A new branch in the RPG genre, and an inspirational theme that brings out the gaming addict in us.
User Rating: 9.5 | Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga PS2
Digital Devil Saga, a series built upon the fascination of consumers through the sheer brutality and extremism favored by the dark and mischevious side of humans. Perhaps it is because no other game has risen to the occasion of granting us that type of pleasure, it is exactly why any game with Shin Megami Tensei in its name has had packs of crowds begging for the style and partial reality our world in real life may become. The game's excellent performance, however, comes with a price; massive endurance, a thing which most gamers nowadays have found to be a pleasing change of pace. Example : FF 5---->8 u had to grind like crazy to just get past Square Enix's next-to-impossible boss battles. Speaking in terms of graphics, there still is a high probability that either its improvement or degradation would make it lose its spark; they served their purpose with precision, evading the cinema based saying "It's 80% casting". The story line is where things got a little rough around the edges, for the few and sometimes difficult to analyze cutscenes made it nigh impossible for the player to know where to go, what to do, or just plain didn't make sense unless one linked all the cutscenes together to form the story "line". Another small flaw would be the too huge amount of karma one had to gather in order to gain moves, a thing which would later force the player to change his battle strategies even more than he/she had to because of enviromental deviations and new demon weaknesses/strengths. Simply put, the game was toooo expensive, in terms of Macca and Karma. As for duration, that is for the player's skill and wit to decide. An average gamer might stick to at least 60 hours in hopes of finishing with dignity. The veterans seeking the thrill of death, ( taken from DDS: Nocturne), will attempt using their speed and combat agility to make it in....say, 38 hrs. Yet this system worked toward Atlus's favor, as it would encourage players to keep playing to finish TO start with the next series' game. (Y) The turn-based battle system reminds us of FF10, a system many people are hoping will be revived. again (Y) to atlus.
Overall Equation
- Playability rate: all the way, or at least 90% completion.
- Graphics: 8.8/10
- Duration: generally long even for a veteran
- Gameplay: 85% intact
- Battle-System: 12.875/16
- Story line: apeals 100% to the traditional hardcore gamer, 70% to those not.
