WI: Shin Megami Tensei becomes popular enough to gain controversy.

Lets say the SMT series gets extremely popular and starts to gain controversy from news outlets and fundamentalists. what do you think they will say about it and what would happen to the series?

here is why it would gain controversy

1. the christian god is evil in it
2. lucifer is portrayed as sympathetic
3. Mara
4. You can summon demons
 
The ESRB might come into existence earlier, due to "mature content" and parents not wanting their kids to be "indoctrinated", etc.

I had an idea for a timeline where Sony went up against Nintendo from the NES onward, but I never did anything with it. Megami Tensei was a Sony exclusive, causing controversy but ultimately ended up causing increased sales, just like Mortal Kombat. Free publicity can't be THAT bad, right?

I can see more interest in religion and mythology due to an increased audience.
 
The ESRB might come into existence earlier, due to "mature content" and parents not wanting their kids to be "indoctrinated", etc.

I had an idea for a timeline where Sony went up against Nintendo from the NES onward, but I never did anything with it. Megami Tensei was a Sony exclusive, causing controversy but ultimately ended up causing increased sales, just like Mortal Kombat. Free publicity can't be THAT bad, right?

I can see more interest in religion and mythology due to an increased audience.
I mean nowadays. Like SMT V or SMT IV: Apocalypse sells/sold enough to gain controversy
 
Hmm...nowadays? Seems like with the ESRB and widespread availability of info and reviews a controversy would be rather small, if it exists at all.

A controversy arising would seem to indicate that a "morally concerned" group has come to power. Usually this would indicate a religion (in my experience = Christianity). Soccer moms aren't very formidable (usually), unless there's another moral panic going on?

...a sequel to the 1980s "Demonic Panic"? I would expect the same results as back then - hysteria, lawsuits, etc.
 
Hmm...nowadays? Seems like with the ESRB and widespread availability of info and reviews a controversy would be rather small, if it exists at all.

A controversy arising would seem to indicate that a "morally concerned" group has come to power. Usually this would indicate a religion (in my experience = Christianity). Soccer moms aren't very formidable (usually), unless there's another moral panic going on?

...a sequel to the 1980s "Demonic Panic"?
Mass effect gained controversy and so did pokemon. trust me Fox "News" would totally jump on the this
 
Actually bring over the SNES games to the West to build a bigger fanbase earlier. Which no one is going to do since that was the era when the Final Fantasy spell "Holy" was often changed to things like "Pearl" or "White" and if applied that level of censorship you wouldn't have a game left. The original Persona on Playstation was also highly censored IIRC, and the original Persona 2 was never released because of Hitler.

You'd have to have Final Fantasy level sales for anyone to actually pay attention and complain. The only way you'd get an SMT-related controversy is if someone kills their family/shoots up their school and it turns out they have an unhealthy fixation with "summoning demons" based on their obsession with the games. Then Jack Thompson would blame the franchise and sue Atlus the same way he did with Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar. This would probably result in increased sales for the series since Grand Theft Auto has been helped immensely over the years by all the free advertising people like Jack Thompson has given it.

Mass effect gained controversy and so did pokemon. trust me Fox "News" would totally jump on the this

Mass Effect was also a best-selling game released by a major studio (the Mass Effect trilogy has sold more than every SMT/Persona game combined), and with Pokemon, it wasn't just the games but also the very popular anime and card game.
 
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