View Full Version : Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is not a Persona game
Which is why I decided not to post about it in the Persona Thread.
Circumstances have pulled me away from my beloved Playstation 2, so I threw this into the DSi and away I went. Very interesting concept, the TRPG stylings wrapped around a traditional RPG battle system. I'm kind of piling through it all pell-mell and willy-nilly and Willie Nelson, so I've reached the first day without too many incidents but without picking up any extra party members. I wonder when I start getting them? One thing I do know for sure, though, after scraping through one rather nasty early battle, is that picking up demons at the auction site is the key to victory. The enemies appear to have a random approach to attacking, rather than ganging up on one person, so just having the extra targets should help me avoid the situation I found myself in, with two of my people down and only my own person (Seku Hara) left and nearly dead at that. Having said that, I really like this game so far and I don't know why I didn't get into it when I first picked it up six months ago.
(On a side note, if Atlus brings across a SMT game with a female protagonist, I'm going to call her Kyou Nyuu.)
Ugh. First boss battle is against the Wendigo, and he's nasty. Everything he's got does ≥50 damage, which means everybody in my party's dead in two hits. Thankfully, I found out that I can swap out dead or mostly-dead demons for fresh ones, or I might still be fighting and losing. I became, subsequently, able to fuse demons, and that's going to be a big help. Some of the demons I have are kind of lame, see. Take Pixie … please.
The return of the idiotic guest character, one of the things about TRPGs that I despise, is actually worse here because the idiotic guest character doesn't fight! Haru just stands there and gets ganged up on if you don't run past all the enemies between you and her, and she can't survive more than three rounds. Yes, I did find that out the hard way. I figured she'd run away from the enemies, but she just bounced from one square to another and back; meanwhile, I was taking care of the wrong business, taking down monsters on the other side of the map. So that's game over, man. Second time around, I was able to get Yuzu to Haru before she got too roughed up, and that made all the difference.
I mean, Argath, at least, was willing to use his sword. Haru didn't have any buddies with her, and she didn't seem all that interested in fighting the enemies who were attacking her.
dunno001
01-08-2010, 04:19 PM
The return of the idiotic guest character, one of the things about TRPGs that I despise, is actually worse here because the idiotic guest character doesn't fight! Haru just stands there and gets ganged up on if you don't run past all the enemies between you and her, and she can't survive more than three rounds. Yes, I did find that out the hard way. I figured she'd run away from the enemies, but she just bounced from one square to another and back; meanwhile, I was taking care of the wrong business, taking down monsters on the other side of the map. So that's game over, man. Second time around, I was able to get Yuzu to Haru before she got too roughed up, and that made all the difference.
I mean, Argath, at least, was willing to use his sword. Haru didn't have any buddies with her, and she didn't seem all that interested in fighting the enemies who were attacking her.
That'll be partially explained later in, if you've not gotten there already. I'm right now on the last day, and it's handing my ass to me, and the enemy I need to fight is 8 levels ahead of me. Joy...
Advent_Nebula
01-08-2010, 05:00 PM
The return of the idiotic guest character, one of the things about TRPGs that I despise, is actually worse here because the idiotic guest character doesn't fight! Haru just stands there and gets ganged up on if you don't run past all the enemies between you and her, and she can't survive more than three rounds. Yes, I did find that out the hard way. I figured she'd run away from the enemies, but she just bounced from one square to another and back; meanwhile, I was taking care of the wrong business, taking down monsters on the other side of the map. So that's game over, man. Second time around, I was able to get Yuzu to Haru before she got too roughed up, and that made all the difference.
I mean, Argath, at least, was willing to use his sword. Haru didn't have any buddies with her, and she didn't seem all that interested in fighting the enemies who were attacking her.
That'll be partially explained later in, if you've not gotten there already. I'm right now on the last day, and it's handing my ass to me, and the enemy I need to fight is 8 levels ahead of me. Joy...
I'm in the same boat man.
On day 2, I've run foul of some fellows who want to use their COMPs for evil. Yoohoo is turning out to be a really really strong magic-user and Otakuro a stout front-line fighter, so these fellows were defeated without much rigamarole. I'm still wondering when I'm going to get my fourth person — the menu shows that there's room for one more — but at the moment, we're doing all right.
pathos
01-11-2010, 08:19 AM
On day 2, I've run foul of some fellows who want to use their COMPs for evil. Yoohoo is turning out to be a really really strong magic-user and Otakuro a stout front-line fighter, so these fellows were defeated without much rigamarole. I'm still wondering when I'm going to get my fourth person — the menu shows that there's room for one more — but at the moment, we're doing all right.
