It's been a while since I blogged... I'm definitely out of practice! Sorry for the janky pacing, but I just had to write about this gem after finishing it,

ATLUS is a big thing here on Destructoid. A darling publisher, they release a lot of obscure and little-known titles from the far east. I'm not normally one to be interested in the likes of Etrian Odyssey (too hard) or Steal Princess (too moe?). However, there is one brand that Atlus publishes that I can't keep my hands off of - Shin Megami Tensei.

While I own pretty much every Megaten game released on our fair Western shores, my completion rating leaves something to be desired. The only games that haven't led me to rage-quit have been Persona 3/4. Great as those are, however, I'm going to talk about a different game. The latest in my completed list as of ten minutes ago: Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor.

Wow. Let me say it now: this game blows Persona 3 and 4 out of the water. Not because of the gameplay (which is outstanding and merits an article of its own) but because of the story. More importantly, not because of the story as it could be written by any team at Atlus, but because of the story as it evolves in the hands of each individual player. Most RPGs place the player on a narrow path and point them towards the end. Devil Survivor places the player on a crossroads, and at every juncture they are never sure which is the right way. This isn't because the game is opaque or misleading. It's because there is no right path - that's what makes the game so brilliant.



Before Persona 3, Megaten games were different. They were dastardly difficult affairs presenting players with a bevy of choice and arguing philosophy. Persona 3 brought the series to a new audience by abstracting that choice to the classroom. It was still there, just not as heavy, and coated with an urban funk that couldn't be resisted. Devil Survivor brings these two worlds together. The choices are once again between justice, philosophy and everything in between. But these choices are parallels to characters in your world. Each has an idea of how to stop the calamity at hand - a seven-day quarantine of Tokyo following demon invasion. The player character is forced to choose friends and enemies in this battle. It is not an easy decision.

From the beginning of Devil Survivor, you're presented with these choices. Every dialogue option is a choice. You're not trying to tell an NPC what they want to hear so they'll be your friend and improve a Social Link. Instead, the dialogue options ask the player character what he thinks. There is no right answer, just the player's personal preference and view on the world. As the game goes on, these simple dialogue options expand to terrifying choices. When presented with two friends fighting to the death, who do you side with? Who's ideology do you follow? What is your vision for the world? What might you do that could lead to the end, or beginning, of the world? These are the choices you'll be presented with in Devil Survivor, and throughout it all you'll never know if what you're doing is "right" or "wrong". You'll only do what you think is best for yourself and world. Some will agree with you and become alies. Some will want you dead. By the end of the game you will be torn; sitting on dialogue choices for minutes at a time trying to figure out what you really want.



Of course, as players of RPGs we are used to choice being decidedly less important. In most games, no matter what you choose it's possible to please everybody. Eventually, one can have every item, every party member, and witness every plot event. Not so in Devil Survivor. Throughout the seven-day period within which the game occurs, any action to progress plot or your relationship with a character takes half an hour. While at the beginning of the game this may seem like a trivial choice - who would I rather hang our with, Atsuro or Yuzu? - by the sixth day things have progressed to a decidedly more dramatic point. Presented with the option of saving one friend or talking to another and giving them important information that may save their life, there is no right path. Once again, its up to the player to do what they think is best.

In the end, the player is forced to make a final choice. It's here that the game becomes its most linear. But it's not a linearity born of a long setup. Instead, the game is merely forcing you to choose from the beds you've made for yourself. This final choice is as much consequence as decision. It is a simple selection screen, but in it you will have only the options that your previous choices have made available to you. From this point on your path is one you must stay with. There is no "good" ending. There's only the ending that you as the player chose to follow and perceive as best.



It's these choices that make Devil Survivor such a great game, better by far than the modern right or wrong fairytales like inFamous or Mass Effect and arguably as deep and important as the long-lost WRPGs of the 1990s. Never before have there been so many shades of grey - when it comes time for the player to make their final choice, I dare anyone to tell me they had an easy time of it. I myself put my DS to sleep and came back to the choice in a few hours - that's how difficult and impactful it is. Even at the end, I'm not sure I made the right decision. Luckily there's a new game plus and I'm free to go again.

If you, like me, value the Role-Playing game, you should make the choice to pick up Devil Survivor. I'm sure you'll be ecstatic with the consequences.