Devil Summoner FAQ

[MrSmiley381]

In my browsing of the internet, I still have yet to find a Devil Summoner FAQ. I have the game, and I was lucky enough to get the guide with it. Despite it being ENTIRELY in Japanese, with the exception of some strange Engrish and the main character yelling FUCK (no kidding kids, there's a picture in the guide) I think I may be able to get a decent walkthrough going. If anyone has info on the translation part of this, with a little bit of work I could even tell people good tips on what some of the menu options are.

If anyone is interested, you will be given credit. I'm just tossing this idea around, though, so I can do the walkthrough part first and translation guide info next.

[Jorpho]

Perhaps you could start by saying just what this game is, when it was released, etc. for those of us who are not familiar with it?

[MrSmiley381]

...

You have a good point.

Devil Summoner is a gaiden (side-story) to the popular Shin Megami Tensei games. It uses the first-person RPG style found in most EA Games RPGs, just without the suck. It was released on the Saturn in 1995. Anyone who's played SMT: Nocturne or Digital Devil Saga may be interested in this. What's cool is that you convince demosn to join you - which is half the problem. That's the only part where the Japanese reaally affects you, and where a guide would need the most work. Copies go on Ebay fairly cheap in Ebay stores. Anyone who read at least a little Japanese could really help on this project. Right now, I'm stuck at the first boss. I can probably write a FAQ up to that point.

[Jorpho]

I see...

Well, how were you intending to get help with the translation, then? Extracting scripts from CD-based games is rarely an easy task. Perhaps you would like to post some screenshots of text you do not understand?

[MrSmiley381]

Honestly, if it's possible to get into the Saturn disc and find all the text, that'd be great. My goal isn't an entire conversion involving patching and such (like Aeon Genesis) but maybe a guide to at least get you through the game, explain thoroughly what certain items do, what some options that appear are, etc. Unfortuantely, I don't have a screen capture card, and I have no idea how horrible a webcam pic will work, especially with the small details involved with the text itself.

Again, if this part would prove too hard, I'd at least like to do a gameplay FAQ itself, and see if I can get people to contribute small notes, boss strategies, that kind of thing. This basic idea alone, without doing a bunch of hackwork is probably a long shot, I know. But, seeing as I've received a lot of help from the internet on games, I figured I might as well give back.

The only part I've found truly troublesome is converting demons. The guide has info on all items, some of which is English, amazingly. Unfortunately, talking to demons is largely a matter of accidentally choosing the response that least pisses off a monster. Of course, this part requires a big conversion. I'd at least like to figure out which options appear when you first talk to a monster. I'll see if I can get some good screens of that.