i recently reviewed shin megami tensei v: vengeance for polygon. the first thing i did before sinking dozens of hours into the roleplaying game was look up the protagonist’s official name. turns out, he doesn’t really have one, but in a certain way, also kinda does. bear with me.
a lot of megami tensei fans apparently find themselves in the same boat whenever developer atlus launches a new game in the franchise. i can’t speak to everyone else’s prerogatives, but personally, i do this to ensure my protag has an appropriate name for the japanese setting rather than making up something japanese-sounding or simply using my own.
official names rarely come from the games themselves. rather, players have taken to appropriating them from adaptations. most well-known for this is the silver-haired hero of persona 4, who had three “official” names before atlus settled on yu narukami (his name in the persona 4 anime) for persona 4 arena and all subsequent appearances. before this, he was also known as souji seta and hayato asakawa, which come from the persona 4 manga and stage play respectively. i always liked the former, mainly because i’m a weirdo that always needs to be contradictory, but i don’t make the rules.
back to shin megami tensei v: vengeance. the main character is mostly referred to as “the nahobino” throughout the game as no matter what you name him due to his fusing with an artificial proto-fiend known as aogami. you and the nahobino soon learn that nahobino is actually the word for the original form of all the world’s gods before they were stripped of knowledge by the christian god to permanently cement his status as the ruler of the universe. humans became inextricably linked with this knowledge after adam and eve ate the fruit in the garden of eden, and thus the only way for gods to return to nahobino status is by merging with the specific human that holds their knowledge.
lore aside, this is pretty standard for megami tensei games. they ask you to come up with your own name for the main character and cutscenes awkwardly work around whatever you choose by having other characters use generic terms when speaking to you or adding deliberate pauses where the name appears in the text dialogue. aogami, for example, always begins conversations with the nahobino (at least when you choose japanese voices in the options) by calling him “shounen,” or roughly “young man,” which layers some subtle personality into their interactions. but seeing as shin megami tensei v nor the vengeance follow-up have adaptations, fans have been left without an official name for almost three years.
or so we thought. turns out, developer dean debono discovered the name kei amemura while messing around with shin megami tensei v’s code around the time of its launch in 2021. this was only recently brought to my attention thanks to a youtuber named faz, who hacked the game to skip the early-game naming sequence and force it to assign a default name.
the name’s origins, however, are still unknown. no one listed in the shin megami tensei v credits is named kei amemura (the closest i could find is a kei nakajima on the field design team), and it doesn’t even appear in the japanese version of the game, where the nahobino’s default name is “shujinko,” or “main character.” and, as far as i can tell, kei amemura has never been mentioned by atlus nor appeared in any official shin megami tensei v assets. my best guess is that someone on the quality assurance team came up with a random name. that said, it’s the closest thing we have to something official, and as such, kei amemura is the name i used for both of my shin megami tensei v: vengeance playthroughs. it felt right.
if you’re curious, here are all the official names for every megami tensei protagonist in games that ask you to name them, provided they have one:
digital devil story: megami tensei ii (famicom, 1990)
- protagonist – hideto, from the manual, or takuma, from the messiah project 2036 choose your own adventure book
- female friend – rosanna, from the manual, or asuka, from the messiah project 2036 choose your own adventure book
- male friend – senda, from the manual, or ryu, from the messiah project 2036 choose your own adventure book
shin megami tensei (super famicom, 1992)
- protagonist – sho, from the final story novel; kazuya, from the steven report guidebook; or futsuo, from kazuma kaneko complete illustration works artbook
- heroine – aoi, from the final story novel; yuka, from the steven report guidebook; maki takahara, from the crimson night tabletop novel; or futsuko, from kazuma kaneko complete illustration works artbook
