My One-Year Raidouversary
Published: 2025年3月5日
Word Count: 630
It's March 5th, which means it's officially been one whole year since I played Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army for the first time. Before you ask, yes the fact that my introduction to the DSRK series and the anniversary of its inception are three days apart will haunt me for the rest of my life.
The fact that it's only been a year feels weird to me; I fell so fast and hard into my DSRK special interest that it just about consumed my entire life. It's been the subject of a lot of fandom "firsts" for me, too: first fandom I've bought (and received, at least. Sigh.) merchandise for, first fandom I've published fanfiction for, the list goes on. Ironically, it's also the first fandom that I've stepped away from while still in the throes of a special interest. Which was probably for the best, in all honesty. If anything, having an interest all to "my own" has only made DSRK even more special to me.
As corny or as hyperbolic as it may seem to say, I do honestly feel like DSRK has changed my life. Last year, spring semester was really rough for me, and Soulless Army's lighthearted tone and endearing cast of characters provided a welcome distraction from the day-to-day stress of trying (and mostly failing) to keep up with school. In a handful of interviews promoting the game's release, Kazuma Kaneko has mentioned that the core theme of Soulless Army is "passion," and that they wanted to make something uplifting to counter the perceived bleakness of the state of Japan at the time. To me, this core theme is exactly what makes the game so great. While I'm obviously not in 2006 Japan, seeing Raidou's determination to keep pushing forward even in the face of adversity gave me the motivation I needed during a low period in my life.
Soulless Army can be a bit rough around the edges at times, but you can still see just how much this idea of "passion" oozes from every aspect of the game, and for me that more than makes up for most of its flaws. What was once supposed to be a smaller side game for the PSP ended up growing so much in scale and ambition during development that it had to be moved to the PS2, standing next to other Megami Tensei darlings like Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, and Persona. Combat is one of the areas where Soulless Army gets the most criticism, and is probably the objectively weakest part of the game, but I think the fact that the development team was willing to take a risk and try something new instead of falling back on the traditional turn-based combat of previous Devil Summoner games is commendable, even if they didn't quite stick the landing. And that's not even mentioning the game's high points, like its simple-yet-entertaining story, lovable cast of characters, or sense of humor.
While Soulless Army may have had poor sales and middling reviews compared to its contemporaries in the Megami Tensei franchise, it's still one of my favorite games of all time. It came into my life at the exact perfect time for its message to resonate with me in a way that I've never really experienced before. I'll probably write something that better articulates why I love Soulless Army so much eventually, but for now I just wanted to get something out as a silly little celebration of something very important to me. Sorry for rambling aimlessly for so long, but tl;dr I fucking love Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army I don't care if it kind of sucks. At least it's better than King Abaddon.
(But that's a topic for another day)
I walked 45 minutes to the grocery store in below-freezing temperatures to buy a cupcake for my Raidou figma on Soulless Army's release anniversary. The things I do for autism. (It didn't even taste good)
