I got into SMT and older Persona during quarantine, and I spent that time exploring their back catalog. Nocturne & Persona 2 in particular are some of my favorite games ever. The vibes in those games are unparalleled. In a way, I'm glad I didn't discover their games until adulthood. I don't think I would have appreciated them as much when I was younger.
45:22 a fresh faced youth not knowing he was living in the golden age of JRPGs - man this hit me right in the feels. As someone who also grew up in the golden age of RPGs, but now no longer plays RPGs or any other video games for that matter (because adult life sucks), this really took me back to simpler times. Not that I ever took these great JRPGs for granted, but i never would have guessed then that JRPGs would drastically change, and that I wouldn't continue my gaming hobby into the future. Thanks gaming broductions for allowing me not just to relive my past, but also giving me a feel for the many RPGs during that time that I either never heard of or never got to play. Keep up the great work and more power to both of you
Really love to read comments like this, but also kinda bittersweet as well. Adult life is tough and it does suck many of us don’t have the time to game as much as we used to, or at all. Regardless of the situation, it is good to have those memories all the same as through those the games still live on with us as cheesy as that sounds. You can stop gaming as a hobby but the gamer in you never really goes away No problem at all. Thank you for watching and for your thoughtful comment. Hopefully you’re able to find some time to game in the future, even if it’s just for a little bit here and there
Similar feelings for me. Japanese RPGs were my favorite genre growing up in the 80s and especially 90s. Western RPGs were so far behind in quality until the 2000s that I gave up on them. I also quit gaming to do adult things like finish college and find a career around 2002. I didn't play any video games whatsoever again until 2015 when I moved from the city to the country after breaking up with my longtime girlfriend. There wasn't a whole lot to do besides hiking and other outdoor activities, so at night I started gaming for a couple hours before bed since television and movies are too passive a form of entertainment for me. I've since played a lot of newer JRPGs and while some of them are magnificent, there is a certain unmistakable soul, charm, and nostalgia to the JRPGS from the 90s that hasn't been replicated. I think it's something a bit beyond nostalgia too, since even people who were too young to have lived through that era speak glowingly about Golden Age JRPGs. This video brought back a lot of memories of some of the games that shaped my youth and I respect the effort that went into researching and creating this video.
@@acidwizard6528 That's why this channel is so nice. I can watch an episode of a classic JRPG in my downtime. If you want to get back into JRPG gaming, get a switch or steamdeck. I beat FFIX on my switch and sleep mode just makes classic gaming so much more convenient. I can basically freeze the game at any moment, resume anytime and play anywhere, like in bed or on the couch, it's wonderful. Heck bring it hiking and play before you sleep. Plus the remasters! I was holding off Suikoden, and I'm so glad I did now that they announced an HD Remaster for switch.
Yeah the consistent output of amazing titles was truly amazing and something that will probably never be topped the way the gaming industry operates now. Between Atlus, Squaresoft, Enix, etc. we were getting spoiled with how many classics there were in such a short period of time
@@GamingBroductions Those were just the biggest companies, but the important thing about the rpg phenomenon is how literally everyone was trying to create their own rpg and in many cases putting a decent effort into it. Nintendo made RPGs of different types like Fire Emblem, Mario RPG, Capcom made Breath of Fire, Namco made Tales Of, etc. It was a cultural movement much bigger than the battle between the famous rpg companies and the battle between the established rpg brands.
@@carlosaugusto9821 This combined with the fact that new games had bigger budgets and scale thus take more time is probably why we wont have that huge golden era like we did. Its fine though
Yeah, you're right. Shame we didn't get like 90% of them back then, but I guess it's not so surprising in hindsight, FF 7 was one of the few ones that actually sold well in the West. Thankfully things changed a lot in the 2000s. Nowadays it's rare to have many exclusive Japanese RPG releases. It happens of course every now and then, but not nearly as much as back in the 80s/90s.
@@DragonKingX78 currently playing the original strange journey and devil survivor 1. (I dont have access to a 3ds rn so the original ds games are what im stuck with) Both are excellent although im enjoying devil survivor much more as the dungeons in strange journey are certainly something. I asked my boyfriend for digital devil saga 1 for my upcoming birthday because im really interested in that game as well
Great work on this video! It makes me somewhat sad how many games they used to develop and publish so quickly, there was something for everyone back then too, but nowadays development and marketing costs are very inflated and it takes years for games to get released and years between releases. SMT games, especially the one ones, are some of the most unique JRPGs I've played - they're post-apocalyptic and have fun monster-recruiting and fusion mechanics too. SMT: If was probably one of my favorites, it's pure gameplay and dungeon crawling.
Thank you! Yeah the current gaming climate is much different nowadays with how long it takes for big releases to hit the shelves so unfortunately we’ll probably never see that level of consistent output from the 90s/00s ever again. On the bright side it just helps us appreciate how good we had it back then. Anyway appreciate you watching!
I really hope they do remakes of SMT 1 and 2. I love the stories from those games but I just dont have the patience play that style of rpg from the early 90s anymore.
Thousand Arms was first Atlus game mixing RPG with Dating Sim before Persona 3 (and one of first Dating Sims published in West). Is not that weird, because game was coodeveloped with Red Company, who created extremely popular Sakura Wars games in Japan on Sega Saturn / Dreamcast, and those games were basically precursor to modern Fire Emblem games (Visual Novel, Dating Sim, Tactical RPG).
Atlus was actually a company I paid a lot of attention to in the late 90s after I discovered RPGs. Thousand Arms, Ogre Battle 64, Tactics Ogre, Super Robot Wars, DIsgaea. They were these this weird half-indie label of niche RPGs too werd for Square. When I played Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, I noted the series title, but it just seemed like yet another weird release from a company full of weird releases. It wasn't until I played Persona 3 and both fell in love with it and noticed how much was reused from Nocturne that dove in and discovered the entirety of the Megami Tensei franchise and was kind of blown away. Atlus had seemed like a small publisher with only a few projects every once in a while, while back in Japan ,they were pumping out tons of games in what is their flagship franchise we westerners didn't even know existed. He's like that guy with the girlfriend who goes to another school so you don't know her except she's real and gorgeous, lol.
