of. It don't follow some good MMORPG standards.- It need a transportation system, like horses, or motocycles, or somethingAAA game, that not everybody will like.And is a assian game, so you will be of these that don't like it. By the way this game is more meant for people who don't like to quest grind. There are quests in this game, but the majority of the time you are dungeon grinding. The level cap is around 90 and it will take you awhile to get there so if you're a person who is all about reaching end game and lack patience then this game is not for you.

Also this game does have a mount system. You can learn the skill from a guy in Shinjuku Babel in Nakano at level 20. Some helpful information and maps can be found.There have been two other posts about this game in the OB forums so I am bumping this thread up a little since some people haven't take notice to it.

There's no content past level 35, let alone any 'endgame'. All you do after you run out of story quests (your main source of exp) is endless runs of two different 'dungeons' until you reach the level cap, which will take something like a year of mindless grinding or more. For what at the end? Not even PvP.This game had good ideas, a good concept and decent gameplay. too bad the developers didn't bother adding any more content after release and are instead focusing on the cash shop's content (overpowered weapons/armors from 'gambling boxes' and the like). Don't count on the publisher (Aeria Games) to correct this major issue either, they're too busy making their community for a meager AP reward.More infos.Do yourself a favor, don't waste your time on Megaten, and boycott Aeria Games at the same time (one stone two birds).