My ranking of mainline and some spinoffs
Favourite gameplay: Nocturne
Favourite story: SMT II
Favourite boss: Metatron (Nocturne)
Too many good ones in Nocturne and I love SMT IV DLC bosses
Best dungeon: Amala Temple
Worst dungeon: Sealed Cave
Best setting: Tokyo Millennium
Best soundtracks: SMT IV, SJR, SMT I
Favourite mainline adaptation:
DDS: Megami Tensei 1987 OVA (shit is gold) Strange Journey Redux trailer
If only the Nocturne CD Drama translations are available, it sounds really good.
Characters
Mostly based on likeability and how well-written some characters are.
(Edit: Fucked up my chart so I uploaded a new one. Jonathan deserved to be higher tbh not behind some supports and Flynn is better than Tamaki.)
(Edit: Fuuuuuuck...tiering characters is stressful than I thought. Gave Nanashi and Flynn more credit. Honestly, I'm salty how Apocalypse made Flynn a generic hero archtype. Alright, I'm done. I'm cool with this one.)
(Edit: I am at peace)
With some characters (Chiaki, Tayama), I don't agree with their views but rate them highly due to exceptional characterisation. I don't find Walter to be a good chaos rep in fact he's the worst, I just like his personality a lot. Pre-alignment he's a superior character. SMT:if Male MC is up there solely for the manga.
Alignment/reason reps
My judgement on how well they present their ideologies, not on agreement of said beliefs. Taking background, consistency and reasoning into account. I hear the ones in Devil Survivor are good which I plan to play soon.
I'm hoping SMT V shake up things. Law and Chaos is difficult to catch on overtime. And I hate the Neutral routes in the more modern games (barring SJR), they make less sense as they go on.
SMT V looks to be law inspired so it be interesting what they have in store for us. I hope they take on the 'reasoning system' as ideologies are better defined and has more freedom of choice.