This review is the first in a set of three reviews for my seventh installment of The Otaku’s Gaming Study.
Title: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
Developed By: ATLUS
Published By: ATLUS USA
Based on: Part of the Shin Megami Tensei series, Improved version of SMT: Devil Survivor on the DS.
Console: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Tactical RPG
Dub: English
Subtitles: English
Classification: This game has been rated Teen by the ESRB for Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Blood and Partial Nudity
Review Conditions: This review was done on the only English version of this game currently on the market, the North American 3DS version.
Special Thanks: This game was purchased out of my own pocket
With Devil Survivor 2 due for release next month, being reminded of a rather dull review I did for the original DS release all those years ago and the fact that I had the 3DS version of the game sitting on the shelf, I got my hands on a North American 3DS and chose to review this game… a sort of enhanced 3DS port of the original game that includes many new features such as an expanded storyline, enhanced visuals and actual voice acting…. but do these changes merit another playthrough? Is the same still inviting to newcomers of the series? Read on to find out in my review of Devil Survivor Overclocked for the Nintendo 3DS!
In seven days, Tokyo will fall.
The entire city has been locked down. No one enters and no one leaves. Demons have invaded the city attacking innocent people who have no means of fighting back. Inside the lockdown, fear and chaos reign. You (Insert Name Here) are inside the lockdown. You are left with a special COMP device which allows you to forge contracts with demons who will fight by your side. You will make decisions that will mean life for some and death for others. But what about your own life? Will you survive?
Seven days remain… the clock is ticking.
As with many other of the Shin Megami Tensei games, this game is all about having your decisions bring you down the path of either LAW or Chaos, but unlike most of the other games your decisions actually mean a damn, and a single decision could leave you with two of your party members permanently dead or end up with more characters than you know what to do with… alternatively, your decisions can help free the people from the evil demons that have been summoned, leave everyone else to die while you make a quick getaway or even become god yourself. In other words, what seems to be an initial premise to survive quickly turns to a world…. saving (??) mission that Shin Megami Tensei games besides the Persona series do well.
You initially begin with a cast of three characters – Yourself, Yuzu and Atsuo who after deciding to visit your cousin Naoya, come into possession of COMPs (Communication Players) and upon getting trapped in the lockdown begin getting weird emails that give time and details of when events will happen – quite a few of them with your names or numbers of people who will be killed – along with having numbers suddenly appear above your head indicating how long you have to live until you get killed by either demon or human. Not just wanting to stand around, the group sets off in order to save themselves and if they can… everyone else as well. To provide an example of one of these Laplace Email’s, here is what is shown on the first day:
Good morning.
Here is today’s NEWS.
(1) At around 16:00, a man will be killed in a Shibuya-ku Aoyama apartment. The wounds on the corpse are consistent with an attack by a large carnivorous beast.
(2) A large explosion will occur in Minato-ku Aoyama at 19:00. The cause is unknown.
(3) At 21:00, a blackout will affect the entire Tokyo metropolitan area
Have a nice day.
While this system may sound like it is the game spoiling the rest of the storyline for you day per day, it actually adds more fun that way wondering how the issue will be resolved… if it does.
The story is most definitely captivating, as the further you go into the eight days the game provides you, the more chaos and hysteria erupts along with the number of demons that swarm the town and the more the main and supporting characters ideals come out and clash with each other. It is not a storyline you can really sit down and be spoon fed and just like the gameplay is one you really do need to think about to fully appreciate. Upon getting to the end of Day 6, depending on the characters that you have saved through events or just completed their quest line – you will be able to go down a number of different Day 7’s that can have you using a number of different means to save the population, escaping the best way you can or going down a route of darkness. Either way, while some are more detailed than others (For example, Yuzu’s chapter is boring in my opinion), they give purpose to sitting through events and all provide a different perspective on the story.
For those of you who played Devil Survivor on the Nintendo DS, for the most part the story is exactly the same as the original so you may find yourself bored however instead of after Day 7 just going to the credits roll and a vague ending description, you are provided with an 8th Day, which as with the 7th Day differs in complexity depending on what route you took which offers you a sort of epilogue and provides you with a bit more than “You lived happily ever after” while giving you more battles, plot and decisions to tailor the game to your needs. Of course the question is if the added day will justify purchase of the game? You shall find out at the end of the review….
In terms of the games design, for the most part you will find that it looks relatively the same as the original release only with a bit of retouching to suit the Nintendo 3DS’s bigger screen-size along slight interface and font changes. Taking into account that this was originally a normal Nintendo DS game, the designs are still a pretty good quality and retained that Shin Megami Tensei charm as most other games in the series do. There is no use of 3D designs at all, instead using a mix of character sprites and portraits, both of which were detailed to a good enough level that they are fine to view during the long battles ahead. Along with the humans, they also bring in a rather large number of demons to use at your disposal and while their sprite art at times leaves a bit to be desired, I think their portrait designs are quite creative for both new and older demons alike. The major problem I feel with this release, and might be a problem for those buying this on top of the DS release is that it doesn’t really make use of any 3D features, due to most of the game taking place on the touchpad.
As with most of the recent Shin Megami Tensei games the game has a great set of suspenseful and battle tracks that really do help set the mood but could have used a few more tracks over the DS version. Most of the games soundtrack revolves around these suspenseful instrumental themes so there are moments where you will get tired of the same “area select” theme that carries over into several dialogue events. What is brand new in this game over its DS counterpart is the inclusion of an English voice cast (English dub only) with all bar the main character getting voiced. The quality of this dub really differs between the gamer and if you are a fan of English dubs in the first place… but I thought they contributed well to their characters especially considering this was also apparently was one of ATLUS USA’s largest dub works.
You could in one way look at this game… heck the entire series as a more adult version of Pokemon where instead of collecting “Pokemon” to defeat eight gym leaders and ascend the ranks of the Elite Four…. you collect demons which you then use to destroy other demons. Demons play an integral role in your battle strategy with four human characters on a battle stage at any one time, each of them having two demons accompanying them which can be switched in and out at the rate of one per turn if necessary. The actual gameplay makes use of a turn-based tactical battleground that contains the enemies, and a turn based RPG system when you decide to attack them – both of which require different strategies in order to survive.
On the tactical battlefield, it makes use of sprite characters and a grid based system that allows you to move a certain amount of spaces towards or away from an enemy. Upon reaching an enemy you can attack them and be taken to the main part of the battling – but that is not to say you just have to walk towards enemies. Depending on what skills you have, you can choose to make use of special abilities on the field ranging from teleporting across objects in your way, healing your characters to more advantageous ones such as attacking from a distance (You can attack but your enemy cannot) and the ability to perform double attacks. All of these of course depend on what strategy you have and the demons you have with each individual character – meaning strategy is important.
Of course when push comes to shove, the main means of winning a battle is through the SRPG system where it pits the character and their two demons against up to three enemies. This game as with others in the series primarily favors the concept of Physical and Elemental damages, where through using a skill a target is weak against, not only grants you greater damage but at times an extra turn. This means that just getting new demons is not enough, but instead having a range of used demons with different elemental and physical stats to switch in and out depending on the pending foe. Skills are also granted to the human characters, but to actually make use of them you have to “crack” the skills from an enemy (At the beginning of a battle you can select a skill per character you can steal from an enemy if that character defeats that specific enemy). As you may also expect, different characters have different stats so planning a well versatile group is key.
Unlike most Shin Megami Tensei games where you either talk/trade with demons to get them to join your party or win them after a battle, you must attend demon auctions with “other summoners” in order to win through the currency of Macca which is earned through defeating demons. While this does take some time to build up an arsenal, you can also fuse two demons together and forge one more to your liking and allows you to create demons with resistances or skills they would otherwise not have access to. The range of demons increases as you progress through the game but gives you enough demons to work with at any one time.
While the game now gives you more freedom over difficulty settings, it is not what I would consider an easy game to complete, but of course with this difficulty comes some decent replayability. Taking an example from a day I cannot remember, you must defeat a group of enemies however after this takes place and you are possibly considerably weakened, you must aid the (Sort of weak) civilians in the area to safety while more enemies appear. This is potentially where the most frustration is as many a time I found myself in the situation and ended up dying because an enemy chose to attack a civilian over the people ACTUALLY trying to kill it. Of course, it is nice to see a game put up a challenge even if it is frustrating at points.
With the number of different endings possible, you have the opportunity for several replays which relies on you selecting to interact with different characters. The game works on a time system where every event or character you talk to (Not normal battles however) takes up 30 minutes of your in-game time, meaning a single missed event can put you down an entirely different path, providing the opportunity to differ your gameplay by having characters join or leave your parties, get different perspectives on the plot or even plunge you into battles you would have otherwise not played before.
In terms of other added content to this edition, there is nothing much really except for a Demon Compendium which allows you to summon previously owned demons at a cost (Much better than originally where you had to wait for the demon auction to have a specific demon), title system which you can spend on rewards at the end of the game and other small tidbits. Now the big question…. is it worth repurchasing the game if you have already played it….?
The answer is a vague maybe. Personally I bought the game a second time having owned the original game (and at the time not even having access to a North American 3DS console), and I do not regret it quite enjoying the additional plot and voice acting – but if you are one who are after changes in core gameplay, core storyline or the use of 3D effects, nothing has changed in these regards. For those who have not yet dived into this game…. this is really the only version you should consider getting if offered the choice between the two (Provided similar costs). I enjoyed diving into this game a second time and while it does lack some components due to certain limitations of the chosen console, it manages to deliver a complex storyline and interesting gameplay making it a worthy to call itself a Shin Megami Tensei game in my book.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: A-
Design: B
Music/Voice Acting: B+
Gameplay: A-
Replayability: B
Personal Opinion: A-
Overall Score: B+
Copies of this game should still be available in stores around North America. For those outside of the US but have a US Nintendo 3DS console can import it from sources including Play-Asia and Amazon
