Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) is a creepy saga of japanese videogames. It always presents mature plots, interesting characters and twisted creature design. In the game, the player usually has to fight the demons in order to survive, but also he can bargain with them to recruit them in his ranks. These creatures are often designed by the japanese artist Kazuma Kaneko. The demons come from a melting-pot of different cultures and mythologies. Japanese ghosts, mysterious Hindu deities, slavic or norrean monsters, demons from Bible…all together in the same videogame. Moreover, Kazuma Kaneko gave them a unique, eccentric and creepy design. Here I show you a list of creepy and interesting creatures from different mythologies and their visual interpretation inside Shin Megami Tensei saga. Here I gave importance to both the background of the mythological creature and the design, so for example I leave outside creatures with an amazing design but with a corny or too well known histories.
A wicked witch and the symbol of evil in Balinese Hinduism. When women that used magic held a grudge or went down the path of evil, they became this dreadful creature. She spreads plagues, causes natural disasters, curses people, and even uses evil spirits to do her bidding. The holy beast Barong that symbolizes good is her eternal rival. Even if defeated, she will come back to life, and their battle will have no end.
The draw is complex and fascinating, full of details and bright colors, typical of the Indonesian culture. There are a lot of interesting creepy details, like the white eyes, the long nails or the piece of wood between her teeth. Oh and she misses the lower half of her body.
SMT III: Nocturne
A ghost of a little girl from Indian lore. She brings sickness to children. She comes down from the mountains at night and spreads disease by casting her shadow over children, if someone will touch her shadow will become ill. A red ribbon tied around the neck protects children from her.
SMT: Strange Journey
Tree spirits living in the mountains of China. They are also believed to be demons that attack humans. They are very tall and have a face with the color of a gourd, with large teeth growing out of a giant mouth. They are also powerful, with a punch they can open holes in doors and easily break human bones.
The creature is in between comic and creepy. His long and skinny body looks unnatural. The red shoes and the watermelon head complete his weird silhouette.
SMT: Strange Journey
The dybbuk is a Jewish ghost that attaches itself to the body of a living person and inhabits the flesh. According to belief, a soul that has been unable to fulfill its function during its lifetime is given another opportunity to do so in dybbuk form. It supposedly leaves the host body once it has accomplished its goal, sometimes after being helped.
Even if the history could be nothing so innovative, the design of Kazuma Kaneko is impressive. The creature has a big and void face, dumb and creepy at the same time. The purple palette gives a unique aesthetic to this character.
Devil Summoners: Soul Hackers
A one-eyed, one-legged monster said to live deep in the mountains of Kumano, Japan. A rarely seen creature, one is more likely to see his footprints on the mountains. Believed to be a blacksmith or the ghost of one or the degraded blacksmith god, Ame no Me-Hitotsu no Kami.
In the game his appearance is a sort of creepy steampunk blacksmith… or a butcher. Behind the mask his has only one eye, and only one feet with a big iron shoe, in agreement with the mythology.
SMT: Strange Journey
In one of the Aztec creation mythos, Tlaltecuhtli is described as a sea monster who dwelled in the ocean after the fourth Great Flood, an embodiment of the raging chaos before the creation. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, in the form of serpents, tore her in half, throwing half upwards to create the sky and stars and leaving the other half to become the land of the earth. She remained alive, however, and demanded human blood.
The creature appears sick and ill. Rivers of magma flow around her body like blood from a wound, symbol of how she was made in pieces. Tubes connect several parts of her body, highlighting even more her illness.
SMT: Strange Journey
The primordial goddess of Babylonian lore. She governs the sea and gave birth to many deities with her consort Apsu, the god of fresh water. When war broke out between her and those gods, she created 11 monsters to fight with her, but they were defeated by Marduk. Her body was ripped apart and used to make the world.
Her giant purple body is full of breasts, a symbol of femininity and maternity. However the creature is even a monstrosity, with two different bodies one inside the other and full of long phallic tentacles.
SMT: Strange Journey
In Celtic mythology, a Kelpie is said to be a supernatural water horse that haunts rivers and lakes in Scotland and Ireland. Its mane is black, but its skin is said to be cold as death. It is said to lure mortals into water, specifically young children, into drowning so it can eat them. The kelpie tempts children to ride on its back, and once the victims fall for the trap, the kelpie’s skin is said to become adhesive, till the Kelpie bring them underwater to drow.
The design here is pretty straightforward and creepy, with an half-horse half-swamp thing creature, with green skin and red eyes.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
Sedna’s story begins as a beautiful princess who declines all suitors, except for a fulmar (a sea bird), who promises to take her away to his “comfortable and luxurious” palace, and she impulsively elopes with the fulmar. It turns out the “palace” was a filthy, smelly nest, and her new husband treated her like a slave. She begged her father to bring her back home, and he did. Yet as they were heading back, a flock of fulmars were rocking the boat they were in. Fearing for his life, the father threw Sedna off the boat, and cut off her fingers and hands when she tried to climb back on. As she sank to the seabed, her mutilated appendages grew into fish, seals, whales, and all of the other sea mammals.
She descended and eventually ruled over Adlivum, the Land of the Dead, and as the Queen, she is responsible for the flow of food, and to make sure the flow doesn’t stop, Inuit shamans descend down to Adlivum to soothe her pain. She is a terrifying one-eyed goddess and lives in a house made of stone and whale bones. However, only shamans can see it.
Her design is pretty simple, but she is surrounded by a sadness that totally fit with her dramatic history.
SMT: Devil Summoner
He pours milk in people’s eyes in order to make them fall asleep. He carries two umbrellas: one covered in happy drawings and one plain. He opens the first one above good children in order to give them pleasant dreams and the plain one above bad children so they won’t dream of anything. Rougaie/Lukøje means “being who closes eyes”.
This little white dwarf is seriously creepy, especially the evil smile and the bloody eyes. In the game he is even addressed by one of the characters in a really macabre way: “If you don’t quiet down, the dwarf Lukoje will come and blind you”.
Devil Summoners: Soul Hackers
A rakshasa is a demon or unrighteous spirit in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. Rakshasas are also called cannibals.
According to the Ramayana, rakshasas were created from Brahma’s foot. Rakshasas are notorious for disturbing sacrifices, desecrating graves, harassing priests, possessing human beings, and so on. Their fingernails are venomous, and they feed on human flesh and spoiled food. They are shapeshifters, illusionists and magicians. Ravana is said to be the king of rakshasas.
The design of Kazuma Kaneko is unique and inspired. This skinny ghoulish figure is enough creepy by itself, but the giant mouth that continues all over the body, fused with the skeleton, it is simply amazing in its creepiness. Moreover, in the game he attacks the player enlarging his ribs.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
In Aztec mythology, a tzitzimitl is a deity associated with stars. They were depicted as skeletal female figures wearing skirts often with skull and crossbone designs. Goddesses of night and fear. They constantly attack the sun and cause solar eclipses, during this moment of cosmos instability they can wander the Earth devouring humans. They demand a sacrifice once every 52 years.
Simply amazing. The hair transforming in hands, the face like a porcelain mask and the raincoat hiding the universe, everything in her design is unique and perfect. A masterpiece of Kazuma Kaneko.
Devil Survivor II
In Japanese folklore, when people die, they must cross the Sanzu River to reach the afterlife. Datsue-Ba sits on the edge of this river and tears off the clothes of the dead as they arrive. She then hangs them on a tree to measure the weight of their sins. How far the tree bends determines where they are allowed to cross the river.
A skinny old woman totally cover in white hair and clothes. Only a giant creepy smile appears from all the whiteness.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
A Mother Earth goddess of Japanese mythology, she gave birth to the islands with her consort Izanagi. She mothered many gods, but she died of burns birthing the fire god Hinokagutsuchi. Izanagi traveled to Yomi no Kuni to bring her back to the land of the living, but because she ate the food of Yomi, she was no longer able to return. When Izanagi lit a torch and saw her rotting body covered with maggots, he ran in fear. Afterwards, Izanami became the goddess of the dead, Yomotsu-Okami.
Her true boy is hidden behind a straitjacket: a burned skeletal figure with many arms. The design pass from majestic to creepy as she reveals her true nature, the body she is ashamed of, the one that made her husband ran away.
The embodiment of evil itself. It is said that he controls people via lust and fear of death and ruins their bodies. He tempts and corrupts the pure, and appeared before Buddha when he was meditating. The most common story depicts Mara using his beautiful daughters in an attempt to tempt the Buddha; he later marched his demonic army to scare him, however this ended in failure for Mara. He is said to sit atop at the Sixth Heaven of the Desire Realm that includes the mortal world, and is said to be both that which ensnares souls in Samsara by deceiving them with promises of happiness in the Desire Realms, and who is the ultimate obstacle of any who desire to achieve enlightenment into nirvana.
Well… what to say about his design. He is a demon of luxury and sexual temptation, so his design is pretty explicit. Yes, incredibly Mara arrived without censorship in any country.
SMT II
I would like to thank https://megamitensei.fandom.com/ for providing lot of info. Who is your favorite or the most interesting monster?
Surreal and Creepy 