In an aversion of Useless Useful Spell, instant death and ailment attacks are both effective and encouraged repeatedly. Elemental affinities, buffing and debuffing are far more effective than in most JRPGs and can make or break battles. Depending on the game, there may be other options. If neither side takes their fancy, the player can even kick both sides' butts and declare themselves as supreme ruler. Thematically, the series emphasises following one's own beliefs: plots tend to revolve around the forces of Order and Chaos battling it out for supremacy, and the player is generally given complete freedom in deciding which side is 'right'. Originally based on a novel series called Digital Devil Story, the games tend to involve using technology to summon and control mythological figures from nearly every culture on the planet, as well as the end of the world, deconstructions of common RPG storylines and far-out monster designs. In Japan, it has been a direct competitor to Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy since The '80s, while in the West it only gained real popularity with Persona 3 in 2006, despite numerous localizations going all the way back to the 1990s. Shin Megami Tensei (Japanese for 'True Reincarnation of the Goddess', though it has been kept as an Untranslated Title in English releases), also known as MegaTen, is a long-running series of JRPG Dungeon Crawlers and spinoffs developed and published by Atlus.
