Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor was the first game released on the Nintendo DS by Atlus for the Shin Megami Tensei series. It takes the primary concepts of the other games in the Shin Megami Tensei series such as the demons and the COMP devices, however it merges it with a Tokyo Survival storyline with others also having access to the demons, thus ensuring both a dramatic and complicated storyline, which is to be expected from a game in this series. Please read on for my full review of this game!
In the summer of your second year in high school, your cousin Naoya calls you out into the bustling streets of Tokyo. You go with your friends Atsuro and Yuzu to meet him, but he never appears. The only thing that hints at his disappearance is a portable Communication Player (COMP).
Before long, the area inside the Yamanote Line is locked down, and demons are roaming the streets. As if knowing in advance the extraordinary events to come, the COMP’s screen prints the following words:
Let’s Survive
As the storyline states, you, the self-named silent protagonist, a trait which has been covered in most SMT games is trapped within the Yamanote line in Tokyo, which means that the humans that currently located in the area are trapped with the demons, neither party having much option of escaping. The game covers a week, in which your party unlock the summoning powers of your COMPs and attempt to both survive, protect the people within and escape the area. The storyline starts of quickly, with the characters being introduced and plunged into its storyline.
As the story progresses, you slowly add party members who both shuffle in and out, and some being added only if you fulfill certain criteria that would otherwise render them enemies or dead. Essentially, for the first few days it will essentially be you, Atsuro and Yuzu, and by day three you are slowly adding members in. The storyline branches depending on who you interact with during the daytime as for the most part, when you are not battling, you are socializing with the various characters to either learn about their history, progress the storyline or to do a mixture of the two. It is generally made so that you are not able to interact with everyone in one playthrough, thus encouraging multiple playthroughs.
Depending on the social options you choose within the game, you can end up taking one of five different endings, which all lead to a similar final battle (Except for one) however the events undertaken in the final day will have varying difficulty, storyline and different characters to interact with, up to the point where new character can join your party whilst others may leave the party, never to return. The storyline paths that you can take are significantly different enough so you do not think of it as the same storyline for every playthrough.
There are other storyline concepts that make the game unique and interesting. As seen at the start of the main story, numbers will appear above every characters head, both player and non-player characters. This is refered to as a death clock, which shows theoretically how many days the person has to live until they inevitably die. This gives you a valuable hint to what events you may need to take in order to save that person, so if a character has a death clock of 0 and you want to avoid the optional fight, you may just find that character gone from the playthough. Another interesting concept is the Laplace mail system, which tells you what events are going to happen during the day. An example from day 0 is:
Good morning.
Here is today’s NEWS.
(1) At around 16:00, a man will be killed in a Shibuya-ku Aoyama apartment. The wounds on the corpse are consistent with an attack by a large carnivorous beast.
et cetera, et cetera.
Have a nice day.
These provide a list of events that you must attend in order to survive the 7 days of trials ahead of the characters. Of course, these do not spoil the storyline in any way and the reasoning’s behind the attacks are not revealed. Overall through, I am impressed with the new systems and using what has been done well in previous Shin Megami Tensei games, to work well in this one.
Since the DS is not a console which I have much experience in, with my only owning half a dozen games for the console in total, I cannot give an accurate representation of the graphics in comparison to the consoles compatibilities, but I would have to say they are good in my opinion. The Shin Megami Tensei series has never been about graphical superpower, which other RPG series rely on to get the sales, but this series instead lies on the core gameplay mechanisms and using the resources properly to provide a rewarding experience to all. The character designs consist of both a battle sprite to navigate the battle world, and a character portrait used in the cutscenes. Both of these are of decent quality, and I like how they allow the main character to show emotion, even if he cannot talk.
Demon designs also have a roll in the game, however are only primarily used in the purchase, identification and fusion of the demons to differentiate them from another. They are still of a decent quality and they all remain true to their proper Shin Megami Tensei counterparts from the other series. Level designs are also decent, with each location in the area having a different appearance, often with different means of preventing you easy access to the enemies. In relation to the interface, , the game menus all take place in the COMP, which in this game appears as a modified Nintendo DS in appearance with a red and black motif and overall just appearing like it belonged in the game.
