As for Atlus' advertising, well, they've got me ':|
And it's not that they don't advertise, it's just that put simply, it's hard (and scary) to market a game in the West where the final boss is the judeo-christian God and Adolf Hitler is a major character.
Try Megaten online Marcus, if you're a fan. It's got everything in an SMT game, talking to demons, exploiting weaknesses and all that.
EDIT: Just read the wiki, 1999 - I guess that was still elementary school.