Archive for November, 2009

You might be thinking right now, “I thought this blog was going to be about music?” I know, I know. I seriously have two posts on music just sitting there waiting to be finished. I’m actually a little blocked about how to finish them. Writing about music is really hard. Fortunately, video games are much easier to write about.

I’ve been a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) series for a while now. The first one that I played was Devil Summoner for the PS2, which was a very satisfying and unique game. I played Persona 2 next, but never finished it. It got really hard halfway through the game, and I stopped having time to devote to it. Since then I’ve been chugging through Persona 3, and absolutely loving Devil Survivor.

So what is it: Devil Survivor is like the rts entry in the SMT series. It has a lot of the same themes as other SMT games. You summon demons, they help you fight other demons, you have magic powers, etc. It all takes place in a modern-day Tokyo. What I really love about this game is the setting and the story. You’re in Tokyo when this Demon invasion happens, and they shut down everything inside the Yamanote rail line. Counters appear over people’s heads, showing how many days they have left before they die. That adds a nice bit of tension to the game. To top off the tension, you get emails every day that tell you what will happen, and at what time. So, you’re just watching that clock, waiting for something to blow up. Very nicely done.

Another part of the game I love is the aspect of faux-reality that they set up. The characters use a DS to summon demons in the game. It’s called a COMP in the game, but it looks just like a DS. In addition, the menu that you pull up looks like it’s supposed to be the character’s COMP menu. Also, when your character dies, your DS displays a disconnected screen, and the game starts over. Overall it’s a nice touch that really draws you into the game.

As always, Atlus does a great job of publishing titles in the states (whether they developed the game, in the case of the SMT series, or just distributing it). The artwork, translation, entire package is flawless.

Oh, yes… I do have a gripe with the game. The soundtrack. Oh, so many whiny guitars sounding badly. It’s actually something I’ve noticed with a lot of DS games, they have horrible soundtracks. I don’t know if it’s just that modern day game soundtrack composers are trying to make something sound funky or new, but it’s failing. It’s even less forgivable when you understand that they are working with the same equipment that composers on the super nintendo were. And, I think most gamers can agree, there were some great soundtracks on the super nintendo. Atlus usually puts their star composer (whats-his-name) on the Persona games. I guess Devil Survivor got someone a little less inspired.

I take it back, it’s not all DS games. The Dragon Quest remakes had good soundtracks, and I really liked the Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier soundtrack. Usually Atlus includes awesome swag with their games, even the normal editions. Maybe when games don’t have good soundtracks, Atlus doesn’t include them in the package. It might be true, because it seems like an odd process that some games include soundtracks and others don’t. Ah, who knows….