Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker

Genre: Strategy-RPG / Turn-Based Monster Collecting JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

In the massive Shin Megami Tensei franchise, the Devil Survivor series of games takes a different spin on the core franchise’s central mechanic of dealing with and summoning demons in a Turn-Based Monster Collecting JRPG akin to Pokemon, with the game being set in a more or less contemporary world rather than the post-apocalyptic settings of the main series, and with the gameplay in this series being a Tactics-style Strategy-RPG. The second Devil Survivor game was originally released on Nintendo DS in 2012, with the Nintendo 3DS receiving a remake just three years later in 2015 that adds remastered character artwork, voice acting, and a completely new story campaign in addition to the original one, available right from the start for those who want to skip to the new content.

In terms of presentation, it’s clear that this is a fairly straightforward and simple remaster of a Nintendo DS game – the game’s 2D pixel art visuals are fairly simple and not particularly impressive. At the very least the remastered character artwork looks good, and the English-language voice acting for the game’s characters seems solid (though supporting character Daichi can be a bit grating), with all of this being backed by a decent but unspectacular synthesized soundtrack. The overall effect of this game’s presentation isn’t bad, but it’s certainly underwhelming.

The story in this game is completely separate from the first Devil Survivor game, and features a different cast of characters, but it is extremely similar. Players take the role of a student in modern-day Japan. One day, he and a few friends sign up for an odd new phone app they heard about, only to discover this app shows them video footage of their friends’ impending deaths. Resolving to prevent this terrible end, players are given the opportunity to recruit demons to fight against the demonic forces that threaten them as Japan becomes increasingly more dangerous with attacks from demons and other forces, as well as multiple shady organizations operating behind the scenes. Overall, this is different enough from the first game to be unique, but there are enough similarities to make it feel like something of a “redo” of the first game’s story.

As for the gameplay itself, not much has changed from the first Devil Survivor – this is pretty much what you would expect from a pairing of Shin Megami Tensei and a Tactics-style Strategy-RPG, albeit with a few places where it departs from both the Shin Megami Tensei series’ norms as well as from Tactics-style RPG norms.

First, while Shin Megami Tensei games tend to have players bargaining with the demons they encounter in battles to entice them to join the player’s team, Devil Survivor separates recruitment from the battles entirely – now you recruit demons to join your team in an auction that you can open up in menus at any time in-between battles. It’s not a terrible system, but I think I prefer the standard method of recruitment for the series, as it makes it a joy when you finally stumble into an encounter with a demon you’ve been wanting to recruit, or find a completely new one.

As for Tactics-style Strategy-RPG fans, this game differs from most games in that genre by having each character on the grid representing a team of up to three characters, rather than just a solo character. It’s an interesting twist that gives players a bit more agency to perform multiple actions each turn, but it also tends to slow things down a bit.

As it happens, the game’s slow pace is one of my bigger complaints about Demon Survivor, and overall the progression in this game is somewhat sluggish. Just getting through a single battle can take quite a while, as can working your way through the at times overly-long dialogue. And if you find yourself needing to grind to take on a particularly tough battle, expect to be doing that for a while.

Devil Survivor 2 does add a few other elements to the game, such as a character relationship system that can give players bonuses for building up their relationships with allies via various means. However, overall not much has changed from the first game.

That seems to be the case overall here – Devil Survivor 2 is much like the first game, but with a different set of characters and somewhat-different story that still feels extremely familiar. And while it has many of the same flaws as the first game, it’s still a really fun game that does some unique and interesting things for both the Shin Megami Tensei series and the Tactics-style Turn-Based Strategy-RPG genre. If you’re a fan of either, this is a game well worth adding to your Nintendo 3DS collection.

tl;dr – Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker is a remaster of a Nintendo DS game that combines the Shin Megami Tensei series’ Turn-Based Monster Collecting RPG mechanics with Tactics-style Strategy-RPG gameplay, making use of some interesting twists to both. Like the first game in the series, it has some pacing issues, but overall this is still an excellent entry both in the franchise and in the genre, and fans of either will definitely want to add this to their Nintendo 3DS game library.

Grade: B

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