Reader Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

DSv4Do you have what it takes to get a review published right here on Kotaku? Alistair does, as he waits for his turn to escape post-apocalyptic Tokyo.

Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.

And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD releases.

This review was submitted by Alistair Christie. If you’ve played Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, or just want to ask Alistair more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)

Devil Survivor is the Shin Megami Tensei series’ DS debut, featuring key elements such as a bleak story and a battle system where landing critical hits and exploiting elemental weaknesses earns extra turns in battle. The DS entry joins the crowded strategy-RPG genre as you battle to escape Tokyo after a demon invasion causes its total lockdown, the disintegration of society and Tokyo’s expected destruction in seven days.

Loved

Choice: Investigating an area, meeting characters or battling consumes half an hour, adding weight to every decision. You are forced into difficult choices about who to befriend and save, particularly with only one save slot being offered, and the game offers multiple endings for the seven day adventure.

SRPG: You navigate your characters, with two demon allies in the party, around an isometric map. Each member of the party is able to perform an action as well as the whole party engaging in up to two turns of traditional turn based battles. Combined with engaging characters, it plays like a true composite strategy and RPG title rather than SRPG’s usual strategy plus RPG elements.

Hated

Nothing Major: Battles can be brutally hard. The art style and music may wear thin for some. Due to slow grinding, the devil (pun intended) is in the detail of precise pre-battle planning.

Not long after Knights in the Nightmare, Atlus again proves to be one of the best three DS publishers. Escaping Tokyo has never been so challenging and engrossing.

Reviewed by: Alistair Christie

You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 300 words — yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.

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