Gah I absolutely love the setup shots with your CRT, VHS, etc. you sincerely nailed the aesthetic! Which backlights are you using? My game room definitely needs some.
One day, consider doing Intelligent Systems in the 90's and 00's. Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and Paper Mario. 3 of the best Nintendo RPG/strategy franchises.
@@GamingBroductions Like you Super Mario RPG got me into JRPG's, and Paper Mario is the successor. Advanced Wars and Fire Emblem made me obsessed with JRPG's and now I just love Monolith Soft and classic 90's Squaresoft games. Also, great videos, you deserve more views!
@@carlosaugusto9821 Intelligent Systems specifically made 3 the 3 franchises I named, which include about 32 RPGs with Dragon Quest Wars, 14 Fire Emblem games + 3 Remakes, 6 Paper Mario JRPG's, 8 Advance Wars games (Not an RPG, but still strategy). They also co-developed the original Metroid, and made about 50 or so games total. Fire Emblem on it's own would be a good retrospective. However there are more Nintendo RPG's. Lots of FF/DQ exclusives, Last Story, etc. I specifically am nominating Intelligent Systems, 1 of Nintendo's 1st party developers. Also another idea, Monolith Soft (Now Nintendo owned). XenoGears/Saga/Blade, Baten Kaitos, Project X Zone, Soma Bringer and a few other 1 off JRPG's.
Years ago, Gamefaqs hosted a chat room. I happened to be in the RPG room when Persona 2 was released on the PS1. That’s how I got into Altus. A few years later, I was a very active member on the Atlus message boards until they were shut down. Great memories! Still have most of their ps1 era and later games. Great video. Definitely subscribed!
Nothing but love and passion poured into the work put into this video. Your scripts/delivery keep getting better Corbin and wonderful clean presentation as always Evan. Particularly loved the CRT setup and backdrop this time around! Life changes happening around the creation of this vid? Honestly didn't notice a thing. 😉👏
Thanks my dude! Appreciate the kind words and your continued support 👍 We probably spent the most time on this one yet so are glad to hear you enjoyed it. And yeah, Evan absolutely nailed the aesthetic on this one. You know we’re all about the vibes around here 😌
Ive been playing through DDS: Megami Tensei for Famicom and it really shows how much care was put into Megaten games even back then. Demon negotiations and fusion were way ahead of their time and the way the game handles maps is absolutely brilliant. You have to do all the mapping by hand but if you have the manual the world map gives you hints at the dungeon structure so you can avoid traps and other issues by thinking ahead and mapping logically. I'm not even sure if the Etrian Odyssey games surpass it for map design.
Thank you for the tip on Kartia. Always looking for more tactical rpgs. Just played through vandal hearts 2 and the unique dual turn system was surprisingly great I have to say. Much improved from the first one which was no slouch
Yeah Vandal Hearts is a great series. The PS1 had a lot of great tactical RPGs. Another good obscure one from that console to look into is Saiyuki: Journey West
Some of the Dating Sim aspects of Atlus published games from the 90s would eventually make their way into Catherine a few decades later. I am always a fan of Dating Sim games so to see where Atlus delved into the art of making Anime Waifus that you can date in the game and increase their affection for you as well as multiple endings with each character is a real treat.
Another banger video dude your retrospective videos are always really chill trips down memory lane and I'm glad you decided to cover Atlus. Also the ending of this video is amazing and I have to know the name of the song.
Thanks dude, appreciate it and glad you liked it 👌 the ending track is Memories Of You from Persona 3, that OST in general has a lot of really dope songs
Really interesting video, I've heard a lot of great things about Thousand Arms, SMT, Persona and Ogre Battle but I haven't played any of them. Only game on this list I played was Crusader of Centy. I more got into them with the Etrian Odyssey games and The Dark Spire in particular, was really cool to see where they had come from.
I never hear anybody ever talking about Thousand Arms, yet it was a hilarious and charming JRPG of the PS1 era. I fell in love with it and actually bought it off a friend in high school out of jealousy. Nice to see it pop up
Yeahhh Atlus! I had Persona 1 the day it came out. Other then Corridor Crew you're the ONLY channel I'm willing to watch hour long videos but damn it they are so compelling! great work.
Thanks dude, that means a lot! Love to hear it. With that said not all of our videos will be this long going forward, we have a shorter one coming out next
@@TheRopiak Oh for sure, wasn’t implying that! I recognize your name from the comments in a lot of our past videos. Was just saying we have some shorter content coming out sooner to look forward to :)
Crazy enough, I found Revalations Persona, Thousand Arms, and Kartia at a pawn shop each for a little over $10 to $20. Tail Concerto I found at a KB Toy Store. And the Growslanser series artist is and has been for a while by Satoshi Urushihara, known for a lot of anime and H-anime.
I discovered Atlus in 2004 back in college when I saw a preview of “Nocturne” in EGM magazine and pre-ordered it. From there I played “Persona 3” and I was a huge Atlus (and especially “SMT” series and sub-series) ever since! (And I really wish they would remake “SMT 2” with modern QoL improvements!)
I missed Thousand Arms when I was younger, always seeing it but never "pulling the trigger" on buying it. I thought the dating girls aspect of it would be boring, so I never got it. On another note, maybe one day we'll get Growlanser 1 released in the west. If I recall, it and Growlanser 6 were the only 2 titles of the franchise never released in the west. It's a real shame too, I fell in love with the franchise thanks to Growlanser: Heritage of War (the 5th entry).
I mean it’s definitely not the most fleshed out mechanic ever, it’s pretty basic overall but it was just sort of a novel concept for the time so it appealed to 10 year old me haha And yeah, would love to eventually see Growlanser localized one day. I actually haven’t played Heritage of War yet so I need to check it out. It was Wayfarer of Time that really sold me on the series
@@GamingBroductions Heritage of War is pretty good. I definitely suggest giving it a playthrough. There's a PS2 version of Growlanser 2 and 3 that got released in NA called Growlanser: Generations, so you can give that one a look too. I'm seeing a few of Generations on Ebay for about $35-ish dollars. Heritage of War is...yeah, that isn't as cheap at this moment.
