Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker Review

As we all know, sometimes it takes a team of unaware teenagers to save the entirety of the world from unknown attackers through the use of demons with their phones. It’s that ancient cliché we’re forced to endure over and over again. Sarcasm aside, this is the loose plot of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker on the Nintendo 3DS. While the original Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 came out on the Nintendo DS in 2012, Record Breaker is the remake with new goodies on the 3DS.

While the Protagonist is always the same character, you get to name him, nickname him, and sort of bring out his own personality through choices in dialogue. Sure you may start the game as a normal high school student fooling around with your best friend, but s#!@ hits the fan quickly and with no surprise you become quite a big deal quite quickly. With the will to live, you’ll be able to summon demons through your phone which can be used to combat the demons ravaging Tokyo.

Similarly to Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, the game is broken down into timed days. Anything you do, other than free battles, take up 30 minutes of time. On your first playthough you may make your choices all willy-nilly without the foresight of the gravity of your choices- oh, there is gravity. Time is definitely an issue. If something seems important, then it's a good chance that it is important. Due to the nature of this game, you aren’t forced to always do what the game makes seem important. In certain parts, if such situations are ignored, characters can and will PERMANENTLY DIE. You don’t want characters to PERMANENTLY DIE so pay attention to the plot.

Since we’re on the topic of time, Devil Survivor 2 also has a fate system. This is similar to the Persona series’ bonds. Through talking to characters when nothing super crucial is happening (you know, so characters don’t PERMANENTLY DIE), an invisible number of points are gathered which will raise their fate level when enough are gained. During these conversations the choices you make can raise these points even further. Higher fate will unlock unique demons, resistances, easier cracks, and other things that fall into spoiler territory. Moral of the story, fate = good.

Combat is nearly identical to Devil Survivor. It’s quite tactical, abusive, but more forgiving than the original. If you’re into constant micro management of your characters’ skills and demons, you’ll do great. If you’re lazy, don’t skill crack, and rarely update your characters, then you’re going to have a horrible time. While it’s easy to get attached to certain demons, you have to cycle those bad boys in and out quite often if you want to keep up with the times. As someone who plays blind without guides or aid, it often takes you getting murdered in a boss encounter to learn what sort of demons, attacks, and defenses you’ll need to succeed. There is never one way to do battles but boy is there a level of efficiency that can help a boat load. I say this game is more forgiving because if you lose a fight you can redo it – even if it’s like the 3rd in a series. NOTHING is more frustrating than redoing three fights because you lost one of them.    

You can have three other characters in your party other than your main character. When they level they will auto-distribute points giving them strengths and weaknesses, you only hand select points on the main character. Each of your four characters can also have two demons with them. Each class of demons gives you more options in attacks, range, movement, heals, etc. The type of demons you use often is more important than the demon itself. Due to this, there are many, many ways to play. Once you attack or are attacked, the screen switches to a first person view where you choose all your attacks for that round. There are ways to get an extra round, stop your foes from having extra rounds, getting free crits, and numerous other combos. You may want to highlight over an enemy icon to see their weaknesses before you decide which of your teams to engage those demons with.

The Demon Auction returns so you can buy new demons for use or fusing. Combat grants you exp and Macca (money). The only purpose of Macca is to buy new demons or to snag them out of your compendium. The compendium allows you to store demons you have acquired so they can purchased at later times for reuse or fusions. Lastly, fusions are linked to your MC’s level to summon stronger and more powerful – slightly crafted monsters. When two demons combine you decide what active and passive skills they receive. All of this falls under the micromanaging aspects of the game. The amount of time you should be spending on this can get a bit grueling and did ware on me towards midway of the story.

Speaking of story, I really enjoyed it. There are numerous surprises and mysteries discovered along the way – especially since the high school kid you play as really has zero idea of what’s going on at the beginning. There are also several endings which all your choices push towards. Some choice you made or didn’t make can set you unknowingly down a path you never realized. This also opens the flood gate on replayability if you’re someone who enjoys new game+ gameplay, or just want to get / see other endings. Did someone die in your first playthrough? Is that guilt riding heavy on your conscious? The second time around change some choices up and see that character’s impact on the ending. You know, that sort of stuff.

Since this is the Record Breaker version of the game, this also means the Triangulum Arc exists. If you played and beat the Devil Survivor 2 and don’t want to beat the entire 50+ hour game again, you can skip it all and jump right into the new Triangulum Arc. You’ll get an update on what happened as a refresher and you start right from that point. Since this content is for people who previously have beaten Devil Survivor 2 or beat the first part of Record Breaker, do not start the Triangulum Arc unless you fall into one of those two categories. Guess what, the Triangulum Arc will be full of spoilers – don’t make that mistake. It is, however, a ton of more game hours and really awesome that it is included for free.

There are also DLC levels that can be purchased to make your experience easier. Since there are only two initial difficulties in Record Breaker, a player unexperienced with this gameplay could have a really difficult time – these games aren’t easy after all. The DLC maps can be bought to get extra exp, more Macca, unlock new skills, etc. Each map has a specific function to help the player out somehow. These battles count like free battles and don't fast forward time at all. Thus if you’re getting your butt spanked by some boss, you could power level and grab some new skills to take it out to progress the story. These DLCs won’t be for everyone and do require purchase – but they do exist.

I ended liking Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker a hell of a lot more than Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked. Where I was iffy with the original, I really enjoy the sequel. For how much bang you get for the your buck, this game is 100% worth it. The story and characters are interesting but can get borderline sexually suggestive in dialogues. If that is the type of thing that turns you off, you've been warned. My biggest complaint is the tediousness of constantly updating your teams – which I know other people will love. There is also both a manga and anime which follow the game relatively close. Of course you’re not going to want to read or watch them before playing if you care about spoilers.