While for many their first introduction is a big one Shin Megami Tensei Through the series Persona, the Shin Megami Tensei games are a very different beast than the more contemporary school-life of Persona. What's even funnier is that Persona itself is a subseries of Shin Megami Tensei.
There are many Shin Megami Tensei mainline games, though there are obviously many subseries, and countless games within each subseries to boot. It's a very large series, almost every game developed by Atlus falls somewhere along it. So let's do our best to break down how many there are.
How many mainline Shin Megami Tensei games are there?
has started All the way back to 1987The Megami Tensei games began as a video game adaptation of Aya Nishitani's Digital Devil story book. Since then, they have become kings in their own right with his books as their foundation. Take a look at each of the headline games below.
the game |
year |
platforms |
---|---|---|
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei |
1987 |
Famicom |
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei 2 |
1990 |
Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei |
1992 |
Super Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei 2 |
1994 |
Super Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei If… |
1994 |
Super Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei: Nine |
2002 |
Xbox |
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne |
2003 |
PS2 |
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine |
2007 |
pc |
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey |
2009 |
DS |
Shin Megami Tensei 4 |
2013 |
3DS |
Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse |
2016 |
|
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux |
2017 |
3DS |
Shin Megami Tensei 5 |
2021 |
Switch on |
Shin Megami Tensei 5: Revenge |
2024 |
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox series, Switch |
Shin Megami Tensei has a tendency to get games
Extended re-release
However these changes are enough to justify an entry in their own right.
Counting all the different versions of these games, it makes a total 14 games. The original pair of Digital Devil Story games later received joint remakes for the SNES exclusively in Japan as well.
When you get to the spin-off games The number of games in the series balloons Dramatically.
How many spin-off Shin Megami Tensei games are there?
14 main line gamesThat is a very respectable number. Of course, any series will get enough spin-offs. It is also not unusual for the number of spin-offs to exceed the number of mainline games. For Shin Megami Tensei though, the numbers are just ridiculous. Almost everything Atlus makes is part of a series, and they've made a lot of games.
Due to the sheer number of games, re-releases, mobile, and regional exclusives, We have instead listed each of the subseries and the amount of games in them instead There are too many to list in one article.
Subseries |
Number of games |
First release |
Latest release |
---|---|---|---|
The Last Bible |
5 |
Revealed: The Demon Slayer (1992) |
Megami Tensei Gaiden: The Last Bible Special (1995) |
Majin Tensi |
3 |
Majin Tensi (1994) |
ronde (1997) |
devil summoner |
5 |
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (1995) |
Soul Hackers 2 (2022) |
personality |
17 (International Release) |
Disclosure: Personality (1996) |
Persona 3 Reload (2024) |
Devil children |
7 |
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children – Black Book and Red Book (2000) |
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children-Messiah Riser (2004) |
Digital Devil Saga |
2 |
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (2004) |
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (2005) |
Devil Survivor |
4 |
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (2009) |
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker (2015) |
There are no related subseries |
39 |
N/A |
N/A |
having been Seven dedicated subseries However, that in itself is already an impressive achievement There are 82 games It's spread across, well, amazing. Any developer would be proud to claim such a large number of titles. Most of these series have also been released internationally, although only a few of them are legally available to play.
It is important to note that although Atlus developed the majority of these games,
A negligible number of them were developed by others
Also and published by Atlus.
How many Shin Megami Tensei games are there in total?
By this point you can say, The Shin Megami Tensei series is huge. Many fall into the trap that Persona is the only major subseries, although Atlus has built a healthy amount of diversity into the series over the decades, giving them plenty of room to go in new directions with the games whenever they want.
So how many games is this in total? 96 games. With only 14 of them being from the main series, it means this Spin-offs make up over 80% of the entire series. That's a pretty big ratio and so it's no surprise that many of those spin-off games have such devoted fanbases in their own right.