SMT: Strange Journey - Ankle-deep in the Schwarzverse
By eirikr 9 Comments
Plot
Even though I can't read Japanese, it's easy to infer just how interesting the plot is. The basic concept of a specialized team exploring a demon-infested dimension in the South Pole is already original enough and the story itself has some twists practically the moment you step onto solid ground. I can't wait to see where it goes next.Graphics
By its looks and how it moves, SJ screams Etrian Odyssey, which makes sense since they share engines and were developed by the same company. It looks about the same as one of those games, with some pop-in on the field but generally interesting-looking backgrounds. Most of the games I play on DS are 2D sprite-based, so I am in no way an expert on how cutting edge 3D looks on DS, but it generally looks good. Speaking of 2D, the demon sprites are mostly awesome. Some suffer from being too small, and some seem over-animated and look like they are having seizures. They're demons, so maybe they are supposed to look like that?There are also lots of little things in the presentation, like how demons of different alignments have their names highlighted in different colors - blue for Law, white for Neutral, and red for Chaos.
Gameplay
Like the PS2 games, gameplay is built around the Nocturne elemental standard, but with a new twist. This time around, the Devil Co-op system lets demons of the same alignment as you land extra hits when you hit a weakness. It's simple, but it absolutely makes you consider and reconsider who you have in your party. Fighting a boss, I switched out one demon for a weaker one, just so he would take part in the Devil Co-op and indeed ended up dealing more damage.You can also fuse at any time while in a dungeon, which is pretty awesome. The game is also pretty generous with save points and health terminals, at least so far. Like Etrian Odyssey, it's all about going as far in until you can't take it anymore. I definitely had to retreat more than once, but due to the mentioned conveniences I always felt like I was making progress.
Fusion so far seems more simplified, generally for the better. Skill inheritance seems a lot more restricted, as a few rerolls kept resulting in the same skill being passed over. But then again, the Devil Source items your demons give you when they level up let you pass on a good number of skills, so there's still room for customization. Those expecting to be able to hand-pick skills like in Devil Survivor will be disappointed, but for how SJ makes it work, it's still a vast improvement over the old canceling-out method.
Sound
I've been blown away by the quality of the sound. The music sounds very clear and the only time it sounded crappy was during a movie, so it was probably the fault of compression. The word I like to use to describe the music is "oppressive." The Schwarzverse is not a cheery place to be and the percussion-backed chanting absolutely makes the mood. There are complaints out there about the quality of the music, but the only legitimate one I've heard so far is that there isn't a whole lot of it. Based on the game's length, that could be a problem, but I'm sure those people judging that have yet to play the game. It's probably one track per area, some cutscene themes, battle music, and Meguro's called it a day. Seems pretty standard to me.So that probably hits on all the major issues the game has to offer. So far, it's been pretty impressive, but how it sustains itself for another 40-50 hours should be interesting to see (for me personally, the demon collecting alone will keep me enthralled that long or more).