Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

Cover art
Developer(s) Atlus
Publisher(s) Namcot
Artist(s) Kazuma Kaneko
Composer(s) Tsukasa Masuko
Series Megami Tensei
Platform(s) Family Computer, Super Famicom
Release date(s)

Family Computer

  • JP: April 6, 1990

Super Famicom

  • JP: March 31, 1995
Genre(s) Role-playing video game
Mode(s) Single-player

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II (Japanese: デジタル・デビル物語 女神転生II Hepburn: Dejitaru Debiru Sutōrī Megami Tensei II) is the sequel to Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. It was published by Namco in 1990 for the Family Computer and is the second video game in the Megami Tensei series.[1] This is the first game in the series to not be based on the original novels by Aya Nishitani, but it retains much of the gameplay aspects of its predecessor. The music in the game is enhanced by a Namco 163 wavetable sound chip, providing 4 audio channels.

Along with Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, this game was remade by Atlus and put on the game Kyūyaku Megami Tensei (旧約・女神転生 lit. Megami Tensei: The Old Testament), released in 1994 on the Super Famicom, with new graphics and a more detailed version of the world map.[1]

Gameplay

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II retains several gameplay aspects of the first game, including demon catching and fusing and first-person dungeons.

There is a world map that features overhead graphics. The player controls the party through the world map and dungeons, fighting enemies in random encounters with turn-based combat. Transportation such as rail and highway that existed at the end of the 20th century does not exist; movement by foot is the most common activity in the game. A huge crater in the world map ground limits the player's explorations and forces them to take underground routes, which appear in the guise of former subway tracks. Dungeons are explored in a 3D first-person perspective, except when players interact with a game within a game that consists of a single 2D overhead dungeon. There is an option to use an auto pilot feature when navigating 3D dungeons; however, there are many glitches and disruptions that occur under auto pilot, causing it to hang under certain conditions.

Combat is turn-based. Players have the choice to attack using guns, swords or magic, with the exception of the main character, who cannot use magic but can summon demon companions instead. In battle, a player may try to talk to a demon and choose how to behave. If the player is able to persuade the demon to join their party, they can be summoned by paying money; when demons are summoned, they consume a substance called magnetite for every step the player takes. If the player runs out of magnetite, the demons' health starts to decrease with each step.

Human characters gain experience points after battle. After enough experience points are gained, characters gain levels and the player can assign different stat points to make them stronger. On the other hand, demons do not receive experience points; the only way for demons to become stronger is by fusing two or three demons into a single, more powerful demon. This is done by visiting places called "Cathedral of Shadows".

Players can choose to save the game, unlike Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, which used a password system. When both the hero and his partners are dead, regardless of how many demons are still alive, the player receives a game over. The game over screen consists of the underworld ferryman Charon picking up their souls. The player can choose to revive by paying half his total money to Charon, who teleports them to the last saved location.

Plot

Setting and characters

In "199X", the world was bombarded with nuclear missiles that permanently reopened the dimensional rift between the demon world and the human world, which was closed after the events of Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II takes place 35 years after this attack, in the ruined wastelands of Tokyo, and, later on, in the demon world of Atziluth. Human survivors are forced to live in shelters in a post apocalyptic world, and those who venture outside risk being attacked by demons. Human interaction with demons creates two different cults: the Church of Messiah, which believes that God will send his Messiah to save mankind, and the Cult of Deva, which holds demon worshipping Sabbats and submits to the demons' will.

The game includes three human heroes: the main character, the Hero, is told that he is the Messiah that will save humanity from the demon invasions. He is joined by his best friend, who is fated to become a messiah as well. Later on, they meet a witch who refuses to accept her destiny to become a messiah and thinks this title is being used to manipulate the party into working for sinister forces. Supernatural beings that interact in the story include Pazuzu (パズズ Pazuzu), who is tasked by God with finding the Messiahs; Bael (バエル Baeru), Pazuzu's enemy who works against God's plans; Lucifer (ルシファー Rushifā), the main enemy from the previous game who was sealed by Akemi Nakajima (中島朱実 Nakajima Akemi) and Yumiko Shirasagi (白鷺弓子 Shirasagi Yumiko) in Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei; and YHVH, who aims to use the Messiahs to rid the world of demons.

