Developer: Kadokawa Games
Publisher: NIS America
Platform: PS Vita
Demon Gaze – Review
Dungeon-crawler RPGs are a pretty old gaming genre that has seen multiple new adaptations in the recent years. Demon Gaze is one of those adaptations, and delivers pretty much what you would expect: solid game play that can keep you busy for many hours. So gaze into the eyes of your demonic enemies to capture their souls and do your bidding!
Story
The story of Demon Gaze is rather simplistic. The world where everybody lives in is called Misrid, which is divided in 6 different regions: the castle of Grimodal, the Old City (red and blue), the Slave Graveyard, the Curtain of Star Trees and the Dragon Princess Manor, which is your ‘home base’. At the beginning of the game you get the choice of customizing your main character, although the game will always treat the character as a human male (even if your actual character is female). One day you wake up in the basement of the Dragon Princess Manor, which is property of the manager girl named Fran. You’re immediately thrown into some kind of battle for survival, as you try to escape the clutches of a demon. After escaping you meet you future superior Lancelorna (Lorna for short), who tells you that you have a special power that allows you to capture the soul of demons. You are then tested against the demon that tried to kill you. After defeating it, you capture its soul and you prove to Lorna that you are indeed worthy of the title ‘Demon Gazer’.
After meeting up with a couple of the characters that will support you along your journey, you accept the missions that the manager gives you as a condition to stay at the Mansion. These missions consists of hunting down demons that terrorize the different regions and capturing them in order to harness their power so you can use them as help on your other missions.
Graphics
Demon Gaze adapts a typical anime/manga like art style. The whole game is drawn in 2D, while using 3D graphics while inside a dungeon. This style makes the game look very colorful, which gives a more pleasant feeling while playing the game.
Sound
When you first play the game, you’ll notice that the music in this game seems similar to the game that is made using the ‘Vocaloid’ program, which is pretty well known thanks to its mascot Hatsune Miku. This is the game actually uses a Vocaloid AI. This type of music might not be for everybody, but it does make the game have a more ‘unique’ feeling to it.
Aside from the music, the game also allows you to switch between Japanese or English voices. This dual audio is always a nice touch, especially because anime/manga fans among you do prefer to have the option to switch to Japanese (I, for example, do prefer Japanese over English voices).
Gameplay
As any other game, game play is the most important aspect of a video game. Demon Gaze is a typical dungeon-crawler that allows you to explore dungeons in a first-person perspective. While exploring, you’ll discover all kinds of items, hidden passages and enemies. The most unique part of Demon Gaze however, is that your party is more customizable than most other games in its genre. The game allows you to choose between a variety of appearances for your party members, including yourself. For each gender you get 22 different illustrations, while also giving you a special illustration for your main character. Aside from looks, you get to choose between 7 different classes such as paladins, healers, etc and 5 different races, like elves or humans.
Your character journeys into the dungeons of Mislid to kill the demons and gather treasure before returning to town with his loot. Loot can then be used to pay rent at the local Dragon Princess Mansion or it can be spent to improve the player’s party. Although battles take part in dungeons, the game’s menu is set in a town where the player can rest and strengthen their party. While at the mansion, players can rest or converse with the other non-player characters at the inn, including the manager Fran, who has a secret mission to offer the player. Certain conversations with non-player characters result in ‘heart pounding’ cut scenes. Throughout the game, it is also possible to change the difficulty level, either in certain Dungeon Rooms or by talking with particular characters.
Overall, the game does not deviate too much from other games like Etrian Odyssey and might seem rather cheap. But the ability to make your own party rather than encountering pre-determined ones while progressing through the story does make it more unique, and rather enjoyable.
Conclusion
While not being the most impressive game of all times and being rather cheap in its production value, the game does give you tons of fun when playing the game casually. If you adore the old school dungeon-crawlers, like anime/manga and you have a Vita that you don’t use too often, Demon Gaze might be a game for you.
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