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Digital Devil Saga 1
Nov. 7th, 2010 07:38 pmAfter digging through my PS2 games, I took this out and started playing again, and figured I might as well talk about why I love this game.
DDS1 is a classic console JRPG- you've got random encounters (eh), turn based battles (with a twist, more on that in a sec) and crazy monsters to fight. Unlike a lot of JRPGs, this one is a dystopian sci-fi game.
Setting
The game takes place in The Junkyard, a ruined city under constant rainfall, which looks halfway like a futuristic city and half like Indian temples, mashed together in a delicious architecture well worthy of steampunk. "Tribes" of warriors fight each other for control, as directed by the "Karma Temple".
When you first start playing, it's very alien in that the setting never gets a massive exposition of how it exists or why. What starts off seeming like incongruities you'd chalk up to videogame logic and poor depiction (Why are there no children? Why are there no old folks? Why do people talk this way? How is this even a "society"?), as you dig deeper, you find out increasingly that all of these things actually are deliberate choices to show how jacked up the dystopia actually is.
The big hoohah you get hit with in the first 5 minutes of the game is that the crazy war-society is altered drastically when a strange energy wave starts causing people to transform into monsters - including your heroes. The monsters have powers and abilities... and eat other monsters for power.
So, Hindu themes and terminology, and a big thematic dose of Buddhist "Demon Realm" imagery for you.
( And then I talk about gameplay )
DDS1 is a classic console JRPG- you've got random encounters (eh), turn based battles (with a twist, more on that in a sec) and crazy monsters to fight. Unlike a lot of JRPGs, this one is a dystopian sci-fi game.
Setting
The game takes place in The Junkyard, a ruined city under constant rainfall, which looks halfway like a futuristic city and half like Indian temples, mashed together in a delicious architecture well worthy of steampunk. "Tribes" of warriors fight each other for control, as directed by the "Karma Temple".
When you first start playing, it's very alien in that the setting never gets a massive exposition of how it exists or why. What starts off seeming like incongruities you'd chalk up to videogame logic and poor depiction (Why are there no children? Why are there no old folks? Why do people talk this way? How is this even a "society"?), as you dig deeper, you find out increasingly that all of these things actually are deliberate choices to show how jacked up the dystopia actually is.
The big hoohah you get hit with in the first 5 minutes of the game is that the crazy war-society is altered drastically when a strange energy wave starts causing people to transform into monsters - including your heroes. The monsters have powers and abilities... and eat other monsters for power.
So, Hindu themes and terminology, and a big thematic dose of Buddhist "Demon Realm" imagery for you.
( And then I talk about gameplay )
