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Issue 6 - July 2015 Jose Sanchez was born and raised in Miami, Florida on March 10,1968,where he still lives today with his wife Aliana. At the age of six, he was introduced to fingerpainting. By first grade, he had picked up his first pencil, but it was not until the summer of 1977 when Star Wars hit the movie screens across America, that his imaginative spark was truly ignited! Like so many other people that were influenced by the cult phenomenon, he was too. So much so, that this led him to seriously explore and develop his talent for creating art further. As time has gone by and he has honed his skills, he has been notably influenced by the works of and artists such as: Stephen Youll, Donato Giancola, Chris Moore, Tim White, Jim Burns, David B. Mattingly and Michael Whelan, to name but a few.

He attended Lindsey-Hopkins Technical Education Education Center in Miami, Florida where he received a certificate in Commercial Art Technology-majoring in illustration and minoring in Graphic Design. Jose would ideally like to see himself one day working professionally in the motion picture industry as a Concept Artist. He had previously worked on a low- budget SF/Super flick titled: “Shadow Runner”, designing the individual ’s spaceships. “They tend to depend more on technology than they do on their own superpowers”. He is also interested in the publication and gaming markets. To one of his many credits, which have included several fanzine covers and one semi-prozine cover and interior artwork.

Also appearing in the official LucasFilm Star Wars Insider magazines: “City Patrol”, was chosen for publication in the March/April 2006/issue #86.

“Oil Bath”, “Artoo”, “Pair of Jawas” and “Land of the Rising Suns” in April 2014/issue #148 now being published by Titan Publications and online at starwars.com on the Jan.15,2014 Blog article: Bantha Tracks: Best of the Year, Online edition: “AT-AT Driver” and in the Blog article: Bantha Tracks: Art Galaxy, March 2014 “ Djas Puhr-Settling The Score!”

Much of his art can be currently seen at efanzines.com. Breaking It All Down: The ‘Zine – is edited and written by Alexander Case. Letters of Comment can be sent to [email protected]. If you’ve never sent a LoC to me before, please put “LoC:” at the start of the subject line, so it gets filed in the right place. I also sporadically appear on the Bureau42 Greatest Science Fiction Tournament podcast, available through the Bureau42 Master Podcast Audio Feed, which can be found on iTunes and Stitcher. My YouTube Channel, where the web-series that this fanzine is spun off from. can be found at http://www. .com/user/CountZeroOr

Issue Contents Letters & Issue Note 5 Movie Review – Mad Max: Fury Road 7 Fanzine Report – Royal Space Force 25th Anniversary Fanzine 9 202: Shows with Prerequisites – Madoka Magica 10 Primer: Shin – Part 2 15 Letters & Issue Note Before I get started with the letters, I do need to make a little apology for the delay in this issue. The short version is that I was busy with getting my Senior Project together for my bachelor’s degree... followed by getting my Bachelor’s degree. Specifically, I now have a Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology – Health Informatics. This does now mean that I have more time available to work on fanzines – even once I’ve gotten my post-graduation job, the job will (hopefully) not require me to bring work home with me to work on off the clock. Also, all of the SF books I’ve been reading lately have been for the Hugo Awards, as I’m attending Sasquan, so I don’t exactly feel comfortable reviewing them for this ‘zine, as I don’t exactly want to give away how I’m going to vote until after I’ve voted. So, this is going to be a little more of a Anime & Video Game focused issue than the last few. So, I apologize for all of that in advance. Now, with that out of the way, I’ve got a letter from Lloyd Penny!

Me at my graduation - Photograph by Rose Case

Dear Alexander:

Many thanks for issue 5 of Breaking It All Down - The Zine. Now to see if I can create another letter of comment for you. Bits of time present themselves, and this might take all day.

I understand why Jerry Kaufman might wonder about the characters that were cosplayed. I didn’t recognize most of the characters myself. That’s what I get for not watching anime. This past weekend, we were vendors at a local anime/ gaming/cosplay convention, and it was the same there, I saw lots of costumes and cosplay, but didn’t know where the characters were from. We might need that information here.

That convention was called Frostcon, and like Kumoricon, it was difficult to find food nearby. Frostcon was in downtown Toronto at the big Sheraton there, and there is a underground shopping pathway with assorted food courts every block or so, but it was still difficult to find a decent lunch. The Subway sub shop had a forty-foot line-up in front of it any time I looked, so lunch was from the local noodle shop, which was a welcome change. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the idea of a dealer’s room in another hotel.

To of my knowledge, Toronto used to be a major hub for English of anime shows. The original was dubbed here. I wish I could find more voice work like this here, and audition for it.

Time to fold, and fire it off to you. Make a few more of these, okay? See you then.

Yours, Lloyd Penney. Thanks for the letter, Lloyd! I love getting each letter from you. Currently, from what I understand, the main hubs of voice acting in are LA (with Bang Zoom Entertainment) and Houston Texas (where Filmworks does their dubbing). From what I understand, part of the reason why a lot of the dubbing was done in Canada back in the day was, in part, to get around SAG rules – often some these anime studios simply couldn’t afford to pay SAG rates for the actors, so by operating in Canada, and having the actors act under a psudonym, they could get around some of those rules. Things have changed considerably since then. Not only is there enough money in the business now that some anime distributors can afford to pay SAG rates, but voice actors from the English dub have started to develop their own fan following as well, so it behooves actors to use their own name over a pseudonym. Kumoricon is the only con I’ve attended where the dealer’s room has been separate from the main event hotel. Normally, when a con outgrows one hotel, it finds a larger space. That said, I understand the decision. For a couple years, Kumoricon was located at the Portland Hilton Tower (which – if you’ve been to downtown Portland – is about a block from the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall). That location was, frankly, something of a hot mess. The hotel itself was a very nice place, but... well, the internal flow of the building – from the width of corridors to the stairway down to the ballroom level – was absolutely wrong for an anime convention. There were just too many choke-points in the hotel, and it felt like there was a running fight between the con staff and the hotel to find ways for people to get access to the dealer’s room and the game rooms. Indeed, there was a chunk of the first day where the dealer’s room had been closed by the hotel, and the con had to scramble to find a new route to give people access to the room. While the hotel had a park adjacent to it, due to the wind tunnel effect of Portland’s streets, it was kind of cold and dark, so attendees were more likely to congregate around the hotel, and the streets around the hotel, instead of cosplayers (and cosplay photo shoots) more organically spilling out into the park. Probably the Lloyd Center Hilton (where Orycon has historically been held) might have been a better fit. Moving back to the two-hotel thing, I think the reason why it’s working for Kumoricon and not as much for other hotels, is because of geography and time of year – Labor day weekend in Vancouver Washington is nice enough that it makes the walk between the two hotels pleasant, combined with the second hotel being on the Colombia, making it a nice place to stay and generally hang out. Finally, on the cosplay front – if you come across someone cosplaying as a character you don’t recognize, please feel free (with the cosplayer’s permission of course), to take a picture and send it to me – and I’ll happily identify the show. Heck, I could probably get a column out of that. Movie Review – Mad Max: Fury Road The Mad Max are movies that have historically been better known for their action and world-building than their narrative depth. In the first film we saw a world on the brink of destruction, where society was about to fall, and was desperately hanging on to the vest ages of society and civilization by their fingernails, in the hopes that maybe, maybe it could claw its way back over the top of the cliff, though it knew in its heart of hearts that the fall was inevitable. In The Road Warrior, the world had fallen, with some few bastions of civilization holding on to what resources they had, while marauding bands of bandits preyed on those who wouldn’t or couldn’t remain mobile. Max himself had become a marauder as well, one who had lost touch or was slowly losing touch with his own humanity. In the final film of the original trilogy, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the world had started to rebuild itself. There are no real organized multi-settlement governments, but the world had developed to a point where there were needs for places like Bartertown, places where people could come and trade goods and services, without being raided and attacked, and why draconian rules like those of Auntie Entity were vital to preserve the relative piece of Bartertown as a sort of safe free port.