I'm not that much farther than you, so I really don't know the details, but i think you wont get the last character until fairly late. I do know who is available for pickup is based on who's ending you have available...i.e. what choices you made, which events you viewed, how you answered questions, etc
Once more I had some guests who didn't fight back (workers and OLs). On the bright side, they were bright enough to get the hell away from the enemies and out the back of the stage, but I had trouble with the stage because one of them gets caught between a couple different monsters. Sometimes, if I weren't lucky, he'd die before I could get Yoohoo or Otakuro into position to cast some healing spells. Finally, though, I had some good luck and got Yoohoo up there to provide some succor. And she, with some massive group-wide magics and great supporting demons, is practically all you need in some fights.
Escorting guests should never be a situation which demands luck. Make it challenging but tactically possible, please, Atlus.
I hadn't remembered the true horror of guest-escorting until I had to save Keisuke and Midori. She, at least, had the good sense to get the hell out of the way. He, sadly, ran right into the middle of a group of enemies and got slaughtered with prejudice. Nobody seems to have told him that pathetic fighters should stay near the stronger fighters for protection, not near the stronger enemies for a quick death. It's all the worse because I had to heal Keisuke all kinds, while only Otakuro needed one shot of Charm to stay alive.
Fucking annoying finish to one battle in particular, and in a way that could not have been predicted without first checking a spoilerific FAQ. I was supposed to save some more office workers, but there was still one in the fight zone when I finished off the last demon. So naturally some big nasty appears and uses his whatever attack to do damage to everything onscreen, including the office worker. He dies, and I, who won the battle, get the game over screen. And I said, WTF mate? That's twice I've said this, and I'm not happy about it: It's bad game design.
And yet, the tactical/traditional hybrid gameplay keeps calling me back for more. I'd love to see Atlus pursue this game design concept and work out all the bad bits.
On day 2, I've run foul of some fellows who want to use their COMPs for evil. Yoohoo is turning out to be a really really strong magic-user and Otakuro a stout front-line fighter, so these fellows were defeated without much rigamarole. I'm still wondering when I'm going to get my fourth person — the menu shows that there's room for one more — but at the moment, we're doing all right.
I'm not that much farther than you, so I really don't know the details, but i think you wont get the last character until fairly late. I do know who is available for pickup is based on who's ending you have available...i.e. what choices you made, which events you viewed, how you answered questions, etc
I think you're right...I'm about two days from the end, at least as far as the story's been telling me so far (of course, it's been ages since I last played; need to pick that up again), and there's at least one person who I suspect could have been playable, but let's just say I would be very surprised to see them join my party now. *koff koff*
It's a very good thing that some of the enemy AI is "fixed" — that is to say, the behavior is predictable enough that I can game it. I found myself in a battle in which I was supposed to beat more monsters than the enemy team. This battle was a best-of-seven affair, and it came down to monster group 7. Thankfully, I gave my hero a demon with the "Flight" ability so I was able to reach the last Pyro Jack before the opponents could; and thankfully, even though my hero could not defeat the last Pyro Jack on his turn, the Pyro Jack then proceeded to attack my hero, who didn't get another turn before the other guys could get there, and I was able to pull that battle out by the skin of my teeth.
Which brings up a question: For some reason, while Otakuro, Yoohoo, and Keisuke (who seems not to have a nickname so far) are frequently able to get Extra Turns by attacking enemy weaknesses, my hero can't get them. As a result, while the other three are getting Overwhelm bonus Exp, my hero spends much of the battle standing there with his thumb up his ass, not picking up any extra experience, not getting levels, and sometimes not even getting a turn. Why can't I get this guy going?
It's day 5, which means I have a new friend to replace Keisuke: It's Magical Girl Dolly! ♥ It also means I just got upgraded access to the demon auction, though a battle I just fought tells me that I'm nowhere near ready to proceed. I beat those d00ds by the skin of my teeth. Recarm and Media are probably the skills I rely upon most at this point. Not so good. Where's an ♨ when you need one?
