Digital Devil Story Revisited

[@MarshSMT]

Hope you guys like this one, I'm still working on SMT 1 and Giten and ended up finishing this video first. It's a little different than normal I think, but it was fun going back to the start of the franchise again. Huge thanks to Rasen Bran for letting me use some Megami Tensei 2 footage, check out his channel here kzbin.info/door/tjGi3eV0MdSlfC-79Tot2Q

[@jessemishell6640]

I DO like it. Thanks for asking.

[@gablink5190]

smt1 is one of the most fun games i played. i played the gba version and only used a guide to get the hinokagutisuchi and for a few places that i got stuck and had a blast with it, i played the gba version with the english patch that uses the IOS script.

[@julinofooly]

I will wait patiently for giten so i can figure out why tf my friends keep joking about it because I sure af ain't gonna make it work or play it

[@DecoyBlackMage]

Great video as always

[@aggrisabernathy8770]

I would be interested in seeing the remastered Megami Tensei 2 game since the original was so crazy. However, if you want to do something else and come back to Megami Tensei 2 that can work too. I also greatly appreciate your videos and your overall personality when you go into depth with them. You are awesome and you have a great dedication to the franchise that should be admired. Thanks again for making these videos.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Imagine Marsh plays through SMT 4 for the hell of it, names Flynn Nakajima, gets to Minotaur and goes "MOTHERFUCKER I FORGOT."

[@notice8612]

Marsh: the professional SMT player. He went Pro in 2020 and never looked back

[@uirusux]

He has swiftly became my favorite. Truly balls deep.

[@onemoregodrejected9369]

P5 fans: you think you are an elitist just because you play SMT? Marsh, beating Megami tensei without Shin : Ah... Well... *Yes* i am

[@nr2676]

​@@onemoregodrejected9369 Marsh: I read all books, watched OVA and even beat unfinished masterpiece called SMT NINE.

[@Thenormal880]

yup i can agree

[@Nilnot]

Shame about that business in 2022. That 200 hour SMT2 video really broke him

[@kabutofan7]

"We're in Mikan city, on the 8th floor of Daedalus Tower and our first task is to get to the bottom and kill The Minotaur" Every time I hear that line I get hype.

[@flashbackfrank8781]

And marsh gets ptsd.... 😂

[@connoro462]

Well, atleast there isn't a person to *attempt* to "end it thus."

[@kennylauderdale_en]

There hasn't been a single video you've done I haven't enjoyed. It's not just the subject matter either, you make interesting observations. Keep it up. Or don't. This is a youtube comment, not a devil contract.

[@erkman4900]

i agree

[@hollowsephiroth]

Any chance you’re gonna review the Megami Tensei OVA and SMT Tokyo Revelation OVA? Also, Chad Chargeman Ken is here.

[@X_Blake]

Hey Ken

[@mornemauvais5873]

I'll get a devil to contract him

[@zaciroth]

same

[@antimatter3084]

Shin Megami Tensei NINE is a psychological horror game about a guy who gets attacked by a giant angry scrotum at a Taylor Swift concert, and then spends several months facing horrific hallucinations from the resulting PTSD. There are no rules in this game. In the first five minutes you shatter the boundaries of space and time when you try to leave this flower shop only to realise that you're trapped as this lady and her lesbian furry lover crawl on two planes of existence at once as she seemingly goes down the wall and towards the screen at the same time. The only way out is through this table down here and then you're back on the street where this guy yells at you, as if you just did all that shit on purpose. Sometimes when you walk down the street you literally walk down into it. I mean this looks like some kind of surrealist painting. Trying to imagine the perspective on this destroys the human mind so just don't think about it too much. Almost every building is empty and plays mildly disturbing music, except for this one where Jack Frost says welcome and promptly shows you a series of menus with no text. The whole game feels like you aren't welcome in its presence. It almost feels like the software is sentient and it's watching, trying to figure out why you're playing a Japanese Xbox game. I truly do believe that if demons can manifest themselves in lines of code, there's almost certainly one hiding in here somewhere. Oh yeah, and the battle system you can't really do anything it's like a movie. You can smack that ballsack all you want, but it's just not gonna go away. Overall, I have to say it's about as good as Persona 5 so check it out when you get the chance. See ya

[@someguywithatomahawk8058]

Thanks for the copy pasta

[@Thenormal880]

yup

[@freon22]

This pasta is delicious

[@tonygonk]

I’ve memorized that entire video

[@monoplush1257]

Love the pfp

[@LauritzenLucas]

"We're on Micon City on the eight floor of Dedalus Tower," here we go again...for the last time

[@BackPalSA]

I can't wait for the announcement of Megami Tensei Remake

[@NEETKitten]

That might as well be his channel's slogan at this point.

