The Devil Summoner series began originally on the Sega Saturn as a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei games with the debut title Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner^[J]. It has since spawned various sequels and appendix discs - originally with a game titled Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, also originally for the Saturn, and most recently with the Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou games for Playstation 2. The Devil Summoner games are, for the most part, period-pieces often set in contemporary, historic or futuristic locales, but always within Japan. One of the main recurring elements of the series is the existence of the Kuzunoha Detective Agency, an organization dedicated to the investigation of demon activity in the mortal world.

The Devil Summoner series features many of the same conceits as the main Shin Megami Tensei games from which they are based, with slight alterations and additions as well as more than a few artistic flourishes. For instance the Jakyou mansion is replaced by the Goumaden ('Devil Conquering Office') curated by an attenuated and palid figure simply called, "Victor." Demon partners are stored via various external devices that are, with the exception of the Raidou games, computerized.

The themes represented in Devil Summoner titles have a pointedly less philosophical bent. They're essentially detective stories, often calling upon the player to solve mysteries within the games' storylines as opposed to the resolution of moral and ethical dilemmas like those portrayed in the core Shin Megami Tensei games.

The gameplay in the series seems to shift with the system of release. Whereas Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers feature turn-based combat, the new Raidou games have a more "action RPG,"-style approach to battles where you are pitted against your enemies within a 3D field.

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Further Reading