Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor locks Tokyo into a quarantine full of demons and puts a mysterious program called COMP into the player's hands, one that shows who among their close companions will die, and on which day. Seven days to flee the apocalypse, negotiate with beings from ancient mythology, and decide which characters ultimately survive form the framework for a thoughtfully designed tactical grid battle. The tension of a ticking countdown gives even an ordinary battle a different edge than in a typical JRPG, and the player learns to plan every move ahead of time, because a bad decision can cost one of the party members their life. Characters with their own motivations and fear of the approaching end give the story a human dimension that's often missing from similar tactical RPGs.

Battles combine turn-based strategy on the map with fast one-on-one clashes, where teams of up to three demons are assembled based on their elemental resistances and weaknesses. Fusing monsters, collecting skills, and planning movement across the whole battlefield give the game a tactical depth the genre rarely offered on handhelds of the time. A visual novel weaves battles together with dialogue and a branching story with several endings, where every decision carries real weight and affects who in the party survives to the last, seventh day. Between battles the player moves across a map of Tokyo, gathers clues, reads messages on a forum, and decides which of the rival factions of survivors to cooperate with, a choice that fundamentally changes how the final chapters play out.

Why play it: Devil Survivor is for players who want a tactical RPG with a dark atmosphere of an approaching apocalypse and a story that changes based on their choices. The combination of grid-based strategy, demon collecting and fusion, and the tension of a ticking countdown makes it one of the best strategy titles in the series on the Nintendo DS, and a good entry point for genre fans who haven't yet tried the Shin Megami Tensei series and are looking for a shorter but densely told story.