Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor Overclocked is the re-make, or re-enhancement of Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor originally made for the Nintendo DS in 2009 by Altus and published by Atlas and Ghostlight. For those who know anything about the Shin Megami series which includes games like persona, Devil Summoner and Digital Devil then you can expect the same kind of thing, however for those who don’t know about it here’s a brief explanation, they are typically role playing games that use demons or some kind of “inner being” rather than the actual protagonists to fight and tend to have very interesting stories based in a modern non-fantasy setting.
Back to the game and reason you’re probably reading this Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor Overclocked (or just Overclocked from now on) is a tactical RPG set in Japan, Tokyo were you, a standard high school student and two friends Atzuro and Yuzu are suddenly thrown into a whole heap of trouble when the whole of Tokyo is placed into a lock down because of the appearance of demons. The story starts of very straight forward with you just trying to survive the breakdown of social order (like at any away game) with nothing but a 3DS, “cough” I mean a COMP that can summon demons and receives mail predicting the future. However the story escalates with more twists and turns then an M.Night Shyamlan film, making the story more intriguing and engrossing. This and the varied characters becoming more and more interesting as you learn more and more about some of their scathed pasts which can seem a bit too emo at times (but then again I don’t suppose being trapped in a cage with a blood hungry demon is the best anti-depressant and reminds you of any happy memories) really sets up a world and characters that you want to know more about which can end in one of six ways depending on what you do.
This needs to be the case however because of the gameplay, its good. It’s not terrible. I can’t really say much more than that as it’s just like your standard turn based RPG tactics game. You place up to four teams consisting of 3 – two demons and one human- onto the field and destroy all the bad, bad demons. Occasionally you get other requisites such as don’t let any civilians die or don’t let any demons/enemies escape. But, these are only in the story missions or side missions and not free battles. Gaining demons is simple as you can either buy them from an auction or fuse two demons together in the cathedral of shadows to get special and unique powerful demons. An annoying feature is how the fights can seem very samey for a while and if you don’t quite have the right demons at that point its back to the grind to see how close you can place your face to it before the pain becomes too much and you have to seek plastic surgery to replace all of the parts that you lost of yourself, then again when you finally kill the great immortal belder it does one-up your ego and due to the difficulty it actually does feel like you did something great. Without really spoiling anything it’s just a shame that he’s the weakest one.
The graphics are nice and the custscenes are more like a visual novel with good voice acting. The only odd thing about this is that it uses the bottom screen for this and not the top 3DS screen, infact the 3DS 3D function is only briefly used during the fusing of demons. It would have been nice to see some 3D models however if I’m honest I probably wouldn’t have noticed since like everyone I avoid the 3D like a hoodie on a train. If Overclocked had taken resources from anywhere else in the game to comply with a gimmicky function just for the sake of it then the game would have probably been worse for it, so thank you Altus. This doesn’t mean the top screen is wasted either as it shows the battle information of you or the demons you are fighting with a little press on the bumpers.
As mentioned the voice acting is good, maybe too good for the character Midori as her childish attitude and screams can get a tad annoying but, then again I can’t really say that I don’t still like the character as the game does a good job with the characters. The music is alright and well composed however if you don’t like the roar/screech of a guitar then you may want to keep the volume off during battles.
Overall Overclocked is a great addition to the shin tensei series and a great game in general. I can’t completely recommend buying the whole game again as it is really just a re-make with a couple of extra demons, an epilogue and enhanced graphics. If you don’t already own the original I highly recommend anyone who is interested in tactical RPGs or who enjoys a great story with interesting characters or just likes cool looking demons with awesome names. But, be aware that this is a 30-40 hour game to get full enjoyment out of it and it is more to the hard-core of tactic RPGs as although the tutorial is drip fed with the beginning narrative giving you the basic vital information you need after a while you are left to really figure out what to do on your own. So I would recommend starting on easy unless you think you’re better than me and you’re a real hard-core RPG tactics player in which case go ahead, your arrogant anguish and tears will fill me with nothing but joy, enjoy.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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