Following close on the heels of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne comes Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. And while the two share many elements, this is not a sequel to Nocturne. Rather it is a whole new world to play in with similar gameplay. And like Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga sports a unique visual style and story – which I’m sure anyone who plays the game is going to wish was a little meatier and had some closure.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga is set on the world of The Junkyard. With a name like “The Junkyard” you can just bet up front that this is not the best place to live and raise a family. On the Junkyard the population is divided into several tribes. Each tribe controls its territory by force in an unending war. What is the war about? Well, the victorious tribe is allowed to ascend into Nirvana where they will live in happiness forever. Only by being the sole surviving tribe can the ascension take place. This of course means wiping out all the other tribes completely. As our story opens, the war has become a dragging stalemate and members of the Embryon and Vanguard tribes once again face each other across a war-torn landscape. But there is something new on their field of battle: a large egg-like organism. As scouts approach, a beam splits the thing and releases trails of light that touch the inhabitants of Junkyard. After the touch of the lights, the inhabitants are transformed into hideous demons with great power and a taste for flesh. The transformation is not permanent and soon they return to their human form, but the demons now dwell just below the surface of their being. Using their new demon powers, the Embryons destroy the Vanguard unit opposing them. With the skirmish now over, the Embryons inspect the pit where the organism split. There they find a girl named Sera. She is unlike anything any have ever seen on the Junkyard but somehow familiar. Her voice can calm the demons within people.

The gamer plays as Serph, leader of the Embryon tribe. For the remainder of the game he will battle the other tribes of the Junkyard to gain the right to ascend to Nirvana and figure out how the girl Sera fits into the events happening around him. I’ll tell you now, as intriguing as the story is, it is ultimately unsatisfying. It ends rather abruptly in a cliffhanger that we hope will be resolved in Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2, which is scheduled to come out in November 2005. There is also just not enough story between the all-too-frequent battles to satisfy the hardcore RPG fans who like a good and involving yarn in their game. What story there is here is good, but it is just not enough.

What is in abundance in this game is a lot of combat. Digital Devil Saga employs the same three-character combat that we saw in Nocturne. That is: your questing party is made up of yourself and two other characters who engage in combat with any forces you may come in contact with. And you’ll come into contact with a lot of things that want to kill you. Like any traditional Japanese RPG, Digital Devil Saga’s combat is turn-based. Where it diverges a bit is in the strategy of attacks and how the turn points are used. Using an attack that exploits an enemy’s weakness earns the player extra points to use in that turn before your foes ever get to take a swing at you. This system rewards a smart offense. Figuring out that smart offense can be a bit of a trial-and-error proposition, but with as many random battles as take place in Digital Devil Saga, you’ll have plenty of trials.

Characters level up is handled in an interesting way. In Nocturne the player had to win a variety of demons to his cause and then level each up to have a full stable of powers at his disposal when running into opposing demons with differing elemental affinities, Digital Devil Saga allows the player to earn any power for his party without a bunch of different characters. As opposing demons are defeated, the player and his party consume the fallen foes to feed their demon needs. Consumed enemies are converted to energy to build up the character’s mantra, or demon power. As long as a player keeps earning victories, he can continue to level up his party and mold them into the fighting force he desires with powers and abilities.

Visually the game may even be better than Nocturne. The same cell-shading-esque artistic style is apparent, but it just pops a little better. The audio is better in voice acting (Let’s face it, anything that is not so corny it is comedic is a general improvement.) but not quite as compelling in the music department: more rock music but with some very atmospheric pieces as well.

In the end it is like this outing in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise evolved but didn’t really get much better. While the gameplay got at least a thin margin better, the story took a hit with very little meat between the bordering-on-the-ridiculous number of battles and an ending that was clearly designed to get players to buy the next game coming out later in the year. I feel Atlus should have been a little more up front and just called this game Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - Part 1 so purchasers would know it was not a complete story. Add to that a slightly premium price of $54.99, and it just does not quite rate as well as its predecessor.