Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Review: Difficult

Atlus has been on a roll in recent years with games that have garnered praise by many. One of these was the surprise DS hit “Devil Survivor” which featured an apocalyptic plot mixed in with some interesting game mechanics. Does “Devil Survivor 2” live up to the expectations the first one had?

Yes, but it’s one difficult ride.

The story is about your last year of high school. You’re preparing for your college entrance exams. Your friend, Daichi, introduces you to a website called Nicaea that sends out “death clips” of people who are about to die. You receive one of you and your friends dying in a train accident but that accident is averted. This causes demons to appear out of nowhere and now you and your friends now have the ability to control demons trough an app on your phone that you now must use to save not just Japan but the whole world.

The story has a lot going for it with some interesting characters and a plot that is well-developed and only gets better as the game goes on. It is also an improvement over the first game with more interesting characters and better pacing.

The gameplay is also an improvement over the first game as well. The battles have better winning conditions, boss battles and more variety. A new addition is the ability to level up each character’s social level that nets new abilities such as improvements to their elemental defense and character specific abilities. The social levels increase by saying the correct response to the character during downtime. Anyone who has played “Persona 4” will be familiar with this mechanic. The way the getting the game’s multiple endings is also easier and better done in that each story chapter changes title depending on the time you get to them. The character social level system helps too in that the character’s level usually determines the ending.

Fusing demons has also improved in that you can give them extra abilities such as extra levels and increased states and even abilities that you would normally not be able to achieve with normal fusion.

The game has some nifty songs to it that greatly enhance the gameplay experience better than the first game was able to do. It’s too bad the game did not come with a soundtrack.

The only major downside to the game is, like the first game, is the unfair spike in difficulty in certain spots, even at the very beginning. These spikes range from boss battles being way too hard to battles having 95% of the enemies knowing healing spells. Atlus may be notorious for making games that are extremely difficult but these spikes break the game’s momentum and will cause some gamers to rage quit.

With an improved story, gameplay and soundtrack “Devil Survivor 2” is a worthy successor. If you can manage to get past the unfair spikes in difficulty you will be in for one of the best experiences the DS has to offer.