incredible stuff. completely forgot so much of this game. dds has such a great story and it probably has my favorite music in the larger megami tensei series. atmosphere unbeatable other than maybe nocturne. some of the localization is super wack (dds1's depiction of the solids as The Black Tribe comes to mind) but i imagine it was just the era. my only real big issue with the storyline is that some of the emotional moments don't hit because the characters don't have a ton going on at the point we need to care about them, namely Jinana, but by the second game the main party feels so tightly knit that it's hard not to love all of them. even roland as a latecomer feels like such an earned arc. not to mention it does that 2000s atlus thing of characterizing the silent protagonist in a subtle but poignant way...!!! i love serph. i love the cast of this game