 Shin Megami Tensei : Devil Summoner is the first entry in the Devil Summoner series , which forms part of the larger Megami Tensei series : as with other entries , its narrative takes the form of a modern @-@ day detective story as opposed to the series ' more prevalent post @-@ apocalyptic settings . The concept for Devil Summoner originated during the development of Shin Megami Tensei II and Shin Megami Tensei If ... for the Super Famicom . During the development of II , series producer Kouji Okada considered creating a more imposing sequel , but instead created If ... as a smaller @-@ scale spin @-@ off title . The positive reaction to If ... gave Okada the freedom to realize long @-@ held concepts for a " parallel world " as an extension of the original concept for If .... <unk> was the game 's director , while the script was written by regular Megami Tensei writer Ryutaro Ito . The story and atmosphere drew on themes from detective fiction , particularly the melancholic and hardboiled fiction of Raymond Chandler . One of Ito 's favorite pieces of dialogue was the opening segment , where the protagonist is dragged about by Kumiko on her errands , during which the protagonist 's personality is determined by the player . The name of the game 's setting , Hirasaki City , was constructed using kanji taken from the names of places in Kanagawa Prefecture . The city 's name also served as a reference to Heijo City , a location in Patriotic Squadron Dai @-@ Nippon . 
