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Atlus SMT Devil Survivor 1 & 2 thoughts

Zerth

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Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Summary
I don't think anyone here would play any Megaten derived game mainly for its plot, considering that is a japanese franchise. Yet, It still bothers me that , after the good work devs did with Overclocked, Desu 2 Record Breaker main storyline is banal and idealistic in a lazy way.

Firstly, I'll elaborate a bit more about Overclocked's narrative. A lockdown is a typical yet effective excuse to convey compact, oppresive fantasy settings, think about raccoon city. You are at the mercy of a pretty precarious situation; demons roam rampant and there's not access to phone service, electricity or common goods, If that wasn't bad enough there's a dreadful death clock over your head intensifying your partners despair.

So anyways, Your team spends most of the time wandering around looking for answers and a way to avert death, to eventually leverage the path MC chooses by following events that are more akin to your agenda.

Desu 2, in contrast, discards so many Megaten identity features in order to rehash Evangelion + Fallout New Vegas. Why Fallout New Vegas? Because It's essentially settled on a similar premise: Old world is in shambles, a couple of factions arise and clash struggling to impose their own agenda, although one faction has already seized the situation to its advantage just like NCR did. I'm aware that comparing a purposely minimalistic jRPG with New Vegas is unfair and unreasonable, I just mentioned it for curiosity sake.

Back to the topic, there are several nuances that made it pretty much bleak compared with Overclocked plot though:

-This time humans didn't hold any degree of responsibility for Desu 2 world demise; Instead It was just started arbitrarily for aliens with a purposely vague and stupid reason "herp derp humans have lost their potential because we say so herp derp".Demons have nothing to do with this either, sadly, they were relegated as mere plot devices and trash mobs to pummel.

-Despite each ideology has its fair share of criticism among characters, every political filosofy is practically portrayed as a flawless solution that will point civilization towards the right direction, since humans are going to be brainwashed by a giant fancy ice pick anyways. In other words, a story written to enact utopic wish fulfillments.

- As a player, there is an inherent selfishness in doing social links while dealing with an freaking apocalypse, you receive juicy bonuses and unlockable demons for maxing people's SL, that kinda defeats the purpose since I didn't feel like actualy caring for every character angst. Mostly, because a bunch of relationships feel pretty bland (Airi, Keita, Jungo...), forced (Ronaldo, Otome, Fumi...), fleeting (Angished One, Miyako) and just there to please an audience accustomed to persona shenaningans.

Anyways, only worth playing for slightly improved gameplay, optional battles and I can't deny has Its moments during some social link events. Overclocked is far better as a visual novel, and is not worse gameplay-wise either, since It is a polished and improved port. Just pick it and look no further.
Autistic drivel version:
So I've been playing both titles recently, I've beat both several times, earned bazillion bonus points and unlocked optional content, etc. both games lean more towards visual novel genre than convencional tactics RPgs, specially Record Breaker.

The core gameplay resembles grid based positioning with isometric view -like any other regular tactics jrpg- merged with a streamlined blobber combat mechanics, plus the good ole` SMT demon fusion and recruitment which is done through bidding at the demon's auction. Its execution is rather simple: you advance several tiles towards your foe, activate racial abilities if apply and then begin the skirmish, rinse and repeat until you wipe out all the demon critters on stage.

1OXa80k.jpg

Although that's all the fun of it, is designed to be pretty straightforward (3vs3 fight/maximun 3 skillslots/1 turn+ 1 extra turns initiative dependent, small grid maps etc.); since It encourages immediate decision making instead of pushing the player to take pauses in order to come up with a strategy. Therefore, most of the pensive aspect of devil survivor franchise resides within prepping your team before the upcoming battle, not much during it. Unfortunately,I feel Atlus missed a opportunity by just adding it to a pair of games that are primarily visual novels, e.g. a combination of this gameplay with light dungeon crawling exploration instead of watered down Persona-like side events would have been nicer in my opinion.

As expected, this small spin-off puts aside some traditional elements from mainline SMT games: few demon active and passive skills ( no -kaja or -nda abilities, no mudo nor hama skills, etc.) and even fewer skillslots, no special fusions and just a handful of demon races, although these actually do include some pretty neat things like human auto skills and some unique offensive and defensive abilities; that really makes a difference in the outcome of a skirmish.

USLK1eM.png

Main Character has debilitate as assigned autoskill. It automatically applies debuff once at the start of skirmish.
Nevertheless, I suppose the limitations are justified since combat encounter lasts as much as two turns (a potential third
with Omega demons race's ability in DeSu 2 Record Breaker), and everything is setup in favor of offensive leaning strategies. Of course I didn't mean that there is not room for defensive tactics, but generally are not worth the effort in contrast of just resorting on blowing up everything with almighty powa and spamming the broken multi-strike, -but if you want to insist in tanking, Desu 2 Hero+Tyrant or snake+Tyrant is a killer combination for useful tanking prowess- . This specially applies on DeSu 2 Record Breaker, since it extends the demon racial skill capabilities to ludicrous levels, and thus trivializing most combat encounters. Personally, I found the combination of dragon Evil Flow+ Fiend unearthy form+ Kishin matchless so powerful that your character will become into an entity closer to a Megaten boss with Beast eye/Dragon eye than anything else.

But in terms of writing, albeit far from be top-notch, Overclocked's story is relatively better written since It conveys Its premise in a more engaging way compared to Desu 2, as well as maintaining consistency within the SMT metaverse. DeSu 2 Record Breaker derails from both the mainline SMT and Persona only to end up with a bland plot that blatantly puts aside the cornerstone of SMT franchise: demons; and then scale them down to just fulfill the role of generic trash mobs in order to provide relevance to a bunch of geometry's abominations with a similar agenda to evangelion's Angels and an undewhelming implementation of Persona's social links.

Also, instead of unique bonus 8th days for some ending paths like in Overclocked , Record Breaker offers an entire new arc (The triangulum) readily available; which is based upon a mixed outcome of two entirely different Septentrione arc endings, invalidating player's choices from their sept arc playthrough :roll:. Suffice to say that if Septentrione's arc wasn't retarded enough sometimes, Triangulum's arc goes beyond stupid; the only decent thing in regards of writing content from that arc is contained within some fate events, but the rest is just Hotsuin fanservice.

More autistic drivel with spoilers:
In Overclocked, Yuzu despairs and desperately yearns for a way out, which is of course the most logical immediate goal to work towards, which MC and Atsuro agrees to go along until find out there are more stuff at stake that could made them rethink their original plan. This is the first objective narrative works towards: find a way to escape this madness. And this plan could be followed during the seven days if desired, but the more you find out about the implications of the lockdown, the more tempting becomes ditching Yuzu's plan and ponder over several bifurcations available.

There are a lot of missable stuff if not done properly, and priorizing events affect the outcome of several of them. Overclocked also handles well some things that if left unexplained could have lead to potential plot gaps by providing alright explanations of how the COMPs work, how the server manages the execution of a demon summoning and explore the possibilities of using demons for other kind of purposes besides violence. It never stops being oppresive, yet respects its own boundaries,since the deadline is under seven days, yet the more you find out the greater the magnitude of the problem seems to be.

In contrast, Record Breaker feels more banal than Overclocked, despite handling the issue at a greater scale (The world vs. A lockdown) going beyond its intended boundaries, losing itself within a convoluted metaphysical mess beyond time, gravity and space. Regardless, It's established under a promising premise: A world collapsing in a way no mortal is able to grasp, a mysterious demon summoning app and a secret government organization that monopolizes the whole situation. But then, all the relevant C&C is only available after reaching the already cramped endgame.

But then they made a great deal about the implications of leadership in a very shallow and player gratifying way. I mean, the only one that I saw being constantly lashed out by making harsh decisions is Yamato Hotsuin - Not that He would show a glimpse of regret when the outcome of his plans entail the loss of civilians or subordinates, but that's not the point- while MC, who almost never comes up with ideas by his own; his actions are immediately showered by praises. Even Ronaldo Kuriki has to deal with the consequences of leading people just for antagonizing a freaking government organization.

For a character whose whole reason to exist is to convey player's intention. The Main Character, most of times, is just the proverbial "jack" that everyone uses to convey their own interests; and despite some genuinely funny responses, his dialogue options are rarely quarrelsome or interesting and everything you need to know is already handed to you on silver platter through regular story exposure without even bothering with doing some time's investment into any optional events.

Also, except for the few times Record Breaker uses demons as plot devices; It keeps an oblivious attitude towards them, to the point that It seems that the writers didn't care whether they contradict themselves or not, e.g. Io Nitta UNIQUE medium's abilities are completely forgotten afterwards, demons behave like mindless critters being attracted to "Power" in the same way flies fly around a piece of turd. Besides that, is never clearly stated any other motivation (I'm not counting optional bosses, since those have zero relevance over anything in Devil Survivor 2) that made them come to the human world through "berserked" phones in first place -with Berserk it refers to phones with unfulfilled demon contracts that are left behind with the demon summoning app active, which creates a portal called "miasma" that funnels demons into the human world-.

Oddly enough, unlike the main storyline, I found about 60% of Desu 2 character cast kind of memorable, to the point I kept thinking about them long after finally putting the game down. I guess that was the intended purpose of Desu 2 Fate System, as a showcase of the value of leadership through kindness and caring for the fellow man instead of pushing others agendas. Is not coincidence that the title "Record Breaker" reveals which is canon ending, in a not very subtle way; but I digress.

Fate system related events -albeit not as a whole- actually are more engaging than the main storyline. But the issue with getting intimate with people and care for their personal problems is that It feels forced and insincere, even when their issues don't leave them completely detached from the apocalyptic scenario Septentrione and Triangulum arcs pretended to recreate. In other words, would the Main Character feels genuinely concerned about Otome motherly insecurities? Airi's favorite concert hall? Fumi's research? Io confidence issues? Hinako self-loathing? Keita's reluctancy to rely on others?.

Persona-wise, the devs encourage you as a player to increase character fate ranks with tangible rewards; such as unlockable demons and resistance bonuses. However, from my point of view, either the developers admit that exists an inherent selfishness by doing fate events or They added the fate system only as an attempt to cater on Persona's popularity and actually don't care whether the outcome was good enough to be on par with the Social links. Nevertheless, the whole fate system feels experimental considering They had to shove them within a timeframe of seven days, and I can't think of any game that attempted to convey social sim mechanics into a catastrophic setting.

Regardless, It could have been done better.

The following is a summary of all the playable characters fate events from devil survivor 2 RB, sorted by plot relevancy:

Yamato Hotsuin: Take Naoya/Cain from desu, make him read Atlas Shrugged, and then swap his resentment towards god for Modern Japan's status quo. With that, I guarantee you can picture almost the whole Yamato's character.A secluded and strict life drove him to embrace the cold and manipulative genius trope. Although He's eventually mellowed by Main character influence; and starts to appreciate the untapped potential of mundane life.

He's the backbone of septentrione arc, becoming into either an endgame lukewarm ally or a total pain in the ass to deal with as antagonist. On Triangulum arc, He gains so much protagonism that leaves the main character's role redundant, whom does jack shit but be the designed group psychotherapist as always.

His Fate events would have been boring if not for the last taroyaki scene, because It brilliantly exposes that his own beliefs are mostly fueled by plain prejudice, albeit of being portrayed as ideal.

Miyako Hotsuin: Awww, Look how moe cute She is!! She couldn't pander for more fanservice because even devs would admit is too blatant.

I found really hilarious how in the Human Administrator ending, She attempts to join the Main Character as his "sword"; then Al Saiduq steps in, promptly cockblocks her and say "heh, this dude's rightfully mine I'm older, so stay away and then become totally human and stuff", so He locks himself with MC instead. Although I can't really tell whether the main character would prefer banging Miyako for all eternity over being stuck forever alongside his own adoring fan.

Anyways, She doesn't stand out much as unique character instead of being a mere genderswapped Yamato wielding a whip and a sword for extra swagger. Even one of her events is identical to one of Yamato's events, where She receives a candy as gift from a random person (this case is a child instead of a dying bloke) and wonder whether she deserves it or not.

Despite all the similarities, Atlus kind of nailed it again by illustrating the moment of defiance of her own ideals; when the climax of her fate event happens: instead of taroyaki, Miyako experiences a nervous breakdown after realizing She has developed selfish feelings towards the protagonist and actually don't give a damn about the rest of humanity.

Makoto Sako: After Yamato, She is undoubtebly one of the best characters Desu 2 has to offer. Her role is pretty vital because She represents the sane and kind-hearted side of an elitist organization (Jips) that hoards resources and spares little effort in providing assistance to the common civilian population because they're mostly regarded unworthy to be within its scope unless any of them proves individually his/her value otherwise.

Her fate events are also quite coherent with the depicted situation the world is goin' through. Hell, even if there was a romanceable option for her, like in persona, the whole thing would not be so out of place as well. Anyway, by following her fate event, to summarize, is revealed that She is very grateful that JPs gave her a renewed life's purpose after suffering a severe accident that left her unable to keep on with her aspirations of becoming a olympiad swimmer; and therefore She repays Jips back with blind loyalty. The problem is that She is unable to ignore her own dissenting voice, because She is not apeshit crazy about Yamato's take of meritocracy or shares his scorn towards the weak or unremarkable. On the other hand, She doesn't desire to dissent or make divergent decisions since She regards it as a betrayalto Jips interest.

Funnily enough,Yamato Hotsuin is so fascinated with the protagonist blowing up septentriones that He just doesn't care what the hell Makoto is doing or the outcome of her own decisions; like letting Ronaldo go or rescuing rioters from demons. For her distraught, She's not going to be "punished" anytime soon.

Ronaldo Kuriki: The guy is hilariously belligerent, almost to the Keita's level. The way He acts in his pursuit for "justice" can be easily regarded as downright terrorist: He seizes government's branches by force that belongs to Jips and has no qualms in including Yakuza members among his troops that kidnap people and relentlessly attack Jps agents.

Quite a shame He fell victim of lazy writing, since the little character development He gains by doing his optional fate events (his obligatory fate events are focused into revealing Yamato`s conspiracy with Polaris) is completely forgotten after reaching the endgame. Because during his personal events; He simmer down his insanity by setting apart his vengeful agenda in order to become a typical hero of justice, but after the sixth day, He returns to his old self equivalent of a post-apoc Raider chieftain.

Anguished One/Alcor/Al Saiduq: while Ronaldo, Yamato and Daichi restorer path represent variations of law alignment, Al is the only decent alternative that incarnates the Chaos alignment itself. He's depicted as the devil survivor equivalent of Prometheus, and his fate events during Sept arc are just a series of unamusing ruminations about humanity's necessity of free will.

If you increase his fate's rank to 4, in Day 7th; you can convince him to help you with your Polaris Overthrowing scheme - The only ending route which plan did came up by protagonist own idea; about time the guy showed some iniciative- and then transform AlSaiduq's stripey butt into a new primeval world, so He can fulfill his ultimate kink: to bear and be surrounded by his beloved human race for evah and evah.

Fumi Kanno: She's Jips lead data scientist, Jips telecom manager, IT staff, hacker,etc. *sigh* well, pretty much everything associated with computers. She at first stroke me as the typical condescending genius trope designed by someone that knows
crap about any field of science, since She tends to lose herself into pedantic technical ramblings and anyone bored enough could notice several gaps within.

However, It seems devs were aware of all the harsh criticism an omnitalented genius with big titties would arise, so they ended up giving her cartoonish traits: She almost has orgasms everytime She starts a new research, has a compulsive habit to carry several laptops around concealed in her cheongsam, the practical applications of her research tends to blow up(She's a brilliant scientist but a crappy engineer), etc. It also helps She is not going through an emotional distress like most of the normie characters.

Fumi Kanno can't be taken as seriously as Atsuro, but at least She's an amusing character and her stat distribution makes her a godlike offensive magic caster, unlike most of other magic oriented characters.

Io and Daichi: Pretty sure devs prioritized the writing of those two, other characters fate events felt like fillers in comparison. Their character development actually occurs at a better pace than the others, both deal with tough shit and devs made an effort to cohesively convey their personal issues with the apocalyptic setting they're dealing with.

Io's current fate rank can effect the outcome of certain event of the main storyline. Certainly, the outcome is whether She survives it or not, but is the only death video that can be averted by strenghtening bonds instead of showing up earlier; and the only C&C derived from a character relationship you will find before endgame, unfortunately.

Both Io and Daichi dislike strife, and since recent circumstances cause lots of It, They just can't always run away and rely on you to fix everything. Both eventually realize, given how far you develop their fate ranks, that their inaction might lead to the suffering of people more vulnerable than them. Then, Io ends up as a rookie mediator and Daichi becomes more reliable. However,Daichi is still a coward and for Io speaking her mind is still a daunting task, They just only learnt to control better their negative aspects; and I'm totally fine with that, because people don't change completely, and even less after dealing with a conflict that lasted just eight days regardless how traumatic was for them.

Yuzuru "Joe" Akie: Despite of being a minor character, Akie is an interesting fellow. He doesn't have any qualms to admit his wishy-washy attitude and his lax behaviour. Then again, He's usually pretty chill towards all the apocalypse business, in contrast of people like Makoto, who can enter in a triggered state when spotting any threat regardless of how insignificant it is.

Anyways, He has a ill girlfriend dying in a Nagoya hospital at the worst situation Desu 2 mankind has ever faced; so He's pretty much into a rough spot and since He's not used to cope with this kind of pressure, He's asshat enough to care more about the impression He might give when He finally decides to visit her instead of her well being. So that's pretty much his character's arc about: Joe recognizes the whole situation is superior to him and wish He just could let it be like always do, but He can't. The protagonist eventually inspires him some bravery to finally go visit his girlfriend and propose marriage to her.She eventually dies and Joe ends up loathing his own frivolity and swore never be late again.

Otome: She's Jips Osaka branch physician, although It seems to be the only doctor of the entire organization. Mostly there to tease Makoto feelings towards the protagonist, She also likes to talk about her newfound maternal instincts after adopting her orphan cousin Koharu, and how much regrets the fact She can't afford to spend enough time with her.

Is a bit awkward how She is eager to trust Koharu as your protégé despite you only see her like well....once. I'm aware protagonist actions has inspired awe among his friends, but sometimes is a bit too much; suddenly He became so reliable She'd not doubt trust her loved ones life to him above any closer friend of hers, like Makoto.

Jungo Torii: A serviceable character that only exists to support others instead of himself, like the protagonist. He's pretty much a japanese Forrest Gump with a recurring gag included (chawamushi). His whole fate event is only there to reinforce the fact He is a good guy, nothing else.

Hinako Kujou: She's generally cheerful, pushy and eager to help others. However, those positive traits constitute many layers of a facade that conceals her tendency to remain within her own cycle of self-loathing. Although It doesn't stop her to act and make herself useful whenever possible, Hinako often doesn't think that as a dancer She can put any value on the table, thus She deemed herself as worthless given actual circumstances. She is one of those characters that is emotionally clung to the protagonist and anything He says will eventually help rediscover her passion for dance since She will (duh!) realize that people gets bored and tired of just doing survival stuff and a bit of escapism helps boost morale.


Airi and Keita: Finally I'm scratching the bottom of the barrel. The worst of the bunch. For those people that remember the T.V show Hey Arnold? Imagine Helga or just Asuka from Evangelion; and you'll have the personality of those two already figured. Alas, both fit the "tsundere" type of personality, although Keita is the surlier one. Both have a crush on Main Character, getting all flustered or aggresive towards him and gift him with souvenirs during each introductory day. At any rate, both are shameless pieces of turd.

Keita fate's events change if Jungo is absent (dead). Nevertheless, with or without Jungo, It mostly consists of the Main character awkwardly standing as a semi-silent observer while Keita -obviously uncomfortable and secretly grateful for your presence- threatens but reluctantly opens up to him. The thing is Keita avoids relationships because his father was betrayed for close friends, thus He regards friendship as only fitting for the weak. Ironically, He seems terrified by the idea of end up like his father: betrayed and alone.

Airi doesn't have any redeeiming qualities to stand up: She is bitter, jealous, obnoxious, whiny, bossy, preachy, etc. No wonder she receives little respect and is usually the butt of others jokes, Main Character included. She is an introverted girl with an outrageously bland issue depicted as tragic: She is a supposely talented piano player (won a contest and everything) and wanted to be a concert pianist, but seems wasn't good enough to earn a scholarship and her family couldn't afford piano lessons any longer, so the lack of family support alongside the fact her father disappeared, contributed with the decision of downright quitting her dreams of becoming a concert pianist.

Therefore, She fakes pragmatism and pretends that doesn't care for it anymore, when in reality, the fact that She decided to stop playing the piano as much as She does with her clitoris is slowly killing her inside.

She would have been a cooler character if not of her shitty character fate's arc. I think devs didn't put much effort on her events in order to rush her resolve at endgame, since is not very different than Keita events: Main Character is just there as a semi silent observer while Airi is staring at her favorite concert hall with a melancholic look on her face.

For putting up this kind of bullshit, I really wished there were an option to kick her entitled ass into the concert hall and set that shit on fire with her inside. Oh well, at least there is certain moment during her events that Makoto bitchslaps Airi as a reality check measure, I suppose that works too.

Dera-Deka: It seems as Airi's father He had to surpass her daughter in regards of how pointless a character arc can be. Except for the unlockable demon, his events are absolute waste of time , He provides a bit more backstory related to Hotsuin family and Jips but that's it. His motivations to remain in the shadows until He dies are flimsy, since Yamato Hotsuin would care for him as much He actually cares for his student Ronaldo: nothing at all.

Phew well, that's pretty much it. Hope Devil Survivor 3 devs forgets about human bias and deconstructs social links in order to create one for demons. That'd be a quite fresh concept to explore.
 
Last edited:
Self-Ejected

aweigh

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Zerth

i had never before dabbled with the SRPG-type entries in the SMT franchise (i've never played the MT NES games, for example) so I was quite excited to play the first Devil Survivor game when I first learned of it.

i played the 1st one (SMT: Devil Survivor) on an NDS emulator (desmume) and I was itching to play what, in my mind, would be basically Final Fantasy Tactics-style battles except in a MegaTen game world with MegaTen writing and story.

It took almost 1 hour and a half before I was able to get into the first proper party versus demons battle (discounting the introductory fight which is basically automated). By that point I had already read more text about bad-anime characters than I ever expected to, and found the non-stop barrage of bad-anime characters and bad-anime writing too much of an impenetrable wall to overcome.

I sighed, quit the poor excuse of a game (RPGs are not supposed to be composed of more than text than game play), and went instead onwards to play SMT: Strange Journey (on the same emulator).

I had an amazing experience playing Strange Journey.

as for your autistic drivel you put in spoiler tags the most interesting part of what you wrote which is the (the 1st spoiler tag) where you break down the literary approach taken with Devil Survivor 1's story. You should break off the first two paragraphs of that, take it out of the 1st spoiler tag, and begin your post with that instead of the Fallout comparison; I guarantee this will make more people read your post.

glad to know I was correct in not bothering to continue playing DS 1 or bothering with DS 2 whatsoever as it appears they were/are exactly what I most despise: light novels disguised as RPGs.

they are execrable entries in the SMT franchise in my opinion, but I found your autistic drivel worth reading and salute you for it. I'd be interested in reading more of your autistic drivel as it pertains to actually good entries in the SMT franchise such as Strange Journey, Nocturne, or Persona 2 or Soul Hackers.
 

karoliner

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I only played the originals releases for DS. While they both had anime quality stories the one in 2 was too much even for me to handle. They decided to do a retelling of Evangelion for some reason, Sahaquiel included. I remember going with Al Saiduq plan purely because all the other chars were so unlikable(except for Mako-Mako).The additions of Record Breaker sound too retarded, too fanservicey and too anticlimatic.

I still think the endings for DeSu 1 are among the best of SMT. At least Law isn't the typical "YHWH establishes a dictatorship and brainwashes all humans".
 

HoboForEternity

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I played this years ago. Skimmed a little cos i am at work now. I guess it is worth a full read. Gonna be an interesring fresh review and look back to the game i thought was very deep and awesome as a teen.

Lets see what i would think about it based on what your intepretation written there with my cynical adult point of view
 

Zerth

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
i had never before dabbled with the SRPG-type entries in the SMT franchise (i've never played the MT NES games, for example) so I was quite excited to play the first Devil Survivor game when I first learned of it.

i played the 1st one (SMT: Devil Survivor) on an NDS emulator (desmume) and I was itching to play what, in my mind, would be basically Final Fantasy Tactics-style battles except in a MegaTen game world with MegaTen writing and story.

It took almost 1 hour and a half before I was able to get into the first proper party versus demons battle (discounting the introductory fight which is basically automated). By that point I had already read more text about bad-anime characters than I ever expected to, and found the non-stop barrage of bad-anime characters and bad-anime writing too much of an impenetrable wall to overcome.

I sighed, quit the poor excuse of a game (RPGs are not supposed to be composed of more than text than game play), and went instead onwards to play SMT: Strange Journey (on the same emulator).

I had an amazing experience playing Strange Journey.

as for your autistic drivel you put in spoiler tags the most interesting part of what you wrote which is the (the 1st spoiler tag) where you break down the literary approach taken with Devil Survivor 1's story. You should break off the first two paragraphs of that, take it out of the 1st spoiler tag, and begin your post with that instead of the Fallout comparison; I guarantee this will make more people read your post.

glad to know I was correct in not bothering to continue playing DS 1 or bothering with DS 2 whatsoever as it appears they were/are exactly what I most despise: light novels disguised as RPGs.

they are execrable entries in the SMT franchise in my opinion, but I found your autistic drivel worth reading and salute you for it. I'd be interested in reading more of your autistic drivel as it pertains to actually good entries in the SMT franchise such as Strange Journey, Nocturne, or Persona 2 or Soul Hackers.

Thanks, I will apply your suggestion. I noticed in the summary didnt mention anything about Overclocked premise and jumped immediately over Record Breaker's neck.

Anyways, despite my text reiterates several times that I'm fond of Overclocked premise and squeezed every penny spent on these games; I actually think that devs took several steps backwards by making them lazy Visual Novels, It might work for a graphic adventure; but is a pretty surefire way to butcher a RPG storytelling. Because both interactivity and exposition are dumbed down so hard since It only consists in just selecting a set of events to trigger a piece of text with avatar as anecdotal evidences about something that happened or may happen instead of getting physically involved with it.

Is a pretty lame and boring way to build narrative on a RPG, and I only tolerated it because loved 9hours9person9doors; although that game is a graphic adventure and the amount of reactivity available vastly surpasses anything you would find both in Desu 1 and 2, but I digress.

I'd have them as seamless dungeon crawlers any day, as I already told in my post (a combination of this gameplay with light dungeon crawling exploration instead of watered down Persona-like side events would have been nicer). I really dig its gameplay (blobber+tactics) approach, now I'd like the chance to enjoy it applied to a real rpg.

Now that I finally settled that matter. I replied a post about Nocturne some time ago in a threat. I still have not played Strange Journey, Soul Hackers nor Persona 2 (I only played Persona 4, pretty crappy dungeon design btw), but I definitely going to acquire the 3ds port for Strange Journey. I'm currently playing SMT IV FINAL Apocalypse, best megaten gameplay so far, since They polished smirking mechanics and made hama and mudo inflict damage instead of probability dependent Instant Death, which now is 100% if you cast those spells while smirking.

I only played the originals releases for DS. While they both had anime quality stories the one in 2 was too much even for me to handle. They decided to do a retelling of Evangelion for some reason, Sahaquiel included. I remember going with Al Saiduq plan purely because all the other chars were so unlikable(except for Mako-Mako).The additions of Record Breaker sound too retarded, too fanservicey and too anticlimatic.

I still think the endings for DeSu 1 are among the best of SMT. At least Law isn't the typical "YHWH establishes a dictatorship and brainwashes all humans".

Yep, Desu 1 endings are pretty good. 8th days don't contribute much as post game content, but any of them are better than Triangulum arc. Ugh, I really regret wasting time on that shitty arc.

I went Al Saiduq route in my first playthrough too, . And curiously, only liked Makoto, Fumi and Yamato at first. Grew fond of the others after several playthroughs later.

I played this years ago. Skimmed a little cos i am at work now. I guess it is worth a full read. Gonna be an interesring fresh review and look back to the game i thought was very deep and awesome as a teen.

Lets see what i would think about it based on what your intepretation written there with my cynical adult point of view

Look forward to read your take of these games.
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

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i think you're really, really going to enjoy Strange Journey, be it the original NDS or the remake coming up. it is literally a grid-based, SMT blobber with the same type of battle/fusion mechanics you're experience in SMT 4 (although I haven't played Apocalypse, i've only played regular SMT 4) except more complex, with more options, more depth.

imagine SMT 4 (and I assume this will apply to Apocalypse) in a blobber skin, and more detailed and comprehensive (and thus rewarding) gameplay mechanics with little-to-no "Persona influence" and a top-notch fucking glorious MegaTen-type storyline, characters and goddamn awesome soundtrack.

also, Persona 2 is (in my opinion) the best one will find in terms of characters/story-telling in any MegaTen franchise game. I played the original Persona 1 when it came out for PS1 and I loved it, and I played the PS1 release of Persona 2 when it came out originally as well and my god, those are still my favorite MegaTen experiences to this day and Persona 2 is one of my all time favorite RPGs.

it's a big part of the reason I detest Persona 3-5 so much... the drastic dumbing down that happened with Persona 3 onwards is almost too much to bear, and it was thanks to the awful experience I had when Persona 3 came out, having to fight off the hordes of new fanbois by letting them know that what they like is trash and that Persona 1 and 2 were so much better, etc, that I stopped paying attention to MegaTen franchise for years.

it was Strange Journey that made me a believer again, and right after finishing it I then played Nocturne (SMT 3) and also loved it. SMT 4 (again, have not played Apocalypse) is a step down in mechanics, story, writing, characters, depth, etc, compared to SMT 3 (Nocturne).

still, not as huge as the enourmous chasm in quality/passion between Persona 2 and 3.

TL;DR: If you want to play the most narratively dense (in a great way) and most sophisticated entry in the MegaTen games, especially in the exploration of psychological themes (especially Jungian), then drop everything and play Persona 2.

Per2 is split into two halves, each their own game, and you can play each one in any order although both are intricately interconnected. I played first the 2nd half, "Eternal Punishment", and it remains my favorite of the 2 halves and also the more thematically complex of the two; might have to do with the fact that Persona 2: EP's cast of characters are all adults, whereas P2: Innocent Sin's cast of chars are all teenagers.

in terms of sheer fucking passion, quality and writing there is no MegaTen game that surpasses Persona 2. it is the high water mark of the entire MegaTen franchise...
 
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Vorark

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I only played the originals releases for DS. While they both had anime quality stories the one in 2 was too much even for me to handle. They decided to do a retelling of Evangelion for some reason, Sahaquiel included. I remember going with Al Saiduq plan purely because all the other chars were so unlikable(except for Mako-Mako).The additions of Record Breaker sound too retarded, too fanservicey and too anticlimatic.

I still think the endings for DeSu 1 are among the best of SMT. At least Law isn't the typical "YHWH establishes a dictatorship and brainwashes all humans".

:bro:

I couldn't stand DS2, never finished it. Had hopes we would get DS3, what with a system called 3DS... Alas, it was not meant to be.
 
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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
I enjoyed DS1, it had good MT atmosphere with the lockdown, some decent endings, and a fun little SRPG battle system.

DS2 was just a mess though, the story and characters were retarded. The battle system got stupid with the upgraded racial abilities making certain races of demons absurdly broken. I'm not even opposed to breaking out of the traditional demon/YHWH sort of plots MT games have, weird space alien invasions could actually work well if they took some care. Seriously make the aliens weird lovecraftian inspired horrors, and have the demons offer help to mankind to fight them. That's a good starting point for lots of different things. The emphasis on social links also killed a lot of the tone of the game.
 

Zerth

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Well, now that I'm aware of the existence of Majin Tensei series; I feel is pointless to play Devil Survivor games, because I thought their best asset was the gameplay novelty, but It seems that's not the case. Anyways, Majin Tensei is pretty much the devil survivor I'd have wished to play; instead of these half assed visual novels disguised as Srpgs ended up to be.
 

deuxhero

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Devil Survivor 2 is one of those games that improves everything gameplay related to a degree the first game's mechanics can be unplayable, but the story is way shittier.
 
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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Devil Survivor 2 is one of those games that improves everything gameplay related to a degree the first game's mechanics can be unplayable, but the story is way shittier.
Naw man, they fucked things up with the pumped up racial abilities. They just made them scale up without thinking about how that would work out. They're poorly balanced enough in the first game, but they get silly in the second. Ramping up attack ranges and extra turns on some races makes it absolutely vital to use certain demons over others. The social links are also kinda gamey and dumb compared to just having decissions and side quests in the first game.
 

deuxhero

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Half the cast and demons were entirely useless in the first game because pierce didn't bypass physical repel. I'll take some demons being stupidly broken over half being useless any day.
 

Zerth

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Half the cast and demons were entirely useless in the first game because pierce didn't bypass physical repel. I'll take some demons being stupidly broken over half being useless any day.
Inferior to spamming Holy dance, indeed, but not useless. I don't know about the original Desu, but Overclocked added stuff like Holy strike that bypasses phys repel. Also phys repel is not frequent on foe demons anyway, I can't recall any boss with phys repel either.

Like Werdna said, they just added more stuff in Desu 2 which only tore apart game's difficulty, in fact, certain stages (like polaris last form) are so stupidly unfair that breaking the game's balance in order to make that shit trivial is a must. The only improvements were some fixes to minor annoyances that I already mentioned in the post.
 

deuxhero

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Most of the end-game normal enemies had someone with repel phys. Never played Overclocked, though they may have fixed that (Holy Strike is definitely new).
 

Perkel

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15,807
Tried to get into 1st one. Couldn't. Liked v.novel elements but combat was imo bad. Idea that you move/attack enemies via groups of monsters instead of singular ones is imo mistake. I would love this game with singular units instead of groups.
 

Dorarnae

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i think you're really, really going to enjoy Strange Journey, be it the original NDS or the remake coming up. it is literally a grid-based, SMT blobber with the same type of battle/fusion mechanics you're experience in SMT 4 (although I haven't played Apocalypse, i've only played regular SMT 4) except more complex, with more options, more depth.

imagine SMT 4 (and I assume this will apply to Apocalypse) in a blobber skin, and more detailed and comprehensive (and thus rewarding) gameplay mechanics with little-to-no "Persona influence" and a top-notch fucking glorious MegaTen-type storyline, characters and goddamn awesome soundtrack.

also, Persona 2 is (in my opinion) the best one will find in terms of characters/story-telling in any MegaTen franchise game. I played the original Persona 1 when it came out for PS1 and I loved it, and I played the PS1 release of Persona 2 when it came out originally as well and my god, those are still my favorite MegaTen experiences to this day and Persona 2 is one of my all time favorite RPGs.

it's a big part of the reason I detest Persona 3-5 so much... the drastic dumbing down that happened with Persona 3 onwards is almost too much to bear, and it was thanks to the awful experience I had when Persona 3 came out, having to fight off the hordes of new fanbois by letting them know that what they like is trash and that Persona 1 and 2 were so much better, etc, that I stopped paying attention to MegaTen franchise for years.

it was Strange Journey that made me a believer again, and right after finishing it I then played Nocturne (SMT 3) and also loved it. SMT 4 (again, have not played Apocalypse) is a step down in mechanics, story, writing, characters, depth, etc, compared to SMT 3 (Nocturne).

still, not as huge as the enourmous chasm in quality/passion between Persona 2 and 3.

TL;DR: If you want to play the most narratively dense (in a great way) and most sophisticated entry in the MegaTen games, especially in the exploration of psychological themes (especially Jungian), then drop everything and play Persona 2.

Per2 is split into two halves, each their own game, and you can play each one in any order although both are intricately interconnected. I played first the 2nd half, "Eternal Punishment", and it remains my favorite of the 2 halves and also the more thematically complex of the two; might have to do with the fact that Persona 2: EP's cast of characters are all adults, whereas P2: Innocent Sin's cast of chars are all teenagers.

in terms of sheer fucking passion, quality and writing there is no MegaTen game that surpasses Persona 2. it is the high water mark of the entire MegaTen franchise...


the snes game Maijin tensei wasn't too bad. but I recommend playing on emulator for speeding up the game otherwise it takes forever.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

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i think you're really, really going to enjoy Strange Journey, be it the original NDS or the remake coming up. it is literally a grid-based, SMT blobber with the same type of battle/fusion mechanics you're experience in SMT 4 (although I haven't played Apocalypse, i've only played regular SMT 4) except more complex, with more options, more depth.

imagine SMT 4 (and I assume this will apply to Apocalypse) in a blobber skin, and more detailed and comprehensive (and thus rewarding) gameplay mechanics with little-to-no "Persona influence" and a top-notch fucking glorious MegaTen-type storyline, characters and goddamn awesome soundtrack.

also, Persona 2 is (in my opinion) the best one will find in terms of characters/story-telling in any MegaTen franchise game. I played the original Persona 1 when it came out for PS1 and I loved it, and I played the PS1 release of Persona 2 when it came out originally as well and my god, those are still my favorite MegaTen experiences to this day and Persona 2 is one of my all time favorite RPGs.

it's a big part of the reason I detest Persona 3-5 so much... the drastic dumbing down that happened with Persona 3 onwards is almost too much to bear, and it was thanks to the awful experience I had when Persona 3 came out, having to fight off the hordes of new fanbois by letting them know that what they like is trash and that Persona 1 and 2 were so much better, etc, that I stopped paying attention to MegaTen franchise for years.

it was Strange Journey that made me a believer again, and right after finishing it I then played Nocturne (SMT 3) and also loved it. SMT 4 (again, have not played Apocalypse) is a step down in mechanics, story, writing, characters, depth, etc, compared to SMT 3 (Nocturne).

still, not as huge as the enourmous chasm in quality/passion between Persona 2 and 3.

TL;DR: If you want to play the most narratively dense (in a great way) and most sophisticated entry in the MegaTen games, especially in the exploration of psychological themes (especially Jungian), then drop everything and play Persona 2.

Per2 is split into two halves, each their own game, and you can play each one in any order although both are intricately interconnected. I played first the 2nd half, "Eternal Punishment", and it remains my favorite of the 2 halves and also the more thematically complex of the two; might have to do with the fact that Persona 2: EP's cast of characters are all adults, whereas P2: Innocent Sin's cast of chars are all teenagers.

in terms of sheer fucking passion, quality and writing there is no MegaTen game that surpasses Persona 2. it is the high water mark of the entire MegaTen franchise...


the snes game Maijin tensei wasn't too bad. but I recommend playing on emulator for speeding up the game otherwise it takes forever.
Also MT1 artwork is fucking gorgeous.
Not to mention that both games have badass soundtrack.
 

Doktor Best

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Feb 2, 2015
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2,849
Dipped a bit into the original DS version. Did i miss something or do those games completely lack any equipment or item system?
 

Zerth

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406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Dipped a bit into the original DS version. Did i miss something or do those games completely lack any equipment or item system?

U didn't miss anything, there's nothing like that but equipable skills u crack from foes for ur party leaders.
 

Nathir

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Messages
1,090
I played these games recently and I liked the first one. The gameplay was a nice novelty, and different enough, however I think it would be better if they managed to make it like every demon is its own unit, and the combat would be like that of a board game with figurines. But it was fun for what it was. The characters were alright, and the game had a nice sense of mystery, although at the end it does kinda devolve into a pretty standard SMT affair. The only awful character was Midori, but she's a cosplayer, so that's to be expected. It wasn't anything special but it was alright.

The second game I just recently finished and it is just worse in every way. The combat is basically the same. No changes or improvements, except for the addition of new OP race skills. Some of which are pretty overpowered and can make encounters very easy. The game as a whole seems to be easier. I never had any troubles, except for the last stage of the last boss. In the first game, even the first boss (Beldr) was challenging. It was still kinda fun tho.

The real decline is the story and characters. It's like a VN. The characters are such stereotypes. All the different personalities from these games are in. The timid shy one, the angry one which secretly likes you, the slutty one, the scientist nerdy chick who doesn't get human emotions and behavior, the ditzy one and the cool and calm one. Then we have the guy who is tough and doesn't need any friends, the genius who thinks he is better than everyone and has no friends until you show up, the mouth breathing retard, your wannabe gay lover, Joe, and even your friend is reduced from a normal guy to a spineless coward who is the butt of all jokes.

I liked Joe, he felt like a real person. Makoto was alright, and Fumi provided some comic relief. I guess Airi was ok for what she was, but she was still an annoying kid.The rest were just bad archetypes. Their behavior was just so ''anime'' in a very bad way. Keita's story was about not needing friends. And in one scene he can't accept food from a random woman, and asks her why does she do it, if it doesn't benefit her. That's not how real humans talk. Hinako scenes were cringy. ''Uhuh I'm worthless because I'm a dancer'', she cries, while she beats up demons and is more useful than the majoritiy of the populace. Then a cringy scene where people see her dancing and are all excited. Yamato doesn't know what friends are, and talks like an anime character who made his first friend. There are many scenes which don't feel like something ominous is going on. I mean, there's a physical exam where you go spying on women. This game felt like a random VN disguised as an SMT game.

It's all about making you feel amazing. Dialouge choices are very banal and you usually get 2-3 choices with one being obviously correct, while another is a random or sarcastic response.. After you select the easy choice everyone goes ''whoa you are so smart'', even though everything is spelled out to you, and you play a silent guy who never has to think about something or say anything. Everyone can't shut up about it. How special you are. Even the final boss says it at the end. Truly the ''Persona of SMT games''. I also found the death clock much more interesting than the death videos.

The final sin are the boss designs. DS1 had amazing Kaneko designs for bosses. DS2 has randomly colored geometry shaped aliens... The demons don't even feel like they are supposed to be here. You can see Kaneko didn't work on this one. And if he isn't involved in SMT V I fully expect a shitty game, with social links and stuff like that. That's not to say DS2 is an unplayable pile of shit, but it isn't particularly engaging either.
 

Nathir

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Oh and can anyone explain what the Triangulum story is? I couldn't be bothered to play it. I'm guessing it's like a VN ''route'', with it being the same story only slightly different.

And I forgot to mention another thing. DS1 had much better demon spacing and numbers. DS2 felt like cramming in as much demons as possible. But it gets kind of tiring when you get so many choices after every lvl up. Just like in SMT4. What SMT V needs to do is make a balanced spread of demons, where most demons feel like they have something to offer, and you don't just get a million choices that you can give whatever abilities you want easily.
 
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Malpercio

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Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,534
Fine games, DeSu 1 has a much better story (By Growlanser's writer!), DeSu 2's story and characters are offensively bad.
 

Zerth

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Now that I think about it, quality-wise, Elex bad writing parts are on par with the clusterfuck orgy of events that defines DeSu 2 plot.

You could've edited your previous post to add the last one y'know.

Here, a summary of triangulum retarded arc:​

Events are set after some kind of altered triumphant ending. You and the rest of idiots decided to do the right thing and regress the world to previous state and put Al psyduck(alcor) as admin.

The pokemon master of universe called Canopus didn't like that. So It decides to erase everything related to humanity and world administration. Somehow can't manage to erase everything but almost get Al psyduck and completely wipe out the main character from existence after He prevented Al psyduck to be erased.

For some reason. Canopus instead of just format all shit decides to leave it like that and create four new pokemans:Spica,denebolas,arcturus and Cor Caroli (its sword). Then It makes Spica, denebolas and Arcturus invade planet earth and wreck stuff, these three are then known as the triangulum.

Yamato and the rest of retards mourn ur inexistence for a while and then decided to take action and manage to defeat denebolas, spica; but they all but Yamato die against Arcturus because I suppose their group psychotherapist(you) isn't around anymore.

Yamato and Psyduck decides to regress the world once more (sigh) and wipe out everyone else memories, but this time Yamato will remain in a place called akasha Stratum, which is a glorified hard disc recovery thing which He manipulates to recover what is left of your data, cuz you're sooo important. Psyduck goes to human world to support retards but finds out that Canopus, due to yamato absence on earth (?), creates a female genderswapped twin from Its pokemon Cor Caroli called Miyako Hotsuin.

He found out genderswapped yamato is hot, and He sticks around her long enough to tell her the plans. Seems Cor caroli as miyako hotsuin is fighting the triangulum already, because since she is a pokémon she likes to fight other critters like her. But she wanted to use retards to feed a machine in order to create a proper world admin (?) and save humanity. Psyduck disagrees and then is trapped by miyako for her plans.

Game starts, you recover former memories and nobody remembers you. Yay! No moar waifus and husbandos pestering u! Alright!. Turns out both Io and Daichi are more into you than before, despite of not having their memories.:P Anyways, Denebolas appears bunny hood ended up dying crushed as in septentrion arc and is Revived. Then is pretty much forced to recover other retards memories since you're the trigger.

From there. Everything happens like a typical septentrione arc day: fight, talk with others and some urgent event suddenly happens that set everyone in alert state for a while after returning to their merry chit chat.

The new thing is you find out through fate events the new world was better without you, retards are happier and closer with each other. You're not really needed anymore but now most of them want ur dick more than before. But none of them is more thirsty than Miyako Hotsuin, during her fate events She wants you to pop her cherry so badly it's hilarious.

Also, it seems now everybody has nightmares of their deaths on former world and feel angsty about it. Group therapy time! yay!.

Anyways, more nonsense happens and lot of stupid explanations not worth time to tell appears. You eventually defeat canopus albeit of being the entity that rules the physical laws of universe, through some things called factors, that are directly stolen from him somehow that is only possible because miyako and yamato presence on same universe creates a paradox that made him mortal (god, this is so shit). triangulum has three boring ending: one makes you world admin and eternal hikikomori, other sets you in a loop to keep on fighting geometry aliens until they get tired of trying and the last makes yamato create a new world outside of akashic record(record breaker) and pretty much the same thing as the boring ass real world, with no demons and no magic.

TLDR triangulum No worth time, is just Hotsuin fanservice, since they do everything and game spend most time showing off how awesum they are. Unless you want to unlock extra demons. But for what?. You can pretty much defeat every extra boss with what you got from septentrione arc.

Now well, in regards of ur previous reply.

IMO all the Srpg elements on these games felt more like additional value implemented to make these two VNs more attractive for Megaten fans, It's thousand light years apart of being as fun as Jagged Alliance 2 or HoMM 3, but at least it works as a quick distraction while you're walking or waiting on a queue.

Also, at least the first game narratively speaking was more aware of the nature of Its gameplay (keisuke vs kaido fight, demons used to rescuing people, atsuro explanation of COMP, a dude shocking unaware summoners to death cuz of his vendetta..), which the second game is completely oblivious 'bout it.

Storywise, DeSu 2 felt like a cheap work made to appeal Persona 4's audience. But a pretty low budget and audience target are not excuse for such garbage writing(considering first game), specially when ur primary focus is to deliver a VN. Let's see, the fucking story falls apart since the beggining:

-for example, is pretty distressing that a website releasing death videos of people for a while doesn't alert japanese authorities ASAP. Duuuuuhhh, I heard some people saw their friend dying exactly the same way his death video release from Niceae app, but that must be a coincidence. right? *drools* If that wasn't enough tell Daichi fuck off elsewhere with his morbid curiosity, then I dunno what else to think.

-You end up dying after being crashed by a derailed subway train. But then you're resurrected after saying yes to the tico butler dude or girl. Why? How? What?! Niceae premise was intended to be some kind of buddy tracker to prevent ur waifus and husbandos death depicted on videos downloaded from that mumbo jumbo akashic record thing. Not to give second chances and avert your fate through some kind of unexplained event manipulation. That mere scene just left a hole on the plot deeper than the glow from fallout 1.

- Septentriones geometric shits are exterminating humanity cuz "they lost track of purpose and potential". Turns out they actually wanted to test humanity proficiency on demon taming, which they saw as an ideal way to measure humanity potential :roll:, or It was because Polaris wanted to see you playing psychotherapist with a bunch of strangers?. And since She was so omniscient, why She allowed Al psyduck (alcor) to openly conspire against her?. Either way, septentriones are thrash as antagonists.

- The worst offense was applied on demons. Pretty much their business is: Hey, we are here as a mandatory megaten cameo. They are not aware of septentriones, don't have any agenda or any motivation besides of going out killin' humans or be controlled by one. Cuz, hey, that's how the retarded demon contract works. You never know why they fuck are on a server, nor why JP's has some of them sealed on some kind of japanese version of ghost buster cage.

There are so many irredemeable stupid stuff on dialogues and annoying fake choices. But I really don't feel like going that far as if this game would deserve more attention than It really had (It sold like crap and animu adaptation was rubbish).

The MC is an intended blank slate as P4 protagonist. But even that guy has the Joker persona to give some character and narrative revolves around other people rather than him anyways. Devs attempted same thing on Desu 2, since the guy with bunny hood has zero backstory, and the narrative focus on the rest of character cast.

The issue is that you've an agenda already set: save humanity from evangelions monsters wannabes. Not getting intimate with a bunch of strangers.

This could have been worked if devs focused on characters like Makoto, Joe, ronaldo, yamato or even Daichi. Beause each of their characters arcs are involved somehow with the conflict: Makoto shows the human side of JPs organization, Joe is a wishy washy guy that is not accustomed to deal with tough shit (like her girl dying of terminal illness) and behaves as such, Ronaldo is pretty belligerent and his justice rethoric is just a facade for his vindictive crusade against yamato, Yamato is a frustrated teen raised from a severe environment that wouldn't expect anything from him but excellence and Daichi is so comfortable in thinking himself as an inane loser until He finds out his power as demon tamer can make a difference between life and death of innocent people. From fumi, well, you only have to remove her core fate events and she's alright.

I almost feel tempted to add Airi to the previous bunch only just because her papa was a detective investigating a murder that involved JP's as the killers since He somehow found out the murder tool was something supernatural. But Dera Deka character arc was for nothing, you remove him and her annoying daugher and nothing consistent is lost from plot. Airi was left as a pretty unsubstancial character, I think devs planned her to be a comedy romance interest at first, but then I suppose they thought that is gonna be pretty ludicrous and swapped it with the 'muh concert hall' arc which was pretty meh.
 
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Nathir

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
1,090
Zerth Thanks for the write up. Seems I was correct in choosing not to play this arc.

And I just googled those names you posted. Of course they look like geometry shapes. The final boss looks like an amoeba ffs.

Meanwhile in Desu1 we got new Kaneko art. I wish he comes back for SMT V atleast to design a few bosses.
 

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