Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei

Basically, I enjoyed this anime because it fleshed out the background of the megaten series a bit. It is more directly based on the DDM book than the Famicom game that followed it, leading eventually to the "two men in black" splitting off from NAMCO to form Atlus.

However, in general, it is fairly pathetic, even by old-fashioned standards.

Taken as a compliment to the light novel, though, it works fairly well, so overall, I rated it as "good", or 7/10... however, for most people, I would recommend watching something else... leave this for diehard megatenist, or fans of the DDM light novel (which is still ... not officially in English, but there is a fan-translation).

Hope this helps.

Digital Devil Saga : Megami Tensei OVA is a pretty good animation for me to keep me interested in the lore of the whole franchise. The first half of the OVA consists of 3 parts, namely the main character's present point of view, his backstory (on how he became involved with demons), and his flashbacks (memories from his past life), which interchange at a moment's notice and can be a bit disorienting if you're not focused on watching the OVA. The last half of the OVA is focused on the main character's redemption arc (the beginnings of his redemption arc, at least).

As a young adult ... who did not grew up in the 80s, there are points in the OVA that was pretty shocking and amusing to watch (pretty graphic depiction of sexual and violent imagery). The story is pretty standard for an anime, and it focuses mainly on the main characters and the villain. The soundtrack fits the tone of the OVA, which sounds very like the 80s (predominantly synth-based music). The art style is pretty reminiscent of Yu Yu Hakusho, Saint Seiya, etc. which works for the time it was released.

This OVA works best as a visual aid for newcomers to the franchise in terms of fleshing out the characters involved. Fans of the Megami Tensei series looking for a more in-depth explanation on what happens in the first book of the novel trilogy by Aya Nishitani can refer to this OVA if they find something in the book hard to interpret.

All in all, this OVA is a great experience for fans of the franchise. Do not be put off with the constant interchange between the point of views, give it a chance, and really savor the pain the main character went through. It's worth your time.

I had to finally leave a comment on MAL to counter some disinformation. You don't need to be a fan of SMT to enjoy this, and it is actually a very unique and fun OVA. It's full of atmosphere and many of the visuals are powerful and carry a lot of weight to them. The confusing elements of the plot just leads to it feeling more abstract, which allows it to get away with any 'inconsistencies' that other viewers might locate.
Highly recommended for fans of 80s horror OVA. This certainly has an interesting feeling to it, and while I understand that fans of SMT might ... find this to be an unsuitable adaptation of a universe that they are already familiar with, I believe that a casual viewer will still find a lot to enjoy.