While many of the main themes of the franchise are intact and it recycles some core elements from past games in the series (first-person dungeon-crawling being a staple of the series since the pre-PS2 days), the game stands on its own as greater than the sum of its parts. Allow me to explain.
Story
A massive black hole opens up over Antarctica and is slowly engulfing the entire planet. This void is home to demons and elder gods that are attempting to reclaim the planet from humans who have soiled and desecrated Mother Earth. Soon the United Nations forms a team of soldiers and researchers from across the globe to go poke around in it and see whether or not Earth is screwed. You are [insert name here], a soldier on the Red Sprite ship, who saves the fucking day. Or lets Heaven take over. Or lets the demon world engulf the planet. Your call bro.
For the record, my Main Character's name? Bonesaw McGrady.
Gameplay
A list of franchise staples that make a reappearance:
- Demon summoning, in the form of negotiation to have them join your party
- Demon fusion, wherein (mostly) more powerful demons are born from combining two (or more) others
- Greater depth in fusions than the Persona spinoffs
- Strength/weakness-based tactics
- Dungeon crawling. Oh god there is so much dungeon crawling.
- Law/Neutral/Chaos paths where your opinions and actions affect the plot and final ending (and more)
- Hard-as-nails boss fights until you figure out what you're doing or just grind a little bit
Fusions in this game retain the Element fusions wherein you can upgrade your demons directly to the next step up in its race (see: Devil Survivor) and the Mitama system where you can upgrade particular stats on an existing demon (also on Devil Survivor) but adds a spin. When you fight demons, you gain Analysis points that eventually help you by letting you see all of a demon's strengths and weaknesses each time you see them. Fully analyzed demons also give you Sources once you level them up and their Analysis is full. These Sources beget some of their skills which you can use in fusions of other demons to give them skills they normally wouldn't have. For example, by the final boss battle I was using Sources to grant Repel-, Null- and Void- skills to demons that wouldn't normally have them just to cover up any exploits (but feel free to divine your own solutions!). Also a boon is the Password system, where you can convert your demons to a string of letters, numbers and symbols to share with other players or to keep for yourself in case you really want to exploit the Source system (say, a team of demons with all the same skills but not enough Sources to go around).
The dungeon-crawling portions offer numerous obstacles, and is built off the Etrian Odyssey engine, so if you've played those you should have some expectation of what you're up against. Trap floors, one-way doors, conveyor belts, warp panels, false walls, and even false floors are pretty common, with the last dungeon using a lot of everything. While in the dungeon you can find treasures like money or items, or Forma which are consumables you use to forge new equipment or software upgrades to your Demonica (battle suit) that will help you get to places you couldn't previously.
In combat, your Law/Neutral/Chaos alignment also has an effect. Similar to All-Out Attacks in the Persona series, when you exploit an enemy's weakness, all the demons on your team with the same alignment join up for an extra attack. There are of course times when it's best to have a team of varying alignments, but the game does a great job of making sure the alignment system has more of an effect than what ending you get. It was all too late, for example, that I found out I locked myself out of one of the better items in the game because I was (for story purposes) set on a contrary alignment.
Graphics/Sound
It's a DS game.
That said, most of the character sprites are actually pretty clean and crisp, but some of the demon sprites are recycled from older titles, which is painfully obvious when it's a demon that hasn't been used in the series in a long time. While I understand that the game has 55-65 hours in the first playthrough and easily over 100 when you go through the two other paths and optional boss fights, this is an oversight that's easy to correct.
The sound effects are unique and iconic, evocative of the sci-fi-meets-Hell-on-Earth setting. Dramatic soaring opera scores beset by tribal drumming and Gregorian chanting fits perfectly, though I'm not sure this is the type of game that leaves songs in your head for weeks (see: The World Ends with You for a DS example).
Overall
My playthrough was about 58 hours with minimal grinding. I'm more anal than most about making sure my final team is optimal because final bosses in SMT are hard enough without a laziness handicap. Even then this game's boss took about eight tries before A and I worked out a strategy that was just right. All said I do plan on replaying it in the future to get good use out of New Game+ and see what the other alignments have in store. If it was good enough to get me to stop playing Pokemon HeartGold, well, that says something. I bet my Gengar misses me. :(
- E
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