i was talking with a friend recently about a couple of different megaten games, and DDS:MT came up at some point. i think it was just an offhanded mention, but it reminded me, "oh yeah, i played that game before!" and as such, it's been on my mind lately. now, listen. i can tolerate old, clunky RPGs to a degree. i've beaten SMT1, i got most of the way through Phantasy Star on Master System, hell, my favorite game of all time is Mother for the Famicom. but if there's one RPG series thats early entries are known for being especially old and clunky, it's gotta be Megami Tensei. i said i beat SMT1 a few sentences ago, but that came at the cost of so much mental stress. and yet, i still found myself inexplicably drawn to the other early entries since despite their shortcomings in terms of gameplay, i find the atmosphere, the stories, the locales, the themes to all be interesting enough to warrant pushing through that slow gameplay.

now, i'm not gonna act like i didn't know what i was getting myself into when i started DDS:MT. i've watched the MarshSMT videos, i know how painful it gets later, but i've built up a tolerance to games like this, so i figured it couldn't be that bad. and like... it kind of wasn't? to be fair, i never got to the truly heinous parts of the game, but i had a surprisingly enjoyable time through what i did play.

before i explain what it was i saw in DDS:MT and why my relationship with it is so complicated, i feel that i need to give some context as to what exactly it is. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei is a 1987 RPG based on the novels of the same name, written by Aya Nishitani. that's right, all of megaten exists because of a licensed Famicom game based on some random ass books. you play as Akemi Nakajima, a high school student who is... one hell of a character study, going by his actions in the novels, and you're accompanied by his girlfriend(?) Yumiko Shirasagi. your final goal is to defeat Loki, who Nakajima summoned in a fit of rage when trying to get back at his school bullies, and is now trying to destroy the Earth, i think. just like the first two SMT games, DDS:MT is a first person dungeon crawler RPG, though instead of exploring an apocalyptic Japan, you're instead exploring an underground temple(?), which then branches off into many deeper areas.

what was surprising to me going into DDS:MT was just how much of its DNA persisted throughout the rest of the megaten series. like i said, it started the first person dungeon crawler thing, but it goes deeper than that. core mechanics for the series such as negotiation, recruiting demons and even demon fusion is here and accounted for. the next thing that surprised me is, wow! this may be THE dustiest, crustiest RPG i've ever played in my life! there's what can loosely be considered an inventory system, though it's really more just an option in your menu that you can use depending on if you have a Jewel or not, and if you do, you can use it to fully heal yourself. that's it. Jewels are the only item in the game. and while demon recruitment is here, it's not as universal as the later games. you can really only recruit a handful of demons throughout the whole game, it's very picky on who you can or can't. there's also exactly one save point in the game, and it's located in the first area. that's it. you can't save anywhere else. and hey, speaking of saving, that brings me to maybe the most heinous thing i've ever seen in any RPG: there are no save files! that's right, instead of a bettery backup, you have to deal with the dreaded PASSWORD SYSTEM. jesus man, i didn't know Atlus was willing to throw out the Geneva conventions here.

now, after all of this, you might be wondering what the hell i even liked about this game. well, to explain that, i'll have to talk about RetroAchievements. it's a feature implemented into a lot of modern emulators (as well as most RetroArch cores) that adds achievements to a lot of retro games, which are tracked on one central website. it adds a ton of replay value to games i've already played or would have never considered playing otherwise, it's what got me to check out 20Q on PSP, which is a game not a single person has thought about until around 15 words ago. (final verdict on 20Q for PSP: it's a really weird and quirky 20Q simulator and i recommend it for the faces the AI makes alone) one of the key things about RetroAchievements is Hardcore mode, where certain emulator functions like save states or rewind are disabled, meaning you have to experience the game as originally intended. (fast forward is legal though (thank fuck)) DDS:MT happens to have a set on RA. i'm sure you can see where i'm headed with this. i challenged myself to beat DDS:MT on hardcore mode, which meant no save scumming, no mistakes, no leighway, just me, the game, and fast forward to keep me sane. as a bonus challenge, i also wanted to beat the game without using a walkthrough or any outside maps, just to go that extra mile of pain.

and honestly? i think that's what made the game for me. in a day and age where every single piece of information about every single game ever is available at your fingertips, it's hard to experience these retro games the way that people back in the 80s did. usually that is for the better, but you can't deny that it makes for a totally unique experience. case in point: taking notes! i decided to go the extra mile for DDS:MT and write any and all information i wanted to keep out on paper with pencil. i drew my own maps, jotted down each password, wrote notes on where i'd already been and what things to say to certain monsters, what fusions gave what demons, i did it all. it made for a slow experience, yes, but a somewhat meditative one, carefully trodding through dungeons, adding each wall, door and item to my map as i went along. when i found a secret without looking up a guide, it felt magical seeing something completely new in these areas i'd walked through so many times. it really did channel that feeling of what it must have been like to play this game when it released, and that really stuck with me.

(click on an image to view it in full quality!)

so that begs the question. is DDS:MT a good game, in that case? no. no! not at all! it's a pretty miserable slog at times, and just beating Minotaur took me like, 8 hours of playtime! now, to be fair, i do think that death isn't nearly as punishing as other RPGs of the time. you are healed back to full HP, and you're sent back to the top of Daedalus Tower, which is a town where you can recooperate your losses, save, fuse demons, all the essentials. it almost reminds me of how Hylics handles death, it's more like a fast travel back to the safe area than a punishment, and i like that a lot. but good lord, some of the shit they put you through here is ruthless. remember how i said the only item in the game is Jewels, which heal you to full? well guess what, they only heal HP. they don't recover your MP, and they especially don't get rid of statuses, so if you get poisoned or stoned, you're pretty much fucked until you get back to town. the area where Medusa is the boss was absolutely the worst with this, there's all these Medusa clones that appear at set points in the area, and they respawn whenever you die, so if you want to be healthy going into the real Medusa fight, you gotta hope and pray the decoys don't wear you down too much. speaking of Medusa, after i beat her is when i stopped playing the game. i'd gotten my fill, and the game had started to feel a lot more draining by that point. so no, i didn't finish DDS:MT, sorry to say. that being said, i'm glad that i played what i did, it was a really unique experience that i've never gotten with any other game before. having to be my own cartographer, having to slowly punch in a password every time i started a new play session, it was slow of course, but it was also weirdly fun, if only for the novelty of it all. in the end, i think i recommend playing DDS:MT?? if you're a fan of the series and want to see just how far we've come, give it a quick look. if you're a little more dedicated, maybe give the RetroAchievements set a shot, or even try getting out the graph paper to make those maps. it's definitely worth giving a chance, if only for a little bit.