So here we are at the finale of DDS game 1. It’s been a roller coaster of fantastic events and great character development from the opening of the game all the way to the finale. Here’s it’s final score.
Soundtrack:Digital Devil Saga has a brilliant soundtrack, the melodies are just as enticing as almost any other SMT game. The music seemed to be picked scene for scene. When Jinana and Lupa died the music spoke of heartbreak and sadness. Gale’s flashback led us to feel sorrow over a character we hadn’t even met yet. The voice acting however borders on painful at moments. Steven J Blum does a brilliant job of keeping his voice completely neutral for over seventy percent of Gale’s lines. Crispin Freeman harnessed Heat’s aggression really well. On the other hand though Dave Wittenberg hurts me. Not even in one role but in two, he voices both Cielo and Bat. I thought that maybe just maybe it was the horrendous accent that made me hate Cielo’s voice come to find that I haven’t liked him in a great many years. As both Kei in Please Teacher and Sora in .Hack.
Gameplay: This game is turn based, which is fantastic. I’ve always loved turn based rpgs over action and strategy rpg. This game in particular is a little bit sadistic, it has what is known to SMT fans as the Press Turn System. What this means is you have three turn icons, if you hit an enemy weakness then you gain an extra turn, if you hit an enemy with the ability it’s strong towards though you lose a turn. It’s a rather sadistic system that is what SMT games were known for quite some time.
Story: The story is amazing. The most fantastic thing about it is watching the characters turn from being 1’s and 0’s to actual layered people with differing and varying personalities. It’s super mega cool. The main cast are all members of one tribe, the Embryon. They are in a war against other tribes so that they can leave their world “The Junkyard” and enter into the world of “Nirvana”.
Characters: The characters as I mentioned above are brilliant. There is nothing but honesty in their actions. In the way Heat stares at Serph and Sera in a manner similar to longing, in how Gale looks so heartbroken when he sees Angel again. The characters couldn’t have been written better. Period. That’s the end of the story right there.
Graphics: The art in DDS is strange as is Kaneko Kazuma’s specialty. There are points were it’s downright ugly honestly. The game’s backgrounds are brilliantly beautiful done with muted grays, browns, and greens mostly. It’s pretty fantastic. The rain is continually falling in the junkyard and it makes for fantastic imagery as your running down the streets of the Maribel territory. You can genuinely see Serph’s reflection in the puddles on the ground as he runs past them. It’s very nice. The monsters are designed beautifully.
So here’s the summary of that:
Soundtrack 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Graphics: 8/10
Overall Score: 10/10
Somewhere In The Midst Of Nowhere 