@@LeonardoBramante yeah that's why I have no problem emulating now, like I'm not paying out the ass for a used game that wouldn't put money in the creators' pocket anyway.
Got Growlanser 4 on the PSP back around early 2010s, so I am aware how awesome the series is. Looking at the character art book, I have to say I was lucky because Leona from Growlanser 4 is my fav waifu simply because she reminds me of a Catgirl version of Barbarella the Space Bounty Hunter/Spy from that 1960s movie and French comic.
Ah damn, sorry about that! Definitely mixed that up. All the different PC systems sorta confuse me haha, seems like there were so many of them. And thank you!
Something else to point out about the Digital Devil Story games is that they are among the most difficult games in the Megami Tensei series. Not only are they extremely grindy, but they include things like dungeons that have portions that are completely dark with no way to light them, dungeons where you take mandatory damage in every part of them, and bosses with attacks that will permanently lower a character's level. So spending time grinding in a dungeon where you take mandatory damage so you can get enough experience to take on that dungeon's boss, then to lose 10 levels in that boss fight so you have to grind for those 10 levels back in the dungeon where you take mandatory damage just so you don't get slaughtered in the next dungeon is something you will probably experience. I personally like those games, but they aren't for those who don't have the patience to deal with a draconian type of difficulty in the gameplay. While SMT is known for having morally conflicted and somewhat depressing endings, something of note in SMT II is that the Chaos route in that game has what is probably the happiest and most morally good ending in the entire series.
Great video man! The quality of these is always really good. I like that you gave Mash a shoutout. His videos show how insane these original megami games were. Thousand arms was and still is one of PlayStations hidden gems. The polish and animation as well as the music was just clean. You can tell they cared. Characters feel alive. That’s why games like thousand arms have aged so fondly.
I love you guys' content, and can tell that this one took an immense amount of time and effort. I have only ever played Persona 5 Royal by Atlus and it's a 10/10 game for me. Thanks for summarizing this company's history; as a 25+ year JRPG fan I find these types of videos extremely interesting. I do love your "top 10" style videos too, so definitely looking forward to seeing more of those on the horizon! 😎😎
Thanks man! Yeah, this one was definitely the most time and work we’ve put into a video yet. We’ll have some other types of content coming out soon, and likely some shorter vids for the near future just to get some content out quicker. Need a little break from videos like this after how long this one was 😅
Yeah we apologize for the delay in between vids we know it’s been our longest break yet, lot of life changes happened since then which delayed us starting this one. We plan on increasing the frequency going forward 👌
Any text based Japanese game can be played as long as you're patient enough to use Google Lens. You don't need to wait for fan translations. I was able to beat the SNES Zero 4 Champ games story mode with no translator at all. Playing through with Google Lens definitely made things easier though.
6:52 actually no, Cosmic Soldier (released in 2 years before Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei) did it first....heck it even had the dialog conversation system as well.
I left the video running until after the credits. I was in the other room like, "damn, this bit is still going?" and was so pleasantly surprised to come back to cat :)
Thanks man! Apologies for that as well, had a lot of big life changes since the last vid which delayed us starting this one on top of it being one of our longest videos yet. We know this is the longest break we’ve ever had between videos so we plan on increasing the frequency going forward, next vid is a smaller project and should be out much quicker
Great video! I have become obsessed with persona and tried SMTV and catherine. I have been very interested in Atlus and how they began. I know im in for a good game if I see the logo now
I started playing Persona games a couple years ago. I started with... Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. This meant I didn't have the context of Innocent Sin to explain to me ANY of what was going on. As such, I had a less than stellar time, except right at the very end where I somehow got really invested. Then I played 3 which annoyed me at first but again, it hooked me and had me caring deeply for the story and most of the characters. Currently playing 4 and the jury is out. The moral is, if you're starting the Persona series, try to find a translation of Innocent Sin. >_>
Do you plan on doing a video for Atlus in the 2000s-2010s? Also, I feel like if somebody took a shot every time you said “fan translation” they’d blackout. 😂
Definitely. Don’t have a target date for that one yet as we have other content we want to get out first but it’ll happen for sure eventually. That’s actually funny you say that, no joke I thought about including a line about making a drinking game out of every time I mention a game has no official English release but a fan translation lol
The only one of these game I have is Maken X. Thing about the voice acting in that game is it's bad when compared to other Atlus games, but entirely in the context of the Dreamcast it fits right in. Don't know what it was about the Dreamcast but they wanted all the voice acting to be so bad it's good, B-movie acting, quality. Games like Shenmue, House of the Dead 2 and 3, Typing of the Dead, Zombies Revenge, and Blue Stinger. The Dreamcast just had its own unique voice acting aesthetic in their games... for God only knows what reason. In that context Maken X blends right in and stands shoulder to shoulder with Ryo's "I see." from Shenmue. The late 90s were weird, man. It just made sense at the time?
We grew up in a beautiful time in gaming history. My memories playing snes and ps1 are some of the most cherished from my youth. Glad my son loves games as much as I did, I get to show him all my favorites.
I love these series of videos! Most youtubers will stick with clickbait subjects that they drag out for 10 or 15 minutes. Basically, I'm just saying I appreciate all the work you put into these videos. Looking forward to the history of more jrpg companies/publishers.
A friend of mine introduced me to both Kartia and Brigandine. She was a big fan of Brigandine too. Nice hex based battle system. Also, I miss Thousand Arms.... And I wish I still had a 3DS to play Soul Hackers. Such a good game! And I LOVE the Growlanser series!!!!!
I spent so much time on Snow Board Kids 1 and 2, those were so much more fun than the more popular ones to me. Thousand Arms was a massive favorite of mine, got it and Star Ocean 2 at the same time. Put way more time into Star Ocean 2, but once I got to Thousand Arms I was in love with it almost as much.
