20 Aug what-is-it-first-fire-v-digital-devil-story-megami-tensei-20-year-year-godopgame-1

What is it like to play for the first time in Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei in 2020?

Initially, I was not going to do anything like that. I was not going to play (and even more so to pass) Digital Devil Story, I was not going to read the original story of the AI ​​Nisitani and was not going to watch anime on it. Although I never looked anime. Yes, and I abandoned the book to read in the second volume. But the game still passed.

And it all started with the fact that I just sat and played the person. And somehow in the process I thought about the connections of the person with SMT-after all, there are some common elements (demons there, dungeons), one seemed to have grown from the other. In the west, the person was even released as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (except for the first, fifth and Eternal Punishment). But at the same time, they are still different. At least the feeling is created that their audience is different and does not particularly intersect. Yes, and the presence in the info is different: they often talk about the person, and they remember about SMT noticeably less often.

Although, probably, this is not particularly surprising, given the history of SMT: the first two parts came to Japan on Super Famicom and in the West were not published, the third part came out in the West, but on the console Sony, not Nintendo, the fourth reached Nintendo again, but not Wii U, For example, on pocket 3ds (I went out there and Apocalypse), well, the fifth should go to Switch. A bad scatter of platforms. Persona, for the most part, was hanging out on the consoles from Sony, which it seems to me and played some role in its popularity.

Me SMT I have always been interested in no less than a person, perhaps even more and this despite the fact that she (SMT) in general passed me. In the end, the game does not even have an English name, only this one already aroused interest in me.

“Write a name on Romadzi and not translate it? Yes do not care!”

And recently in Japan, Remaster of the Third came out Shin Megami Tensei, And I, playing the person, thought, and how this is the whole franchise from the not very famous book outside Japan. This is still a little unusual: by books they usually shoot films (or cartoons), or films or films are made by games – games, it happens even by games that books are released (Halo, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Dead Space, etc.e), but the only examples of a book in my memory, except Megami Tensei – This Witcher And perhaps, Dune. In any case, this seems to be infrequent.

At the time I started this venture, I knew almost nothing about the book itself. I heard something about the schoolboy who called the demon using a computer, about khm-khm. Teacher. That the book seemed to be popular (although I could not find information about sales). That most likely the ears from Devilman. That seems to be all. Well, the fact that the books were released by the game of course. In general I read something once on Vicki, but on the Internet.

Immediately I was interested in, but what could be such a game, especially also released on an 8-bit console? Of course I could just see the gameplay on the yutyub and calm down. But I wanted to understand how exactly she Played, After all, in fact, a whole franchise began with her, which means there was to be in her? And when watching a video, such things are felt worse. So I wanted to try to play it. And I went to google. ROM Games and Emulator itself was not difficult to find. I launched the game, looked at a short video, scattered statues at random and saw it:

I walked along the corridors, clung to the walls and closed the emulator, without even going down to the next floor. Somewhere here I was going to finish everything. The game did not look very good, and to figure out what was my laziness. I began to delve on the Internet, look for information about the book, in general, I tried to figure out where the franchise has my legs grow. And I came across her amateur translation. I decided to read it a little out of curiosity. Make a little impression, so to speak. The book, in the end, turned out to be short (read it in a couple of hours) and not to say very good. For me nothing like that, because of which it would be worth bothering with the creation of the game. But nevertheless, after the book, after all, they also made an anime. Perhaps in Japan of the 80s it was really quite popular.

And I decided that maybe I should play a little longer. Maybe even try to reach the first boss. But there was one problem – ROM that I downloaded was Japanese, but I don’t know Japanese. Therefore, I climbed to look for a version in English, in the hope that it exists at all. She, of course, exists (in the form of a fan translation), although it went a little to look. And I started curtainly, now in the English version.

The game begins with a short video where in the light of lightning shows the silhouette of some kind of beast with red eyes. Most likely Cerberus, but in the game itself his eyes seem to be not red, so I’m not sure. Next, click Start and distribute stats from the characters, there are only two of them – Akemi Nakajima and Yumiko Sirasagi (characters from the book). Statov – five: strength (Str), Wisdom (Wis), Attack (ATT), Dexterity (Agi) and luck (LUK), they had such a translation at least. I really did not quite realize at first how the force differs from the attack and for which luck is responsible for. Perhaps not quite the correct translation. As I understand it later from Vika, the force is responsible for the level of health, and the attack, respectively, for the force of attack. Luck seems to be responsible for the chance of the first impact and a successful option to escape from the battle. But I did not check all this and it seemed to me that it was practically no matter what stats to swing, because to the 61 level you can pump them all the way. And I did not compose the level 61 of the level of problems, even despite the fact that in the later stages there were enemies capable of lowering the level of the party and despite the fact that I specially swayed only at the beginning, and then I just went through the game without doing anything like that without doing this.

