Atlus is one of the best Japanese publishers and developers today. From Persona to Shin Megami Tensei to even the new Metaphor Re:Fantazio, this is a team that knows how to make and release some of the best JRPGs and Japanese games. But what is the most underrated Atlus game of all time? Here is our staff ’ picks for the games you need to play.

Siliconera Speaks Up: Most Underrated Atlus Game 735h3o

I mean, of course Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker should be brought up here. This spin-off, tactical series is fantastic. But I'm really going to cite Princess Crown. This is a VanillaWare game that is a precursor to games like Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and it's just so much fun. There are multiple viewpoints. You see how it influenced more recent releases. It's wonderful. -- Jenni

One of my favorite Atlus games and most underrated series in their catalogue is the Trauma Center games, especially the sequel to the original Nintendo DS game. I fondly the mix of hospital drama visual novel elements with the frantic gameplay and outlandish bioterrorism plots that seemed appropriate for a Resident Evil game. Unfortunately, as an European, I never got to play Trauma Team, which means that Atlus personally owes me for not bringing the game to PAL regions and it now has to develop a new one to make up for it. That's how this works, right? -- Daniel B

In of games that aren’t the obvious choices in the mainline Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, I have to say that Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is the most underrated game from Atlus. This JRPG holds a special place in my heart as the first 10/10 I gave a game, of which there aren’t many. The time travel storyline leads to so many unexpected twists and heartbreaking moments. You spend so much time with the cast and come to care for them in a signature Atlus way. What I truly love, though, is how this game feels like Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward — one of my favorite games of all time — in its branching paths structure and a classic Atlus JRPG mashed together into a masterpiece creation. -- Cody

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Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker will be released in Europe on October 30th, NIS America have announced. The strategy RPG was released in North America last month.   NIS America also confirmed European release dates for two Etrian Odyssey games. Etrian Mystery Dungeon will reach Europe on September 11th, while Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold will follow on February 12th, 2016.   All three games will be released both via retail and digitally.

