Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II (FAMICOM/NES)

Megami Tensei II is a sequel to the Megami Tensei game released 3 years before. Megami Tensei II, however is a completely original plot not adapted from any of Aya Nishitani's works. It was released April 6 1990 for the Nintendo Famicom, again developed by Atlus and published by Namco. Megami Tensei II is an incredible improvement over the original game, and some people say it is one of the best RPGs on the system. The music was once again composed by Tsukasa Masuko but this game has a special sound chip, the Namco 163 which adds extra channels creating more depth in the music. With the special sound chip and Masuko's composing talent the soundtrack for this game is wonderful and easily one of the best in Megaten history. This game would also be Kazuma Kaneko's first work at Atlus, designing the character and demon art. Kaneko would be a main stay at Atlus creating some of the most unique and recognisable art in video games up until 2009.

デジタルデビル物語 : 女神転生 II: The Game

For my playthrough of the game I played the Famicom version instead of the remaster "Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei" for the Super Famicom. Despite the few quality of life changes, I still decided to play the original versio, mainly because of the more charming visuals and music, also because I don't like very many Megaten remasters very much. (looking at you, Persona 1 Portable) Anyway, this page and my thoughts on the game are coming from playing the original Famicom version.

When you press 'START' it seems that you're playing a video game called "Devil Busters" inside of Megami Tensei II. Devil Busters is a recreation of the first dungeon in the original Megami Tensei, but I'm getting ahead of myself. You are given three prompts to name your characters, the first being the male protagonist of the game, the second being your female partner of the game, and your friend who is watching you play the game on your computer.

You are given 15 stat points each for the two characters in Devil Busters. The main characters stats will transfer over to your own when you finish playing Devil Busters, and same for the female partner, except her stats go to The Heroine, who you will not meet until later in the game. Your friend never gets 15 extra stat points in the game, even when he is in your party a little later. The stats are much like the previous game with the five of them being VITALITY, WISDOM, ATTACK, AGILITY and LUCK.

The Hero

sometimes referred to as, Hideto | ヒデト or Takuma | タクマ

The Hero is a young man who has grown up in an underground shelter all of his life, much like the rest of Tokyo due to the land becoming a post apocalyptic hellscape 100(?) years ago in 199X. You start the game by playing Devil Busters with your friend like mentioned above.

For the protagonist's initial 15 stats I recommend giving him 3 points and 3 points ONLY to WISDOM as later in the game you need to have over 7 WISDOM points for both of your characters to progress through the game. For the rest I recommend giving him quite a bit of VITALITY and putting the rest into ATTACK. You will level up quite a few times in Devil Busters and when you do, i recommend giving him ATTACK then too.

When you beat Minotaur, the first boss of the previous Meagmi Tensei game, it turns out that a powerful demon named Pazuzu had been sealed inside the game and beating the game has unsealed him and when that happens he tells you that he is sending you a message from God, and that the ruler of Tokyo, Bael sealed him in the game and was stuck in there until you saved him. He thanks you and calls you messiahs and tells us that he is going to guide us to our true destiny. So I suppose we just have to believe him.

Unfortunately for you, unsealing Pazuzu also unsealed all the demons in the game and have been digitally transferred to the real world. It's now your job to get rid of the demons in the shelter! And fortunately for you, Pazuzu tells you just how to do that, by going to the basement floor of the shelter and defeating Nebiros. Wow, he's such a nice guy for that!