 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Atlus |
| Publisher: | Atlus | |
| Genre: | Action RPG | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Memory Card | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Demons are useful outside of battle as well. As Raidou investigates cases and tries to track down answers, he’ll run into situations where NPCs won’t cooperate. It’s then that currently summoned demons can use various spells to coerce NPCs into talking or help Raidou in other ways. For example, Wind order demons have the Scout ability, which will scope out nearby treasure and demons, while Pyro order demons can use their Ignite ability to make a NPC hotheaded and spit out information in a fit of rage. Since demons are not visible to normal humans, they can also be used to explore the environment, reaching otherwise inaccessible items and searching for clues in areas Raidou cannot. While exploring as a demon you can also run into random encounters, and these can be difficult when fighting alone with weaker demons.
Similar to previous games in the series, demons can also be fused together. By visiting mad scientist Victor in the Gouma Den, Raidou can fuse demons with maximum loyalty to him with others to form new, stronger demons. Demons that don’t have maximum loyalty can still take part, by serving as sacrifices (sorry little guys) to make other demons stronger. Victor can even fuse certain demons to Raidou’s sword, making it stronger. Although the fusion process can be somewhat complex (I won’t get into all of the particulars, such as what each combination results in), the game displays a handy chart that guides you through the process so you know exactly what you’re ending up with (or when you’re taking a chance by fusing certain types together).
Also traveling with Raidou is Gouto, an opinionated cat that’s long advised the Kuzunoha clan. He frequently chimes in with his own opinions on how each investigation is proceeding, often in a light-hearted manner. Really the entire game has a somewhat light-hearted tone to it, despite the dark demons, summoning, sacrificing and other occultist activities. In this way, it’s pretty similar in style to the Shadow Hearts series. In addition to Gouto’s running commentary, demons make random quips during battle and whilst traveling, and NPCs often speak in slang befitting today’s society.
Environments are pre-rendered in 2D, which is a small step backwards graphically from recent SMT installments. The overall look is pretty basic, and it really makes the city and other areas feel much smaller than they should. This isn’t helped by the fact that even though you’ll see a lot of buildings, the ones you can actually enter are few and far between. When you do get to enter a building (areas key to the storyline excluded), you’re met with only a static screen displaying the insides with no ability to roam around. Again this reminds me a lot of the Shadow Hearts series, which also features fixed camera perspectives and 2D backgrounds displaying only tiny sections of a town at a time.
However, this pre-rendered approach does have its benefits, as it allows for some nicely detailed environments (even if the color palette is a little drab), and more importantly reserves the aging PS2’s processing power for rendering dozens of NPCs on the street at a time. These NPCs are modeled well and perfectly reflect the diverse culture at the time (dressed in a mix of traditional Japanese garments and American business suits), and their very presence lends a considerable amount of authenticity and believability to each area. While you unfortunately cannot talk to most of them (as a general rule, only the ones standing still can be talked to) and you can run right through them as they have no collision detection, it’s still an effective presentation.
The soundtrack is mostly light rock, although there is also some Big Band and other varieties befitting the feeling of a country that has been largely Americanized. It does its job effectively, and is catchy in several areas. Unfortunately there’s virtually no voice acting to speak of, which feels low budget in this day and age. More than that, effective voice acting could’ve really boosted the game’s characters, which already have fairly strong personalities.
Bottom Line:
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner may be the game that finally sees the series gain some mainstream acceptance outside of Japan, as it’s action-oriented approach helps dull a somewhat inaccessible distinctly Japanese personality. Which, when you think about it, is pretty ironic given the fact that the game’s bad happenings are somewhat the result of the Westernization of Japanese culture.
While quality-wise this is probably one of the weaker installments in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable game and worth picking up by anyone that has ever been curious about the franchise.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 7.9 |
Posted: 2006-10-09 21:00:50 PST