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98-886: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga is a duology of role-playing video games developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2 . They are a spin-off of the Megami Tensei series. The first Digital Devil Saga was released in Japan in 2004, North America in 2005, and Europe in 2006. Its direct sequel, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 , released in 2005 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australasia . The games were published in Europe and Australasia by Ghostlight and in other regions by Atlus and its North American subsidiary Atlus USA . Digital Devil Saga follows

196-565: A European distribution team located in Sega Europe's offices in London that would publish all its games going forward. Jack Frost , who appears as a demon character in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, is the company mascot . Resembling a snowman , he has teeth, a tail and no nose, and wears a jester hat, collar, and shoes. His catchphrase is "Hee-Ho". He has appeared in several games in

294-476: A brand used by Index Corporation for video game publishing until 2013, when it was bought by Sega and revived as a company initially under the name Sega Dream Corporation. A North American branch of the company, originally Atlus USA and now Atlus West, was founded in 1991 in order to focus on publishing and localizing games for North America. A European branch, handled via the London-based Sega Europe,

392-418: A chance of causing the "freeze" and "stun" status, while Expel magic reduces an enemy's hit points by a certain percentage, and Death magic causes an instant kill. Status magic can inflict status effects on enemies. Each time a character's experience level raises, they receive stat boosts. While the protagonist can assign stat points at will, the other main characters each have certain specializations. Money

490-406: A character can learn is eight. If two or more characters equip a certain ability, they can perform a stronger version of it through a combo . Each character can learn abilities from one of four categories: Physical, Magic, Shield and Auto. The Digital Devil Saga games use a turn-based battle system, with three allied characters fighting in battle. Both player characters and enemies are governed by

588-501: A compelling title worthy of the Shin Megami Tensei moniker. RPGamer's Derek Cavin said that Digital Devil Saga "manages to be a good game, despite its flaws". Eurogamer 's Rob Fahey said that players expecting a traditional role-playing game would be disappointed, while stating that Digital Devil Saga delivered a generally positive impression while avoiding many cliches of the RPG genre. John McCarroll of RPGFan generally enjoyed his time with

686-439: A feeling of motion to contrast Nocturne . Makoto Kitano was responsible for creating 3D representations of the game's demons, A noted element was the design of Cerberus, which combined elements of the three-headed version first designed for Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and the shape of sharks . One of the additional challenges was the fact that it was the first Megami Tensei title to feature extensive voice acting, inspired by

784-520: A grown Fred acting as their caretaker. "[Atlus] took the mature storyline and themes from the main SMT games, and applied them to a more fantastic and "mainstream" RPG experience." —Tomm Hulett, Atlus USA Production on the initial Digital Devil Saga started prior to the beginning of active development on Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne in 2002. During production, it was known under

882-434: A half-transformed "berserk" mode, which increases attack power while locking away magic skills and lowering a character's defense. While battle is focused around strengthening characters' demon forms, they can also fight in their human forms using conventional weapons, and can equip ammunition. A human character can perform a combo with one in demon form. The magic system uses nine magic attributes. Ice and Lightning magic have

980-470: A mechanic called the Press Turn system: each character has a symbol representing a turn. The character can forfeit a turn to allow the next character an action; turns cannot be passed more than once. If an enemy's weakness is exploited or a character lands a critical hit, an extra turn is gained; if a character resists an attack, a turn is lost. In Digital Devil Saga 2 , characters will sometimes enter battle in

1078-618: A mobile role-playing game, was developed by Interactive Brains for mobile phones and published by Atlus and Bbmf through the Megaten α service. Using gameplay systems similar to the console games, the story is an original narrative set within the Digital Devil Saga universe: when Serph awakens in an enormous tower with no memories, he and the other Embryon must explore the towers with Sera's help to recover his memories. Atlus Atlus Co., Ltd. ( 株式会社アトラス , Kabushikigaisha Atorasu )

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1176-413: A narrative device. Whether the player is supposed to be the protagonist or is merely assuming control of an established character and whether the game allows the player freedom of choices that would be difficult to believably justify with spoken narrative influence this decision. Some have cited the 1993 game Myst as an example of a first person adventure where the main character is merely an avatar for

1274-591: A particular territory, and initially are devoid of emotions: the only common ground is a great tower at the Junkyard's center called the Karma Temple, which acts as a meeting place for all the tribe leaders. The following game is set on Earth, which has been devastated by a phenomenon known as the "Black Sun", a manifestation of God's anger. The survivors of humanity are ruled by the Karma Society. The main protagonists of

