Have you ever tried to play every Shin Megami Tensei game? It's a gargantuan task, even after you've managed to wrap your head around the dizzying amount of subseries in the whole thing. After Persona, one of the best known subseries would probably be the Devil Summoner games.
Mind you, not all Devil Summoner games feature Raidou Kuzunoha. In fact, his Devil Summoner games are themselves prequels to the main Devil Summoner games, of which the Soul Hackers games are a part. It's a bit complex, even if today we only look at Raidou. Above all.
How many games does Raidou Kuzonoha appear in?
Raidou Kuzunoha's debut itself is a bit confusing. It is in Shin Megami Tensei 3, although not in the original version. Instead, his first appearance is in his own game, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army. This game is a prequel to the main Devil Summoner series, taking its name to distinguish them as an even deeper subseries. A subseries within a subseries of a larger series.
Game |
Release date |
---|---|
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army |
March 2, 2006 |
Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon |
October 23, 2008 |
Despite being such a popular character, Raidou only has two of his own games, both released within a relatively short period of each other. Neither game has even been ported to modern consoles, having been released digitally on the PS3 but nothing more. Being prequels to the main Devil Summoner games, they are ironically stuck in the past.
Does Raidou appear outside of his own game?
Raidou is such a popular character, you must have seen him somewhere else too, right? And in fact you might have because Raidou Kuzunoha has appeared in so many other places that aren't his games. In fact, he appeared more times outside of his games than in them.
Title |
Medium |
Publication |
---|---|---|
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne Maniax Chronicle Edition |
Game |
October 23, 2008 |
Devil Summoner: Souls Hackers (3DS) |
Game |
August 30, 2012 |
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. Herald of the Dead |
Novel |
October 30, 2006 |
Raidou Kuzunoha against the solitary Marebito |
Manga |
May 29, 2009 |
In the West, the only version of Shin Megami Tensei 3 released featured Dante from Devil May Cry 2. Specifically his Devil May Cry 2 design. This was actually the second release in Japan. However, a third version was also released in Japan to coincide with the release of the second dedicated Raidou game, the Chronicle edition. This replaced Dante with Raidou and also added a new ending sequence with him.
He was also added (along with his alternate reality version) in the 3DS version of Soul Hackers, where both appeared as the game's final bosses. Otherwise, he has appeared in a novel and a manga, both expanding on the events of his games. This means a total of four appearances outside of his matches.
He also makes a brief appearance in the Persona 5 manga, although that's just the author drawing them because, personally, I'm a fan of Raidou Kuzunoha.
How many appearances does Raidou have in total?
Despite his popularity as a character, Raidou has not had many appearances. More than the games it has, but still not a huge amount. In total, Raidou has appeared in four games with two appearances in the manga and novel dedicated to him. He also had an offhand mention in the English version of Persona 5 and a throwaway appearance in the Persona 5 manga, if you want to count them.
At most, there are six real apparitions and eight if you count the smaller ones similar to Easter eggs. So yeah, not many! Given how popular he is, let's hope his games get a chance to see the light of day one day soon.