The cosmology of Devil Survivor 2

Devil Survivor 2 stands out in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise by having enemies be based not on mythology but on astronomy.

Preface

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 (DeSu2) is a Tactics RPG developed by Atlus for Nintendo DS in 2011. An updated version for Nintendo 3DS, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker featuring a sequel scenario and voice acting, was released in 2015. As a spin-off, its magic system and demonology is borrowed from the parent Shin Megami Tensei series (SMT, MegaTen). Despite the name, it is not a direct sequel to Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, though it shares themes and gameplay.

In the game, most of Earth gets consumed by a cosmic Void, cutting Japan off from the rest of the world. The protagonist and his friends are gifted access to a mobile app that can predict the future and allows them to summon demons as minions. On top of that, alien creatures descend to attack remaining cities. To survive, the heroes join the government agency "JP's" in order to counter the invaders.

Thematic parallels

Despite being almost completely separate from the rest of the franchise, arguably even more so than the Persona series, the game's story continues to follow the overarching themes.

In Shin Megami Tensei, the standard enemies are Demons, a collective term for monsters, angels, and deities from across of various folklore. Using the Demon Summoning Program, a Demon can be materialized as an ally using Magnetite as a substance. A Demon's mythology is generally reflected in its design and motives, with gods acting as antagonistic forces who require blood and worship to take over the world. The Abrahamic God or its equivalents represent the extreme corruption of organized religion and often become the final threat to humanity's battle over its own agency.

Devil Survivor 2, however, appears to be departing from the long-standing thematic framework, but in reality it's a deliberate shift from religious origins to a wider, astrophysical reference pool. The seven main bosses, the Septentriones, are named after the stars of Ursa Major's Big Dipper (Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, Benetnasch), with Polaris (the North Star) as their leader. The Triangulum (Denebola, Spica, Arcturus, Cor Caroli, Canopus) are based on the Spring Triangle or the Great Diamond. Despite not being creatures, stars themselves have always been integral to human mythology and astrology. Korean (Chilseongsin) and Hindu (Saptarshi) traditions identified the Big Dipper as a collective of judges and sages, and Septentriones act as both the destroyers and obstacles in humanity's evolution, with their attacks referencing some astronomical facts about them. In both Western and Eastern esotericism, the stars often represent fate and cosmic order, providence and stillness, and Polaris is a member of the so-called Administrator System that rules the world with undefiable oversight. This makes the enemies represent theological concepts and cultural archetypes in a different light, and moving the conflict to a cosmic scale isn't too different from how gods in other games are dealt with.

A common theme in Shin Megami Tensei is the cycle of death and rebirth on the level of a civilization, with the protagonist being capable of pivoting humanity towards "lawful" or "chaotic" development as the calamity is resolved and faction leaders try to manipulate them to remake the world in their image. Devil Survivor 2 continues the trend with two representatives wanting to ask Polaris to brainwash the populace to address the injustices they have witnessed, though they want to fix the current world instead of rebuilding it. Yamato Hotsuin plans to take advantage of the crisis to create the world of Meritocracy where those who don't prove merit and strength are left to die, while Ronaldo Kuriki wants to establish Egalitarianism and ensure equality at the cost of individual drive. Between them are Daisuke Namikawa and Alcor, who want to remove Polaris altogether. Different routes operate like literary debates about interpreting the ordeal, while the sequel arc treats none of the endings as canon and comes up with a compromise to bridge the time gap.

What is majorly different is that the invaders are independent, impersonal, and mechanistic. Gods try to manipulate humanity for their personal gain and are capable of hatred, jealousy, and joy. They try to argue about their authority based on precedent and their own strength, fight each other to become stronger, and fold when faced with the possibility of their death. The Septentriones instead work like deconstruction robots, cleansing the rest of humanity because Polaris has deemed humanity's lack of growth a "bug in the system" she was put in charge of and requiring a full reset. There's no religious dogma, as Septentriones are completely foreign entities that enact a directive known only to themselves. Instead of malicious spiritual creatures, humans face against a cosmic horror that decided they are individually inconsequential. Polaris can be reasoned with to spare humanity, but on her own terms, and getting rid of her permanently requires breaking a celestial powerhouse that normally would be able to rewrite the world at will. This is also the only time she becomes actively spiteful, as she doesn't believe humans can survive without coming up with one world order. Similar to YHVH, Polaris is an arbiter of humanity's worth and operates like Aristotle's Prime Mover, but she isn't a god that tries to get rid of the competition; she already stands on the top and has little incentive to be emotional. Also interestingly, while YHVH feels like a father figure who desires to be respected by his delusionally perceived children, Polaris has mother-coded design and treats human rebellion as them needing to prove they can stand up for themselves. Removing a mythological enemy, the story creates a neural villain not based on any culture.

