Megami Tensei

Background

The Megami Tensei franchise refers to the entire franchise of Megami Tensei games and spin-offs, primarily developed by Atlus and currently owned by Sega. The series began with a series of novels written by Aya Nishitani, the first of which is Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. The franchise has crossed many consoles genres, and forms of media, and is the one of the most popular Japanese RPG franchises. Although less popular, Megami Tensei or simply called "Megaten" by fans, contains more games and spin-offs than almost any other franchise.

Ever since Shin Megami Tensei was released as a spinoff of the original Megami Tensei series of video games, the Megami Tensei franchise has made multiple spinoff series. Although they might deviate game-play wise, various recurring elements will show up, such as names of Elemental Spells, the various Demons that appear, and so on.

Currently, the two active series are the Shin Megami Tensei Series, considered to be the "main" series, and the Persona series, which has outsold the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Multiverse

The Megami Tensei Multiverse collectively refers to the multiple worlds and universes included in the Megami Tensei series. Nearly all Megami Tensei games heavily feature connections to other worlds and universes which suggests that the games may not occur in the same "universe" but that they still take place in the same over-arching multiverse. However such games as Persona 3, Persona 4, & Persona 5 are in a separate multiverse, along with Last Bible being in it's own separate multiverse, apart of the overall collective Megami Tensei franchise but not in Shin Megami Tensei's multiverse.

Terms

• Observation: Observation is a concept in the main Megami Tensei multiverse, it was a power given to humans by the Axiom. Characters from the Persona 3-5 multiverse, have a similar ability known as Cognition. As described by Stephen, "observation" (sometimes described as "understanding") is the ability humans possess to give structure to the formless. In this instance, "observation" has nothing to do with sight, but rather human perception. It is an extension of the philosophical concept of "qualia," or individual, subjective experiences. For example, the sensation of seeing color is not easily communicated, yet something humanity possess a shared understanding of. Likewise, YHVH only exists because of this shared observation.

• Cognition: Cognition refers to the concept of humans perceiving the world and viewing what they see as reality. When enough humans collectively perceive something that concept becomes "real," influencing both the world and themselves. This concept is strongly hinted to be related to previous situations seen in Persona games. It also refers to when a person is interpreted by other people or society, given form based on those perceptions. The apparent appearance may be identical, but the personality or the physical capabilities can be vastly different than the original. A cognition is not to be confused with a Shadow Self, though one's Shadow Self can also take on properties based on other people's interpretation of the person, and some cognitions such as Sphinx Wakaba and Doe take traits similar to their host's Shadow Selves. Furthermore, some cognitions can also be fused with Shadow Selves or are sometimes even Shadows themselves, such as the nobles in Shido's Palace or the carnivorous dinosaurs in Junessic Land.

• Demons: In the Megami Tensei franchise, "demon" refers to any supernatural entity that can bring harm to human beings or interfere with their lives in one way or another. This includes more conventional malevolent demons, folktale creatures, deities, urban legends, and Judeo-Christian angels. Although classified as demons, angels tend to differentiate themselves from demons, and likewise the demons view them as separate. Angels also includes demons that have submitted to God and have become His servants.

• Shadows: Shadows are the monsters in the Persona series and share most of the enemy demons common in the Megami Tensei franchise. They are born from humans, and carry with them human emotions, which are mostly negative. Strong-willed Shadows attract lesser Shadows, which later create stronger Shadows.

Power of the Verse

Megami Tensei as a series, including its own spin-offs, is widely regarded by their potency and versatility of their abilities with it having plethora of thanks to the power of Observation and the existences of mythological, demonic entities. To start off, fodder demons such as Jack Frost are 8-C via having access to Bufu skills, which can completely freeze people, and other demons having access to Agi skills, which can vaporize people. Jack Frost specifically having the power to generate snow storms, making it 6-C via Environmental Destruction. In his stronger form, King Frost, he has the ability to freeze the entire earth, which is High 6-A. Lastly, Black Frost is considered to be a much bigger threat than Loki, who is 2-C via being able to sustain his own universe and being superior to the Heavenly Kings, who sustained the barrier that kept the Human World and the Demon World separated. There does exist a Jack Frost who is Low 1-C via contending with the end game cast of DDS, who defeated Demi-fiend, along with defeating Beelzebub at the end of Jack Bros. Most protagonists (minus Persona) in their end game state are Low 1-C via either wielding Masakados equipment or defeating YHVH or entities affiliated with him. YHVH is a being who created infinite universes that are infinitesimal in size compared to him, and exists as an incomprehensible transcendent being overseeing everything in his creation. a few characters reach Low 1-C+ level via fighting Stephen, who possessed the Axiom's powers, and Matter Lucifer who transcended into a higher plane of existence beyond even YHVH.

Persona (minus 1 and 2), despite not fully scaling to the stats and abilities from SMT, are still considerably powerful in their own right as they are able to weaponize their own psyche; already granting abilities such as Mind Manipulation and Abstract Existence. Like SMT, they also wield Agi and Bufu skills, which would make their early-mid game selves 8-C. By end game, almost every Persona character reaches 2-C via scaling to Takuto Maruki, who was using Yaldaboath's powers to to rewrite all of reality.

Knowledgeable Members

• GiverOfThePeace (Mainly the Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha series)
• Geo GeoZ (Working on SMT II)
• TheQuirkyBoy (Mainly Persona series, Shin Megami Tensei I & III: Nocturne)
• VileShadows (Mainly Shin Megami Tensei I & II)
• DatOneWeeb (Mainly Persona 5)

Shin Megami Tensei

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne

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  Kagutsuchi

Persona

Persona 4

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  Tohru Adachi

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