I had had an interest in the Shin Megami Tensei series for a while, but the series' tendency to be on the PS2 interfered. When a Shin Megami Tensei game came out for the DS, the most superior system of this console generation, I just had to go out and beg Raam for money to buy the game with. And am I disappointed? Nope!
But let's not leave any room for misconceptions, Devil Survivor is not for everyone. First off, there's a lot of talking. Now I'd argue that most of it is time well spent (the Midori plot arc wasn't just a factoring waste of time, it was zetta obnoxious), but it still feels odd to spend more time talking than playing. The game also contains a certain degree of difficulty, meaning you might actually have to think, which is probably a big turn off for most everyone. The game's storyline is also the kind that challenges your beliefs, meaning anyone with a stick up their butt or who lives in rainbow pony land should probably avoid the game. I personally consider two/thirds of these to be good things, but I understand that not everyone is as zetta awesome as me, thus I have listed it.
Now, to avoid looking like a hypocrite for criticizing MGS 4 due to it's lack of gameplay in favor of cinematics, I'll start with Devil Survivor's success at making the player feel like he has a choice as to how the story plays out. Rarely do you feel like you're being forced to make a certain decision (the few exceptions being the Midori plot arc and deciding that your character is a psychopathic serial killer and should murder his teammates in their sleep), and, as the game has five different endings, you actually can make a difference on the plot. The biggest issue, really, is that, not having infinite cartridge space or development time, you rarely have more than two options. As a result, the options are often found a cult around character or give character the finger. In other situations, it's tell character he's awesome or tell character he's great. That's what I would have done anyways, but how was I supposed to know the character woke up today and decided that anyone who says awesome instead of great is ONE OF THEM? One wrong choice all too often means you can't get a certain ending, which is obnoxious.
The storyline itself is mostly awesome, with the most notable exception already having been listed. The beginning leaves the player in a state of confusion, the middle is said exception, the near end got an emotional response from me (a praiseworthy thing), and the endings... well, they were hit and miss. The plot twist at the end being that Japan gets a permanent seat on the UN council... unacceptable! Zetta fail! Finding out that you just factored the whole world, despite your best intentions? Yayz! Ironically, the "good" endings don't get such a yay factor. 'Cause they're boring. There's also a philosophical level to the storyline, stemming from its commentary on Japan's youth culture. The fact that you really can't fairly call anyone a villain (something I like in a work of fiction) also helps make it interesting.
As for the gameplay, it is zetta superb! The beginning starts off a bit boring because of your limited skill selection, and I found skill cracking to be a rather tedious way to earn new skills, but, once you've got some skills you like, the fame gets more interesting. The limitations put on when you can equip skills, such as not being able to give the same skill to two characters, adds a layer of strategy to the game. The skills are slightly innovative, although not enough that they'll win awards. However, the skills don't always feel balanced, especially when we're discussing different character types. Physical attackers don't seem to do any more damage than mages, but, unlike mages, they're powerless against an enemy with physical repel. Some individual skills seem useless because they do less for a higher cost, but that doesn't actually detract from the game.
The battlefield itself provides its share of strategical challenges. To my delight, the harder missions were the ones with an objective other than, "Go kill stuff". You actually have to think to beat most of the missions. Even on the missions with basic objectives, rushing in and trying to overpower everything won't work.
One thing that annoyed me was that the more prolific skills weren't available until very near the end of the game (the last mission), so I really didn't have time to experiment with them. Sure, there's a new game plus feature, but that made the game to easy. Some skills were also only available on certain endings, so certain strategies weren't available outside of new game plus. You do get a single extra mission if you engage in new game plus; the battle with Lucifer. However, this battle requires that you power level to above level 90 to win (I was hardly level 60 when I beat the game). Power leveling = BAD!!! You're not a MMORPG, Devil Survivor.
I've seen many people praise the demon fusion system, and, well, it was fun when I was doing it wrong and always had lower level demons than my more numerous computer enemies. But once I figured out the proper way to do it, it lost all charm and became a chore to be endured. I would've felt happier if they made buying powerful demons a more feasible option, as demon fusion is too tedious for my tastes.
If you're look for a deep, tactical experience, or a deep storyline, Devil Survivor is as good an option as any. It won't be considered a classic, but, with it's replay value, it's more than worth it's price tag.
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