Intro- Okay so visualize this: Square Enix with their seemingly endless budget, a team of developers allowed to use twenty two characters from across the entire Final Fantasy franchise, and a 3-D battle system that blows most out of the water. Stir that all up together and you get Final Fantasy Dissidia, a game made up of such incredible components, fit snuggly together in a UMD. That is what your money can get you, and should get you! This game is by far the most interactive, unique, and fun fighter found on the PSP. And the funny thing is that the game itself is more of an RPG than a fighting game. Choose between ten protagonists from their respective games, and pit them against ten antagonists. One side fights for Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, the other for Chaos, the god of discord.
Story 7/10- The story if Dissidia appears to be rather generic at first glance. In all seriousness, it is pretty generic. The premise is that the ten protagonists are soldiers under Cosmos, and must gather each of their individual crystals to thwart Chaos and stop immanent doom. To put it simply, the story is a larger version of the hero needing to find a certain item to stop the world’s destruction. The story’s outside is a coat of simplicity, but the characters are what redeem the title of Final Fantasy. Each character “awakens” with little to no memory of their respective games besides their specific antagonist. As the players play through each individual story mode of each character, the game stays true to each character’s personality. My favorite Final Fantasy title was the tenth, and as I was playing through Tidus’ story, more than once I found myself saying “This is like playing FFX all over again.” The game truly does this well with each character, placing their personalities into this alternate world while maintaining the integrity found in the original games. And the same can be said for the villains. Each hold their own devilish desires and impulses, but we get to see how they can exist alongside multiple beings of evil nature. The concept behind the game is very interesting, and although the premise is lack luster, each individual character’s personality more than make up for it.
Music/Graphics 9/10- I am a sucker for the “One Winged Angel” song from Final Fantasy VII, and Dissidia seems to have taken that into consideration. During every battle, players can choose among some of their favorite Final Fantasy tracks to play in the background of their fight. Whats more, additional songs can be purchased from the PP shop. The music is nothing short of astounding, as expected of Nobuo Uematsu. His composing skills are beyond compare in the realm of video games, and Dissidia is a sort of tribute to his legacy with the series.
As far as graphics go, the game may as well be a movie. The intro and other important video sequences are incredible, as per usual with Final Fantasy titles. Each character is extremely detailed, from the scars on their face to the armor that surrounds their every pore. Each characters weapons are distinguishable from their games, with all the famous ones making an appearance. For example, the Buster sword, Sephiroth’s massive katana, Squalls gunblade and Lionheart, Firion’s Blood weapons, Tidus’ Brotherhood and Catalbolg. Just to name a few. All these are visible in battle, as the characters dash and glide in the air, while sparks fly from their clashing blades. Dissidia is visually impressive, especially for a PSP game.
Gameplay 10/10- I hate calling this the “Super Smash Bros” of Final Fantasy, because it deserves more than that. Truthfully, Dissidia does what the original Super Smash Bros did back in 1999. Dissidia takes all of these incredible characters, and throws them into a 3-D fighting game that is more fun than one could possible imagine to have on the PSP. Battles are one vs. one, and each character has a level (1-100,) a bravery indicator, and an HP value. The bravery, a number found above the characters HP, can go up to 9999 and does that amount of damage to the opponents HP when hit with an HP attack. There are two types of attacks; bravery and HP attacks. Bravery attacks do damage to the opponents bravery as opposed to their HP. If enough bravery attacks land, it can send the opponent into “break” status, which makes their bravery regenerate slower and gives a boosts to the other characters bravery. It sounds complicated on paper, but after a couple fights, anyone can get used to it.
As you can see from all these things, this game is more of an RPG than a standard fighter. Characters can equip weapons and armor, as well as accessories and summons. Each character is fully customizable in both equipment and attacks. If the character has enough AP, which is dependant upon equipment and level, they can have up to six bravery attacks and six HP attacks. Three on ground and three in air, respectively. At first characters can only equip three accessories, but with upgrades a character can wear up to ten accessories. Summons also act as a sort of equipment. Players equip one, and then can set five others to be used in a specific order when their current summon is used up and needs to be recharged. The customization of each character truly makes you feel like you are playing an RPG.
