Earlier this year, RPG fans were treated to the original Digital Devil Saga, a bizarre and philosophically compelling RPG from the occult science masters at Atlus. As with any multi-volume game release, the game ended with a huge cliffhanger, leaving fans wondering what was next. In the last game, Serph and his cohorts in the Embryon tribe managed to become the strongest tribe in the Karma-driven virtual reality Junkyard, a move that should’ve guaranteed their ascension into Nirvana. Instead, Sera, the obligatory RPG-girl-with-a-mysterious-power and a “Cyber Shaman,” abandons them to protect them from the truth, which of course they find out anyway. After a climactic battle against Angel, the director of the Junkyard project, the world is deleted out from under them and Serph and his friends emerge in the real world, which wasn’t quite the state of spiritual enlightenment they were promised. The real world, it turns out, has gone to hell. An experiment gone awry has blackened and corrupted the sun, causing it to turn people into stone. Only humans that have received the demon virus developed with the help of the Junkyard are immune to its effects, but demonized people feed on normal people that cower underground. Serph and friends quickly join up with Roland, leader of the Lokapala, an underground resistance movement fighting Angel and the Karma Society. It all sounds pretty clichéd, but this is a Shin Megami Tensei game, so expect things to get a little weird from there. Unlike the first game, the story unfolds at a breakneck pace, preferring earth-shaking events to subtle mysteries of the original. Being the second installment in an RPG serial, of course Digital Devil Saga 2 is going to bear a lot of resemblance to the original game, but improvements are more fundamental and profound than, say, those in the unending monotony of the .Hack series before it. The battle system is virtually identical, still greatly rewarding the right actions and strongly punishing the wrong ones, but the game isn’t really any harder than the first title. The biggest change is a significant improvement of the mantra system you learn new attacks with, which is now far less linear and plays out a bit like a hex-based strategy game. Having incarnated in the real world, Serph and friends have forgotten all of the skills they learned before, but the new Mantra system makes relearning them fun, and adds a number of new skills not in the first and rebalances others. Customizable karma rings also flesh out the character customization options, while other, more minor improvements abound, ironing out a lot of the wrinkles in the original game. Digital Devil Saga 2 also features a hidden vertical shoot-‘em-up, which may be the best minigame in an RPG yet. Beating the first game has more benefits than keeping current on the deftly intertwined story. Importing your saved game from the first game does provide a number of bonuses, doled out depending on what you did in the first game. Everyone will get some starter funds, exclusive karma rings, random Jack Frost trivia encounters, and the hard difficulty setting, as well as an important story change depending on how you answered questions in the first game. Those that completed the “new cycle” play-through of the first game and beat the super-secret boss will gain improved stats and more, making the two products work better together than similar attempts at game-linking. Unfortunately, it turns out there’s less going on in the real world than you might’ve thought, and after a stream of exciting cataclysms you’ll find yourself in the last dungeon sooner than you expected. This also means that if you want to fight any of the more difficult optional bosses or build out your mantra grid, you’ll be spending a lot more time slogging through weak enemies for money and experience than you’ll probably want to. Overall, it’s a great ride while it lasts, but the sum experience is lacking a little balance that would make it a better game. As a serial, Digital Devil Saga 2 features the same graphics engine of the first game, and once again features the compelling visual style of artist Kazuma Kaneko. The real-world environments are generally more complex and interesting and the virtual karma environments of the first game, making it feel like a pretty different experience, overall. The move to the real world has also brought with it a musical shift towards techno, but the soundtrack is of the same high quality as the first game. The voice acting is excellent, once again, with strong performances by recognizable anime voice talent, and giving better performances than in most of the anime you know them from, too. Digital Devil Saga 2 brings the strange story started by the first game to a spectacular, dramatic, and bizarrely calm end. Fans of the first game should definitely pick this one up, and those interested in the games should start with the first, but won’t be at a serious disadvantage if they start with this one, either. Had it been a little longer and more balanced, Digital Devil Saga 2 would’ve earned a perfect score, but still remains an excellent closer to another great Shin Megami Tensei tale, nonetheless.
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