A side-story/follow-up to the original, breakthrough first entry in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. This PlayStation port features improved graphics over the SNES original.

As in the other two cases, the graphics of the remade version have been redone from scratch, to match the 2D standard of 32-bit generation consoles. Interior locations are much more detailed, with visible furniture and other items in rooms that were empty or contains just a few objects in the original version.

The 3D dungeons can now be navigated with smooth scrolling, unlike the "jumping" navigation of the earlier versions. The remake also has an additional difficulty level, dubbed "normal"; the original difficulty level is called "hard". The easier difficulty level also reduces the amount of random battles. Story, dialogues, layout of locations, and general gameplay remain unchanged in this version.

Shin Megami Tensei: if... follows the story of Hazama, a poor and abused boy who goes to Karukozaka High School. In order to get vengeance on his peers he performs a ceremony in the gym that transports his high school into Makai, the netherworld, where he has somehow become powerful enough to become Majin-Nou (Demon God Emperor). Back at the school, everyone freaks out and is scared except for a select few.

The player assumes the role a nameless male or female student, who armed themselves with defensive equipment and COMP. They investigate the realms of Makai which are based on 5 of the 7 deadly sins, and finally face off against Hazama. In their quest, the player will be accompanied by fellow students and demons recruited through either negotiation or from the process of fusion, or via the Jakyou.

There are four possible paths in the game, but unlike the previous games, they are not decided by the alignment system. Instead, right in the beginning of the game the player must choose one of the four main characters as a companion to investigate the mysterious events and the Makai. Each main character has a defined path and once one has been chosen, the player is locked on that path. Yumi, Reiko and Charlie visit the worlds based off the deadly sins (Yumi and Reiko visit the same worlds, Charlie visits a few different ones), while Akira puts the player in an entirely different setting. Akira's path is much more difficult and, instead of being segmented among worlds, is composed by just one huge tower very similar to Persona 3's Tartarus. This path focuses much more heavily on the 'Dungeon Crawler' aspect of the game.

Each of the worlds raise a few philosophical questions about the nature and consequences of the deadly sins, but the game presents these conflicts in a non-theological manner.

Source.

Platform

PlayStation 1

Developer(s)

Atlus

Publishers(s)

Atlus

Genres(s)

RPG

JP Release Date

December 26, 2002

MVGL User Score

5 by 3 user(s)

MVGL Difficulty

-

Composer(s)

Tsukasa Masuko

Added by

13 User(s)

This game also exists on:
Nintendo Super NES Mobile Sony PS Vita Nintendo Wii U Sony PSP PlayStation 3 Nintendo Wii

Coming soon...