Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

First Impressions: Shin Megami franchise game for the DS, yay. Yours truly being a mythology fangirl, double yay! QUETZACOATL AND LAKSHMI?! HONEY, I'M SOLD!

Gameplay: The only experience I've had with anything from the Shin Megami Tensei line is Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. That, as far as I've observed is nothing like the recent Persona games.
SMT: Devil Survivor has you in the position of the silent main character (who I will call Hero from now on). You pick his name, dialogue and which stat gets boosted every time you level up.
Hero and his two friends get trapped in Tokyo during a sudden lockdown. All of a sudden, demons start appearing. Hero and his buddies now have to fight back the demons with demons of their own and modified DS units comps.

SMT: Devil Survivor is a strange mix of SRPG, turn based RPG and Visual Novel. You pick the locations to go to via the main map. Key scenes are played out ala visual novel with dialogue boxes and static pictures. Some locations pass time and some locations have battles. As time passes through a day, certain things can happen and you can meet certain people.
Battles are done on a grid where you start out by positioning your party members and having the option of which skill you want to steal from your opponents. It starts out like a strategy RPG where you choose where your party members should move. On the grid, you can use demon skills to heal or up movement. When you attack, the scene shifts to a first person POV turn based battle sequence that lasts for at least two turns, depending if anyone gets any extra turns.
Repeat as much as necessary.



Strangely, there are no items at all available. Your only chance of healing is via heal spells. However, if you run out of MP, you're pretty much on your own.
The strategy comes in where you place your party members. Leave someone alone on the field and it's quite easy for monsters to surround and outnumber them.
You can recruit demons into your party via the auction (where you can bid for them or buy them directly) or fusion. When you get access to higher leveled demons for fusion, the auction is a good place to get fusion material sometimes. Upgrading your team is a VERY good idea, might I add?

As fun and engrossing as this game can get, it doesn't quite feel like a DS game. Everything plays out on the bottom screen. The top screen is hardly used at all. There is also no need for the stylus whatsoever. No touch screen application. It... actually feels like a possible GBA game, really. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. A game like this doesn't really need the touchscreen as it does work fine without it. I do wish they did something more with the top screen though. A field layout at the start of battle or some sorta something else would have been good.



Last Words: This game has high replayability because of the multiple endings possible. This is also hours of entertainment for mythology buffs like yours truly. brb. Squeeing over Quetzalcoatl.


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Rating:

Graphics: 4.5/5
The characters are well designed and colorful. I love their interpretations of the various dieties. I think they captured them just right. Sprites are crisp and nothing really bothers me much about the graphics. I'm slightly of two minds about the static pictures during battle but that could be just me. The overall presentation is modern and edgy which fits the setting of it all.

Gameplay: 4/5
Controls are good enough. No sloppy or confusing ones for this. Selection is your typical move-with-diagonals-confirm-with-A-button=B-is-cancel thing. Of course, this shows little use for the stylus. Then again, there isn't really any need for them anyway.
The battle system made me wonder at first as to why there was an SRPG element to it all but if anything, it does add a nice twist of strategy to your usual RPG. The turn based part makes me feel comfortable as I'm not really a big fan of SRPGs.
I find fusing fun. I dunno about the rest of you. This time around, you can customize your resulting demon by picking which skills it'll inherit from its parents. Always a plus.

Soundtrack: 5/5
There's a mix of techno for the visual novel scenes and rock tracks during the battle scenes. Catchy and good for the mood. One of the best parts of the game.

The Look and Feel: 3.5/5
I'm still a bit iffy about the fact that the top screen is barely used. There should be more use to it especially when you're dealing with an RPG. Yes, it is used in battle for displaying the profiles of your opponents and your party but I also would have liked possibly an overview of the map I'm fighting on.
Menus are a breeze to navigate through. Unfortunately, scrolling through your demon collection in the Fusion section can get a little messy and distracting even if you have the option to arrange them. Somehow, I still get a little lost.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10