Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker’s Shinjiro Takada (game director) and art director (Akiko Kotoh) took to the official blog of the Japanese Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker website to participate in an interview about the Devil Survivor 2 series of games. Siliconera provided a translation with some notable insights in this article.
The first topic addressed is the special subtitle for the game: “Record Breaker”. The developers aren’t willing to divulge its meaning, seeing as it’s probably significantly related to plot developments. “The subtitle has some deep roots in the story, so it’s kind of difficult to comment on that. (…) There are actually several meanings behind it, so please check it out for yourselves once you get to play it.” They did mention that it was inspired by the English idiom “break a record.”
Next they touch on Miyako Hotsuin. She is the younger twin sister of Yamato Hotsuin, the leader of the powerful JPs institution, who tasks himself with the preservation of Japan. At the same time, he is harboring knowledge regarding the demons and Septentriones that others aren’t privy to. In the new post-game “Triangulum” story arc introduced in Record Breaker, Miyako assumes the leadership role that the mysteriously-disappeared Yamato previously occupied. Takada comments that Miyako was a character originally planned to be present in the first iteration of Devil Survivor 2, but the development team could not find a way to satisfactorily integrate her into the story and so she was cut. However, her presence was reconsidered during development of Record Breaker and she was included in the new scenario.
The next question involved talking about notable aspects of Record Breaker’s development. Takada commented that he had trouble coming up with a conflict that could appropriately follow-up the Septentrione arc (the original scenario) and cause believable drama. He noted that characterization of the returning cast in the Triangulum arc was also a concern because he wanted to show that the events of the Septentrione arc made the characters mature. Kotoh, as art director, mentions that her main focus was on the game’s opening movie and that it went through lots of cuts and revisions. She hopes one day to show the work that went into the opening movie and the different opening movie versions to the fans.
Lastly, the developers were asked about what prompted the inclusion of Durarara!! characters. The collaboration content features rivals Izaya Orihara and Shizuo Heiwajima, alongside the motorcycle-riding dullahan Celty Sturluson, as recruitable characters with powerful abilities. They are freely downloadable for set periods of time in Japan. Takada explains that “one day, I was there wondering what would it be like if characters from one of my favorite works in Durarara!! were to appear in the world of Devil Survivor. They’re both modern dramas, and both illustrated by [Suzuhito] Yasuda , so the opportunity came from the thought of how they would appear as guests.”
While perhaps not as prominent a sub-series of the Shin Megami Tensei games as the Persona series or the classical SMT games, Devil Survivor has managed to carve a decent name for itself. Both of its main DS titles saw 3DS remakes, and Devil Survivor 2 saw an anime adaptation in Devil Survivor 2: The Animation. It was a one cour anime that started airing in the Spring season of 2013.