[@MakenaForest]

in before smt 5 has a daedalus tower segment

[@MakenaForest]

@Grima the Fell Dragon oh you thought- no i mean like how mt2 does it smt 5 starts "We're on the 8th floor of Daedalus Tower, in Micon city-"

[@NEETKitten]

@Grima the Fell Dragon Even better: it gets the Puzzle Boy treatment and gets turned into a minigame that's way longer and harder than it has any right to be.

[@Marido_de_4luguel]

"It's actually a pretty neat place" says Marsh while burning his skin off in the literal fires of Hell

[@NEETKitten]

"This is fine."

[@navatheramenguy3127]

@@NEETKitten you have to tell yourself this while crossing this area else your sanity will evaporate

[@logicaloverdrive8197]

He's an SMT fan! He's a Masochist.

[@Aa-dn1oq]

At this point, Marsh has likely played more DDS Megami Tensei than any living or sane person.

[@Black_Revue]

Hold my Mudo spell dood

[@brotbrotsen1100]

Not gona lie, the snes remakes are damn good. Played them on a hacked 3ds and they feel right at home there.

[@Aa-dn1oq]

@@brotbrotsen1100 Yeah I've been playing Kyuyaku II and it's pretty good so far

[@UltaFlame]

The most startling aspect to this comment is the implication that marsh is neither living nor sane, and I'm unsure which is more unsettling a potential revelation

[@some_guy117]

Honestly if i knew Japanese I would probably be with marsh

[@RetroPixle]

Marsh is the reason I branched out of Persona and into SMT. Onw of the best things to happen to me this year.

[@YourFriendlyKebab]

Welcome

[@kanna-san.]

More people need to do this

[@moogleking]

One of us

[@celticantifa]

the level design is the kabbalistic tree of life and the dark version is the qliphoth, its cool how atlus always worked knowledge of the occult into the games

[@jasonenns5076]

So Gnosticism and Kabbalah? And... How do you know this...

[@Curmett]

@@jasonenns5076 they're really not THAT obscure, buddy.

[@PabbyPabbles]

@@jasonenns5076 I guess first you type "What's those weird symbols in the sky in Evangelion?" or "Does Sephiroth's name come from anywhere?", and then instead of stopping at "Tree of Life, religious/magic thing that ran parallel to the Abrahamic religions" you have yourself a Wikipedia party, and then you search a few more terms that piqued your interest, and then you end up reading walls of text about each dot in both sides of the tree in the Kabbalah on some blog and somewhere in the middle you click the "About" on the blog and realize you crossed the threshold from detached cultural studies into actual occult shit and you just keep going

[@jasonenns5076]

@@deadliestvice5356 What's greempai

[@carlcouture1023]

Made by Telenet, not Atlus.

[@tsunsquid5084]

I’d be interested in a video on Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei 2 personally, but if you don’t wanna play through it again, don’t force yourself because people want it. No matter what videos you make, I’m sure they’ll be great!

[@somnus9976]

Exactly

[@BrenTenkage]

same, I'd love to see a video but no reason to push yourself

[@penttikoivuniemi2146]

Seconded.

[@krullachief669]

Pfft, he'd be back in Daedelus tower again for the last time.

[@BrenTenkage]

@@krullachief669 The Return of the Revenge...with a Vengence

[@Bytezor8]

As someone who the past year REALLY started to get into SMT, basically making the jump from Pokémon as a HUGE history/mythology junkie SMT made a massive appeal to me, I can’t thank you enough for these videos, they are entertaining, precise in information, and really just covers content of the megaten franchise that has been neglected outside Japan, you’re really doing huge work for the entire fandom and yet again I can’t thank you enough for these videos

[@genekwagmyrsingh9433]

Yeah, that's basically the perfect combination of things to rivet me as well. I've always been a collector and my first book was Bulfinch's Mythology.

[@will.2155]

“Nakajima’s orbs have not yet regained their luster”

[@DemonicaFGC]

Cant wait to have grand kids on a mars colony in in 2095 and Marshes Deep Fake AI Conscious will make another review of Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei on the PS4 Collection

[@bearandthebull2372]

The sad part is that the only unrealistic thing is atlus remastering an old smt game.