1372-458: A player in the game, with titles such as Half-Life 2 and franchises such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda frequently cited, while the protagonist's lack of communication has at times been noted as hindersome to plot development, as in one reviewer's comments on Grand Theft Auto III , or multiple accounts on the Crash Bandicoot franchise. Others have stated that real immersion in

1470-613: A popular form of entertainment among youths across East Asia , laying the foundations for modern selfie culture. It also introduced a large female demographic to the company's previously male-dominated arcade customer base. By 1996, it accounted for 70% of the company's revenue. By 1997, about 47,000 Purikura machines had been sold, earning Sega an estimated ¥25 billion ( £173 million ) or $ 283,000,000 (equivalent to $ 537,000,000 in 2023) annually from Purikura sales that year. Various other similar purikira machines appeared from other manufacturers, with Sega controlling about half of

1568-400: A representative of Atlus USA, the games' sales performances in 2005 were "absolutely fabulous". In Europe, it was stated by its publisher that the first game had sold above expectations in the region. Speaking in 2013, a Ghostlight representative said that the Digital Devil Saga duology had "met with great success" in Europe. Upon their re-release on PlayStation Network , the games appeared in

1666-472: A separate group of characters within the Junkyard. A five-volume light novels series titled Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner have been authored by Yu Godai in 2011. While she had left the project early, her contract with Atlus enabled her to write her own work based on the premise. The novels are Yu's alternate take on her own story, redone without any of the restrictions involved with a video game narrative. Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner: A's TEST Server ,

1764-503: A week earlier than originally scheduled. Both Digital Devil Saga games were published in Europe by Ghostlight. As the original version featured a cast of well-known anime voice actors, the Atlus USA localization team sought out well-known English voice actors for the dub, and took extra care with syncing the English dialogue with the original characters' lip movements. Digital Devil Saga was

1862-473: Is Sera's intersexual biological parent. In Digital Devil Saga 2 , two new main characters are introduced: Roland, the alcoholic leader of the Lokapala resistance group; and Madame Margot Cuvier, head of the Karma Society. All the main characters barring Cuvier become infected with the demon virus, a condition that causes them to turn into demonic beings and lust after human flesh. During a border skirmish between

1960-551: Is a Japanese video game developer , publisher , arcade manufacturer and distribution company based in Tokyo . A subsidiary of Sega , the company is known for video game series such as Megami Tensei , Persona , Etrian Odyssey , and Trauma Center , as well as Print Club (purikura) arcade machines . Its corporate mascot is Jack Frost, a snowman-like character from their Shin Megami Tensei series. Outside of video games,

2058-543: Is also dropped, which can be used to buy supplies from merchants. Atma is gained after each battle, but a greater amount is gained from eating enemies. If an enemy is "frightened", the amount of Atma is further increased. Characters can also be afflicted with a status ailment if they overeat. In Digital Devil Saga 2 , special Karma Ring items can be assigned to characters to grant stat boosts. Fitting different gems dropped from defeated enemies granting specific stat boosts and effects. Effects range from granting free status buffs on

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2156-464: Is distinct from the player. Game writer Marc Laidlaw , who worked on Half-Life and Portal (which also features a silent protagonist) with game developer Valve, stated that he did not recommend keeping protagonists silent due to the difficulties that arise during development, but noted that limiting oneself to a silent protagonist can lead to more creativity. Reception has varied widely according to its use, ranging from praise for its help immersing

2254-468: Is killed after going berserk. Later, the Embryon end up fighting Varin, who accuses Sera of being a monster before he dies. Sera regains her memories and runs to the Karma Temple with the Embryon in pursuit. There, Sera faces the human form of Angel, who threatens to delete the Junkyard with a computer virus if Sera does not return to the real world with her. The Embryon arrive and successfully fight Angel, but in

2352-434: Is their main form in battle. Characters navigate to-scale environments, fighting enemies in both random encounters and story-focused boss battles. After each battle, experience points are awarded to characters. Character abilities are governed by Mantra Grids, a system where Mantras are bought using the in-game currency Macca, then mastering them using Atma Points gained from defeated enemies. The maximum number of abilities that

2450-788: The Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as the Jack Bros. and Persona games. Jack Frost is a hidden character in the North American and Japanese versions of SBK: Snowboard Kids , with a larger role in the Japanese version. He has a family; more relatives were created since Shin Megami Tensei II , including King Frost, Jack-O-Lantern (Known as "Pyro Jack" in some localizations), Frost 5 Senshi, and Black Frost. Silent protagonist The earliest player characters in video games of

