Great game. Not as strong as Nocturne, but DDS is effectively a miniseries of games, so I honestly couldn't judge DDS alone without taking into factor DDS 2 - and I haven't thrown that in the PS2 yet.
In some ways it's much easier than Nocturne - save points everywhere, and you need the whole party killed to die as opposed to just the hero - but in other ways it's just as difficult. Bosses tend to rely more on fun strategies and tricks than brute strength - in particular, the final boss fight was one of the best I've seen in ages. On the other hand, if you don't have the particular abilities needed to counter/prevent some of the bosses' actions, you might need to do some emergency Mantra Grid levelling (I managed to get through the whole game without needing to do that, but I diversified my party from the start - if I'd done all of the optional bosses, though, I'd have needed to powerlevel/power-Mantra).
The Mantra Grid system works. It makes money by far the biggest issue, as higher power Mantras are extremely expensive. It's sorta like a more open-ended FFX Sphere Grid system. The fact that once you've learned a Mantra's abilities you can allocate those on your characters whenever means that you can adjust to situations as needed.
Plot has a lot of potential, but I'm only at the midway point, so I can't make a decision one way or another.
All in all, it's a very good RPG. Know that going into it, however, you're going to want to play DDS2 as well, so if you're simply looking for a single RPG purchase, go for Nocturne instead. DDS is a short game (33 hours, about 5 of it on optional content, but I left a great many optional bosses alone because they'd have required a lot of levelling/devouring to defeat) but a great lead-in to the upcoming proceedings. It's also a nicely twisted game - they don't pull any punches in game tone or gloss over the fact that you're not just defeating your foes, you're eating them (sometimes alive). Definately unlike most RPGs in tone.
In some ways it's much easier than Nocturne - save points everywhere, and you need the whole party killed to die as opposed to just the hero - but in other ways it's just as difficult. Bosses tend to rely more on fun strategies and tricks than brute strength - in particular, the final boss fight was one of the best I've seen in ages. On the other hand, if you don't have the particular abilities needed to counter/prevent some of the bosses' actions, you might need to do some emergency Mantra Grid levelling (I managed to get through the whole game without needing to do that, but I diversified my party from the start - if I'd done all of the optional bosses, though, I'd have needed to powerlevel/power-Mantra).
The Mantra Grid system works. It makes money by far the biggest issue, as higher power Mantras are extremely expensive. It's sorta like a more open-ended FFX Sphere Grid system. The fact that once you've learned a Mantra's abilities you can allocate those on your characters whenever means that you can adjust to situations as needed.
Plot has a lot of potential, but I'm only at the midway point, so I can't make a decision one way or another.
All in all, it's a very good RPG. Know that going into it, however, you're going to want to play DDS2 as well, so if you're simply looking for a single RPG purchase, go for Nocturne instead. DDS is a short game (33 hours, about 5 of it on optional content, but I left a great many optional bosses alone because they'd have required a lot of levelling/devouring to defeat) but a great lead-in to the upcoming proceedings. It's also a nicely twisted game - they don't pull any punches in game tone or gloss over the fact that you're not just defeating your foes, you're eating them (sometimes alive). Definately unlike most RPGs in tone.
"For one thing to live, another thing must be killed. God, or whoever is responsible, deserves respect for creating such a system. It reveals that we cannot take all matters into our own hands. We need only to focus on doing our best--a simple, yet profound way to live, is it not?"