While there was very little continuity in-between films (Bruce Spence returned inBeyond Thunderdome, but not as the Gyro pilot), there was continuity in world-building. Fury Road loses some of this continuity, but the narrative depth the film gains, and theincredibly well shot action really makes up for it. In this film, Max Rocketansky, who is still driving the last of the V8 Interceptors and is now played by Tom Hardy, is captured by the forces of Immortan Joe. Joe and his men seize the Interceptor and, as Max’s blood-type is “O”, uses him as a “Blood Bag” for his War Boys – young men with terminal cancer, who Joe has whipped into a frenzy with his Death-Cult of Personality. When Imperiator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), the driver of one of Joe’s War Rigs, rescues the women from Joe’s , Joe, along with his allies from two other settlements, sets out in pursuit, with Max tied to one of Joe’s War Boys, Nux. The rest of the film has Max breaking free of Joe’s forces, joining up with Furiosa, and helping her and Joe’s former concubines escape. Max is less of the lead in this film as he is an audience perspective character. He provides us our insight at the beginning of the film into how Joe’s settlement, The Citadel, works. Later in the film he similarly serves as a sounding board for the Concubines and Furiosa. Indeed, for about the first 1/3rd-1/2 of the film, Max has almost no lines, due to being muzzled, and instead Tom Hardy has to characterize his version of Max through expressions. Charlize Theron instead gets a big focus when it comes to the film’s narrative. She’s more active character in the narrative and she has much more agency (for lack of a better term), in terms of the plot. Furiosa is both literally and figuratively driving this story. Max is, for much of the film, along for the ride. The film’s conscience, on the other hand, lies with the five women who are Joe’s brides. They help get the film’s message across, that men like Joe were basically responsible for burning the world (indeed Joe’s wardrobe suggests and the prequel comics by George Miller confirm that Joe was in the military in the before- times). In order for the world After the Bomb to get better, someone else has to be in charge. It makes for a great tonal hook for the story. As has frequently been mentioned, it gives the film a feminist interpretation, but I’d say it also gives the film an interesting youth-empowerment message as well.The film does a great job of showing that the War Boys, like Nux are in many ways Joe’s victims as well. Additionally, the film’s action sequences are incredibly well done. Basically all of the film (with the notable exception of Furiosa’s prosthetic right arm and the massive sandstorm from the trailers) is done with practical effects. The action scenes are very tightly edited, with quick cuts that maintain a sense of continuity and geography. The film’s massive road war, which takes up the majority of the film is also very much worth noting... because it takes up the majority of the film. The movie has an incredibly strong sense of geography that it preserves through these sequences, providing a real sense of progression through the film’s environments – something the chases in The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome lacked. Additionally the length and scope of the chase really causes the film to justify calling it a “road war”, as it makes the climactic chases from last two films in the series look like skirmishes by comparison. I really suspect that this movie is going to get a lot of very deserved award nominations next year. Fanzine Report – Royal Space Force 25th Anniversary Fanzine Technically, I had to pay money to get this from MagCloud.com, but I suspect that the price was set to cover the printing costs, so I’m not sure if this technically a fanzine or a Semi-Pro-zine. Anyway, this ‘zine was put together in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Anime film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise by Carl Gustav Horn, a long time anime fan who has gone pro and is working as an editor for Dark Horse Comics division, after previously editing manga for Viz Media (including previous volumes of the English release of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga), and editing their Animerica magazine. I bring this up because, not to take anything away from the other fanzines I’ve read, but the layout here is absolutely . This is really professional grade stuff, with nicely done photo collages illustrating the various essays, as well as some really well laid-out stills from the film, which illustrate some of the detail put into the film’s animation incredibly well. It’s definitely a work laid out to be printed on nice paper, and in color (which is, I suspect, why Carl put it out through MagCloud). The fanzine itself, which is a one-shot, is made up of a series of essays by Horn, and other anime fan writers about the film itself – in particular Gerald Rathkolb and Erin Finnegan of the off-again/on-again “Anime World Order” podcast, and Tim Maughan, a columnist for Anime News Network and Otaku USA Magazine. The essays run the gamut from the writers impressions and first experiences with the film (and, in some cases anime in general), to a discussion of how the film got made in the first place. That story behind Royal Space Force’s production is definitely worth telling in brief – and Hiroyuki Yamaga were involved with the organization of several Japanese SF conventions held in the Osaka area. These conventions were part of a traveling convention (sort of like ) and the Osakan events were titled “Dai-Con”, as a double pun – Dai means big in Japanese, so “Big-Con”, and referencing “Deikon” a form of radish (well, mix of radish and turnip) raised in Osaka and used in Japanese cuisine. As part of these events, the con committee started up “Daicon Film”, a studio to make short films to be played during the opening ceremonies. The animated film made for the fourth Daicon (which can be viewed online here –http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Nkc4eBCy3Sk), caught the attention of a producer at Visual, who basically went to Daicon Film with a truckload of cash and said “Make a movie!” They did, and that film wasRoyal Space Force. The essays are generally well written – all of the personal testimonials are speaking straight from the heart – and the historical pieces are generally written by Horn, who has some close contacts with both from his time writing for Animerica and his attempt in college to actually translate and theatrically release Royal Space Force in the US, albeit in a limited theatrical run. The fanzine is available from MagCloud.com for $16.00 US, plus shipping - http://www.magcloud.com/ browse/issue/487410 Anime 202: Shows with Prerequisites – Madoka Magica

Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Back in issue #3, I started the Anime 20x series of articles, covering anime series that I see frequently recommended for beginners on anime fan-sites that while good shows on their own, deconstruct and play with conventions that viewers with a passing familarity with the genre would be with. This is similar to how Watchmen stands on its own as an excellent graphic , but has other layers to it that someone with a passing familiarity to comics would be aware of. This issue, I’m discussing the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a anime series from 2011. The series was written and directed by Gen Orobuchi, who also directed Gargantua on the Verdous Planet, a SF series I discussed in my first issue. The show follows , an ordinary high school girl, and her friend Sayaka Miki. They encounter a magical animal named , who looks like a combination of a cat and a bunny. Kyubey asks them to make a contract with him to become a magical girl. If they do, Kyubey will grant each of them one wish. Any wish. However, a recent transfer student to their school, and a magical girl herself, , warns them off. A fourth girl from Madoka’s school, , also reveals herself as a magical girl, and offers to let Madoka and Sayaka, basically “Job Shadow” her, as she goes through the duties of being a magical girl. The first two episodes of the show are fairly conventional, appearing to be a normal magical girl series, but with some darker and more surreal elements around the edges, with excellent, fluid animation and a distinct art style unlike anything I’ve ever seen in anime, with only a handful of exceptions. The show reveals its’ true colors in its third episode, changing the series from a variation on a theme to something that was (and to a certain degree, is) different from everything that’s come before, while still building off the work of earlier creators. Madoka Magica, its two compilation films and the sequel filmRebellion are available on DVD and Blu-Ray from RightStuf.com and .com, and is also available for streaming on Netflix in the US (I can’t speak for Canada). The TV series on its own is available for streaming on Hulu.com and , with Hulu having the dubbed version as well. The Early Days The magical girl genre of anime and manga started in the 1960s with The Secret of Akko-Chan. The show sort of set the standard for what the genre would be for about ‘80 years. The manga and later TV series created the idea of the magical girl as wish fulfillment for young girls. The title character receives a mirror from her mother, and when it breaks, because it such a treasured possession for her, she buries it in the backyard. In gratitude to Akko-chan for her respect, the of the mirror grants her the ability to transform into anyone she wants, as long as she keeps it a secret, and she uses that ability to help out her friends. Publicity still from the ‘80s revival of Akko-Chan

