Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (PS2)
The Shin Megami Tensei franchise has been quite successful in Japan, and most of the more avid RPG players of the west seem to have taken an interest in it too. Shini Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 is a direct sequel to the original Digital Devil Saga game. Apparently Atlus developed the DDS spin-off series in an attempt to extend the franchise to a wider audience, and they have done a pretty nice job based on what’s being shown. As mentioned, the story takes place directly after the events of the original so it goes without saying that to enjoy the full experience this game has to offer you may want to play them in chronological order. The story is still simple enough for you to understand what’s generally going on and enjoy the game either way, which is nice for those of us who bought it anyway.
The game begins with a cut-scene which makes little sense at the time but you gain a better understanding of it as you progress. By the time you are given control of Serph who is once again the main character, you find yourself in an underground city being hunted by a group calling themselves the Karma Society. Separated from your fellow Embryon comrades, your first priority seems to be getting the old team back together again. The game pretty much drops you head-first into your first dungeon crawl, this can feel a little overwhelming at first but regulars of the genre will not have much trouble understanding how things work while the more complex systems which are disabled at the start will later be properly explained in detail.
Two things really hit me during these early parts of the game through the dungeon crawl; the first being the unique visual style of the game compared to most of the other RPGs on the market and also just how limited the exploration can be which can at times put the visuals to waste. As you explore the isolated underground city, if you can even call it that, you quickly grow tired of how everything looks the same. This is especially apparent when you’re in-doors where there are countless corridors to go through, and each one looks just like the previous except maybe some wallpaper changing. During this exploration you will eventually run into some random encounters with demons, sticking to the traditional mechanic of invisible opponents simply appearing out off nowhere on a frequent basis begins to get very old, especially when the game is not offering anything new to keep it refreshing. You nearly always begin your battles in demon form, there are times when you must battle in human form but these aren’t very common which I suppose can only be a good thing as your characters’ human forms are practically useless against most enemies.
The battle system is one of the positive points in DDS2, not because it offers something new and groundbreaking but rather the fact it does the job well. Hexagons at the top right of your screen indicate the amount of turns your team has before it becomes the enemy’s turn. This system offers a nice balance and an extra layer of strategy as you will gain more hexagons by inflicting critical hits or exploiting their weakness with spells which oppose their elemental attribute. This also works against you, as you will lose hexagons and give more to the enemy if the same conditions are applied to you, meaning the best strategy is to hide your weakness from the enemy while trying your best to exploit theirs. Actions that deflect an elemental spell do this very well, casting a deflect spell for a fire attack means that if the enemy casts a spell of the same attribute on your party it will be nullified and you’ll be given an extra turn. Using strategies like this is the key to staying alive during long battles and boss encounters. The commands available to you in the battle system range from the basic attack ability to using spells that you can set through your set-up menu. As you gain levels you will have more slots to set spells giving your party a larger selection to use in combat. You also learn combos as they become available, these allow you to use stronger double or triple team attacks at the cost of MP. The pass function which allows you to skip your turn is also very useful, as a player who passes their turn only makes you lose half of a hexagon instead of an entire one, allowing for a far more calculated gameplay experience. At the end of each battle you’ll earn experience based on how efficiently you defeat the enemy along with Atma points which are used to level up what can only be explained as the different jobs available to your characters’ demon forms.
A little later in the game you will have the ability to begin tinkering with the Atma system which allows you to set jobs for each character and thus learn new spells. Most of the jobs are typical elemental specialists for fire, ice, lightning etc. but there are more unique ones available such as devourer which allows you to learn hunt skills. To learn these jobs you must navigate through a hexagonal system which links each job together, and each character starts from a different side of this grid. Those of you who are familiar with Final Fantasy X and the game’s Sphere Grid structure will find yourselves right at home. The more you expand with new jobs, the more the grid grows giving you a selection of advanced ones. Add to this the ability to unlock special jobs by meeting certain terms similar to getting keys in the Sphere Grid scheme makes for a simple system that’s intricate enough to keep most people happy. Once again, DDS2 doesn’t offer anything new in terms of magic but it does what it was designed to do well.
The refreshing style of DDS2 is one of the only things that help it stand out from other traditional role playing games and you will be hard-pressed to find another title which shares many of its artistic traits. The character design for the demons generally feels very random and weird, which I suppose is good in a broad-spectrum but half of the time when I see someone morph into a demon form for the first time I’m surprised at how ridiculously amusing they look for someone who’s supposed to be a demon. The theme is generally quite dark, so imagine seeing this dark battle ground only to have your opponents transform into something that resembles an exceptionally deformed Pokémon which was run over by a garbage truck - twice. However this is more of a personal preference so others may find the demons to in fact be very frightening and whatnot.
The sound in this game is definitely above average in terms of voice acting and music. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for the first and second DDS games for a few weeks now and they add to the overall atmosphere very nicely. Expect a lot of electric guitars as they seem to have it included somewhere in nearly all of the tracks, though. As the character design is already at a standard that will please most RPG fanatics the voice acting is the icing on the cake here, the only real downside being the fact that Serph is one of those lead characters that lacks the ability to speak, similar to Ryu from the Breath of Fire series. It’s also nice to see that save points have been dotted around quite evenly through the game. There doesn’t seem to be an abundance of save/restoration points but they’re usually just where you need them to be which is quite important in DDS2 as save locations are not only where you can save your progress but some will also allow you to heal your party, plus they’re your gateway into accessing the job selection interface.
DDS2 offers little enticement in the form of replay value. Players who have completed the first game will be able to load their data to gain access to things such as hard mode and a few extra items in-game, but as with many titles in this genre, once you’ve played through the story once you’ll only find yourself coming back when/if you have forgotten what takes place in the storyline. With games like this, what commonly matters most is your initial experience as you watch the tale unfold so the game is definitely worth picking up if you simply want to experience a new adventure which has all the usual boxes checked. If you’re looking for a traditional RPG which isn’t going beyond and bounds but at the same time isn’t doing anything wrong then the Digital Devil Saga is a good place to start assuming you’ve worn out all the more well-known RPG franchises out there. As RPGs slowly evolve, presenting us with new battle systems, new ways of exploration and character development, DDS2 only stands out thanks to its own unique style if nothing else.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Reviewed by Mustafa Unal for RewiredMind.com