2548-743: The Trauma Center series. Atlus USA released Riviera: The Promised Land , a role-playing video game for the Game Boy Advance previously released for the Wonderswan Color , in 2004 in collaboration with Sting and Bandai . In 2006 Atlus USA and Sting released Yggdra Union , a strategy role-playing game (RPG) for the Game Boy Advance . After Working Designs' publication of Growlanser Generations , they released Growlanser: Heritage of War in 2005 and Growlanser Wayfarer of Time in 2012. The company established an online division, including

2646-427: The Digital Devil Saga duology are silent protagonist Serph ( サーフ , Sāfu ) , leader of the Embryon; and Sera ( セラ ) , a woman who can commune with God. The other Embryon are the kind Argilla ( アルジラ , Arujira ) ; the hot-tempered Heat ( ヒート , Hīto ) the light-hearted Cielo ( シエロ , Shiero ) ; and the highly logical Gale ( ゲイル , Geiru ) . The main antagonist is Angel ( エンジェル , Enjeru ) , who

2744-426: The Tokyo metropolitan area to Shinagawa-ku by January 2018. Their stated reasoning was to promote cooperation among companies and creation of more active interaction of personnel, while pursuing efficient group management by consolidating scattered head office functions of the group. Atlus is one of the companies that has relocated in response to this. Atlus currently has three internal development divisions inside

2842-708: The arcade industry in the 1990s by manufacturing its first arcade video game , BlaZeon , in 1992. In 1995, Atlus launched Print Club (purikura) at arcades in partnership with Sega . It is a photo sticker booth that produces selfie photos. It was conceived by Atlus employee Sasaki Miho in 1994; her bosses at Atlus were initially reluctant about the idea, before later deciding to go ahead with it. Atlus and Sega introduced Purikura in February 1995, initially at game arcades , before expanding to other popular culture locations such as fast food shops, train stations, karaoke establishments and bowling alleys. Purikura became

2940-468: The 1980s, including the likes of Mario , Metroid ' s Samus , and The Legend of Zelda ' s Link , were silent protagonists. Characters such as these may occasionally speak through text or audible words, but are otherwise limited to making gestures, inarticulate noises, or remaining entirely silent. The same was true for early role playing games . These games originated from pen and paper games such as Dungeons & Dragons and when put on

3038-525: The 1990s, Jack Bros. for Virtual Boy , Revelations: Persona for PlayStation and Revelations: The Demon Slayer for the Game Boy Color were the first three games in the series to have a North American release. The 2004 release of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was the first main-series video-game release in the U.S. Since then, the series has continued to be localized and released in

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - Misplaced Pages Continue

3136-685: The Atlus Online portal which is servicing Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent and Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine . On 31 March 2013, Index Digital Media's Atlus Online Division was purchased by Marvelous AQL and transferred to Xseed Games . Atlus USA has published games under the Marl Kingdom name, beginning with Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure in 2000. On 18 February 2014 Sega announced that Index Digital Media would revert its name back to Atlus USA. In March 2016, Sega announced that all

3234-479: The Atlus brand and Index Digital Media (Atlus USA), were transferred on 1 November 2013 to Sega Dream Corporation (a new subsidiary established on 5 September 2013). That day, Sega announced that it would change the name of Sega Dream Corporation to Index Corporation. On 18 February 2014, Sega announced the separation of Index Corporation's contents and solution businesses into a new subsidiary, Index Corporation, renaming

3332-433: The Atlus name during this period. In June 2013, it was reported that Index Corporation filed for civil rehabilitation proceedings, facing bankruptcy with debts of ¥24.5 billion. An Atlus USA spokesperson said that Index Digital Media and the Atlus brand were unaffected by the proceedings. On 18 September 2013, it was reported that Sega won a bid to acquire the bankrupt Index for ¥14 billion. All Index operations, including

3430-498: The Brutes' forces and Bat into a booby-trapped ship, killing them. During this time, the Wolves are subdued by the Brutes, whose leader Varin has awakened memories of a former life where he was known as "Colonel Beck", and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Angel to release him from the Junkyard. With help from the Wolves' deposed leader Lupa, the Embryon infiltrate the Brutes' castle, but Lupa

3528-482: The EGG so Sera can speak with God, they are confronted by Heat, who has fused with the EGG and gone berserk. Inside the EGG, Serph is met by a higher being calling itself Schrödinger , who reveals the truth about what happened. The Karma Society was founded to study God, who was losing faith in humanity due to their behavior. Sera was the only survivor of a group of children with the ability to communicate with God. To hide from

