I am, relatively speaking, a newcomer to the Megami Tensei world.  My first entry into the series was Persona 3, but since then I’ve tried to branch out into some of its other forms.  Most of these journeys have been fruitful; SMT: Devil Survivor was my pick for Best of the Year last year.  My most recent trip, however, did not end so well.

I picked up Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, a few months back, but didn’t get to crack into it right because (appropriately enough) I was busy trying to finish another playthrough of Devil Survivor.  When I wrapped that up (following my man Gin’s advice this time), I eagerly moved on to Strange Journey.

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Another year come and gone, and another year’s worth of games to love, games to hate, and games to make us scratch our heads and wonder who’s really running things at some of these companies. Sequels were spawned, new IPs introduced, and enough DLC to power a small nation was churned out on a daily basis. Now, as we get ready to see off the old year and usher in a new, it’s time for us at Spectacle Rock to look back at the months gone by and pick out our highlights and lowlights…

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If there is perhaps any greater compliment I can pay to a game beyond a willingness to pick it up and play it again immediately upon finishing it for the first time, I do not know what it is.  For some games, such as Civilization, this is only natural; every game is different, and each session presents an array of new factors to differentiate it from the last.  In Metroidvania type games, perhaps it is an urge to top my previous time and make my way through the game more efficiently.  In sports games, perhaps it is simply the desire to hear John Madden speak to me again.

RPGs, on the other hand, are usually a different story.  After sinking thirty or forty or more hours into a game, I generally don’t have much of a stomach to start it all over again.  Generally, there is very little need for me to ever do so; the story has been told, and telling it again is going to bring me little in the way increased enjoyment.  For my favorites, I will often pick them up again someday (I play through Chrono Trigger and FFVI every few years, simply for the joy of it), but almost never have I started one over immediately upon completion.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor has broken that trend.

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While Otakon certainly has plenty of “industry” panels for companies like Bandai and Funimation to get the word out about their latest acquisitions, or for voice actors to take Q&A from the fans, the vast majority of panels at the convention are run by the fans themselves.  Running the gamut from “Crafting Your Own Manga” to “Live Catgirl Whack-A-Mole,” odds are that you’ll find at least something that strikes your fancy to attend.

For me, as you might guess, I gravitated towards the game-based panels, of which there were plenty to choose from.  I started off with the Shin Megami Tensei panel, which promised to be a look at the history of this long-running series.

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