The story is influenced by moral decisions the protagonist makes, aligning him either with the Messians, the Ring of Gaia, or setting him up as an independent agent.

From the start of the production, Atlus staff saw Shin Megami Tensei as a chance to create a game with the company's brand on it.

Critical and commercial reception for the game have been highly positive, and its success helped launch Atlus as a developer and publisher, along with popularizing the Megami Tensei series.

In Shin Megami Tensei, players take the role of an unnamed protagonist, a teenage boy who can communicate with demons using a computer program.

The gameplay is similar to that of other games in the series: players make their way through dungeons and fight against demons in a first-person perspective.

While exploring the city, the Chaos Hero fuses himself with a demon to gain power, and decides to leave to pursue his own ideals; the group moves on without him and meet the Heroine, who has been reincarnated and rejoins them.

From the beginning of production, Atlus staff saw Shin Megami Tensei as a chance to develop a game with the company's brand on it.

[12] When designing it, the team slowly decided that they wanted to break the then-current gaming status quo using its aesthetic and content.

[14] In a later interview, an Atlus staff member stated that this setting and style made it the antithesis of traditional fantasy RPGs, adding that this resulted in the game developing a punk spirit.

The decision to set the game in Tokyo was made by Suzuki and Kaneko, and was influenced by manga such as Violence Jack, Devilman, and Fist of the North Star.

Kichijōji was decided to be the game's starting point due to Kaneko, Suzuki, and Ito all having lived in or near the area, or having visited it often.

[8] While designing the maps, Kaneko wanted to use wire-frame models, but the Super Famicom's limited capacities meant this idea was scrapped.

Niino felt that the game's pacing and flow needed to be addressed, as after naming the characters, the player immediately is prompted to divide their status points.

Kaneko wanted the Chaos Hero to change back and forth between human and demon form to tie in more closely with this design theme, but the concept was abandoned.

Some characters, such as Stephen and General Gotou, are based on real-life people; in the game files, they are identified as "hoking" and "mishima", respectively.

[8] For the demon design, Kaneko took inspiration from Medieval woodblock prints, wooden carvings from South America, masks from Micronesia, and terracotta figurines from the Middle East.

In addition to traditional demons and monsters, Kaneko designed versions of less-frequented figures from Celtic and Southeast Asian mythology.

[17] Masuko considered Shin Megami Tensei to be an experimental work: it was the first time he had created music for the Super Famicom, so he was not familiar with the console's specifications.

[18] A soundtrack album, Shin Megami Tensei Law & Chaos Disc, was released on February 24, 1993, by Victor Entertainment under the catalog number VICL-40046/7.

[19] A second album, Shin Megami Tensei Sound Collection, was released on March 5, 2003, by SME Visual Works under the catalog number SVWC-7175/6.

[20] Shin Megami Tensei was first released on the Super Famicom on October 30, 1992, in Japan;[21] it remained exclusive to that region for 22 years.

[6] Subsequent ports were released on the PC Engine (December 25, 1993), Mega-CD (February 25, 1994), the PlayStation (May 31, 2001), and Game Boy Advance (March 28, 2003).

For instance, the catastrophe in Shin Megami Tensei is referred to as the "Great Cataclysm" in Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs.

The Soulless Army, while Persona 4 and Shin Megami Tensei IV include several quotes and terms from the game.

[8] While a success, the game also received criticism from players for its high encounter rate and difficulties using the map and in-game instructions.

[21] This made it one of their three highest-rated games of 1992, along with Dragon Quest V and World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

[7] Both Gamezebo and TouchArcade wished the game had been a "universal app", so that it could have been played on other devices than iPhone and iPod Touch without having the graphics upscaled.

[5] TouchArcade called the graphics "good, but not great", though reasonable given the game's age, but that some demon designs were "spectacular works of art".

[40] RPGFan found the majority of the game's graphics to be "functional, but not too appealing", and said that it was easy to get lost due to the bland textures of the walls and the floors.

[32] Kaneko's concept of the Chaos Hero's transformation was resurrected as the main gameplay mechanic of Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga.