Japanese media outlet Encount recently interviewed Kazunari Suzuki, one of the developers behind Atlus’ hit Megami Tensei series. Suzuki was involved in the creation and development of most of the series’ earlier entries, including Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, its first installment. He is credited as one of the inventors of the “fusion,” and “negotiation” systems, which later went on to become the flagship gameplay elements of the franchise.
Talking to Encount, Suzuki reveals that the idea for the “negotiation” system came from his frustration towards a Dungeons & Dragons session he experienced back in the day. Specifically, the developer was stumped by how players are expected to treat goblins in the game.
“It never made sense to me why you can’t speak to the goblins. […] Goblins are also sentient creatures, right? They have a language, and form societies. But if you run into them inside of a dungeon, there is no room for negotiation – you have no option but to kill them. I really hated that,” Suzuki explains.
Of course, while Dungeons & Dragons is extremely flexible when it comes to playstyle (homebrew rules have been a thing since way back), it seems like Suzuki’s encounter with a strictly “by the book” Dungeon Master was the push he needed to come up with Megami Tensei’s negotiation system.
“After asking the Dungeon Master to let me speak to the goblins, they read the rulebook and told me, it’s not in the rules so you can’t do it. So I thought, then make up the rules yourself. Those feelings were where Megami Tensei’s negotiation system came from.”
Instead of thinking of the enemies as mere obstacles, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei was one of the first RPGs at the time which allowed the player to negotiate and turn them into allies. However, while the game’s director praised the concept when it was pitched to him by Suzuki, he still called it “a bit weak” to be released on its own.
This prompted Suzuki to come up with the idea for the “fusion” system to go along with it. Apparently, the system was heavily inspired by the Devilman manga, which Suzuki has been a fan of ever since elementary school. These two mechanics went on to become a staple in the Megami Tensei lineage of games and its subsequent spin-offs like Atlus’ highly acclaimed Persona series.
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