SMT Digital Devil Saga Analysis - Survival of the Fittest
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
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My Other Megaten Videos: • Persona Videos
0:00 Opening
1:41 DDS Introduction
3:33 Combat
13:34 Story & Character Analysis
24:02 Outro & Patreon Credits
Welcome to my Digital Devil Saga Analysis. in this SMT Digital Devil Saga Analysis, I'll be review and critiquing SMT Digital Devil Saga. Digital Devil Saga is a very underrated game, so for today's video, I'm going to be discussing Digital Devil Saga's themes of Survival of the Fittest. This is not a Digital Devil Saga Review, but it's a Digital Devil Saga Analysis. "SMT Digital Devil Saga Analysis - Survival of the Fittest" is a great video and it's all thanks to the support of all you guys. So sit back and enjoy my Digital Devil Saga Analysis.
The Playstation 2 era was a very experimental time for Atlus’s Shin Megami Tensei franchise. The third mainline entry was a pretty big departure from what came before it. Having a lot less to do with the standard Law, Chaos, Neutral debate, and more so focusing on the never-ending cycle of destruction and reincarnation. Mainline SMT wasn’t the only game that went through some changes as the current spinoff titles also had drastic alterations made to them.
The Persona series introduced the calendar system which the series is now famous for, and the Devil Summoner games took us away from its traditional setting and now leans heavier into the action rpg genre than what the series is used to. The point that I’m trying to make is that Atlus had plenty of new ideas during this console generation. It’s this timeframe of Atlus where I and many others look back with the most fondness. And the topic of today’s video is going to be on what I consider the company’s most ambitious project of that era. - เกม
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You actually killed me making me wait for this one
@@tomato5049r.i.p
Damn, digital devil saga’s character designs are some of kazuma Kaneko’s best designs, I love kaneko’s art, hiring him to work on most of the art of the smt games was a match made in heaven.
He wasn't hired. He hired every one else. He alongside Cozy Okada are the fathers of SMT.
And yes, his art is truly something else.
I fucking love Varuna’s design
His art was the main reason I started playing, Doi´s designs just don't do it like Kaneko.
I do hope that after Nocturne HD Remaster comes out after this The Digital Devil Saga games are next for the HD Remaster treatment
Or they make a new game
@@redhood7778 It wouldn't work
@@n2badsam420 Is it because of the plot
@@redhood7778 Yes because it is already a perfect ending
@@n2badsam420 Oh. Got it
Loved hearing you assessment of the hunt skills, while fitting to the source material of quantum devil saga, unfortunately it does have a major downsides I see few fans speak up about.
Its johne :o
Will you do a DDS let’s play sometime before the SMT4 release?
What's quantum devil saga?
@@joshuataylor7443 The novels, written by the person originally contracted to write the script for the games, Yu Godai.
@@manuelmateo3392 How are they?
PS2 generation was so good
A lot of good games.
With GOD TIER SOUNDTRACKS
And followings that I hope grow and thrive on in future generations
DDS1/2 was the most emotionally charged SMT game I've ever played. I held back lots of tears during the final moments of DDS2. Cielo, in particular, comes to mind.
Gale Hurt the most not gonna lie
@@koroo2891 dude, i was mouth agape after gale and jenna's death for a good 15 minutes afterwards
when they fuse together and fly through space to see all of their friends again oh my god it was so beautiful. and when Seraph gives the speech to God "Humans make mistakes, and they probably always will" T.T cryingggggggggg
Persona 3 was better
@@JN-ez8tilol no, that games pacing for characterization and plot is fucking awful
"I am sad"
"What is sad?"
Gale does not comprehend your comment
The war WILL escalate
"Gale, I made a choice."
"What is "a choice"?"
"rend, slaughter, devour your enemies. there is no other way to survive, you cannot escape your hunger.. warriors of purgatory"
this game would be a 9/10 if the cast didnt have stomach aches the second they lick an enemy
Which is funny, since DDS2 has then occur so rarely as to be nonexistent
iron stomach bro
That's why u hv to learn iron stomach as soon as possible
Iron stomach
I hope that Nocturne's remaster means Digital Devil Saga and Devil Summoner will be remastered as well. The PS2 era was definitely a golden age for SMT.
I hope those games get some deserved love.
Me too
Found this game in one of those carboard shelves you sometimes find in grocery stores that mostly contains various licensed games, shovel-ware and the like. The distinct cover-art caught my eye and it was nothing I had ever seen before causing me to get it. Suffice to say, money well spent. And have been a fan of Kaneko ever since.
Wow, thats quite the find
That’s the best feeling, getting a hidden gem from the bargain bin.
