Forum - View topicREVIEW: Shin Megami Tensei: Kahn GN 1
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RDespair
 Posts: 245 Location: California |
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That's a shame. The PS2 Megaten games were all great, especially in the story department. I would have liked to have read a manga based on the series.
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TheTrueUndead
 Posts: 17 Location: Hot as hell Phoenix, AZ |
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Agreed, I've been a big MegaTen nut since about 8 years ago when I picked up Persona 2:EP for the PlayStation. Well hopefully the Persona anime won't suffer the same fate as this manga.
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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Between a wildly inconstant rulebook for stands...-er, personas and an unitresting plot, don't get your hopes up.
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NezuChiza
 Posts: 32 |
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Just to nitpick, Shin Megami Tensei: If... isn't as unknown as the reviewer seems to think. It's what gave birth to the Persona series of games, and it's hard to say that expensive collectors items like 2 and 3 aren't known to people.
That said, I can't believe that he put as a con that the game it's based on isn't available in english. What does THAT have to do with anything, especially in terms of it being negative? It's like game reviewers basing part of the score for a game on whether it has multiplayer or not 
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HiroTsukasa
 Posts: 9 |
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As a long time Megaten fan this manga was one of the newer releases from Tokyopop that I had been anticipating. I think if the reviewer had done a little more background work a lot of their faults with the manga are a bit silly.
First, faulting the artwork... this manga ran back in 1996 in Japan. Comparing it up to something more modern like Kingdom Hearts is giving it a pretty bad disadvantage (though the art for the KH manga is so awful I can't believe it was said anyways). Second of all... it's not entirely based on SMT: If... (though as the previous poster said... it's not as obscure as you'd want people to think). Kazuaki Yanagisawa did a one volume adaptation of Shin Megami Tensei: If... as a manga. Khan is his continuation of that one shot continuing the plot. For those who have played the original two SMT games (not that hard, full fan translations are available) this is grand because much of Nobu's dealings so far in the first volume have made huge references to the storyline. Gotoh and Tollman are no strangers to anyone who has even remotely played into the first SMT game and cross referencing Nobu's story across the growing backdrop of the first game is nice. One such example is when Gotoh is making the request to declare martial law. One of the first things you encounter in SMT is that many are the roads have been blocked off because martial law was just declared. You refer to the story as cliche ridden like it's "Oh lulz here's another demons attack school kids" story and yet the Megaten series dates back all the way to a trilogy of novels that inspired a video game on the original Nintendo. I give this Review a D- |
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sepherest
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I've been a SMT fan for a few years now (only missing two U.S. released games), so I can kinda see how other people would think about the series if they were suddenly introduced to it with a manga like this.
I think the only problem here is the age of this manga series. Since it was released in 1996, was based off a videogame from 1994 that is based off a series of novels from the eighties, I wouldn't be surprised if it's plot has been re-hashed over and over. Also, the older SMT games did have some rather strange plots, hence why the series holds more of a cult status in other countries. I was laughing a few times when I read a version of the original SMT novel online because it gets so over-serious in itself. I was rather dissapointed that Tokyopop chose KAHN out of all the SMT manga to release in the United States. In my opinion, I think it would've been better for them to have released a more recent series for a game that U.S. SMT fans have been able to play (without modding or importing), such as the Digital Devil manga or Persona 3. But then again, I'm still whining about there being no licensing of the Tales of Symphonia manga... |
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Brand
 Posts: 1029 |
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As with many other people posting her I'm a long time Megaten fan (I run several Megaten related websites and communities).
I read the manga and I pretty much agree with the reviewer. It was pretty crappy. I thought the art was ok, better then a lot of stuff, but having a lot of technical issues (oh god the forehead!) and it is dated. They only reason I can think Tokyopop choose to license this title is due to the "mature" content to appeal to the Battle Royal crowd (except at the core of Battle Royal there is a good story to be told). There is a ton of other Megaten related manga out there, that would have been better and more relevant to today's market. |
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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How is it giving it a disadvantage? You seem to be under the impression that a manga drawn now is inherantly better in art terms than a manga drawn 10+ years ago. Which makes no sense. At all. There was crappy manga and excellent manga being created in 1996 and there's crappy manga and excellent manga being created now.
What do the roots of the series have to do with how clichéd it is? |
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Brand
Posts: 1029 |
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I think they are trying to say that Megaten is one of the early founders of this concept and so at the time this was written it may have not been so clichéd. The problem is it being published for and English reading audience for the first time currently, which makes it pretty clichéd by today's standard. I'm pretty sure it being clichéd today wouldn't even be that bad if the story made some sense. Someone who has no knowledge of these games (which probably more who don't know about them then do) it would have to be absolutely confused reading this. I've played these games and I thought the plot was confusing and weak. Really it's that the manga isn't written well at all. Last edited by Brand on Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
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HiroTsukasa
Posts: 9 |
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I had this thoughtful reply made up referencing from the earlier Megaten games to back up my point, but I changed my mind.... this is the only reply worth anything:
Sorry this isn't Death Note. |
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Shadowrun20XX
 Posts: 1936 Location: Vegas |
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Megaten fan ehh?Did you play the first half of Persona 2?It is called Innocent Sin.Eternal Punishment is the second half of Persona 2.BS huh.I liked it better than EP.But they go together...so. I started with the Digital Devil Monogatari Megami Tensei on the NES,back in the day.You might have to be a fan to understand and like the manga. |
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MelancholyJoker
Posts: 1 |
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You come off as kind of rude here. Admittedly, I liked Innocent Sin more than Eternal Punishment, but I don't have to think as hard when I play Eternal Punishment (seeing as it's in English). Not everyone can pay for import games, especially old ones like Digital Devil Story. Not everyone can download it, either, so it's not like it's that easy to get a hold of it. Anyway, I'm kind of offended that this reviewer compared this manga to the Kingdom Hearts manga. It shows a lack of understanding of media arts in general. There have been a lot of advancements in the way manga is drawn and laid out in the past ten years. The art isn't terrible, per say, it's just very rough. To compare it to a more modern series really is unfair, especially since a lot of artists use digital art and computers to lay out pages (hence why newer manga looks cleaner, no matter how terrible the artist). There are better mangas for Megami Tensei, especially ones that don't require a reader to understand such an old game. I mean, I'm going to have to look up a script translation before I can fully understand this comic. While I'm a bit annoyed that I have to do real research before reading a comic, I'm not going to completely disregard its merit because its old. It's entertaining. I'm not going to recommend it to anyone, but I'm going to keep reading. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can't always listen to reviewers. Not all reviewers know the full story on the product they're reviewing. It's best to form your own opinion, rather than listening to one person. |
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Shadowrun20XX
Posts: 1936 Location: Vegas |
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Ouch! Hi there! You should introduce yourself in the appropriate thread before commenting on other replies.You are correct though,I am very rude.I was wondering (in the previous post) if anyone had played the first half of Persona 2 or not.Great games should not be missed. |
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