Review: Demons Gaze

Oz awakens to find himself in Misred-a cursed land at the world’s western frontier-with a dark shroud covering certain memories of his past. The land before him contains many labyrinths that hold both treasure and danger in equal volumes. Without knowing where else to go or what else to do, Oz decides to take up arms in order to hunt down artifacts and eke out a living in this world that feels so new to him. One day, he will have to face his past, but until then, he has no choice but to trust those around him, and in his new found abilities as a “Demon Gazer”…

Pros:

• Gorgeous Disgaea influenced anime graphics with some amazing artwork.
• Tutorial section where you learn the basics but to be honest, You have a really detailed help system that is available at any point so you never feel alone.
• Difficulty can be changed whenever you like.
• Old school corridor esque style RPG with a real dungeon crawler vibe to it all. The map is revealed on your mini map as you traverse the land.
• Control scheme is simple with limited but effective touchscreen controls implemented.
• Near integration.
• Leave and read messages left by other players, Done in the same vain as Demon/Dark Souls.
• Small download size for the digital version so memory card happy. (523mb)
• Japanese/English voice overs and text options. Again can be changed whenever you like.
• Options allow you to turn off hud, mini map, subtitles etc.
• Main story contains many hours of play with a huge selection of side quests available for extra loot. You can play through without doing many side missions but the side quests do tend to offer better loot and more varied experiences.
• You can fully customize your character initially from choosing one of the many character models and naming your character, and setting gender etc.
• Earn exp by killing enemies,collecting loot. Earnt exp levels you up which increases your stats.
• Fighting is very much a turn based event, You see the enemies in a first person view and have a rolling text bar telling you whats happening and what damage has been received/inflicted.
• You can find gems which you can use at special circles which will summon a demon or demons, Defeat them and be rewarded with an item of greater power. Gems are put into 3 categories which are:weapon, armour and special. Within the 3 categories are sections which is a grid of item types like headgear,bow,sword,underwear etc. Some gems are rarer than others and can be combined with upto 3 being allowed to be summoned at one time.
• Buy/find/earn new gear and weapons. Shops are available from the main hub and offer a decent choice but the majority of upgrades will come from enemy drops.
• The central hub is a hotel of sorts, You have your own room in which you can decorate it with furniture which in turn give you stat buffs. Further rooms can be unlocked for new party members and allow you to chat to them outside of the story. Also on the floors are side missions bullet in board,shops and the manager who will charge you rent.
• Quirky humor throughout. I mean the fact that underwear is a Armour piece tells you a lot about where the humor is with this one.
• You pay rent for every visit you make back to your room, The rent is always a low amount and paying it is optional as you can do IOU’s, But paying on time and in succession will earn you special thank you gifts.
• Find treasure maps with co ordinates, usually you have to kick at the walls to discover a hidden door or passage. Treasure is usually always a much better weapon or handy item.
• Random encounters happen throughout the game and their location will always be different so you can expect to be kept on your toes.
• Along with random encounters, Items contained in the chests,or drops will always randomize their contents so you never know what you are going to get.
• Threat power indicator is at the top of the screen and is handy to keep an eye on as you pretty much have free rein of the land and can soon come across much stronger enemies.
• You can capture and use demons to fight along side you. Each one will have unique abilities and will do nothing but aid you in your quest. Getting a demon involves summoning it, defeating it in battle and then getting them turned into a key. Sounds long but is in fact a very quick experience. Using the demons over and over will rank them up and grant further better powers/aids.
• A cool map feature is the ability to mark on the map where you want to go, Then press go and the game will do the route and walk for you. Watch in real time as the computer takes you to your waypoint. You can of course stop this at any point and it will always stop on battles or item pick ups.
• Full bestiary can viewed as you unlock new entries, A wealth of books and background knowledge can be found and read from the menus.
• Huge varied levels with many different types of environment found within each of the levels.
• Menu system is clutter free and for the most part, A piece of cake to navigate with all button presses cut right down and uses simple compare screens for weapon choices etc.

Cons:

• Story is a cliche one im afraid but to be honest, You wont pay much attention to it anyway.
• The first few hours will be a slow overwhelming experience as you seek to take all the information in and get to grips with what everything does.
• The character portraits stay the same throughout despite being able to change weapons and it just feels a bit lazy to not have it change.
• No checkpoints in the game so dying will see you revert back to your last save and repeat the section again.
• A lot of difficulty spikes, Bosses in particular can just pop up and destroy in seconds.
• Run away is not that effective as it usually doesn’t work.In the story you are always known as a boy even if you pick a female character.
• Game can feel a bit grindy, especially early on as you seek out more party members and better equipment.

In Summary, The game is a good blast as a casual game, Playing it hardcore flat out will test your patients. If only for the die and repeat sections mechanic. Randomizing items and enemies encountered is a brilliant touch though which does take some of the sting out of dying. The opening few hours will drag though I am afraid but stick with it and you will get a great deal of fun from it. Favoring the more old school RPG fans, New players will be able to adjust and love but it will take some time. Having it all contained in a small download size is a huge bonus and one I wish more games took. So in short, Its a slow burner but does become something quite special and is a right looker of a game!