A couple weeks ago we were all discussing Devil Survivor, and how it was a fantastic strategy RPG in the Shin Megami Tensai (aka “Megaten”) series. (Incidentally, John, I know you haven’t finished that game yet, and that does make you a pussy).

Outside of the Devil Survivor/Persona games, Atlus makes a number of RPGs and RPG-like games that are, for lack of a better term, a bit harsh. Recently DJ’s crazy shooter/RPG/dating sim (it was totally in there) gave us a brief hint into the insanity present there. In the past we had Etrian Odyssey, which blended cartography with genocide and cartoony graphics in a delightful, challenging RPG thingy.

Today we have The Dark Spire, which is Atlus’ take on the old-school, Eye of the Beholder style D&D dungeon crawl.

Let’s start out by saying that you can save just about anywhere in The Dark Spire. For an Atlus game, this is almost the equivalent of being given a minigun in SF IV. And you will need to milk this advantage for all it’s worth, because The Dark Spire will kill you. A lot.

Not counting the training battle (which can and will kill you — have fun with that), my first fight in this game put my crew of four (each with about the same number of hit points you would expect a 76 year-old hemophiliac to possess) against nine giant bat monsters.

As a mid level encounter one might consider this difficult. As a first fight this is a nice loving kick in the junk from the developer straight to you. Because remember, this was the first fight. It’s going to get harder.
(more…)

Well then. This be the most complicated DS game I’ve ever played. Woah kids. I never said “fuck this noise.” There’s some good combat up in this. This is a one-of-a-kind battle system everybody should experience as it’s a Strategy RPG that moves at the speed of you. Think Secret of Mana * Disgaea * Big Bang Mini. Despite all the complaining on the complexity, I haven’t lost yet on Normal. There’s too much tutorial for one player to take in without stabbing one’s face, so let me tell you things ya actually need to know as opposed to the encyclopedia the game wants you to know…at least to get you through the first 10 stages…

I’m a lazy guy, you’re a lazy guy. This here’s a beginner’s guide for lazy people that don’t suck at videogames.

Step 1: Watch all the Basic Steps section before you start the game. Don’t worry about the Tutorial right away.

Step 2: Read this guide

Step 3: Play game with sound. Audio cues are very important when trying to follow what the hell this game is doing, despite the failwhale voice acting.

Step 4?: Reread guide or go this way if still confused: www.atlus.com/knights

WTF is the Objective?
Before the fight, see that 4×4 grid on the bottom left (top screen) with the horizontal lines? Some of them may say ‘KILL’. All you’re doing is playing 4×4 Tic Tac Toe/Connect Four. You want to run a line of four kills horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Every horizontal line represents the lifeline of a bad guy. Kill one, you get the ‘KILL’ label on the grid part the enemy represents. Every “battle” you think you’re fighting with that wisp countdown is really just called a turn (and I’ll just call ‘battle turn’). You are given something like 9-ish of these ‘battle turns’ to kill enough enemies to make a tic tac toe on this 4×4 grid. At the beginning of each battle turn you get to pick which spots on the grid you fight the enemies in what looks like a slot machine. If you have any Mario Party dice-manipulation skills whatsoever, you can time it so you can pick any grid space you want. The colored lights flash in the same order, so count how many flashes it takes for your light to reach the space you want and stop the slot machine accordingly.

SideTip: If you see one horizontal bar has two different color lifelines, that enemy is going to recover health. Depending on the bad guy, it could recover over time if you don't select it again, or it can recover if you hand pick that enemy for another fight right away. It’s kinda like the Vs. Street Fighter series when you swap a partner out. The longer lifeline is the amount the bad guy can recover. In most cases, just try to select the same enemy multiple times in a row until dead since enemy damage accumulates across multiple turns.

(more…)

So my current thing to watch while working has been the Persona 4 Endurance Run at Giant Bomb. After 40-odd episodes of monster battling and high school shenanigans I decided to try one of out and picked up the latest DS title.

Devil Survivor plays much like an Ogre Battle or other strategy RPGs. The characters form a party, deploy, and kick some demon butt while gaining experience and Macca, which can be used to purchase new demons. A fusion system also allows you to create demons with varying stats and skill sets.  It gets very deep very fast and your first few levels feel more experimental than anything else. Just the kind of thing John would love.

