5.10.2006

I'm going to try and aim this review at both people who have and haven't played this games predecessor, Lucifer's Call. If you have played that game you are pretty much completely clued up in regards to what to expect...I'll get on to the differences later. If you haven't played Lucifer's Call...my advice is to play that first. Although the stories aren't connected in any way, I simply think LC is the better of the two. And it will get you used to all the customs and mythology that the Shin Megami Tensei series seems to be built around.In Digital Devil Saga you are Serph, leader of a small band of rogues who live in a post-apocalyptic world of constantly warring "tribes" who exist and fight according to strict codes and rules of allegiance.As is customary in RPGs, a world-changing event is about to happen that throws all the tribes into turnoil, and in this game it is the sudden appearance of a black haired girl called Sera (which causes a sensation because nobody in the world has ever had black hair before), who every tribe suddenly wants to kidnap after hearing that, for some mysterious reason, she alone can unlock a forbidden (or formerly unreachable) place known only as Nirvana.Anyway, enough of the plot. It becomes clear early on that the player is in for traditional turn based battles, and I'm glad to say the superior "press turns" system from Lucifers Call (in which you gain extra battle turns by knowing which attacks best exploit your enemies weaknesses - and likewise, the enemies also do the same with your weaknesses) is still in effect. What's different from most RPGs is that everybody in this world has a demon "alter ego" and for every battle, you will see your characters with a completely different physical appearance, usually with lots of teeth, spikes and claws. This kind of de-personalised the battles for me as it was visually just a load of monsters against monsters, but story-wise it does have some importance. Apart from that, you'll find yourself in pretty linear territory and with little room for deviation with regard to where you go after finishing each dungeon, and what you do next. What struck me most on playing was the surprisingly small scale of the game as a whole. There are only five tribes in this world, so I expected lots of twists in the story, but once the enemy tribe leaders are all thwarted in their efforts to seize Sera from you, the game is all but over, and you only have one other thing left to do, which is to take her with you and see what this so-called Nirvana is really about. Now there's a very obvious reason for this brevitiy, but it's not a very encouraging one - the game is designed very specifically to be Part One of a two game series. So if you choose to buy it, be prepared for much of the plot to be unresolved at the end, and to have to go and get Part Two to finish the story. Knowing this, I kind of expected a mammoth storyline that simply went on and on, but in reality, I think DDS1 only has about half the gameplay time of some other one disc games out there anyway, so the need to sell it in two parts seemed a bit greedy to me. It was definitely over sooner than I expected.Now onto the next drawbacks, but these ones will only really hit gamers who played and enjoyed Lucifers Call (that's me, then). The demon recruitment system, which let you add any monster you met in battle to your own team of playable characters, is gone, which means no more fantastic variety of team members to play with. The monsters you fight agaisnt are all familiar faces from that game though, so expect to encounter those pesky physical-immune elephants (Girimehkala), and the death spell-happy goat demons (Baphomet), as well as several new faces. But on your side of things, Digital Devil Saga has a mere five members, which is low among RPGs anyway, and compared to Lucifer's Call, it seems very tame.All the battle skills