Devil Children / DemiKids

When Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne came out in America, both gamers and journalists were quick to label it as "Pokémon in hell". While this isn't a totally inaccurate conclusion, longtime fans were quick to point out that Megami Tensei did the whole monster collection thing long before Nintendo got their greedy hands on the idea. Atlus, seeing the potential of the untapped children's market, decided to return the favor. Thus was born Devil Children, a junior version of Shin Megami Tensei, starring kids and cutesy little monsters as their companions.

"Red Book" and "Black Book" are the first games in the series, released for the Game Boy Color. Unlike the Pokémon games, where each version only differs in the monsters you find, "Red Book" and "Black Book" are two completely separate games, featuring two distinct protagonists, although the plots do intertwine. A third one, "White Book" was later released as a sequel, and once again takes place in the same world, with an entirely new main character.

All of the main characters are "Devil Children" - that is half breeds who are part demon, part human. All of their adventures take them from their lives in modern Japan to the realm of the Makai. Early in the game, they get some weaponry (seeing little kids wield cutesy guns is oddly disturbing) and a companion monster to guide them. These creatures speak human language and yammer quite a bit, making Devil Children feel closer to Digimon than Pokémon (don't ask me how I know the difference.)

Mirai

The heroine of the Red Book. Her father is missing somewhere in the Makai. Her companion is a pink little bird named Veil.

Setsuna

The hero of the Black Book. His little brother is kidnapped and taken to the demon world by an army of tiny Jack Frosts. His partner is a mini Cerebus named Cool.

Masaki

The hero of the White Book. His life is intertwined with a quiet boy named Takaharu. Looks similar to a chibi version of the hero from the original Shin Megami Tensei games. His pet is a green tiger thing named Cray.

Since the game is aimed at kids, Devil Children is a bit more simplistic than the average Megami Tensei title. Your human character never fights at all - rather, he/she sits back and lets their monsters duel, two at a time. Whenever one of your combatants is killed, another is brought into the fray immediately. Only the human character gains experience, so the only real way to make your monsters stronger is by fusing them together. As usual, you recruit new monsters by conversing, although monsters tend to respond mostly by chance. Despite its relative simplicity in the grand scheme of the series, it's still more in depth than Pokémon, and it still poses a bit of a challenge.

Devil Children has thrived almost entirely on portables, carrying on the torch after the rather cut-and-dry Last Bible series. However, "Red Book" and "Black Book" were bundled together and ported to the PlayStation in 2002 ("White Book" is nowhere to be seen.) The terrible Game Boy Color graphics were "upgraded", in the sense that they now look like a subpar Super Famicom RPG, and the music hasn't improved much either. The expanded space does allow for a short anime intro, and bunch of spoken dialogue.

The Game Boy Advance sequel to Devil Children, released as Demikids in North America, maintains most of the same gameplay conventions of its predecessors, while spicing it up with much better graphics. The game begins with the kids stumble upon a book in the school library which can summon demons. Naturally, this gets them into trouble, but things worsen when time rifts start opening up around town. Apparently, these little portals are causing the fabric of space and time to collapse. After being notified that our heroes are half-demon, half-human, and posses the usual super powers, they split paths into different worlds to help stop the universe from being destroyed. Much like its predecessors, there are two version: Light and Dark. This might seem like a player is choosing between the "good" and "bad" side, but that's not quite the case. However, the Dark version is a bit harder.

Jin

The hero of the Light Version, Jin is initially sucked into Valhalla, where he fights alongside the rebels against the evil Imperium forces. His pet is a little "Sun Wolf" named Rand.

Akira

The hero of the Dark Version, Akira is summoned by Lucifer himself into the land of Dem, where he's put in charge of nullifying those nasty portals. His pet is a dragon named Gale.

Amy

The new girl in school, Amy seems to know a lot about demon summoning. She actually hails from the world of Valhalla, where humans live under the rule of demons.

The only major upgrade from the Game Boy Color games is the ability to have more party members and enemies in battle at the same time. The games were mostly shunned when it came out, and while it's not in the same realm as Golden Sun, both games are relatively decent for being fairly conventional RPGs.