Opening Theme / Game Trailer
The opening song of the game is titled Reset, which can be heard in the opening/trailer link above. The song is pretty much enjoyable however in comparison to other opening songs from recent Shin Megami Tensei games, it seems relatively short on lyrics, however the tune is good and it is enjoyable over multiple listens. The other music within the game is a variety, ranging from the really good themes, to the ones which you get sick of hearing after the first few listens, but the most common ones are all decent and don’t get annoying too fast. The one minor flaw with this game is that there is no voice acting at all within the game. This is good if you do happen to loathe most english voice acting, however it would have been nice in my opinion to have even a little bit of vocals.
Video demonstration of the battle process.
The battles within the game take a bit of a different direction of most, opting to utilize both the RPG and tactical elements to merge the two into one battle system. The primary movement takes place in the tactical elements where you move your characters around the area in order to get within attacking range of the demons/enemies. Once you are able to attack, you are plunged into the RPG system where you plus up to two demons battle it out to reduce the leaders HP to 0.
The catch is, that it is possible for the enemy or party member to prevent being killed through racial traits which allow extra movement or battle attempts, divert damage to a team member or increase the area in which you may attack. It does get trickier further into the game where team bonuses can cause enemies to have immunity to damage >50, which is a large pain in the backside unless dealt with. Depending on who you send to defeat the enemies, you can allow them to skill break other demons, which in turn, if defeated by the character you assigned, they can learn one of their skills. Personally, I chose to send all party members after one skill, but for those who plan well, up to 4 skills can be earned each battle, which can be assigned to a party member of your choosing. There are only four stat categories in the game which are strength, magic, vitality and agility and skill usage depends on your levels in them.
Video demonstration of the auction system.
At the beginning of the game you are given three demons, one for each of the main characters, and that is it. The only way to gain more is to utilize the ingame auction system, where you can use Macca, a currency which you earn by defeating demons. The bidding system sets you up against three other biddders, and in true auctioneering style, you must take part in a rapid outbidding contest. This is the best way to recruit demons, but it does not stock rare or monsters with their full potential unlocked, thus the use of the Cathedral of Shadows which allows you to merge two or more demons into a more powerful one, with merged skills. There are a number of variables that affect the flow of battle so being well prepared is the first step to success.
A video example of the interaction system
Besides battling, socialising is the second key element to getting the story that you want. You are given half an hour slots to move around Tokyo and interact with other people shown on a list. The interactions you have are often just for different responses and to change your personality, however some are important in unlocking social events which may lead on to different endings or battles.
In terms of replayability, this game allows New Game + and has multiple endings. The difficulty I would say is significantly harder then most RPG’s I have played and allows multiple strategies for success, as well as failure. The number of endings seem to be well worth the playthrough provided you don’t accidentally end up on the same one. One small thing that really annoyed me at the start of the game, and it is so minor I won’t deduct marks for it, is the hero name insert, there are very few letter slots for you to use in both first name and surname, so I had to shorten my surname to include it in the game. Of course, they are only referred to by surname once or twice so it is no biggie overall.
If you are both an RPG fan and an owner of a DS, then you would be silly not to get this game as it is the best RPG game I have played on the console by far (Okay, I only have half a dozen games). It shows that regardless of the console, the Shin Megami series can be done in a correct way that does not scream “Money Making!”.
Overall Score
Storyline – 9
+ Enables Multiple Playthroughs.
+ Good attempt at a Tokyo survival game.
Characters – 8
+ A wide variety of differing characters and personalities
+ Uses the storyline to differentiate different characters to different storylines.
– Some characters don’t get as much of a coverage in the storyline as others.
Graphics – 8
+ Decent character portraits and sprite designs.
+ Demon designs are good and representative other counterparts in other titles.
+ Creative area locations
– Use of some generic portraits just a little too often.
Music/Sound – 7
+ Great opening track!
+ A nice variety of good tracks.
– No voice acting
Gameplay – 9
+ Battle system effectively utilizes RPG and tactical elements
+ Good system that relies on battles to get more demons.
+ A challenging and rewarding game altogether.
– Some enemy skills seem a bit too imbalanced.
Replayability – 8
Personal Opinion – 9
Overall Score – 8.5
Credits for all videos go to Atlus, unfortunately due to the difficulty of getting images of DS titles, it was more advantageous to use the sample videos provided to aid with the review.