3626-629: The Embryon and the Vanguards, a demon virus is introduced that infects everyone in the Junkyard: branded with a mark representing their " Atma " and gradually awakening to basic emotions, the people of the Junkyard must devour their foes to satiate their demonic hunger or risk going berserk. Sera, a so-called cyber shaman, arrives suffering from amnesia and is taken in by the Embryon, revealing herself capable of calming their hunger with her singing. The Embryon first become conscious of their new powers when they meet

3724-399: The Embryon, a tribe who fights against five other tribes in a digital world called the Junkyard. After being infected with a demon virus that grants them demonic powers, the Embryon must fight with and devour the other tribes to ascend to "Nirvana". During the conflict, they shelter a woman named Sera, who has the power to calm their demonic powers. In Digital Devil Saga 2 , having escaped into

3822-406: The Karma Society headquarters. With the help of Roland and a young boy named Fred, the group infiltrate the Karma Society's building. While they attempt to rescue Serah, Angel plans to subvert Cuvier and use the demon virus to create a society ruled by the strong. The Embryon are also faced by Heat, who is working with Cuvier on the promise of Sera's safety. Reaching the EGG, a man-made replica of God,

3920-520: The Last Decade" list. Kurt Kalata, writing for 1UP.com in an article concerning the controversial content of the Megami Tensei series, made mention of Digital Devil Saga due to its examination of the ethics of eating others to survive. A manga spin-off of Digital Devil Saga titled Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner - Shinen no Matou was published in Japan in 2005 by Jive . The manga revolves around

4018-524: The Maribel as a means of defeating the stronger tribes. After gaining the trust of the Maribel's leader Jinana, they are betrayed by her second-in-command Bat, who allies with the Brutes along with the Solids' leader Mick. Jinana, having refused to eat as she needed to, goes berserk and must be killed. The Solids then capture Sera, leading the Embryon into a fight to the death against Mick. They also successfully trick

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - Misplaced Pages Continue

4116-823: The US, including games such as Persona 3 , Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army , and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey . Atlus West has localized cult classic Disgaea: Hour of Darkness , created by Nippon Ichi Software . The company have also published the tactical role-playing game Tactics Ogre and Game Boy Advance remakes of the Kunio-kun and Double Dragon games for Million (a company composed of former Technōs Japan employees). Other notable titles include Snowboard Kids and Snowboard Kids 2 (for Nintendo 64 ) and Odin Sphere and

4214-446: The acquisition of Atlus, effective on 30 October 2006, and purchased 7.7 million shares (54.93 percent; 77,000 votes, or 54.96 percent of the voting rights) on 20 November 2006. Atlus became an Index Holdings subsidiary on 29 November 2006. In March 2009, Atlus and Sting Entertainment announced a publishing partnership making Atlus the only publisher of Sting-developed games in Japan. On 17 September 2009, Index Holdings announced

4312-478: The characters gradually awoke to their emotions and the static environment of the Junkyard was drastically changed. The Junkyard was designed to emphasize the desperation of the characters during their awakening. The concept behind the demon transformations originated during the development of Shin Megami Tensei . Kaneko, who worked on Shin Megami Tensei , had wanted the game's Chaos Hero to regularly switch between his human and demon forms. The idea did not appear in

4410-558: The company is known for their Purikura arcade machines, which are selfie photo sticker booths popular in East Asia. Atlus was established in April 1986 and spent its early years as a video game developer for other companies. It became a video game publisher of its own in 1989 and existed until it was merged into Index Corporation in October 2010. After the dissolution, the Atlus name continued as

4508-621: The company responsible for the development of its titles: Atlus West (formerly known as Atlus U.S.A., Inc.) established in 1991 and based in Irvine, California , is the American subsidiary of Atlus and publishes games created by Atlus and other developers. It was formally called Index Digital Media from 2010 to 2014 in response to Atlus being dissolved into Index Corporation. A number of Megami Tensei games have not been released in North America. During

4606-580: The devastated real world, the Embryon are caught up in the fight against the Karma Society, who are intimately linked to the source of the disaster. The gameplay of both titles feature third-person navigation of playable characters around to-scale environments, and turn-based gameplay against demonic monsters and human enemies. Digital Devil Saga began development pre-2002 under the working title New Goddess . The game's concept and original draft were written by Japanese author Yu Godai , who collaborated with Atlus scriptwriter Tadashi Satomi until withdrawing from

4704-492: The end of 2004, the first game sold 153,421 units in Japan, coming in at the 81st best-selling title in Japan for that year. The second game sold 90,812 units in Japan by the end of 2005, becoming the 144th best-selling game for 2005. Digital Devil Saga did not manage to meet its projected sales targets in Japan, and contributed to the company's console division posting a substantial loss for the 2004/2005 financial year, resulting in several staff members being laid off. According to

