Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei — stories left

Arrangements of 3 tracks, "Hellfire", "Bloody Sabbath" and "Recollection", were included on the flexi disc supplement of the 11/1987 issue of the game magazine Beep.

Okada later stated that demon negotiation was decided upon from an early stage.

In an article about the game in 1991, Family Computer Magazine called it a "revolutionary RPG", praising its gameplay and atmosphere despite the design making it easy for players to get lost.

Snelgrove of Hardcore Gaming 101 stated that it was "surprising how in depth the monster catching and fusing elements are given the game's age", praising its mechanics despite the age and high difficulty curve.

While no specific sales figures are available, Okada said that the game was a commercial success, allowing Atlus breathing room to consider where to next take the series.

It is the No. 1 title in the Megami Tensei series produced by Atlas, the developer of this work, and is based on the novel Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (Tokuma Shoten, 1986, written by Aya Nishitani).

In the "Cross Review" of the game magazine Famitsu it received 8, 8, 8 and 7 for a total of 31 out of 40, earning a place in the Silver Hall of Fame, and reviewers rated its innovativeness positively, saying that "the idea of drawing demons in as allies and then fusing those demons with each other to gain stronger demons as allies is, to put it plainly, new".

In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by the magazine Family Computer Magazine,it scored 24.40 out of 30, as shown below.

1 of the 6 commercials in Namco's series of advertisements using Yoshimoto Kogyo comedians, which began with Sanma no Meitantei (1987).

It is a sequel that follows on from the commercial for Dragon Slayer IV (1987), likewise released by Namco 2 months earlier, whose content was that everyone falls into a state of panic while answering the stream of telephone enquiries asking for hints and the like because the game itself was so difficult.

Snelgrove of Hardcore Gaming 101 stated that it was "surprising how in depth the monster catching and fusing elements are given the game's age", praising its mechanics despite the age and high difficulty curve.

Suzuki later commented that it was only because they were working with Namco that the game was ever released, due to its mature character designs and heavy use of religion in the narrative.

In a 2012 feature on influential games, Game Informers Kimberley Wallace attributed Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei with pioneering the monster collecting gameplay popularized by the Pokémon series.