Which series, in your opinion, is the better of the two? Both are known for being sacrilicious and very good, underrated RPG series...

Shadow Hearts (and its prequel, Koudelka) was developed by Aruze in 2001, and released early in the PS2's lifespan, followed by two sequels (Covenant and From the New World)... however, it did not sell very well in North America and now is a hard to find series. I first played it years ago, but didn't reacquire it until recently (I got lucky on eBay and got both Covenant and From the New World for around $38 together... never owned either of those until recently)... still hoping for a re-release on PSN and perhaps Xbox Live, or perhaps a Shadow Hearts IV

Shin Megami Tensei has been running since the 1980s on the Famicom (the first two Megami Tensei games were published by Namco and sadly do not have a fan translation as of yet), but didn't see a North American release until the first Persona game on the PS1 (which was heavily butchered and Americanized in translation); since then, many SMT games have been released in North America (the first to use the "Shin Megami Tensei" title was Nocturne in 2003), and has become quite popular in recent years (with games like Persona 3 and 4 selling many copies)... (although I'm disappointed that 3DS Persona game got cancelled :/ At least we're getting a Devil Summoner game )

It's a close race for me, but I'm going with the underdog and voting for Shadow Hearts, since it's more obscure and not as well-known as Shin Megami Tensei