Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (PS2)

Having battled for supremacy of the Junkyard, Serph and his friends now find themselves on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the not so distant future with the promise of Nirvana proving to be a lie. Separated from each other, Serph must lead his two remaining companions to find the other Embryons and uncover the truth about Nirvana. Where Gamestyle felt that the plot was drip fed to us in the original Digital Devil Saga, with DDS2 the cup positively runs over. Told through compelling FMV sequences, Serph’s tale is richly woven and finely detailed with the world coloured in shades of grey as opposed to the black and white “good guy wins, bad guy dies” ethos of most RPGs. Again, Atlus have not been afraid to incorporate weighty issues into the plot. Subjects such as cannibalism, conformity, the nature of being and the power of God are touched upon by DDS2 and the gravitas that this brings to the title makes for a welcome change from the usual lightweight fare served up in the average RPG.

However, if you haven’t played this games’ immediate predecessor then the story, no matter how engaging or well told, will probably be something of a mystery to you. Although there is some effort to explain prior events, they never really go far enough so you really need to have played the first Digital Devil Saga game, or at the very least made some effort to read around what happened in that title. That said, if you are familiar with the last game, the events of DDS2 cast a new light on the occurrences in that game. You’ll also need to be concentrating to get the most out of DDS2, the plot can be quite convoluted at times and you’ll need to pay attention to get the most out of it.

So apart from having an intriguing, compelling and generally well delivered story, what else does DDS2 do that’s different? The answer is not a lot. The actual game mechanics are solid and well crafted, but not exactly ground breaking and certainly not a huge leap forward from the last game. Some problems with the last game have been tidied up. The camera is an improvement, and Gamestyle was pleased to note that there is considerably less grinding in DDS2. However, there still seem to be too many random encounters. In some dungeons, there could be less than 10 seconds between each encounter, which to our mind is too little time, disrupting the flow of the exploration aspects of the game.

Combat remains largely unchanged. Serph and his comrades again fight as demons, unless ambushed in which case they fight in their human form. This time, a new form has been added. When the sun is at its fullest characters run the risk of going berserk and fighting in a new half state that is neither human not demon. Each character in your party has a turn and it’s possible to earn extra turns by either scoring a critical attack or using magic that your opponent is weak against. Similarly, the enemy can exploit your weaknesses to prolong their turn, and if your attacks miss or are blocked, your turn will end prematurely. This adds an extra level of strategy to the otherwise fairly standard battle engine.

The mantra system has seen an overhaul. Last time spheres were collected to learn mantras (essentially DDS2’s version of magic). This time mantras are downloaded from terminals dotted around the world. Atma points are then collected during battle by consuming opponents to level mantras up. Whilst mantra sets are fairly typical selections of spells such as ice magic (which includes an ice attack and an ice shield), healing magic, fire magic and so on, the use of terminals to download skills at least presents a novel take on their acquisition. On interacting with a terminal, the “Mantra Grid” is displayed. You select which Mantra you would like you character to learn next and it is downloaded, for a fee of course. The best mantras are locked and can only be obtained by having your team learning the six mantras that encircle them, meaning that some thought is required about which Mantra to download next. As you characters master more mantras, you can pick and choose which individual spells you want them to take into battle and as their levels increase, so does the number of spells that can be wielded. As you mix up the spells, your characters will lean combo attacks, so it’s worth experimenting to see what you can come up with it. In addition, the structure of DDS2’s combat mean it’s important to be armed with spells that your opponents in a particular area are weak against. It’s a well thought out system, but hardly a revolution.

Both graphically and aurally, DDS2 is well produced. Whilst exploring dungeons the textures are bland, but when the FMV kicks in, the game looks much better; the cel-shaded graphics giving a look reminiscent of Killer7. The music is some dated sounding electronica which somehow manages to fit the game perfectly, whilst the voice acting is of a very high standard.

DDS2 is a great RPG telling a challenging and mature story, over a foundation of solid, if unspectacular, game mechanics, learning from the mistakes made by its predecessor. However, at times the story can also be convoluted and obtuse, especially if you’ve never played the first game and is perhaps too dark to ensnare the mainstream audience that DDS2 deserves for daring to do something different.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Andy Lucas