Title: Demon Gaze
Format: PS Vita
Release Date: April 22, 2014
Publisher: NIS America
Developer: Experience Inc.
Price: $39.99
ESRB Rating: T
Demon Gaze is yet another solid dungeon crawler for the Vita, a genre that has found a nice home on the Vita.
Story and Presentation:You begin Demon Gaze by waking up at the bottom of a dark dungeon, where you hear faint laughter in the background. As you make your way through the dungeon, the laughter continues until you come across a warrior woman who gives you a weapon. She gives you the weapon and points you toward the laughter, which turns out to be a demon. This is where you realize you have special abilities. You find out you're a Gazer, a person who's able to capture and control demons. You quickly discover more about your precarious situation, and take refuge at the Dragon Princess Inn. You join a band of mercenaries at the inn who complete menial tasks for pay, but Fran, the inn's manager, has a much more imperative job for you. You're tasked with finding and capturing all of the demons who're wreaking havoc in the lands. It's a nice foundation for your dungeon crawling, which turns out to be a lot deeper than the game lets on. Fran has helps unravel the motives of the band of mercenaries, all the while revealing her true nature. Unfortunately, the game constantly gives you meaningless tasks, which will bring the narrative to a slow crawl. If you have the patience how ever, the narrative can be very rewarding if you stick with it. The visuals are solid in Demon Gaze as well, each character's art is both detailed and visually stimulating. Even though they're 2D, the art still makes an impact. The 3D dungeons don't look that great, but the intricate map layouts make up for the overall bland style of the dungeons. The music is adequate, and the voice acting is a mixed bag. Some character come off as uninspired, while other voice actors get really into the characters, giving you a bit of personality to the art.
Core Gameplay:The story may feature twists and turns throughout your time with it, but the gameplay from the start is pretty straightforward. It's a turn based first person RPG that draws a lot of inspiration from old school RPGs. The Dragon Princess Inn acts as the game's hub, where you can buy items and weapons, take quests, and rent rooms for up to four additional party members. As you explore the dungeon, the first person perspective could be a bit off putting for some, and controlling your movement with both analog sticks takes a bit of getting used to. There's a steep learning curve here, but if you stick with it, you can start appreciating the little nuances that are buried underneath the daunting exterior. A cool feature is the ability to read and write gazer memos. This is a feature similar to leaving messages for other players in the Dark Souls games. It's a cool way to help out or receive help during a tough dungeon. It makes you feel like you're apart of a bigger community, even though you're exploring on your own. Another cool feature in the dungeons of Demon Gaze is the circles. Circles serve a variety of purposes and are essential to your success. Their first role is as checkpoints, and you must take control of every circle in a dungeon before you can fight that dungeon's demon in its final state.
They also act as points where you can save and swap out the demon keys you've earned. The combat in the game is tough, you have all your standard attacks, but the real key is to release your demons in battle. Demons have their own health, loyalty levels, and skill sets, and behave according to their own personalities. Before their time gauge runs out, you can control them to your own advantage. But if their gauge runs dry, they'll attack both you and the enemies on screen. Gaining levels and special abilities is still essential as well, with you and your party all gaining specific abilities based on their respective classes.
Final Thoughts:Demon Gaze is not for gamers who enjoy quick leveling and fast rewards. This game is going to require some patience, but the rewards are very satisfying if you stick with it.
+Unique Story
+Challenging Combat
-Story lingers in the Middle
-Visuals are a Mixed Bag
S&S Rating: 7/10 @whatsPlay
