Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

[Zapp$ter]

Did a search and couldn't find a thread on this. It came today from VG+ and I've had about an hour or so on it. Firstly the deluxe boxed set thing is lovely, I like the boxart and the whole thing is just extremely nice. I haven't had a chance to listen to the soundtrack yet, but from what I've heard of the game so far it should be a real treat.

The opening cutscene is very nice. Voice acting is top notch, very believable IMO(be warned though I did find the voice acting in Baten Kaitos to be decent so you're mileage may vary). The whole thing seems to be shaping up nicely and anyone who has played SMT:Nocturne will be right at home with this game. It feels very similar to that game, which is a good thing IMO as I really do love the battle system from Nocturne. From what I've played it is very similar, you get extra moves for exploiting weaknesses and less moves for attacking to an enemy's strengths. I haven't had the chance to see any combos yet but that is another addition to the combat system mentioned in the manual. The encounter rate so far has been decent not too many battles and not too few either. From what I have read though this does change for the worse later on.

Skills are obtained from something called a mantra which you learn by mastering it. This basically entails getting the required number of atma points, which are gained by devouring enemies(in other words beating them). I did one move which got me a load more atma points from an enemy with the main character, it was called "devour" I think. Once a mantra has been mastered you learn the skills, which then have to be set in the main menu to be used in battle. Again some of the spells/skills from Nocturne have popped up IIRC. When a mantra is mastered you can no longer gain any more atma points for it. You then have to "equip" another mantra with which to learn a skill from. I haven't yet come across another mantra but from reading the manual it seems these can be purchased from Large karma terminals. Overall the mantra seems to be the equivalent of the magatama from Nocturne, except that they don't provide you with new weaknesses/strengths(at least not that I know of). The weaknesses/strengths seem to be specific to the characters and nothing else e.g. Serph is strong against fire but weak against Ice. As I said I'm still early on in the game so this may change.

During battle you can revert to your standard human form, but I didn't try it. I got through the first "dungeon" which was fairly straightforward. One thing I did notice was that there were a lot more save points than in the opening "dungeon" of Nocturne, which IMO is a welcome addition to the game(if it holds true for the rest of the dungeons). The graphics seem to be more or less the same to me, maybe slightly improved over those in Nocturne. AFAIK you don't need to have much knowledge of SMT:N or it's story in this game(which is a good thing since I haven't played through SMT:N fully yet, I've only put in a few hours into it so far).

Overall it seems to have been worth the wait. I have no real complaints yet and I'm happy with my purchase. It's a very nice game so far and certainly is very different to most of the RPGs out there/coming out in the near future. Looks like I'll be putting down my pre-order for DDS2

[JamesS]

Yeah, I got this on Friday from Tronix and from first impressions it seems to be rather good. I love the graphical style of the thing. Cel shaded but quite subdued at the same time. The intro is just great. Actually, the style vaguely reminds me of some of the Panzer Dragoon artwork, but that might just be me.

From what I've heard, the voice acting is very good. Nicely underplayed compared to a lot of dubs.

I still have Xenosaga 2 to finish before I get stuck into this properly, but I'm looking forward to it now.

[Prof Frink]

Got this on order from VG+ hopefully should arrive tomorrow. I'm playing nocturne at the moment and loving that at the minute. Can you change the demon your character changes into or is it simply the skills that you can change, also is this more plot oriented than nocturne.

[Zapp$ter]

Got this on order from VG+ hopefully should arrive tomorrow. I'm playing nocturne at the moment and loving that at the minute. Can you change the demon your character changes into or is it simply the skills that you can change, also is this more plot oriented than nocturne.

Given that I haven't played much of either game yet(I'm saving Nocturne for the summer when I can really get into it) I'm not sure I can say for sure. From the reviews I've read it does seem that it is more plot oriented than Nocturne. As of yet I'm not sure you can change the demon that your character turns into and I'd hazard a guess that it might not be possible at all, which would be a shame really since some of the demon forms are a little too weird for my tastes(Heat's form for example). My favourite demon form so far is probably Serph's.

[Jusatsushi]

My first impressions are pretty sweet actually. This is my first MegaTen game, and I must say the graphical style is lovely. It really does seem at times that I'm playing through a quality anime.
The combat seems basic (tap X to win, scan for elemental weaknesses etc...), but it's too soon to judge; I'm sure complexities will become apparent in time.
I'm liking the character development too. Very reminiscent of FFX's sphere grids though if I'm honest. Still, it leaves room for the player to evolve the character as they see fit which is nice.
Aside from that, I'm liking the change in direction the plot takes from the usual twee JRPG. It seems very dark, and I'm liking the whole taking over areas thing.

[MartyG]

I'm just about to go play this, the deluxe box set is nice and presumably DDS2 won't come in such huge packaging as it looks like the 2nd game has a space in the box for it. My one gripe is that the soundtrack CD comes loose in a paper sleeve. Why not use a dual disc case? Grr. Anyway, off to play it, I shall post up some first impressions in a couple of hours.

