Desu1 / Desu2 dichotomy.
I have a lot of thoughts about Devil Survivor 1 and Devil Survivor 2. Both are great games, and I'm doing this because I love them.
Let's talk about the title, for starters. It makes emphasis on two things: ''Devil'' and ''Survivor''. So either you survive from devils, or you use devils to survive. Well, it's both at the same time! Of course, such emphasis on the word ''Survivor'' does bring different images than merely surviving. You have to survive in almost all RPGs, I mean, you don't want to die, right? That would mean the end of the world. Of course, the distinction, is that, in Devil Survivor, the /objective/ of the whole adventure is, well, Survive.
In Devil Survivor 1 you spend 3/4ths of the game running around, trying to not die while events happen in the game. There's a function in-game called the Death Clock, which shows how many days a person has to live. This makes things very, very unsettling, and you keep trying to raise the number when it reaches ''0''. The looming threat of the Death Clock over everyone's heads, makes the need to survive even more prominent.
In Devil Survivor 2, the game starts more or less like the first one, demons appear, things go to hell fast, but... In this game, you have a whole base of operations, shelter, and food. That completely nullifies the ''survivor'' part of the title. You're not Surviving, you are Fighting Demons. It's different. It FEELS different. You only know when someone's about to die by getting a video.
Let me make something clear: Events are timed. Conversations and battles tend to cost 30 minutes. Time progresses with each event you choose.
Talking about that, in Devil Survivor 1, you got a glimpse into the future in the form of the Laplace Mail, a mail that you obtained at the start of the day showing major events. Usually those are people dying (including you). The number of the beforementioned Death Clock is based on these mails. You can actually forget about the mails with the plot going on and slip and get someone killed very easily if you are not paying attention.
Changing that in the sequel, Devil Survivor 2, you only knew someone was about to die by getting a video showing their death. It's pretty gruesome. But when you get this video, you know, instantly that you have to search for that person to prevent it. There will be no slipups. You search for the icon with the person who's going to die's face and fight the battle, then save them. It's all very immediate. Chances are no one is ever going to die in your first playthrough. There is no looming threat of death always on top of you. You just solve crisis after crisis, not Survive.
Let me talk about the timed events and character relationships ingame.
Like I've mentioned before, events in Devil Survivor are timed. You usually start the day at 8/9 AM and go through the day 30 minutes at a time until 7/8 PM. In Devil Survivor 1, this was extremely important. You had to choose between talking to each person, and if you missed any convos, well, too bad. Time was important. If you weren't careful, people would die. It made the game feel alive by itself. Characters in the game weren't bound to one place for you to talk to them whenever you want, they moved around the city of Tokyo just like you, so if you choose some conversational options, you lose other ones. Forever. So decisions of conversation were very important.
In Devil Survivor 2, I did not look at the timer. Not even once. That's how little importance the time has in it. It's the polar opposite. The game follows a sort of dating sim system where you choose who to talk to in a list. The events are always the same, and if you say The Correct Things, you can progress to the next Character Event. They're all the same all through the game, except maybe in the Last Day. You just pick them and talk to them whenever you want. This made the timer and time itself feel...pretty much useless in the game. It tried to recreate the feeling of time progression (Since the game is set on 7 days) from Desu1 but it was badly done, as the conversations were all the same through the whole game. It felt stall, unlike the previous game.
In Devil Survivor 2 you can feel the commercial aim of the game. I'm very sorry, but you really can see how this game wanted to be marketed. No wonder it got a manga, a novel, and 2 animes. The characters are quirky and each one has their own thing.
The problem with Desu2's characters is: There's way too many. Look, when you have that many characters, characterization becomes a problem. You only have around 5-7 conversations with each character, plus the main storyline interaction. It's not enough. They look flat, in my opinion. In Devil Survivor 1, there were less characters, but in turn, you interacted with them more through the 7 days, making them more complex.
Another difference is in the art style. Look, this is not much technical analysis im TRYING to do here as much as that every single female has DD cup breasts that defy gravity. Like I don't know what kind of bra they're wearing but
breasts don't do that
The difference in mood of Desu1 and Desu2 can also be reflected by the music. It's very clear that Desu1's music is VERY gritty and guitar-heavy and heavy instrumental. While Desu2's music uses ''soft'' instruments and more slow tempo.
For comparison
Devil Survivor 1 - Last Decision
Devil Survivor 2 - Septentrion
You can hear the whole soundtracks in youtube and judge by yourself.
Both are notorious boss battle themes. You can clearly hear the difference. Now, this is NOT a bad design choice, this is great! If Desu2 has a more relaxed mood, the music should follow. I'm glad they did it right there.
Now, Devil Surivor 1 is way harder than Devil Survivor 2 (with some exceptions on certain That One Boss(es) ) This is not intentional, it's more like Devil Survivor 1 is much more clunky and unpolished than Devil Survivor 2 in terms of gameplay, and you really feel it if you play both of them and compare.
Taking for example the number of physical skills in Desu1, good luck having more than 1 physically-centered character in your 4-human party. It's very, very hard. Impossible, I think. However, in Desu2, you have a plethora of varied, all useful in their own right physical skills. Not to mention that passive skills have probably doubled in numbers. There's a compendium as well, that Desu1 needed desperately. (I know it was added in Desu1 Overclocked, thankfully) The racial skills in Desu2 are improved, the replayability of Desu2 is incredible with the NG+ store and points system, and it's just great all around. Plus Yuzu isn't lagging around with her strange 3 square movement range so that's a plus. More characters means more stat differences, so you can make near-infinite strategies. Also, when you Level Up Your Relationship with someone, they naturally gain an elemental resistance (or more) and that's a godsend. Anyways, Desu2's gamplay is great, engaging, interesting, and complex. It's cool as heckie.
Another thing that I didn't like much about Desu2 was how it was not about God and Lucifer. I suppose it is just my expectations when playing a Shin Megami Tensei game, but it is revolved around The Big Dipper, stars and the zodiac. That was shocking to me. I was expecting The Big Reveal that would show me that YHVH or Lucifer was behind it all along. But it never came. Anyway this is a matter of my own taste, really, so don't mind me.
I think this wraps it up. I would love talking about Devil Survivor 1 Overclocked, but I don't have a 3DS. Or money. I would compare it as well.
Thanks for reading!
-isa