Around when was that, if you remember?
I can't remember how I got it or heard of it but I am sure I bought it because of Nocturne.
I'm not kidding when I call this the high point of the SMT series.
It's THAT good.
Favourite game of all time. No lie.
I love both DDS most of all the SMT related games.
Too bad it's only on ps2, so looks like I'll never play it. They should do what they did with Nocturne (which I just ordered online for ps4). I'm a massive fan of P4/P5
@@FSVR54 I hope we will HD remasters of both DDS games for all systems....I pray that will be one of announcements for the SMT 30th anniversary.
@@DragonKingX78 Lettuce pray, my friend
10:02 enemies can also become frightned if you repel or drain one of their attacks and it affects the entire enemy party.
So for example if you're up against a demon that usually uses force skills and you use repel/drain force you will likely get every single enemy frightned.
DDS is definitely one of my top two favs of the smt/persona games, because it has a unique battle mechanic compared to the usual, and the fact that the battle themes for both the first half and the second are SUPER good also help, lol
I like DDS 1 Soundtrack . . . IT'S A GOD TIER in the SMT series . . .
SMT music in general tends to be great, and the Digital Devil Saga series has some of the best of the bunch.
Yes DDS has a great soundtrack.
Definitely me and the boys when we're hungry at 3am
So you turn into cannibals?
This is some high-quality stuff here dude! You deserve so much more attention than you actually get. Keep this going!
The atmosphere and sound in this game is so unique, even compared to DDS2. I can't think of many other games that focus on Hindu/Buddhist themes
It has some of my favorite music in all of gaming.
@@kabronex9877 As much as I love the soundtrack, the second one is even better in my opinion. The normal battle themes, in both games, are almost too good to be normal battle themes
@@Sad-Lesbian nah, the 2nd game has awesome battles themes but so does 1. And 1 has awesome everything else while 2 doesnt so 1 wins
Both games have great music, and while different, they seem to hold the same feel. Almost as though they’re all tracks from the same concept album.
That is true, few games focus this much on Hindu/Buddhist themes.
This is just persona except cannibalism and you become the persona
You forgot hinduism instead of jungian psychology. Also, if smt is satanic pokemon and persona satanic pokemon but psychology woulsnt this here be satanic pokemon but psychology but cannibalism
does everything has to revolve around persona?
@@shibba2517 The director for Digital Devil Saga was Katsura Hashino who also directed Persona 3 through 5. The writer of Digital Devil Saga was Tadashi Satomi who also wrote Persona 1 and 2. So the comparisions aren't totally out of left field.
Nah this is basically ffx with the smt formula
This is vore porn.
SMT DDS is utterly fantastic.
DDS 1 & 2 alongside Raidou 1 & 2 deserve way more recognition. I understand that Persona and Nocturne are iconic, but y'all missing out if you haven't played these gems yet.
Yeah. Played DDS games first time 2 years ago, theyre awesome. Raidou i still have to play.
I think that the Persona 2 Duology and the DDS Duology are the highest point of the SMT games.
I agree DDS and Raidou deserves more love.
Dude, pls keep making content, there isn’t a lot of SMT youtubers out there but seeing you making this high quality content makes me hope that more will come up
I do wish there where more SMT youtubers.
this game really went and dropped a kingdom hearts ending on us. but damn did it send chills down my spine.
✔more questions than answers
✔hooded figure
✔walking through an empty city
✔camera pans up to big thing in the sky
Well at these games made more sense then Kingdom Hearts 2.
very interesting game. personally I'm kind of tired of the "innocent amnesiac girl who suddenly appears and is the key to everything and is usually your healer and/or princess" trope. I know its more about the execution than the actual trope but most usually play out the same way.
I really hope Atlus can do the Digital Devil Saga games. These games were amazing!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the atma "grinding" near the end of the game isn't really a problem. Not only does exploiting weaknesses have a chance to inflict scared on enemies, but anything that would gain pressturns or cause enemies to lose pressturns will do this. So defensive skills like null skills and shield skills like void and reflect can inflict scared. Naturally this extends to the more traditional status ailments too. It's still a chance, but learning enemy patterns and what skills to dish out can make achieving this status more dependable, even late game.
But stomachache is still an unnecessary, horrible status
Also fuck field hunts
At least the reward made them worth it in DDS1. They got gutted in DDS2.
@@power0029 still mad that DDS2 got rid of the null all(except almighty) ability the first one had.
The way I handled the grinding is using Power Charge and multiple stacks of Tarukaja.
Trying to make Hunt skills hit harder was more consistent than hoping the enemies will be stupid enough to fall for your bait in my opinion.
