How Good is Devil Survivor in 2023?

Like this video or else I won't play the sequel

#review #smt #ds

0:00 Intro
3:25 The Lockdown (Story Introduction)
7:52 Let's Survive (Core Gameplay)
30:41 Seven Days (Story Analysis)
46:44 Final Thoughts.
48:39 Outro & Supporter Credits!

It’s sometimes easy to forget just how many Megami Tensei games there are. Of course, there are the ones that everyone knows about like mainline SMT and the persona games, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. If we were to peel back this layer ever so slightly, then you’d be flooded with an insane number of spinoff titles. There’s the digital devil saga duology, the Raidou titles, the classic devil summoner games. And many many more. But the most impressive part about all of this to me is that nearly every single one of these games features a unique style and flair that you can’t get anywhere else. Though this is mostly in terms of aesthetics since gameplay-wise, these games do share a lot of similarities with each other though with some new ideas implemented to shake up the experience. I’d say that the most unique spin-off in terms of core mechanics is the Raidou series by nature of having real-time combat and using demons to interact with the environment. While the execution of this idea was somewhat mixed in the first game, I can at the very least compliment the ambition behind the project. I’ve tasted a lot of what this franchise was serving but there was always one subsection of megaten that has always eluded me. A series of games that I didn’t know anything about but is well-beloved by fans…

Devil Survivor is one of the most unique spinoffs in the entire megami tensei franchise. The game was initially released back in 2009 for the nintendo ds and much to my surprise is actually a strategy game rather than a traditional jrpg affair. What’s even more shocking to me is that despite it playing almost nothing like a standard smt game, devil survivor is one of the most beloved games in the community. You can’t go for 5 minutes without someone bringing up devil survivor and while the passion is admirable, it can sometimes get a little grating. Believe it not, Devil Survivor is the most requested game I’ve gotten on this channel. Even more so than Persona 5 if I’m being honest. So seeing all of this positivity and praise surrounding this game definitely got me at least a little interested. Though part of me was a bit skeptical going into this one. I don’t have any experience with tactics games aside from playing a little bit of a gba fire emblem game about a decade ago. I think it was sacred stones for those curious. So I can only look at devil survivor from the perspective of a newcomer. So in today’s video, we’re going to pop my tactics game cherry and see what all the hubbub is about.

Devil Survivor Analysis - Overrated or Underappreciated? Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor, or as it's referred to as, Devil Survivor is one of the most beloved Shin Megami Tensei games in the entire Megami Tensei series. Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor is a fantastic game for the Nintendo DS and is what I would consider to be one of the best DS games. in this Devil Survivor Review, Devil Survivor Analysis, Devil Survivor critique, we're going to analyze and review Devil Survivor to see if Devil Survivor Overclocked is overrated. This Devil Survivor Analysis also doubles as a Devil Survivor Review and a Devil Survivor Critique. I compare Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor to other Shin Megami Tensei games released as well as to other Nintendo DS games, as this is the Best Nintendo DS Game and deserves to be on a Best Nintendo DS Games list.

[darktigersharkmax]

40:05 Yeah if you spend enough time with Kiesuke he reveals a little about his past and how he was severely bullied with no way to defend himself after trying to help someone who was being bullied. The reason he becomes so angry and vengeful and starts killing is because he's projecting himself on Midori who was just trying to help people and the people out to kill her as the bullies from his past that harassed him relentlessly including the very bully victim he tried to defend. Now that he has the power to fight back all that pent up anger and resent from his experience being bullied fuels his vengeful crusade to enforce his own justice. Hope you cover devil survivor record breaker.

[Tony_]

I think Atsuro's high physical stat is because he hacked his COMP and messed with his harmonizer

[WelfintheSkunk]

7:30 “Atsuro sounds a bit too wimpy for my liking.” He was literally voiced by Shinji Ikari.

[wolffster]

Yeah Keisuke does explain his reason why he acted the way he did assuming he survives long enough. In case your curious you have to tell Kaido Miss Mari is in danger of dying and he goes to save her distracting him momentarily allowing you to save both back to back. IIRC Keisuke used to protect people from bullying in High School. One day one of the people he protected flipped the script, joined with the bullies who picked on him, and began to bully Keisuke instead. This essentially warped his entire world view and caused him to become incredibly cynical. Why protect people if they are just going to stab me in the back later. The only thing he doesn’t realize is that by using Yanma he has become no better than the bullies he used to protect against.

[PrimeSZ]

Definitely one of my favorite games in the franchise for a lot of reasons, but most notably with its setting. Many games in this franchise like to throw us into an apocalyptic setting, and don’t really get to explore the transitionary period before the world goes into chaos.

It’s nice to see the differing ways people handle and cope when placed under extreme circumstances.

[TuskaiTheKid]

Some quick notes.

Atsuro's route is locked behind a relatively inconsequential event on Day 3, not saving Keisuke, and since you were save scumming to "Avoid Wasted Time", you probably skipped it because you figured it wasn't relevant. Devil Survivor does this a LOT, relatively inconsequential events are rarely wasted time, it usually leads to a pay off later, like saving character's lives, unlocking bonus bosses (And thus demons to fuse), getting new members into your party, etc.

Because of this, spending time with party members is usually less important than that, I don't even think it does anything BUT learn more about them, at least in 2 is unlocks buffs and demons.

Another observation is that, you did a single play through, but you did a LOT of demon compendium fusing, and you mentioned you grinded free battles for money for it. Since you were playing on normal, and doing an obscene amount of grinding, you obliterated the difficulty curve, I don't think there's very many SMT games that can't be broken this way, and it's not really a fair critique of any rpg, strategy or otherwise, if you do that, and it's no surprising you didn't have any difficulties until near the end of the game, if you go through the game from start to finish only occasionally using free battles to pick up new skills, the difficulty curve is a lot more in line with SMT expectations of difficulty.