[@MultiAlphamega]

@@bearandthebull2372 I mean... Smt 1, 2 and if Are on switch. With the super Famicom online thing

[@BMoser-bv6kn]

@@bearandthebull2372 I actually like that they do it rarely and just make new games instead. The monkey's paw version of this would be something like the 10,000 versions of every single old Final Fantasy game. At some point it's like, c'mon... you've got it already. You're just making things worse, please stop it. (Media would be really weird in an AGI world, though. Everything would trend to $0, everyone could have their own games/shows/books...)

[@DemonicaFGC]

@@bearandthebull2372 But like Megami Tensei 1 is on PS4 and Switch now

[@iwannaseehowlongyoucanmakethis]

@@BMoser-bv6kn Final Fantasy 1-6 each has at least two remakes

[@ApplaudedZero70]

I'm pretty sure Marsh has a full Blown citizenship for Mikan city at this point

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

Wait does that mean he’s always committing a domestic war crime when he comes back there? Kinda dark when you realize 😂😂

[@AlL-tk6kw]

"Back at it again at the 8th floor of Dedalus Tower" *backflips into minotaur*

[@nintenx1235]

Marsh during “the SMTIV experience”: here we are in Mikado village right above the 8th floor of Naraku Tower. Why am I having deja vu?

[@ikhwananimationsbeyondweeb4528]

Ah yes, the game that make people need to be specific on what they meant by DDS

[@ils4844]

Yes 😎

[@kakizakichannel]

AtlusUSA fucked up, the title emphasis was on Avatar Tuner

[@senpyrothewizard8172]

@@sedme0 Dock and Dall Sorture

[@freakyzed8467]

Without explanation you are tossed into a dungeon and left to fend for yourself. So they nailed the public school experience before Persona.

[@sharkattack153]

This man has ungodly endurance going through literally every grindy and cryptic-ass old SMT game for us, rock on Marsh.

[@RayquaSr.]

"I'll never have to see these blue walls of hell again until kyuyaku"- mega ten 2 The prophecy has come true.

[@ShadowBaofu]

Closest thing I found to a guide was a Japanese blog of someone playing Telenet's Digital Devil Story which was quite rough.

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

Ah yes, the Telenet DDS, quite the classic game, even has a similar layout to its predecesor, Hydlide and the Dragon Slayer series of Falcom. The memories. It's why I love the channel, not afraid to tackle these old games and the roots of a lot of modern juggernauts of gaming. And the additional research to how they connect with the side-media is also very appreciated, it's nice to get a memory refreshing every once in a while. As for "Be Found" it's ne of the evry first "Engrish" phrases from back then as it probably came from having to abridge the phrase "You've Been Found" to "Be Found". Back then, the limitation of space in sentences, especially in japanese due to how the Kanji work, it often had them far more limited than the western games when it came to programming text boxes, so it's highly probable that's what happened. It also doesn't help that back in the 80s, the average japanese developer / programmer didn't have as tight of a grasp in english grammar as people have these days. Telenet's DDS also has a weird story since Atlus, during the XBOX days, wanted to recreate the action feeling of the first story, by having the payer take control of Cerberus only and wonder around the various Sephirot-styled dungeons but the game was unfortunately cancelled. These days though Atlus has quite the good relation with action devs so I'd like to see them tackle a more "classic" Megami Tensei styled title, with the action-dungeon crawler gameplay they envisioned for that cancelled game, since I have no doubt it'd be a different experience than Raidou Kuzunoha or the P5Scramble game. While Telenet doesn't exist anymore, at least not in its original form, it'd be quite the thing to have a dev studio like either Falcom or the Tales devs from Bandai Namco, considering they have history and some, now retired, programmers from Telenet, some of them having already worked on DDS before leaving to form the then legendary "Wolf Team" of Tales of Phantasia reputation and current tri-Ace reputation. And hey, Namco, at least back in the day as "Namcot" did help Atlus publish DDS so they more than have a connection regarding this series. The topless scene in the PC-88 should have been expected. It was a staple for the machine back then, even non-erotic games had quite the assortment of pixelated nudes. You'd be surprised how common that was. All in all, quite nice that you chose to retackle the OG DDS and hey, SMT always required a little insanity to be appreciated so don't worry, you're still fine, relatively speaking. Now, for Kyuyaku : you aren't wrong with the charm being lost from the NES game since by Megami Tensei II, a lot of the original staff got replaced by the people we know now as the more iconic Atlus team, like Kaneko as the artist instead of whoever did the art for MT1. That lead to Opera House, the porting devs that made Kyuyaku into incorporating all these changes in mind, like trying to copy Kaneko's artstyle and colour palette at the time to fit with MTII. So a part of the original was indeed lost and the screen / hud being lost was a bit of a downer but by the time of the SNES, such "primitive" graphics were considered anathema on such strong gaming systems like the 16 bit consoles, as they were thought of as unecessary since they crunched a but of the tv's space and it wasn't as good looking compared to a PC screen. For the music, given they didn't have Tsukasa Masuko on board, they failed to recpature that kind of magic he brought on for MTII. A shame but for an early enhanced port, this must have been quite the undertaking and quite the feat of technology back then. A neat piece of history. That being said, I like the few small changes Opera House made with the updated graphics. "Kaiju Bug"? "Foul A Baoa Qu"? And the captain mysteriously looking like Captain Okita? I'm onto you OH, the updates to these references from Atlus aren't going over my head. As for the preferences, it's tough. Talking in consideration the wonders of emulation, both the original NES incarnation and the SNES are quite cool on their own merits and are equally fine choices in my eyes but if we were talking about actually owning the consoles and the cartridges in perfect condition and choosing which one to play, Kyuyaku all the way. All that goofy charm of the original doesn't hold up to the shitheap of lag from the NES, the lack of saves and on top of that, having to draw the map. That's cool when you have a game that can save your data and isn't running like ass while your console is wheezing in agony. Finaly, I can't wait for the expansion of this : "How Shin Megami Tensei V honours Digital Devil Story by taking place in Da'at or Daath as it was in the Telenet version" series of tweets.

