Shin Megami Tensei : Devil Survivor (RPG 1- Player for Nintendo DS)
I finally got around to picking up Devil Survivor for the DS. The game follows the main character (get to choose his name) as he and his friends are stuck in Tokyo. Hero (my name for the main characters) gets a COMP (short for something a looks like a DS) to summon demons to battle other demons. The plot consist of you trying to find a way out of the Tokyo lockdown and learn why the lockdown was started in the first place. Along the way you will meet interesting characters that might join your team.
The gameplay works by having you start in a main screen to that allows you to talk to other characters or have practice battles for experience. This is the weakest part of the game. Essentially you can choose where to go and examine the area. However there is no noticeable benefit to choosing this and you start to choose the sections to advance the plot and level up. These are marked with red exclamation points. The blue dot advances the time as you have 7 days to get out of Tokyo.
Battle gsmeplay works by having your units on a grid. It is a turn base system and as you move next to enemy units you can attack. This takes you to a second 3 vs 3 battle screen. Each character and demon can attack, use a special skill or defend. The best part of the gameplay was the storyline. Each character was interesting and the mystery of what was happening kept me interested. Additionally, I felt that my actions changed the story, especially in inquiring new characters. Do to my mistake on a mission a character died. More interesting this happened off screen and all that I got was notification that she was dead.
The weakness was in acquirying new demons through fusion. You can fuse two demons and combine them into one, for the most part, better demon. However the game tells you exactly which one combines into what, which takes away the mystery fun. The auctioning process to get new demons is fun.
I would rate the game 8 out of 10. Bump this score up in you are a RPG fan and if you are not then stay away.