At first, everything was good: I wandered around the corridors, dealt with the monsters, looked for passages to the lower floors and persuaded the demons to join the party. And this, by the way, is one of the important features of the game. Since the main party consists of only two people, it can only be increased at the expense of called demons. In the game, most enemies you meet can be recruited to your group. To do this, you need to start a conversation with him, but this is possible only if the demon is left alone. It will not work with a group of demons, respectively, it will be necessary to destroy everyone except one. The easiest way when only one demon attacks, then you can start a “recruitment” immediately. I liked this in general. The purpose is that it is necessary to determine the sequence of answers in which the “negotiations” will end successfully. Sometimes a demon can refuse to speak, sometimes just run away, sometimes ask for money or a magicite and run away, or even attack, but if you are lucky and “negotiations” will be successful, he will join your party. Although there are such which you cannot recruit at all, but they feel smaller than them.

To call demons, a magicite is necessary, which randomly falls out of some enemies and money on the account of the Swiss bank. Money is spent to call. Usually the stronger the demon, the more money is required. Magicitis is needed for UMM. maintaining their life. The fact is that during the study of the dungeon it is gradually spent and when it ends completely, the demons will begin to lose health. Therefore, sometimes they have to be called. Although for the whole game the magicite ended only once – on the way to the final boss. The rest of the time I did not experience a lack.

They do not gain experience in battles https://jettbet-casino.co.uk/ called demons, they have a fixed one and it is impossible to increase it in any way. It is also impossible to drive him out of the party – only to withdraw. You can remove the demons from the party in two ways: wait until it perishes, then request a password to save and load it (too wise), or use it Fuse, That is, mix it with another demon. At the output you can get a stronger demon or dria (it turns out if demons cannot be mixed). The technique that exists in the person’s series (although at first I did not fully understand the principle of mixing and I almost always got a Dryad), but in the later stages I collected Pati through Fuse. So, at least, it was always possible to see the level and characteristics of the demon, and when recruiting the demon through the conversation, there was always a chance to take the Nekomat in the bag. And in the later stages, demons become more intractable, and you can always “mix” the demon with a higher level. Of the non -critical minuses – the spell set is always the same and does not change in any way. Sometimes there was very missing the opportunity to create, as in a person, the desired demon with the right spell.

In general, going to the end of the game without gaining demons to the party will be quite difficult, even most likely it is impossible. And, running ahead, I will say that making a game is more difficult than it already exists, you are unlikely to want.

But as I said, it was quite simple to play at first and I even got involved. Although still one spoon of tar at that time was already. Namely: in the game you can not persist. Nowhere. Neither. One. Sevpont.

Yes, everything is right – this is Jrpg without conservation. If you ever wondered: “Do Jrpg exist without conservation?”, then – one is.

“But how so?“Someone will think -“ This is a game for several tens of hours, is it possible there at all without conservation?”Nuuu. As it turns out, you can. Just instead of saving, the game uses a password system that a special NPC issues, and later, after reaching the level 17-18, Yumiko A spell will appear to get a password, as they say, “on the go”. But I did not use this system. Of course I tried to “play honestly” a couple of times and use passwords, but. God, how is it all uncomfortable!

And since I still played on an emulator, I just used “Save state” – in the future it was my nerves several times. Of course this is not quite original expirence, after all, on Famicom this was not, but I did not want to record a 40-digit password every time, and in general there was nowhere.

Although the developers still compensated for this “small flaw” with preservations and if the game takes place in the game, then after that you can click “Continue” in the main menu and the party appears in the starting location without losing the gained experience, but they take away half the money accumulated. But there is enough money in the game, and there is basically nothing to spend it on, only on the equipment and call of demons, and there are not a lot of stores in the game and the assortment there is a couple of swords. They don’t even sell Hilki – they need to be knocked out from enemies. So I did not experience serious money with money in the game.

And with such a system you worry less when Game Over comes. It helps a little at the initial stages, in the pumping of the level. It also helps in pumping and the fact that the deceased Sopartian still continues to gain experience. It is a pity that in other JRPG such a system is not used. In general, I can also bring it into pluses.