[@TDShadow079]

The ability to see these old games, and not only experience them but also get them in a honest "friend-to-friend" explanation makes a new Marsh video a highlight of the day.

[@anthonydixon4429]

Alright, it’s Monday night. I have no school, one liter of pink lemonade, and a new Marsh video. Let’s rock.

[@tavlev420]

is this the new guilty gear fight intro?

[@somejabroni51]

This reads like the opening to no more heroes 4

[@BrenTenkage]

ok that right there feels like the opening to something, good on ya

[@raspberryhoodies7062]

i got school but i gotta stay up for marsh, its a must

[@julinofooly]

It's Monday where you are?!?

[@orngcreator6115]

Couple years later and I have to say. Yes. A video on Kyu MT2 would be very much appreciated. Thank you for your service Marsh 🫡

[@imnotawizard4983]

Marsh will scour the internet for a version of the first megami tensei that he heard about somewhere he can't remember that probably doesn't exist before he plays a Megaten game people care about

[@PowerYoutuberViewer]

That’s why he’s the best

[@boredchoco4917]

I sorta hope Telenet MT has some kind of resurgence within fans after this video.

[@Bapper0]

I was just checking the channel hoping for new content and BAM. Brings a tear to my eyes. Edit: Holy shit Marsh, this is rapidly coming the greatest channel ever for nIche SMT franchise lore.

[@postgotham]

It has been

[@KriegXE]

Your patience to go through the original games is amazing. The effort you put into these videos is just fenomenal man, because it’s something you are genuinely interested in, and it makes me glad. You’re a damn legend Marsh, never change man.

[@shiningwizard690]

I know the series long moved past DDS, but it would be cool to see Nakajima and Yumiko again with their stories expanded

[@gaberazalas7333]

As an aficionado for SMT, I take your reviews/discussions as a sort of digital documentary series (a DDS, if you will), preserving these games on KZbin and a critical opinion of them. Now, I don’t have access to them and thus would never play them, but I think the way you handle your reviews is excellent and just in-depth enough to satisfy one’s curiosity for these entries. If you wanna do the second game, I’m all for it. If you need a break (understandable), it’s all good. Great video as usual, hope to see the next one!

[@StreetTaco]

33:00 actually in the early games the escape rate relies heavily on the Luck stat. You probably weren't investing enough points in Luck.

[@Bluecho4]

Once again, the Metroidvania adage holds true: when the game starts, go left first. Edit: 23:00 I suspect the unknown boss that pursues you may be a hallucination(?) of Izanami, in her undead form. Remember in the movie where Nakajima had visions of a decaying Izanami chasing him? This boss fight might be that.

[@videorelaxant2780]

Nue appearing in Lucifers palace is pretty cool of you know your mythology. Iirc in Nue appeared before the death of an emperor. Given how its right before the final boss it's pretty cool foreshadowing and a cool way of cheering the player on.