4802-458: The entire experience on a single DVD: the amount of data was estimated to be two times that of Nocturne . The original story was written by Japanese novelist Yu Godai . She was contacted in 2000 by Atlus through her then-publisher Kadokawa Shoten about collaborating on a video game scenario, something entirely new to her. Her submitted proposal for Digital Devil Saga was accepted, and she temporarily moved to Tokyo to work with Atlus on refining

4900-433: The finished game, but eventually reemerged and became the base for Digital Devil Saga ' s gameplay. The game's character models were created based on development knowledge from Nocturne . Creating the models proved difficult due to the need to extensively use level of detail while staying true to Kaneko's distinctive designs. While Nocturne was defined by its "static" feel, the team wanted Digital Devil Saga to have

4998-401: The first Megami Tensei project to feature an extensive voice acting element. During localization, localization project manager Yu Namba made a spelling error during one of the early cutscenes where the name of Serph's demon form was shown: the demon's name was displayed as "Varna", when it was actually "Varuna". The error was not spotted until it was too late, and so remained in the game. One of

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5096-447: The first game being written by Kenichi Tsuchiya. While he had previously been restricted in his music quality by the limited storage space of the CD medium, Meguro was able to play half the tracks using real-time streaming . Using the software, Meguro was able to fit in high-quality music alongside the sound effects and voice track. Nevertheless, he needed to make some compromises on tracks. For

5194-406: The first game, Meguro made heavy use of guitar-based rock music , taking his inspiration from music of the 1960s and 70s. It was meant to represent the vicious new nature of the environment, and of how the main protagonists gradually awoke to their humanity. Tsuchiya was in charge of environmental tracks that deviated from the normal layout and feel of the Junkyard. The game's battle theme, "Hunting",

5292-418: The frequent reporting of natural disasters and outbreaks of diseases around the world. Another theme he incorporated was the inherent contradiction of wanting to avoid violence while being forced to fight others in order to survive. According to Satomi, while the first game's motif was "rain", the second game's was "sun". Itano returned to his role as storyboarder and movement choreographer. A large amount of work

5390-963: The future localized products from Atlus for North America will be published by Sega. Between 2019 and 2020, Atlus USA changed its public brand name to Atlus West. Until 2017, Atlus did not have a dedicated European division for publishing and distributing their titles within the European and Oceania region. Instead, many of Atlus' titles were published in these regions by Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) and its American division NIS America. Following Atlus's acquisition by Sega Sammy Holdings, NIS found that it became more difficult to work between Sega and Atlus for distribution and in April 2016, formally ended its distribution partnership with Atlus. In July 2016, Deep Silver announced that it had come to agreement to become Atlus' distributor for Europe and Oceania, and would begin to publish titles in both retail and digital form. In August 2017, Atlus announced that they had opened

5488-419: The game despite issues with camera control, praising the positive mixture of gameplay and story elements. Digital Devil Saga 2 received an even better reception: its aggregate scores from GameRankings and Metacritic were 83% and 83/100 respectively. While critics generally cited a necessity for knowledge of the first game, the story and gameplay were generally cited as an improvement over the original. Famitsu

5586-491: The game has inspired a mobile prequel, and Godai wrote a series of novels based on her original premise for the story. In the Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga role-playing games, players take control of the characters Serph, Heat, Argilla, Gale and Cielo, with the characters Sera and Roland becoming playable in Digital Devil Saga 2 . These characters are able to transform into a demon form, which

5684-537: The game shared many similarities with its predecessor, it was not as repetitive as other games such as the .hack series, and was still a good game. Masimilla said that Digital Devil Saga 2 had managed to realize the first game's storytelling ambitions, enjoying the experience despite noting some design flaws. Fahey said that the game was "everything that an excellent sequel should be", generally praising its mechanical and narrative improvements over Digital Devil Saga . Cavin said that it improved on nearly every aspect of

5782-556: The hardcore mechanics of the main series, positively noting the freedom of character customization. The reviewer for 1UP.com , despite missing the demon fusion systems from earlier Megami Tensei titles, thoroughly enjoyed the game, calling it "a great Final Fantasy alternative". Jeremy Dunham of IGN said that "Despite its repetition and unfinished storyline, [ Digital Devil Saga ] still has plenty to like", citing its plot and battle system. GameSpot 's Bethany Massimilla said that Digital Devil Saga ' s combat and world design made it