The magical girl genre, from there, stuck with that general idea. A young girl would get the ability to magically transform themselves into someone else, and in turn they’d use that ability to help their friends with life problems, but the girl would have to keep these powers a secret from their friends. These shows were generally light in tone, and typically ended with a more dramatic episode where the lead had to reveal her abilities to her friends in order to save them from a more serious situation (like a building fire), and after doing so ended up having to renounce or lose her powers. The magical girl will also get support and assistance from magical companions, sometimes humans or humanoid beings like , sometimes from talking animals. They’ll also have various magical devices that will allow them to transform. This is in large part because, as Mel Brooks said in Spaceballs, “Merchandising! Where the real money from the picture is made!” is just as true for anime as for feature films. Cute animal companions can become plush figures, magic can be turned into toys. Many of the shows in this era of the magical girl series have not been licensed for US release – though there are one exceptions. Pastel Yumi (1986): This is a rare example of a more serious version of this time of magical girl show – mainly because the title character’s family is more dysfunctional then the average family of this sort of series. Specifically, Yumi’s mother is an alcoholic, and her parents fight. The show still serves as wish fulfillment, but with a more serious sort of added wish fulfillment, as Mami not only tries to use her abilities to help her friends, but also to try and save her parents marriage. Additionally, unlike most magical girls, Yumi’s powers of transformation have a time limit. The first half of the show (14 episodes) is currently available for legal streaming on AnimeSols.com – http://animesols.com/series/14. There are two earlier, similar series from the same studio on AnimeSols – Magical Emi (1985 - http:// animesols.com/series/22 – first 3 episodes available), andCreamy Mami (1983 - http://animesols.com/series/5 This show is also a fairly rare ‘80s example of this form of Magical Girl show. By the time Pastel Yumi came out in ‘86, the Magical Girl genre had already started to undergo a considerable genre shift. Magical Girl as Super Hero As with the Super genre, and mecha in general, the Magical Girl genre began a metamorphosis thanks to the work of . Starting with Nagai’s Cutey Honey (1973), the Magical Girl transformed (no pun intended), from basic wish-fulfillment, to a full- fledged champion of justice, standing up to the forces of evil, usually in the form of a sinister organization with a mysterious leader (usually also female), and four evil generals who would send minions against the until each general was defeated. In this new version, the Magical Girl character may lose their animal mascot (depending on the show), and generally gets some changes to how their transformation powers work. In particular, the whole Still from the opening credits of New Cutey Honey (1994) concept of “lose your powers if your friends discover you” is generally dropped from the series entirely. Instead, the incentive for the character to retain their secret identity is to prevent discovery by the villains, and with that threats to their friends and family (as with most conventional superheroes). However, Nagai was primarily a writer of Shonen, or boys comics, and had a tendency to slip the risque into his work with all the subtlety and grace of a carefully placed whoopee cushion. So, with Cutey Honey, Nagai, in addition to dropping the animal mascot, stepped up the violence (with Honey defeating her enemies in sword fights – complete with bloodshed), and stepped up the risque, by aging up the title character to being a senior in high school, and adding nudity to her transformation sequences, and a costume that emphasized her cleavage. The next two major spins on the genre came in the ‘80s, with Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon took the Magical Girl superhero series, and took a cue from another popular genre in television – the series. The Super Sentai series of Tokusatsu (or special effects) series had been popular since the 1970s, featuring teams of color-coded characters doing battle against various with super-powered martial arts. Sailor Moon took the concept, dropped the martial arts, and brought in magical girl special attacks. Additionally, Sailor Moon, unlike Cutey Honey, kept the wish-fulfillment aspect of the earlier series, while also stepping up the action. The title character, Still from Sailor Moon Usagi, has family and friends outside of the Sailor Scouts she spends time with outside of school, as do the other members of the Sailor Scouts. The show also added a glamorous romantic interest for Usagi in the form of Mamoru, who also had a secret identity in the form of Tuxedo Mask – though with the added twist in the TV shows first season that Mamoru was unaware of his identity as Tuxedo Mask and vice-versa. This is the point where shows in the Magical Girl genre also have been heavily licensed for release in the US. The Sailor Moon anime series are back in print from Viz Media and is available for streaming on Hulu.com, with the manga being brought out by USA. The Cutey Honey anime has been licensed by . There was also a very campy live- adaptation of the show, directed by Hideaki Anno (director of Evangelion), which is also available on DVD in English speaking markets. A few other notable works of this stripe include: Futari Wa Pretty Cure (2004): The Pretty Cure franchise of anime is a very long running one in , though only the first season, Futari Wa, has been licensed for a US release. The team in this series is smaller than the team from Sailor Moon – two Pretty Cures (Black & White) to the five Sailor Scouts. The premise is generally similar – the “Dark Zone” is attempting to encroach on our world, and two emissaries from the “Garden of Light” have traveled to our world to find chosen champions to fend off the forces of the Dark Zone – the athletic Nagisa Misumi as Cure Black, and the bookish Honoka Yukishiro as Cure White. This series is currently available for streaming under just the title of Pretty Cure on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Funimation.com (1998): This series is the brainchild of one of the names-to-know in Anime, the all-woman manga collective . The anime and manga follow Sakura Kinomoto, a schoolgirl who accidentally releases a releases a set of magical cards from a book created by the sorcerer Clow Reed. The cards’ magical guardian grants the power to purify and capture the cards to Sakura, and she must in turn find them, as the cards have concealed themselves locations and some living things. As Sakura captures the various cards, she also gets new magical abilities based on those cards. Subverting the genre conventions somewhat, Sakura doesn’t “transform” into a magical outfit or have civilian and magical girl “modes”. Like most superheroes she just has her powers all the time. Instead, Sakura wears costumes designed by her best friend, Tomoyo. Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997): Utena is unique amongst magical girl shows. It is a show where all the “monsters” are basically all human. They may have some sort of magical power, but ultimately, they are all human beings. Utena Tenjou, the show’s protagonist, is an orphan, whose parents were killed in a tragic car accident when she was younger. She was saved and comforted by a prince, who gave her a rose ring, and told her to find him when he was older. Inspired by his confidence, Utena decided to be come a prince when she grew up. At the start of the series she has enrolled Ohtori Academy. There Utena discovers a secret society of the school’s elite related to the Rose Bride, named Anthy, a girl who will give the person she is bound to the power to re-make the world. Utena, being a reasonable, rational human being, objects to the idea of women as property, and challenges the elite free Anthy. After defeating one of the members of the student council in a duel (where the winner is determined by who can break a rose worn on the duelist’s lapel), Utena becomes Anthy’s protector, taking on all comers, from the Student Council and other avenues. Utena is currently available on DVD, licensed by RightStuf.com’s Nozomi Entertainment brand, and there is a pending Blu-Ray release as well. There is also a tie-in DVD cover for the final arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena film to Utena, which has also been released through the same sources. Utena is also available for streaming on Hulu.com and Nozomi Entertainment’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/nozomient. The Dark Magical Girl The next major twist on this was the introduction of the concept of the Dark Magical Girl, a villainous counterpart to the protagonist, instead of more clear monsters that the heroes fought in the regular basis. They can be rivals to the protagonist, or straight-up villains, and consequently can serve multiple narrative purposes. They’re enemies for the heroes to best, to inspire them to improve, and potential friends. While the concept has been part of the Magical Girl genre since Sally The Witch back in 1960s, what the transition of Magical Girls into superheroes brought to the table is that now the Magical Girls and their dark counter- parts get into much more direct and in some cases physical completion. The introduction of the Dark Magical Girl also serves as a good way to escalate an existing show, whether through adding antagonists who the characters have to co-exist with in civilian life, or by adding characters whose powers work on a similar, if not identical level, to the powers wielded by the protagonists. Some of the most recent examples of this genre are: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004), A’s (2005), StrikerS (2007): The Nanoha franchise is one that is basically built around The Cast of Nanoha StrikerS (2007) conflicts between Magical Girls and Dark Magical Girls, and is the best example of this genre. The first series starts with the main character, Nanoha Takamachi, trying to find and purify “Jewel Seeds”, magical artifacts that can transform and give great powers, and in some cases mutations – to living beings, with the help of Yuuno Scrya, an archeologist from an alien world who is on Earth looking for the seeds, disguised as a ferret. However, Nanoha is also competing with a rival Magical Girl, Fate Testarossa (like the car), another magical girl who is seeking the Jewel Seeds at the behest of her abusive mother. Later series involve Nanoha and Fate and ever expanding teams of magical girls going up against ever escalating teams of Dark Magical Girls. These fights are much more physical than other series, with the Magical Girls basically wielding actual weapons against each other, though Nanoha’s staff, Raging Heart, acts more like an energy cannon. The Nanoha series had been licensed for DVD release by Geneon and distributed by Funimation, but at present the licenses have lapsed. However, there are legit DVDs out there... you just have to go onto eBay to find them and they cost way too goddamn much. Video Game Primer: Shin Megami Tensei – Part 2