So basically I'm trying to pursue every girl's story in the game except Yoohoo's. (Word on the street is that her ending is the bad one.) That means I had to try to save Miss Mari. And that was a really fucking rough battle. The first time I tried it, homeboy got knocked all the way down to about 50 HP, then proceeded to absorb over 500 HP and get back near full health. Meanwhile, all my people are dying. So I shut off the DSi because there was no way to win but it was going to take forever to get from here to the game over screen. Then, later, I tried it again. I still had a real bastard of a time winning the battle, but (thanks in large part to Kaido, who handled crowd control without help) I was finally able to take homeboy down. Criminy Christmas, that was a nasty piece of work.
I really want to pursue Haru's story, but I won't be too bummed out if I get stuck with Dolly or Miss Mari.
pathos
01-21-2010, 07:13 AM
So basically I'm trying to pursue every girl's story in the game except Yoohoo's. (Word on the street is that her ending is the bad one.)
I don't really know the specifics of bad/good ending, but what little I've read/heard was yuzu has the easiest ending, since you don't hit up some area that you do pretty much every other ending. Also, you get certain bonus' for a new game +, and yuzu gives the least bonus. From what it sounded like, they probably had yuzu's ending in mind to be finished first, and then the rest of the play throughs would be much easier, since the new game plus bonus' (keep your summons and their levels, bonus to your stats, keeping your level too) makes all subsequent playthroughs pretty easy
but, thats just what I heard, and my opinion.
Boy, day 5 is long. And the bad guy cops are really really stupid. It took me three or four tries to win that battle because the douchebags kept running away from me and straight into the arms of the enemies. Ugh. That said, Dolly's turning into a real beast, and Yoohoo's main problem has become very apparent: She has a Move of 3, whilst everybody else has 4. She's awfully strong with the magic attacks, but if you can't reach the enemy, you can't kill it.
It's late in the afternoon on Day 6 and I'm running into some more tough battles. There were some yakuza running around near Tokyo Dome who nearly ruined my day — one of them was punching demons for over 400 damage! — but thanks to a whole lot of Recarm, I was able to vanquish them and take their COMPs away. Dolly and Yoohoo continue to be almost insanely powerful with their magics. And I can't believe I didn't pick up on it straightaway, but I finally understand why the game is a week long.
Apropos of the whole SMT/DS thing, what's everybody think of this forthcoming game Strange Journey? They say it's like Nocturne, which is in my backlog at the moment and may not move to the front before the new game arrives.
I'm also on Day 6 late afternoon, and I've hit a battle where I'm given three choices:
1. Help the angels by defeating one of your potential allies who's trying to escape;
2. Help the humans trying to escape by defeating both the angels and demons (and it's game over if so many as one of the would-be escapees dies); or
3. Help the demons.
I've gotta give this game credit for forcing you to make some tough decisions.
Agreed - Dolly and Yoohoo pack quite a punch. Atsuko, on the other hand, seems to mostly serve as a decoy these days.
I'm also on Day 6 late afternoon, and I've hit a battle where I'm given three choices:
1. Help the angels by defeating one of your potential allies who's trying to escape;
2. Help the humans trying to escape by defeating both the angels and demons (and it's game over if so many as one of the would-be escapees dies); or
3. Help the demons.
I've gotta give this game credit for forcing you to make some tough decisions.
That was a rough battle. I chose option 2 and Atsuro just about lost his shit.
As to the point which I deleted before I realized I wanted to comment, I think Atsuro's declining usefulness is mostly because it's extremely important to have strong magic-users, which he isn't. I've found that it's far more valuable to have demons who are strong physical attackers, preferably with St or Nu physical defense, but it's borderline required that the kids emphasize magical development. I've been pumping points into the Hero's magic power for the past five levels (he's at 47 right now, I think). I need to keep Yoohoo alive, though, in every battle; she's the one with Recarm, and her team includes a Badb Carha who has Recarm as well.
So I ended up unlocking three (3) of the possible endings:
1. Amane
2. Naoya
3. Yuzu
It turns out, now that I looked at a FAQ about it, that I should have been more closely following Gin to unlock Haru's path, which is the one I really wanted to follow. So I think I'm going to take option 3 and hit up the New Game Plus feature, particularly as neither option 1 nor option 2 really appeal to me. Not that option 3 is a real winner, but still.
I've reached the end of Day 6, and now it's decision time. I've been given four options:
1.join with Naoya,
2.Gin,
3.Yoohoo,
4.or Amane.
