Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga[a] is a duology of role-playing video games developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2.

Its direct sequel, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2,[b] released in 2005 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australasia.

In Digital Devil Saga 2, having escaped into the devastated real world, the Embryon are caught up in the fight against the Karma Society, who are intimately linked to the source of the disaster.

The game's concept and original draft were written by Japanese author Yu Godai, who collaborated with Atlus scriptwriter Tadashi Satomi until withdrawing from the project for health issues.

The other Embryon are the kind Argilla (アルジラ, Arujira); the hot-tempered Heat (ヒート, Hīto) the light-hearted Cielo (シエロ, Shiero); and the highly logical Gale (ゲイル, Geiru).

In Digital Devil Saga 2, two new main characters are introduced: Roland, the alcoholic leader of the Lokapala resistance group; and Madame Margot Cuvier, head of the Karma Society.

Once they are assembled there, a female being calling itself Angel orders the tribes to conquer their neighbors and ascend the Temple's tower to "Nirvana", bringing Sera as proof of their achievements.

During this time, the Wolves are subdued by the Brutes, whose leader Varin has awakened memories of a former life where he was known as "Colonel Beck", and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Angel to release him from the Junkyard.

Production on the initial Digital Devil Saga started prior to the beginning of active development on Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne in 2002.

[18] During development of Digital Devil Saga, the team were faced with repeated problems with fitting the entire experience on a single DVD: the amount of data was estimated to be two times that of Nocturne.

To tease it prior to its official announcement, a large number of unfinished plot threads and vague hints relating to the main characters' previous lives were incorporated into the first game.

[1] At the start, Kaneko was given the instruction to give the characters tribal uniforms instead of normal clothes, and an Atma tattoo somewhere on their body to signify their demon power.

Kaneko, who worked on Shin Megami Tensei, had wanted the game's Chaos Hero to regularly switch between his human and demon forms.

Creating the models proved difficult due to the need to extensively use level of detail while staying true to Kaneko's distinctive designs.

[26] One of the additional challenges was the fact that it was the first Megami Tensei title to feature extensive voice acting, inspired by the need to fully express the game's themes and story.

Due to the wish to appeal to a wider audience than previous Megami Tensei games, the proposed amount of violence and graphic imagery was cut down.

[27][28] While he had previously been restricted in his music quality by the limited storage space of the CD medium, Meguro was able to play half the tracks using real-time streaming.

[28] For the second game, Meguro changed the original's dark tone to give it a harsher feel and techno instrumentation, reflecting the state of the real world and clashing with the views of the main characters.

[30] The opening theme for Digital Devil Saga 2 was "Alive": it was written by Meguro, sung by Kayoko Momota, and had backing vocals by Yumi Kawamura.

[35] To promote Digital Devil Saga 2, a special DVD containing selected music tracks and movie material was created as an over-the-counter giveaway for the initial print of the game.

[39][40] The second game's release window was officially announced at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, to be published in North America by Atlus USA.

[59] Digital Devil Saga did not manage to meet its projected sales targets in Japan, and contributed to the company's console division posting a substantial loss for the 2004/2005 financial year, resulting in several staff members being laid off.

[4][49][51][52][54][55][57] Famitsu cited the game's significant shift away from the hardcore mechanics of the main series, positively noting the freedom of character customization.

[52] The reviewer for 1UP.com, despite missing the demon fusion systems from earlier Megami Tensei titles, thoroughly enjoyed the game, calling it "a great Final Fantasy alternative".

[49] Jeremy Dunham of IGN said that "Despite its repetition and unfinished storyline, [Digital Devil Saga] still has plenty to like", citing its plot and battle system.

[54] GameSpot's Bethany Massimilla said that Digital Devil Saga's combat and world design made it a compelling title worthy of the Shin Megami Tensei moniker.

[55] Eurogamer's Rob Fahey said that players expecting a traditional role-playing game would be disappointed, while stating that Digital Devil Saga delivered a generally positive impression while avoiding many cliches of the RPG genre.

[51] John McCarroll of RPGFan generally enjoyed his time with the game despite issues with camera control, praising the positive mixture of gameplay and story elements.

[50] Masimilla said that Digital Devil Saga 2 had managed to realize the first game's storytelling ambitions, enjoying the experience despite noting some design flaws.

[65] Kurt Kalata, writing for 1UP.com in an article concerning the controversial content of the Megami Tensei series, made mention of Digital Devil Saga due to its examination of the ethics of eating others to survive.