This entry is going to be pretty short and sweet because I'm pretty sapped when it comes to energy. My review for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, the franchise's first DS installment, has been posted here for all the Internet to absorb. As I pretty much imply in the review, Devil Survivor caught me by surprise. I had originally intended to outright ignore its release because the only good experiences I've usually had with Megami Tensei games were the recent Persona installments. But then I actually read GameSpot's review for it and after realizaing that it had things going for it that I could appreciate despite that history, I decided to give a shot. I'd say that, given the score I assigned it, you would be right in inferring that I thought the purchase was worthwhile.

So yeah. Review. Yay.

Copying and pasting from one blog I wrote on to another is fun. Let's do it now.

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I know that there are a lot of you today who already know plenty about the process of importing games. Really once you get down to it, it's a pretty simple process. But for those who are curious, yet uncertain about how to go about doing it, they might be interested in checking out myrecent guidefor this site. It's a blatant plug for my own work, yes, but I figure that since there are other guides on this site not devoted specifically to one game per se that my work might come in handy for someone here. Heck, I even discuss how to go about ordering games from Japanese stores directly, a topic which I don't think gets mentioned very much when the subject of imports is brought up.

In writing the guide, I tried to cover as much as possible that I knew personally. There are some things I'd like to have a bit more fleshed out, which is why there's a help wanted section in there, but if you can think of anything else you think I need to talk about, you're free to tell me that. Really, just feedback in general is appreciated. I've done other guides in the past, but those were usually way more technical, so I wouldn't mind hearing whether I did okay for something more casual in comparison. Also ideas about which pages to attach the guide would be greatly appreciated. It's attached to Final Fantasy XIII at the moment simply because of the inevitable import wave to come with that, but I'd like to include more for visibility's sake. (Retrospective note: This is all referencing features on the Giant Bomb site specifically. I'm just too lazy to cut it out here.)Thanks in advance if you check it out and, as a reward, here's a picture of the Persona 4 cast if they somehow wound up in a Mother game. Yep.

I would like nothing more than to really, really like you. You have a morbidly funny concept driving you and, on top of that, your development studio has some serious talent behind it. After all, some of the more prominent figures used to be a part of Clover, a studio whose games I usually loved the hell out of when it was still in operation. So I had high hopes. Maybe they were unrealistic, but I had high hopes because I know the leaders can churn out amazingly good games when they pour their heart and soul into it.

Maybe that just wasn't enough to save you, MadWorld. You're not broken and there's still fun to be had, but I'm just not feeling the magic. You have enough problems that make me wonder why more time wasn't taken to just playtest and QA some more so you could get the polish you deserved. As it is, though, you're just not all that.

But you know what? You're still special. Why? You're the second game I've chosen to do an actual review over an impressions blog before completing it. (The first such game would be LSD, an obscure PS1 import.) Some might cry foul at that, but after spending a scant few hours with you, I already get the impression that I've seen everything that can be seen. I know all of the important stuff that there really is to know about you. You kill dudes and sometimes you can change up the ways in which you do it, but that's about it. Maybe I'll miss out on a few minigames if I don't get around to completing it, but it doesn't feel like that much of a loss at all.

We all have our off days, though, so I understand. Not necessarily the brightest start for such a new development house, though.