Yoohoo's become my favorite character, but I've got to agree with Dolly - that path can't lead anywhere good. As ADC noted, each option presents its own set of problems - Gin's is the most attractive to me right now, but as Mr. Gigolo noted, it may not really resolve anything in the long run, just put things off for a while. This is one of those moments when I wish this game had more than one save slot.
I took option 3, as noted last time, and it wasn't exactly a winner. Now I need to go through it again (thankfully retaining all my levels, skills, demons, and money) and pick a different path. I'm still leaning toward doing Gin's path, but I haven't figured it out. Also, I'm not sure if I want to play it all again right now, especially with World Destruction on the shelf and getting panned by critics right and left. (Probably because of all the "from the of [i]Chrono Cross or Xenogears" things — two games which were hardly titans in their time, I say.)
I'll probably be playing SMTDS again soon, though. The game's fun. Damned fun.
I've decided to go Gin's route. Call me a sucker for ennui. :) I've got Amane's track on the mid-battle-suspend, but I get the feeling that might be too awkward to keep doing till game's end. You're right, though, ADC - it is fun. Love the character designs, too - I'm getting to be quite a big Suzuhito Yasuda fan.
Thanks in large part to its Persona sub-series, Shin Megami Tensei has gained a dedicated following in the United States. So it was perhaps destined that the first DS game in the series, Devil Survivor, would make it outside of Japan as well. It probably helps that it's a solid game that combines tactical and traditional role-playing styles for a rather unique gameplay experience.
The game takes place over the course of seven days and is restricted to Tokyo, within the boundaries of the Yamanote Loop. Outside, everything seems to be normal and is, therefore, irrelevant. Inside the Loop, however, demons are appearing all over the place and making a mess of things. That's where we find our heroes, who are equipped with "COMPs" which allow them to summon demons of their own. (These devices look like a cross between the phat DS and the DS Lite, of course. Atlus knows which platform the game's on.) As you begin to accrue more demons, you assign them to our heroes and send them into battle.
The battles are presented with the tactical "grid" common to TRPGs such as Final Fantasy Tactics and the Fire Emblem series. You move each team around the grid to engage them. Once you choose to attack, the tactical grid goes away and you're dropped into a three-on-three battle scene in the first person view, á là Dragon Quest. Once there, it's familiar to anybody who's played a SMT game: Your attacks and spells are drawn from the usual SMT skill lists (Agi, Bufu, and the like), and you're attacking enemies who are mostly returning from previous SMT games (from Abaddon to Zouchouten, and definitely including Jack Frost). Hitting an enemy's weakness or scoring a critical hit can earn your dude an extra chance to attack, while hitting an enemy where he's strong might confer an extra chance on him instead. It's the usual fare for traditional RPGs, wrapped up in a tactical map.
As usual for SMT games, when you start getting too many demons in your party (or when they're not up to the drill anymore), you can fuse them to make better demons. This time around, unlike the Persona games, you can choose which command and passive skills get passed on to the new demons; also unlike the Persona games, however, you are limited to three commands and three passives, not simply a pool that could contain any combination of same. Each demon also has a race-native skill, which could include anything from extra movement to added attack range to a healing command. There's a tremendous amount of flexibility in designing your army.
Even better, though, is that you can tailor your heroes to make up for your demons' weaknesses or to press an advantage against a group of enemies. This means you can go with a fire-heavy group against fire-weak enemies, or you can make your hero strong against fire to protect against a powerful fire-using enemy. Again, there's a check built into the game, though: A skill you allocate to one of your heroes cannot be allocated to anybody else, meaning that you can't turn everybody into a healer or assign a particular attack to the whole party. This serves to balance the game and, in my view, is in keeping with the way things have been done in past SMT games, though it certainly is a different approach to balance than a longtime SMT gamer may be familiar with.
This is not to say that the system is executed perfectly, mind you. The game does set up battle order according to group speed, a system far preferable to a "Player turn / Enemy turn" style as used in Fire Emblem, but the turn order is not set, and sometimes you can find one of your parties stuck at the back of the line. Sauce for the goose, of course: Sometimes you get your turns more quickly than the enemies do. I never did figure out the best way to set up a fast party, but I did have some success in spite of my apparent cluelessness. Also, while you have complete control of your heroes and their demons, the AI for guest characters is almost uncannily stupid. Particularly in the first half of the game, your characters are so slow and have so few skills that you might not reach a guest character before the idiot runs right into an enemy and dies. Even toward the game's end, you'll often have to put your heroes in between the guests and the enemies just to stop the guests from doing something retarded. That's not an optimal way to run a party, and poor AI can be a cause for unnecessary frustration (not to mention Game Over screens).
