Shin Megami Tensai: Devil Summoner -- Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
As amusing as its title is long. Yes, that's a good thing.
Published: October 19, 2006
Amiable demons. Talking cats. Yakuza-run bath houses. For a game that has you tracking down some seriously troubled individuals and the dark forces behind them, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (subsubtitled Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army) sure doesn't dare take itself too seriously. And you want to know the truth? That's really half the fun. It's a detective story, see, but trekking through the twists and turns of each new case (or rather, one underlying and continually developing one) is equally matched with the importance of capturing, leveling up, and if you so choose, scientifically altering your acquired demons. This is a Shin Megami Tensei game, after all. So, to summate, this is a detective story with demons. And a darn good one.
As a detective story, this of course demands a snooping gumshoe at the center of it, uncovering new clues, tying together loose ends and generally getting wrapped up in the webs of an investigation until something can be made of it. That's where Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th (a prestigious title based off a gallant foursome of Devil Summoners from the Kuzunoha clan that has protected Japan since way back when) comes into play. A newly-initiated Devil Summoner, budding detective and all-around snappy dresser who still manages to make time for a high school education, Raidou is put on assignment by his boss, Shouhei Narumi (chief of the Narumi Detective Agency and sorely lacking in work ethic), after the duo is summoned by a mysterious girl who demands they kill her. That is, until she's whisked away into the night by some stolid military men in red. Naturally, they take the case.
What really sticks out about Devil Summoner is that is demands the player be as self-motivated as they are willing to get to the bottom of things. You'll start off each episode (which effectively advance the case once tips and other leading evidence surface) through kind of a communal piecing together of parts with Narumi (Kuzunoha remains silent, mind you) and any other significant parties (mainly Tae, an eager female reporter just dying for the big scoop), but after that, you're sent on your merry way to make something of it.
Your objective? Go out. Talk to people. Snoop around. Check back in with Narumi for a lead if necessary, but other than that, it's primarily in your hands to hit up the right hot spots and extract the necessary information until the case picks up steam. Like a little kid at the beach, you'll start by getting your feet wet and gradually wandering deeper and deeper into a persuasive ocean. When it's become overbearing, you can run back to Mom and tell her all about it, but soon enough you'll take her encouragement to heart and head back out, if only to make it just a few steps further out into the water.
If progression is anything in this game, though, it's not without the help of a few good demons on your side. The comparison to Pokemon is a difficult one to avoid, but Devil Summoner fares quite well with a take of its own on the whole encounter/weaken/capture technique to stocking up on demons. That said, it's still fairly complicated business.
Basically, you'll walk into a random encounter, see it's a perky new demon and figure, "ok, now I want to capture it." The key to doing so - and bear with us here -- is exposing its weak point for massive damage, which can be done by either a) calling up a demon who can cast the necessary elemental magic on that weakness or b) firing a round of bullets of that same element quality at it. It's pretty conspicuous once you pull it off; not only will an inferring "Weak!" appear on-screen, but the demon in question will also become temporarily immobile (this occurs with most bullet types, but you can tell from a radiating glow that you've hit the sweet spot). From then on in, it's a matter of making your approach and hammering on the circle button like mad until you can win the tug-o-war type struggle for confinement. If the demon is a higher level than you, you're short on vacant demon tubes or if it's a full moon (moon phases play an important roll, as demons will get all rallied up when it turns full and thus temporarily unattainable), you're out of luck until you can reencounter them under more favorable circumstances.
As a detective story, this of course demands a snooping gumshoe at the center of it, uncovering new clues, tying together loose ends and generally getting wrapped up in the webs of an investigation until something can be made of it. That's where Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th (a prestigious title based off a gallant foursome of Devil Summoners from the Kuzunoha clan that has protected Japan since way back when) comes into play. A newly-initiated Devil Summoner, budding detective and all-around snappy dresser who still manages to make time for a high school education, Raidou is put on assignment by his boss, Shouhei Narumi (chief of the Narumi Detective Agency and sorely lacking in work ethic), after the duo is summoned by a mysterious girl who demands they kill her. That is, until she's whisked away into the night by some stolid military men in red. Naturally, they take the case.
What really sticks out about Devil Summoner is that is demands the player be as self-motivated as they are willing to get to the bottom of things. You'll start off each episode (which effectively advance the case once tips and other leading evidence surface) through kind of a communal piecing together of parts with Narumi (Kuzunoha remains silent, mind you) and any other significant parties (mainly Tae, an eager female reporter just dying for the big scoop), but after that, you're sent on your merry way to make something of it.
Your objective? Go out. Talk to people. Snoop around. Check back in with Narumi for a lead if necessary, but other than that, it's primarily in your hands to hit up the right hot spots and extract the necessary information until the case picks up steam. Like a little kid at the beach, you'll start by getting your feet wet and gradually wandering deeper and deeper into a persuasive ocean. When it's become overbearing, you can run back to Mom and tell her all about it, but soon enough you'll take her encouragement to heart and head back out, if only to make it just a few steps further out into the water.
If progression is anything in this game, though, it's not without the help of a few good demons on your side. The comparison to Pokemon is a difficult one to avoid, but Devil Summoner fares quite well with a take of its own on the whole encounter/weaken/capture technique to stocking up on demons. That said, it's still fairly complicated business.
Basically, you'll walk into a random encounter, see it's a perky new demon and figure, "ok, now I want to capture it." The key to doing so - and bear with us here -- is exposing its weak point for massive damage, which can be done by either a) calling up a demon who can cast the necessary elemental magic on that weakness or b) firing a round of bullets of that same element quality at it. It's pretty conspicuous once you pull it off; not only will an inferring "Weak!" appear on-screen, but the demon in question will also become temporarily immobile (this occurs with most bullet types, but you can tell from a radiating glow that you've hit the sweet spot). From then on in, it's a matter of making your approach and hammering on the circle button like mad until you can win the tug-o-war type struggle for confinement. If the demon is a higher level than you, you're short on vacant demon tubes or if it's a full moon (moon phases play an important roll, as demons will get all rallied up when it turns full and thus temporarily unattainable), you're out of luck until you can reencounter them under more favorable circumstances.