5:44 Sure, not missing much. Only a fascinating top-down dungeon crawler with dungeons designed around cabalah, and a manual that looks like a freaking dark magic book. That's all
I subscribed. Also, not tryna be a dick but it’s Kan-eh-ko. Not Kan-ee-ko. Oh and one last thing… You sound like Lucifer’s dub VA from The Devil is a Part-Timer and it creates a funny mental image of Lucifer explaining Atlus games to Madao, Alciel, and the rest of the cast. 😂😂😂
Nice, thanks for subscribing! And no worries, I know my Japanese pronunciation is far from perfect and I probably butcher some names, so I appreciate the correction so I can fix it for next time. That show’s been on my watch list for awhile but I haven’t checked it out yet, just looked up a few clips though and yeah I can see where you’re coming from a bit 😅 Heard a lot of good things about the series so I need to watch it fully!
I have. We’ve talked about Vanguard Bandits in a couple videos before, really cool game that I’ll probably cover in more detail eventually. Maybe a retrospective but we’ll see. Azure Dreams I remember renting as a kid but never got too far with it. I need to try it out again one of these days, it would be to cool to cover it at some point!
@@GamingBroductions those "In the 90's" series are what drove me to play your JRPG recommndations. These games have great stories. Keep on rockin!! GameBro!
I'm glad you also noticed the similarities between Kabuki and Goemon. I learned of Kabuki and the Far East Of Eden series through the Happy Console Gamer and I had that same immediate response to his artstyle. The music is similar too. Also, I don't know how the Hydlide series kept getting made considering that all of the games suck so much ass. All I ever hear is that they're bad. Also also...nice Evangelion poster. :)
Thank you for your Videos! I really appreciate ur work u do in every Video!! :) And now ATLUS :) But if u don't mind: I would like to know more ot the Plattformer too :) I mean there is Run Saber for example which is really cool :)
No problem, thank you for watching! Yeah Run Saber is a good one I probably could have made an exception on to talk about. Definitely an underrated platformer from that era!
Dude that ending to set up your "Atlus in the 2000's" video with Memories of You playing was masterful
Thank you! It felt very fitting as a closing track so I tried to edit the script around the timing of the song hitting just right
I got into SMT and older Persona during quarantine, and I spent that time exploring their back catalog. Nocturne & Persona 2 in particular are some of my favorite games ever. The vibes in those games are unparalleled. In a way, I'm glad I didn't discover their games until adulthood. I don't think I would have appreciated them as much when I was younger.
45:22 a fresh faced youth not knowing he was living in the golden age of JRPGs - man this hit me right in the feels. As someone who also grew up in the golden age of RPGs, but now no longer plays RPGs or any other video games for that matter (because adult life sucks), this really took me back to simpler times. Not that I ever took these great JRPGs for granted, but i never would have guessed then that JRPGs would drastically change, and that I wouldn't continue my gaming hobby into the future.
Thanks gaming broductions for allowing me not just to relive my past, but also giving me a feel for the many RPGs during that time that I either never heard of or never got to play. Keep up the great work and more power to both of you
Really love to read comments like this, but also kinda bittersweet as well. Adult life is tough and it does suck many of us don’t have the time to game as much as we used to, or at all. Regardless of the situation, it is good to have those memories all the same as through those the games still live on with us as cheesy as that sounds. You can stop gaming as a hobby but the gamer in you never really goes away
No problem at all. Thank you for watching and for your thoughtful comment. Hopefully you’re able to find some time to game in the future, even if it’s just for a little bit here and there
Similar feelings for me. Japanese RPGs were my favorite genre growing up in the 80s and especially 90s. Western RPGs were so far behind in quality until the 2000s that I gave up on them. I also quit gaming to do adult things like finish college and find a career around 2002. I didn't play any video games whatsoever again until 2015 when I moved from the city to the country after breaking up with my longtime girlfriend. There wasn't a whole lot to do besides hiking and other outdoor activities, so at night I started gaming for a couple hours before bed since television and movies are too passive a form of entertainment for me. I've since played a lot of newer JRPGs and while some of them are magnificent, there is a certain unmistakable soul, charm, and nostalgia to the JRPGS from the 90s that hasn't been replicated. I think it's something a bit beyond nostalgia too, since even people who were too young to have lived through that era speak glowingly about Golden Age JRPGs. This video brought back a lot of memories of some of the games that shaped my youth and I respect the effort that went into researching and creating this video.
@@acidwizard6528 That's why this channel is so nice. I can watch an episode of a classic JRPG in my downtime.
If you want to get back into JRPG gaming, get a switch or steamdeck. I beat FFIX on my switch and sleep mode just makes classic gaming so much more convenient. I can basically freeze the game at any moment, resume anytime and play anywhere, like in bed or on the couch, it's wonderful.
Heck bring it hiking and play before you sleep.
Plus the remasters! I was holding off Suikoden, and I'm so glad I did now that they announced an HD Remaster for switch.
Man, the 90s were peak RPG godliness. I remember just finding out about new RPG games constantly and being amazed.
Yeah the consistent output of amazing titles was truly amazing and something that will probably never be topped the way the gaming industry operates now. Between Atlus, Squaresoft, Enix, etc. we were getting spoiled with how many classics there were in such a short period of time
@@GamingBroductions Those were just the biggest companies, but the important thing about the rpg phenomenon is how literally everyone was trying to create their own rpg and in many cases putting a decent effort into it. Nintendo made RPGs of different types like Fire Emblem, Mario RPG, Capcom made Breath of Fire, Namco made Tales Of, etc. It was a cultural movement much bigger than the battle between the famous rpg companies and the battle between the established rpg brands.
@@carlosaugusto9821 This combined with the fact that new games had bigger budgets and scale thus take more time is probably why we wont have that huge golden era like we did. Its fine though
*JRPG goodness. The western RPG space was a little troubled during that period.
Yeah, you're right. Shame we didn't get like 90% of them back then, but I guess it's not so surprising in hindsight, FF 7 was one of the few ones that actually sold well in the West. Thankfully things changed a lot in the 2000s. Nowadays it's rare to have many exclusive Japanese RPG releases. It happens of course every now and then, but not nearly as much as back in the 80s/90s.
