Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

The headline thanks Atlus for not pushing the number of words in the title into double digits. Elsewhere, US / Canada Editor Austin Walker thanks them for making this game.

Critical theorist and contemporary philosopher Jacques Derrida spent years arguing that in order to fit complex ideas into simple packages, we create broad, all-too-simple dichotomies. Instead of trying to understand the subtleties of a disease like alcoholism, an action like taking a life, or a system like democracy we make claims like “drunks are bad,” “murder is evil,” and “freedom is a right.” By building these statements around binary oppositions that fail to take into account all of the reasons for a thing being the way it is, we quickly come to a simple conclusion.

Style. Substance. We as writers and critics have harped on these for a long time. We pose them against each other as if every effort in pop culture is making a stab forward for one of these two elemental forces. “Tarantino’s latest proves that when it comes to modern filmmaking, style beats substance every time;” or “What it lacks in style, Shiren the Wanderer more than makes up for with substance.” A review just like that is sitting in my head for Atlus’ latest Nintendo DS outing, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. It goes like this:

Over a year ago, Square-Enix decided to show the world that they could still make innovative games. Even though you still played a headphone-wearing Japanese youth out to prove that individuality and/or love and friendship can save us all, The World Ends With You was a stylish blend of frenetic action and RPG basics set in the gorgeous back drop of Tokyo’s hip Shibuya shopping district and filled with head bopping Japanese pop, rock, and hip hop.

Not to be outdone, Atlus has come out of the corner swinging with Devil Survivor. Yes, you play a kid from Tokyo who wears headphones, flirts with girls, and comes to understand the meaning of friendship. But unlike Square-Enix’s tribute to youth culture, DS is a game filled with content, not just simple play in a pretty wrapper.

With a countdown to certain catastrophe hanging over the heads of a group of Tokyo teens (and the residents locked inside  the city with them), they harness the power of their handheld computers to purchase, summon, fuse together, and fight alongside a menagerie of mythological creatures. With a catalog in the hundreds, the game’s collection of monsters feels a lot like Pokemon if a Religious Studies Ph. D. got his hand on the pokedex. Ranging from Eurasian gods and goddesses like Thor to the ghosts of Japanese folklore and even some big players in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the list is just massive (and detailed, to boot, with each character feeling unique in ability and tone.) You’ll need to combine these monsters to create new ones, and the depth to the fusion system is staggering. To returning players of the Shin Megami Tensei line, this is old hat, but newbies will feel equal parts overwhelmed and excited by the massive collection of monsters and the mechanics that rule them.

Battles play out in a blend of top-down strategy RPG tactics and old-school three-on-three JRPG battles. When you begin combat, you position your team of up to four in a number of predetermined spots. Then, like Final Fantasy Tactics or Front Mission,  the character on the map with the highest initiative score gets to move. When you move a character next to an enemy you can choose to attack them.

At this point the field of vision switches to a first person line up of the team you’re facing off against. Both sides get a turn to attack, cast magical spells, or defend, with one additional turn being awarded for certain actions (like hitting an opponent’s weakness.) This makes every fight strategically fulfilling – should you use the brute strength of Irish folk hero Cu Chulainn or use a weaker elemental attack that might gain him a second turn of hard hits.

Modifying battles further are all sorts of special abilities granted by who you have in your party. Have an Avian alongside you? Well then you can move further and fly over obstacles. Some demons let you attack from a safe range (at the cost of lower movement speed and less attacks), or boost your physical or magical power for the next turn of combat. The system is deep and even five minutes on a wiki or message board for the game can lead to forty-five minues of “Oh!”s and “Ah!”s of techniques you never thought of.

And then I’d wrap it up with something like “Blah blah blah … proves once again that substance is more important than style.” But my man Jacques is right – it isn’t that simple. Because to say that is to call Devil Survivor less than stylish. That would be unfair and, well, wrong, because…

Devil Survivor has more than a deep combat system going for it. It looks wonderful, with every character and monster feeling unique. The presentation is slick, organized, and easy to navigate. A unique “auction” system works about as well as I’d like an eBay for other-worldly beasties to work. The soundtrack can be poppy, edgy, or angelic, and even though it’s a bit repetitive it is never annoying. And while I stick by my words in numerous editorials and podcasts (that the industry hasn’t provided me with a game literary enough to enter my “top fiction” list) Devil Survivor is well written. Every character has a unique voice to their dialog (in the sense that the words feel genuine and real to the characters, not that actual voices have been recorded), and the narrative uses a number of core devices inspired more by philosophy than religion. This is certainly the first time that a game has made me reread a dense proto-existentialist work by Dostoevsky.

Split into seven “days” of story, with each day divided into “thirty minute” segments, often filled with competing objectives, story lines, and character interactions, all leading up to six unique endings. Every response your character gives in conversation changes the path you’re on in some way, and at no point does the story feel excessive or like an obstacle. Devil Survivor is a long game with tons of replay (and play) value. Add it to your collection before this is just one more rare JRPG you can’t find anywhere.

Pluses

Depth: DS has mechanics system as detailed and multifaceted as it comes. You can spend just as much time fusing demons together as you can fighting them on the battlefield – and both processes are equally good fun.

Replayability: With six endings and numerous storylines that can’t all be completed in a single playthrough, this one will take you more than one thirty hour playthrough to be fully explored.

Low on necessary grind: Most of the game’s core storyline battles can be handled without wasting hours leveling up your characters. If you do grind, though, prepare to have your hard work rewarded by being more easily able to handle optional content.

Style and Substance: DS has sharp character design, clean sprites, and a more-than-listenable soundtrack. But it also has decent writing and gameplay to match. You find it all here.

Narrative Consistency: There is no dissonance here. Characters all maintain themselves throughout the work – cowards don’t become heroes without reason and the compassionate will not forgive you if you decide to abandon, or harm, innocents in peril.

Minuses

Maybe too long: Yes, this is a complaint about a feature. Yes, I just said how awesome it was that there were six endings. But man, getting them all means spending a lot of time with the game, and if you’re a completionist prepare to go 50+ hours deep into this portable title.

I am happy to say that Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor gets my full recommendation. Just one more reason why you’ll be happy you have that DS. I’m only sorry that the game’s length kept me from giving this recommendation sooner.