and spells still exist, along with the same unidentifiable names (Tenterafoo? Pulpina? Me Patra?), but to obtain the really good ones is much, MUCH harder work now, simply because they have to be paid for with money, and the top of the range spells like Debilitate, Dekunda, Megidolaon etc, cost massive amounts of cash, and you still have to buy and work through all the spells on the pathway to the top end (the skills are only for sale in a pre-set order, the weakest must be learned first before each next level becomes available).Now I know in most RPGs this is the norm, and I don't mind some serious levelling up to unlock the best skills. But here, every single top skill comes at the very end of all the other skill sets, and you will most likely reach the end of the game with several pathways nowhere near finished - unless you do nothing but grind away so that all the required experience and cash gets earned. Of course, the idea is to extend replay value...I realised this as soon as I read on the web that the "clear game" mode starts you off on a replay with all mastered skill still saved, so after two or maybe even three playthroughs, you might just have learned all the really good skills that there are...phew! Sorry but that's not for me. And not even after seeing that many of my favourite basic safety support abilities like Null Death and Null Expel come way up at the top of the list. Actually, that in itself makes the game much harder that Lucifer's Call, as you have to do a lot of battling against enemies who cast all those mean spells like Hama and Mudo before you'll ever reach the abilities that protect you from them. Ok, you do get spells that cast shields against these attacks, but I wanted the permanent immunities!This leads me to my other gripe - this being that with all 5 characters, the shopping list of skills is the same for everybody. One giant grid (a lot like the sphere grid in Final Fantasy X) shows you which paths lead to which skills. So individual character has little to do with how you deploy the skills of your team, you can make anyone into anything. Although the five characters do come pre-loaded with a definite slant (Argilla will always be the best magic caster and Heat the strongest physical attacker, etc), it's nothing like the array of abilities that the "cast of thousands" in Lucifer's Call had, giving you there the huge scope for a custom team with some real personality in it. I was very proud of my final, boss-beating line up in Lucifer's Call, but in this game everyone's going to be exactly the same at the end of the story as they were at the beginning, just with more HP and improved spells. OK, I know thats the case in most RPGs...it just goes to show how memorable Lucifer's Call really was. I'll tell you one major improvement though: you no longer have to permanently delete skills to learn new ones - hooray!The look of the game, however is wonderful. A step up from Lucifer's Call, but still with the same anime style, except that now the graphics are even better. Thankfully they have improved on the drab locations that seemd to be repeated to infinity in that game, and some of the dungeons are now quite stunning - although they still repeat interiors over and over again for all the rooms and chambers in each dungeon! And now the characters finally have spoken dialogue. This is great, and it makes them all seem really alive, despite a very dodgy "Jamaican" accent given to one of them.So in summary, a shorter game and with sadly less innovations than Lucifer's Call. But it looks better and it's definitely still in that league. And it actually has a better story - all the stuff about The Conception and choosing a Reason kind of went over my head last time, I'm sorry to say! So is that enough? I'd say buy Lucifer's Call first and then get this one if you want more. Although you have to buy Part Two as well afterwards...

