Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: The Unofficial Guide to Shin Megami Tensei and Persona

Kalata's encyclopedic approach to MegaTen produces a great way to get familiar with the series. I was a total noob when I picked this up, having only played the first Persona. Since starting to read this, I've started the fan-translated SMT, to be able to say I've had an authentic mainline title experience. In addition to the titles, he covers series-wide topics like demon design and recurring elements. His writing is solid while at times coming off as pretentious, sometimes presenting opinion as fact, such as a during a discussion of perceived demon "design flubs". Clearly it takes a lot of love and devotion to put together a book like this and with that comes the expected level of super-fan complaining about the problems with each series entry. The one addition I would have liked would have been the 30,000 foot overview of the series: a visual timeline of each entry's release date as well as an in universe timeline (if that makes sense) and a diagram of series connections. A list of the major innovation (or lack of) that each entry brought to the series would be nice as well. When you have this much material, tables and visual aids help a lot. So while Kalata gives us a nice synopsis of each title, we are missing the grander context and evolution of the series.

The media could not be loaded.  Am I losing my mind, or is there a half of a book about jaguars in this?

Was really interested in the series but could not find any comprehensive info. This book has it all compiled in one place and is a wonderful read

I love demons

Note I got my copy through being a Patreon supporter of HG101 -- I've always been a fan of their podcasts.This book came the day after I finished The High Window by Raymond Chandler, which is a really gripping mystery novel. Almost anything else I was going to read next was going to be a let down because of how intense it was. But this book was a perfect way to unwind and relax my imagination muscles. Lots of pictures, lots of exploration of historical territory I wasn't familiar with (I met the Persona series with Persona 1 on the PS1, so many years ago -- and I remember the dang disc kept freezing right at the beginning).Kurt's writing is downright creative in the way he builds a narrative about each game, too, to the point that the book is just fun to read through. There's always a little bit about the gameplay, a little about the history, a little about the plot, a little about the characters, a little odds and ends, and each chapter leaves you wanting to play the game it was written about.Fantastic book if you're curious about Atlus, the Persona or SMT series, or just video game or RPG history in general.

My problem with this book is that it often seems like a bulletpoint list of features of the games that are not presented in an interesting way. It's not as interesting to read as other books/guides. This publisher has several books of this kind and they're all written by the same guy. It's clear that this guy cannot possibly have played hundreds of games, and this is evident as you read. Sure, he's done his research and the book is stuffed with info, but again, it's just info he's compiled and now presented without a particular direction, and as such not an interesting read. I've seen youtube videos about the megaten franchise that do a better job at explaining stuff. Having said that, the book still HAS valuable info, and it's likely the only one around about megaten games, so it's not without merits

Ich liebe die Persona spiele-reihe, und der Kurt Kalata hat auch hier wieder fantastische arbeit verrichtet. Er berichtet sehr ausfuehrlich und von seiner typische Meinung vorhergesehen ueber die Shin Megami Tensei reihe, und laest debei auch obskure alte Titel nicht aussen vor. Herrlich fuer jeden der J-RPG's und games im allgemeeinen ein warmes Herz zutraegt.