Review by: Brian Rowe

An ominous void, barely a meter wide when it was first noticed, appeared over Antarctica. It grew with voracious tenacity to encompass hundreds of square kilometers as weeks passed, demolishing, or perhaps absorbing everything in its path. The United Nations dubbed the doomsday phenomenon, “Schwarzwelt,” and mobilized a strike team of soldiers, scientists, and four, highly-advanced vehicles to break through the Schwarzweltz’s perimeter and find a way to reverse the process. It was a haphazard plan at best, and a monumental disaster when all four ships were attacked and violently absorbed by the anomaly.

The Schwarzwelt is a labyrinth of dimensions, oddly human in décor, yet inhabited by demons. It simply would not be MegaTen (Shin Megami Tensei) without demons, although Strange Journey is almost assuredly not the MegaTen you are accustomed to playing. Its closest relative stateside is Devil Survivor, which was a grinding nightmare, but don’t let that scare you off. Strange Journey bears a heavy resemblance to the roguelike sub-genre, with the dungeon-crawling and merciless difficulty that the genre embodies. It’s quite likely that you won’t survive the first two battles, and yet, Atlus manages to keep the storytelling in perfect rhythm with the extreme challenges.

As in Devil Survivor, you command a human protagonist and up to three summoned demons in battle. It seems peculiar to rely upon the assistance of the same creatures that are so bent on destroying humanity. It’s an overarching issue of self-preservation vs. cooperation that arises thematically on numerous occasions. Like humans, not every demon is a vicious murderer bent on humanity’s extinction. Some are vain, some are helpful, and others couldn’t care less about anything besides a coin in the pocket. The diversity of demons and your interactions with them begs the question – how can we be so genuinely interested and accepting of such foreign beings, and so intolerant of our own species?

Conversing with demons is a vital feature of Strange Journey that has been grossly underutilized in the recent Persona games. You can battle every demon that crosses paths or try to initiate a little banter. Demons are generally curious about human society and will ask a series of multiple-choice questions. Each demon has a unique personality (demonality?) to appease, and doing so opens negotiations for supplies or a partnership. Conversation can have tactical advantages as well. Even with multiple opponents on-screen, recruiting a single demon is enough to end a battle, as is speaking with a demon of the same type as a party member, but the exchange can turn equally sour if you’re not as compatible as you thought. Disgruntled demons are likely to attack, and the more nefarious ones will dip into your health and pocketbook before breaking the deal and scampering off.

You have an alignment that shifts among three possibilities through cleverly disguised choices. The morality of your decisions, or even which ones have an effect, is pleasantly ambiguous. Demons have similar alignments, but further split into two categories. Conversational compatibility increases the odds of favorable negotiations, and combative compatibility initiates powerful cooperative attacks whenever you hit an enemy’s weak spot, so it’s always advantageous to have a cadre of like-minded demons. Like the recent Persona games, fusing demons to make new, hopefully more powerful cohorts with beneficial skills, is a major component of Strange Journey that is made vastly more strategic by the inclusion of morality. Persona fans may also be pleased to know that fusion can be done anytime outside of battle and does not require a return to home-base.

With all this talk of demons, I don’t want to imply that your character is a weakling by any means. The DEMONICA suit – a ridiculous acronym for DEMOuntable Next Integrated Capability Armor – can be loaded with a wide array of Apps. Some are mundane programs for unlocking doors, while sub-apps offer an assortment of buffs for combat, conversation, and exploration. Instead of magical skills, the protagonist relies upon swords and guns in combat and is undoubtedly on of the most customizable heroes in MegaTen. Elemental-style strengths and weaknesses are often the deciding factors in combat. Choosing the proper ability can yield devastating coop-attacks, while the wrong ability can actually be reflected with full force. This can be utterly decimating if your attack-type also happens to be your weakness.

The level of difficulty is likely to be the major turn-off for newcomers. I mentioned roguelikes and, akin to Atlus’ own Shiren the Wanderer and The Dark Spire, each dimension (i.e. dungeon) is a treacherous landscape of traps, hidden doors, and wandering demons. Progress is methodical with repeat trips to your ship to stock up on supplies and create new gear from scavenged materials. Upon death, there is no choice but to load from your last save. Stepping through a one-way door and into a hallway of poisonous floors might seem unfair, but I never came across a situation that I couldn’t handle through proper management of demons, choices in equipment, and cautious progression.

Even as I stoically hold my breath for an Xbox 360/PS3 MegaTen game, scoffing at Strange Journey due to its placement on the DS would be a tragic mistake. Yes, the three-dimensional dungeons are grainy and the soundtrack (included on CD) repeats to the point of annoyance. But, unlike more famous Japanese RPGs, MegaTen never has to fall back on visual and audible spectacles to impress. The combination of a compelling and ideological narrative with complex combat, not to forget the outright fun of collecting demons, makes Strange Journey an incredible addition to the series.