Majin Tensei II: Spiral Nemesis (1995)

Majin Tensei 2, for SNES

Rating: 7.6/10; Good

Recommended for any fan of strategy rpgs or the Megami Tensei series

Majin 2 is a strategy rpg that plays a lot like Fire Emblem/Super Robot Wars, in that you will be moving a large number of individual units around large maps with a variety of terrain, to defeat enemy forces. The plot has nothing to do with Majin 1, and this game is a vast improvement over its mediocre predecessor, with actual well designed levels and mechanics.

Your core team consists of several human characters, each of whom have different weapon selections and special abilities; 3 get COMPs for storing and summoning demons while the other 2 get magic. Only 1 character's COMP can be used in battle at a time though, so the other 2 are relegated to storage. COMP users (and demons from the same family) can talk to enemy demons that are neither Light nor Dark, in the staple dialogue system of the franchise. Choose 1 of 2 options from a randomly selected interaction with the outcome fixed for each species; best case being they join and give you free stuff; worst case they get a free attack. The system is not quite as engaging as in the pure rpgs though because the game will not even let you talk if you already have that demon or the COMP is full. It is like the developers think the only purpose in talking is to recruit demons, but what if you just want free loot or healing? There is no having enemies respect that you have recruited their kin and then leave the battle in peace. Another series staple is fusion to combine demons into others. The system is still very complex with not all combinations being upgrades, but you can select 1 demon and see at a glance what you will get with every demon in all 3 COMPs. This alleviates much of the need to resort to an outside guide but you may still need help if you want something specific. 3 way fusion is only slightly more complex but can allow weaker demons to be fused into something worthwhile. The worst part of fusion comes from limited access to the fusion place due to the way that each chapter is discrete with no backtracking, and the fusion place always being locked behind a few battles. Or you can use the tedious in battle fusion, which you may need to do it if you want to recruit something in that stage, because there is no transferring between COMPs during battle.

The overworld maps are not a mess of invisible paths like in 1st game. Rather you can see the entire chapter, every battle, every shop, every path etc. You can swap demons between COMPs by using the format option after clicking on a location, or manage inventory by clicking outside the locations to bring up the general menu. It took me some time to figure this out and I thought you had to go into the shop in order to manage equipment, which would have been a major flaw. Equipment and inventory are well done, showing stats and who can equip. The inventory is unlimited, fixing the obnoxious item management from the first game. Now you can carry as many restorative items, gems and equipment as you want; which comes in handy given that many demons can equip weapons and armor now. The game is even so generous as to automatically unequip items from demons during fusion.

Stage design and combat roles are much better designed in this game. Stages still come with a variety of terrains that affect movement and defense, enemy spawners, treasure chests and healing fountains, but it is annoying how the cursor moves at half spaces, making it take more presses than necessary to get anything done. Enemies often try to make use of terrain advantage, such as going for fountains and having long range units surrounded by difficult terrain, while some enemies stay in place or rush you. Some stages feature friendly bases that you have to protect or fail the mission, something that adds very little to the game and often makes no sense in relation to the story. Objectives are usually to capture the enemy base or reach a specific area, and killing a specific enemy for boss fights. It is not necessary to defeat all enemies, unless you want more xp and loot. There was only 1 stage which had infinite enemy spawns, which was near the end game. Instead of being able to revisit some battles to farm, each chapter has a designated optional farming battle that is unwinnable while providing plenty of demons to kill. In order to exit the battle you must flee, thereby losing half of your money. A fair tradeoff. There are no neutral demons to recruit but there are very powerful ones that join late game and pretty much make the end game trivial, though this may depend on what path you take. The human characters are not nearly as overpowered as in the first game, which is partly due to the rock/paper/scissors affinity system which sets demons with battlefield roles reminiscent of real conflict. Humans and most humanoid demons function like infantry, being weak against air/artillery and strong against cavalry. This simple change means the human characters cannot simply solo because they may get killed by bomber, helicopter and artillery demons. They also seem to be weaker overall in both offense and defense, thus necessitating reliance on summoned demons. There is little difference between infantry weapons; polearms are the most versatile because they can attack 1 or 2 spaces away. Bows and guns can only attack 2 spaces and have neither a defense penalty for being attacked in melee or a bonus vs air units. Bows and guns are great weapons but it seems like they should counter air and have longer range than a spear! You choose how to advance the stats on each human and the game has interesting mechanics behind the stats and builds. Strength improves damage and health while speed gives an extra attack to the unit with significantly higher speed. So the slow powerful bruiser will be whittled down by near constant double attacks while the speedy lightfoot will not be able to hit hard enough to do appreciable damage. Vitality reduces physical damage while wisdom reduces magic damage, and then there are the magic and luck stats. It is very clear what each stat does and allows you to make builds for your humans, and act to balance out their weaknesses. Beast demons are light cavalry with ranged attacks that counter air units (mobile SAM?), which the game describes as being able to jump really high to attack flyers. Ok sure why not. They also have great movement but are unable to cross raised freeways and railways for some mystical reason. There are dark beasts that function as naval units, and other demon families that function as jet fighters, bombers, helicopters, long range artillery, armor and magic users. All types are useful and important for countering specific types of units, so there is considerable incentive to have a variety. Demons gain ranks instead of levels, which increase stats and unlock special attacks that are passed on during fusion. Ranks significantly improve a demon's effectiveness in battle and can even allow a severely underleveled demon to function effectively. Most xp is gained for kills, so you can kind of manipulate who levels up through attack order, but many demons will end up sucking due to not getting ranks up. This is made worse by the facts that the levels of demons you can recruit depends on the protagonist's level rather than a combination of all 3 COMP users, which would make more sense, and that it is game over if any human character dies. So you will want to prioritize getting xp for the humans.

Majin 2 is a vast improvement over Majin 1. It is a well crafted game with good mechanics and user friendly features, unlike the amateur hour that was the first game. An interesting take on the standard strategy rpg by merging it with the unique demon recruiting and fusion systems of Megami Tensei. The time travel and dimension hopping story is a bit weak, and makes me wonder how they always have infinite ammo, but the game is interesting enough to be worth playing through. Playing again on a different path to see a different ending though? Maybe not.