When I left off last issue, we’d come to the end of the 20th century, and the Shin Megami Tensei franchise had taken its first steps onto the Sony PlayStation 1.The game didn’t get any new installments until the release of the Sony PlayStation 2 – which also leads to the point where most of the subsequent titles for the series received an English release. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne – PS2 (2004), A Note on Acronyms PSN (2014) There are a few acronyms that are commonly used in video game circles Shin Megami Tensei III, narratively, is a bit of a gear shift from that I want to explain before I get started. the earlier mainline games in the series. While Shin Megami Tensei II is Now, some of these acronyms aren’t ones a direct sequel to the first game, and is set in the same universe, Nocturne that I’ll use in the majority of the article, is set in an entirely different timeline. In this game, the apocalypse is but I’m including in case you want to sort of in process. Tokyo and the surrounding area is magically warped do further research, or because later into the interior of a hollow sphere, and the layout of the city and the acronyms build off of the earlier ones. surrounding area is warped. Within this sphere, the forces of law and NES/FC – Nintendo Entertainment chaos vie to see in what form the subsequent apocalypse will take. The System/Famicom – Nintendo’s first main character and two friends are spared from apocalyptic forces that home console system, an 8-bit Console, have wiped out most of the rest of humanity by their teacher, Yuko home to Super Mario Bros. and The Takao. Yuko is a vital part of the plans of a man named Hikawa, who Legend of Zelda. leads a cult that seeks to quell humanity’s passionate impulses in their new world. The main character’s two friends, Chiaki and Isamu, each SNES/SFC – Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom have their own visions of what the new world will be, and end up in – Nintendo’s 16-bit console, home to opposition with Hikawa and each other. It’s up to the main character to Super Mario World, III (VI decide whether to follow one of those three paths, or to carve his own in Japan), and Super Castlevania path. GB – Nintendo – Nintendo’s handheld gaming system, which stored information on small cartridges and displayed graphics on a small, monochrome LCD screen. GEN/MD – Genesis/Mega Drive – Sega’s 16-bit console, home to the Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, and Phantasy Star series. Sega CD/MD CD – Sega CD/Mega As Nocturne is on the PlayStation 2, , the game’s developer, Drive CD – Sega’s add-on for the GEN/ decided to change things by making the game in 3D, as opposed to using MD which allowed the console to play 2D sprites like in earlier titles. Dungeons are explored in a third person games stored on CD-ROMS. perspective instead of a first person perspective. While the overworld TG CD/PCE CD – TurboGrafx CD/ is explored by moving around a push-pin as with earlier games, there’s PC Engine CD – NEC’s console system a much wider range of movement than in earlier games, and the world which supported games on CDs as well itself is wider. Earlier titles chopped the overworld map into a bunch as on their proprietary Hu-Cards. Didn’t of separate screens – here, the overworld is a unified, massive whole. do well in the US. I’m blaming the Additionally, while earlier titles had one or both of the main character’s “Xtreme” spelling on the ‘90s. friends as party members throughout much of the game. Here the player SAT – – Sega’s 32- spends much of the game exploring on their own, with whatever bit console, which didn’t have any the character enlists into their party. mainstream success in the United States or Europe. As it is, the dungeon environments themselves could stand with a bit more polish, but at the time Atlus hadn’t done as many games with PS1 – Sony Playstation – Sony’s 32-bit 3D polygonal environments prior to this, so I suspect this more related to console, and one of the first successful a lack of practice than to any failure from a design standpoint. The game consoles to exclusively use compact disks to store games (other consoles had also requires a fair amount of grinding to progress in the story. used laser disks and CDs exclusively Kathleen DeVere of the sketch comedy troup LoadingReadyRun before, like the 3DO and the Phillips did a video Let’s Play of the Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, which CDi, but they also sold poorly, had a can be watched on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL poor selection of games for them, and sy9DTCWSlnj0Aq3PCmzjnErbZg_1_0Tw what games they did had were generally of poor quality). PS2 – Sony Playstation 2 – Sony’s Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 – successor to the PS1, which used DVDs PS2 (2005), PSN (2014) to store games. Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 are probably the closest any game in PSP – Sony Playstation Portable – Sony’s handheld system, which used the MegaTen franchise gets to being a “traditional” Japanese RPG. The Sony’s exclusive “Universal Media game, like other games in the series, is set in the apocalyptic world of Disk” format to store games. the Junkyard. The game’s story, which borrows from Hinduism, has the six tribes of the Junkyard set against each other in order to claim passage VITA – Sony Vita – Sony’s current to Nirvana. Further, the members of each tribe are given the ability to handheld system, which uses memory transform into demons – and when they defeat their enemies, they must cards to store games. consume their enemies to gain their power and to prevent them from GBA – – Nintendo’s reincarnating. 16-bit color handheld system, which used cartridges and was backwards compatible with the Game Boy and Game Boy Color DS – Nintendo DS – Nintendo’s last generation handheld system, with the DS standing for “Dual-Screen”. The system stored games on a special memory card, and system featured two screens, one a touch-screen, the other a traditional color LED screen. 3DS – Nintendo 3DS – Nintendo’s current handheld system, which works a lot like the DS, except with the addition of an analog stick on the controller, and the fact that the screen supports glasses- These games have no devil summoning, nor negotiating with free 3D. demons to gain their service, nor combining them to gain additional CRPG – Console/Computer RPG – power. Instead, combat is your basic turn-based affair, with in between Role-Playing video games designed combats the main party of characters navigating dungeons and talking specifically for consoles and personal to people to solve some of the game’s fundamental mysteries – like computers. why were they given the ability to turn into demons (or did they have it JRPG – Japanese RPG – Role-Playing all along), what is the power that gave them their abilities up to, and is video games, generally designed for Nirvana worth it? consoles or computers, created by Japanese game developers. The second game picks up after the first game, and the player Import Gaming and characters arrive in Nirvana – which turns out to be the real world (the Junkyard being a virtual one), and now end up discovering that it is not the Retron 5 what it was cracked up to be, as Nirvana is something of a totalitarian Last issue, in part 1 of this state, filled with human-like statues of people who were destroyed short series, I discussed several in some past catastrophe, that wiped out much of humanity, with the games in the Shin Megami Tensei characters having to decide to go along with the new order to bring series were released for the SNES it down. The second game carries over the decisions that the player in Japan, and which hadn’t gotten a made from the previous version of the game over to this one, allowing wide US release (with the exception the player’s decisions to have some more long-term consequences – of Shin Megami Tensei 1, which got something that isn’t particularly common in Japanese RPGs, or for that an iOS release) – but I gave links to matter, American RPGs. Let’s Plays of those games. In the A Video Let’s Play of Digital Devil Saga can be viewed here: time since I wrote that article and http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL30080D74A3A406F9, and one my actually publishing the issue, I for Digital Devil Saga 2 by the same person can be viewed here: http:// purchased a Retron 5. www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1242F4135C295A9D The Retron 5 is what I like to call a “retro-clone” game console. These are video game systems built Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The to play games for older systems Soulless Army – PS2 (2006), PSN (2014) – generally the NES, SNES, and Genesis – on modern TVs, which If the Digital Devil Saga games were the biggest mechanical shift might not necessarily have the inputs from the rest of the MegaTen series, the two Raidou Kuzunoha games needed to play the game on the are the biggest shift in the thematic setting of the series, moving the original hardware (which means you game to Taisho-era Japan – specifically 1931. The game’s plot is also don’t have to go out and buy a CRT more pulpy then the other games in the series, without any of the truly TV). There several companies who apocalyptic elements of the earlier games. In the story, the title character make similar consoles, but the Retron must stop a plot by Grigori Rasputin, who has traveled back in time from 5, manufactured by Hyperkin, has a the future to create a demonic army which he intends to use to plunge the few factors that make it unique. world into darkness, starting with Tokyo. The way the game plays is First, the is the number of considerably different from earlier systems that the Retron 5 can play. games in the series. Like Nocturne, The system supports not only the you explore the overworld as a pushpin three consoles Hyperkin’s earlier moving along a map, and like Nocturne system, the Retron 3 supported – in smaller areas like buildings and the NES, the Super NES (and its districts you walk around freely. Japanese counterpart, the Super However, as this is 1930s Tokyo, you’re Famicom), and the (and in a bustling metropolis, with loads its Japanese counterpart, the Mega of people to talk to and encounter, to Drive), but also it now supports the get information not only about the Japanese counterpart of the NES, the story itself, but also ‘30s Tokyo as a Famicom (which the earlier game setting. When you do get into random didn’t support due to the different encounters with demons, combat is number of pins on each cartridge), done in real-time. You run around along with the Game Boy Advance, and by extension the Game Boy and a small map, engaging hand to hand or ranged combat with demons, Game Boy Color. and summoning some demons of your own to do battle alongside you. Rather than negotiating with demons to get them to join your side, you Second is how the Retron 5 beat on them until they are weakened, and then use a tube to does this. Other retro-clone systems capture them. It’s a lot like Pokemon in this respect. Like the majority try to replicate retro systems through of the series, once you’ve captured demons, they can be fused into more what I’d describe as hardware powerful demons that you can use in combat – though in this game the emulation – the hardware on the fusions are performed by a mad scientist, complete with a laboratory system is meant to replicate the featuring Van De Graff generators and Jacob’s Ladders. hardware on the console. This means that if the hardware has problems A Video Let’s Play of this game can be viewed here: http://www. running particular games, you’re youtube.com/playlist?list=PL161032A8D54B2990 kind of stuck. The Retron 5, on the other hand, uses software emulation. 3, FES, and Portable – PS2 (3 & FES The system has a Linux OS running emulation software in the game’s – 2007), PSP (Portable – 2010), PSN (FES – firmware, and when a game is 2014) plugged into the system, the system “rips” the game from the cartridge The Persona sub-franchise underwent its next dramatic shift in to the system memory, the same way the third installment of the series. The first three games were not too that you rip music from a CD to your dissimilar to the games in the main parts of the Shin Megami Tensei computer, with the difference being to franchise, in terms of the focus on exploration and investigation. prevent piracy, once you’ve removed on the other the cartridge from the game’s system hand, puts the focus of the the game image is deleted from the game on characterization, not system memory. This also allows the only through the game’s story, manufacturer to update the system’s but also through the game’s firmware to add support for additional mechanics. The main character games and to add additional features. of the game (who is male in This is done through an SD card slot Persona 3 and FES, but who on the back of the system. can be male or female based Because the Retron 5 uses on the player’s preference in software emulation, this lets you Persona 3 Portable), is a newly do a lot of really neat things with transferred student to a high cartridge-based games that you school in the Japanese city of normally can only do with a ROM Iwatodai. Upon arriving into image on the computer (which enters the city, the character discovers the territory of dubious legality). something known as the “Dark First, you can use a time-honored Hour” - a period of time, starting tactic that has been practiced by at midnight, where most people players of video games on the are transmogrified into coffins, PC since time-immemorial, save though a few people are aware scumming. For those unfamiliar with of what is actually happening. the term, this is when you frequently Those who are not transformed save, so if you die in the game you into coffins are at risk of being attacked by entities called Shadows. can load from your last save, right However, people who are not transformed into coffins can fight back before you kicked the bucket, and against the Shadows if they can learn to summon the power of their hopefully avoid whatever killed you. “Persona”, which can only be summoned at a moment when the person Second, with the Retron 5’s latest thinks they are about to die. The main character of the game and their firmware update, the system now companions can trigger this effect using “evokers”, which look like guns, supports translation patches so you to trigger this effect. can play imported games in English. All you need to do is download the patch file from whoever did the While the main character’s fellow party members are limited to translation, put it on the SD card a specific persona over the course of the game, the main character can you use for the Retron 5, and then summon multiple persona over the course of the game, with the power once you’ve put the game in, point and types of Persona the character can summon being determined by the system to the translation file. the strengths of various “social links”, each tied to one of the major Additionally, the system supports Arcana of the tarot deck. Some of these links are connected to some video output over HDMI, which of the main character’s fellow party members, and will progress as the means you can use the system on main character makes their way through the story. Others involve people pretty much every modern TV. throughout the city and at the main character’s school, and the player will have to manage their in-game time to progress these social links. In addition, to progress some social links, the character will have to improve some of their non-combat related stats, through studying on their schoolwork to improve their academic skill, or watching scary movies to improve their courage. Once a social link is completed, it stays completed, even on multiple playthroughs of the game, which reduces the rush to complete some social links, and adds incentive to replay the game. Additionally, any persona that have previously been unlocked will also remain available in the player’s Persona Compendium, allowing them to pick up where they left off in subsequent games. Additionally, instead of having to find and navigate multiple dungeons throughout the game, the player has one primary dungeon – the tower of Tartarus. The layout of Tartarus is randomly generated every time the party enters the dungeon, but the player can find warp points every five levels that lets them skip ahead on their explorations. Additionally, they need to reach certain threshold points in Tartarus by particular dates on the calender, or else the game will end. This idea of putting the focus of the game on time management and characterization is derived somewhat from a genre of Japanese video games called “Visual ”. While Persona 3 retains more traditional JRPG elements like some environmental exploration (and random or semi-random encounters with enemies while exploring the dungeon), I’d describe Visual Novels as the computer game equivalent of one of the old Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf game books. The player has various options that will take them through the game, on various branching paths that will lead them through the story. Some branching paths will lead them to a bad end, others will lead them to a successful conclusion. The primary difference is that visual novels will include, for lack of a better term, some more “gamey” elements that are different from making choices, whether it’s needing to manage their in-game time to level up particular stats to let them take particular routes in the game, or through adding game-play sequences modeled on tactical RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics or shoot-em-up games like R-Type. A Let’s Play of Persona 3 FES can be viewed on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PLN_lgq4Nvxms2giqB_F9CcZadWzyNYM5S & Persona 4 Golden – PS2 (4 – 2008), PSN (4 – 2014), Vita (Golden – 2012) Persona 4 innovates on Persona 3’s gameplay considerably. Like Persona 3, the game focuses more heavily on social interaction and managing your character’s personal time as you get to know the people in your community, and like Persona 3, the game has randomly generated dungeons. However, unlike Persona 3, you do not have one unified dungeon, but multiple different themed dungeons, though they’re all accessed the same way. The game follows a new protagonist, who has come to the rural Japanese town of Inaba to stay with his Uncle while his parents are working abroad. Shortly after the character’s arrival, mysterious deaths occur, with people seemingly having been dropped out of the sky to their deaths on buildings. This relates to something called the “midnight channel”, where at midnight on rainy nights some people can see a person they know on their TV – according to urban legend their true love. However, it’s something completely different. Instead, after the main character discovers he can enter TVs and bring people with him, he discovers that someone is throwing people into TVs, and there the people are confronted by their “Shadow Selves” - a version of them which represents a side of themselves that they choose to deny and repress, in dungeons that also reflect this shadow self. If a person cannot come to terms to their shadow self, they will die. The player and his friends must investigate who in the community is killing people in this fashion and stop them. Narratively, Persona 4 amps up the character driven focus of the game’s story even more than Persona 3 did. The characters of the game are explored in a level the party members in Persona 3 never were – as we, as the player not only see the front characters want to present to the community, but the part of themselves they want to repress or hide, while also putting forward the narrative message (a healthy one, particularly for such a repressed culture as Japan), that repressing who you are and presenting such a manufactured, false identity is unhealthy. Considering much of Japan’s popular media tends to shy away from providing societal commentary (with some recent exceptions), having a work openly comment on some of the more repressed elements of Japanese society (along with how gender roles are depicted in Japan, with the social links of two party members), is a very nice breath of fresh air. Additionally, by putting focus of the story on a mystery, it gives the player further incentive to work on social links, not only with their fellow party members, but also throughout the community, so they can find out who the killer is, and why the murders are occurring. Persona 4 has been the most successful installment of the entire SMT franchise, and the most financially successful game in the history of Atlus, leading to spinoffs that I’m not going to get too in-depth with here, but which includes two fighting games Persona( 4 Arena and – Ultimax), developed by developer , who I’ll discuss more in-depth whenever I do an article on the games. There is also a Wizardry-style dungeon crawler for the 3DS called Persona Q, which features a crossover with the cast of Persona 3, and which uses the engine of Atlus’ own games (which, once again, merit their own article), which adds the ability to draw an annotate a dungeon map on the lower screen of the Nintendo 3DS. Finally, there is a rhythm based game called Persona 4: Dancing All Night, which has not been released yet. Video game news site Bomb.com did a “Endurance Run” (their term for a Let’s Play) of Persona 4, which may be watched here - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3A8186976CC9159E

Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon – PS2 (2009), PSN (2014) Raidou Kuzunoha’s second outing plays similarly to his first, with some new game-play refinements. Combat is more fast paced, and while in the first game Raidou could only summon one demon, here he can summon two. Also, the demon negotiation system from the main SMT games has returned, allowing the player to talk their way through fights, as needed. A Let’s Play of Devil Summoner 2 can be read here: http://lparchive.org/Shin-Megami-Tensei-Devil- Summoner-2/ Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor – DS (2009), 3DS (2011) Devil Survivor for the DS takes the MegaTen franchise, once again, into a new gameplay direction. This game moves the gameplay style to that of a Tactical RPG. The player fields a party of characters made up of main characters of the game and any demons that they are able to summon to fight against other demons (and in some cases humans with demon allies), as they investigate why the portion of Tokyo they’re in has been blocked off from the rest of the world. The three main characters have computer systems called COMPs, which not only let them capture, communicate with, and summon demons, but also lets them see how long the people around them have to live, showing the “death clock”. This leads to a time management part of the game – some of the character’s actions between battles will advance the clock and trigger certain events. Other actions don’t take up time. As a concession to RPG mechanics, fighting repeat battles to “grind” for experience doesn’t take up time, allowing the player to level up their party to prepare for future battles. This game is a tactical RPG – a genre I haven’t discussed in depth previously. Tactical RPGs are what I’d describe as chess on steroids. Battles take place in an arena of a set size, divided into a square grid. Different areas of the grid (depending on the game), provide different positive or negative modifiers to attacks on enemies, based on height of the location, plus any cover that nearby squares provide. Additionally, the facing of attacks against enemies also effects an attack’s probability of success. Consequently, even if two sides are equally matched, or one side is a little more powerful than another, careful tactical planning can allow a weaker force to overcome a stronger one – or poor tactical planning by the player can lead to their stronger force to be defeated by a weaker force. The focus of the game’s plot is the ability to fight fate, as the player character discover that through their actions they can avert the deaths of the people they encounter, giving them additional time on their death clock. Kathleen DeVere of Loading Ready Run did a Let’s Play of Devil Survivor as well, which can be viewed on the play-list linked under Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – DS (2010) While most of the Shin Megami Tensei games from Nocturne on had been released in the US and Europe, they had always been written and designed with the mindset of being marketed to a Japanese audience. With Strange Journey, Atlus decided to make a MegaTen game with a more international audience in mind. The game is set in a future where a mysterious disaster has caused a massive space-time rift to form in Antarctica. This rift, called the Schwarzwelt, is slowly expanding and if unchecked will consume the entire planet Earth, wiping out Humanity. An international team is sent to investigate, and becomes trapped. As with other MegaTen games, the Law-Balance-Chaos spectrum comes up here, in the form of the team discovering that whoever controls the Schwarzwelt can reshape the world, and ultimately determining in what form the new world will take, if the world will be remade at all. The game uses the Wizardry-style dungeon crawling game-play of the first few MegaTen games, with this game being designed using the engine of the Etrian Odyssey games that Atlus had published for the DS earlier. Unlike Etrian Odyssey, Strange Journey removed the game-play elements of drawing your own map on the DS’s lower screen, instead focusing on managing your demons, and your party – particularly through the interactions between various party members who are drawn toward various sides of the spectrum. Additionally, because the dungeon within the game is inside a sort of rift in space-time, the game themes the design of the various portions of the dungeon to reflect on elements of humanity – some less savory than others. A Let’s Play for Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is available for viewing here: https://www. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt47AwbABLStwDnatxISLf89009NQkKRd Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor II – DS (2012), 3DS (2015) Devil Survivor II works much the same way as the first game in this sub-series. The game is a tactical RPG, with the player’s team of characters and their subservient demons fighting opponents on a grid. There are a few slight refinements to the game-play here, but the bigger change here is the story. In this version, the characters aren’t bottled in a small portion of Tokyo. Instead, they travel between several Japanese cities (adding Osaka and Kyoto to Tokyo), to prevent them from being consumed by the forces of the Septentriones, an organized group of demons that is seeking to destroy the world and remake it according to their demonic whims. The plot for this game also has a broader variety of choices available to the player to shape the story, with the player not only being able to save various supporting characters from death, and then develop a relationship with those characters (whether friendship or otherwise), but also able to choose between various factions that fall on various points of the Law-Balance-Chaos spectrum. There is a Let’s Play available to read on the Let’s Play Archive for Devil Survivor 2 here: http:// lparchive.org/Shin-Megami-Tensei-Devil-Survivor-2/

