this was the first smt game i have ever beaten fully (not counting persona) and it will probably remain one of my favorite smt games ever, as a fan of strategy rpgs already the gameplay appealed to me. the objectives for maps are diverse and fun, despite the maps being fairly simple the variety of objectives and layouts made it fun anyways. the games difficulty was fine, though there are some fights i dislike. the story is fantastic. the scenario is immediately interesting and a lot of things happen very quickly which gets you hooked. the characters are all enjoyable and i felt bad when i missed a chance to talk to one of them. the time management system is pretty neat too. i have only finished amanes route but the characters are all compelling and the best part of the game to me is that when it came down to the point of picking my route, i saw equal merit in all choices (except yuzus sorry yuzu youre still the number 1). usually in smt games there is a true ending, and when theres not, it usually seems like chaos is always the better option, but in devil survivor i truly had trouble deciding which route i agreed with. the game also makes your choices matter, not thinking ahead with your dialogue options and actions will result in the deaths of multiple characters, and i like that. it made it feel like your decisions each day had weight. as for the parts of the game i dont like, its beldr. he is basically the minotaur of devil survivor but beldr doesnt teach the player anything. he can only be killed by the protagonist with 1 specific physical move (physical being the worst attacking type in the game by far). the only thing i could say it teaches the player is to focus on objectives, but still thats a stretch. other than that all the fights were fun the mechanics are fun. the auction system being the only way of getting demons is a bit annoying, but overclocked fixes this. i would say this is a must play if you are a fan of smt and strategy rpgs (FUCK SHARP FE THIS IS THE REAL SMT X FE CROSSOVER)
(also play overclocked i played the ds version but im sure overclocked improves on the game wholly)