Too. Much. Megaten.

I don't know if you've been keeping up with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise (aka Megaten, for short), but there have been a lot of games released in the franchise for the last half-decade. There's been enough that it's almost tough to keep up with all of them, especially when it's a niche franchise from a niche company, which pretty much demands that you have to buy their games right away lest they go out of print quickly. It's almost bad enough that you don't want them to announce another one!

Now, keep in mind that when I refer to "Shin Megami Tensei," I'm referring to all of the games released in America with that name. Most of them weren't released in Japan with that name, actually. Devil Survivor was released as part of the "Megami Ibunroku" sub-franchise, which was also a branding given to the first Persona game (but just the first). They were all released with the SMT name because of its marketing possibilities, since Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne -- the only game released in America that's actually part of the direct Megaten franchise -- was such a sales success. Sure, it's ticked off some dedicated fans, but I think marketing to achieve higher sales is a tad more important than that kind of frivolity.

And guess what? They've just announced another Megaten game for an American release: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. It was pretty inevitable, given the franchise's pedigree, that it would be announced soon; but man are these games piling up. I envy the person who has enough time to play through all of these games, along with others on the side, because these games can get pretty long. Thus far, I've purchased almost every Megaten game released since Nocturne (I believe Angela has me beat as far as a collection of those), but the number of them I've actually played is pretty distressing. Still, I can rest easy when I consider how much some of these games are worth. I could sell the first Devil Summoner for three times the price I paid for it presently, for instance.

(Not saying I would, though.)

Strange Journey is similar to Nocturne in that it's a real Megaten title. Anyone who read the paraphrased version of a blog post on the developer's Japanese blog saw that the game was made to appeal to a worldwide audience, and therein lied Atlus' grand intentions with the project. It's already getting positive reviews from importers, so worrying about its quality is fruitless at this point. But what about people who have too many of these games to go through? And what if they spoil it to add extra incentive to purchase it? Uh oh!

We may have a lot of Megaten now, and we'll undoubtedly have more on the way when Persona 3 Portable is inevitably announced. I'm sure they wouldn't pass on localizing a portable version of their best-selling game, right? Good luck finding the time to play all of these!