XX/XX/24

"What is 'sad?'"

This one's about Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, and various other things.

I've been playing through this recently. I've had my fair-share of experience with SMT-related things, but the main series never caught me as much as Persona did. Now, having put the whole JRPG thing on hold for a few years, I appreciate the grind and gameplay cycle more than I had previously. It's a good series if you're interested in strategizing and engaging with a cool atmosphere. It feels good to build a character and kill shit with new skills. The mantra system offers a lot of build variety, allowing you to basically turn anyone in your party into whatever you want. In short, if you ever wanted to play a grindy JRPG with cheesy exposition about eugenics, I'd recommend this. It's a good time.

As I alluded to, I have a history with the overarching SMT franchise. I was fourteen when I really got into Persona 3 FES, diving into my now-derelict PS3 during the early months of the pandemic. Though my sentiment of these games is somewhat convoluted by auxiliary experiences with them, I think one of the catches was the mid-2000s Studio Atlus aesthetic. Having refreshed my perception a few times over now, and despite my grievances, I generally still stand by the coolness of what that thing is.

Residual effects of my engagement with this media, DDS included, continue to inform my tastes in a lot of different things. One of the most obvious is the music. Shoji Meguro did something a lot weirder than I realized at the time. Nobody told fourteen-year-old me that hip hop, prog metal, techno and band music aren't really congruent sounds. And I don't need you to tell me that Candiria, Cannibal Ox, or any symphonic metal shit are exceptions to these rules; I know. But fourteen-year-old me did not know, and it was enough that this music was sick not to care. And because it was sick, then, I was probably able to grow into listening to hip-hop-prog-metal or techno crossovers. Because Candiria and Cannibal Ox are also sick.

Then, you come to mention the visual design, especially of Atlus' Kazuma Kaneko era. Characters all occupy this highly stylized, but proportionally-rational situation. Though, you still have wild wardrobe choices, obviously. In the mid-2000s, you would just get white guys with dreads and badass lesbian chicks with pink buns and ankle-skirts. This is all common of Japanese design, though the statuesque, porcelain image of Kaneko's figure drawings - thick outlines, defined lips, glossy eyes - is unique, and still looks slick as hell.

I haven't even mentioned the demon designs, which are legendary in of themselves. Various cultures are drawn upon, providing for a distinctive, globalized aesthetic. Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and various Eurasian and Western mythologies are explored in these games. This occurs both on a level of subtext or pure visual flair, as well as actual narrative structure. DDS, for one, has much of the plot seen through the lens of Hindu imagery and philosophy.

And with that in mind, I think exposure to these concepts via the SMT franchise was like an intro course in popular philosophy, whether I knew it or not. Of course, have no doubt that a lot of the references are just window-dressing. These games make no real endorsement for any one belief system in any direction, I've found. Nonetheless, it felt pretty deep pondering the implications of cannibalism as a means to transcend in a tribal anime world. It was the same in Persona 3 and related media: how do you make meaning of an existence that is bound by time and inevitable disintegration, I was asked.

I also recall pondering violence and existentialism prior to SMT with Hotline Miami (legendary), and also No More Heroes (another classic). However, that esotericism wasn't as lucid to me at that point, even if how these games handle the topic is a lot more visceral than SMTs relation to it. But I'm digressing (and realizing Hotline Miami and NMH need pages). Still, even if Digital Devil Saga doesn't express wanton delusion with the fervor of Hotline Miami ("DO YOU LIKE HURTING OTHER PEOPLE?") or NMH ("FUCKHEAD!"), I still feel exposure to heavy topics through SMT was meaningful.

I recognize that I can be, was, and more-or-less still am a fan of all three of these franchises at once, with them each contributing individual pieces to my interests. And if anything, latching on to the philosophical elements of Persona and SMT to begin with demonstrates something about my own tastes, prevailing from then to now. I got something of a thing for edgy, subterranean themes about entropy and abjection, I've found.

So, there you have it: the grindy, edgy, stylish Digital Devil Saga, and a slew of related things. And thanks in part to this game and other fringe shit in middle school, I can listen to Candiria and Cannibal Ox today. And if you follow these steps, maybe you will too.