Developer: Experience Inc., KADOKAWA GAMES
Publisher: NIS America
Platform: PS Vita, PS4
Tested on: PS4
Demon Gaze II – Review
Demon Gaze II is yet another game from NIS America with a beautiful anime art style. It tells the story of a suppressed city by a sort of “dictator”. Only a few people realize this and they stand up for the people of their city. Demon Gaze II is a dungeon crawler where you collect your party members from the bosses you just defeated. You not only get to choose your appearance and name but also get to choose how your character answers in the story. This feature together with the first-person view of the game made Demon Gaze II alluring and had us excited to try it out.
Story
You play as the “Demon Gazer” with an appearance and name that you the player choose yourself. You get nicknamed the Demon Gazer as you have an eye that can take control of demons. Although you have no idea how you obtained that eye since you lost all your memories except for your name. When you wake up after what seems a dream, there is an unfamiliar person trying to wake you up. This individual is a farmer that got lost in the castle that you find yourself in. The farmer assumes that you also came looking for a job, same as him. Since you have no memories you just go along with it.
While searching for the group the farmer got separated from, you two run into a little girl named Peg. Peg says she will take both of you to where the others are. This turned out to be a room with a strange “furnace” in it. As you try to get an explanation as to what that furnace does, she throws the farmer into the furnace. She does this to demonstrate that Star power, a powerful energy, is made from souls in the furnace. Right before you suffer the same fate a guy rescues you. He seemed to know you before you lost your memories and is surprised when you don’t know him. You follow him as he says he knows an exit route.
Peg catches up with you when you stumble upon a door that is locked. You are tasked with fighting Peg, who turns out is a demon PEGasus. When you manage to defeat her, she seems to get “captured” by your eye and disappears. This shocks the other fellow but not for long as an enemy appears and you two have to run away.Following the exit route that your buddy had prepared, you end up at a dead-end. The enemy catches up to you and right when you want to give up, a girl appears on a wyvern. She rescues you both by having you hop on the wyvern and flying away.
You get taken to a house named Stella’s Place that was once a theatre but now functions as a tavern and secret base. A lot of people seem to know who you are but you don’t recognize anyone. They explain that they are a rebel group and fight against Lord Magnastar to free Asteria City. Muse, the manager of Stella’s Place, together with her sister Prim are apparently your childhood friends. They host a radio program together with the other rebels to inform the people of Magnastar’s evil. Prim sings for this radio program and it seems that her song pleases the listeners. To help their cause, they beg of you to join them as your Demon Gazer abilities will surely bring them to victory.
The story is well told and you even get choose what answers you give in a conversation. This means you can develop your own character a bit yourself. Some answers don’t have that much effect but others give a bit more story or have a different effect on the other characters. Being able to choose an answer gives an engrossed effect on the story.
Graphics
The graphics are very similar to a lot of other NIS America games. There are the typical beautiful still pictures in anime style that represent the characters in a conversation. These pictures change depending on the storyline, as in which emotions they show or if they changed their clothes. The backgrounds in the rooms are pretty amazing and look like you’re standing in an anime scene.
Mazes/dungeons’ graphics are in a 3D style but they seem to be reused and are pretty simple. Monsters are well designed in the same anime style as the rest of the characters and the demons that you can take control of have even more detail. This is probably as they become a friendly character in-game that joins your party after you catch them.
Sound
The voice acting in Demon Gaze II is amazing. You get to choose between English or Japanese dubbing. If you’re an anime fan you might prefer Japanese dub so it’s great that they provide this option. The soundtrack is sung by IA, a Vocaloid. Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer. One of the more known Vocaloid is Hatsune Miku. If you’re not familiar with Vocaloid songs it might sound strange at first, but the singing style of IA does fit this game and gives it a fun touch.
Gameplay
Demon Gaze II is a fantasy, dungeon-crawler, RPG where you try to get demons to join your party. You accomplish this by exploring dungeons and finding demon circles. In these demon circles, you offer gems to summon monsters/ lesser demons. Once you defeat these you receive loot depending on what gem you offered and you take control of that circle. When you’re in control of every circle, a portal to the demon realm appears. There you find the demon boss of that dungeon. As you defeat this demon he/she gets sucked/captured in your Demon Gaze eye. This demon is then released by Muse, the manager of Stella’s place, and is able to join your party.
There are multiple dungeons present in the city, these dungeons are called “restricted zones”. It’s your job to defeat all the demon bosses because they carry special crystals that hypnotize the people of Asteria City. Once destroyed Muse and her sister Prim can convince more people to rebel against Lord Magnastar trough their radio show. Prim helps by singing as her singing is mesmerizing and calms people. Defeating a demon boss not only enables you to let them join the party it also makes more people listen to the radio as you defeated the hypnotizing crystal. The more people that listen to the radio, the more Star Power you receive the bigger your star gauge gets.
In the dungeons there are different kinds of tokens to be found, some are enemies, others are items, save spots, random objects or even corpses. Lesser demons/monsters appear randomly and not only when you touch a skull token. The combat system is pretty straightforward, it’s when you start to use your demons or skills that it gets a bit tougher. Once a demon joins your party and your star gauge is filled up, you can “demonize” these demons. This not only changes their appearance but also increases their stats. Demonizing demons also unlocks some extra skills, not only for the demons but for yourself as well. These skills use your star gauge as well and since demonizing takes a bit from your star gauge every turn, you have to use these skills sparingly.
In Stella’s Place, there are a few other things you can do. There is a weapon and item shop where you can also sell extras to empty your inventory. This shop is run by Cassel, the person who saved you. He also has a bargain corner, where you might score a good deal, and a lottery that you can partake in. There’s also Prometh’s place where you can be revived or revive characters. An Ether mill where you can turn weapons into Ether and use this Ether on other weapons to strengthen them also stands there. You can also change the difficulty with the easiest being lukewarm and the hardest difficulty being the new “incinerate”.
Conclusion
Demon Gaze II really has a fun story that is immersive because of the ability to choose the answers you give. The enemies you fight are pretty with a sometimes funky design and these are just the basic monsters. The bosses of the dungeons are worked out greatly as they join your party later on. You can spend a lot of time grinding or just quickly hop through and enjoy the story more. It’s all up to the player. So if you’ve enjoyed a lot of NIS America’s games or If you like dungeon-crawlers and anime then you must surely give this game a chance. You could start with Demon Gaze but Demon Gaze II is also able to be enjoyed on its own.
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