ColorlessDecember

The main series includes the original shin megami tensei game (yes, that's the name of the game), and the four games that are considered in the same series, , SMTII, SMT: Nocturne, SMT: If..., SMT: Strange Journey, and the new SMTIV that is coming out in 2013.

Other series like Persona, Devil Summoner, DDS, Devil Survivor, (did i miss anything?) are spin-offs. And for Persona and Devil Survivor, they are very very loosely related to the main SMT games and are considered to be in a series called Megami Ibunroku (literally Alternate Tale of the Goddess). The only reason that those games have the SMT title slapped onto them is because of marketing reasons in the USA (and Europe too?).

I hope that cleared things up for you.

Also, anyone heard about the remake for Soul Hackers? I myself never played the Devil Summoner games, are they essentially the same as the main series?

@Seiji : if persona 3's story made you sad, you'll probably be bawling by the end of dds 2 ^.^

But yeah I'm really excited for smtiv. By the looks of the trailer, it seems like they will go back to the classic computer system thing to summon demons. The protagonist looks good, but i'm gonna miss demi fiend's badass glowing tattoos.

I tried to play the Devil Survivor games but I couldn't stomach it. To me, the style was very typical anime-ish and didn't tie in well with the rest of the franchise. And the subpar music was disappointing as well.

But yeah, I agree with you on the last sentence. Even though Megaten games are really intriguing, the final dungeons part are quite long and tedious (I'm looking at you, Tower of Kagutsuchi.) And also, what's up with the tower motif?!