This review contains spoilers
Digital Devil Saga 1 is the first of the Digital Devil Saga duology. Released after SMT: Nocturne, DDS 1 has a heavier emphasis on story and you do not use demons like you do in Nocturne. Since I beaten SMT: Nocturne before joining Backloggd, I will give quick thoughts on that game: That game is hard as fuck, but good. I love the Press Turn system, music, and gameplay. The story is just there. DDS 1 shares many of those things I mentioned for Nocturne, but there is a heavier emphasis on the story.
DDS 1’s story is straightforward and I thought it was fine. Nothing spectacular, but I do like the character’s personalities and how they are in the story. The delivery from the characters in the English dub is hit-or-miss. There are familiar names in the English cast if you have watched English dubs of anime, but something was off about their deliveries here.
The game uses the Press Turn system from Nocturne, except there is no need to negotiate with demons or fuse in this game. You actually turn into a demon. To get new skills, you need to buy mantras and level them up with Atma Points. Once you max out that mantra, you get the skills. The cool thing about DDS is that every character can learn the same mantra and there are a ton of them. Fire, earth, wind, lightning, ice, healing, support, there are tons of mantras you can equip to your characters, adding replay value. My final party consisted of Gael for wind magic, buffs, and debuffs; Serph having fire, lighting, and ice coverage; and Argilla having earth, sometimes lighting and ice magic, but mainly a healer for the team.
However, you need to do a ton of grinding to get to higher levels and the best mantra and that is one criticism I have with DDS 1. Beginning and late game are nightmarish for leveling up your characters and their mantras. For the love of god, make sure you have good hunting skills equipped and have the Iron Stomach on when grinding for Atmas Points. A way to gain more Atma Points is to use hunting skills when your enemy is in low health or frightened. You know when an enemy is low on health when the damage number they take is red. The problem is they must be the final blow when devouring. If you devour them and they do not die, you DO NOT get the additional Atma Points. There is also a chance where you can get a stomach ache if you devour too much and when that happens, you do not get any Atma Points. Please, have the Iron Stomach ability equipped. Also, make sure to have Atma Bonus and AP Divide equipped on your characters, so the grind would not be as tedious.
The dungeons you travel in the game are decent. Some puzzles might need more thinking to do and there is nothing wrong with looking up what to do. Trust me, I got stuck in the final dungeon for longer than I needed to be. The encounter rate can be a problem and there were numerous times where I took like 2 steps and got ambushed.
Oh, did I mention that your human forms suck? There are times where you will be in your human forms instead of your demon forms and it is miserable. Your attacks are weak. If that happens, do not bother transforming because it wastes a turn. Run away from battle.
The game still holds up well graphically and the music is good. I love the opening song.
Digital Devil Saga 1 is a good first part of the DDS duology. However, it can be hard to recommend because of the grinding. I get RPGs tend to be grindy. The RPG genre is one of my favorite game genres, but even I can get annoyed at how tedious it can get. Some games I do not mind the occasional grind. For DDS 1, you pretty need to grind especially late game if you want to survive. If you can tolerate that, you got yourself another good Atlus game. I thought the game was good and I wonder how much DDS 2 will improve when I get to it.
DDS 1’s story is straightforward and I thought it was fine. Nothing spectacular, but I do like the character’s personalities and how they are in the story. The delivery from the characters in the English dub is hit-or-miss. There are familiar names in the English cast if you have watched English dubs of anime, but something was off about their deliveries here.
The game uses the Press Turn system from Nocturne, except there is no need to negotiate with demons or fuse in this game. You actually turn into a demon. To get new skills, you need to buy mantras and level them up with Atma Points. Once you max out that mantra, you get the skills. The cool thing about DDS is that every character can learn the same mantra and there are a ton of them. Fire, earth, wind, lightning, ice, healing, support, there are tons of mantras you can equip to your characters, adding replay value. My final party consisted of Gael for wind magic, buffs, and debuffs; Serph having fire, lighting, and ice coverage; and Argilla having earth, sometimes lighting and ice magic, but mainly a healer for the team.
However, you need to do a ton of grinding to get to higher levels and the best mantra and that is one criticism I have with DDS 1. Beginning and late game are nightmarish for leveling up your characters and their mantras. For the love of god, make sure you have good hunting skills equipped and have the Iron Stomach on when grinding for Atmas Points. A way to gain more Atma Points is to use hunting skills when your enemy is in low health or frightened. You know when an enemy is low on health when the damage number they take is red. The problem is they must be the final blow when devouring. If you devour them and they do not die, you DO NOT get the additional Atma Points. There is also a chance where you can get a stomach ache if you devour too much and when that happens, you do not get any Atma Points. Please, have the Iron Stomach ability equipped. Also, make sure to have Atma Bonus and AP Divide equipped on your characters, so the grind would not be as tedious.
The dungeons you travel in the game are decent. Some puzzles might need more thinking to do and there is nothing wrong with looking up what to do. Trust me, I got stuck in the final dungeon for longer than I needed to be. The encounter rate can be a problem and there were numerous times where I took like 2 steps and got ambushed.
Oh, did I mention that your human forms suck? There are times where you will be in your human forms instead of your demon forms and it is miserable. Your attacks are weak. If that happens, do not bother transforming because it wastes a turn. Run away from battle.
The game still holds up well graphically and the music is good. I love the opening song.
Digital Devil Saga 1 is a good first part of the DDS duology. However, it can be hard to recommend because of the grinding. I get RPGs tend to be grindy. The RPG genre is one of my favorite game genres, but even I can get annoyed at how tedious it can get. Some games I do not mind the occasional grind. For DDS 1, you pretty need to grind especially late game if you want to survive. If you can tolerate that, you got yourself another good Atlus game. I thought the game was good and I wonder how much DDS 2 will improve when I get to it.