[@starky4352]

It’s always a good day when Marsh uploads

[@Aztyph]

Something that I caught that wasn't brought up is that the dungeon design and names for the Telenet's version of _DDS_ is the Sefiroth. They're named differently, but hey, that's Engrish for ya. Also I believe that the 'curved jewels' that the manual mentioned are actually meant to be magatama. Dunno why they didn't name it as such, but what can ya do. Great video. I've been a fan for a while now, and I eagerly await whatever new content you pump out.

[@milesbarnes6777]

Magatama (usually written exclusively as 勾玉) when translated, literally means “be bent/slope/capture (勾)” jewel/jade/ball (玉)”. Jade is the most common material for Magatama, but its availability varies throughout Japan. There wasn’t as much knowledge of Japanese culture and Shintoism; especially the 80s-90s in the West as Judeo-Christian religions were far more well-known and practiced than Eastern and New Age religions - those types wouldn’t see popularity in the West until the turn of the century onwards. I don’t blame them for translating the way they did. In fact, 勾玉 having the romaji as magatama is a little strange. 勾 is simply ま (ma) and 玉 is たま (ta•ma). I’m studying Japanese (and Cantonese at the same time because I apparently like suffering) alone outside of a school environment for only 3 months now, so I have no clue why the romaji has a “ga” syllable that doesn’t transfer to the kanji. Even the dictionary-alternate of 勾、曲、is still the same mono-syllabic “ma”. I’m aggressively scratching my head over this at 2am, lmao

[@jamberry9795]

@@milesbarnes6777 I'm not 100% sure, but this may be due to "magatama" being the ancient Japanese pronunciation (as in kunyomi), with the kanji being approximation of more or less fitting characters at the time before kana-writing systems have been developed. Similar reasons to why 火 is read as "hi" in kunyomi on its own and as "ka" in ONyomi combined words.

[@milesbarnes6777]

@@jamberry9795 Oh shit, you’re 100% right. I didn’t even think about actual, modern Japanese pronounciation of the kanji… because I was and still am studying Literary Chinese alongside Japanese (because there’s a lot of cultural and reglious texts I want to read), haha.

[@Cadychan]

Yeah! As soon as he showed the guide with the map I was like "oh hey that's the Tree of Sefirot," along with all the corresponding names. Also I didn't even realize that Da'at from SMTV is also a name of one of the sefirot. :V

[@ils4844]

Marsh back at it again with the Megaten hell uploads

[@razorthecurse]

"Let me know if you guys want a video on-" bro don't even ask, we're all gonna want to feed your addiction. Maybe after Giten tho.

[@hikarieternal1003]

As a complete stranger I gotta say Marsh, you’re a hella cool dude. Upon stumbling on your SMT vids the way you cover everything in the reviews you do are pretty solid. Idk what kind of jazz you’ve had to deal with these past years lately but, I encourage you to keep up everything you do my guy. The interest in SMT I’ve had has peaked hella hard these past months and I’m genuinely wanting to play some of the older titles. Seeing you cover the stuff Altus hasn’t bothered to bring over to the West via fan translations has caught my attention big time. Like you mentioned earlier in this video, I’m definitely sure there are many others being influenced to play this stuff because of you. Keep it up man. If I could grab a beer with ya one day, that’d be one hell of a moment.

[@Zeidoc13]

Your videos are part of the reason that i got into SMT and i just have to say thank you. I've been enjoying evey single one ive tried so far and think they would have passed me by if i hadn't stumbled into your channel. Keep up the great vids :)

[@robertspeedwagon2600]

I'm just a no name youtube viewer but I just wanna thank you Marsh for truly getting me into this franchise. You really saved me from boredom

[@kashinovirus7278]

It's late on my side so I'll watch this in the morning but I just want to say that your hard work is appreciated!

[@megastephatron]

the amount of work you put into playing and showcasing these early obscure games in the series is incredible. fantastic video!

[@PangloriousFam]

Beautiful. Always lovely to hear your voice, friend.

[@postgotham]

I've started looking more forward to new Marsh videos coming out than most other media. Actual top-tier content.

[@100Servings]

I'm playing SMT 3 Remaster and Digital Devil Saga right now to get ready for SMT 5. SO EXCITED!!!!! Good work, Marsh. Keep it up bro. 😃👍

[@ab-lymphocite5464]

I'm going SMT SJ myself. I started on my old ass phone and I didn't get too far because the framerate was miserable. But I found an emulator on my PC that didn't trip the anti-piracy, so now I'm having a blast. Can't wait to get into either smt 3 or 5 after I'm done with this. And someday I'll finish eternal punishment, but I'm still burned out from the mostly easy slog/slapfights that was Innocent sin.