21.11.2007

DDS is one of several games in the Shin Megami Tensei series (or MegaTen for short) which have made it to the UK in the past few years. They are all fairly hardcore RPGs, so someone who struggles to cope with the comparatively simple gameplay of the likes of Final Fantasy might find themselves a little out of their depth to begin with. This game is well worth persevering with however. The first PS2 MegaTen game to arrive in the UK was Lucifer's Call, AKA Nocturne which I started and found extremely difficult and frustrating. This initially put me off DDS, but I needn't have worried because the difficulty and complexity of this game is not as high.The other reviews go into a lot of detail aboutthe storyline and characters so I won't repeat those except to say that both are a strong-point for this RPG and the themes are quite a lot darker and more adult than most games. Digital Devil Saga is the first in a 2 part series which means that you won't get a complete plot experience, but the story and characters are strong enough that you would probably want to play the sequel and see how everything resolves.Graphically, this game looks pretty good for its age and the design of the various demons and monsters is both original and memorable. Many will be familiar to people who have played other games in the series and a lot of the enemies are taken from various religions and mythologies around the world. The cut-scenes are well-spaced out and exciting enough and the voice acting is excellent throughout. Musically, the game is outstanding, with several really memorable themes. At first it might seem that the music doesn't really fit with the graphical design of the game, but you soon get used to it and it grows on you quickly. Some special editions of the game came packaged with a soundtrack CD and this is worth getting hold of if you can find it cheap enough. (The sequel also has this.)Gameplay is the most important thing about any game and with an RPG, it's all about the combat system. DDS and most MegaTen games use a traditional turn-based system with a twist. Basically, every character and enemy in the game has strengths and weaknesses, whether elemental (eg fire or ice) or status-based (eg poison). If you attack an enemy with something they don't like, you can get an extra turn. If you attack with something they are strong against, you will lose some or all of your turns so the trick is to find an enemy's weakness as soon as possible and keep exploiting it. Of course, your enemies can do exactly the same to you so you can find yourself sitting there being repeatedly attacked by an enemy who is chaining together attacks by exploiting your weaknesses.To develop your character and learn abilities at an advanced rate, you can use the Devour attack to get a large number of development points so this is something else to bear in mind in combat. The development of stats and abilities is fairly open-ended which means you can tailor your party as you wish, although each character does have a loosely pre-defined role as a fighter or magic caster.The combat system keeps you thinking and paying attention and no two battles are the same. This is just as well because the random encounter rate for this game is ridiculously high. In some areas you can literally take 2 steps and be flung into another battle which can make progress slow and frustrating at times. It has to be seen to be believed. This is a shame because it will probably put a lot of people off the game. I don't know why it has to be so high, unless it is an attempt by the developers to artificially prolong the lifetime of the game.The game will last you quite a long time, depending how much attention you pay to upgrading your characters and finding all the secrets, but it isn't excessive for an RPG. You are probably looking at 25 hours if you race through and nearer 50 if you really take your time. Some of the bosses are tricky but once you figure out a strategy they can all be beaten. They are nowhere near as cheap and difficult as some of the ones in Nocturne.Overall, this game would make a good and fairly gentle introduction to the weird and wonderful world of MegaTen and I would recommend it to seasoned RPG players, but probably not to someone who has never played a game of this genre before.

28.7.2006

This game is a niche game that deserves to be appreciated by a wider audience. I got into the series via owning DDS2 on import, and after playing that from 10am to midnight, I have to say I was biting at the bit when I heard the first part was coming out in the UK. Do not let online reviews fool you - there is a WONDERFUL story to this game that spans two volumes. Having played the second, I can honestly say it's the best RPG I've ever seen, outside of Suikoden 1 and 2. Final Fantasy compared to this is good, but overrated.The artwork is wonderful, as is the soundtrack. The anime-styled graphics were what got me into the second half and there's not a sign of Tolkein-esque fields in sight.

16.3.2007

Simply a fantastic, epic game that has many parallels to Final Fantasy yet still has such a unique spin of its own. The graphics are clean, appealing yet so different; A cell-style hybrid with realistically rendered characters and environments.This is no level-grinding, X bashing game. To defeat your opponents you need sound tactics backed up by the skills (mantras) you learn throughout the game. Like other RPGs you characters become stronger by winning battles, but boosted if you `devour' your enemies in combat. Targeting your enemy's weakness will award your party more turns, attacking in long chains, and by carefully equipping skills you can unlock additional combos. The range of abilities is enormous,

21.2.2007

Great game, great take on Japanese RPG's. Very weird, right down from the art style to the storyline, characters and enemies. I would only recommend this to hard-core RPG fans coz its very tough and the levels really are quite a slog. Still, if you can stick it out you'll find a great game with a very original plot that deals with many metaphysical elements as well as alot of Hindu theology/mythology and a healthy dose of weird and wonderful demons (with teeth in the most unlikely places)fantastic cell shaded graphics and cool rock soundtrack only add to an already great game. My only real criticism is that the story is very slow moving and it was often a bit of effort to motivate myself to slog through some of the huge dungeons.