[segages]

Arrived today from Tronix and have played a few hours... opening cutscene is superb! Having played about 20 hours worth of Nocturne (will finish it sometime) it feels pretty similar which is a good thing and I'm a major fan of Nocturne's style which is continued here also. Even early on, a slight puzzle is thrown on which makes a change from just running from A to B. Hopefully this continues throughout. The Demon celebrations rock

[fearbat]

My copy arrived yesterday, but I had to wait until today to be able to put some time into it. I'm around 6-7 hours in and I have to say I'm enjoying it a lot. The game just wreaks quality, from the well thought out battle system, to the dark mood of the music, to the fantastic character designs(and the general art direction for that matter) and onto the very well done in game engine cutscenes. It's all at a very high standard.

My only slight negative would be the script which has come across a bit hit and miss, the voice acting though can't be knocked. I guess translating from Japanese to English there's always going to be differences, the story and characters still come through very well and I find myself in anticipation of what else the story has to offer.

[MartyG]

After the first hour, I'm quite impressed. The opening movie made me want to keep saying "What is the Matrix"

It looks to me like virtually the same engine has been used in this game as was in Nocturne. There are the same magics and creatures, even a similar restore health and save feature.

The story is definitely a lot different though - there seems to be a lot more narrative in DDS than there was in Nocturne, and although there's a similar style, the atmosphere is a lot different. Nocturne seemed to be a lost world, and you were largely on your own. Here you're fighting a war, it's almost post apocalypse Terminator in theme.

Still lots of random battles - but it seems DDS is a lot more forgiving. It certainly seems like an easier game so far.

And the female start character has breasts that turn into mouths with razor sharp teeth - I find this quite scary.

Still, first impressions are very good.

[segages]

After the first hour, I'm quite impressed. The opening
Still lots of random battles - but it seems DDS is a lot more forgiving. It certainly seems like an easier game so far.

I was going along quite nicely - devouring the weakened enemies to fuel my AP for more mantra - when I met my match after being ambushed in a fight. It said there was no time to change to a demon so I had to fight as human using guns which do peanuts for damage! After my party members got poisoned and died, I eventually finished off the remaining enemy only for three more of them to appear from nowhere to seal my fate

[Jusatsushi]

It definately becomes a lot tougher after the 6 or 7 hour mark... guns do naff all damage when you're suprised by enemies too.

[fearbat]

Don't know if you've noticed yet, but you can change to either demon or human at will during battles. The guns you have when human are weak on thier own but there are powerfull combo's available for them, to find them experiment with having different team members as either human or demon in the same party line up and see what happans. It's also worth changing about what skills you have in the skill slots of each party member, as doing so will uncover most combo's as you go along.

I was just over 10 hours in when I came to the depressing realisation I had not set up my party well at all, I've kept the save file so may carry it on but I've started a new file and am happier with my approach to the game now. As I said before I'm enjoying the game a lot, the story is captivating(even if the script is slightly weak at times) and the open ended way you can go about building your characters up is actually quite addictive. This ones definitely got me hooked.

[MartyG]

Getting further and further into this, and I am liking the mantra system. As has already been mentioned, this is quite similar to the board in FF10. It is very restrictive only being able to have four skills/magics at a time, it's a little mean of the game. It was the same in Nocturne - the problem is that given the wide range of enemies you encounter, having a strength against their weakness for every occasion becomes somewhat impossible.

It is a flexible system, and gives a lot of scope for creating a party you like - but I would have liked a couple more skill slots per character.

I'm still finding it a lot easier than Nocturne, though it could be that the two games are so similar with their combat engine, that I've simply gotten use to it. That said I seem to be levelling a lot quicker in DDS.

The narative I'm also finding very interesting. I want to know what happens to Sera, and I'm sure Angel isn't all it appears to be. I'd say more but I don't really want to spoiler at this point, maybe later.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this RPG. Nocturne was decent, this is kicking its ass so far.

[Prof Frink]

Marty once you get to level 10 you characters get 2 more skill slots so I image you get up to the maximum of 8 like in nocturne. I agree about the plot defiantly has that I need to know more quality just bear in mind the plot goes into the sequel so I image some questions will be kept back for that luckily we get that in august.

[MartyG]

Yeah, noticed that. My characters are lvl 15 atm. It's difficult to know where to go on the mantra tree. I think that I've been concentrating on the wrong things for Serph. The devour branch seems pretty weak and uses up HP.

I had a couple of tougher boss battles earlier, and the area I'm in atm seems like I need to level a little more. Trouble is, I haven't found a health terminal there yet, which you really need for a bit of power levelling.

Now I've got a few combos that affect all enemies, the battles are over that little bit quicker, and it's quite nice being able to use different combos based on whether you're transformed or not.