Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible is a handheld RPG that was developed by Multimedia Intelligence Transfer and initially published by Atlus for the original black and white Game Boy, in Japan only, in 1992. The Game Gear version was developed by Sega and was first released in 1994 – once again: in Japan only. A fan translation into English was released in 2019, which made the Game Gear version finally playable to Westerners. Which is great because the Game Gear port is the best version of the game available. Let me explain…

This is a little complicated, but I’ll try to explain as clearly as possible… Last Bible is part of the Megami Tensei series – a relatively large and sprawling series of JRPGs that feature fantasy stories about humans and demons, turn-based combat, religious motifs and magic (a combination that is somewhat sensitive to censorious software company executives, so much so that many games in the series were never officially translated into English nor released in the West). Last Bible, however, was given an English translation and released in North America under the title of Revelations: The Demon Slayer, but only on the Game Boy Color. So this is a game that originated on the black and white Game Boy in Japan and was translated into English for a GBC release in the West. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the translated ‘Revelations‘ GBC port had a number of issues. The female starting character had been changed to a male character in the localized game, and other characters had been changed too. The translation was also considered to be poor. And, to top it all off, the colourization of the graphics was garish and unappealing. The Sega Game Gear version, however, is considered to be a much better version of the game, with improved graphics; the original female starting character, and better mechanics and timings. The only problem was that the Game Gear version was only ever released in Japan and was never released in the West. So the 2019 fan translation was much anticipated, and it proved to be a huge improvement over the official Revelations: The Demon Slayer release on the GBC. Needless to say, this is the version you should play if you want a visually more appealing and more authentic experience of this first Last Bible game.

Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible is a traditional fantasy, party-based JRPG with overhead, scrolling exploration and random, turn-based combat. You choose your actions via a menu system that allows the equipping of weapons and armour, magic spell use, viewing of character stats, saving, and more.

As is usual in Megami Tensei games you not only get to fight monsters, but you can also talk to them to try to recruit them into your party. Plus, you can combine monsters to make new ones. And the game also has other cool features like monsters walking away from battle if you have one of their own kind in your party. And one thing I’ve always liked about the Megami Tensei series is that the monsters are always very bizarre-looking and occasionally even unsettling.

One thing I did notice – that was a real problem – was that when you succeed in recruiting a monster, and your roster is full, you lose the new monster without the game giving you the option of keeping it and getting rid of one you already have. Which is a feature that’s in the Game Boy Color version but missing from this… I found this highly annoying, and the only way to get around it was with quicksaves in an emulator. On real hardware: you’re stuffed if you don’t remember to make space for new recruits. The omission of this ‘replace’ feature was a serious mistake for both Sega (who developed this version of the game), and also the creator of the 2019 ROM hack (because they should’ve noticed that it was a feature in the GBC version and included it in their patch).

Regardless: personally, I’ve enjoyed every Megami Tensei game I’ve played – plus all the spin-offs (like Revelations: Persona and Devil Survivor) – and this is no exception. Recruiting monsters to become your party members is an interesting twist on the JRPG formula, and the turn-based combat system is well thought-out and absorbing to play. Add to that the fact that the fan translation is of a very high quality, and you have here what is arguably one of the best level-grinders on the Game Gear.

A direct sequel, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible II, was released for the original Game Boy in 1993, and the Game Boy Color in 1999, but unfortunately it was never released for the Game Gear.

More: Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible on Wikipedia
More: Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible on romhacking.net