They say everyone remembers their first, so as your friendly Atlus U.S.A. staffers ping-pong between packing up and recovering from E3 and getting ready for Anime Expo, I made them write about their first ATLUS game experience.
That said, I’ll start off with mine so you can see the depths of my first “I have no idea what I’m doing” experience with an ATLUS title.
My very first ATLUS title was SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked. I picked it up with no prior knowledge of SMT or Persona or fusion or anything else. I really got into it quickly, thinking “Oh cool, it’s the start of the apocalypse!” “Oh cool, I can talk to and use demons to fight!” “Awesome, I have a death number over my head!” But things quickly took a turn. Fused everything I could recklessly and with no abandon. Consequently I learned that Elementals are NOT good party members. I wasted all of my money at the Demon Auction on useless demons and then got stuck when I had a party that couldn’t win any battles and I’m pretty sure I had someone die the second day. Fortunately, those mistakes in DSO set me up for (relative) success in my second ATLUS game, Persona 3. – John H., PR Manager
My first ATLUS experience was Riviera on the GBA (circa 2005), or at least the one where I knew it was published by ATLUS. I remember being really intrigued by the battle system, and really loved gaining levels by using weapons each character had affinity with. It was also my first game where your character had a sort of affection system with the other characters, so trying to earn the endings and CGs made replaying the game a blast. Seeing all the special attacks was also very cool and satisfying. Disaresta! – Justin P., QA Tester
My first ATLUS game was probably the first Trauma Center, on the DS back in 2005. I’ve always gotten way, way too emotionally invested in random video game characters’ well-being, so buying a game based around performing volatile life-and-death operations on them is potentially one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever made. I didn’t handle “Game Overs” too well. But when I DID save them, my hand locked into an aching stylus-claw, that was one of the first times I felt really emotionally rewarded by success in a game. (Except the Savato operation. That one was pure surgical rage.) – John M., Editor
The first ATLUS game I played was probably Cubivore for the Gamecube (circa 2003). I don’t remember much about it anymore though. I think the game had paper dogs mating with other paper dogs? Something about dogs eating rocks? First game I purchased from ATLUS was Catherine. It was also my first PS3 game. On my first playthrough, I ended up with Katherine even though I was hoping for the Catherine ending. UGH. – Anonymous Female Staffer #1
We’ll get some more stories from our staff in the future, but if you’ve got a good story about your first ATLUS game experience, let us know in the comments!
Hello, So sorry im late to the party.
I saw the post and just had to sign it.
My first ever atlus game was Snowboard Kids for N64…
looking back on it now I remember Jack Frost being used alot in the game which is nice to think about.
Recently i also found a copy of Demikids for Gameboy advanced.
Also I am really looking forward to Persona 5, SMTXFE, and if i remember correctly your Involved in project with the makers of Dragon’s Crown? Very excited to see what ATLUS does in the future.
Long time fan
Alex P.
A new copy of Persona 3 Fes for $30. Been a fan ever since.
My first Atlus game was snowboard kids. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the modern DS version the original on the N64 will always hold a special place in my heart. The second Atlus game that I played was Yggdra Union.
Mine was Shin Megami Tensei imagine. I don’t remember how i first discovered it, but I could not stop playing it. Everyday I would go online and play nonstop.The game was beautifully designed. To fight alongside and against demons;to discover new and powerful magic; to travel to lands; in ruin or in beauty; in a exciting new world. Survive and learn from experiences with friends. I just LOVED this game. The one day i didn’t play it, it gets shut down. I cried so much. Even watching the game play or listen to its soundtracks brings tears to my eyes. I would give anything to bring this OMMRPG back alive. I would like to request if anyone could help me revive this game. Thank you.
My First Game was Persona 4 Golden, which was a birthday present back when I turned 18, last year. I gotten addicted on Golden since I played Persona 4
My first game published by Atlus was Hoshigami, a tactical role playing game for PsOne.
MY first ATLUS Title was Demon’s Souls but officialy SMT: imagine
My first ATLUS game would be Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers for 3DS. It took me a few months to figure out how certain things worked like moving and entering and leaving and after two years I’m still in the Astro Museum and only spent four hours on the game??? Wow. I took to P3P (288 hours) and P4G (I’m gonna say 150 hours because that feels about right with having multiple save files and all) way quicker. I’m gonna try to get through this museum’s boss. It’s been so long I don’t even remember his name.
The first Atlus game I purchased was Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. I love this game. ^_^
The first Atlus game I played was the demo for Etrian Odyssey IV.
My first ATLUS game was Persona 4. Too bad that few days after getting it i got a PS3 and lost PS2… Luckily i had PSP so i played Persona 3 Portable… So we can say P3P was really my first game from ATLUS EUROPE. Unfortunately i had same experience that John (PR one) had so my first gameplay was intergallactual tragedy. 2nd one -better. Third… well i kinda sorta wasn’t n00b anymore so i got Messiah Thanatos etc. 80-hrs of gameplay and tomorrow a I will do a New Game. DAMN IT ATLUS YOU MADE ME ADDICTED! 😀
>DAMN IT ATLUS YOU MADE ME ADDICTED!