5880-529: The issue, Atlus established a management reform plan in 2001. In its restructuring efforts, Atlus sold two subsidiaries (one of them being Apies) to their respective employees as part of a management buyout . In October 2001, Atlus acquired Career Soft , and became the sole publisher of the Growlanser series: a real-time strategy role-playing game from the creators of the Langrisser series. In 2004, after

5978-468: The limitations he faced with the first game. Multiple theme songs were created for the games. The first game's opening theme, "Pray", was sung by Sera's voice actress Houko Kuwashima . "Pray" also formed the core musical theme for the games. For the North American version, the opening theme was changed to "Danger", composed by electronic band Etro Anime . The song, described as a "melancholy track",

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6076-415: The main characters' key colors would stand out. Serph, as the player character and silent protagonist, was given few personality traits and designed with a stern expression. The aspect that separated him from other silent protagonist within the Megami Tensei series was that his name was spoken by the other characters rather than chosen by the player. To emphasize the fact that the world of Digital Devil Saga

6174-466: The main characters' previous lives were incorporated into the first game. For Digital Devil Saga 2 , the team expanded upon the systems implemented in the first game. Due to extra features added, the team sometimes felt that they could not fit it all on a single disc. The main priority was to ensure smooth motion and a quick transfer into battles and cutscenes. The game's setting was inspired in Satomi's mind by

6272-418: The main concerns was to keep the characters' personalities intact when shifting from Japanese to English dialogue: a cited example of how this change was accomplished was Cielo, who was given a Jamaican accent to express the character's easy-going and friendly personality. After the release of Nocturne , the " Shin Megami Tensei " moniker was attached to the Digital Devil Saga games to help with marketing. By

6370-602: The market in 1997. Print Club went on to generate over $ 1 billion in sales for Atlus and Sega. Atlus entered the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1997, listing on the JASDAQ . In its goal to further increase its presence in the amusement industry, Atlus acquired the manufacturer Apies from Yubis Corporation in 1999. In 2000, Atlus formed a joint venture with Kadokawa Shoten to distribute and sell games. Atlus suffered from deficit financial results in both 1999 and 2000. To address

6468-500: The merger, Index Holdings would continue to operate the Atlus brand. Although fans were concerned about the company's future, CEO Shinichi Suzuki said that Atlus would continue to provide the "finest quality game experiences possible" and the merger "further strengthens the foundation of Atlus, both in Japan and here in the United States." On 9 November 2010 Index Holdings announced its renaming to Index Corporation , to be confirmed at

6566-454: The need to fully express the game's themes and story. Before the official voice actors were cast, Atlus staff provided the characters' voices. Due to the wish to appeal to a wider audience than previous Megami Tensei games, the proposed amount of violence and graphic imagery was cut down. The music for Digital Devil Saga was composed by Shoji Meguro , who had previously worked on multiple Megami Tensei games, with some additional tracks for

6664-483: The old Index Corporation and its remaining digital game business division to Atlus effective 1 April 2014. The new Atlus would include the foreign subsidiary, Index Digital Media, which would revert its name back to Atlus USA at the establishment of the new Atlus. In April 2017, Sega Sammy Holdings announced a relocation of head office functions of the Sega Sammy Group and its major domestic subsidiaries located in

6762-415: The original game, recommending it to players of RPGs. McCarroll said "[ Digital Devil Saga 2 ] is easily the finest game I've had a chance to play this year and stands to be one of the great games of this generation". In its reviews, RPGFan named both Digital Devil Saga games as "Editor's Choice". In 2011, Digital Devil Saga and its sequel Digital Devil Saga 2 ended up topping the site's "Top 20 RPGs of

6860-462: The pain of the experiments, Sera created an artificial environment populated by benign versions of Karma Society staff: this environment was redesigned to become the Junkyard and the artificial beings would become its five tribes. The original Serph manipulated Sera and his team for his own ends while the original Heat attempted to protect her. When Sera saw Serph killing Heat while linked to the EGG, God felt her pain and attacked Earth. The original Serph

6958-501: The party rescue Sera, but Heat appears and seems to kill Serph. Both fall into the EGG, and God begins absorbing the Earth's data: in the chaos, Angel kills Cuvier, while the remaining Embryon and Sera, now able to assume a demon form herself, shut down the Power Plant in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the EGG. In the process, both Roland and Argilla are killed by a powerful demon. Returning to

7056-461: The player party to casting ailments on enemies. Importing save data from the first game enables some skills and abilities learned during the first game to be transferred to the characters that learned them. The first Digital Devil Saga takes place in the Junkyard, a combat simulator program where it always rains. Throughout the story, a conflict takes place between six tribes: the Embryon, Vanguards, Solids, Maribel, Brutes and Wolves. Each tribe holds