- chaos hero – tetsuo, from the final story novel; takeshi, from the steven report guidebook; or waruo, from kazuma kaneko complete illustration works artbook
- law hero – toshiki, from the final story novel; yuji, from the steven report guidebook; or yoshio, from kazuma kaneko complete illustration works artbook
megami tensei gaiden: last bible (game boy color, 1992)
- protagonist – el, default name
- male ally – kishe, default name
- female ally – uranus, default name
majin tensei (super famicom, 1994)
- protagonist – atsuya tsuzuki, from the manga
- heroine – mio, from the manga
shin megami tensei ii (super famicom, 1994)
- protagonist – aleph, default name
- male ally – zayin, default name
- female ally – hiroko, default name
shin megami tensei if… (super famicom, 1994)
- protagonist (female) – tamaki uchida, from megami ibunroku persona
- protagonist (male) – nobu akiyama, from the manga, or jin aoki, from the novel
majin tensei 2: spiral nemesis (super famicom, 1995)
- protagonist – naoki takeuchi, default name
- male ally – tomoharu kikuchi, default name
- male ally 2 – kaoru tachibana, default name
- female ally – aya kikuchi, default name
- law/chaos ally – karen rose, default name
last bible iii (super famicom, 1995)
- protagonist – ciel, default name
another bible (game boy, 1995)
- protagonist – cassiel, default name
- heroine – pythia, default name
shin megami tensei: devil summoner (sega saturn, 1995)
- protagonist – jouhei, from the requiem of the soul novel, or jun’ya echi, from the sealed soul novel
megami ibunroku persona (playstation, 1996)
- protagonist – naoya toudou, from the manga; yuuya narumi, from audio drama; or jihei suzakuin, from the novel
devil summoner: soul hackers (sega saturn, 1997)
- protagonist – keiji minegishi, from the nightmare of the butterfly novel; arata tsukumoto, from the manga; or kenji semino, from the shito kourin novel
persona 2: innocent sin (playstation, 1999)
- protagonist – tatsuya suou, default name
devil children black book / devil children red book (game boy color, 2000)
- black book protagonist – setsuna, default name
- red book protagonist – mirai, default name
devil children white book (game boy color, 2001)
- protagonist – masaki, default name
demikids light version / demikids dark version (game boy advance, 2002)
- light version protagonist – jin, default name
- dark version protagonist – akira, default name
shin megami tensei nine (xbox, 2002)
- protagonist – kei azuma, default name
shin megami tensei iii: nocturne (playstation 2, 2003)
- protagonist (demi-fiend) – naoki kashima, from the audio drama, or shin managi, from the light novel
- the maiden – yuko takao, default name
devil summoner: raidou kuzunoha vs. the soulless army (playstation 2, 2006)
- protagonist (raidou kuzunoha xiv) – jouhei, from the messenger of the dead novel
persona 3 (playstation 2, 2006)
- protagonist – makoto yuki, from the movie and the default name in the 2023 remake, or minato arisato, from the manga
persona 4 (playstation 2, 2008)
- protagonist – yu narukami, from the anime and the default name in the 2020 steam port of persona 4 golden; souji seta, from the manga; or hayato asakawa, from the stage play
devil summoner 2: raidou kuzunoha vs. king abaddon (playstation 2, 2008)
- protagonist (raidou kuzunoha xiv) – jouhei, from the messenger of the dead novel
shin megami tensei: devil survivor (nintendo ds, 2009)
- protagonist – kazuya minegishi, from the manga
shin megami tensei: strange journey (nintendo ds, 2009)
- protagonist – tadano hitonari, from the audio drama and japanese promotional materials, or langdon alger, from english promotional materials
persona 3 portable (playstation portable, 2009)
- male protagonist – makoto yuki, from the movie and the default name in the 2023 remake, or minato arisato, from the manga
- female protagonist – kotone shiomi, from the stage play and the default name in the 2023 remake
shin megami tensei: devil survivor 2 (nintendo ds, 2011)
- protagonist – hiro kageyama, from the show your free will manga; hibiki kuze, from the manga and anime; shutaro segawa, from the pachislot game; or shutaro atora, from a promotional demo screenshot
shin megami tensei iv (nintendo 3ds, 2013)
- protagonist – flynn, default name
shin megami tensei iv: apocalypse (nintendo 3ds, 2016)
- protagonist – nanashi, default name
persona 5 (playstation 3 / playstation 4, 2016)
- protagonist – ren amamiya, from the mementos mission manga, the anime, and the default name in the 2023 re-release of persona 5 royal; akira kurusu, from the manga; or mao tomokawa, hinato ashida, izumi urata, et al from the group of fan-voted names used in the stage play
tell them i died 