Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha Vs. King Abaddon - Gameplay

Gameplay

Gameplay is similar to that of the previous Raidou Kuzunoha game with some expansions and refinements. While traveling throughout Tsukudo-Cho and the neighboring towns, Raidou and Gouto can investigate into the case by speaking with civilians and searching for clues or other items. The store at Konnou-Ya still exists, as does the Gouma-Den. Upon entering the Dark Realm or other hostile environments, Raidou will randomly engage in battles with monster foes.

During battle, Raidou can attack with his sword (a stronger weapon which can combo to deal much greater damage) or gun (a weaker weapon which can stun enemies). He can also block with his sword to reduce damage taken and dodge roll to evade enemy attacks altogether. However, the core of the battle system involves utilizing the game's various monsters, many of which hail from previous Shin Megami Tensei titles.

The Pokémon-styled capturing mechanism present in the previous game is no more; instead, Raidou can now negotiate with enemy monsters to try to persuade or bribe them to join his side (a tactic employed in many other Shin Megami Tensei games). Raidou can summon two of the monsters from his roster at any time to fight alongside him; demons employ a variety of offensive, support, or healing spells which will greatly expedite the flow of battle. Both Raidou and his monsters will level up as they continue to win fights; additionally, monsters may drop Yen or items.

Raidou will also need to strategically balance his MAG (Magnetite) across fights. MAG is required to use monsters' spells, and more potent spells require more consumption of MAG. Merely killing enemies yields a tiny amount of MAG, but the key to much greater MAG acquisition is exploiting enemies' elemental weaknesses and physically attacking them while they are stunned from being hit by spells that target their weaknesses. In this way, Raidou must expend MAG to regain MAG; the goal is to attack with effective spells in order to absorb more MAG than is being expended.

Outside of battle, monsters can assist with investigations via skills such as mind-reading and transforming into various key individuals in order to deceive shady characters into giving up critical information. In order to continually gain higher-level and more diverse monsters, Raidou can utilize Dr. Victor's Gouma-Den to fuse monster together, creating more powerful monsters for Raidou to access provided he has the capacity to control them. Other self-improvements include synthesizing better swords for Raidou and sacrificing monsters to raise the strength of standard monsters.