Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga is the first part of a JRPG duology, and is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series with a standalone story. The game uses the Press Start battle system, which is turn based with the turn-order being based upon the order of your party members. Each party member has a human and demon form. In human form, they use guns. In demon form, they have stronger physical attacks and access to magic and other skills. Battles usually start with them in demon form, unless you are ambushed in which case you will start in human form and if you want to, spend a turn to change form. The unique spin here is that anytime you use an attack that targets the enemy's weakness, or do a critical attack, then you gain an extra half-turn. You can also pass our turn (which technically uses up half a turn) for another member to use. However, if you miss an attack or use one that the enemy is resistant to or absorbs, then you lose a turn. The same rules bound the enemy and thus battles become quite a strategy affair.
You learn more skills through the use of Mantras, which is similar to materia from Final Fantasy VII. You can only equip one mantra at a time and you need to purchase them from in-game vendors. While equipped, defeating enemies provides it with experience and once full, you learn the skills associated with it. It's addictive and gives a lot of versatility to your characters. Stronger enemies later in the game will give more points maxing out the lower-tiered mantras with ease, allowing you to catch up some of your other less used characters to round out their skills. For the main character Serph, every time you level up, you can spend the points in whichever stats you wish, giving you heaps of freedom in the type of build you want him to be. Characters start off with only four slots that you can choose and it can be expanded up to a total of eight slots. This means that it becomes quite tactical in swapping skills before you enter battles and especially before facing bosses, to ensure that you have the right mix. If you have characters with certain skills equipped, it may unlock more powerful combo skills.
Digital Devil Saga takes place in the Junkyard, in a post-apocalyptic world, where there are six tribes at war with each other. During a skirmish, a demon virus occurs and brands everyone with a mark, as well as allowing them to transform into demons, devouring others to gain strength. At the same time, a mysterious girl named Sera arrives with no memory and the higher being known as Angel appears, telling the tribe that they must defeat the others in order to ascend to Nirvana. The main character is Serph, who is part of the Embryon tribe, along with fellow members Heat, Argilla, Gale and Cielo. They decide to form alliances and invade other tribes, in order to get to Nirvana. Thanks to the setting, all of the dungeons take place in buildings, rooms and sewers, so it can be a bit bland. The game features random encounters and the encounter rate can be high at times. However, at least it doesn't have the cheap difficulty of Nocturne.
Unfortunately, there is no way to completely turn off random encounters, the best you can do is purchase consumable items that reduces the rate, but still feels high. The game uses a save point system and using a save point does not heal your characters, you must rely on recovery points instead, which is more infrequent. Despite that, save points are evenly spaced. No matter how good the story is, it's disappointing that the story to gameplay ratio is so low. You're looking at 2+ hours of dungeon crawling for a few minutes of cutscenes. However, towards the end of the game, there are some pretty massive revelations that will keep you hooked. The ending itself is a huge revelation which gives another meaning to the title and is an excellent set up for the sequel. The earlier dungeons are easy but later ones, especially the final dungeon, are a pain thanks to the various puzzles, plenty of dead ends and tendency to constantly warp you around confusing you further. The high encounter rate will only serve to annoy you even more.
While the game is easier than Nocturne, if you do not pay attention or you treat the game lightly, you will be annihilated. There are some really annoying encounters with waves of multiple enemies that causes status effects, that even when you are prepared, one unlucky turn is all it takes to turn the tables around, forcing a restart. Even worse are bosses and normal enemies who loves to use status effects that target multiple characters at once, making it a huge pain to waste your turn to remove them before it is the enemies' turn to cast it again. That's not to mention the instant death spells which feels cheap no matter what. Boss battles will require very specific abilities and if you do not already have them, then have fun grinding to gain those abilities. It's actually really annoying when some bosses take away a party member to constantly heal themselves while having huge amounts of HP. Even better is when they use a move to gain multiple turns and then spam party-wide attacks.
At times, boss battles are a battle of attrition or straight dumb luck if you don't want to grind for those abilities. It's also certain that you will never be able to beat a boss on the first try as they do require specialization and tailored skills. It's trial and error gameplay at its finest. The graphics are pretty decent for a PS2 game, it's just that the color palette makes everything look dull and grimy. For a JRPG, it's not that long. It takes around 25-40 hours to beat, depending on how lost you get during dungeons, whether you go for all the optional bosses and whether you bother to explore each dungeon fully. Overall, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga is an addictive game. The simple battle system soon turns into a clever and tactical affair. The mantra system is addictive and the difficulty is just right. It isn't hard enough to turn away less experienced players but it's not each either. rewarding players who stop and plan ahead. The story is decent, although you wish there was more of it instead of the larger focus on dungeon exploration when the dungeons are so bland.
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