I honestly love the hunt/mantra system. I like the fact that it forces the player to always be slightly on the backfoot for most of the game because grinding is just so unfeasible
Based and Nam pilled
Hee-ho
I didn't do all of the optional content (i fought King Frost and both Beelzebub forms. In fact, i had no idea Metatron was a thing), but I think I oy went out of my way to specifically level up a mantra once and that took about 20 minutes. Instead, I reached the Fly Beelzebub in the sewers, got my ass kicked, took note of what skills I would need, and continued the main story, learning those skills as I played. So at least in my experience, you can at least get through the hell that is Beelzebub without grinding.
Isn't there like a light novel that continues what DDS was suppose to be if it was completed?
More specifically if the original writer didn't have health problems during the development and the second writer didn't have to take over her notes. But it is a very different beast past the first few volumes.
no joke, a combo of your vids and seeing my bros play this is what has me vary intersted into these games. thanks :D.
This was the first SMT game I ever played and it definitely holds a special place in my heart lol I'd kill to have a port of this on the switch
An incredible review for an incredible game. Great job on this one!
I've been looking for a video like this for months!!!
My favourite SMT spin-off series (outside of you know who), it’s about time DDS got the love it truly deserves
I remember buying this game and it had a soundtrack included. There was such great music in this.
I just bought it two days ago heard it was a good play
Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy been waiting for this
I don’t think you would ever need to look at either of the DDS in a vacuum. I mean the first game literally came with a sleeve large enough for both games.
DDS is clearly meant to be played back to back.
I felt like I spent more time grinding in 1 & 2 than actually playing the game. It's hard for me to reccomend people DDS because of how much grinding there is, atleast for reaching end game content.
Bro. A remaster is nigh. I can feel it.
I'm sad that I never heard about this game back then.
Would have loved it on my PS2
The nerve
This video got me into DDS and it's one of my favorite games ever. Thanks :)
First of all. DAMN this video is very good! Well edited and a very pleasant pacing to go with it.
Second, I really like these games. I never LOVED them but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them a whole lot. Despite growing rather bored of the gameplay near the end I was constantly being reeled back in by it's incredibly intriguing story. I really think more people should play the DDS.
Great video, it's nice to learn about the MegaTen games outside of the Persona series. Looking forward to TWEWY video!
Good video! Leaving a quick comment for that sweet, sweet algorithm ;)
Very cool video, if you have one up for the second one I can’t seem to find it so hopefully you still plan on making one. These aren’t games I’m personally familiar with but learning more about the SMT spin offs without having to hunt down the equipment and copies of the games is a nice and entertaining alternative. Keep up the great work, man!
Some of my favorite boss battles ever are in DDS 1 and 2. Great underrated games that don’t get enough credit imo.
Tears were shed back then, Truly the most slept on classic IMO
Would love a remake of this game
Great review. Had this for a long time but never even started a file. I think I will.
As far as I remember I didn't have any problem with the AP grind. The one thing I remember being a problem was that you cannot rearrange items. Late in the game you get an item that's reusable and heals 50 mp, however you have to go through the entire item list every time to use it.
I was WAITING for someone to give these games the attention they deserve
Dude, I've been watching your videos like crazy and they are awesome, me being from Latin America didn't know that SMT had such a dedicated fanbase, and thanks to this I have been introduced to a lot of great games that aren't the Persona saga (the first one I played was Persona 3 and it changed my life). This proves to me that games can be deep, complex, and extremely ambitious and still have a lot of commercial success, without having to sacrifice any of their artistic vision.
Concuerdo, una pena que no hay tanto contenido dedicado en español, pero al menos tenemos contenido en inglés.
Godai, Hashino, Okada, Meguro, Tadashi. Truly the most stacked ATLUS title
+ Kaneko.
Nice to see more people discussing Digital Devil Saga. I firmly believe the game is a masterpiece in its own right, and its since become my favorite series of games ever.
I would like to see these games talked about more.
Great video
This game was my intro to SMT back in the day
I somehow forgot how much I loved this game until I started replaying it and i am in love all over, that being said in your comparison to nocturne, filling out the demonic compendium was far worse than the mantra grid simply because of inherited skills and getting the correct ones not to mention on subsequent playthroughs the cost to buy them is astronomically high whereas the mantra grid was straightforward and to help the grind later skills were worth the effort not to mention there were a few extra skills that you got for doing it and all the characters who got it filled out got an extra mantra section in DDS2 for it!
my first SMT game, and this would be my first video of yours on someone's recommendation, so lets see how this goes.
