Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Atlus
Publisher(s)	Atlus
Artist(s)	Suzuhito Yasuda Kazuma Kaneko
Composer(s)	Kenji Ito
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release date(s)	Nintendo DS JP 28 July 2011 NA 2012
Genre(s)	Tactical role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	CERO: B
Media/distribution	Game card

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2, known in Japan as Devil Survivor 2 (デビルサバイバー2^?), is a role-playing game for the Nintendo DS. It is a sequel to the 2009 Nintendo DS role-playing game Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. It was released in Japan on 28 July 2011 and will be released in North America in 2012.

Unlike the first game in the series, where the plot concentrates in Tokyo, Japan, the setting of Devil Survivor 2 spans the whole country. It tells the story of Japanese high school students who received an email from a website foretelling deaths showing a video of their deaths. Later, mysterious creatures invaded the whole country, and the students entered a pact, enabling them to summon demons. Due to the nature of the game, the plot may unfold differently depending on the actions of the player.

Gameplay

Just like its prequel, Devil Survivor 2 is a tactical role-playing game. In combat situations, the player takes turns with the computer opponents to defeat enemies and satisfy certain mission objects such as helping other characters, while avoiding conditions that will end the mission in failure. In 3 vs 3 battle phase, the battle is present in first person camera and traditional turn based battle, player controls one human and two demons, allowing the player to select one action for each squad member, and the computer doing the same for its squad; combat is then resolved after this selection. Players can get their "Extra Turn" or "Double Extra" in the battle if the player has attacked the enemy's weaknesses or launching critical attack, when the leader's health become zero the battle will over. Also, the player can crack the enemy's skill. Once cracked, the player can assign these skills across all of their parties' human characters. In addition to demon fusion, the player can acquire new demons, up to 24 in total, by attempting to win demon auctions using the macca collected in battle.

Outside battle, player can explore the country or save their games. Unlike the first game, Devil Survivor 2 has a new features called "Enishi System". Similar to the social link system in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 the players can develop a relationship with the other characters starting at Rank 0, the Enishi System is very useful, player can gain additional skills. The game's story is non-linear, choices made earlier in the game may affect which characters and battles, numerous choice made by the player will affect his friends and allies.

Plot

Devil Survivor 2 begins with the protagonist and his friend, Daichi, returning from a mock exam, along with their friend Io. The three of them receive an email on their cellphones from Nicaea, a website that forewarns its users of disasters, or their own death. The email contains a video showing them dying from a freak subway accident. Immediately after, the scene is enacted, but the students survived after being contacted by an avatar from Nicaea. As soon as they enabled the applications on their cellphone, more demons appeared, apparently wanting to kill them. The Protagonist, along with Daichi and Io, defeat the demons and become Devil Messengers, allowing them to summon demons to use to fight along them after fulfilling a contract with the Devil.

After escaping the subway, they discover that Japan was being invaded by a group of creatures called the Septentrion, their collective being named after the stars in the Big Dipper constellation. The Septentrion are able to summon the demons and wreck havoc to cities in Japan such as Roppongi and Shibuya. With their ability to summon demons, the protagonist and his friends fight off against the invaders, and joins other citizens with the same ability as they seek to end the invasion in 7 days.

Characters

Here are the list of the human characters in Devil Survivor 2:

Protagonist (主人公, Shujinkō^?) - In the manga version, he is named Hiro Kageyama. An 18-year third year high school student from a metropolitan area. He got involved with the Thirteen Devil Messengers group by accident while returning from a mock exam session. When he awoke he became one of the Thirteen Devil Messengers together with Io and Daichi. He is a silent protagonist and most of his choices is determined by the player.

Daichi Shijima (志島大地, Shijima Daichi^?) - An 18-year old classmate and childhood friends of the protagonist. He also has a habit of making light of a harsh situation and is a deep thinker. He is an ordinary high schooler who has anxiety about growing up. He freaks out like a normal person trapped in all this end of the world mess. Although spineless when compared to the rest, Daichi always pulls an impressive feat when other people are in danger. Unfortunately, his low self confidence doesn’t allow him to realize just how great he truly is. He has a crush in Io and rather protective of her. He has some kind of hidden rivalry to Yamato, most likely from envy that Yamato is very adult, while he doesn’t want to grow up.

Io Nitta (新田維緒, Nitta Io^?) - An 18-year old honors student. She has both the brains and beauty and is said to be a dream girl of many young man. Up until the last two days of the game, Io is constantly apologising and always compromises, agrees with others and never forces her own viewpoint on others. This frustrates Airi several times because she thinks that Io is very superficial, and when she tells Io to say what’s on her mind, Io realises that she hardly even has any opinions of her own. She pauses a lot when talking and Yamato chews her on her non-confrontational policy. Daichi has a small crush on her. She's very close with the Protagonist, it is implied that she is the main love interest of the Protagonist.

Yamato Hotsuin (峰津院大和, Hotsuin Yamato^?) - At 17, he’s the director of JP's. He has a calm composure and making judgments when fighting against the mysterious invaders. He is a great leader, smart, decisive and effective, but cannot function as anything else. He lacks common sense about “unnecessary” things that his parental figures never taught him about. He can say cruel truth and make cruel decisions without feeling bad because he has no concept of compassion programmed into him at all. He has no childhood memories to speak of, because he had been raised and treated as an adult since he was small. He never went to school so he has no concept of friends as well. He almost never interact with others other than in job related purpose. The only people he makes small talk with are the Protagonist and Daichi.

