Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (PS2)

Shin Megami Tensei series have been quite famous in Japan, known for it's mysterious in game environment and character design which became one of the series trademark, using lots of Hindu religion based references. Gamers who enjoy twisted storyline and dark in game atmosphere will enjoy playing this game.

The first Digital Devil Saga story took place in a place called the Junkyard which is occupied by 6 tribes that has been fighting ...
...In the middle of the Junkyard lies the Karma temple (sort of a government building in real life :-) ). The hero and his friends are from the Embryon tribe. One day a strange object appears, as it opens it engulfs everyone in strange lights giving these people Atma the power to transform oneself into demon. Inside this strange object they also found a mysterious black haired girl called Sera. The entity known only as "Angel" tells the Embryon ... more

Shin Megami Tensei series have been quite famous in Japan, known for it's mysterious in game environment and character design which became one of the series trademark, using lots of Hindu religion based references. Gamers who enjoy twisted storyline and dark in game atmosphere will enjoy playing this game.

The first Digital Devil Saga story took place in a place called the Junkyard which is occupied by 6 tribes that has been fighting one against another in order to take control of Junkyard. In the middle of the Junkyard lies the Karma temple (sort of a government building in real life :-) ). The hero and his friends are from the Embryon tribe. One day a strange object appears, as it opens it engulfs everyone in strange lights giving these people Atma the power to transform oneself into demon. Inside this strange object they also found a mysterious black haired girl called Sera. The entity known only as "Angel" tells the Embryon tribe to use their new gained power to defeat other tribes and bring Sera to the Karma Temple. After a series of hard battle the Embryon finally manage to defeat the other five tribes. They then climbed up the Karma Temple and at the top they confronted Angel. As a result of this confrontation the Junkyard is destroyed and the Embryon are separated and thrown into a strange new world... Thus ending the first Digital Devil Saga and starting the Digital Devil Saga 2

Digital Devil Saga 2 starts right where the original Digital Devil Saga left off. The hero arrived in what he thinks is Nirvana, the paradise he and his friends dreamed of reaching in the first game. To his surprise, Nirvana is nothing like the heaven he imagined. There are petrified human bodies littering the streets, with tilting structures and skyscrapers (doesn't sound like Nirvana/paradise to me). He soon discovers that most of the people in this world have the power to turn into demons just like he does, but they're not exactly the friendly type. It is in this hellish setting that he seeks to reunite with his friends, and eventually begin a quest to find Sera, the strange black-haired girl they befriended back in the Junkyard in DDS.

Field exploration is very basic, character will run here and there inside dungeons and other places such as headquarters where players can resupply inventory etc. On left top side of the screen there's a solar data that may effect random encounter and battle sequence. Player will find items in chests scattered all over the place, and unlike most RPG games, items in Digital Devil Saga 2 is precious as they are quite expensive to buy.

Battle sequence is turn based combat. Depending on situation, characters normally will enter combat mode in demon form, in case of surprise attack character will enter combat in human form. Solar data may interfere with battle, it may cause characters to enter combat in berserk condition (half human half demon) where attack power went up but defense went down, it also has effect on some of the skills. Each character his his/her own element strength/weakness as so are the enemies. As most RPG games, there are status ailments such as poison, paralyze, freeze etc... Battle is quite fast and not as easy as you may think, as strategy is crucial, it's not all about beat them up :-) or players may find him/herself seeing the GameOver screen very quickly. Mastering this elemental weakness or strength will help players to play smoothly.

Skills are bought using in game money, and they are called Mantra. And their names aren't as common like Fire, Ice, Lightning and so on, they are using Hindish names such as Agi, Dia, Recarm etc. Players may find it strange and frustrating at first, but once player got used to it, it's more or less the same like other RPG games. Some skills (major ones) can only be attained after getting all the requirements such as unlocking other skills or defeating a certain enemy. In combat mantras can be linked together creating combo attacks, experimenting by combining mantras is fun, increasing the playability of the game as there are loads of possible combination to discover.

I must say patience is quite essential when playing this game, as some monsters are quite difficult to defeat forcing players to build up their characters which takes time. And the rate of random enemy encounter is quite high too, so players will face loads of random encounters.

So, overall this game is quite enjoyable to play, some of the soundtracks are great, the combat system is quite interesting with combos and everything, in short it's worth a shot. Enjoy...... 

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