In contrast to the Septentriones, humans embody resilience and the capacity to change. As Polaris is disappointed by her expectations not being met, Alcor has been helping humanity behind the scenes by providing aid in mysterious ways and assisting in their growth. Quite, Alcor appears to be a stand-in for both Prometheus and Lucifer in his philosophy about human potential. Polaris doesn't even mind being challenged as long as humans can demonstrate said potential. Each of the party members shows various philosophies and coping mechanisms in the face of an inescapable disaster and shows that not even entropy can scare them. Unlike Devil Survivor 1, the game adds the Fate System, effectively Social Links from Persona, that allow the protagonist to bond with his party members for additional bonuses. Being empathetic to allies allows them to escape predetermined death during story events and join the protagonist during his final decision. In the endings, it's humans that shape their reality, not the all-powerful and indifferent determinism of the cosmos. Fittingly for the celestial theme, each party member is also based on both Eastern and Western Zodiac.

The Triangulum story arc further expands the universe by showing the Akashic Records as an incomprehensibly vast digitized space with Earth being physically indistinguishable from a simulation on a server. Even Polaris's trial is revealed as a cog in a larger machine, with humanity's fight for independence being insignificant in the greater scope of things until they start interfering with the system itself. Instead of proving their right to exist to a god stand-in, the heroes instead have to take down the master of the entire universe that treats their accomplishments as an error, showing that human potential surpasses even the fundamental laws of physics.

Expansion on the lore

It's undeniable that Shin Megami Tensei's cosmology is massive, with battles for souls taking place in spiritual oceans and even on the edge of metafiction. But Devil Survivor 2 steps it up by showing that no matter how impressive the divine conflicts are, they are still localized to Earth and there are greater forces out there. Alongside the familiar mechanics, the game features:

1. The standard angels and demons operating on the classic logic of Magnetite bodies and Demon Summoning. But the latter this time is revealed to be created by Alcor as a gift to Hotsuin's ancestor to prepare for an incoming trial and is later digitized, instead of being developed by Akemi Nakajima while researching the occult like in the source novel. Various demons try to take advantage of the situation, but instead of masterminding the events, they are just minor threats caught in the crossfire.
2. Deities sealed by JP's into the land and requiring reenacting their folklore rituals to be revived instead of being summoned, suggesting independent origin. In the greater scope of things, they can be treated as subroutine scripts that perform very specific tasks if the conditions are met.
3. The Dragon Stream, also known as the leyline, is, a raw mystical energy source that can be materialized by Yamato Hotsuin as a dragon that can easily counter the invaders, and various towers placed across Japan on top of the energy spots are strong enough to halt the cosmic Void from erasing Earth, which is the reason they are targeted. This capability suggests either a leftover authority or a form of data too alien for the system to process. The Towers act as a firewall, which is ironic considering, from the system's point of view, the virus is on the inside.
4. The Administrator System that appears to be running since the dawn of time and treats the world like a biological sandbox environment. Polaris and Alcor are the only members with intelligence, while the Septentriones act as monstrous programs that assist in advancing the Void and learn from each other's defeat. Polaris's disappointment in humanity's development despite Alcor helping the species behind her back and her being open to negotiations suggests an ambiguous cosmic plan, with herself as a middle management sysadmin who turns out to not be the root of the problem despite her unimaginable power. The system also appears to have a rotation cycle, as Polaris is mentioned to have three predecessors (Kochab, Thuban, Vega) and is expecting to be succeeded herself by another star (Er Rai), demonstrating that defeating Polaris wouldn't have made humans independent for long.
5. The Akashic Records that is depicted literally as a cosmic server room the Administrators, or rather anyone who takes over the Heavenly Throne, have access to but not control of, which allows a complete override of the world after it's erased, down to altering the humans' dominant philosophy and rewinding time. Quite notably, in the game Void looks like an edge of corrupt pixels, as if a part of the screen were torn off, with the world actually being a simulation left up to interpretation. While not conceptually explored, the Akashic Records also contains the database of the past and future events, which also provides an in-universe justification for NewGame+.
6. The Triangulum, which is a group of an Administrator (again, effectively a god) and its Sword stars that Canopus effortlessly manifested as an emergency replacement for Polaris when Alcor tried to use the Akashic Records to fix the events of the original game, suggesting a rigid system of authorities and intrusion handling.
7. Canopus itself, the Divine Order of theUniverse, is, a semi-sapient megacomputer that is not only revealed as the master of the Akashic Records and the Administrators, but its body is composed of structures that define various laws of physics in themselves. Canopus does not "decide" that gravity exists or that time flows forward; it is the physical manifestation of those rules. It can be considered the hardware the universe operates on, while also displaying some degree of tactical thinking even if its capabilities of foresight were proven to be poor.

In conclusion

While the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games are built on mysticism and great spirits going rogue, Devil Survivor 2 constructs a cosmology that is fundamentally astrophysical and systemic. There isn't just one bad guy trying to take over mankind, but rather a preexisting governing force that sees mankind diverging from a plan that was already enforced and is greatly superior to any one god.

Alongside a shift in the main theme, Devil Survivor 2 creates an enormous and rigorously defined system that remains consistent with MegaTen's metaphysics. The unique world-building with themes of space horror and information theory provides a brilliant and emotion-provoking adventure, and I find it a shame the franchise has left this experimental framework in a self-contained spin-off exclusive to a now old console.

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