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There are two kinds of people that will pick up Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker: those that played the original DS version released in 2012 and those who haven’t. Let’s get the latter out of the way first. If you’ve never played the original Nintendo DS game and want to know if it’s worth picking up this enhanced version on 3DS instead, the answer is yes. Buy it. Buy it at launch and get some cool goodies; buy it whenever Atlus has one of their many great eShop sales; buy it later on Amazon on the cheap—it doesn’t matter. Just buy this version and get the most out of Devil Survivor 2. This is the better version of an already great game.   Now, with that out of the way, we can tackle the returnees that may be interested in the new Triangulum arc of the game. Are the new story arc and enhancements to the game really worth shelling out 50 big ones?   The setup for Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker is that in this version of the story the 14 protagonists were able to set aside all their differences and band together instead of separating into 3 different factions. As one faction they were able to kill Polaris without suffering any major casualties. Afterwards, Alcor the Anguished One takes over Polaris’ throne and becomes the new , overseeing the universe and watching mankind’s progress. Alcor’s first act as the new is to regress the world back to how it was before the 7-Day Trial began—bringing back everything swallowed by the void and all the lives lost. This new reality is one where humanity can finally reach its unseen potential, and where humans don’t have to fear being eradicated by The s. Fate, however, is cruel, particularly if you’re a protagonist in a Shin Megami Tensei game.   At times, the story in Record Breaker reminded me a lot of the two Persona 2 games: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. The start of Record Breaker is probably where the resemblance is the strongest as the Hero is the only one who can the past reality where they fought demons. Everyone else has been reset and is blissfully ignorant of the life-or-death crisis they once faced. Throughout your journey you meet up with all the previous characters and are able to reawaken their memories and enlist their help. This is one of the more fun aspects of the Triangulum arc, as you are able to pretty much use every character you want, regardless of alliances. Everyone is on your side this time, and you don’t have to worry about anyone leaving or dying.   The whole group stays together for the duration of the story, too, and there’s no punishment for missing something or not raising their FATE rank enough. Everyone is here to stay. Well, everyone but two actually, as Alcor is MIA, and Yamato Hotsuin seems not to even exist anymore, almost like he was wiped clean from reality and replaced by a new character—Miyako Hotsuin—who now leads JP’s instead.   There’s a part of me that feels I liked the new Triangulum arc more than the Septentrion arc, which is the original Devil Survivor 2 story. What could have easily been a simple rehash of the original story with just new invaders really becomes something far more ambitious. It’s a crazy ride with a few great plot twists here and there. I don’t want to give it all away, but let’s just say the Triangulum are only the beginning, and that the plot quickly shifts gears to something greater. There are even three different endings to the new arc, and I honestly liked all of them—each one felt satisfying to me. It took somewhere around 37 hours to complete my play-through of just the Triangulum arc (Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker contains both stories) although I did end up taking the longest route and spent more time than I would want to it in The Cathedral of Shadows (I was trying to make all my favorites demons, okay).   My ballpark estimate is that most people should probably get around 30 hours sunk into this story. Overall, it’s a generous length for an extra story, and covers a lot of ground, with some real fun moments with the cast, especially while watching characters interact with other characters they barely got to talk to in the previous story, or seeing how their relationships have generally changed in this new reality. For example, the Hero, Daichi, and Io are all old friends who’ve known each other for years already in this world.   Other features to note include the new easier difficulty, Blessed, that will make the game accessible to people that are more interested in the story or just don’t have the luxury of being able to spend too much time on games. The original difficulty returns as well, under the name Apocalypse, and you can change between the two freely whenever you want. There is no penalty for choosing easy, so you won’t miss anything for using Blessed either. Meanwhile, aside from the two difficulty options and the Triangulum arc, there’s another great new feature: the new voice-acting. The game is almost 100% fully-voiced, and the only non-voiced portions I noticed are when you’re in a battle, and that’s usually only 1 or 2 sentences that provide vague hints on how to beat the boss. It really is an impressive sized dub, so you’re getting a lot of quantity, although the quality is a bit uneven.   Now, I don’t mean to say that the dubbing is bad. I just felt some actors weren’t the best fit for their characters. Overall, though, this is good work, and after a while the more awkward performances did start to click with me. Joe’s voice, for example, was one that struck me as way too young sounding when I started playing, but over time I came to appreciate how well his actor was able to pull off Joe’s lame jokes. That said, I could never get over how Jungo sounded, no matter how much time ed. It just did not work for me. The silver lining, though, is that there are some absolutely great performances in here, and honestly, I thought they outweighed the more awkward ones. Daichi’s actor is phenomenal. He really gets the character down to a tee, and may just be the best performance in the game. Fumi also sounds great and equally really got her character down. I also thought the actors for Alcor and Ronaldo were pretty close to character and sounded fine as well. As expected, there is no option for Japanese voices, although there is an option to turn off the voice acting entirely if you would rather play the game without voices.   So, was Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker worth the 3-year wait? Ultimately, that will depend on how much of a fan you are of the original game. If a well-written “What if” story that reunites the cast excites you, you’re in for a treat. Most of the other changes just really streamline the game and help it fit in better with other modern Nintendo 3DS titles out now. At its core, Record Breaker is still obviously a Nintendo DS game with a few new bells and whistles. There’s no question that this is the superior version when compared to its original DS release, though, and to be entirely honest, I found the Triangulum arc a better addition than the 8th Day added in Devil Survivor Overclocked. Overall, but the upgrade will ultimately appeal the most to those that love the characters and story of the original.   Food for Thought:   1. Just like with Devil Survivor Overclocked, the original 6-character limit is kept. If you’re a person who loves to use your real name when playing these kinds of games and also happens to have a name that’s longer than 6 characters like I do—tough luck. I ended up naming the hero Hibiki Kuze—the name the anime adaption used for him—because of this.   2. Another frustrating aspect retained from the Nintendo DS era is the lack of a fast-forward function. Now, you do get to speed up the dialogue like you can in visual novels and games such as Zero Escape but there exists no option to do so in the battles. It’s not like the fight animations take that long, but nowadays I’ve just been so spoiled by games like Fire Emblem: Awakening and Bravely Default where the pace doesn’t have to be slowed down to a crawl. Call me impatient if you want, but after the first 2 or 3 enemy turns I really don’t care anymore. Sitting through 6 or 7 enemy battles clustered together back-to-back with no fast-forward on the battle animations is ridiculous.   3. You start the Triangulum arc at level 20 and the Hero has 20 points to freely allocate to whatever stats you like. The 3 starting demons you get this time are Bai Suzhen, Dionysus, and Sarasvati. Most of the features like The Devil Auction, The Cathedral of Shadows, and The Demon Compendium, are very quickly made available soon after the start. Most of the end game boss fights see you fighting against demons with Levels that reach the mid-60s.   4. So uh … pro-tip, when you start the game, crank the voice volume up in the options. Whoever did the audio mixing really did a pretty terrible job. For the first 20 minutes (before I could access the menu) I couldn’t hear anything anyone was saying because of the LOUD MUSIC. It was like the default sound option was voices on “whispering” and music on “front row concert seats”. Save yourself the trouble and to adjust the audio settings as soon as you can.

