Akaneiro: Demon Hunters – Review
Games like Diablo III and other grindfests are more common these days and happen to look a lot like each other. Akaneiro tries to bring a little diversity in the genre, even if it’s only with the style and setting of the game. Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, may look like a fancy painting to hang on your wall but better arm yourself against the monsters that might come running through your living room.
Story
Akaneiro: Demon Hunters gives you the impression of a Japanese fairytale … gone wrong. The once peaceful and colorful world is now overrun with the influences of typical Japanese demons, combined with loads of once calm and peaceful wolves that are now feasting on humans. The wolves happen to be a reference to little red riding hood, but happens to be nothing more than actually that.
When it comes to the overall story value of the game, whilst there are a few good ideas they happen to be poorly implemented or simply just too basic. It’s sad that a game with such a beautiful art style has such a thin plot and does not offer us more than a short intro and pretty much a short description at the start of each missions. These descriptions aren’t that much longer than a few phrases either.
Graphics
Graphically the game looks charming even though it’s set in a world filled with demons. The style of the game is pretty much unique in its genre and may remind some of games like Okami, but with a RPG setting surrounding it. Whilst the game might not have superior graphics compared to other comparable games, the setting will simply add so much more to the overall quality of the game.
Sound
The soundtrack of the game adds up to the entire Japanese folklore atmosphere but is at the same time not really one to remember. Whilst the music may be fun at first it tends to get quite repetitive after quite some time. In the end it’s not bad but simply too limited.
Sadly the game doesn’t really offer you any voice acting to draw you more in the already limited story.
Note: The game currently has one of the most annoying bugs ever. If you adjust your sound settings the game will save the way you adjusted the music volume but not the sound effects volume. Be sure to turn down your volume when starting up the game if you happen to be playing fairly loud music. Just a warning…
Gameplay
The game starts out with you having to choose between three different ‘classes’. These classes happen to be Prowess, Cunning and Fortitude. Each of these stand for their ‘unique’ abilities and are pretty much typical classes like warrior, rogue and ranger. The fun part for some may be the fact that after choosing this class you’re pretty much still free to make your character as you please. Gear is not limited for specific classes only and you can still purchase skills of the other classes than the one you actually picked. This will create a decent room for you to mess around with your character and find a build that truly suits you.
Akaneiro: Demon Hunters offers a fairly classic gameplay scheme, comparable to games like Diablo, Torchlight and many other action RPG games. The game is pretty much a grindfest in which you will have to mow down all the monsters that are roaming around freely, wreaking havoc upon innocent people.
Akaneiro puts a bigger focus on grinding than other games in the RPG universe or at least makes it seem that way. The game itself consists out of fairly short missions that have to be played on specific difficulties, which in turn means you will have to clear it more than once to get all the rewards for that specific mission. Combine this with slow leveling and you might have to double that amount to be sure you are able to do later missions and have a decent set of gear to back you up. A fun style of gameplay for some, yet understandable a lot of people might expect more for this picturesque game.
Gear is a main focus of the game and the game offers you the option to upgrade the items you use. This is simple yet fun feature that is often overlooked in many games like Akaneiro.
To support this overload of grinding you will be able to collect Karma Shards when defeating your foes. These shards happen to be pretty much the currency for everything in the game and even healing potions during actual missions. Even though you will earn a decent amount of Karma Shards during your missions they are very limited if you want to use them for more than skills alone. Whilst skills aren’t that pricey at the beginning, each upgrade will cost significantly more. Add up the purchase of overpriced gear, with the same shards and you’ll run out of them pretty fast. Even though free-to-play happens to be the main idea of Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, this will motivate a lot of players to simply buy their shards in the store to keep progressing through the world of the game. Not only shards can be bought but also Karma Crystals which happen to be for items which can only be bought or to increase the chance of being able to upgrade your items. Items like this might enforce a little bit of ‘pay-to-win’ if your upgrades keep failing on you.
Conclusion
Akaneiro: Demon Hunter is a game with loads of good ideas that are sadly either not implemented that well or are simply kept too basic. Whilst the game is still going through constant updates some factors are already clear that they will stay too limited. This does not mean that Akaneiro: Demon Hunters isn’t a fun attribution to the world of action RPG games and if you try it out, it’s sure to keep you occupied for quite some time. Personally I’m hoping for a decent amount of updates to spice this already spicy game up.
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