Im glad im not the only one who remembers this game. I still own the two game combo pack. That second game man.... The losses..
Are you kidding me? Im literally playing this game right now and only just began a couple days ago, what strange timing. I just beat Beelzebub and fuck me i cant stop playing
Game was great i remember playing back on 2005
I don't think it's fair to judge the story on its own merits without the second game. Not only were they supposed to be a singular experience, both were released less than a year apart in all regions, in Japan it was just 6 months
I love to see digital devil saga getting some love amazing video
I bought the duology for Christmas last year. Love it.
I LOVE this game. An HD remake would be a dream - it's gorgeous.
That would be awesome.
Playing this dualogy right now and it’s amazing.
this is pretty good!
wish he would make a full p5 essay video as well as maybe tackle some more ff games someday. great channel btw!
A full Persona 5 video is on the cards to happen sometime this year! I just want to cover a few more things before I get to work on that.
@@NamsCompendium just finished your video on dds and its yet another game you have sold me on! amazing vid as always!
This was a good review, but I don't really think the two complaints are entirely valid, though I do understand why someone would have them.
First, the duology thing. DDS1 & 2 were originally meant to be a single game, but was split into two because having them in a single disc would be "too ambitious," if I remember correctly. It doesn't work well as two contained stories because it isn't, it's a single story split in the middle, and DDS2 is meant to be played immediately after DDS1. I know that their being one continuous story was addressed in the video, but I think that you should take into account that it was not originally going to be a duology in the first place.
Second, grinding. You can beat the game easily without grinding at all, partly because of how high the encounter rate is, and so you can just devour things occasionally. The main complaint was about grinding for the optional bosses, but once you have access to the optional bosses, you can use the Titania Hallway to grind. It gives ridiculous amounts of both exp and Atma, and using it, you can get all the skills you'd ever need in just a couple hours, easily. The only optional boss you can't use the Titania Hallway for is Human Beelzebub, since you need to beat him to unlock it, but he can easily be defeated with minimal grinding.
Of course, someone who is playing the game completely blind probably wouldn't know about the Titania Hallway, but they also likely wouldn't be able to find most of the optional bosses, so I think the grinding complaint is not very reasonable.
Sorry, I just love these games to death and can't help but defend them whenever anyone points out a flaw lol
I like the first game, was gonna beat the Ultra Secret Boss for the clear bonus but soon decided - after the fifth time I went about 15 minutes into the battle and got wiped - maybe it wasn't important.
For the people who may play this game? This boss is hidden WELL - it's only on a New Game+ run, and nothing directs you to it. The others get hints about their existence, but this Secret Boss... no. And it's brutal, because it instakills you should you show up to the battle with "forbidden" skills. Which would be anything to let you sleepwalk through combat... meaning you have to actually make it a "fair" fight.
And it would be fair if that killing move wasn't in the rotation of moves the Secret Boss might trot out if they get bored, or after a certain point in the script. Yes, the fight has a script it follows loosely and at certain points, it's Rage Quit time unless you're lucky to dodge the attack. (Why is it instakill? It does minimum four digits of damage. You can max at 999 HP.)
So, yeah. That guy can go suck a Mara. I love the concept of it, I love how it connects as a reference, and I love the implications of the battle's ambience. But it is THE hardest RPG fight I've had which wasn't due to total bullshit. (There's bullshit here, but as I said the fight is more-or-less "fair".)
As for the grind... look, it's grindier than your more modern RPGs. No lies. But I played Dragon Warrior on the NES, so I've seen *worse* grinding forced on you.
This channel does nice content
I would like to this series remastered for PS4
The story is great and definitely a must play. Do hope they remake and or remaster it soon.
Too grindy?
Yup, but at least it's worth something for the import bonuses.
I don't mind the grind at all.
Bought right after playing Persona 5. And I was not disappointed, and most of the points brought up here summarized my experience.
I remember when my brother bought this, only because it was in a box set and it had anime stuff and looked cool. Didn't realize what it would do to me and my taste of games, when I started getting older and playing Atlus games.
I remember when I went to tackle as many of the optional bosses as I could, and I spent legitimately like 20 hours in the high level basement of the first dungeon eating people trying to max out my mantras with every character. I never ended up finishing the game
I think the slower grind of skills does help keep you from quickly getting all of the incredible skills on characters easily, especially if you aren’t planning to play the optional content
And wont need all of those skills for a boss that might not be balanced for them
Also none of the PS2 SMT games sold well other than the persona games which I would argue that are less well constructed video games, (not getting into how I feel about their stories), partially due to the state of atlus after the flopping of like 4 different titles.
