Okay, so I got this question stuck in my head: just how many demons are there in the Megami Tensei games? You know, those games where you can recruit all sorts of wild and wacky creatures to fight alongside you. I figured, hey, I’m already playing these games all the time, why not make it a little project? I dove headfirst into this, and let me tell you, it turned into a bit of a wild goose chase!
I started off all excited, booting up the games and just enjoying the gameplay, but also keeping an eye out for every demon I encountered. I grabbed a notebook and started jotting down names, trying to keep track of each one. After a while I’m playing Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and I’m thinking, “Man, there’s gotta be, like, 200 of these guys, right?” Then, when I switched over to Shin Megami Tensei IV, the list just kept growing! I’m seeing new faces everywhere, and my notebook was starting to look like a madman’s diary. I’m flipping through pages, trying to see if I’d already written down a demon’s name, and it was total chaos.
So, I thought, there has to be a better way. I started hitting up the internet, looking for some kind of master list. I found a bunch of forums and wikis, and people were throwing around numbers like 400, and then I saw another number,426, and that some of them were apparently locked behind DLC. There was even a mention of something called a “zombie soldier” you could only get if he begged for mercy after you’d wiped out all his buddies. The internet was a total mess of information, and everyone seemed to have a different number.
I even found this one list that claimed there were over 2,700 demons, but when I looked closer, it had all sorts of weird stuff on it that didn’t even seem like demons. I’m talking, like, machine gun turrets and some random characters from the games. So, yeah, that list wasn’t super helpful.
Then I started digging into the different games, trying to compare notes. Nocturne had its demons in 3D, which was cool, but SMT IV had way more, even if they were just sprites. And then there were all these other games in the series, like the Persona games, and I realized I was in way over my head. This was way bigger than just counting demons in one or two games!
Feeling a bit defeated but still determined, I decided to focus on just one game for now, Shin Megami Tensei V. I found out there are about 218 demons you can actually get in that game, but that number goes up to 230 if you count the DLC ones. There were also these special demons called “Mitama,” but you couldn’t even recruit them, which was a bummer.
Then I learned that some demons in Shin Megami Tensei V are locked behind even more DLC or special editions of the game! I was like, “Seriously? You gotta pay extra for some of these guys?” It felt a bit like a cash grab, to be honest.
After all this digging and counting and scratching my head, I’m still not 100% sure how many demons there are across the entire Megami Tensei series. But from what I’ve gathered, it looks like Shin Megami Tensei V alone has around 230 if you count the DLC. If we’re talking about the whole series, though, I’ve seen numbers as high as 426 including DLC, but even that might be way off.
Lessons Learned
- This is way harder than it looks! Seriously, keeping track of all these demons is a nightmare.
- The internet is full of conflicting info. One person says one thing, another says something completely different. It’s hard to know what to believe.
- DLC makes everything more complicated. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, you realize there are more demons hiding behind a paywall.
- I need a better system. My notebook method was a disaster. I need to find a more organized way to do this if I ever decide to tackle this project again.
So, yeah, that’s my story. I set out to answer a simple question, and I ended up with a whole lot more questions than answers. But hey, it was a fun ride, and I learned a lot along the way. Maybe one day I’ll come back to this and finally figure out the real number of Megami Tensei demons. But for now, I think I need a break from demon counting!