Again, Ogre Battle felt like this to me and I never got into it because of that. However, Survivor doesn’t seem to be overly punitive when it requires experimentation. There’s an easy way to back out of any decision after checking the results and I never felt screwed in a combat because I didn’t optimize enough.

Presentation in the game is functional if not gorgeous, with isometric sprite-based maps for the strategy sessions mixed with the standard immobile-portrait-in-front-of-you schtick that RPGs have been doing since forever. Dialogue is done with talking heads, and the art work here and on the portraits is quite nice. The sound is competent but not as well done as disc-based Atlus games, obviously. Nothing here is really pushing the DS hardware, but everything looks clean and detailed.

Storywise, Devil Survivor is the bastard child of a JRPG and a B disaster movie. Basically demons are eating dudes, the government’s locked down the area, and you and your friends are surviving by summoning your own demons with modified DSes (yes, it looks just as goofy as it sounds, but the game has a bizarre logic that makes this work) and kicking some tail. The video game console also grants you magical demon ass-kicking powers, so your guys do some fighting as well. Take that, Pokemon guy. Most of the game is played through a menu of locations, with indicators showing that you can to go a place and either fight some dudes or get some plot or both.

Time passage also becomes important in the game, as in most Atlus titles. This time you’re gauging things by the half-hour, with events happening at specific times each day. Some things cost no time at all, and early on your party gets the ability to freely grind combats (allowing you some ability to rebuild if you fuse the wrong creatures, for instance) without advancing the plot.

None of these factors really sound stellar, but somehow they tie together to make something far greater than the sum of the parts. I started this up Saturday and my DS hasn’t been off since. Making new demons and tweaking their abilities becomes addictive very quickly, and the combat is enjoyable and relatively quick. Think Pokemon-style battles, not John’s recent “hit A until they all die” experiences. I’ve also never felt the need to grind anything, but have done so just to buy more demons at the auction house and fuse them into new things.

Recommended? It depends on what you want in a DS game. Survivor is a good pick up and play game, as most individual segments of gameplay run about 5 minutes or less and everything can be paused in the middle of the action. The demon auction feature literally takes place in 5 second spurts of bidding that feel like something out of Wario Ware. But, while the fusing system seems interesting and varied, I can see it growing stale if I have to fuse 8 different creatures for one result, or plow through a half-hour tactics battle. Until then I’m loving it. If you’re an Atlus fan or just looking for a somewhat different SRPG, this is likely going to be your game. No online multiplayer, which is weird with the whole emphasis on the wireless communication powers of the DS, but whatever.  You’ll definitely get your $30 worth out of this.

Toodles.

While we all spend this holiday season salivating over next-gen HD eye candy, a little game called Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 may slip beneath your radar simply because it’s being released for the PlayStation 2. Well pay attention, you poor sap! You may be overlooking one of the best games of the year.

Persona 4 is the latest game in the Shin Megami Tensei series (known as “MegaTen” to its fans) and a follow up to last year’s brilliant Persona 3. [Just ask MC Wilson how many hours he logged into that game.] This classic RPG franchise is known for taking place in modern, recognizable locales and for its off-the-wall, sometimes borderline satanic themes. Persona 4 tells the story of a group of students at a small town high school in Japan who discover that they have strange powers. Coinciding with this revelation is a series of murders and the students use their powers to try to solve the mystery of who is behind the crimes. More than just a standard linear JRPG, Persona requires the protagonist to create social links with other students, which results in various impacts on the gameplay.

The game package comes with the official CD soundtrack with twenty-four really great tracks. Those who preordered the game received an official art book titled “Persona 4: Visual Data”. And finally, Double Jump released an excellent strategy guide (pictured) with an almost overwhelming amount of information.

We’ll be talking more about Persona 4 on the next episode of Drunken Gamers Radio, but based on what we’ve played already, it’s safe to say that this title is just as good – if not better – than its excellent predecessor. And for $40 it’s also an incredible bargain.

In addition, this week’s episode of Retronauts deals with the entire history of the Persona series, so if you’re a newcomer to Persona you can get caught up by giving it a listen.

SHOWNOTES

PSP Review: Yggdra Union: We’ll Never Fight Alone
Retro Review: Mega Man X (SNES)
News: Nintendo DSi
New Wii/DS Titles
Re-released GameCube Titles
Club Nintendo
SD Card Bullshit
Release List
The Last Shot
DGR Mailbag

DGR: 10.05.2008