Shin Megami Tensei IV – 3DS (2013) Shin Megami Tensei IV is the first numbered title in the series in about 9 years, and it takes a lot of cues from what’s worked through the Persona games, while also preserving the series dungeon crawling game- play. The game is set well after the apocalypse, with society having rebuilt itself into a feudal society, based on Europe in the middle ages, following the apocalypse. The player’s character (canonically Flynn, though the player can name them whatever they want) is a knight in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, which is built on top of the long buried ruins of Tokyo. The player and his friends must investigate the ruins of Tokyo, and once again choose between the paths of Order (represented by the government of the Kingdom of Mikado), Chaos (represented by the demon summoning Yakuza who control the ruins of Tokyo), or the balance (represented by Tokyo’s guardian spirit, Masakado, who has been fused with the protective dome that lies between the Kingdom of Mikado and Tokyo). SMT IV uses the more visual-novel styled overworld from the Persona games, while also using a more real-time control setup for exploring dungeons. Now, rather than facing enemies randomly, they can see encounters on the map, and try to avoid them, or launch a sneak attack on enemies for an advantage. Additionally, the game has a new mechanic in combat. Earlier games rewarded the player for attacking enemies based on their weaknesses by giving additional damage and an extra attack. In SMT IV, if you do this enough time, party members can enter a status called “Smirk”, which increases the amount of damage dealt and eliminates any weaknesses the character has. SMT IV also takes full advantage of the 3DS’s “street-pass” feature. If two people who are playing the game street-pass (that is, are close enough together that their 3DS games can talk to each other), they can get a copy of one of the Demons that the player has in the game, allowing the player to get some rare demons. A Let’s Play for Shin Megami Tensei IV is available for viewing here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDwjEcGRHRZ5zUG9S3xHvXTTg6nVoS KGO