There are multiple modes to be played in Dissidia, some of which need to be unlocked. The standard story mode consists of ten sections, one for each protagonist. A hero’s story mode has five chapters of content, where the player must move around a chessboard type interface, interacting with enemies, treasure chests, summon stones, and other objects. Each movement, in-between interacting with an object, costs one “Destiny Point.” By ending the chapter with more destiny points, as well as other factors, more points are earned towards bonuses. That sums up the basic story mode option. After completing one characters story, a new option is unlocked titled “Chaos Impulse,” which further advances the story with an added difficulty. The story mode has a massive amount of cut scenes and story elements, as it should, and helps create a feel for each side of the war. Simply put, it made me care about what happened.
Other modes consist of arcade, quick match, coliseum, communications mode, and the museum. Arcade is a mode of pre-made characters fighting random battles for a prize at the end. Quick match is exactly as it sounds; a quick match against the CPU with customized characters. By purchasing different upgrades and such from the “PP Shop” in-game, players can alter the course, the rules, and the level of the CPU. Coliseum is where the best items can be found. By fighting enemies for gold coins, you can trade your winnings for chests that contain materials used to create different equipment. Communications mode is simply for fighting people near you, or online. Unfortunately, the only way to fight online is the use of Ad-hoc party, which is only available to PS3 users. Then there is the Museum, which grants access to character and summon bios, voice and music tracks, and a replay section. After a battle is complete, it can be saved as a replay, which can even be converted in-game to a suitable format for Youtube. For those video lovers out there, no more hassle over recording equipment.
Finishing up the gameplay section, there are quite a few random parts of the game that may be overlooked in a review. For example, the calendar; every day that passes in real time, a moogle will have a new message waiting for you, that gives PP, a question, and possibly even a friend card to fight a “ghost” opponent. Then there is the play plan section that allows players to change how the game thinks of the type of gamer they happen to be. At first, only the options are casual, average, and hardcore, but other play plans can be purchased later on in the game. These play plans dictate how often your chocobo will find items for you. Casual chocobos will find items often, but of lesser value. Hardcore chocobos will find items after looking for a much longer time, but much better items. It all depends on what the player wants. Lastly, there is the PP shop, which gives access to nearly every additional part of the game. Players acquire PP from battling, and when enough is gathered they can buy extra characters, game modes, bonuses, voices, music, as well as a plethora of other things. The PP shop is massive, and will be a challenge even to the likes of the most experienced collectors.
Playtime/Replayability 7/10- Dissidia is as engrossing and addictive as it is fun. For the casual player, it is easy enough to wrack up even thirty hours. For the hardcore, I have heard stories of players hitting the one thousand hour mark. That is slightly excessive, but not surprising. With everything there is to unlock, twenty two characters to raise to level one hundred, and the addition of online play, Dissidia is more than worth the money in playtime.
As for replayability, it comes in two aspects. The first is the story modes. It is impossible to get one hundred percent of everything complete on the first time around in a story mode, so there is incentive to go back and complete everything. The second is the old fashioned way of starting a new file. In my mind, there is absolutely no reason to do this. For one, it is possible at any time to go back to the story mode and view any cut scenes or anything that may cause an itch of nostalgia. Secondly, after all the time spent developing characters, collecting equipment, and unlocking content, it just doesn’t seem illogical to start a new file.
Final Score 9/10- Dissidia will be one of those games that will be remembered for years to come. “That game” that combined every Final Fantasy universe, and did so with a brand new battle system and its own story. In today’s gaming experience, a lot of games come with a small amount of content, or maybe additional content that has to be purchased after the original payment. Or maybe the game had just a few bugs left, and left that up to patching after initial release. Dissidia is not that kind of game. It is complete, everything included, and worth the money. If any game this year is worth the money, it is Dissidia.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Phantasy Star makes a comeback, and though it wasn't the best, its still PSO! Its great!
Intro- Welcome to the past! Err, I mean Phantasy Star Portable! The fact of the matter is, PSP is a rehashed version of the beloved series. Don’t let that discourage you though, the game is just as good on the psp as it was on the PC or any console. It is a port, of sorts, of Phantasy Star Universe, with improvements. For those new to the series, this is hack and slash at its finest. There are a ton of weapons, plenty of skills, different races, different “jobs,” and dungeons galore!
Story 5/10- Most PSO and PSU veterans know that the story in these games is lack luster at best. The point of the game lies in its gameplay, contrary to some big name RPGs. Players will create a character that is automatically forced into the life of a GUARDIAN, a type of soldier that is sent out to the field to destroy threats to civilian life. The story consists of NPC’s interacting with the player, talking about the mission ahead or comments on the different races in the game. PSP takes a stab at racial difference, with the intent to raise interest in the star system of Guhral. Unfortunately, it does not pull it off very well, and I found myself skipping through conversations just to get to the next mission. The point of missions is to defeat the infectious SEED that has turned common animals into monsters. When I say the story is lack luster, I am not lying. There really isn’t much depth at all.
Music/Graphics 7/10- The music is at times very mellow and at other times very epic. But it doesn’t exactly matter, because you won’t be hearing much of it. While shopping in the menu, a very distinct noise is made when going from one item to the next, which drowns out all background music. I wouldn’t call this annoying, just distracting if you want to hear the score that the game has to offer. During battle, the music is actually fantastic. It can be both riveting and dramatic, and is once again drowned out. Except this time, by the heat of battle. The music is not bad by any means; you just won’t be hearing it really. The graphics are pretty good for a game that is based off one from the Xbox 360. Character figures are all very distinct, the weapons all glow and look rather cool when moving around quickly, and the monster designs are fantastic. The only qualms I have about the graphics are some of the TECHNIC (magic) attacks the game has to offer. The attacks seem like they were taken straight from the original Dreamcast PSO game, with absolutely no alteration whatsoever. However, the rest of the game looks great.
Gameplay 9/10- This is where the entire PSO series shines. Especially this game, because there isn’t much but the gameplay. PSP is your standard hack and slash RPG, a dungeon crawler if you will. Players create a character with a choice between four different races: humans, beasts, newmans, and CASTs. Each have their own pros and cons; some are better with close combats, others excel in guns or TECHNIC attacks. Once created players go to dungeons with the intent of killing a specific monster at the end of the mission. This can be a strong, rare monster, or a boss that no matter what, always enters the battle flying from some far off spot. Bosses come in two fashions, a dragon like monster that has a long tail and rarely flies, or a bat like…thing, with long arms and flies most of the battle. The latter can become quite monotonous, as the only way to hit it while it is the air is with a gun, and the controls aren’t the best. The camera can be tricky, the only way to truly turn it is with the d-pad. This wouldn’t be a problem, but since the only way to move is with the joystick, things can be difficult. The camera can be reset to behind the character, but it isn’t always the most effective way of fighting the enemy.
PSP contains weapons for every preference. There are slow swords, fast swords, axes, fists, guns, dual blades, rods. That is only a few. And a great thing about PSP is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are chicken outfits, shiskabab weapons, an axe that looks like a giant lollipop. It is comedic relief like this that actually brings a smile to the players face. Aside from that, every weapon has several special moves that can become heavy hits or elaborate combos. The special moves help break the monotony of the standard combo, and with the quick changing slot, players can have up to six weapons at the ready for when they feel like switching. It is a really great setup, and compliments the gameplay as whole.
One downside, that some might completely write the game off because of this, is the lack of online play. Yes, there is Ad-hoc. But that is limited to PS3 owners, which is a hefty price to play this game online. Aside from that, there is no online play. There is wireless with someone near you in real life, but that isn’t exactly the most convenient way to play with others, especially in this day and age. It is a sad fact, but PSP loses a huge part of its essence without online play. I guess that’s why it is titled “Phantasy Star Portable” instead of “Phantasy Star Online: Portable.”
Playtime/Replayability 8/10- This game is consuming. It is hard to put it any other way. The story is easy, but the bulk of the game comes from free missions. There are four planets to travel between, each with plenty of free missions for the player to traverse. Each mission is replayable, and with the same reward at the end. This adds incentive to replay the missions, or just go collecting for new weapons or armor. With eight different “jobs” to level up to level 10, players who love to complete the entire game will find themselves replaying missions quite a bit. As for replayability, there are four different races! Create as many characters as your memory stick can hold, try out all the difference races, find which you like the best. Level each kind to lvl 100. The game keeps the player plenty busy, truly living up to the hack and slash status quo.
Final Score 7/10- I thoroughly enjoyed PSP, as I am a huge fan of the PSO series. The gameplay is classic PSO, and despite the lack of online play, it is still fun. If you have a PS3, you have no reason to avoid this title. If you are the kind of player that doesn’t care about online play, or just want a great hack and slash title, this is the game for you. Definitely worth the money.
Story 5/10- Most PSO and PSU veterans know that the story in these games is lack luster at best. The point of the game lies in its gameplay, contrary to some big name RPGs. Players will create a character that is automatically forced into the life of a GUARDIAN, a type of soldier that is sent out to the field to destroy threats to civilian life. The story consists of NPC’s interacting with the player, talking about the mission ahead or comments on the different races in the game. PSP takes a stab at racial difference, with the intent to raise interest in the star system of Guhral. Unfortunately, it does not pull it off very well, and I found myself skipping through conversations just to get to the next mission. The point of missions is to defeat the infectious SEED that has turned common animals into monsters. When I say the story is lack luster, I am not lying. There really isn’t much depth at all.
Music/Graphics 7/10- The music is at times very mellow and at other times very epic. But it doesn’t exactly matter, because you won’t be hearing much of it. While shopping in the menu, a very distinct noise is made when going from one item to the next, which drowns out all background music. I wouldn’t call this annoying, just distracting if you want to hear the score that the game has to offer. During battle, the music is actually fantastic. It can be both riveting and dramatic, and is once again drowned out. Except this time, by the heat of battle. The music is not bad by any means; you just won’t be hearing it really. The graphics are pretty good for a game that is based off one from the Xbox 360. Character figures are all very distinct, the weapons all glow and look rather cool when moving around quickly, and the monster designs are fantastic. The only qualms I have about the graphics are some of the TECHNIC (magic) attacks the game has to offer. The attacks seem like they were taken straight from the original Dreamcast PSO game, with absolutely no alteration whatsoever. However, the rest of the game looks great.
Gameplay 9/10- This is where the entire PSO series shines. Especially this game, because there isn’t much but the gameplay. PSP is your standard hack and slash RPG, a dungeon crawler if you will. Players create a character with a choice between four different races: humans, beasts, newmans, and CASTs. Each have their own pros and cons; some are better with close combats, others excel in guns or TECHNIC attacks. Once created players go to dungeons with the intent of killing a specific monster at the end of the mission. This can be a strong, rare monster, or a boss that no matter what, always enters the battle flying from some far off spot. Bosses come in two fashions, a dragon like monster that has a long tail and rarely flies, or a bat like…thing, with long arms and flies most of the battle. The latter can become quite monotonous, as the only way to hit it while it is the air is with a gun, and the controls aren’t the best. The camera can be tricky, the only way to truly turn it is with the d-pad. This wouldn’t be a problem, but since the only way to move is with the joystick, things can be difficult. The camera can be reset to behind the character, but it isn’t always the most effective way of fighting the enemy.
PSP contains weapons for every preference. There are slow swords, fast swords, axes, fists, guns, dual blades, rods. That is only a few. And a great thing about PSP is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are chicken outfits, shiskabab weapons, an axe that looks like a giant lollipop. It is comedic relief like this that actually brings a smile to the players face. Aside from that, every weapon has several special moves that can become heavy hits or elaborate combos. The special moves help break the monotony of the standard combo, and with the quick changing slot, players can have up to six weapons at the ready for when they feel like switching. It is a really great setup, and compliments the gameplay as whole.
One downside, that some might completely write the game off because of this, is the lack of online play. Yes, there is Ad-hoc. But that is limited to PS3 owners, which is a hefty price to play this game online. Aside from that, there is no online play. There is wireless with someone near you in real life, but that isn’t exactly the most convenient way to play with others, especially in this day and age. It is a sad fact, but PSP loses a huge part of its essence without online play. I guess that’s why it is titled “Phantasy Star Portable” instead of “Phantasy Star Online: Portable.”
Playtime/Replayability 8/10- This game is consuming. It is hard to put it any other way. The story is easy, but the bulk of the game comes from free missions. There are four planets to travel between, each with plenty of free missions for the player to traverse. Each mission is replayable, and with the same reward at the end. This adds incentive to replay the missions, or just go collecting for new weapons or armor. With eight different “jobs” to level up to level 10, players who love to complete the entire game will find themselves replaying missions quite a bit. As for replayability, there are four different races! Create as many characters as your memory stick can hold, try out all the difference races, find which you like the best. Level each kind to lvl 100. The game keeps the player plenty busy, truly living up to the hack and slash status quo.
Final Score 7/10- I thoroughly enjoyed PSP, as I am a huge fan of the PSO series. The gameplay is classic PSO, and despite the lack of online play, it is still fun. If you have a PS3, you have no reason to avoid this title. If you are the kind of player that doesn’t care about online play, or just want a great hack and slash title, this is the game for you. Definitely worth the money.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Atlus brings a Shin Megami Tensei title to the DS, and with flying colors!
Intro- Atlus, creators of the Shin Megami Tensei series, have brought us a new edition of the franchise, and this time in a hand held fashion. SMT: Devil Survivor is a great addition to the series, and is even innovative to boot. The series, famous for the deep story lines and turn based battle system, applies a similar formula to Devil Survivor. The difference this time around is the addition of the Strategy genre added to traditional RPG gameplay. Some may be skeptical, but it works!
Story 8/10- Tokyo falls into a time of crisis, due to a supposed gas leak? Too common a problem for Shin Megami Tensei. The MC ( players get to name him) and his too friends, Yuzu and Atsuro, are given devices called COMPs, that allow the three to summon demons! The three learn that they are locked into the Yamanote circle in Tokyo, along with thousands of other people. MC, Yuzu, and Atsuro learn to use demon to fight off other demons, as well as other humans who have their own COMPs. Players will meet a plethora of other people who are trapped and trying to find a way out of the lockdown, as well as figure out mysteries that tie demons, the government, and a religious group together. The story is actually quite immersive, and with each little clue, it makes the player want to find more and more out about what is actually happening.
Music/Graphics 7/10- I personally love the music in this game. I find the battle music very entertaining, and have even found myself listen to it without actually playing the game. Boss fight music is epic, to keep it simple. The game actually makes the player feel like they are doing something important. Out of battle music, like dialogue and menu screens, are repetitive, but not annoying. They are well placed, and seem to fit the mood of the situation the players are in. The graphics in this game aren’t the best out there. There are quite a few games that can be found on the DS with better graphics, but this isn’t a hindrance to the game at all. When characters talk, players see character models with emotions depicting how they would react to the conversation, a very typical Atlus-oriented direction to the dialogue. In battle, small, full body sprites of the characters traverse different locales inside of Tokyo. Attacks are not what you would call flashy, nor are there any battle cries that may entice players to kill monsters just to hear them die. But as previously stated, this is no hindrance.
Gameplay 8/10- Devil Survivor takes on two roles when it comes to gameplay: traditional RPG and Strategy RPG. Oddly enough, the game pulls it off well. I do not usually enjoy SRPGs very often, but Devil Survivor manages to keep me very interested with the interaction of traditional elements. To put it simply, players move three to four characters on the battlefield, in a similar fashion to most SRPG games. They move from square to square, and move more squares depending on their “move” value. Different demons add alterations to movement, like ignorance of obstacles, switching places, or extending how far the character can move. When a character arrives next to an enemy, they can choose to attack the enemy, which transfers the player to a battle screen. This is where the traditional RPG elements come into play. Instead of having the character model hit the enemy with a weapon and then ending the turn, the game transfers to somewhat of a first person mode where you chose your attacks in a turn based fashion. Each character can have two other demons accompany them, forming a “team” to fight enemies, which generally have the same setup. Players have the option of focusing their attacks on the middle enemy, which is the leader of the team. If the leader is defeated (this applies to both enemies and playable characters) then that team is defeated and disappears from the battlefield. Players can do that, or they can kill off the other two enemies from more EXP and money. If an attack scores a critical hit, or hits an enemy with a weakness to that attack, both the enemy and the player have a chance to get an “extra hit,” which is exactly what it seems to be.
The second portion of gameplay is the acquisition of demons, which if done right, can make or break the battle system. Demons play a huge role in how successful the player will be during their battles. The worst match-up can end an entire team in as little as one turn. The reason for this is that magic is extremely effective. So much so that strategic players will save before a fight, just to see the demons they will have to be fighting before actually taking the fight seriously. If a demon is hit by its weakness, there is a very good chance it will be crippled and knocked out in one hit. But to avoid poor match-ups or weak demons, players will take place in the “Demon Auction.” Once again, exactly as it sounds. Players gamble in an auction for different demons, to either use in battle or to fuse with other demons to create, you guessed it, more demons! The auction and fusion options are fun enough to keep people occupied for hours, I know I have.
Thirdly, within battle, players can “crack” abilities from enemies. Cracking abilities can save one’s hind end in the future of their game, as it is as important as leveling one’s characters. Each playable character has three sections of abilities: Combat, Support, and Special, which are human only. Command skills can only be used during the turn based battle screen. Support skills can be used any time during a characters turn, besides when they enter battle. Special skills are always in effect, usually giving bonus’ to stats before a battle starts. These are all extremely useful, and sometimes the only way a battle can be won.
Playtime/Replayability 8/10- Devil Survivor does a very good job of both the following elements of video games. Playtime, depending on the level of OCD from the player, can be as low as thirty hours, or even as high as one hundred fifty hours. In one playthrough. I find myself saving before choosing an option to talk to different people, as not every option is always available. It is up to the player to decide who to talk to and when to do it. There are always optional battles for players to level their characters or crack new skills, which is also a great way to rack up hours on the clock. Replayability in this game is high, as there are different endings depending on the players decisions in-game. There are several “paths” the players can take for specific characters, and then afterwards the option of a New Game+ becomes available. Most RPG veterans know what this option means, but for those that don’t, after you beat the game, you can start over with all your previously acquired skills and money. This is very fun for many players, and allows the player to take a different route towards the ending of the game. It is a great option for this game, and adds even more incentive to continue playing.
Final Score 8/10- Devil Survivor is a great addition to both the Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as the DS’ RPG library. The story is interesting and immersive, with memorable characters and interesting events. It is dark and at the same time enlightening, food for thought if you will. The music is very enjoyable, not irritating in the least, and fits well with the feeling of each situation. The graphics aren’t terrible by any means, but not exactly impressive. The game is more about the story and gameplay anyway, so the graphics don’t hinder the game in any way. As with all RPG’s, gameplay can be a deciding factor on whether or not the game will be a rent or a purchase. Well, nobody rents DS games, so you might as well buy this one while it is still easily available. The gameplay is a very innovative mix of SRPG and traditional RPG elements, and it pulls it off extremely well. Devil Survivor is time consuming with all the different demon combinations and routes to be taken in-game, and the New Game+ option adds to the Replayability. Overall, the game is a great buy for any DS owner, and must for eastern RPG veterans.
Story 8/10- Tokyo falls into a time of crisis, due to a supposed gas leak? Too common a problem for Shin Megami Tensei. The MC ( players get to name him) and his too friends, Yuzu and Atsuro, are given devices called COMPs, that allow the three to summon demons! The three learn that they are locked into the Yamanote circle in Tokyo, along with thousands of other people. MC, Yuzu, and Atsuro learn to use demon to fight off other demons, as well as other humans who have their own COMPs. Players will meet a plethora of other people who are trapped and trying to find a way out of the lockdown, as well as figure out mysteries that tie demons, the government, and a religious group together. The story is actually quite immersive, and with each little clue, it makes the player want to find more and more out about what is actually happening.
Music/Graphics 7/10- I personally love the music in this game. I find the battle music very entertaining, and have even found myself listen to it without actually playing the game. Boss fight music is epic, to keep it simple. The game actually makes the player feel like they are doing something important. Out of battle music, like dialogue and menu screens, are repetitive, but not annoying. They are well placed, and seem to fit the mood of the situation the players are in. The graphics in this game aren’t the best out there. There are quite a few games that can be found on the DS with better graphics, but this isn’t a hindrance to the game at all. When characters talk, players see character models with emotions depicting how they would react to the conversation, a very typical Atlus-oriented direction to the dialogue. In battle, small, full body sprites of the characters traverse different locales inside of Tokyo. Attacks are not what you would call flashy, nor are there any battle cries that may entice players to kill monsters just to hear them die. But as previously stated, this is no hindrance.
Gameplay 8/10- Devil Survivor takes on two roles when it comes to gameplay: traditional RPG and Strategy RPG. Oddly enough, the game pulls it off well. I do not usually enjoy SRPGs very often, but Devil Survivor manages to keep me very interested with the interaction of traditional elements. To put it simply, players move three to four characters on the battlefield, in a similar fashion to most SRPG games. They move from square to square, and move more squares depending on their “move” value. Different demons add alterations to movement, like ignorance of obstacles, switching places, or extending how far the character can move. When a character arrives next to an enemy, they can choose to attack the enemy, which transfers the player to a battle screen. This is where the traditional RPG elements come into play. Instead of having the character model hit the enemy with a weapon and then ending the turn, the game transfers to somewhat of a first person mode where you chose your attacks in a turn based fashion. Each character can have two other demons accompany them, forming a “team” to fight enemies, which generally have the same setup. Players have the option of focusing their attacks on the middle enemy, which is the leader of the team. If the leader is defeated (this applies to both enemies and playable characters) then that team is defeated and disappears from the battlefield. Players can do that, or they can kill off the other two enemies from more EXP and money. If an attack scores a critical hit, or hits an enemy with a weakness to that attack, both the enemy and the player have a chance to get an “extra hit,” which is exactly what it seems to be.
The second portion of gameplay is the acquisition of demons, which if done right, can make or break the battle system. Demons play a huge role in how successful the player will be during their battles. The worst match-up can end an entire team in as little as one turn. The reason for this is that magic is extremely effective. So much so that strategic players will save before a fight, just to see the demons they will have to be fighting before actually taking the fight seriously. If a demon is hit by its weakness, there is a very good chance it will be crippled and knocked out in one hit. But to avoid poor match-ups or weak demons, players will take place in the “Demon Auction.” Once again, exactly as it sounds. Players gamble in an auction for different demons, to either use in battle or to fuse with other demons to create, you guessed it, more demons! The auction and fusion options are fun enough to keep people occupied for hours, I know I have.
Thirdly, within battle, players can “crack” abilities from enemies. Cracking abilities can save one’s hind end in the future of their game, as it is as important as leveling one’s characters. Each playable character has three sections of abilities: Combat, Support, and Special, which are human only. Command skills can only be used during the turn based battle screen. Support skills can be used any time during a characters turn, besides when they enter battle. Special skills are always in effect, usually giving bonus’ to stats before a battle starts. These are all extremely useful, and sometimes the only way a battle can be won.
Playtime/Replayability 8/10- Devil Survivor does a very good job of both the following elements of video games. Playtime, depending on the level of OCD from the player, can be as low as thirty hours, or even as high as one hundred fifty hours. In one playthrough. I find myself saving before choosing an option to talk to different people, as not every option is always available. It is up to the player to decide who to talk to and when to do it. There are always optional battles for players to level their characters or crack new skills, which is also a great way to rack up hours on the clock. Replayability in this game is high, as there are different endings depending on the players decisions in-game. There are several “paths” the players can take for specific characters, and then afterwards the option of a New Game+ becomes available. Most RPG veterans know what this option means, but for those that don’t, after you beat the game, you can start over with all your previously acquired skills and money. This is very fun for many players, and allows the player to take a different route towards the ending of the game. It is a great option for this game, and adds even more incentive to continue playing.
Final Score 8/10- Devil Survivor is a great addition to both the Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as the DS’ RPG library. The story is interesting and immersive, with memorable characters and interesting events. It is dark and at the same time enlightening, food for thought if you will. The music is very enjoyable, not irritating in the least, and fits well with the feeling of each situation. The graphics aren’t terrible by any means, but not exactly impressive. The game is more about the story and gameplay anyway, so the graphics don’t hinder the game in any way. As with all RPG’s, gameplay can be a deciding factor on whether or not the game will be a rent or a purchase. Well, nobody rents DS games, so you might as well buy this one while it is still easily available. The gameplay is a very innovative mix of SRPG and traditional RPG elements, and it pulls it off extremely well. Devil Survivor is time consuming with all the different demon combinations and routes to be taken in-game, and the New Game+ option adds to the Replayability. Overall, the game is a great buy for any DS owner, and must for eastern RPG veterans.
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