Review: Devil Survivor Overclocked for 3DS

There will be people who spot this review and sneer. "Bit late to the party, aren't you?" they'll say.

That's because Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor has been available elsewhere for nearly four years now, first as a Nintendo DS game and then as an enhanced 3DS edition in 2011 called Overclocked.

In fact, Europe only just received a port last week, but we can sort of forgive Atlus for this tardiness because Devil Survivor Overclocked is brilliant.

I'm a survivor

There's a lockdown in modern-day Tokyo, thanks to strange demons popping up all over the place. Not only that, but clocks have also materialised above everyone's heads, counting down the days until their deaths.

Devil Survivor Overclocked plays out a lot like The World Ends With You, replacing the side-scrolling real-time battles with isometric turn-based play, much like Final Fantasy Tactics.

It's blissful, too, with action that is both hugely tactical and highly engrossing. It's tough going at first, with enemies that will destroy you on a whim - but stick with it and you'll be gratified by how clever the game allows you to be.

That's thanks to a wide range of active and passive skills that you can put into play to turn the tide of battle, along with engaging auction and fusion options that give you the ability to purchase and mix together your own demon army.

This is the sort of game in which even losing is enjoyable, because it allows you to see where you're going wrong and build up your skills. You know that when you're having a blast getting annihilated, the game is probably doing something right.

Clock off

The story is typical of your modern day-setting JRPG, with oodles of mystery and intrigue swimming in a vat of OTT facial expressions and exclamations about life. It's an appealing tale that will have you playing until three in the morning, all so you can see what the next day has in store for our demonisers.

Of course, Overclocked is an enhanced edition, so is it worth forking out extra for over the original DS version?

Well, it comes with an entire extra day which is pretty neat - we're talking a few hours of extra content - and full voice acting. And, of course, if you're in Europe you've got no choice.

But in reality this isn't a huge step up from the original. The visuals are slightly enhanced, but there's no stereoscopic 3D whatsoever (except in the intro video), and there's also a couple of pretty awful bugs that can cause the entire game to crash.

If you've never played Devil Survivor before, Overclocked is well worth picking up. But if you've already played it on DS there's no reason to repeat the experience on 3DS.