Plot

The story begins with two young men in an underground shelter playing a video game called Devil Busters, which retells the opening events of Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. After being the game's boss, they release the demon Pazuzu, who claims that the two men are the Messiahs destined to be the saviors of mankind.[1] He grants the Hero the ability to summon and talk to demons, and his friend the gift of magic. Pazuzu gives them the mission of destroying the demon lords that have taken control of Tokyo, starting with Bael, the demon that sealed him inside Devil Busters. The heroes venture outside the shelter, and they are recognized as messiahs by the Church of Messiah. Upon reaching Tokyo Tower, however, the heroes find a witch who was also named a messiah by Pazuzu, but claims he has been manipulating them for his own gain. The friend refuses to believe that Pazuzu is using them. In order to progress in the story, the player has to side with the witch, causing the friend to leave and become his enemy.

The Messiah and the witch travel around Tokyo and defeat the warring demon lords that attempt to take control of the city, disbanding the Cult of Deva in the process, and eventually kill Pazuzu himself. Meanwhile, the hero's friend frees Lucifer from the seal placed upon him in the previous game. Eventually, the heroes reach Bael, who kills the hero's friend as he attempts to fulfill Pazuzu's will. The hero avenges his friend, and when he defeats Bael the demon turns into a tiny frog: the player can choose to kill the frog or take it with them. The Messians instruct the hero to use the Seven Pillars of Solomon, collected during his travels, at ground zero of the missile attacks in order to open a gateway to the demon world of Atziluth and defeat the demons once and for all.

Once in the demon world, the heroes travel through several areas and defeat the ruling demon overlords. If the heroes are carrying Bael with them, they can choose to restore him into his true form, the god Baal. The god Izanagi also asks the heroes to rescue the goddess Izanami, who has been killed by the demons. After defeating all the overlords and managing to revive Izanami, the gods help the heroes travel to Lucifer's castle. If Bael has been restored into Baal, Lucifer explains that the demons are actually ancient gods cast into hell by the One True God, who is using the party to defeat his enemies, destroy both worlds and create a paradise where mankind will be under his rule forever. Lucifer offers to help the player prevent God's plans, and claims that Satan, who was responsible for the nuclear war, must be dealt with.

The heroes then travel back to the human world to confront Satan. If they did not accept Lucifer's help and killed him instead, they defeat Satan and are then transported before YHVH, who turns them into gods and creates the Millennial Kingdom. If Lucifer is in their party, they have the chance to do battle with YHVH. After defeating the god, he warns them that he will revive in time, and that without his help they have chosen a difficult path. Lucifer then returns to Atziluth with all the demons, sealing the rift between worlds and leaving humans to rebuild and recover from the war on their own. As the Messiah leads the people of his home shelter to the outside world, he learns that Devil Busters was actually programmed by Akemi Nakajima, the previous game's protagonist.

Remake

In March 31, 1995, Atlus remade the Megami Tensei and Megami Tensei II were released in a single Super Famicom cartridge titled Kyūyaku Megami Tensei (旧約・女神転生 lit. Megami Tensei: The Old Testament, or The Goddess reincarnation of Old Testament ). It was released only in Japan. Atlus did not take too many liberties with the original gameplay. A few portions of the dungeons of the first game were redone, along with a new save game and teleportation terminal feature which previously did not exist. The graphics and music were enhanced to match the capabilities of the Super Famicom. Extra content can be unlocked in Megami Tensei II by beating Megami Tensei first and performing certain actions in that game. The auto pilot feature was also removed in the second game. The Super Famicom version was later re-released on the Virtual Console on July 3, 2012.

Reception

On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the game a 33 out of 40.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kalata, Kurt; Christopher J. Snelgrove. "Shin Megami Tensei". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  2. ↑ 30 Point Plus: デジタル・デビル物語 女神転生II. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.299. Pg.38. 9 September 1994.
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