The First 3 Hours: Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor

By way of quick introduction for those unfamiliar with this title, Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor is the latest entry into Atlus’ long-running flagship Megami Tensei (MegaTen for short) series, and the series’ first entry on the Nintendo DS. It is an SRPG that follows a group of several young people trapped in Tokyo who must choose whether they will prevent the world from ending in 7 days.

As with most Megami Tensei titles, you get to name the main character right at the beginning, and he speaks only when you decide what he says. This is a mechanic that I’m not particularly fond of, as it robs the main character of a truly active role in the story, but I recognize it as a MegaTen staple, so I can’t really fault the game for it.

The game starts out a little slowly, and at first, seems like just a big advertisement for the Nintendo DS. Those familiar with the MegaTen series will likely be aware of characters summoning demons using small, portable computers, regularly called COMPs. Devil Survivor follows this trend, but the COMP is clearly modeled exactly for the DS in this game, and shows up throughout the story regularly. Honestly, it started to get on my nerves a little.

Other than that, the game actually feels very reminiscent of older games in the MegaTen universe. I found myself regularly comparing it to Shin Megami Tensei If for the SNES, though the story is admittedly much easier to follow that If’s.

Speaking of story, the game is very heavily story driven, unlike the recent Persona titles which place a large emphasis on spending time doing whatever you want, Devil Survivor has very little else to do than participate in story events (which are much more frequent and much more lengthy than battles). Truly, I would call the game more of a visual novel with an SRPG battle system thrown in than a true SRPG.

However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the game’s story is consistently intriguing. It manages to retain the dark feeling of the MegaTen franchise, but also manages to come across very accessibly. Though the protagonist does remain silent, the story presents many different opportunities for the player to give his input, and can have an affect on how events turn out. I would love to give you more details on the story, but there have already been events that I feel would spoil the experience were I to share them.

I suppose this brings me to the battle system. The game is a self-described SRPG, but really plays much closer to a regular turn-based one. At the beginning of a battle, you may place up to 4 “teams” on the field. Each team is made up of at least one human character (known as a Devil-User in this game), and up to two demons.

Once placed on the field, all of the teams (both friendly and hostile) take turns moving around the map on a common grid system. Teams can move, attack an adjacent enemy team, use individual abilities on the map, or end their turn. The map abilities are useful if you need to heal out of an encounter, want to inflict status ailments, or impede or damage a distant enemy. The real brunt of the combat, however, occurs when two teams engage in battle.

Once a battle has begun, the game plays out exactly like any other turn-based RPG. You give your units commands, and then watch as each side takes turns hitting each other. Normally, a battle lasts for only one round, but extra turns can be (and should be) accrued through scoring critical hits or playing to your enemies’ weaknesses.

It should be noted that though teams can have up to 3 members each, the entire team is defeated if its leader is killed. This can be both a blessing and a curse, as it will be sometimes prudent to wipe out an enemy team’s leader quickly to prevent unnecessary damage, but doing so forfeits the extra experience that would have been accrued if you had killed each enemy separately. The enemies can also wipe out your teams by killing your leaders. I found this particularly frustrating with Yuzu, as she has pitifully weak defense and low HP.

But what about the demons? What would a MegaTen title be without demons? Each character’s first demon is given to them quite early on, but the rest must be bought via the Devil Auction, which becomes available later. During my first three hours, I never came across an option to fuse or evolve demons in any way, though the game’s official website does indicate a way to do so.

In terms of the hardware, Devil Survivor doesn’t do much with the DS’s specs. There is no touch screen functionality, the top screen is rarely used (and when it is, it’s not for anything important), and there is zero voice work. The choice to put the game on the DS seems like little more than an excuse to capitalize on the enormous DS market.

That being said, Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor is one of the first DS RPGs and one of the first SRPGs that I have legitimately enjoyed playing in a long time. If the rest of the game can keep up the interesting story and manageable difficulty level, I would happily recommend the game to any one looking for a story-heavy linear RPG.

Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor was released for Nintendo DS on January 15, 2009 in Japan. There is no word on a North American release yet, but I would imagine that Atlus USA will pick it up sometime this year.

If you have any questions about the game that you don’t feel I answered, please leave a comment and I will answer you to the best of my knowledge. I won’t spoil any story events, though.