Shin Megami Tensei If... is a RPG that was developed as a change from previous Shin Megami Tensei titles, focusing on a small-scale environment and threat rather than a large-scale environment as in previous titles.

The story is about Hazama, a poor and abused boy who goes to Karukozaka High School. In order to get vengeance on his peers, he performs a ceremony in the gym that transports his high school into Makai, the netherworld, where he has somehow become powerful enough to become the Demon God Emperor.