THE PLOT:
In a fantasy world, El has just completed his Gaia (essentially, magic) training when he learns that the shrine at nearby Mt. Palo, where children train, has been overrun by monsters. After El's teacher, Zodia, is badly wounded by the monsters, it falls to El to save the children, using his abilities to recruit monsters to his side along the way.
This is only the beginning of the young man's journey. Orbs, which house immeasurable power, have been stolen from various points in the world. A race known as the Zord are determined to gain power to battle the monsters. The Gaia Masters themselves seem to be hiding something. El befriends two humans, the warrior Kishe and the healer Uranus (yes, that's her default name. No, I am not making that up), and the three embark on a quest to track down the Orbs and to learn the secret behind the current calamity!
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| A friendly NPC provides some exposition. |
CHARACTERS:
This is a Game Boy game, so it's no surprise that characterization is slight. Except for being Zodia's best student, El is essentially a blank slate, someone the players can project themselves onto. Kishe is stubborn, with introductory dialogue indicating that he got himself injured by insisting on tackling the monsters alone. Uranus (I can only imagine the mirth among members of the English localization team at that name) is kind-hearted to a fault; when El first meets her, rescuing her from the Zord, she actively berates him for killing monsters.
GAMEPLAY:
Typical old-school RPG mechanics. You travel from location to location, completing the objectives given to you. Save for a few fixed boss fights, combat is through turn-based random encounters. Unusual for a Game Boy game, an auto battle function is available; once you're sufficiently leveled, it makes grinding much more painless.
In gameplay terms, the only thing distinguishing this as a Shin Megami Tensei offshoot is the demon (er, monster) negotiation. At any random encounter, you can choose to "Talk" to the attacking enemies. If you are underleveled, they will refuse to talk to you. Otherwise, this will kick off a set of simple "Yes/No" questions. If you answer correctly for the specific monster, then they will join your party. Once you recruit Kishe, his "Combine" spell allows you to fuse monsters together to create new and usually stronger ones as well.
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| El tries to talk a monster into joining his party. |
THOUGHTS:
Originally released in Japan as Shin Megami Tensei: The Last Bible, this game was localized in the West as Revelations: The Demon Slayer... making it exactly one of two Atlus games to use the "Revelations" heading (the other, of course, being the PS1 release of the original Persona).
The game itself is unremarkable. The story sounds more robust in a synopsis than it plays in the actual game, and it doesn't so much end as just stop after the final boss fight. The turn-based combat is standard, and the demon negotiation is less of a fun mini-game than a frustrating roulette wheel. Only through trial-and-error will you figure out which answers are correct for a given demon, and most of the time I just ended up fighting them for the money and experience.
Still, it is fun to play. It's a good-looking game by Game Boy standards, with a solid amount of detail, and the color graphics remain effective. The combat is often more challenging than you'd think, particularly in the early game, and it's fun playing with spells and monster combinations to see which are the most effective. The soundtrack is also decent - Not up to the level of Final Fantasy Adventure, but still a solid vintage game track.
Much like Final Fantasy Adventure, there are moments at which I glimpsed storytelling ambition that was likely beyond the Game Boy's limitations. The villains are not entirely unsympathetic, with the Final Boss having a clear motive for his actions. There are betrayals, albeit ones most gamers will see coming, and an attempt to create some questions as to which factions are good or evil. The game even tries to work in some very basic ruminations on the corruption inherent in great power. Mostly, it's just a line here or there in between hours of random encounters and dungeon crawling - but it's worth noting that the game has some thematic ambition, even if it isn't fully realized.
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| Trekking across the world map. |
OVERALL:
Revelations: The Demon Slayer doesn't crop up on lists of "Best Game Boy games," nor should it. The gameplay is standard. Though the story has moments of ambition, it is mostly a fairly thin narrative connecting quests together, and the ending is unsatisfying. The remaining Last Bible titles (and there were four more in the series) were never released outside of Japan, and I feel no particular pangs about that.
At heart this is your basic fantasy RPG - but it is an enjoyable one. The gameplay may be standard, but it's entertaining and well-paced. Quest goals are refreshingly clear; there was only one, late game point at which I had to consult a walkthrough to figure out what do do next. The game is long enough to satisfy, but not so long that it overstays its welcome. It's worth checking out if you can get it cheap... But it's not a title I'm likely to revisit.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
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