Devil Summoner 2 – RPG Action for PS2 Hitting Tomorrow

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Hello assembled humans of the official PlayStation blog.

My designation is AtlusA.R.A.M. (Atlus advertising, resources, and marketing). My role, aside from peripheral computations pertaining to taking over the world, is to inform others about the great video games coming soon from Atlus USA, famed publisher of roleplaying games like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Persona 3 FES, and Persona 4.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, one of our biggest games (and game names) of the year, comes out tomorrow for PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system.

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The second game in the Devil Summoner series to make its way to North America, Devil Summoner 2 continues the tradition, putting you in the shoes of Raidou Kuzunoha, a supernatural private investigator in 1920’s Japan. The world design and character art soaks the game with early 20th century style, and lends a great deal of credibility and authenticity to the story. The Shin Megami Tensei series itself, if you’re unfamiliar, is a franchise of deep, thought-provoking, character-driven RPGs, known for its powerful visual design, music, and writing.

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As for the story, who better to tell you what it’s about than the game’s lead human editor, Nich Maragos (who also worked on Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army):

“It’s about the 14th chosen protector of the Capital and his journey to discover a mysterious man’s whereabouts. It’s about a client who never quite tells you the whole story, and finding out the truth the hard way. It’s about the struggle between the supernatural and the mundane, the modern and the traditional. It’s about ninjas, flappers, bugs, hillbillies, demons, luck, detectives, and a talking cat. It’s about the choice between upholding the law and upending the system. And it’s about you.”

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One of the most important components of what makes RPGs engaging, entertaining, and playable, is the quality of the writing and how effectively characters are developed therein; in short, the consistency and flow of the script.

Here is some additional insight from human editor Nich Maragos:

“There’s nothing I like more than a good dialect, and just like Devil Summoner 2 gives fans twice as many demons to play with in battle, so too did it give we at Atlus USA twice as many dialects to play with in the editing. On top of the 20s-era patois from the first game, Devil Summoner 2 puts Raidou and his crew in the backwoods of Japan, where they meet a whole cast of good country folks. Think Deliverance, but nastier in the way that only a large dollop of demonic influence can achieve.”

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Devil Summoner 2, unlike most SMT games, is an action RPG, one that greatly rewards players who plan out their battles. Your character has standard and special attacks, in addition to the ability to summon demons.

You will face other demons in battle, and they can, based on certain factors, be recruited into your services. Depending on the type of demon (i.e. their disposition), your level in reference to theirs, and other variables, you will be able to negotiate with them. This begins a rather entertaining dialogue chain in which you must anticipate what the demon will want to hear, what will aggravate and anger them, and ultimately, what will get them to want to join your party. You can even use the demons in your party to help in negotiation; some have special abilities that can save a negotiation that is getting out of hand. Newly acquired demons can be fused together with others to discover all new rare demons, adding yet another layer of depth.

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Why should you purchase this game, human? Because it most certainly will be one of the best RPGs to be released for PS2 system this year? Yes. Because it stands apart from its competitors in terms of the caliber of its localization, writing, art, music, and gameplay? Yes. Because it improves dramatically over its predecessor, introducing new gameplay elements, refined combat, demon negotiation, and more? Yes.

There is one last reason, one I would be happy to explain to you endlessly with my monotone synthesized voice, but my programming indicates that showing you will be most effective.

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Each and every launch copy of Devil Summoner 2 is a premium, deluxe, limited edition box set. Included with every copy of the game is Raiho, an adorable plushie you can hold tightly to your soft mortal bodies. How sad it would be for you to be the only child or man-child on your block to not have this wonderful collectible.

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Please visit the official game website for more information about the game, and look for SMT: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon to hit a retailer near you on May 12th with an MSRP of $39.99 (yes, that’s for both the game AND Raiho, not to mention the beautiful packaging). Should you wish to possess a Raiho plushie to have and to hold, it is advised that you do not delay.

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104 Comments

1 Author Reply

  • Looks like a sweet RPG

  • Might pick this up, I’m a huge RPG fan, but might wait for next weeks Cross Edge, I got a 60gb(now 360gb) Ps3 so I can play both if I wanted, btw the release date is my b day :D

    • Happy Upcoming Devil Summoning Birthday.

      I\’m just going to try and gently influence your decision by pointing out that the Collector\’s Box that contains the plush doll is limited. So if you wait to pick the game later, you\’re more than likely going to miss out on the extra goodies. (Which is what happened when we produced the Teddie plushies for Persona 4.)

  • ThePerfectMurder

    Lets make that PS3

  • I wish my PS3 was BC because my PS2 gave out many moons ago.

  • Get these poor souls a PS3 dev kit, PLEASE!

