Shin Megami Tensei 2 is a direct sequel to the original SMT. It takes place some 20 or 30 years later. According to the "official" story, the hero in SMT1 followed the neutral path, defeated both the Asura Lord and the seraph Michael at the Cathedral, and established a neutral government where followers of both the Law and Chaos ideals could live freely. It doesn't last very long. The Mesia faith usurps power, begins expanding the old Cathedral into a new, massive, fully-functional artifical enclosed environment, code-named Millenium. The Gaians rise up, but their rebellion is quickly put down by the Mesians' elite warrior class, the Temple Knights. Meanwhile, the environment is steadily becoming more and more unlivable, and sometime after the year 2060, a massive migration to Millenium occurs. Some years later, an old, retired arena fighter named Okamoto discovers a man fighting for his life against a demon. He rescues that man, who doesn't even remember his own name, and trains him to fight in the arena so they might both go on to a better living in one of the upper-class areas of Millenium...

The gameplay has improved since SMT1. You now can now access your automap at the touch of a button, demon conversations are more complex, sword fusions are more complex, fusion errors occur, and fused demons will "inherit" spells and abilities of their "parent" demons, too. The music, in my opinion, isn't quite as good as SMT1's, although the graphics are much better. The current release has one or two minor fairly minor issues, please see the readme for complete details. It's very much complete, though!

Please note that the unhack patch will fix your game if you find yourself being boosted to level 99 instantly and don't want this. As with the main patch, apply it to a ROM without a header.