Devil Survivor was offputting to me. I found the weird anime style an affront to the aesthetic of Kazuma Kaneko. I didn't have much experience with tactics games and didn't have faith in how this game could be exciting for someone with no interest in that genre. However, once I delved into the game it really extruded style in a way I hadnt thought possible for Megaten.

Plot
The game has an amazing narrative structure that is bound to it's ludo narrative. I love using ludo narrative in game design so this game marrying it's restrictions this way was a stroke of genius. I think this shonen battle structure was good as an easy to digest plot and the mixing with SOME mythology (mostly religious) was nice. The cast are recruitable and they are all mostly compelling and I like that some are just made to be unlikeable in ways that are realistic like Midori or Kaido or some are just intensely likeable like Gin, Atsuro, Yuzu and Haru.


Gameplay
The game has a weird hybrid of tactics and turn based battle BUT the game has the worst balance, If you know a handful of useful skills the game is ball achingly easy.
I do love the system of auctioning for demons and the ability to replay areas. I found that the game grew more complex over time but in a way that was a compelling balance.

Music
I have to say this is the weakest ost for me, I like a couple tracks a lot but it isn't interesting for the genre of jrpg nor does it truly stand out which is unfortunate because the music was composed by a legendary musician.

Overall Thoughts
This is one of the weirdest games to talk about because overall it's wonderful and the additions for Overclocked are great. I also think the box art goes hard.

To preface my review when I first played this game on release I strongly disliked it. I was in the camp of die hard Kaneko fans who felt slighted by the shift in art. I was ignorant of the guest artists so I assumed the mishmash of various styles was some kind of sloppy artistic choice. But after reflecting and talking to less biased people and then replaying this became one of my favorite entries in the series.

Plot
The story from this game is very interesting as it's reflecting concepts first ideated with SMT 1. And being familiar with that narrative and themes it's an interesting juxtaposition. I enjoyed the loving nod to the history of the franchise through innovation. The story provides an early twist that plays on the comfort of using the opening moments to establish it's narrative and structural boundaries which is not necessarily common in Megaten but has been done before in SMT 3 but much less successfully. I found the characters to be somewhat shallow upon first encounter but even NPCs have story arcs that build the world and develop as the plot shifts and changes.

Art:
Like I said in the preamble, I was taken aback by the mixing of a myriad of art styles, some Kaneko, some Doi and some from guest artists it is a little jarring but it works overall.
The visual design and logic of the world is striking and interesting, fertile ground for further exploration (which we did get).
Character design was handled very well, though most are based on real people which is kinda boring in my opinion as a creative decision.

Music
This is the first mainline soundtrack I like. The music is exciting, unique, unforgettable and a great metric I use is that I can enjoy the music in situ and at the gym. I think the creativity of this composer is probably the most interesting thing about the creativity of the game.

Gameplay
This game's gameplay was just fine to me, I couldn't tell you about challenge because after a few bumps the exploitation of smirks and building demons made the game easy. I think the challenge was more to do with going back and rebuilding when something didn't work but that was not very much effort for the player.

I have played this game as part of my journey to understand Kojima's fandom. I found the gameplay quirks interesting and the overall "meme factor" of dialogue, story, and character interactions to be very not for me.

I think this game is like Ginger Chews, some people love them and can't stop consuming, and some people hate chewing ginger.

Plot:
I think this is what I hated the most, it's unfocused, and bombastic while also living off the fumes of 80s action movies. I wish it committed to a different tone instead of teeter tottering in a way that was unpalatable for someone who isn't a fan of japanese sensibilities filtered through japanese perception of western media.

Gameplay:
This was the game's strength, but unfortunately I derive most of my enjoyement from narrative, I liked the indulgence in quirky gameplay that refreshes the loop but yeah, bad story.