Sorry, not sorry. 😀
Also, will Persona 5 released in Europe before half of 2016 John-sensei?
My first Atlus game was Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis for the GBA which I first found out about in Nintendo Power back in the day. I remember spending all day when it was released calling Gamestops all over town looking for a copy. That game pretty much began my love for the SRPG genre.
Jack Bros., way, way back on the Virtual Boy. Never made it to the end of the labyrinth sadly, it was a tricky game and a fragile system.
Man, Jack Bros…. NEVAR FORGET.
My first game was Persona 4 Golden. I played it this year, April-May. Before that I didn’t know much about SMT or Persona games, or Atlus. But now I like this company and want to play Persona Q, Ethrian Odyssey, maybe Lost Dimension.
Gotta start somewhere! Since you liked P4G, start with PQ to segue into the Etrian style.
If you want to jump in to Etrian, I’d recommend either IV or Untold/Untold 2 to start with. They’re all stand-alone games.
I’m sure i have a few game’s i’ve played before this one but this is the first one i remember anything about. where cards and summoning was first introduced to me. kartia: The word of fate. In fact i still own the game some where. If i could play it again i would. it’s one of those classics where i see has helped as a stepping stone to the newer games. I remember the battle system and how it played but i can’t remember the story for the life of me just little bits here and there. but i do remember how I did enjoy it.
It was almost Etrian Odyssey III when it was new, but I passed on it for Bowser’s Inside Story at the time. My first wound up being a used PS2 copy of Persona 4 back in 2012. Not a bad choice for the first Mature-rated game I could buy myself. I’ve since been cursed to always have an Atlus RPG preoccupying my gaming time.
I mean, as far as curses go, that’s not necessarily a bad one to have 😉
My first Atlus game was a little PlayStation JRPG by the name of Thousand Arms. Outside of Pokemon, it was the only game of the genre I had any experience with and, boy, was it a great one. I couldn’t tell you how we came to acquire it, but it was humorous, even fourth-wall breaking, the cheesy voice acting, and dating sim elements all really caught the attention of my sister and I. Through a house fire, I lost the game and my system, and over the years I had forgotten the name of the game, but thanks to me remembering the Atlus logo on the box and the splash screen in-game, I managed to rediscover the little gem of my past (and wish everyone else could discover it by being a PlayStation Classic). Heck, it’s even where my user name comes from, because it was my “first” journey into JRPGs.
Oh, and we didn’t have a memory card, so we had to play the beginning over and over again. Still haven’t gotten past the first disk.
Trauma Center: Second Opinion for the Wii, back in 2007. Though technically it wasn’t my first ATLUS game ever (that title probably goes to Puyo Pop Fever), it was the first time I ever cared enough about a game to remember which company got the credit for it. My patients died. Repeatedly. On Easy. I ended up beating Second Opinion long after I finished its sequels — New Blood, Under the Knife 2, and Trauma Team, in that order — before finally playing the original DS version, Under the Knife. I can XS most of the operations now, but it took an awful lot to get there… Not that I’d ever refuse if I had the chance to play a new game~ Ports of existing games count too!
Had to look up a list of all the games Atlus has developed over the decades. Never really paid attention to the branding until I got Puyo Pop Fever for the DS, which is a great game I might add. Apparently the very first Atlus developed game I played was “T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage” for the NES, which was published way back when by the infamous LJN… uh, yes well, we’ll fault LJN on that one. (o_O)
Persona 3 FES. I was watching playthroughs on Youtube, and I heard Atlus games were harder than any other JRPG out there. So, I bought the game, explored Tartarus, and eventually faced the boss on the 15th floor. Instantly wrecked my team. It took me around half an hour to finally beat it. And I still loved the game.
That was me in my first Etrian Odyssey game (EOIV). Cruising through the dungeon pretty well, managed to avoid all the FOEs, etc. “Oh hey! Boss fight! I got th” *your party has died*
My first Atlus game was Radiant Historia for the DS. I played the game an a whim after hearing very little about it and now it is In my top 5 favorite games of all time. The story was brilliant and it had an awesome time travel mechanic that actually affected the story, which I thought was really cool. The soundtrack to the game may also be one of the best ever. Radiant Historia had me checking out more from Atlus and I am pleased with every game I have played, as few as that may be, except for 2. This is also without playing the popular ones, such as SMT, Persona or Etrian Odyssey. I’m sure that after playing more games by this company, it will reign as one of my favorites but for now, Radiant Historia got me into the company, is my first Atlus game, and one of my all time favorites.
Radiant Historia was fantastic! One of the best RPGs on the DS 😀
Mine was Revelations: Persona, my brother got it for Christmas in 1997, he was a little too young to understand RPG’s at the time, so he never really played it, it was me and our mom that played it the most, it took me atleast 2 playthroughs to finally figure out you can actually talk to demons and get cards, then another playthrough to find out you can make new Persona’s that way. It’s actually one of the few games from my and my brothers childhood that still work.