Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
- August 04, 2004 15:32 PM PST
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Future teens get locked in gang wars and turn into horrible demons in this weird science-fiction role-playing game about possession and Nirvana.
A film of icky strangeness coats Digital Devil Saga, known in some alternate reality as Avatar Tuner, the latest entry (next to Nocturne) in the long-running Shin Megami Tensei (a.k.a. Persona) series?well, sort of. It?s all very convoluted, but the bottom line is this: Digital Devil Saga is one weird role-playing game. Sort of like what the next Phantasy Star might be like with a little bit of peyote on the side.The setting is that of your usual futuristic, asymptotic, metaphysical post-Evangelion anime with brooding, dead-eyed boys and girls wearing skin-tight science-fantasy suits. The plot involves kids in apocalyptic gang wars who receive horrific ?special abilities? after a strange object crashes near their turf?and suddenly they?re fighting inexplicabeasts in addition to the rival gangs. The game?s art direction is immediately striking and unique: an almost-cel-shaded look that can be as fluid and beautiful in motion as The Wind Waker, only in a much more eerie and pallid way.
As far as the role-playing mechanics go, they seem pretty standard so far in this Japanese-language build: turn-based encounters with hit and magic points pitting three guys versus several monsters. The major selling points include the ability to transform your party into devil avatars (as encoded in colorful tattoos) in a very painful-looking process, as well as the ability to ?eat? other devils and assume their powers. The three main kids in your party can perform combos with one another depending on who?s in what form, and these potent Freudian nightmares have all sorts of special moves that your regular form can?t use?like any good devil avatar should.
