DemiKids: Atlus’ Insane Attempt At An SMT Pokémon Game

Pokémon, but cursed by Hell.

SMT Light Version
SMT Light Version

Barring any delays, this November will see the release of two games that have been extremely anticipated by their respective fans: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, remakes of a pair of games that are just over a decade old, and Shin Megami Tensei V, a game first announced back in 2017. Despite appealing to two entirely different demographics, the games are extremely similar in premise, as they revolve around collecting creatures, commanding them to do your bidding, and dealing with cosmos-warping threats.

The Shin Megami Tensei franchise and its more popular Persona sub-series can be described as R-rated Pokémon. But what if I told you SMT actually already has a set of Pokémon games in its catalogue, complete with keeping its hallmark horrific demons and aiming them squarely at ten-year olds?

Released in the west as Shin Megami Tensei: DemiKids in the distant year of 2002, the games even had the proven Pokémon one-game-for-the-price-of-two strategy with “Book of Light” and “Book of Darkness” versions. Surprisingly, the versions were actually considerably different experiences. The sub-series, originally called Devil Children in Japan (but good luck selling that on western shelves), started in 2000 and ran until 2004. A mobile game was also released in 2011. Other than Book of Light and Darkness versions, no other entries have ever left Japan.

I managed to get my hands on a copy of DemiKids Book of Light for the Game Boy Advance and what I got was one of the most utterly confusing gaming experiences I’ve ever exclaimed my way through.

Before getting into the actual game, I want to clarify something about the genre. In Japan, games like SMT and Pokémon can actually fit in the same genre, called ‘Mon,’ short for ‘monster.’ While we here in the west got the phenomenon that was Pokémon and probably accused anything like it of being a copycat, Japan has an entire category of similar games.

To be a Mon title, a game really just has to fit the criteria of allowing a player to collect creatures and summon them to fight on their behalf. This can include anything from the obvious Pokémon, Digimon, or Monster Rancher to things like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Monster Hunter: Stories, the summoning mechanic in Final Fantasy, or SMT. In fact, the game that could be credited as starting the whole genre was the parent series of SMT, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, back in 1987.

But enough of the history lesson, let’s get weird.

Upon start-up, it isn’t the graphics that haven’t aged well, but the art style. The human characters (and later, as I would learn, the demons themselves) look like they’ve walked straight out of a How to Draw Anime book. But I guess it was 2002 and they were appealing to children, so I got past it. Even a nebulous voice waxing on about light, dark, and the complicated relationship they represent wasn’t too weird, just terribly juxtaposed. Standard JRPG stuff, though, but again, I am supposed to be a child.

Following that fever dream, I’m thrust right into a battle against three demons with obnoxious designs and absolutely no clue how to use the combat system as the game gives you no hints. After floundering my way to victory, I realized, ah, of course, my player character was just playing a popular arcade game. All of this is upended by my friend named Lena suddenly telling me that she found a book in the school library that contains chants to summon demons.

I repeat, a little girl was able to find a book in the freakin’ elementary school library with supposedly legit incantations that can be used to call forth the denizens of Hell. Oh, and apparently me and my best friend, Akira, are really into that so Lena wants to get it for us. My madness only amplifies.

Upon finding my boy Akira as he exits class, Lena talks/shouts about this book so loud that at least one other student hears about it and comes running up with great interest. Her name is Amy, and considering she has the same color hair as one of the people I saw in the fever dream to open the game, I’m guessing she’s important.

All of us except Akira head over to the library, but alas, the book is gone — we can’t find it anywhere! Luckily, Akira shows up to offer more help. He says some cryptic stuff about another book, then suddenly finds the demon summoning book from a shelf on the bottom of the screen which on the GBA may as well be the ether. My character asks no questions and sees nothing wrong with this, leaving me guffawing in frustration.

DemiKids
DemiKids

Following this, Akira and I get real excited to read a passage aloud, but Amy starts speaking some logic and is all, ‘yo dudes, did it ever occur to anyone that demons could be, like, hella dangerous?’ (I’m paraphrasing, of course.) She starts saying some more things that imply she knows more about demons than she’s letting on, but in true knucklehead fashion, Akira and I get to chanting together.

And so, two ten-year old shonen protagonists summon a Literal Hecking Demon™ in the middle of an elementary school library. I am in awe and terrified, but must also give kudos to the developers for having the cajones to have me play as a ten-year old villain, I guess, because no way a kid doesn’t die.

The demon instantly recognizes Amy as some royal from another world hiding out on Earth. Leda tries to give the Literal Hecking Demon™ a finger wag and a stern scolding before she’s bound by psychic forces and taken hostage. The monster threatens to slice this little girl to ribbons if Amy doesn’t come back with him, which means I’m about to have a child’s blood on my hands.

Oh, what’s that? Amy hands me something called a ‘Demolic’ and something else called a ‘Vinecom?’ I just know how to use them with absolutely no instruction from anyone? Oh damn, they summon a tiger with anime hair to fight by my side? This all happens in an absolute whirlwind of maybe five total lines of dialogue. Before I know it, I’m back on the battle screen and trying to figure out how to fight again.

We beat the thing and force it to retreat, but not before it ominously mentions something about a “time rift” making our efforts useless. Amy lets us know that her inklings were correct – Akira and I are Demi Kids and possess the power to control and fight demons. We take this news as though someone told us our own names – no confusion, no emotion, just acceptance. Everyone else goes off to look for the time rift (that no one knows what it looks like), while my anime cat casually lets me know that I’m now public enemy #1 to an army of demons. Also, he’s invited three other demon friends to join my party.

So in this elementary school, where there was once no denizens of Hell, there have now been six in a matter of seconds (Akira also got himself a companion demon). For those keeping score at home, that’s a 600% increase in the number of Literal Hecking Demons™ that should ever be around a school or children. And despite all of this madness, it’s treated with absolutely zero urgency by any of the characters.

My anime cat demon companion was also right – demons were everywhere now and coming for me. This is still an SMT property, which means that taking three steps out of the library got me into my first random encounter, where I defeated the seventh demon to show up in this school today. This also implied that demons were all over the school just waiting to attack kids, which means oh god there’s still going to be a massacre and it’s all my fault.

Luckily, Amy, Leda, and Akira found the time rift. Unluckily, it’s at the literal entrance to the school because of course it is. The once reasonable Amy is now saying things like ‘I’ve never seen a time rift before, but guys, we gotta touch it.’ And touch it without question we do, taking us literal children back in time and forcing me to turn off the game and wish I could go back in time and not be curious enough to play this insanity.

I know the SMT series is unforgiving, JRPGs can go off the rails, and titles aimed at kids don’t have to make sense. But putting all that together while trying to clearly fit into the formula that Pokémon made famous just caused my brain to buzz uncontrollably and violently fill me with question after question. Questions like: how that book wound up in the library in the first place, and also who the hell exactly is this game aimed at? I don’t know if I’ve ever been so engrossed yet repulsed by a game and its complete lack of logic at breakneck speed.

The SMT games are infamous for having you fight and kill God at the climax of 100-hour plots that barely make any sense, but they all somehow pale in comparison to the opening half hour of this demonic kid’s show. I firmly believe it should be used as a punishment for any gatekeepers in the video game community for their hubris. It has just enough familiar elements to manipulate and lure you in, only to assault your brain directly and force you to question what video games even are.

Congrats, Atlus, you flew too close to the sun but stumbled ass-backwards into an outstanding nerdy torture device.

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