Having said that, the game's actually pretty good about keeping the enemies themselves from being too challenging. They tend to level up about as quickly as you do, and it's rare that they'll use truly advanced tactics. On occasion, you'll watch helplessly as an apparently strong party gets wiped out by a series of critical hits, but this is also rare. By and large, the game plays fair. And because you can save your game after every battle (and you really should do so), you're not likely to run into the soul-crushing surprise Game Overs that often happen in the Persona games, wiping out hours of progress.
Progressing through the game is done by a menu of various Tokyo locations. Events listed in the menu with a clock icon progress the game by 30 minutes each, pushing you from 9:00 in the morning to 7:00 at night more quickly than you might like at times. You'll meet several interesting characters within the Yamanote Loop, but you don't have time to follow all of their storylines. Depending on the choices you make over the course of the week, you'll be able to pursue several different endings on the last day. I can tell you from personal experience: Atlus included a bad ending, as they often do. The choices you make are supposed to be a reflection of the kind of person you are, and if you get the bad ending, the game will get pretty snarly at you. Thankfully, there's a New Game Plus feature so you can get all of the endings, playing through the game with greater ease each time. Sadly, there's only one save slot, so you have to play through the entire game multiple times to see all of the stories. I think some of them have real promise, but I wasn't able to pursue the one that struck me as the most interesting because I didn't talk to all the right people at the right times.
Character interaction is mostly carried out with still portraits of folks talking to each other, as is normal for SMT games. This time, I don't know if they just outsourced the artwork to some low-end artists or if they actually wanted to use a goofy style, but the character portraits aren't nearly as good as they've been in past SMT games. On the other hand, the maps are beautifully drawn, and character and enemy sprites in battle look sharp. The music was definitely outsourced, and it's far more guitar-driven than normal. It's not bad, exactly, but it's also not exactly good and it's certainly a different æsthetic.
There's very little use of the DS's unique features. The top screen is only used to look at enemy and player info during battles. There's no touchscreen control, though the game doesn't need it. The microphone and DSi camera aren't used. There's really nothing here that requires that this game be on the DS; it simply is the platform that Atlus chose for it.
So I guess the question is, does this game stack up with the best Shin Megami Tensei games? I don't know that it does. Certainly it's different from the Persona series, as it does not emphasize interpersonal relationships the way those games do. I think that's one of the strengths of the Persona games, but I don't know that it's really missed here. What I do know is this: It's one of the best tactical RPGs I've played, and it's definitely an upper-echelon DS game. And I'll be playing it again before too long — that bad ending is really sticking in my craw.
Graphics: B
Sound: B
Gameplay: A
Challenge: B+
Story: B+
Overall: ZOMFG (out of ZOMFG).
Nice review, ADC. Can't really argue with anything overall, although unlike you, I really liked the character designs. Speaking of...
Character interaction is mostly carried out with still portraits of folks talking to each other, as is normal for SMT games. This time, I don't know if they just outsourced the artwork to some low-end artists or if they actually wanted to use a goofy style, but the character portraits aren't nearly as good as they've been in past SMT games. On the other hand, the maps are beautifully drawn, and character and enemy sprites in battle look sharp. The music was definitely outsourced, and it's far more guitar-driven than normal. It's not bad, exactly, but it's also not exactly good and it's certainly a different æsthetic.
The character designs for SMT:DS were done by Suzuhito Yasuda, the creator of the Yozakura Quartet manga (I think he also did the character designs for the Durarara!! anime). Yasuda does seem to have quite a distinct style; personally, I really enjoy it and have come to look forward to works where he's involved. May be one of those cases of a love-it-or-hate-it aesthetic like Kia Asimiya (whose designs I've just never gotten used to). At the very least, Devil Survivor provides quite a different character style for people used to the Persona series.
I like the soundtrack, too - I still like to let the opening play all the way through before picking up where I left off. :)
Senku
02-02-2010, 09:26 AM
Nice review, ADC. Can't really argue with anything overall, although unlike you, I really liked the character designs.
Don't know when I'll get back to this game, but I'm in favor of Yasuda's character designs as well.