To the first boss, Minotaur, There was no problem to get there. And it took a couple of hours in time. There is nothing special to say about him – he is simple. Well, you can mention that the bossfite began suddenly and I, not prepared, lost, after which I had to go to him again. The next boss, Jellyfish, It was also quite simple, however, I had to look a little and the battle with her also began suddenly. But also nothing complicated. A little funny, but recalling the battles with all the bosses, I can say that the battle with any of them did not cause me big problems, even with the final. Other things caused much more problems.

After winning the jellyfish, I got access to the flying city Sky City. AND. He flies. Что это за город такой, почему он летает и как вписывается в типа “реалистичный” Токио 80-х я так и не понял. In the first book, there was nothing like that and in the game itself nothing is explained about it. Yes, and the plot is not here either here either. In the whole game, in fact, there are only two “katsets” – one in the beginning and one at the end. You can not find out about the initial one at all. In order not to miss it, you need to sit in the main menu for 10 seconds, only after that it will start. It gives a brief background to the game, but without much details. In the final katszen, the destruction of the pyramid is shown, they say “re -“. There will be no more plot in the game.

Sky City, By the way, not the only “city” in this pyramid. Although, probably, it is more correct to call them “settlements” of all about three of them. And I don’t even remember their names. Usually these are the settlements in which the merchant sits, sometimes with the doctor, and maybe a pair of NPC stick out at the level, but since the merchants and even more so NPC can sometimes sit in the middle of literally nothing, I still did not understand how these “cities” differ from the rest of the maze. Just some location is called a “city”, but there is no one.

And this is not a city. Find 10 differences.

With the help Sky City You can access another two locations: Mazurka Path And The Infini Palace. I-and-and. Here begins almost the most annoying and complex part of the game. I can even say that the game is divided into two parts for me: before I started exploring Mazurka Path And after. And the sensations from these two parts are very different. People even with small signs of topographic cretinism can throw the game right here, because from here some hell begins for them.

Eight confusing floors, sometimes connected in some kind of developers understandable, order. You can go to the lower floors from the upper two ways (I did not understand this immediately). You need to unlock the lifting on the sixth floor, and not on the eighth (before that unlocking has been lost on the lower floor). You need to go down before him. To find it and/or passage down you need to search a billion rooms. The fifth floor with a confusing structure on which it is easy to get lost (it is easier only in the seventh and in the basement). The third floor on which there is an invisible secret boss, which is better to find and kill, so that you can use the lift. Moreover, there are two lifts, one of them on the second floor, but there are also two second floors: one in the fire, the other is not and there are lifts on both, but both of them lead to different places and the numbering of the one that is on the usual second (not in the fire) in the reverse order, that is, there he does not raise you to the sixth floor, but it lowers it, although this is not even the same sixth, on which the first one is located on which is the first one.lift. And on the third, besides this, there are two passes down, which also lead to different places and it is advisable to remember which where, so as not to run around these corridors once again. And I haven’t told this how I was lost several times on the seventh floor while I was looking for Gayu.

But that’s not all. NPC, which give you the necessary information sometimes placed as if you got. Moreover, you need to understand what the information that they give out, because expressing more clearly, is the cartridge crack, and even sometimes it can already be useless.

For example, one NPC, who informed me of the “important” information in a couple of hours, after I independently, by the method of enrage (thanks to Save state), solved the problem for which this information was needed. Or another example: one of the goals of the game is to save the goddess Izanami, imprisoned somewhere in the pyramid. At a certain moment, the game is found in the game, which reports that it is “somewhere in the East”. But does not report that she is not even on this floor. That’s right, let the player in vain run half an hour according to the location, where the whole batch is caused by constant damage. And when you find her. Then where is I looking for a NPC, which will tell in what order I need to arrange the stones (thanks to Save state again)? And with information from the NPC here it is almost always the case – it is either not very informative or already expired. In general, one continuous pain.

