was designed to look compact, and the visor was designed to be wireless, to show that the game takes place in the future. Kaneko decided to not give Aleph a personality, partially because he is controlled by the player, and partially because he is portrayed as an artificial being, created by the Center's scientists. Beth and Daleth were designed to look similar to the first Shin Megami Tensei Heroine and Hero, using the colors blue and green, respectively. Lucifer was visually portrayed as an elegant gentleman, as Kaneko saw him as someone who tempts and tries the player, rather than being evil. He designed Lucifer in accordance with portrayals of him as a beautiful twelve-winged angel, but gave him six wings instead, for a total of twelve across his appearances in Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei II. Several characters were based on real people: Aleph's mentor Okamoto was named after the owner of the building Atlus occupied during the game's development; Matsumoto was named after Ito's first landlord in Tokyo; and Mekata was named after an NHK reporter. Additionally, Red Bear was named after the evil organization from the superhero film Aikoku Sentai Dainippon. Some character designs were created with the Super Famicom hardware limitations in mind: Kaneko designed three different poses for the Twelve Heavenly Generals, which were combined in various ways with graphics for different heads and held items, along with different color palettes, resulting in twelve different combinations. He thought this acceptable as the generals were a group, and were meant to look cohesive. Reception Famitsu writers appreciated the amount of freedom the player has. In their reviews of the PlayStation and the Game Boy Advance versions, they said that the gameplay still holds up. They found the demon fusion system to be excellent and fun, and did not think it felt outdated. Kurt Kalata and Cristopher J. Snelgrove of Hardcore Gaming 101 appreciated the game's lowered difficulty compared to that of the first Shin Megami Tensei. Kalata and Snelgrove did not think the game's story started "with the same pizzazz" as Shin Megami Tensei; they thought that "the amnesiac savior" is a "lame cliche", and that the idea that Western religion is evil has been worn out. They did however also say that Shin Megami Tensei II came out before these elements were overused, and that they "undoubtedly" were fresh at the time. In