Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

Now this is a job system.

Okay, so SMT: Digital Devil Saga's level up system isn't quite a job system. It's more like a Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy X Magicite/Sphere Grid fusion.

Which is everything I want in the world, turns out.

So when you win a battle in DDS, you gain experience for your characters, which allows them to level up and boost their stats. You also gain "Atma Points," which level up your "Mantra," which are basically Magicites that teach your characters new moves. Where the sphere grid comes in is the progression that you move between "Mantra." You can see the entire board from the very start, although you can't see specifically what each node teaches you. But, you can figure it out, because all the first nodes in each category are available from the start - the fire node starts with the weakest fire attack, the ice node starts with the weakest ice attack, etc. Once you "master" a particular Mantra, the next node in the category becomes available. To start learning a new node, you have to a pay a fee of Macca (in game currency also won from battles).

If you're worried about not being able to afford a new node, I don't know if that is ever really a problem. I'm grinding quite a bit, but I've never run into a problem with Macca, and don't think I would even if I weren't grinding.

Each character has their own grid, and move along it independently of the others. So, if you wanted, you could have every character in the game master fire magic exclusively. Not sure why you'd want to, but you could. So party customization comes into play pretty quick - who is going to be your primary physical attacker? Who is going to level up wind attacks? Who is going to heal your party? And so on. Eventually, if you did enough grinding, you could have everybody learn everything (hello further comparison to Final Fantasy VI).

What is different about DDS (and what feels so INCREDIBLY LIBERATING after Nocturne) is that at any point outside of battle, you can go into the menu and pick whatever moves you want your guys to have equipped in battle. Their movepool is any move they learned from the Mantras you've mastered. So, early on in the game I decided I didn't want to be instakilled by any dark or light magic, so I had Serph learn those spells which came with some Null Light and Null Dark party buffs, and found myself eventually up against a boss that used them. Because I came prepared, he was a pretty easy boss. After him, I didn't encounter any of those attacks for a while, so I switched in some wind magic and went on my merry way.

Because they brought back the basic structure of Nocturne's battle system (called the "Press Turn" battle system, if you'll recall), the fact that you can switch moves at will outside of battle is kind of crazy. See, when I was Null-ing that boss's Dark spells, he was losing turns, so I could attack/buff/heal more often. I'm sure every boss won't be as easy as that (spoiler from later in the game: they aren't), but it certainly makes the same battle system from Nocturne have a fun new twist.

So if it isn't especially clear, I absolutely love the battle system in DDS.

So far, the story is dumb. That's about all I have to say about that. I've heard it gets better, so I'll hold off on final judgement, but yeah, I'm in it now for the absolutely sublime mechanics.

It is a bit grindy, though, but the obsessive compulsive part of me doesn't mind because I'm learning like Bufudyne twelve hours into the game. YES.

I'm going to try to write another post about this game, because so far I'm having a pretty great time and would like to compare it to the other SMT series. Assuming the game doesn't get godawful at the end, I'll probably roll right into DDS2 next.