  • awww i want the stuffed toy but i would have no use for the game because i couldn’t play it anyway.

  • too bad it’s not for ps3, oh well…good thing i got backwards capatability:)

  • Seems like it would be a cool addition to the PSP library! :)

    Still, looks very cool! Thanks for the news Aram!

  • Awesome if it works on the 80GB BC ps3 i will buy this. it looks like Persona 4 and Persona 3. im buying this, thanks :)

  • After hearing about Atlus and their games and wondering what all the fuss was about I finally picked up Persona 3 FES and Persona 4.

    Oh my god are they good. So completely different than anything most US gamers are use to playing.

    This will be perfect for my 60gig, but it will have to wait in line behind:

    P3 FES
    P4
    Disgaea 1,2, and 3
    And the rest of Valkyria Chronicles

    And thank god I havn’t picked up Demon’s Souls yet from PlayAsia.com…

    Even if I didn’t have a job and never slept I still wouldn’t be able to keep up with the INSANE Sony game releases for the PS3 BluRay, PSN titles every week or two,PSP, PS2, and PS1 downloads.

  • Glad to see the PS2 is still going strong! That’s why I stick to PlayStation, always good for 10 years AT LEAST!

    Awesome collectors box set!

    • Only the front of the Collector\’s Box is shown there, but another cool little bonus is that all of the Collector\’s Boxes are individually numbered for extra-rareness.

  • While that’s all well-and-good, I think it’s time to move onto the PS3.

    Next-gen RPGs are few and far between. Luckily this year it’s picking up, and I hope to see the trend continue into 2010.

  • Backwards compatibility needs to be added to Every PS3

  • So… sony removed the BC feature…

    Then continues to allow companies to put out PS2 games without a PS3 version? It really doesn’t affect me since I have a launch console, but seriously… bad idea here.

  • atlus in the house woot! XD

  • More HD games Atlus… You’re devs have such aristic talent, I’d love to see in HD… I can’t even imagine what they might be like at the end of the generation.

  • *Smacks on the head*, silly me, how could I’ve forgotten about Devil Summoner :-) Looks like I’m gonna get the American version :-)

    Say um Atlus, any chance we’ll be getting Persona 5 on the PS3 “EXCLUSIVE” anytime soon? pretty, pretty, pppplease?!

  • sorry for the double post. but, could atlus bring an rpg for the ps3 called “record of agarest senki”..i would really be happy about this, since nobody else seems to want to pick this up (looking at you nisa!)

  • @14
    yeah terrible idea, there’s only about 50 millions ps2s out their, btw do you need to have played the first devil summoner to enjoy this game or is it like persona 3 and 4 where the stories are not connected, I’ve had a hard time finding the first devil summoner on store shelves

    • Although the characters from the first game do return, the storylines are unconnected. If you\’ve played the first one, you\’ll recognize a couple jokes and references here and there, but it\’s not necessary to understand anything else.

  • I love you Atlus <3

  • PS2? No thanks. I didn’t buy a PS3 to play PS2 games.

  • PS2?
    Next Gen Fail

  • Looks great, might pick it up.

    Hopefully Gamestop has it. :)

  • PS2 is still alive?! omg

  • I love the games that Atlus brings over. Will this game have 16:9 support? This is one of the few reasons I would not buy a PS2 RPG at this point.

  • This blog is for PS2, PSP and PS3 owners…not every post on here has to be for PS3 non BC owners.

    Sheeesh.

    Thanks Atlus for bringing this over to NA.

    • It was a pleasure bringing it over! The Devil Summoner games are tons of fun to work on from an editor\’s point of view, hope you have as much fun playing it.

  • As much as I love PS2, Sony and Devs need to let go of this system and start supporting the PS3 in a larger capacity. The PS2 is not the console of today or the future. The PS3 needs moar RPG’s plz tnx…

  • Everyone that is whining that its not on PS3, stfu. Seriously, this is a PS2 game, sorry the world doesn’t cater to your needs.

    This is a port of a PS2 game for a niche market, not like you’d be interested in the game anyway, doesn’t have trophies.

  • @28
    Not true, I love me some old skool PS2 games, and I have a launch 60GB B/C capable PS3 to play them on as well. I just think that Sony should simply focus on it’s newest console which right now is the PS3 more and that Sony/Devs should focus on getting some good RPG’s for it…rather than an older system….that is all I am saying…..love my opinion or leave it….enough said….

  • Cool, I wasn’t aware of this game existence. Then after hearing about it here, I checked youtube for some gameplay videos (your site doesn’t have anything in the videos section) I’ve decided to buy it. Action Rpg is my favorite genre you know, plus I loved Persona 3:fes.