You guys absolutely deserve more fans! I'm loving these videos!
Thank you, really appreciate that!
YOOO the timing! I JUST got into SMT recently and i love it and have been getting more into Atlus lately. This is sick
Nice, perfect timing! Atlus is an amazing company with so many gems under their belt
Definitely hit up etrian odyssey if you have a (modded) ds/3ds lying around.
Xander, what SMT games have you played?
@@acrophis i actually have been playing etrian odyssey 3 on my ds lately its pretty great super fun
@@DragonKingX78 currently playing the original strange journey and devil survivor 1. (I dont have access to a 3ds rn so the original ds games are what im stuck with) Both are excellent although im enjoying devil survivor much more as the dungeons in strange journey are certainly something. I asked my boyfriend for digital devil saga 1 for my upcoming birthday because im really interested in that game as well
Seeing this logo makes me so nostalgic, bomberman fantasy race is one of my favorite game of all time!
New to me, but fantastic video and what a cute, chill nekomata you have. :D
Great work on this video! It makes me somewhat sad how many games they used to develop and publish so quickly, there was something for everyone back then too, but nowadays development and marketing costs are very inflated and it takes years for games to get released and years between releases. SMT games, especially the one ones, are some of the most unique JRPGs I've played - they're post-apocalyptic and have fun monster-recruiting and fusion mechanics too. SMT: If was probably one of my favorites, it's pure gameplay and dungeon crawling.
Thank you! Yeah the current gaming climate is much different nowadays with how long it takes for big releases to hit the shelves so unfortunately we’ll probably never see that level of consistent output from the 90s/00s ever again. On the bright side it just helps us appreciate how good we had it back then. Anyway appreciate you watching!
I really hope they do remakes of SMT 1 and 2. I love the stories from those games but I just dont have the patience play that style of rpg from the early 90s anymore.
I totally get this. As a huge FE fan, playing the first 2 is so painful now im so thankful they have good remakes lol
Thousand Arms was first Atlus game mixing RPG with Dating Sim before Persona 3 (and one of first Dating Sims published in West). Is not that weird, because game was coodeveloped with Red Company, who created extremely popular Sakura Wars games in Japan on Sega Saturn / Dreamcast, and those games were basically precursor to modern Fire Emblem games (Visual Novel, Dating Sim, Tactical RPG).
Love Thousand Arms.
Thousand Arms was not an Atlus game, they only distributed the game, it was actually co-developed between TOSE and RED company.
@@feiwong3634 Yes, you right. I thinked a same, like you wrote. Atlus only published Tousand Arms, game was developed by TOSE + Red Company.
Worth noting that a fan translation is in progress (and has been for several years now) for Princess Crown, by a translator known as SamIAm.
Good to know! I’ll have to stay updated with that to eventually check it out
Atlus is one of my favorite developers, and SMT is my favorite game series. So excited to watch this video!
Hope you enjoyed the video dude!
Love SMT games, really wish we got a third DDS game or at least HD remasters of the first two.
This was a well made video! Man you had a nice setup there as a kid. :) Looking forward to the 2000's part of this series (you should make it)
Thank you! That’s definitely the plan. We do have some other video ideas we want to get around to first though
Atlus was actually a company I paid a lot of attention to in the late 90s after I discovered RPGs. Thousand Arms, Ogre Battle 64, Tactics Ogre, Super Robot Wars, DIsgaea. They were these this weird half-indie label of niche RPGs too werd for Square. When I played Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, I noted the series title, but it just seemed like yet another weird release from a company full of weird releases.
It wasn't until I played Persona 3 and both fell in love with it and noticed how much was reused from Nocturne that dove in and discovered the entirety of the Megami Tensei franchise and was kind of blown away. Atlus had seemed like a small publisher with only a few projects every once in a while, while back in Japan ,they were pumping out tons of games in what is their flagship franchise we westerners didn't even know existed. He's like that guy with the girlfriend who goes to another school so you don't know her except she's real and gorgeous, lol.
Gah I absolutely love the setup shots with your CRT, VHS, etc. you sincerely nailed the aesthetic! Which backlights are you using? My game room definitely needs some.
Wizardry 4 actually did the demon recruitment thing first. It inspired the mechanic in Digital Devil Story more than likely.
One day, consider doing Intelligent Systems in the 90's and 00's. Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and Paper Mario. 3 of the best Nintendo RPG/strategy franchises.
Great idea for sure and one we’ll keep in mind 👌
@@GamingBroductions Like you Super Mario RPG got me into JRPG's, and Paper Mario is the successor. Advanced Wars and Fire Emblem made me obsessed with JRPG's and now I just love Monolith Soft and classic 90's Squaresoft games.
Also, great videos, you deserve more views!
I didn’t know they did paper Mario
Are there more than 3 srpgs by Nintendo?
@@carlosaugusto9821 Intelligent Systems specifically made 3 the 3 franchises I named, which include about 32 RPGs with Dragon Quest Wars, 14 Fire Emblem games + 3 Remakes, 6 Paper Mario JRPG's, 8 Advance Wars games (Not an RPG, but still strategy). They also co-developed the original Metroid, and made about 50 or so games total.
Fire Emblem on it's own would be a good retrospective.
However there are more Nintendo RPG's. Lots of FF/DQ exclusives, Last Story, etc. I specifically am nominating Intelligent Systems, 1 of Nintendo's 1st party developers.
Also another idea, Monolith Soft (Now Nintendo owned). XenoGears/Saga/Blade, Baten Kaitos, Project X Zone, Soma Bringer and a few other 1 off JRPG's.
Years ago, Gamefaqs hosted a chat room. I happened to be in the RPG room when Persona 2 was released on the PS1. That’s how I got into Altus. A few years later, I was a very active member on the Atlus message boards until they were shut down. Great memories! Still have most of their ps1 era and later games. Great video. Definitely subscribed!