[@100Servings]

@@ab-lymphocite5464 I have a Nintendo DS and have been trying to find a copy of Strange Journey at a decent price. You can find the 3DS version pretty easily, but I don't have a 3DS, and that version has...problems. The sad part is that I had it when it came out, but it's a hard start to that game, and I didn't stick with it and traded it in. I know I could play it on my phone, but don't want to. Guess I'll just keep searching eBay and retro game stores.

[@notyoursavior78]

@@ab-lymphocite5464 Eternal Punishment is certainly a lot harder. I suppose Innocent Sin was on the easier side of things but I really enjoyed it. I recently tried Eternal Punishment again after first playing it before Persona 3 came out and being new to the franchise (and SMT stuff in general) and I could only beat like one dungeon back then. It doesn't seem any easier with my vast knowledge now and that Joker skill is still fucking annoying. I've gotten farther but shelved it again because I was getting pissed off and have too many other games I am currently trying.

[@ab-lymphocite5464]

@@notyoursavior78 I enjoyed IS, a lot of the late dungeons felt way too long, encounter rates felt really high throughout, and many of the bosses were not hard. They just had a ton of HP to burn through, which was obnoxious. I played through like a third of EP and the old combat menu is way clunkier than the PSP version, combat difficulty and encounter rate feel much better (old maid is a pain in the you know what). But playing 2 long rpgs back to back takes a lot out of you so I stopped and played other stuff. The thing to killed me was when I came to the final phase of a boss that started spamming ice spells, which most of my party is weak too. I then realized that I would need to grind for more cards after grinding a bunch of levels trying to brute force things.

[@codrin222]

@@100Servings even with the problems Redux is still the best version

[@ShadowBaofu]

I finally beat this game on the PC88. Definitely a fun and interesting experience and I'd like to post some tips and things to help people get started. On the PC88, I used the numpad to move and attack, Z and X for the item menu and to fire respectively. I found several items that I still dont know what they do or what they were for. You also level up in this game killing enemies, and I finished the game at level 18 after some extensive exploring and some odd farming. I barely noticed how much more damage I was doing to enemies or if I was taking less damage. - Cat's Eyes are used to reveal invisible enemies until a New Moon. Wait until the next moon phase to grab one or it'll wear off because it's still a new moon. The only invisible enemies are these Zehlers who aren't very aggressive; most of the damage you take comes from you wandering into one so blindly shooting isn't a bad idea. Don't ever buy one at a shop unless you know you're in a Sphere with them. - Remora's Staff + Magatamas petrify enemies, and switching to your sword can kill them if they're petrified. Fairly strong, I liked it over using Salamander because you don't need to spend too much ammo to petrify an enemy and Salamander explosions take forever to go away in the PC88 version, which makes that strat of stunning enemies better but I often couldn't slip past them because of all the different terrain features. - Several unique enemies are found throughout the Sphere floors that only appear once. Sometimes they're behind locked doors, sometimes they aren't in their locked rooms. They can only be killed with Solomon Stars or Magatama later on, and they drop an Izanami Potion which fully heals you and gives you max HP. Obviously they don't respawn, so if you run into one, make a note of where it is and come back later. - Abuse those corners! Most enemies, especially aggressive ones can be taken out by being at the edge of a corridor and making them get stuck adjacent to you. It's not guaranteed but you can kill some of the more annoying enemies taking less damage that way. Otherwise use Cerberus if you get swarmed, especially on Tiphereth. The Z button accessing your item menu makes him a great panic button. - Speaking of Cerberus, remember to switch out of Cerberus by scrolling to his icon again in the item menu. This can save you some uses in some tough floors. - As for keys, I found a place to farm them on Yesod. To be safe, take about 10-15 of them to unlock all the doors you need. That's really about it. I hope someone uses the info here to fill out and make a guide. I never found out what most of the items I found did. A few tough enemies dropped a Silver Talisman and an Enochian Tablet. I found a Lapis killing Reiko on my way to go kill Loki in Dark Netzach or Yesod. I even spent 300 on a Chronos item and it didnt take up my inventory, nor did it seem to do anything different. Maybe it made enemies slower? Also I didn't have to fight Yomotsu Shikome. There's a bar that fills up on the bottom right every time you go to an Izanami Shrine you haven't explored, and as you progressed she looked less and less decayed, so maybe this Information bar being full is what caused me to go straight to the ending after walking into regular Kether 1 past the sealed door with the Lapis? I also never used the Lamps or Bells I picked up as I didn't really notice enemies behaving differently with them, though they make good barriers as enemies cant walk past items or shoot through them, but neither can you. Anyway, I had fun with this game, I would recommend it. The Megaten factor is that this game tends to kill you through attrition, handling aggressive enemies in awkward positions and you going the wrong way onto more enemies which makes it not worth it to explore and clear rooms. I think with a proper guide, a speedrunner can beat Telenet Megaten in less than an hour, judging by the one video on KZbin that longplayed it for 2.75 hours.