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Atlus have released a Nintendo 3DS Home Menu theme based on Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker. The theme costs $0.99 and features one of the additional music tracks in the game composed by Persona composer Shoji Meguro. You can preview it below.  

  Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker is an updated version of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2. It includes full voice-acting and a second story campaign that is said to be the length of a standalone RPG by itself. Additionally, this second campaign can be accessed without completing the original story.   Atlus will release Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker in North America on May 5th, while NIS America will publish the game in Europe this Fall. Look out for Siliconera’s playtest on the game early next week.

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Atlus USA have revealed their DLC schedule for Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker in North America. Every piece of DLC for the game takes the form of a Free Battle and all but the Beginner’s Brawl will scale incrementally with your protagonist. Here’s the list, starting with the two pieces of permanently free DLC:  

• Beginner’s Brawl (Free): This is the one Free Battle that won’t scale with level, so make sure to tackle it early on. The enemies are a little on the weak side, but can still pack a punch if you’re not careful. Defeating them will earn you some quick Macca (demonic currency) to blow at the Demon Auction and get your team started off right.

• Lost Demon Rescue (Free): A persuadable demon is caught in the middle of two hordes. If you can protect the demon and survive the onslaught, the demon will your party! Use it to bolster your ranks or keep it for fusion fodder. (Not to mention that some of the demons you’re up against have useful skills to crack!)

  Moving on, below is the list of paid content. Each piece will cost $0.99 (CA$1.49).  

• Macca Makes an Escape: This battle poses a chase scenario. Demons are fleeing with their pockets stuffed with Macca, and it will be up to the player to run them down and beat the payout out of them. The demons are carrying three times the usual amount of Macca, and even though they’re fleeing, they’ll put up a good fight if you catch them.

• All Skills Must Go!: Scattered around the battlefield are memory sticks loaded with powerful skills for your party. But the demons around have their eyes on them too, and will try and abscond with the memory sticks. This is one situation when you’re going to want to make sure to use non-combat skills that slow down enemies and/or speed up your party, because nothing is as infuriating as watching a Moh Shuvuu fly off with a powerful healing skill.

• Let the Demons Grow:This is an old-fashioned free-for-all battle. These demons are loaded with extra experience, so systematically pick them off to reap EXP rewards and level your entire party.

• Addonetarium: This battle is for higher-level characters, but is hugely beneficial towards the middle of the game when you can start implementing add-ons to your fusion. Basically, the add-ons give the fused demon a specific bonus, and can mean the difference between an average demon and all-powerful killing machine.

  The rollout schedule for able content is as follows:  

• May 5 – Game launch, Beginner’s Brawl, Macca Makes an Escape!
• May 12 – All Skills Must Go!, Lost Demon Rescue, Let the Demons Grow
• May 19 – Addonetarium

  Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker will be released in North America on May 5th. Meanwhile, NIS America will release the game in Europe this Fall.

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NIS America are publishing three of Atlus’ Nintendo 3DS games in Europe, the company announced this morning. The three games in question are: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, Etrian Mystery Dungeon, and Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold.   Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Etrian Mystery Dungeon will both be available this Fall, although dates for the two games have not yet been announced. Meanwhile, Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold will follow sometime in early 2016.   NIS America also say that all three games will get a physical release in Europe, although they will be available digitally as well.

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Like the first Devil Survivor, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker has a demon auction system, which you can use to bid on demons to recruit them into your party. A new trailer for the game shows the feature off.

Each demon comes with ratings, and the more stars a demon has, the better stats and skills it will come with.

Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker will be released on May 5th for the Nintendo 3DS. The game is an updated port of Devil Survivor 2, and includes a second story campaign that is unlocked right from the start.

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