Nothing but love and passion poured into the work put into this video. Your scripts/delivery keep getting better Corbin and wonderful clean presentation as always Evan. Particularly loved the CRT setup and backdrop this time around!
Life changes happening around the creation of this vid? Honestly didn't notice a thing. 😉👏
Thanks my dude! Appreciate the kind words and your continued support 👍 We probably spent the most time on this one yet so are glad to hear you enjoyed it. And yeah, Evan absolutely nailed the aesthetic on this one. You know we’re all about the vibes around here 😌
Ive been playing through DDS: Megami Tensei for Famicom and it really shows how much care was put into Megaten games even back then.
Demon negotiations and fusion were way ahead of their time and the way the game handles maps is absolutely brilliant.
You have to do all the mapping by hand but if you have the manual the world map gives you hints at the dungeon structure so you can avoid traps and other issues by thinking ahead and mapping logically.
I'm not even sure if the Etrian Odyssey games surpass it for map design.
I loved Revelations Persona for PS1. It was my first game of the series I ever played and beat and it got me into the SMT series.
45:15 awesome story & image very wholesome thank you for sharing it to us
No problem. With Thousand Arms in the background I had been looking for a reason to include that pic for awhile haha, good times for sure
Thank you for the tip on Kartia. Always looking for more tactical rpgs. Just played through vandal hearts 2 and the unique dual turn system was surprisingly great I have to say. Much improved from the first one which was no slouch
Yeah Vandal Hearts is a great series. The PS1 had a lot of great tactical RPGs. Another good obscure one from that console to look into is Saiyuki: Journey West
@@GamingBroductions damn looks like I’m buying another game now hahaha
Some of the Dating Sim aspects of Atlus published games from the 90s would eventually make their way into Catherine a few decades later.
I am always a fan of Dating Sim games so to see where Atlus delved into the art of making Anime Waifus that you can date in the game and increase their affection for you as well as multiple endings with each character is a real treat.
Another banger video dude your retrospective videos are always really chill trips down memory lane and I'm glad you decided to cover Atlus. Also the ending of this video is amazing and I have to know the name of the song.
Thanks dude, appreciate it and glad you liked it 👌 the ending track is Memories Of You from Persona 3, that OST in general has a lot of really dope songs
great video like always. i hope atlus remasters more of their older games like with nocturne.
Thank you. Yeah it would be awesome to get remasters/remakes of SMT 1/2/If and the first 2 Persona games
Really interesting video, I've heard a lot of great things about Thousand Arms, SMT, Persona and Ogre Battle but I haven't played any of them. Only game on this list I played was Crusader of Centy. I more got into them with the Etrian Odyssey games and The Dark Spire in particular, was really cool to see where they had come from.
Always wanted to see a vid about this company from you guys.
Figured it was only natural to do Atlus after Squaresoft/Enix. Hope you enjoyed it!
I would love to see remakes of the old SMT games.
WOAH WTF, I randomly spotted this in my subscribed channels videos and found an hour long dissertation about Atlus
We love random travelers here. Hope you enjoyed the video
I never hear anybody ever talking about Thousand Arms, yet it was a hilarious and charming JRPG of the PS1 era. I fell in love with it and actually bought it off a friend in high school out of jealousy. Nice to see it pop up
Yeahhh Atlus! I had Persona 1 the day it came out. Other then Corridor Crew you're the ONLY channel I'm willing to watch hour long videos but damn it they are so compelling! great work.
Thanks dude, that means a lot! Love to hear it. With that said not all of our videos will be this long going forward, we have a shorter one coming out next
@@GamingBroductions oh I’m aware, a long time subscriber. Love both formats! Keep up the quality content!! Thanks!
@@TheRopiak Oh for sure, wasn’t implying that! I recognize your name from the comments in a lot of our past videos. Was just saying we have some shorter content coming out sooner to look forward to :)
@@GamingBroductions HOW DARE YOU IMPLY :P
Crazy enough, I found Revalations Persona, Thousand Arms, and Kartia at a pawn shop each for a little over $10 to $20. Tail Concerto I found at a KB Toy Store. And the Growslanser series artist is and has been for a while by Satoshi Urushihara, known for a lot of anime and H-anime.
I discovered Atlus in 2004 back in college when I saw a preview of “Nocturne” in EGM magazine and pre-ordered it. From there I played “Persona 3” and I was a huge Atlus (and especially “SMT” series and sub-series) ever since! (And I really wish they would remake “SMT 2” with modern QoL improvements!)
Oh boy, nothing starts a video like a ps1 power screen/sound
The nostalgia it evokes never ceases to hit
Woah i remember the other day when this channel started. I knew it would pop off, the production, the voice, and writing are really A1.
Thanks a lot man, cool to see you here with us since the beginning so we really appreciate that. Still got a long ways to go!
I think the only other company that has enough rpgs in the 90s for a big video like this would be Falcom.
Yeah that’ll definitely be a great one to tackle one of these days.
ohh love this .. I've been a huge fan of Atlus Jrpgs since Persona 3 Portable in the PSP and because of that I got curious about the SMT series ...
I missed Thousand Arms when I was younger, always seeing it but never "pulling the trigger" on buying it. I thought the dating girls aspect of it would be boring, so I never got it.
On another note, maybe one day we'll get Growlanser 1 released in the west. If I recall, it and Growlanser 6 were the only 2 titles of the franchise never released in the west. It's a real shame too, I fell in love with the franchise thanks to Growlanser: Heritage of War (the 5th entry).
I mean it’s definitely not the most fleshed out mechanic ever, it’s pretty basic overall but it was just sort of a novel concept for the time so it appealed to 10 year old me haha
And yeah, would love to eventually see Growlanser localized one day. I actually haven’t played Heritage of War yet so I need to check it out. It was Wayfarer of Time that really sold me on the series
@@GamingBroductions Heritage of War is pretty good. I definitely suggest giving it a playthrough. There's a PS2 version of Growlanser 2 and 3 that got released in NA called Growlanser: Generations, so you can give that one a look too. I'm seeing a few of Generations on Ebay for about $35-ish dollars. Heritage of War is...yeah, that isn't as cheap at this moment.
