Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible II is the second game in the Last Bible series, which is a spin-off from the Megami Tensei RPG series. Last Bible II was originally released in Japan in 1993 for the original B&W Game Boy, with the Game Boy Color version coming out in 1999, some six years later. Neither version was ever officially released in the West, but there is an English fan translation for the Game Boy Color version, which is what I’m showing here.

Unsurprisingly, Last Bible II plays very similarly to the first Last Bible game (or Revelations: The Demon Slayer – the Western localization of the game), but it does have a number of significant enhancements.

Firstly, talking to monsters – and successfully persuading them – results in four options: ally with you; give you cash; give you an item, or leave without fighting, which is different to (and better than) the first game, and also ties in with other games in Megami Tensei series (for example: Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei If…). Secondly, fusing (ie. combining) monsters is done at particular locations, rather than using a specific character’s ‘combine’ spell (although some players might find this restrictive, it is in keeping with the Megami Tensei series). Thirdly, in Last Bible II your recruited monsters can actually equip weapons and armour to make them more effective in battle, which wasn’t possible in the first game. Plus you can also drop them off at training centres to increase their levels, which is another new feature.

Last Bible II does still have a few frustrating elements too. Managing inventories is still a little slow and clumsy (especially when trading items among your party), and the limited space is bothersome (for both individual inventories and recruited monsters), and you can’t save the game while inside caves, but in the grand scheme of things these are relatively minor faults.

Overall, I think that Last Bible II is a significant improvement over the first Last Bible game and is a worthwhile addition to the Megami Tensei series. The combat is absorbing and challenging, and the monster-recruiting/fusing, party-building mechanic works effectively. The game also looks significantly better than its predecessor, I think.

The GBC ROM hack, by EsperKnight (with support from Prez and translation to English by Tom), is super high quality, and is not only very legible (due to the choice of font used, and the time taken to format the text correctly), but also helps to create a coherent story this time (which was arguably not the case with the first Last Bible game). There’s also a Spanish translation of the game available to those who speak that language.

If you like JRPGs then I’d highly recommend this game. If you’re a fan of the Megami Tensei series and have not yet played Last Bible II then I’d say that it’s a must-play game.

The next Last Bible game – Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible III – was released for the Super Nintendo in 1995.

More: Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible II on Moby Games
More: Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible II on romhacking.net