7154-464: The player's choices and dialogue would not be needed or helpful. The 2001 game Grand Theft Auto III has no dialogue for its protagonist, Claude, as is common for games of its time, and this allows players of many backgrounds and personalities to identify with the character they control in the game's open world environment. In the Half-Life series , the protagonist is the silent Gordon Freeman , but

7252-461: The process release the computer virus. The Embryon, Sera and Angel only just escape as the Junkyard is destroyed. In Digital Devil Saga 2 , the Embryon appear in the real world, which is slowly being destroyed by the Black Sun: the only ones able to survive the sun's rays are those infected with the demon virus. Serph, Cielo, Argilla and Gale learn that Sera is the captive of Angel and Madame Cuvier at

7350-432: The project for health issues. The gameplay concept of characters transforming into demons was based on an unused idea for Shin Megami Tensei . The second game began development immediately after the first, with the main development effort going into refining and improving the gameplay. While their commercial performances varied, both games were heavily praised by critics for their story, graphics and gameplay. Since release,

7448-525: The project. During her time on the project, she collaborated with Tadashi Satomi, who had previously written scripts for the first three Persona games. Godai wrote her outline on the basis that both books and video games had stories broken into chapters, writing up the story up to the first boss battle in short story form to get a sense of the narrative and lore. Ultimately, due to a number of factors including health problems and disliking living in Tokyo, Godai left

7546-432: The project. Satomi's role as story writer for the duology necessitated discussions with other teams assigned to the game. Due to characters having dialogue in the field, the team needed to have extensive notes prepared. Production of Digital Devil Saga 2 began immediately after the release of the first game. To tease it prior to its official announcement, a large number of unfinished plot threads and vague hints relating to

7644-553: The release of Growlanser IV , the majority of Career Soft's staff was merged into the main development team of Atlus where they worked on the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor games. As a developer brand, Career Soft was eventually dissolved. In October 2003, Japanese toy company Takara (with a controlling interest under Konami ) acquired Atlus. Takara's video game business was also transferred over to Atlus. On 21 November 2006, Index Holdings announced

7742-411: The screen, did not require any spoken dialogue, since the games' plot and mechanics were all picture and motion based. Players are expected to put themselves into the role of the silent hero, and since the player does not talk in the game, neither does their on-screen avatar. Many early videogames made use of a silent protagonist out of utility, because of technology, time, or budget limitations, or as

7840-405: The separation of Atlus' amusement facility and related business into a subsidiary, New Entertainment Waves, effective on 1 December. One hundred seventy-two shares of the subsidiary's stock were also transferred to Chushoukigyou Leisure on 1 December. On 30 August 2010, Index Holdings announced its merger with Atlus, with Index Holdings being the surviving company, effective on 1 October. After

7938-424: The shareholders meeting on 25 November 2010 and effective on 1 December. From 2010 to 2013, Atlus, as a company, ceased to exist and its name became a brand of Index Corporation for video games in Japan. However, Atlus USA remained active and was renamed Index Digital Media, serving as the North American subsidiary for Index Corporation. Much like in Japan, video games continued to be released in that region under

8036-418: The sun—the physical manifestation of God—and merges into a new being called Seraph. Aided by the data avatars of the Embryon, Seraph fights God's avatar to prove humanity's worth. Upon victory, Seraph achieves enlightenment and travels with Schrödinger to new worlds, while God restores the sun and Earth. At the game's end, it is shown that the Embryon, Angel, and aspects of Sera and Serph have reincarnated, with

8134-471: The surviving Vanguards: during their time there, they are forced to kill the Vanguards' leader Harley. Serph is then summoned to the Karma Temple along with the surviving tribe leaders. Once they are assembled there, a female being calling itself Angel orders the tribes to conquer their neighbors and ascend the Temple's tower to " Nirvana ", bringing Sera as proof of their achievements. The Embryon decide to ally with

8232-418: The top ten rankings in North America and Europe. Digital Devil Saga received positive critical reception: aggregate sites GameRankings and Metacritic show ratings of 80% and 78/100 respectively. General praise went to the story, characters and gameplay. The high difficulty, issues with repetition and pacing, and the cliffhanger ending drew criticism. Famitsu cited the game's significant shift away from

8330-453: The west at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo for release in the winter of that year. It was subsequently delayed into 2005, and a deluxe edition which would include a box for containing both Digital Devil Saga games was announced as a consolation. The second game's release window was officially announced at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo , to be published in North America by Atlus USA . The game arrived in stores in North America