And I know you did too much grinding, because you didn't mention that Leader units take 25% less damage per surviving subordinate, which is something you only really notice if you're not so over powered that you can always one shot every leader unit.

Leading into that, I had the opposite experience in 4, the game was a total cake walk because I took the time to grind, optimized fusions and did all the side stuff I could, the only challenges I really had were with the bonus bosses at the end of dungeons once they're completed, but that was only because I was tackling them as soon as they were available, and I was still able to beat them with a few attempts.

[stevenguitink]

I think one thing that makes Devil Survivor work for me is that it's at its core, a deconstruction of the Mons genre.

- The demons aren't seen as miraculous but terrifying.
- Stock anime characters are put under realistic pressure and many of them bend or break.
- The contained environment means that anxieties, fears and hatreds bubble to the surface.
- Fighting with Mons isn't framed as cool, but horrifying.
- You can't save everyone.

[thisisntevenmyfinalform]

Just beat this game last month. 100% my favorite SMT spinoff hope we get DeSu3 soon 🙏

[RePhantomz]

About extra action it is quite consistent. The thing is there is passive that can resist extra, race skill that annul extra (dragon race) and active skill that can cancel extra.

[ubermaster]

I love the 8th day content cause it adds context to pretty much every ending, my favorite being Yuzu.

Spoilers of course









Yuzu, through the entire game, basically wants nothing to do with anything that's happening, eventually near the end of the week, she openly admits she just wants to escape the lockdown, get her life back(and yes this is as stupid of a plan as you think, and the original game makes it clear that her ending is considered the "are you fucking stupid Bad Ending"), the 8th day shows exactly why her idea was stupid, the angels see your party escaping without even attempting to make change in humanity as a farce, and outright take away humanities ability to have determination within their hearts, basically saying "If you were too scared to fight, now the rest of the world is". Also demons and angels escape through the same route you do so you essentially make the whole world worse. This 8th day ending involves you and Yuzu going right back into the quarantine and sucking it up, accepting that there is no escaping certain events and you have to face them.

[BobbyCorwen]

The other hunters messing up your skill cracks is very much an intended feature and I like it a lot. It puts time pressure on the kill if you want to ensure the kill is cracked. If you take it slow, that's on you. That is in no way a flaw, it's just another element in what is indeed a tactical RPG.

[Deoxys_Used_Mimic]

Shoutout to Suzuhito Yasuda, the artist for this game *and* Digimon Cyber Sleuth.

[Low_Tier_Elf]

Devil Survivor was the first SMT game I played and the reason I fell in love with the series. Also, thanks to this game, I've learned the cruelty of grinding.

The game has an amazing story and gameplay with interesting and great characters. Whatever route you choose—law, chaos, neutral, or run away—the game will respect your decision and give you a satisfying conclusion to the path you've taken while at the same time bearing it's consequences. Anyway, Amane is my favorite character in this game because she is the epitome of how a law character in SMT should act and represent, and her routes are really satisfying.

[itsallenwow]

I played Overclocked for the first time this summer and loved it. So happy you got around to this game

[polyman]

35:36 yeah I kinda love that, really helps with the immersive dreadful atmosphere. The anxiety of spending your time wisely is a great feeling like in Majora's Mask. It made me feel great for keeping everyone alive on my blind first playthrough. Also spending time with Honda isn't inherently a waste of time if you like him more than other characters. Playing optimal and having fun aren't synonymous, I personally didn't have fun doing multiple missions to save the dumbass cosplay girl.

[joakkar]

The only weird thing about this review is how obsessed you are with getting access to every single ending on your first playthrough. The new game plus settings make it so getting back there on a second playthrough is super easy so there really isn't any reason to optimize if you mess up on some story sequence. You could also say the same about the auto skills since I believe those are also carried over. I think I got the teacher killed on my first playthrough, but that just made me more intrested in learning how to save her on the next one. Also considering how difficult I found this game on my first playthrough of the original I'm starting to believe the demon compendium in overclocked might actually break the difficulty a little lol.

[lunanueva]

The thing with Keisuke is that he was bullied at school. His hatred comes from there.

I'm surprised at your characterization of Atsuro as "anti-authority by nature" because I have the opposite experience of him. He's always very respectful of authorities, whether they are his teachers (Naoya), the military/government (Izuna/Fushimi), or gods (he shows remorse at going after the Devas). This along with some patronizing attitudes he has towards women makes me think he's actually pretty conservative.

I love Devil Survivor with my soul, so thank you for covering it! I also think that the way it handles the evolution of the masses in such a critical situation is a very strong facet for it (I certainly missed it on DeSu2).

[TheMetalGaia]

Glad you finally covered this one, Nam. Great video as always!

[Hibiki-Kuze]

I get that you think the story doesn't fit your idea of structure/progression in a story, but its what makes every subsequent playthrough exciting/engaging. You don't need to see all the exciting parts in one playthrough for it to be good/better. Personally, I find all story bits engaging because everyone has a different perspective when it comes to what's happening around them.

Regarding the extra turn mechanic, I see it more as you taking away the enemy's extra turn rather than you gaining one for exploiting the weakness. For me, the decision to make getting one unreliable is not a bad design at all.

[ayayukio]

Hey hey! Someone who did 10+ playthroughs- Great review! I agree with a lot of this. Also, Keisuke's life or death isn't ENTIRELY time based. It's also decision based! One Kaido dialogue option can save both Keisuke and Mari.