Recommendations Well, the question then becomes, if you’re interested in checking out the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, where would I recommend you jump in? Partially this depends on what systems you have access to. If all you’ve got is an iOS device, then you can jump in at the beginning. Otherwise, here are my picks.

If you have a Sony Handheld Device (PSP/Vita), or a PlayStation TV So, the PSP is able to play, in addition to PSP games, games for the PlayStation One that are available to purchase through PlayStation Network, and the Vita and PlayStation TV can play basically anything that the PSP can play, in addition to Vita, with the difference being any PSP games it can play have to be available for purchase through PlayStation network. What this means, in short, that you’ve got a selection of every game in the Persona franchise, in one form or another. The best game in this series to get your feet wet with is, beyond a doubt, Persona 4 Golden. The game has a more approachable structure to it, with both the plot and game-play being very character focused. The dungeons are all tied to the personalities and repressed personal issues of the people who have been thrown into the Midnight Channel, and because of this, the dungeon exploration based portions of the game are much more reasonably sized, and creatively designed. If Persona 4 catches your interest, then feel free to check out the earlier Persona games.

If you have a Nintendo DS or 3DS Here you’ve got a bit more limited selection of titles. There’s the Devil Survivor games and Strange Journey on the DS, and Soul Hackers and Shin Megami Tensei IV on the 3DS. I’d recommend Soul Hackers if you have a 3DS or Strange Journey if you have a DS. The two games are closer to the classic MegaTen style, but without the real-time dungeon game-play that SMT IV has, which could make it less practical for on-the-go play.

If you have a PS3 or a PS2 All of the MegaTen titles for the PS2 that were released in the US are available for digital download on PlayStation network, in addition to the titles that were released on the PlayStation One. Also, the PS3 Slim (the current model available in stores) can play PS1 games on disk, so there’s that option as well. That said, my first choice for recommendations would be Persona 4, for the same reasons that I recommended Golden for the Vita – it’s most approachable and it chops its story into more reasonably managed chunks. Otherwise, I’d recommend the Raidou Kuzunoha games, for kind of a similar reason, with the added factor that if you’d rather not play a game with high schoolers as protagonists, the main characters in those games are out of high school. They do have less narrative choice to them than the Persona games do, but they still have what I think are interesting stories.

If you have a Retron 5 There is one more possible option – if you have a Retron 5, you can play the Super Famicom games in the series, legally, with a translation patch. Under this situation, I’d recommend checking out either of the first two games in the series. The first game is the only game in the series to be particularlyapocalyptic as opposed to post-apocalyptic, and come to think of it is one of the few games I know of to be apocalyptic in general.

What if you don’t own any of these consoles Well, the bad news is that most of the ancillary works in this franchise, in terms of anime and manga, either haven’t come to the US or aren’t very good. There are a couple of exceptions. Persona 4 received an anime adaptation in 2011, which was well regarded, with a sequel series called Persona 4 Golden which came out in 2014, and adapts some of the arcs that were unique to the Vita version of the game. Devil Summoner 2 also received an anime adaptation, but one which suffered from some characterization problems that weakened the show as a whole. Persona 3 received a sequel anime series titled Persona: Trinity Soul, but that show had very limited ties to the plot of Persona 3, with few characters crossing over. Persona 3 has received a quartet of anime films adapting the story, but those have yet to be licensed for an English language release. There is a pair of manga series that have been released tied to the recent spinoff game to Persona 3 & 4 – Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth – which is currently available through Crunchyroll’s digital manga app. However, that manga and the game assume that you’ve played enough of both games to be familiar with their characters.

If you want to buy one of these on a budget Probably the cheapest option to go with, if the Persona games interest you, is getting a PlayStation TV. The system itself is $100, and the first 4 Persona games are available for it. That said, is set to come out next year, and is planned to be released for the PS3 and PS4, so if you’re willing to spend more, I’d recommend picking up a PS3. The PS3 is also able to play all the previous Persona games, in addition to SMT Nocturne and the Raidou Kuzunoha games – and it runs a variety of streaming media apps, and plays Blu-Ray disks. Additionally, the PS3 has an actual working first party remote, something the PS4 doesn’t have.