Devil Children

Source: Hideaki Fujii

A brief multi-media project founded in response to Persona 2's struggle to find an audience.

The project was initially intended to bring forward a new vision of Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II's adventures in the world of Makai, embellished with Shin Megami Tensei's interpretations of the Book of Genesis, Lilith, and Lucifer.

Black Book and Red Book, the first pair of games, were devised by a planner with a background in magical girl works. Its world view abandoned the traditional self-insert teenaged silent protagonists for voice actor-backed boisterous kids loosely based on Holy Scripture figures

Featuring one of the largest rosters of demons designed by Famitsu artist Waka Maeda with deep cuts across world religions. Maeda was known professionally through the 90s as the 4-koma gag mangaka Nagisa Akechi (明智渚, aka 渚のしっぽ for Final Fantasy III, or 夢屋 for Mega Man). Her work for this game was inspired by the cuter designs of the original Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei for the Famicom.

The hope was to build a new franchise more appropriate for folks raised on Pokémon.

It spawned a small series of Game Boy games, a well regarded manga described as "Shonen Berserk", a trading card game for all ages, and two anime that were clearly made for younger viewers.