Man, I never got around to finishing the duology despite both games being among some of my favourite RPGs. I need to play them again.
in regards to the story, thats why even the deluxe edition of DDS is a box with the space to fit the first part in, it even says in the box, that those games are meant to be played in tandem
DDS was the first non-persona MegaTen game I played and boy am I glad I gave it a shot. Easily one of the most unique games I've played. Also, can't wait for the TWEWY video.
I love this game when it came back way back during the PS2 era along with SMT III Nocturne. So I hope this comes out to Switch and damn, SMT III looks fine on HD based on the trailers. I wouldn't mind picking this up eventually if an HD remastered comes out.
I so hope those games get HD remasters as well, they were amazing
YEEEEEZIR!
Hey love your videos! Do you have any other game series you would like to cover?
Something that I'm going to try to do is branch out a bit more with the games I cover on this channel. I want to cover games like "The World Ends With You" and other one off titles. I may even want to talk about Kingdom Hearts at some point because I think I can provide a different perspective than the one that's shared by a majority of the popular videos out there. I just want to ease my audience into it so they don't think I'm abandoning Persona without covering them all. I'm also open to suggestions as well!
@@NamsCompendium Those are great ideas! I would definitely watch for your perspectives!
And if there's Mara here as either a boss fight or random encounters
You could get lots of Atma points by devouring Mara
For ppl who loved SMT Nocturne: Plz play Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 ASAP. They're excellent.
Played it, loved it. Needs a remaster like SMT 3 got IMO.
I remember the first time I booted this game up a couple of years ago, I went in not expecting much, if anything, at all. I ended up completing it within 3 days. Especially love the OST too. Gameplay is definitely an acquired taste, but the game as a whole package just feels so right. Definitely a must for any megaten fan.
One of the best games from this franchise.
Love dds1 and 2. The music is awesome. I have beat this game multiple times. Have yet to fight the demi-fend.
Perfect
I know I watched this video a while ago, could have sworn I commented but can't find any....well whatever love the DDS games. I hope one day we will get HD remasters for PS4, PS5, Switch, PC, etc.Would really love more games in the series with the same basic combat/skill system.
I've played this duology about a year ago & I agree it's very underrated, fans of the franchise avoid it most of the time because it doesn't have the fusion system, but it does redeems itself with other refreshing gameplay aspects & the music, story, & characters are really good, though I wish they could've polished some of the gameplay aspects, like making the optional stuff not need a shitton of grinding, or the human form & group skills strategically more viable.
But overall it still is a great game & also it has one of the best OSTs of the franchise, I hope if the Nocturne Remaster succeeds then Atlus would consider remastering this & the Devil Summoner Raidou games.
think you can do videos on devil summoner next? aka the second best smt spinoff
I don't think I realized there was any bonus content!
A way to make Hunting for ap a bit easier is to have 3 skills ready on the party member that is gonna be hunting (power charge, Insatiable & iron stomach) and have taunt on a different party member, Power charge on the hunter's first turn (this increases the damage by 2.5x) followed by having your next party member Taunt the enemy (Taunt gives all enemies a double attack buff/defence debuff), next you want to pass turn to your hunter.
Use Insatiable to cause a huge chunk of damage and devour all enemies in the group (Iron stomach protects from ache).
Rinse and repeat, take in consideration that it's more efficient to grind in a area where this routine kills enemies in one go rather than areas with higher level enemies.
7:46 Talking about the skill trees and mantras in DDS, why was there a mantra called Wikipedia, before Wikipedia was invented?
Mistranslation. That should be "Kunitsu" (国津神). If Atlus is to release a remastered version of DDS, they really need to fix this one because "Wikipedia" is trademarked by Wikimedia Foundation.
Also Wikipedia was released before DDS even began development
I know this one isn't as loved, but it really was a treat for me. PS2 is my biggest nostalgia time and struggling thru this made me stronger.
Rend, slaughter, devour your enemies!
There is no other way to survive, you cannot escape your hunger, warriors of purgatory!
I LOVE this game. I don't mind the grinding or encounter rate at and quite love it. The fully customizable party is so much fun.
Also weird but I find this game pretty easy, MUCH easier than likes of P3FES, I am never one mistake away from death (like literal one shots from neutral damage in Hard).
Fun as hell game, I love it
Love the DDS games, so much fun.
A lil weird I was just interested in digital devil saga then this video game out, thank you.
Love this game and the novel it’s based on (“Avatar Tuner” in the English translation, it’s really good) but holy crap the random encounter rate is high! At least the battles are fun but it can get annoying if you get lost or have to backtrack in a dungeon.
Still a fun game, deserves to be on modern systems.