@@LeonardoBramante yeah that's why I have no problem emulating now, like I'm not paying out the ass for a used game that wouldn't put money in the creators' pocket anyway.
16:08 bears a really strong resemblance to the Ecruteak Dance Theater as it looked on the original GBC
Got Growlanser 4 on the PSP back around early 2010s, so I am aware how awesome the series is.
Looking at the character art book, I have to say I was lucky because Leona from Growlanser 4 is my fav waifu simply because she reminds me of a Catgirl version of Barbarella the Space Bounty Hunter/Spy from that 1960s movie and French comic.
Great video! Might want to do a correction on Giten Megami Tensei. It came out for NEC PC-98/ PC and not PC-Engine.
Ah damn, sorry about that! Definitely mixed that up. All the different PC systems sorta confuse me haha, seems like there were so many of them. And thank you!
Something else to point out about the Digital Devil Story games is that they are among the most difficult games in the Megami Tensei series. Not only are they extremely grindy, but they include things like dungeons that have portions that are completely dark with no way to light them, dungeons where you take mandatory damage in every part of them, and bosses with attacks that will permanently lower a character's level. So spending time grinding in a dungeon where you take mandatory damage so you can get enough experience to take on that dungeon's boss, then to lose 10 levels in that boss fight so you have to grind for those 10 levels back in the dungeon where you take mandatory damage just so you don't get slaughtered in the next dungeon is something you will probably experience. I personally like those games, but they aren't for those who don't have the patience to deal with a draconian type of difficulty in the gameplay.
While SMT is known for having morally conflicted and somewhat depressing endings, something of note in SMT II is that the Chaos route in that game has what is probably the happiest and most morally good ending in the entire series.
They aren't hard, they are tedious, marsh didn't mention this but the entire gameplay system is auto battle minus the level down shit
@@sociallyawkard5675 I get what you're saying, but being tedious is a form of difficulty in retro games and especially in 8-bit RPGs.
@@ophidianmind333 the problem with retro megaten is the dungeon design is trash but you can auto battle all enemies including the final boss
Great video man! The quality of these is always really good. I like that you gave Mash a shoutout. His videos show how insane these original megami games were.
Thousand arms was and still is one of PlayStations hidden gems. The polish and animation as well as the music was just clean. You can tell they cared. Characters feel alive. That’s why games like thousand arms have aged so fondly.
I love you guys' content, and can tell that this one took an immense amount of time and effort. I have only ever played Persona 5 Royal by Atlus and it's a 10/10 game for me. Thanks for summarizing this company's history; as a 25+ year JRPG fan I find these types of videos extremely interesting. I do love your "top 10" style videos too, so definitely looking forward to seeing more of those on the horizon! 😎😎
Thanks man! Yeah, this one was definitely the most time and work we’ve put into a video yet. We’ll have some other types of content coming out soon, and likely some shorter vids for the near future just to get some content out quicker. Need a little break from videos like this after how long this one was 😅
Hell yes! Just what I need after work today!
Hell yeah, nice! Hope you enjoyed it 👌
I think this might be your best video yet man. Awesome work as always.
Thank you, we really appreciate that. This was definitely the most time we’ve ever spent on a video so we’re hoping it’s received well
I love the quality of this video dude, plenty of information wrapped up in a pretty ribbon with little else to ask for 👍.
I can't wait for the 2000's video, love the DDS games.
Love these videos!! Hope your channel keeps growing!!
Thank you! Haha we can only hope!
I've been waiting feels like years for another one of these videos you guys are great thanks for what you do
Yeah we apologize for the delay in between vids we know it’s been our longest break yet, lot of life changes happened since then which delayed us starting this one. We plan on increasing the frequency going forward 👌
@@GamingBroductions that's exciting can't wait
I highly recommend The KHC's video on Ronde
"Living in the golden age of RPGs and doesn't even know it..." - almost brought me to tears of nostalgia!
For those of us that grew up during that time, we all were very fortunate to have experienced the magic of golden age JRPGs!
Any text based Japanese game can be played as long as you're patient enough to use Google Lens. You don't need to wait for fan translations. I was able to beat the SNES Zero 4 Champ games story mode with no translator at all. Playing through with Google Lens definitely made things easier though.
Thousand Arms was so cool when it came out hehe
One of a kind for sure!
6:52 actually no, Cosmic Soldier (released in 2 years before Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei) did it first....heck it even had the dialog conversation system as well.
I left the video running until after the credits. I was in the other room like, "damn, this bit is still going?" and was so pleasantly surprised to come back to cat :)
Damn dude, I played through Thousand Arms one time like 20 years ago and that intro still got me.
Love when your videos drop my bros. Wish you would upload more
Thanks man! Apologies for that as well, had a lot of big life changes since the last vid which delayed us starting this one on top of it being one of our longest videos yet. We know this is the longest break we’ve ever had between videos so we plan on increasing the frequency going forward, next vid is a smaller project and should be out much quicker
@@GamingBroductions totally understandable. I hope the algorithm starts getting your videos out there to the masses
This videos are a contribution for the humanity, thank you.
Great video! I have become obsessed with persona and tried SMTV and catherine. I have been very interested in Atlus and how they began. I know im in for a good game if I see the logo now
been a fan of the series since Digital Devil Saga/Persona 3. a great, informative watch, thanks!
I started playing Persona games a couple years ago. I started with... Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. This meant I didn't have the context of Innocent Sin to explain to me ANY of what was going on. As such, I had a less than stellar time, except right at the very end where I somehow got really invested. Then I played 3 which annoyed me at first but again, it hooked me and had me caring deeply for the story and most of the characters. Currently playing 4 and the jury is out.