It also helps that Yuzu is so nice to look at :nosebleed:
Curious. I found Yoohoo's design quite … well, I wouldn't kick her out of virtual bed for eating virtual chips, mind you, but she's definitely low on my list of HAWT girlies in SMT games. Probably her bad posture, or her creepy facial expressions. Miss Mari, on the other hand … I just like how she's trying to look all bad-ass in her hero shot, yet has that Mona Lisa smile in the little portrait.
Meanwhile, I started up a New Game Plus and chose Amane's route. So I had to take on Jezebel. No problem. Then it was Belzaboul. No problem. Then it was Belberith. PROBLEM! Wow. The real rough part, which I haven't been able to get past, is that when one of the acolytes drops an overloading COMP, it keeps spitting out d00ds; when I kill said d00ds, I can't get to the overloading COMP before it spits out another d00d. So that drained me of MP pretty quickly, and I decided to try building up some better demons.
I chose, this time, to build Our Hero into a magical powerhouse. He's so fast, with so much magic power, that I've dropped the Ma*dyne spells in favor of Dances for the extra raditude. The down side of this is, of course, that he's punching d00ds with all his might and they're taking like 15 damage. Sucks when you have to take someone out with physical attacks.
In my second assault on Belberith, I chose a more methodical approach, taking out enemies one group at a time instead of spreading people out all helter-skelter and pell-mell and willy-nilly and Willie Nelson. This worked out much better, as I was able to pick up the overloaded COMPs before new d00ds could pop out of them. And then I surprised myself by finding out that I have a total secret weapon in the party: Keisuke! (It's a secret to everybody! I was shocked!) He took the bad guy down from 100 percent HP to dead as a doornail in one bout! There were two hits: Keisuke hitting the boss and the boss hitting the ground. (Well, he did have help from some pretty vicious demons, but still.)
I'm sure there is a good ending to this game. I haven't found it yet, but it has to be there.
The issue with Amane's ending is that, thanks to Our Hero choosing to become the Messiah, one of the potential bad results actually came to pass. One of the possibilities was that Humanity would fail its trial and that God would take away their free will. With Our Hero set up as God's representative on Earth (wearing a sweet cape in so being), while free will is still technically available to Humanity, it's suggested that humans who step out of line will be judged — perhaps Judged with a capital J — by Our Hero. And if they're found guilty? Amane seems fine with it, but I think I'm with Yoohoo and Atsuro, both of whom look plenty disturbed. I didn't go through this game twice to be labeled a coward the first time and become God's hatchet-man after that. Wearing a white cape and my crazy-ass headphones, no less.
Anyway, that's Yuzu's and Amane's endings I've done. The first five days go so quickly when you have Amaterasu and Norn and Loki and all these that I could possibly have another ending under my belt in a couple of days.
The first five days go so quickly when you have Amaterasu and Norn and Loki and all these that I could possibly have another ending under my belt in a couple of days.
I was wondering how you were managing to finish replays so many times - I'm still on my first playthrough :sweat. Of course, right now I'm taking it slow but steady, maybe one boss a night. Belzaboub and his maggots were a real PITA. I finally realized that it pays to get as many Skill Cracks as you can from the free battles; as ADC noted in his review, the tide of battle can often turn on which skills and elemental strengths you've assigned to characters. Amane with an element buff and a -dyne attack, for example, can pack quite a wallop (if she stays alive long enough, that is).
To recap: Yoohoo's ending is the height of cowardice; Amane's ending to to choose to become the Messiah and govern the world with an iron fist in God's name. Neither's the "good" ending.
Nor is Naoya's. Whereas in Amane's ending, Our Hero becomes essentially the pawn of the Angels, Naoya's ending sees Our Hero choosing to become the King of Bel, the Overlord of the demons — yet still a pawn, this time to Naoya, the reincarnation of Cain, the world's first murderer. I don't blame Yoohoo, Dolly, and Keisuke for bailing on Our Hero on the last day. I'm a bit surprised that Miss Mari went along with it, even though I've been scrupulous about saving her every time. It turns out that I've felt dirty after each ending so far — what's Atlus playing at here?
Any of all, there are two more endings to see (maybe three — apparently one of the final days is accessed very similarly to one I've already done), and I think I've figured out which is the "good" ending.
Anybody found out about Frosty yet? He's totally the Jesus of Suburbia. Calls himself the warrior of love and rage or something to that effect. Hee ho.
Finally - the final(?) battle at Babel (Gin's path)...
...and it's a frakking escort mission.
@#$%&*!
Granted, it's not a big surprise - there were hints earlier in the game that you'd have to protect Haru while she fires up the song - and Haru does make a beeline for her destination rather than go out of her way to get killed - but still. Keeping Haru alive while fighting yet another boss with magical super-healing powers at the end of each battle round and wave after wave of immune-to-physical-attacks Murmurs (bye-bye, MP!)...this one's going to be tough.
So I just beat Atsuro's path, and it seems like they really really want this to be a good ending. After an annoying final battle in which I had to protect Naoya and move Atsuro all the way from one side of the map to the other to control the second console, it turns out that Japan wins in a major way. We banish the demons and begin to use them as a power source, which enables Japan to increase its military might and force its way into a permanent position on the UN Security Council. Woo, go Japan, right? Sure, if you ignore the fact that we've basically turned the whole demon world into a giant battery á là the "real world" of The Matrix. Nobody, including Our Hero, seems to have any problem with this, and life goes on. We've only enslaved an entire civilization to use to our own ends.
I guess we'll call that the morally ambiguous good ending. Just leaves Gin and Haru to see, which I think is probably the real good ending. I'm prepared to be wrong, of course.
Edit #2: Okay, now I'm feeling better...
Yay! I finally finished Gin's path. And I'd say it counts as a happy ending. After an escort mission involving getting both Haru and Atsuro to the terminal, our group then has to defeat Babel's gatekeeper while keeping Haru alive. Then, our group must defeat Babel itself, sans demons. Once they've accomplished that (just barely), Hero banishes Babel back to the demon world, the demons vanish, and the altered COMPs return to normal. The Japanese government lifts the blockade, and issues a press release stating that the demons were mass hallucinations caused by a gas leak. Naoya admits to himself he didn't imagine this outcome, but vows to fight on. Life returns to normal. Some time later, Hero receives a message on his COMP from Heaven congratulating him on his decision to relinquish his power as King of Bel, but to remind him that if Hero ever decides to use his power, the angels will be there to strike him down. I do believe I'm quite satisfied with that finish. :)
Very nicely done game overall, and a fine addition to the SMT franchise. I'd put it up there with Personas 3 and 4. Some of the boss battles could get frustrating at times, but would it really be a SMT game if that weren't the case?
Anybody found out about Frosty yet? He's totally the Jesus of Suburbia. Calls himself the warrior of love and rage or something to that effect. Hee ho.
Oh, yes. He even voluntee-hee-red to fight alongside us on the final day. :)
Done, for the last time.
Yuzu's ending was that of abject cowardice. Atsuro's was the enslavement of an entire race for Japan's benefit. Amane's was the rule of Our Hero as God's pawn. Naoya's was the rule of Our Hero as the King of Bel. None of these really count as a "good" ending, although Atsuro's comes close iff you are strictly looking at how Japan was affected.
So it turns out that Gin and Haru's ending is the Good Ending. Haru's song — not Aya's song, as we believed earlier in the game, but Haru's song all along — sent all the demons away (sadly including Frosty), Our Hero refused the Throne of Bel, and the challenge of God's Ordeal was met and conquered. Only the last e-mail from Metatron, a blatant threat from God against Our Hero, mars this excellent ending. That was unnecessary and should probably have been dropped. Still, it's a very satisfying path. The final battle was probably the most fun of the bunch, even though I hadn't been developing Atsuro and was surprised that I needed to bring him along. And when I lost all my demons before defeating Babel, I got a bit nervous. Only Amane and Our Hero survived the battle, though it was nice to see Atsuro and Dolly waiting for me back at the Shomonkai altar.
Any of all, the characters! Gin's about the most balanced character for stats (unless Our Hero is developed as balanced, which he shouldn't be), so his usefulness is somewhat limited. Atsuro, Kaido, and Izuna have excellent physical strength and vitality, which makes them very poor choices for many of the final-day battles because it came at a cost of magic power. Izuna's so Ma-poor, she's practically a Muggle. Keisuke's very fast with good magic power, so he's a good choice. Miss Mari, Naoya, and Dolly are excellent magic-users. Amane and Yoohoo are hamstrung by either poor movement stats or a requirement that they be tied to Avian or Wilder demons, but Amane's magic power in particular is so high, she's a starter on the final day even if you have to give her a Garuda or Behemoth. My standard final-day party this last time was Our Hero, Miss Mari, Amane, and Dolly.
Now. When next we talk of DS games, it'll be in a thread I haven't started yet. Edgey-poo!!
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