The runaway success of Persona 5 and the excitement surrounding the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V games on the Nintendo Switch has made it a lively time for fans of the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona franchises, series of notoriously difficult computer RPGs by Atlus Games about fighting, summoning, and negotiating with demonic beings. SMT aficionados keen on translating their favorite JRPGs to a tabletop setting should definitively check out these RPG systems, each themed around harnessing the power of mythical beings and exploring the collective unconscious of humanity.
The Shin Megami Tensei RPGs, the signature product line of Atlus Games, pioneered the RPG sub-genre of monster taming years before Pokémon did, while also telling dark yet epic stories about heroes caught up in literally apocalyptic battles between angelic and demonic creatures. The core gameplay feature in each SMT title is fighting demons in turn-based battles, swaying them to a player’s side with conversational mini-games, and fusing them into more powerful beings using a chamber called the Cathedral of Shadows.
The Persona spin-offs took the gameplay and demonic character roster of Shin Megami Tensei and placed them in a less apocalyptic urban fantasy setting heavily influenced by the theories of psychologist Carl Jung. The protagonists of most Persona games alternate between strengthening their social bonds with friends and family and exploring supernatural realms within humanity’s collective unconscious – fighting, taming, and fusing “shadow” creatures born from repressed thoughts and emotions. All four of these TTRPGs have themes extremely similar in tone to the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games, particularly in how player characters can bind themselves to mythical spirits, delve through people’s unconscious minds, and potentially punch godlike beings in the face.
TTRPG Like Shin Megami Tensei & Persona – Voidheart Symphony
Voidheart Symphony, a “Powered By The Apocalypse” RPG made by UFO Press, maps very closely to the anti-authoritarian themes and gameplay of Persona 5. Player characters of Voidheart Symphony are psychic rebels fighting back against an other-dimensional “Castle” of evil slowly seeping into the reality and dreams of their city, stealing supernatural power to fight back against the mortal minions the castle empowers. Like Persona 5, player characters strengthen their connections to their city by interacting with friends and allies who embody the qualities of major Arcana in the Tarot Deck.
TTRPG Like Shin Megami Tensei & Persona – City of Mist
The titular metropolis of the City of Mist RPG is called, predictably enough, “The City,” a place suffused with a strange, ethereal mist that blinds ordinary humans to the strange, supernatural events occurring in their hometown. Player characters are people called “Rifts,” who can draw on the powers of mythical heroes and creatures to fight enemies and solve paranormal mysteries. The freeform City of Mist system is particularly compatible with Persona-style RPG stories where characters summon spirits modeled after folkloric icons such as Paul Bunyan or Anansi the Spider.
TTRPG Like Shin Megami Tensei & Persona – My Body Is A Cage
My Body Is A Cage, a dream dungeon-crawling RPG recently funded on Kickstarter and inspired by the dungeon-crawling of Persona games (plus classic D&D and perhaps a bit of Omori). It’s about people who live ordinary yet meaningful lives by day and explore fantastical dungeons as they sleep. These dungeons embody the thoughts, feelings, and troubles of the player character’s friends and family. Clearing these dream dungeons is a way for players to gain boons useful for their waking lives and also help the people in their lives heal and recover.
TTRPG Like Shin Megami Tensei & Persona – Geist: The Sin-Eaters
Despite being an urban fantasy game about people who’ve died and come back to life, Geist: The Sin-Eaters is one of the more light-hearted tabletop RPGs in the Chronicles Of Darkness game line by Onyx Path. Player characters are “Sin-Eaters,” humans who die, go to the Underworld, and strike a bargain with a “Geist,” an ancient, powerful ghost spirit. The Geist brings the player to life and gives them nifty powers: the “Sin-Eaters” help other ghosts pass on and helps the Geist recover memories of who they used to be in life. Of the Persona games, Geist: The Sin-Eaters overlaps most with Persona 3, a JRPG thematically about embracing life and coming to terms with death. Fans of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona looking for tabletop RPGs based on video games may want to consider check
