Last night I plowed my way through the second novel in the Digital Devil Story (DDS) trilogy (I don't believe the third has an English translation yet), and so today I decided to start playing through the first game.
I admit: I am kind of cheating by calling this game DDS. I'm actually playing the remake of the first two games for the SNES, Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei (KMT). However, the DDS title is more recognizable than KMT as far as I know, so I'll refer to them on here using their original title.
This is my first experience with the Megami Tensei franchise. While I've heard people discuss Persona, and have looked a little into the Fire Emblem crossover (yes, that's a thing), I have never booted up one of those games myself. Since the game was never released in the US, I'm using the
DDSTranslation patch.
The story here picks up directly from the end of the second book, with demons entering the world through the portal created by Set (I'll discuss the books more in-depth in another post). The two lead characters, while they can be named whatever you want, are given the default names of Nakajima and Yumiko, the main characters from the books, and reincarnations of the Japanese gods Izanagi and Izanami. With the demons free to enter the human world, Lucifer himself comes through and takes control over Izanami's temple, and kidnapping the soul of the goddess itself (I don't know if it was ever made clear how Izanami and Yumiko can exist separately, but feel free to mention it if I'm wrong). The two warriors enter Lucifer's tower, in an attempt to put an end to him, the resurrected Loki and Set, and all the other demons standing in the way of freeing Izanami.
Thus far, the gameplay seems interesting. I've never been a huge fan of classic dungeon crawlers like this, but the updated SNES graphics make it playable enough for me to appreciate the gameplay. The fighting system is pretty straightforward - a definite relic of the NES days - but it's also not an uncommon style. It feels oddly familiar to me, which is perfectly fine.
You can of course play it like a regular RPG, but the main focus of the Megami Tensei game is controlling demons. You can talk to demons before battling, attempting to enter into a pact with them, which would make them join your side against Lucifer. This is how you get more members in your party. You can also merge certain demons within your party, allowing you to create even more powerful demons - though your main characters have to be of a certain level to be able to control them. Since my protagonists are only Level 5, I can't merge the two demons I already have, though I assume it's quite worth it.
I'm surprised at just how much there is in this game. Outside the regular RPG elements, the twisting and turning dungeons, and the demon contract mechanic, you also have a time system. As you move, the moon changes in phase, which changes the world around you. Demons get more powerful during the Full Moon for example, and during the New Moon the weapon shop in the Tower of Daedalus (the first area of the game) is closed. I'm sure I'll find more times when that's used as the game continues, but I always find interest in early clock mechanics.
Also, instead of having permadeath, a lives system, or simply allowing for infinite replays, this game allows you to literally pay off death (er, Charon) with half your remaining Maka (money) to allow you to return to the world of the living. I think that's cool, and punishes you for death while still allowing players who struggle to eventually beat the game.
It's also really cool from a mythological perspective. A lot of the character and area names in this game - and probably the series as a whole - are based on some sort of ancient mythology. As I mentioned earlier, the villains in the first two books were Loki (the Norse god of mischief) and Set (the Egyptian god of evil). The main ally demon in those books is Cerberus (the guard dog of Hades from Greek mythology), who is kind of an earlygame nuke in this game as well (or so I've heard; I haven't actually picked him up yet).
In case you can't tell, I'll continue to play this game, and probably will eventually move on to the more popular Shin Megami Tensei and Persosna franchises.
