Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner

Lovely art style and tweaked gameplay from Koei.
Version
 PS2		Developer
Koei		Publisher
Koei		Genre
RPG



By Ian Dransfield

So, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Soulless Army - well, that's a title, for sure. Here we have another addition to the Shin Megami Tensei series, which broke onto British shores last year with Digital Devil Saga - a good, though difficult RPG.

This time around, things are a bit easier and the game itself is less of a traditional RPG, instead offering real-time action during battles. Something to keep me awake, at least. The game is very pretty, with some wonderful style prevalent throughout - the Industrial English/Traditional Japanese look that goes on is an interesting one and adds some nice eye candy. It's fun to capture and customise demons. There is a decent enough story going on behind everything, once it gets going at least. But it's still one of the most annoying video game experiences that has ever existed. Why?

"Those who have a shorter temper, and like to play games without CONSTANT THREAT FROM EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES may wish to look elsewhere..."

Random battles. Everywhere. All the time. Every building, every street, everywhere you will encounter demons. Whilst not random in the strictest sense - there is a meter in the bottom corner that turns red when enemies are about to appear - they are constant, all the time and non-stop. Forever. Always. Sending players mad through their sheer, infuriating persistence. Those who can handle them - for example, people who have invested dozens of hours into the Final Fantasy III remake - will lap it up, with opportunities for character abilities to be upgraded as the player sees fit, along with the already-mentioned demon customisation. But those who have a shorter temper, and like to play games without CONSTANT THREAT FROM EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES may wish to look elsewhere, unless they're particularly into self torture.

The game sees players taking control of a young chap called, well, whatever you want him to be called. He soon takes up the mantle of Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th: battler and capturer of demons extraordinaire, and soon enough sees himself and chums, including the mystical cat protector/wisecracker Gouto, on an adventure to stop lots of bad things happening. Pretty standard fare, told in an interesting way and through some top-notch translation work. The story takes a good few hours to actually go anywhere though, after the intro sequences at least, and Raidou's work in the local detective agency can prove to be a bit dull. Once things kick off though, there is certainly a story worth persevering for and dozens of hours til completion.

But the battles. My word the battles. Whilst they are handled well, with simple, effective controls complementing a relatively deep demon summoning system, fights can be a bit overwhelming, with too much going on and enemies suddenly eight thousand times more powerful than the player, no matter how much forced grinding they've done. Demon counterparts can be infuriatingly stupid too - I said heal me, you dumb flying bint! Ahem. These problems don't confound the system though, and all in all it is a pretty good one. The main problem comes in the fact that the battles come every few steps. Kind of like how I've mentioned that every other sentence. Just preparing you for the flow, is all.

P L E A S E   V I S I T   O U R   S P O N S O R :

The demons are, as with other Shin Megami games, the main draw here. Players capture and use many different types of demon for their own purposes, and the specific skills of each demon can be used in both battle and normal worlds, from attacking and healing to mind reading and everything else, these little scamps do come in useful. The design of the characters is excellent, and there are some real delights that are sure to become favourites with fans of the series. The demons are by no means a gimmick, and just like in Pokemon, you will want to catch them all.

"Kazuma Kaneko's inspired artistic design is something else altogether."

Devil Summoner isn't likely to be anything more than a niche title, and to be honest it probably doesn't deserve anything more than that, thanks to insane rates of random battles and ridiculous difficulty spikes. The inspired artistic design is something else altogether though, and clearly the talents of Kazuma Kaneko are something to be exploited in other artistic endeavours. Or maybe that's just what I think.

Those who will like it will already know they want it, those who aren't sure should probably give it a try at least. If you have a stress-induced brain haemorrhage within the hour, it probably isn't for you.











Graphics Sound Gameplay Depth Presentation OVERALL
9.0 6.0 6.0 7.0 7.0 6.0


THE VERDICT: Shin Megami blah blah blah is a decent enough game - it would have been good if it weren't for the insane amounts of random battles. It would have been excellent if the story were to pick up just a bit faster. But as it stands, the game with the longest title of all time is merely decent enough.