Record Breaker is finally here, and it was worth the wait
If you’ve ever wanted to experience Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 or wondered what happened to its colorful cast of demon tamers after the credits rolled, now is the time.
Atlus is about to unleash Record Breaker, a new version of the 2012 tactical role-playing game that not only improves the title, but expands upon it with a new arc that advances the story.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker (3DS)
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus
Released: May 5, 2015 (NA), Fall 2015 (EU)
MSRP: $49.99
Tokyo is in shambles. Earthquakes have ravaged the city, knocking out all lines of communication, derailing trains, and flattening entire buildings. There are fires, riots, refugee camps, oh, and an army of demons that threaten humanity’s continued survival. Enter a band of plucky teens with demons of their own to save the day and stave off the apocalypse.
That’s the lead-in to the “Septentriones Arc,” the main story from the original Devil Survivor 2, which is now accompanied by a second campaign called the “Triangulum Arc.” The epilogue picks up right where the first part leaves off, leaving our heroes to deal with a new threat.
The continuation isn’t quite a full-blown sequel so much as it’s a sizable expansion, one that should keep you busy for an extra couple dozen hours on top of the base game. Thankfully, the Triangulum Arc is available from the get-go; so if you’ve already played through the main story and just want to see the new content, you needn’t start from square one.
Of course, newcomers will want to begin with the Septentriones Arc. Despite including a quick refresher at the outset of the journey, the new campaign likely won’t make much sense to neophytes jumping into the narrative in media res.
In addition to the new campaign, Atlus has put in the effort to upgrade the overall experience. After doing a side-by-side comparison with the original game, Record Breaker‘s music really caught my ear. The soundsmiths at Atlus really cleaned up the audio quality, making it sound way more crisp and clear while eliminating a scratchy, fuzzy quality that mars the DS release.
On top of the enhanced sound quality, the team at Atlus USA went ahead re-localized the entire script and kitted it out with full English voiceover, which is a massive improvement over the text-only original. Being able to hear the cast goes a long way to helping flesh out these characters, especially given how lively and rich many of their performances are.
The visuals are also a shade nicer. Again, looking at the games side-by-side, I noticed Record Breaker looks a tad sharper and features slightly more vivid colors. The camera perspective in battle has also been pulled back, which make the sprites appear less chunky.
One of the major complaints a lot of folks seemed to have with Devil Survivor 2 when it launched in 2012 was the difficulty. In our review, Dale North said “the first game’s difficulty bar was already set pretty high, but Atlus has turned it up even higher in this sequel with battles that are so difficult that [he] came dangerously close to snapping [his] DS in half.” This time around there are multiple difficulty settings, which hopefully should help you keep your system intact.
At its core, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker is still a satisfying fusion of classic “MegaTen” and strategy gameplay. And with the new story content and other additions and enhancements, this is definitely the best version of the game. Whether it’s enough to warrant a second purchase is debatable, but given a choice between the two, this is without question the one to get.
Published: May 4, 2015 10:00 am