[@berserkboi1217]

Thank you marsh for your megaten 1&2 reviews, those videos got me into the SMT series

[@superheriber27]

An entire hour of history by a truly dedicated fan

[@NEETKitten]

Congratulations, Marsh! You officially never have to say "We're in Micon City on the 8th floor of Daedalus Tower, and our first task is to get to the bottom and kill the Minotaur" ever again! I'm interested to see what's next for us now that this nightmare has finally been put to rest. And I'd love to see a video of Kyuuyaku 2 (even if it's just straight comparison of the two,) but I'd definitely recommend doing that awhile down the road if you do. The last thing I'd want is for my favorite Megaten content creator burning himself out by playing the same game over and over back-to-back.

[@TheGaymos]

I still can't get over the fact that Nakajima listens to Whitesnake

[@warningdontread5478]

It may not be as long as the Nine review featured length movie, but I still got snacks and the video casted at the livingroom tv for the full Marsh experience.

[@ThatGastrodon]

You're living the life lol

[@AnnonymousCommentor28]

I really like how Kyuuyaki Megami Tensei connected the two Megami Tensei games. And really love that Nakajima made a game based on his journey. I think it's cute and a clever way to tie the two games together.

[@alter_3g0]

Your videos actually made me try out reading/playing DDS and I ended up genuinely enjoying it all. Old Megaten is so different and bizzare that I just can't help but love it lol

[@Xylus.]

Basing the connections of the dungeons on the connections between the namesake sephirah in the tree of life is actually genius level game design.

[@darkhorse744]

If you enjoyed those little interactions in Dungeons as well as liked drawing maps, I think you'd love the Etrian Odyssey series, it's basically just that. Also, great video as usual, nice to get a Marsh viceo after a long while, can't wait for SMT 1 and Giten!

[@halifaxsteppenwulf7980]

I love hearing about old or obscure (at least in English) games, so everything you’ve been doing to document SMT’s history is really cool

[@sefhighwind380]

I just had a huge smile on my face when you got into Micon City for what could be the last time! Always love seeing your videos, and it honestly makes me wanna try the SNES version of Megami Tensei 2!

[@omkoinji3988]

Good job being BY FAR the best SMT channel on the internet!

[@fullmetalmasify]

Never thought we're going back to this side of the franchise

[@scrappy2082]

by the end of 2021 Marsh is gonna create his own demon summoning program but fr great vid man!! :D

[@Bigfourthing]

He has done it again folks, putting himself through it just for us makes Marsh a special kind of masochist

[@KaioXGrim]

I thought you re-played the original, i almost had a heart attack.

[@nitomae]

Wow, thanks again Marsh for many people out there who want to know the origin and lore of the Megaten. We know it's hard but keep up the good work man, we'll be there for ya.

[@arciks11]

EXP scaling from defeating way higher leveled opponents, Minimap, Multiple Save Points and Fusion spots in KMT1! and Better UI with descriptions is honestly enough improvements to play it over NES games. Even if Music has less of an ommph.

[@redshepherd32]

I really do appreciate you putting over an hour worth of content to cover each of these games. And I say that as someone who has been on the fence about playing these games for a long time. You make em entertaining to listen about

[@Ipgan]

The charisma of this guy! I go back to the SMT If... video sometimes multiple times a day just of how much it makes me laugh, great work man, I started getting into the Megami Tensei series about half a year ago and your videos really make me want to keep enjoying these games. Keep it up Marsh!!

[@Arizat0]

Awesome video and I am looking forward to the future SMT1 and Giten videos. I would love a Kyuuyaku 2 video in the future as well!

[@gaspardbonnehon8758]

The increase of quality we can see with each successive video is beyond impressive. I've been following you since the If videos and everytime I finish I can't wait for the next upload. Keep up the good work!

