Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

[FMW]

I would guess that Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is what happens when brilliant people have a small budget. This game is built on a foundation of great ideas. I’d like to quick run you through the game concept.

 

Imagine a turn based strategy game in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics, but whenever combat between two characters is initiated the action shifts to a full JRPG 3 vs 3 old school battle scenario. Once here the game plays like a fairly traditional Shin Megami Tensei battle. By doing this the game combines the macro strategy of unit positioning and battle field control with the micro strategy of managing party members, exploiting weaknesses, and always trying to get those precious extra turns.

 

Imagine a game where the narrative is told over the course of seven days, and every story event takes a half hour off the clock. Use this storytelling technique to make the player use their time wisely, and eventually force them to make hard decisions about which obligations take priority. Make it impossible to do everything. Make player decisions permanent and irreversible, then provide different endings based on which characters have survived and which conversations have been held. Give the characters devices that look just like a Nintendo DS, so when the player enters a menu it is as though they are looking through the protagonist’s eyes and the “game menu” becomes an integrated part of the game world.

Make the theme of the game survival. Set the game in the present day, and then over the course of the narrative have the world fall apart. Make the player witness to civilization as it destroys itself and shows a rotten core underneath. Make the game hard, so hard that the idea of survival really does get communicated through the battles. Make the player feel like all the odds are stacked against them all the time, and all victories are by a narrow margin. Make “victory” a cause for celebration.

 

Compose a sound track entirely different from other entries in the genre. Bring in a lot of electric guitars, dissonant chords, and squealing noises. Let the music reflect the desperate circumstances the characters finds themselves in.

 

Those are just a few of the great ideas in Devil Survivor. The idea of a strategy game that’s true to old school JRPG tradition. The idea of a narrative driven game that gives players real choice that really matters and without traditional right and wrong. The experience of playing the game is not quite what you might imagine from that game concept though. As you play, you begin to notice issues. They begin small, but grow over time.

 

You first notice that the sprites are GBA quality (and not even great by those standards). Then you realize that the soundtrack has very few tracks. If you’ve played Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, you realize that most of the battle graphics and animations were pulled straight out of that game. You notice that the 2D talking head portraits have relatively few emotion variations, even for the main characters. The writing and translation, while serviceable, never really exceeds expectations to become genuinely clever or heartfelt – I don’t think there’s a single quotable line in this entire game. As you progress through the story, you find yourself fighting on the same battle maps over and over again. Although the story details society falling apart, the audio/visual elements don’t reflect that well. Text boxes describe a slow descent into a hellish reflection of our reality, but you don’t see or hear the disintegration. It’s a missed opportunity to drive the core theme of the game home.

 

There are a few other omissions as well. The game is hard, but there is no adjustable difficulty and there’s only one save slot so you can’t ever hedge your bets with a backup save. The single save slot also makes it a pain to see alternate endings, as you need to play through the full campaign to get to the branching point again. There are really no special cutscenes to speak of either – all events are communicated the exact same way. Talking head speech bubbles.

 

So how did the game turn out? I praised it for four paragraphs, then complained for two. Honestly, I still think it’s pretty great. The core design is hugely compelling, and nothing is executed badly exactly. The complaints I have with this game are largely omissions, what is in the game ranges from solid to good. This game reminds me of many recent Nintendo titles in how a great game design is able to shine through despite technical limitations. This game, however, doesn’t work around technological limitations nearly as elegantly as Nintendo’s best. There’s the beating heart of a phenomenal game in here but it feels like it isn’t completely realized, perhaps held back from its full potential. And that’s a tragedy.

[SixTwoSixFour]

I'm amazed Brain hasn't wandered in here yet, he's absolutely nuts for the game. I'd love to play it myself, when I have the scratch to pick up a copy. It looks great.

[excel_excel]

Its really good and always feels like a challenge, I prefer Strange Journey because I like exploration too, but Devil Survivor is really great, importing is the only option for Europeans as with Strange Journey and its the same story for the enhanced 3DS port, which is region locked