25.8.2006

After the immense disappointment of Dragon Quest, I decided to play my American import of this game again. This game just shows how dated (and how unoriginal) DQ is.The story follows that of Serph, leader of the Embryon in the world known as the Junkward, a miserable place where the mysterious Karma Temple orders your Tribe to kill other Tribes, of which there are six, including you.However, with all Japanese RPGs, the story changes drastically throughout and is resolved in the sequel Digital Devil Saga 2. I own both games on import and they are simply the greatest RPGs ever. Challenging, interesting, original, deep, immense, sad, beautiful..there are so many words to describe this Saga. Please,

24.10.2006

Digital Davil Saga is another brilliant RPG in this series which I have again got addicted to! You play as the head of your Tribe - Serph - in the Junkyard. You and your tribe follow the story as to why you have now all become part demons with lots of fighting along the way. There are 5 characters to control and you have to decide what skills you wish them to learn with Mantras.The story is brilliant and the ending has a bit of a cliffhanger as this is the first of a two part game. The game takes about 30-40 hours to play depending if you do the side quests etc. When you play the game over again all your previous mastered mantras are passed over into a new game adding good replay value.If you liked Lucifers call,

16.7.2008

This game surely is a great rpg. One of my favourites to date. The SMT series of games is awesome, I just cannot get enough of them. Although unable to match Lucifer's Call, this still proves to be a brilliant game.If you are into this genre, and are looking for a game that takes you away from your average rpg, then you must play this game. The gameplay is smooth, the story is great, and the dark elements of this game are a breath of fresh air. Definately not an early teens game.If you are considering purchasing this game, I would urge you to try out Lucifer's Call first. Although not linked to the story in DDS, it will sllow you to start the SMT experience in order of release.P.S.

16.8.2016

This game is very similar to Nocturne; not as difficult but grindy nonetheless.Its graphics were good for a ps2 game but not at final fantasy level or shadow hearts.The gameplay: your standard persona and shin megami tensi turn based battle system. The gimmick though was that party members themselves become demons rather than recruited them.Music: Alright but not amazing. No voice acting as in Nocturne.Story: your average SMT which gets emotional towards the end. It's dark but incomplete as this is part one of a two part game.In summary: I can recommend this game to rpg enthusiasts if they have a ps2. It's probably available also on psn (not sure if the UK or US one)

25.4.2012

Shin megami tensai as a series is an amazing affair as a whole but as of late has lost its adult edge which is why ive come full circle yet again and bought both the Digital devil saga games for my partner and ende3d up doing them again myself when i get chance the battle system is solid with varied enemies and attacks which are at times unforgiving but hey isent that what games are about the story is at times mature but involving with no dogy charectors exept maybe cielo at first but by half way through you'll take a shine to his easy going nature if you want a challenge and a story that spans two games then S.M.T DDS is for you

19.10.2011

I paid £35+ for this when it first came out,and I don't regret it one bit. It is a very deep game and is different to persona. In this game,and the second,you get random encounters,and instea of getting new demons(personas) you have one. The customisation is great. You can get different ammo for human form,and different itesm for demon. You can also choose to give all magic types to every character. The game does need a little grinding at times,but this isn't long.This game is well worth this discounted price. And you can buy this,and the second one for less the £20!Buy both games. You won't regret it

27.6.2006

SMT is a series that you either love or hate, it has a distinct feeling to it and it doesn't look to please the mass, but just to bring it's own identity. SMT: Lucifer's Call (Nocturne in the US) is the 3rd one in the PS2 series, but the first one to strike European shores. This game was brilliant and so is it's predecessor. Allthough I would recommend buying the former first, it's cheaper and if you don't like it, you have wasted less money. But if you happen to love it, you will glad to expand your collection with this game.

23.6.2018

Incredible graphics, incredible story & last but not least, incredible battle system. I love this game, it came next day, was brand new with wrapping (which I didn't think was possible for ps2 games anymore) and plays like a dream. Load times are fantastic, game is absolutely wonderful.

5.10.2015

Played about 8 hours so far and is quite fun. Might put some people off due to the combat not being too advanced or different to most games but the story is very interesting and the music and graphics are good.

21.2.2015

Fun game, it didn't arrive the first time I ordered it but now that it has I love the challenge and the way of having to master diverse creatures for more techniques, means grinding is rewarded.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (PS2) - Reviews

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