Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (Nintendo DS)

Pick it up if you like great strategy RPGs. I'm actually not a big fan of SRPGs but this one is really awesome. This review captures what makes it great:

ds.ign.com/articles/100/1000022p1.html

That sounds pretty cool. I might give this one a shot once I'm done with Knights in the Nightmare.

-Will

I picked it up on release day, and having only played through about eight hours of it I'd still feel fairly confident in calling it one of the top 20 or so DS games. It's a _great_ SRPG. I really like the narrative part, surprisingly enough, and it kind of combines the very "now" style of THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU with...POKEMON. The tactical part is extremely well done, you have three (or four, apparently, but I haven't gotten there yet) leaders who each can have two demons. Demons all have different abilities, and you can combine them to get new ones. You hire demons at an auction (!!!). It's quirky in the classically Japanese sense, but unlike other SRPGs where you build up a murder squad and then go stand in front of somebody and beat them to death, you've got a lot more flexibility and options to consider. I like that the combat switches to a MIGHT AND MAGIC style thing- it combines the movement/placement element of SRPGs with classic RPG fighting.

I love it...I love the style, I love the presentation, I love the gameplay. I think it's a total grand slam. It caused me to put KITN on the backburner temporarily.

AAARRRGGGGGH! I keep hearing about these great strategy titles, but I want to finish Disgaea, AW Days of Ruins and GTA first, then I have FFTA2 in the pipeline and countless others. When am I ever gonna get to Devil Survivor?

Some advice to anyone playing Devil Survivor: do not do the story battle until you can comfortably win the hard free battles. If you eke out a win in the story battle, you will be stuck with free battles you cannot win, and there's no other way to level grind. I almost got stuck and had to restart.

Oh, and Barnes, you get a 4th member on Day 3.

I'm almost there...I've just been playing sporadically and grinding away, assuming that exactly what you said could happen was a possibility.

I never can get satisfied with my teams...there's always something you want that you can't get.

I just finished listening to this week's Drunken Gamers Radio where they review this game. If you've never given Hilden, Moe, and John a listen, you should start here. I think a lot of F:AT members fit their demographic.

Now I'm in this weird situation that I did some many fights for so long just to get past one of the story battles, now I've been through three consecutive story battles where the enemies are still levels 19-21, and I'm now at 26. It's pretty easy. I wonder when it will start kicking my ass again.

I can't recall the last time I got so into a game. Maybe Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance for the GBA. This game is all boner.