8428-405: The working title New Goddess . The project was formed in part to make the Megami Tensei series accessible to a broader audience while staying true to its roots. The games were directed by Katsura Hashino, a new director who had worked in lesser roles in previous Megami Tensei titles. The design director was Makoto Kitano, while the movie director was Ichiroh Itano, a noted anime director. Itano

8526-436: Was again fairly positive, enjoying the story and characters, while also noting the accommodations for first-time players. Dengeki PlayStation was highly positive about the game, praising its story and gameplay additions, though saying that the two games were a little too similar, and that people who had not played the first game would be confused by the story and character relations. 1UP.com's Shane Bettenhausen said that while

8624-408: Was designed around a specific elemental theme, which both flowed into the gameplay and matched an individual's personality: an example of this is Heat, who has an angry personality and uses Fire as his primary element. Kaneko was the first to propose the game's concept, which was then worked on by other staff members. The initial game's themes were defined as "awakening" and "change", referenced in how

8722-415: Was designed to blend with the constant rain of the Junkyard. The opening theme for Digital Devil Saga 2 was "Alive": it was written by Meguro, sung by Kayoko Momota, and had backing vocals by Yumi Kawamura. The ending theme song is "Time Capsule" by Japanese singer-songwriter As. The song was used in television commercials advertising the game in Japan, and was the singer's debut single. Digital Devil Saga

8820-400: Was done to refine the gameplay experience, such as opening up the character customization system. The team used player feedback from the first game's systems to make their adjustments. For both games, Atlus received additional development support for artwork assets from Kusanagi Corporation. The character and demon designs were done by regular series artist Kazuma Kaneko . At the start, Kaneko

8918-471: Was first announced in the Japanese director's cut version of Nocturne in February 2004. The game's formal title had only been decided upon shortly before its reveal. As part of the game's promotion in Japan, entertainer and model Mayuko Iwasa appeared in live-action advertisements in the role of Sera, and promoted the game at events. An eight- megabyte PlayStation 2 memory card was sold that featured artwork of Serph and his demon form. Digital Devil Saga 2

9016-608: Was founded in 2017. Atlus began on 7 April 1986 as a video game developer of computer games for other companies. In January 1987, Atlus started selling amusement equipment. It expanded into the sale of karaoke equipment in March 1989. Atlus released the first video game under its own name in 1989: Puzzle Boy for the Game Boy . Prior to this, earlier Atlus video games were published by other companies, such as Namco and Hudson Soft in Japan and LJN in North America. Atlus started in

9114-401: Was given the instruction to give the characters tribal uniforms instead of normal clothes, and an Atma tattoo somewhere on their body to signify their demon power. The uniforms signified their eternal conflict within the Junkyard. To help bring individuality to the main characters, Kaneko create slight variations in them, such as giving them hoods or capes. The grey tribal uniforms were created so

9212-417: Was officially announced at the 2004 Tokyo Game Show . To promote Digital Devil Saga 2 , a special DVD containing selected music tracks and movie material was created as an over-the-counter giveaway for the initial print of the game. Both Digital Devil Saga games were re-released by Atlus in 2006 as part of their "Atlus Best Collection" budget release series. Digital Devil Saga was officially announced for

9310-477: Was originally going to be the boss theme, but its instrumentation was considered to be wrong and so it was changed to the normal battle theme. For the second game, Meguro changed the original's dark tone to give it a harsher feel and techno instrumentation, reflecting the state of the real world and clashing with the views of the main characters. He also reached out to an external firm to help with fitting in more complicated tracks with less loops, getting around some of

9408-456: Was overwhelmed by a flood of data and became a demon before being killed. Now knowing the truth, Serph escapes from the EGG, killing Heat in the process. Sera then decides to head for a secondary Karma facility to communicate with God: on the way, Gale dies while killing Angel, and Cielo sacrifices himself so Sera and Serph can reach the transmission site. As Sera begins transmission, the base is destroyed, killing her and Serph. Their data travels to

9506-499: Was responsible for storyboarding and character movement choreography. The team was divided into multiple divisions, each in charge of different aspects of the game's design. The battle system was taken from that used in Nocturne , but with elements added to both differentiate it from other Megami Tensei games and incorporate the game's themes. During development of Digital Devil Saga , the team were faced with repeated problems with fitting

9604-515: Was unlike the typical setting for Megami Tensei titles, he gave all the characters hair and eye colors that would be naturally impossible in the real world. The only one not to have a strange hair color was Sera, signifying her unique status. The characters' demon forms were designed to be animal-like, signifying their urge to eat. They were given prominent mouths as demons, as the idea was that they would eat their foes when in demon form. Their eyes were removed as they stood out too much. Each character

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