Collection

When I think about Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga as a series, I don't just think about the fact they are two excellent JRPGs for their time. I think about that time as a whole. Early 2000's gaming was a time where the industry felt really confident in taking risks, yet I don't think another series comes to mind as much as Digital Devil Saga. It was a duology that was heavily centered around cannibalism, reincarnation, eastern philosophy, cyberpunk existentialism, and a cast that just wanted to feel truly human without struggle. It wasn't cheap shock material for the sole purpose of being shock material. It felt like a studio that threw every internal question they had about humanity, consciousness, faith, and survival into a hat and made all the ideas work properly without compromising for only one or two of them. More than twenty years later, the games feel pretty impossible to separate from the era in which they were born. Atlus was still filled to the brim with strange and uncompromising adventures for a handcrafted and specific audience that wasn't scared by friction. Digital Devil Saga possesses that energy in almost every part of its core design, whether it's atmosphere dripping with oppression and character or a soundtrack that haunts the player long after the credits eventually roll. It feels less like a game and more like a treasure from a time when developers didn't shy away from making players uncomfortable, as long as it meant preserving the core vision. One of the most unapologetically itself releases of all time. Becoming. Filed, preserved, and available whenever the archive calls for it. — D