The moral is, if you're starting the Persona series, try to find a translation of Innocent Sin. >_>
Do you plan on doing a video for Atlus in the 2000s-2010s? Also, I feel like if somebody took a shot every time you said “fan translation” they’d blackout. 😂
Definitely. Don’t have a target date for that one yet as we have other content we want to get out first but it’ll happen for sure eventually. That’s actually funny you say that, no joke I thought about including a line about making a drinking game out of every time I mention a game has no official English release but a fan translation lol
Always nice to find an underrated channel, binging your content
Fantastic video guys, keep up the great work
The only one of these game I have is Maken X. Thing about the voice acting in that game is it's bad when compared to other Atlus games, but entirely in the context of the Dreamcast it fits right in. Don't know what it was about the Dreamcast but they wanted all the voice acting to be so bad it's good, B-movie acting, quality. Games like Shenmue, House of the Dead 2 and 3, Typing of the Dead, Zombies Revenge, and Blue Stinger. The Dreamcast just had its own unique voice acting aesthetic in their games... for God only knows what reason. In that context Maken X blends right in and stands shoulder to shoulder with Ryo's "I see." from Shenmue.
The late 90s were weird, man. It just made sense at the time?
Love these videos my man! Can't wait for you to jump into the 2000s :)
We grew up in a beautiful time in gaming history. My memories playing snes and ps1 are some of the most cherished from my youth. Glad my son loves games as much as I did, I get to show him all my favorites.
This series is just the best and this video rocked. Thanks again for all your hard work dudes.
I love these series of videos! Most youtubers will stick with clickbait subjects that they drag out for 10 or 15 minutes. Basically, I'm just saying I appreciate all the work you put into these videos. Looking forward to the history of more jrpg companies/publishers.
A friend of mine introduced me to both Kartia and Brigandine. She was a big fan of Brigandine too. Nice hex based battle system.
Also, I miss Thousand Arms.... And I wish I still had a 3DS to play Soul Hackers. Such a good game!
And I LOVE the Growlanser series!!!!!
Omg thousand arms! Holy crap, I was just transported to my bedroom in 1999 and watching the ayumi hamasaki intro repeatedly!
Always look forward to your videos, keep it up!
Thank you, will do!
I spent so much time on Snow Board Kids 1 and 2, those were so much more fun than the more popular ones to me.
Thousand Arms was a massive favorite of mine, got it and Star Ocean 2 at the same time. Put way more time into Star Ocean 2, but once I got to Thousand Arms I was in love with it almost as much.
Always nice to hear another person even remembers Thousand Arms.
Thank you for making this video
No problem. Thank you for watching!
morgana slowly formed for centuries. im so glad atlus existed otherwise id never have my favorite character
Also fun-fact square enix is going to remake tactics ogre so there’s that
Hell yeah, if they can bring in enough new fans with remakes like that maybe there’s still hope for the Ogre series yet
5:44 Sure, not missing much. Only a fascinating top-down dungeon crawler with dungeons designed around cabalah, and a manual that looks like a freaking dark magic book. That's all
Same as you (didn't know how the games we played were precious).
Yooo, It's Marsh! 29:55
Good gravy was this video educational! It was also about so much more then Mega Ten.
My first game from Atlus was Persona 2. I found it so hard to play as a child lol. Anyways great video as always. Looking forward to the 2000's one.
Never heard of you before this video but Im subbing.
This is a great video could you do a square Enix in the 2000s plz
Thank you, we are planning on it 👍
@@GamingBroductions sounds like a plan but I really enjoyed the video as I love atlus
Wow, what a revelation, you went all out.
I subscribed. Also, not tryna be a dick but it’s Kan-eh-ko. Not Kan-ee-ko. Oh and one last thing…
You sound like Lucifer’s dub VA from The Devil is a Part-Timer and it creates a funny mental image of Lucifer explaining Atlus games to Madao, Alciel, and the rest of the cast. 😂😂😂
Nice, thanks for subscribing! And no worries, I know my Japanese pronunciation is far from perfect and I probably butcher some names, so I appreciate the correction so I can fix it for next time.
That show’s been on my watch list for awhile but I haven’t checked it out yet, just looked up a few clips though and yeah I can see where you’re coming from a bit 😅 Heard a lot of good things about the series so I need to watch it fully!
Awesome videos hope this get the views and time watchs
Thank you! We really hope so too🤞
Have you guys ever played Vanguard Bandits or Azure Dreams?
Would love to see some coverage of those two games as I loved them growing up.
I have. We’ve talked about Vanguard Bandits in a couple videos before, really cool game that I’ll probably cover in more detail eventually. Maybe a retrospective but we’ll see. Azure Dreams I remember renting as a kid but never got too far with it. I need to try it out again one of these days, it would be to cool to cover it at some point!
I started playing playstation JRPG's because of this channel!
Haha hell yeah! Ya love to hear it. Hope you’re enjoying the ones you’ve played so far, there’s so many classics
@@GamingBroductions those "In the 90's" series are what drove me to play your JRPG recommndations. These games have great stories. Keep on rockin!! GameBro!
I forgot all about kartia! I had it as a kid and haven't heard about it again til now
The Nick Cannon roast lmao
All in good fun of course lol
Ogre Battle is a Queen reference.
.
.
Thousand Arms opening has a pretty sick techno remix!
Look it up
I'm glad you also noticed the similarities between Kabuki and Goemon. I learned of Kabuki and the Far East Of Eden series through the Happy Console Gamer and I had that same immediate response to his artstyle. The music is similar too.
Also, I don't know how the Hydlide series kept getting made considering that all of the games suck so much ass. All I ever hear is that they're bad.
Also also...nice Evangelion poster. :)
golden age of RPGs were right. man i remember being SO excited to hear about square and enix coming together as a kid....yeah....LOL
I think PS2 era have more J-RPGs title. PS1 era was the starter and PS2 was the peak.
This is some SMT nostalgia overload, well done.
Thank you for your Videos! I really appreciate ur work u do in every Video!! :) And now ATLUS :) But if u don't mind: I would like to know more ot the Plattformer too :) I mean there is Run Saber for example which is really cool :)
No problem, thank you for watching! Yeah Run Saber is a good one I probably could have made an exception on to talk about. Definitely an underrated platformer from that era!
26:16 Is that the Sabbath scene from Devilman?