• Publisher: ATLUS
  • Release Date: Feb 28, 2012
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings

  • Summary: When a new website that shows the manner of people's deaths in advance makes the rounds amongst Japanese high schoolers, a trio of students is shocked to witness their own deaths in a terrible subway accident just minutes away. They narrowly escape the carnage, only to find themselves in a worse situation--facing otherworldly demons. Desperate to survive, they fend off the demons and flee, but the destruction at the station is only the beginning... Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Feb 29, 2012
    90
    Devil Survivor 2 isn't an anime, and it more than makes up for its lack of originality with well-drawn characters, a branching storyline and excellent mechanics. For that, I'm more than happy to accept any similarities, overt or otherwise, to the most popular -- and most screwed up -- anime ever made.
  2. Feb 29, 2012
    85
    If you liked the first game, it's pretty hard not to like the second, but if you didn't care for the original, not much here will change your mind.
  3. Mar 22, 2012
    85
    The reliance on story as a driving part of the experience, the cruel difficulty, and many similarities to the first game might put some fans off. But engaging combat, addictive demon collecting, and gameplay that can only be rivaled by the first entry make Devil Survivor 2 a worthy title in the Shin Megami Tensei series.
  4. Mar 19, 2012
    72
    As a first foray into SMT games, Devil Survivor 2 was both inviting and discouraging. I liked the premise, in that it kind of reminded me of my favorite DS game, 9-9-9, and I also like dialogue sequences that mean something. On the other hand, the slow-paced, harsh difficulty made this one tough to stick with and easy to put down. Naturally, fans of the genre and SMT games are going to get better mileage than I have, and while I may have my reservations about the game, I'm able to respect and appreciate its quality.

See all 21 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Fantastic story, excellent gameplay, this is definitely a JRPG worth getting if you appreciate a good experience on the DS. By far one of the more enjoyable portable games out there. Expand
  2. This and the original are by far my favorite RPG's on the Nintendo DS. The stories and character struggles, along with their growth and failures, truly make these games stand out. You begin to feel the panic that the characters feel as time is running out, knowing that there world will likely never be the same. The turn based strategy battle system is top notch making use of extra turns that make big differences in battle. The demon fusion system is a great way to create stronger demons to fight for you, adding depth by using an inheritance system for carrying over different moves. Collapse
  3. The changes Devil Survivor 2 had brought are pleasant, but some of these changes feel as if the hinder the game more so than help it. The story, music, and environment changes is all good, the gameplay changes however might not be as great. The vitality stat now affects both magic and physical defense, rather than only affecting physical, which isn't a bad change. However, the Magetite system used in the last game has been replaced by the Add-on function. These add-ons are only applicable during demon fusion and only one add-on is allowed per demon and you can only have 6 add-ons at once. While these add-ons do give your demons helpful boosts, I feel that the Magetite system is superior as it allows you to change the command skills for demons in your party, thus, allowing you to customize the demons' skills based on their strengths and you are now stuck with your demon's default command skill set plus one or two more they get through fusion. Granted, one could use their Demon compendium to chain fuse skills into a certain demon but they are still stuck with the default skill set that they can never hope to change. Plus, summoning demons require Macca, the currency in the game, which brings me to my next point, free battles.

    In it's predecessor, Free battles came in two different forms, normal free battle, and hard versions with stronger monsters. This allowed you to grind your characters' and demons levels to a suitable amount which you could take on the boss with some, but not a lot of difficulty. The demons in the free battle also got stronger as the game progressed, making it worthwhile to go back and fight said demons. However, free battles in this game only come in one difficulty, and it is barely enough to prepare you for the day's upcoming boss battle, unless you constantly grind for a couple hours straight. Another thing is that the monster you fight in the free battles stay relatively the same until you move into the next day, and only some of them are replaced with slightly stronger monsters. Since many are less likely to do free battles as a result, it makes farming Macca harder and one has to result to story-based battles in order to get the money as well as more exp.

    Some of the gameplay changes, however aren't all bad. The new fate system allows for joint skill cracking which allows characters with a certain level fate or higher to not only crack their skill, but yours as well, thus allowing more than one skill to be cracked after defeating a demon. In order to raise the fate level of a character, the player has to interact with the character during the free time, which provides for some fun dialogue and quirky moments.

    Overall, I think that Devil Survivor 2 is a good game. However, some of the gameplay changes aren't all that welcoming. If Atlus decides to create a third entry in the series, I hope that they remove the Add-on system and go back to the Magetite system and allow the option to have harder free-battles.
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  4. Once again Devil Survivor is an odd one. The mechanics have been vastly improved since game one. The fate system works well and is a nice extra incentive to speaking with them. Yet despite that story feels less intense despite the whole world being in danger as apposed to just one city. And like last time this game is irritatingly grind-tastic making the first play through somewhat of a slow choir because every boss demon/monster has the convenient ability to blast your ass to space from thousands miles away while the only thing you can do in defense is start cursing and resign yourself to hours of level grinding. New game plus is much smoother as there is no need to level grind and extra boss while as unfair as the main bosses are excitingly hard without the need to spend half the day level grinding. But in short the game is better while the story is a little less exciting which could be because it's on the DS instead of the Playsation 2. So if your fan give the game a run and you too can start wishing it was on a home console instead. Expand

See all 8 User Reviews