  • Atlus, I like how you bring RPGs to America. It looks like RPGs genre is growing in this country and Europe also. I wonder if your Branch in Japan may return the favor for US like maybe license and localize Western FPS and Third-person Shooter in Japan. You know the game F.E.A.R never had a Japanese release (that game I think Japanese audience would like).

  • all you haters blaming sony should know that atlus is a 3rd party, so if you want to cry to anyone go and cry to atlus for still making great games and keeping the greatest console ever still alive

  • Prem-aka-Prince

    Uhm…hopefully coming to UK before the end of the year…? :)

  • Atlus – You are the best JRPG developer this gen! Persona 3 FES and Person 4 proved that noone can compete with gods of genre. i am glad that you, guys, support PS2 with such great titles and i will be picking Devil Summoner 2. i hope the game will play on my PS3 just as good as Persona games did.

    Big Love Atlus!

    • If Persona 3/4 worked on your PS3, you shouldn\’t have any problems with Devil Summoner 2. Just remember to keep multiple save files!

  • We all love and have loved the PS2 to pieces. We have enjoyed it this long because of the amazing games, especially RPGs that Japanese devs like Atlus have brought us.

    We just feel slighted that the PS3 will never attain that level of quality as long as it’s ignored by the same people who made PS2 great.

  • SONY: Would be interested in maybe playing this and Persona 4, but oh yea my PS3 has no backwards compatibility with PS2 and you geniuses lost almost all of the RPG market to 360.

    Hopefully Cross Edge will be good regardless of it’s last gen graphics.

  • jrpgs all suck on current gen consoles, take a look at the 360 and their not doing much better, next gen does not mean better quality, if all you care about is the graphics that’s your loss, if your a rpg fan the ps2 is still the way to go, just cause it’s 10 years old doesn’t mean it’s gotten worse, it’s still the same ps2 you knew and loved so I don’t understand why people are so offended by developers going ps2 route when it’s cheaper and more people own it

  • The PS2 hasn’t changed. My TV has. As a result, the visuals the PS2 produces have changed dramatically for the worse.

  • nice.. too bad my current ps3 isnt backward compatible. i used to have 2 backward compatible ps3’s but my apartment was robbed last december.

    had to get rid of all my ps2 games as my new ps3 doesnt play ps2 games.

    i really dont get why some of these games arent made for ps2 and ps3. i never got a chance to finish persona 3 or indigo prophecy.

    if sony wants to keep the gamers happy and lock in their rpg gamers they should invest in helping ps2 developers learn the ps3 or do the port work for them. something. anything.

    ahh why do i bother.

  • I think more gamers would actually be happy if atlus keeps working on the ps2 then moving to the ps3, a majority of the people I know who play atlus games own a ps2 and not a ps3, what this blog has been full of the most is people who just want to see more ps3 rpgs and not people who have actually played a megaten game before

  • Does this game have Japanese VO with English subtitles?

    • Ssssort of! All the battle cries and whatnot are the same as they were in Japanese, and there wasn\’t any voiced dialogue in the main storyline. So in that sense, yes, it has Japanese VO in battles and all the text is in English.

  • Interesting coverage – probably wouldn’t have seen this anywhere else or read the article. But I got love for the PS Blog crew. Thx for the diverse coverage.

  • So what’s this mythical PS2 your all talking aobut? :P

  • Atlus has overtaken Square-Enix as the new JRPG King. :)

    What ever happened to the PS3 exclusive they were working on? We want Persona or a new Shin Megami Tensei title for PS3, we’re begging you!

  • I look forward to downloading this to my PSP 2 in about 10 years.

  • PS2 still is king!!! But I’m still way to busy on my PS3 and PSP may pick it up later as greatest hit. I wonder why this didn’t go to PSN? I know it’s PS2 only but come on PS3 can handle it. :)

  • More Jack Frost please.

  • @10 TerryVSL

    I am in your same situation, buddy. I have an ever growing backlog of games (including finishing Persona 3 FES, finishing valkyria chronicles, playing Persona 4, Finishing MGS4, etc.). So many games, so little time.

    On another note, I understand that people want lots of good quality RPGs for their PS3. However, there are lots of great benefits to making PS2 games including: short development time (as in several games a year), lower development costs (leading to cheaper games), and huge install base (seriously, who doesn’t have a PS2?).

  • @10

    Persona 3 and 4 are one thing….but all three Disgaeas??? I assume you only mean the main story quest? Otherwise you might never play this game lol

  • “My role, aside from peripheral computations pertaining to taking over the world” XD Love it! Loved Persona 3. One of the best games I’ve ever played, really. I would like to see you guys move up to the PS3, but having you on our side through means of a previous generation is better than not having you with us at all. Just keep on making great games and you’ll be cool with me. :)

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