Makoto Sako (迫真琴, Sako Makoto^?) - A 26-year old who has a frigid personality and works for JP's Tokyo Division. She’s not afraid to take risk and loyal to the organisation. She is also the second in command. In high school, she was in synchronized swimming team with hopes to get to the national team but she got into a traffic accident that cost her at least one year of rehabilitation and left her a bad scar on the shoulder. She got into depression and was scouted in JP's, which she genuinely grew to like. She is easily flustered around boys because she has been living in JP's facility for a long time and has lost much of her social knowledge.

Fumi Kanno (菅野史, Kanno Fumi^?) - A 21-year old scientist who leads JP’s Nagoya branch. She excels in science and conducts various studies. She writes software for JP's, and her hobby is research. She’s similar to Yamato but with a working set of common sense and morale. She studied abroad and treasured her host family there. She hates explaining stuff to idiots and will always mutter “What a drag” when doing so. She’s a Chinese descendant because when she’s really upset, she breaks into a Chinese accent. She gives out nicknames to a lot of people.

Otome Yanigaya (柳谷乙女, Yanigaya Otome^?) - A 24-year old physician in charge of JP's Osaka Branch. She has a warm personality and a kind heart. Last year, she adopted a relative's daughter. Her daughter is now 4 years old, and she’s having difficulties balancing career and home. While she’s feminine and motherly now, She used to preferr physical activities like playing Sumo than artistic ones when she was young. She can’t cook well and has problems with her daughter liking junk food more than her home cooking.

Keita Wakui (和久井啓太, Wakui Keita^?) - A 16-year old student in Osaka and is on the boxing club. He’s a lone wolf and doesn’t like people getting close to him. He seems to be obsessed in getting stronger. Keita is an orphan since he was small and used to fend off for himself, so he dislikes other people. He first started out as a lone-wolf who thinks he’s strong enough to do everything by himself and likes a good challenge, especially facing strong opponents. Hinako scolds him for being reckless like that.

Hinako Kujyo (九条緋那子, Kujou Hinako^?) - A 19-year old dancer living in Osaka who began in traditional Japanese dance, but has studied many dances from around the world. She comes from a family of traditional Japanese dancers and trying to learn many modern dances. She’s a firm believer of human decency and looks after everyone and whenever there are problems, she will try to help, often to annoyance of the others. She is also suicidal when it comes to helping others, and your team will have to bail her up a couple times. She also becomes close friends with Airi.

Airi Ban (伴亜衣梨, Ban Airi^?) - A 15-year old lively and cheerful girl. A student at Nagoya High school. She hates idiots and seems to be hiding something about her family.She was once very talented at piano, and wanted to play professionally in concerts. However, she came from a working-class family and quit playing piano because of the costs of going to special high schools and private universities, in addition to her parents supporting her. She became a no-nonsense sort of person, and initially disliked Io both because Io had the opportunity to go to university and because she was so reserved and around-the-point when she spoke. She’s the type of person who talks without thinking and then apologizes soon after for being mean.

Jungo Torii (鳥居純吾, Torii Jungo^?) - A 19-year old chef in Nagoya. A simple, quiet man who seems to be distressing mankind’s current condition. Jungo also has the mentality of a child and always offers you a chawan mushi. He said it’s the only thing he can cook, because he said his parent figure died before he taught Jungo any other recipes.

Yuzuru 'Joe' Akie (秋江譲, Akie Yuzuru^?) - A 25-year-old salaryman that works for a trading company. Yuzuru often has his head in the clouds and can make light of serious situations. However, he seems to be wiser than most other people. Joe is a lazy salaryman and solves his problems by ignoring them. He thinks that as long as he is safe and well fed, he cannot care less about saving people because he believes that a more diligent person will do it even if he doesn’t. He has a sickly girlfriend waiting for him in Nagoya hospital but he moved to Tokyo and had not visited her for years due to unknown reasons.

Ronaldo Kuriki (栗木ロナウド, Kuriki Ronaldo^?) - A 26-year old detective situated in Nagoya who seems to oppose JP's and its leader Yamato Houtsuin. Ronaldo was a police detective. His senior investigated JIP’s and the government and “disappeared” in the process. He blames JP's for killing his senior although he has no proof whatsoever, and because JP's current head is Yamato, he wants to kill Yamato for this and every single one of JP's members. Ronaldo is very emotionally driven. The Protagonist will have to make sure he doesn't go blind in revenge.

Melancholy Man (憂う者, Ureu mono^?) - A mysterious melancholy man that has a strange fascination with people. Although he has a very sinister appearance, and his motives can come across as evil, he is actually a very kind person. He calls the Protagonist a "shining person". In the last day, he reveals himself as the eighth Septentrion, Alcor and has existed for thousands of years and is the creator of Nicaea and the demon summoning program.

Tiko/Tycho (ティコ, Tiko^?) - The navigator for the site 'Nicaea'. You could choose Tiko, a girl who wears bunny ears or Tycho, a well-dressed man as the contact for Nicaea.

Additionally, one of the character from the first game; Black Frost appeared as boss character. Making him the only returning character from Devil Survivor

Development

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 was published and developed by Atlus. Its music was composed by Kenji Ito of Final Fantasy Legends, and its character designs were handled by Suzuhito Yasuda^[1], with monster designs by manga artist Mohiro Kitoh.

Media

Manga

Devil Survivor 2 -Show Your Free Will- was given a manga adaptation. It is written by Nagako Sakaki, the artist for Devil Survivor 2's manga, and started serialization in Comic Earth Star magazine in September 12, 2011.

References

1. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (2011-06-07). "E3 2011: Devil Survivor 2 rises next year". http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6317683/e3-2011-devil-survivor-2-rises-next-year. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 

External links

• Devil Survivor 2 Official Japanese website (Japanese)
• Devil Survivor 2 Official North American site (English)