[@EmiCheese]

So, I don't think we say this enough, but thabk you Marsh for putting yourself through all of these games so we can experience them through your videos. Keep making such awesome content, man. Thanks!

[@LBustillo1996]

Finally I got some quality notification from KZbin.

[@LegendBegins]

I know nothing about this series, but these videos are always so fascinating. Always enjoy seeing a new one come out.

[@thefoolkitty]

Marsh dropping a new video in the middle of the night? Lemme go get the popcorn. :)

[@kingdongho571]

Awesome video as always. Also lmao @ the sudden nuke, 10/10 ending

[@c418vgytre]

Thanks again for the good content marsh im still waiting for persona zoomies speedruns though.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

You sure have come far, it's been fascinating to see your growth since last year. Thank you for fixing the audio and volume too, love your content man You're great

[@lilithnease8018]

Loved the video! Always so fun watching you go through old megaten titles

[@P1NKPVNK_]

Thanks to all of your coverage of versions of MT1, I literally have "We're in Mikan city on the 8th floor of Daedalus Tower, and our first task is to get to the bottom and kill the Minotaur" memorized

[@alucard4490]

I literally enjoy every video you post and I make sure to not miss one. Your personality fits these topics well. I love diving into this obscure side of Megaten that most people haven't played or know about without it being in a pretentious way. It's very informative and I enjoy it a lot

[@blizzardforonline1954]

Don’t mind me. I’m just here, still waiting on that Kyuyaku 2 playthrough.

[@stomper1716]

This channel is great i cant wait to see you cover stuff like devil children or even the og personas(1 and 2)

[@Ren_the_hobo]

Marsh is one of thoes rare KZbinrs who actually make me watch the video from the start to the end!

[@spawnofchaos9422]

I wake up and this is the first thing I see on KZbin. Today is a great day

[@mrchill6571]

Nice to know your still doing good marsh

[@carlb1874]

this is the first new video since i have been following. ty for all the awesome smt vids

[@silvaalex35]

Man this is a really thorough investigation, so impressive man keep it up I really like and appreciate this content. Att. Your fan Nicaragua

[@OnDavidsBrain]

11:43 So, wait Nakajima is He-Man? Wow, Kevin Smith really did go off the rails.

[@DarkJ1425]

“We are in Micom city, on the 8th floor of Deadlus’s tower.” I was actually looking forward this, it felt like meeting an old friend.

[@flashbackfrank8781]

"I am tired, of these GODDAMN MINOTAURS, IN THESE GODDAMN MAZES!" -Samarsh L. Jackson, probably.

[@permavirgin3595]

I'm not even a SMT fan or anything but your laid back attitude makes these videos very entertaining. Keep doing this please.

[@firstname7071]

The mad lad is back at it again. Marsh truly Sacrificing himself for our sins.

[@waterguyroks]

The design of the telenet game is really fascinating. I feel like you could take that template and with some polishing up of the mechanics, maybe some varied optional objectives or randomization, it could make for a really interesting and replayable dungeon crawling game. The world is so vast, I'm picturing a game where you have the option to complete one of multiple objectives (maybe 9, in reference to the alignments) with each run through of the game, each exploring a different set of dungeon levels

[@TrinSpin]

Apologies for necro'ing, but there is a modern-ish game that has a similar set of mechanics (albeit in a traditional western fantasy setting) that you may want to check out, called Unexplored.

[@c418vgytre]

0:49 the face haunts me, the sigma male enters class.

[@DrUSB]

As someone who’s trying to really get into SMT at the moment (currently playing strange journey redux), these videos are really great for learning about MegaTen games that never really made it to America (except for soul hackers that made it over here eventually), it’s great.

[@DrUSB]

The SMT games I currently have are is 1 on gba, nocturne, strange journey redux, IV, devil survivor overclocked, soul hackers, raidou kuzunoha vs the soulless army, digital devil saga 1, the persona 2 duology, persona 3 FES, persona 4, persona 5, and persona q2

[@thepit7868]

Nakajima went through Daat before Nahobino. This absolute chad of a computer programmer has done it all.

[@jessemishell6640]

Nice one. Glad to see you back.

[@Gridiron992]

As one who loves learning about video game lore and history, you do great work with your trips back into the less trod portions of MT. Thank you very much for your work.

[@tfisher9208]

Really loved the video, Marsh. Whenever you can, please start a patreon. Like, you're producing the most well documented stuff of the earliest Megaten games out there as well as it being very well written/analyzed.