Another small problem for me was the inability to see the characteristics of armor and weapons. You never know if the sword is better (and it is not clear whether he has stats at all), which is sold with the merchant than you have, so you have to focus on the price, hoping that it is more expensive, it is better. Although, it seems, more expensive equipment is really better. It’s just a little strange. But in general, this is not a problem. This can only be a problem if you sell The best sword in the game and buy something worse instead. True, you can also not find out about this either, because you still do not know the stats, but only one NPC is said that this is the “best sword in the game”, which you can not meet. Yes, and the chance to find the “best sword in the game” without guides is very small, because not everyone will be able to go to him. Rather, not only everyone will be able to go through, few can do it, because the developers supplied the path to it with so many invisible holes in the floor and invisible teleports that I used to spend about 10 minutes using the “Save State” to pass the location and almost went crazy. I can’t even imagine how it all went on an ordinary console without all this. I think those who passed (and passed) is on Famicom, Using only passwords, Atlus should send any awards or compensation, or a psychologist’s session

The penultimate boss – Set, a little more complicated than previous, but serious problems he also did not cause me. It was much more difficult to find it. More precisely, to find it, first it was necessary to find a special demon that would indicate you to a hidden pass, which leads to a location in which the set will be located. Why are such troubles. And this is a plot boss. Well, sort of like. Still, after the murder of the jellyfish, access appears to the location where the final boss is located, but for the level of the party, immediately after the murder of the jellyfish there will be too strong enemies, and most likely, you will have to swing and look for weapons/armor better. Plus if you do not find a special stone, then the final boss will treat itself, which will also probably complicate the battle with it. That is, he will throw treatment at himself with this stone, it will just not work. So probably the set is still the plot boss.

As far as I know, the cartridge with the original game was instructed. And the game was also the game. I don’t know he went in the kit or was bought separately. Perhaps all this was explained in them, perhaps even the plot there was told with all these “flying cities”.

Last location in front of the final boss – The Infini Palace. Huge, confusing, with conjugate turning platforms and invisible traps, so I had to move slowly and constantly look at the compass. Otherwise it was possible to go, for example to the south, and in the end come east. And the trip to the final boss is also the same trouble. You first need to go down in a certain way, then go up a certain way, while going through the floor on which nothing is visible. Literally. But by this moment I had already passed, checking with a map from the Internet, because without it the passage of this location I think it would be very long. In fact, with a map and Gaid, I began to check before the previous boss, because. Well, I already explained everything above.

The final boss – Lucifer, Nothing special, just a little thicker than the rest, you beat, sometimes you are being treated and after about 20 minutes – victory, the joy of what has passed, a slight disappointment, from the fact that it is not particularly Chellenge (I defeated him with a strongly shabby party, but no one was in the party anyway). Although it may be for the better – to go to him a rather dubious pleasure. Well, the final video – Nakadzima And Yumiko saved, the tower collapses, and Izanami And Izanagi They are sniffing from from above.

So, what are my sensations from the game? Pretty ambiguous. On the one hand, I liked the demons, to engage in a Fuches, trying to make a superpowemon, a system at which dead characters still gain experience, and you do not lose it with a geimovers. In general, I liked the music, although at the levels of the melodies they spin around in a circle and after some time they get bored, but still many of them I liked. And before I went to Mazurka Path I also liked walking on labyrinths in principle.

On the other hand, the difficulty in almost the entire second half of the game is somewhat inadequate, and not even because of the complexity of the monsters, but because of some kind of abnormal architecture of levels that irritate the backing, heaps of invisible holes, teleports and traps, all these turning platforms. There is no conservation again. In the game for several tens of hours.

This seems to be the only Jrpg in my memory of those years that has been on the cartridge without a battery, because all sorts Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest or Phantasy Star They made it possible to persist. There are not even any simple checkpoints after winning the boss, so in the event of the death of the party, of course you can save the experience, you just need to start playing from the very first location. And you will have to run back for a long time. Tell me now about Dark Souls.

Is it worth playing in Famicom version in 2020 and later (since almost the end of the year)? Here of course, let everyone decide how interesting he is, but I would advise you to save my nerves. Especially playing a dubious pleasure without a guide. Although there are other versions and ports that you can probably try.

In addition to the version for PC88, MSX and t.e, which is generally a different game, but with the same name, in 1995 for Super Famicom The collection came out Kyūyaku Megami Tensei, containing graphically improved versions of the first and second part. In 2004 in Japan, the port went to the phones. In 2012 Kyūyaku Megami Tensei I went out on WII through Virtual Console. And October 3, 2020, the original version was released on Switch in the composition Namcot Collection. I was not able to find any information about the release of at least one of these versions in the West, so the only way to play it apparently the English version is through the emulator. Or teach Japanese.

What in the end. Did I understand why this experimental “satuke” grew up in a franchise? Not really. But interesting ideas there were interest in Shin Megami Tensei I haven’t gone. Maybe I would even try to play the first SMT. Some day.

P. S I wanted to assess the game, but it turns out even on the site no.