Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX
A mobile prequel to Shin Megami Tensei II.
Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX is a 2004 role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus as part of the Megami Tensei series. It serves as a prequel to Shin Megami Tensei II, set decades earlier, and was originally released for Japanese feature phones. The game was re-released by G-Mode for Nintendo Switch and Windows in 2025.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Atlus
- Publisher
- Atlus (mobile), G-Mode (Switch, Windows)
- Series
- Megami Tensei
- Platforms
- Mobile phones
- Nintendo Switch
- Windows
- Genre
- Role-playing
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX is a role-playing video game where the player controls a boy accompanied by a girl, exploring 3D dungeons from a first-person perspective. Encounters with demons lead to battles that reward money and experience points, raising character levels. Fallen allies cannot fight until revived by magic or healed at a facility. The player may negotiate with demons of equal or lower level than the boy, using dialogue, money, or items to recruit them. Recruited demons can be fused at the Cathedral of Shadows into stronger ones, and swords can be fused with demons or other swords to create new equipment. Player choices affect the boy's alignment—law, neutral, or chaos—which influences available demon allies, accessible facilities, and the plot's direction, leading to multiple endings.
Premise
Set decades before Shin Megami Tensei II, the game takes place in the Valhalla residential area of Tokyo Millennium, a futuristic city built on Tokyo's ruins after a nuclear attack. The city is controlled by the Center, led by holy priests, contrasting with Valhalla's poverty. The story follows a teenage boy who seeks strength and is introduced by his friend Moss to a man who explains the conflict between the Messians and the Ring of Gaea. The man offers to help the boy become strong in exchange for helping him take down Madam, Valhalla's ruler. The boy agrees, trains at a gym to become Colosseum champion, and after a real battle in the underground arcade, teams up with an amnesiac girl who is a capable fighter.
Development and release
Atlus developed and published Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX, with gameplay similar to earlier Megami Tensei titles and graphics resembling the Game Boy Advance versions of Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei II. Announced in July 2004 alongside a trailer and a Flash-based prologue, it was released for Japanese feature phones starting August 26, 2004, as the second original Megami Tensei mobile role-playing game after Shin Megami Tensei If... Hazama-hen. It was distributed via the Megaten Alpha subscription service. In 2025, G-Mode announced a re-release as part of their G-Mode Archives+ line, one of its fifth anniversary titles, alongside Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Requiem, Armored Core: Mobile Mission, and Armored Core: Mobile 2. The re-release retains the original gameplay unchanged, launching on Nintendo Switch on April 24, 2025, and on Windows on May 14, 2025, after a delay from May 8. A spin-off, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Colosseum 20XX, developed by Bbmf, was released for Japanese feature phones on May 28, 2007, focusing on strategic combat and set around the same time, following a 14-year-old girl guiding demons in the Devil Colosseum.
Reception
Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX was a success, with over 100,000 downloads by October 2007. Inside Games noted players appreciated its challenge, branching story, and gameplay in the tradition of early Shin Megami Tensei games. Famitsu praised its fusion system for its complexity, including sword fusion, and called it a must-play for series fans. NLab recommended it for its branching story with multiple endings, and Dengeki Online appreciated its original scenario, recommending it to Megami Tensei fans and players of the previous mobile game, Shin Megami Tensei If... Hazama-hen. A Korean newspaper found it graphically impressive, considering it superior to Game Boy Advance games and Korean mobile games of the time.
More in Atlus Games of the 2000s
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced