One of the benefits of the magical world of the Interwebs is that you can go back and re-read anything at any time, which is why I'd like to say right here and now that I'm going to ask that you go read my preview for Devil Survivor before reading this review. The reason is simple; it allows me to avoid re-writing a number of initial opinions I already had about the game.
I concluded my preview (which I'm going to assume you've read, as I'm sure you wouldn't want to break the trust you and I have between us, right?) saying that at that point in time I still held some reservations about Devil Survivor. Could the SRPG genre really do justice to a new Shin Megami Tensei title? (Not taking into consideration the SRPG side-series Majin Tensei that Altus released back on the Super Famicom.) Could Atlus craft an SRPG that would convince their more RPG-slanted crowd that they knew what they were doing? Would the gameplay and settings of Survivor hold up over the course of the game?
I'm happy to report that, even as someone who isn't an SRPG fanatic, Devil Survivor is a hell of an experience. The mixing of genres the folks at Atlus have concocted here was pulled off far better than I had expected, and almost completely avoids ever feeling like a game of one genre forcibly made to include in itself elements of another. Devil Survivor first and foremost feels like another chapter of the SMT franchise, and that's very important. The flow of the game, its style, the characters, the way you interact with the world and the situations awaiting you; these things feel genuine to what we MegaTen fans have come to know and love, and in no way feel like elements haphazardly slapped onto some generic strategy RPG with little concern. Even with the more anime-esque art style--I know, some of you had concerns--the mood and atmosphere is dark and sinister, just as it should be, and the characters themselves do justice to the mythos they now inhabit. Demon fusion is of course present, with a few twists; demons are obtained from an auction house instead of from battle or communication (a very unique twist, if not quite used to its full potential), and in a move that'll make long time MegaTen fans happy, what abilities your new demon will get from its "parents" can be completely hand-picked according to your liking.
So, I was quite pleased with everything presented in Devil Survivor, when you're not waste-deep in combat, especially the storyline and the overall sense of dread woven deeply into its fabric. However, what about one of the most important elements, the aforementioned combat ? There are still times when too much of the "tried and true" of the SRPG world shows up; free battle grinding will be unavoidable, and some of the missions can be all but impossible until you play them enough times to fully understand what it is the game expects from you. Those moments disappointed me, because the rest of my experience showed that the SRPG genre can indeed be more than we've come to expect. When Devil Survivor works--and, being fair, it does most of the time--it works beautifully, and is truly a game that fans from varying points of view can appreciate. In fact, the only time I considered the game to be a "strategy role-playing game", were those times the things I dislike about the SRPG genre reminded me of why I dislike them. Otherwise, this was a title where pre-battle combat just happened to feel like an SRPG, and where the battles themselves feel like an old-school RPG. Not because the game is either of those things, or some weird hybrid, but simply because that's just what the game is, and that's that.
Devil Survivor is an example of what can happen when we allow ourselves to embrace genres but not live or die by them, and I hope Atlus will take the ideas they gave us here and bring us a follow-up that is even more daring and bold. For now, though, Atlus has a terrific new series on their hands, and Devil Survivor is an easy recommendation to DS owners looking for something different--as long as you don't mind a decent level of difficulty. Once the storyline kicks in and the game really starts to hit its stride in the first couple of hours, the random bouts of frustration are overshadowed by what is otherwise a top-tier title.
score 9.0 out of ten
verdict A stylish and sinister strategy RPG that is indeed worthy of the Shin Megami Tensei monicker.
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