Not quite Nirvana
Story & Characters
In Shin Megami Tensei: DDS you take the role of Serph and his tribe, the Embryons. You are one of many tribes in the lifeless junkyard, constantly at war with one another. However one day things change:- a mysterious light bathes the Junkyard leaving everyone with the ability to transform into demonic beings and giving you tribe an insatiable hunger to consume the others. Soon the tribes are flung into a Battle Royale of sorts with the strange "temple" that rules over this land the prize to ascend to Nivarna if they slay the other tribe leaders and then bring a mysterious girl called Sera (who appeared with the mysterious light) to the temple.
The story at first appears simple with the plot leading the Embryons into clashes with the other tribes and their demonic leaders, however things are not all they seem and plot revelations and small pices of information on the world they are in and the mysterious women Sera start to come together. The game manages to do the storytelling superby through exciting cutscenes with some really gripping sequences. The only unfortunate thing is that the cutscenes in all their glory actually seem out of place with the drab and repetative combat.
The characters only add to the stunning storyline and despite some initially appearing empty and lifeless all fit in well. Serph is joined by four other playable character Cielo, Gale, Argilla and Heat all with their own unique personalities but united in their common goal and the fact they are comrades.
Gameplay
The Megaten games to certainly suceed in having a great combat system, the big emphasis on buffing/debuffing and weaknesses is here as expected and works just as well in the other titles in the Megaten series. The combat once you master it is very rewarding. However, there is such thing as too much of a good thing. As you progress through the games many dungeons there is one thing that will get most players down, the ridiculously high encounter rate. This is really bad, take a few steps and your flung into a battle, win, heal, take another step and your flung into the same battle again causing much frustration. The fact that the game sometimes throws you into combat situations where you get ambushed and instantly massacred dosen't detract from the frustration either. Some fights will see you starting in human rather than demon form resulting in instant wipe and possibly a long encounter filled trek back to the location you were in. The games level up system is similar to Final Fantasy X in that you have a Sphere Grid like system called the Mantra Grid. Once you purchase a mantra using Macca from fights, you then gain skill points till you have masted the skills from that mantra. You can then move along to a more powerful one in the grid. It's a good system and allows you to diversify your characters how you like with minimal fuss.
Graphics & Sound
This is another problem area of the game for me here. Of course this is an older PS2 game and graphics are not going to be amazing, but the fact is the awful colour palette the game uses seriously detracts from the visuals even more making it hideous to look at. The ugly cell-shaded characters are also an issue with them looking fairly emotionless and detracting from the impact of storytelling at times.
The sound here is a mixed bag with voice acting being good (with VA stalwerts like Crispin Freeman and Wendee Lee voicing some cast members) and above average but the music being badly put together, repetaitve and dull. I opted to play with the sound off in the end the music was so unbearable.
Lastability
The main story isn't that long (completable in about 28 hours or so) but there is optional content for those who like to die even more. If your want to unlock every single skill for everyone and do all the optional content again you could spend 50-60 hours here at the very minimum.
Overall
Overall DDS is a good game, with the same great MegaTen combat system and a superb storyline that will keep you gripped. But aside from curing Nocturnes lack of a plot problem there still is quite a bit wrong with the title which keeps it from being truly amazing. There are plenty of tough fights which give you an amazing sense of achivement and enjoyment however these are marred by other parts of the game being not very fun due to extreme repetition and diffiulty that seems to be put there just to annoy, not challenge.