I bought and played both games almost 3 years ago, but didn´t really know the depth and complexities of the SMT systems and thus didn´t get far in both of them and burned out on them very quickly.
A few days ago I got Overclocked during the Atlus sale for just 12€ and realized that I still like this brand of SRPG a lot (I never liked any other SRPG nearly as much, weirdly enough) and after playing Strange Journey and SMTIV I now understand the intricacies a lot more.
And man, Recorder Breakers feels like a MUCH more polished port than Overclocked. The new content is easily the biggest draw, but there´s a lot of small changes in the presentation - much nicer damage popups, these subtle gradients whenever an enemy suffers from a status effect, and the elemental effects seem better as well.
I also like that the new campaign starts you right with lv20 and a bunch of great skills and demons right from the get go - since I just played a new save on Overclocked a few days ago I really didn´t feel like starting with those shitty early game demons yet again.
And the battlefield graphics and battle backgrounds look better than ever. Such nice pixel art - for some reason this game makes me feel much more like I´m in an actual urban environment than SMTIV did, even though that one made me actually move through it in third person rather than top-down. The art in the Devil Survivor games just is really nicely put together.
And after playing a lot of SMTIV, Soul Hackers and Strange Journey, I´m SO HAPPY to not having to talk to demons all the time. It´s a fun little feature early on, but it gets so repetetive after a while. Just outright buying them is much more convenient, and the actual cool part (demon art and their skills) is still as fun as ever.
The music is also leaps and bounds above Overclocked - I only really liked the final boss theme (and the opening theme of Overclocked, almost grunge-like), which I never really got to hear aside from YouTube since the game kicked my ass so much. I kinda like the raw energy of the battle themes, but it gets incredibly annoying after a while, especially since there´s so few tracks in that game. Since music is so important to me in a game, Record Breaker is much more enjoyable to play.
Definitely my new favorite SMT game. I thought I was going to wait for the inevitable eshop sale, but I don´t regret buying this full price at all. It´s such a good game and the new production quality makes it shine even more. Really surpassed my expectations and I pray for a Devil Survivor 3 somewhere in the future. Given how much attention they have given this new version, I´d say (or hope) it isnt´entirely unlikely!
