Demon Gaze is an enjoyable and enormously addictive title that strikes a good balance between endearing JRPG-style narrative and compelling dungeon-crawling exploration, let down only slightly by somewhat repetitive combat.
I have played the Japanese version extensively before playing this English version. A polished and modern take on the dungeon RPG genre. Highly recommended.
It borrows from classic games of the genre, in such a pure way that what will be nostalgia for some, will be hurdles for others. However, it's aimed at a certain audience that will enjoy every positive and "negative" side of the game.
Those who enjoy older RPGs like the Wizardry and Might and Magic series should enjoy Demon Gaze. Those who are used to getting instant gratification and being able to level up their characters with the snap of the fingers will be disappointed.
Despite its imperfections, an array of handy gameplay mechanics coupled with a colourful cast of characters provides just enough intrigue to justify the thirty-or-so hours that you'll spend level grinding your way through this adventure.
Demon Gaze is colorful, brash, and spunky, but it's little more than a wonky journey through dungeon after forgettable dungeon. If it's a grind you're looking for, you can do far better than the mediocrity of becoming a Demon Gazer.
I am overly impressed with this game- amazing interface efficient battle and an enjoyable grind (One of those rare times where I actually had fun grinding out something, even if it is random it's almost addictive.) The story and characters are a bit deeper than something like the EO series, but you still have that wonderful since of control as you decide everything from voice to appearance of your characters, something that I didn't think about before but being able to change an annoying voice is pretty nice.
Not for everyone, but really hit the spot for me. Now to go back to the dungeons!
This is not a game for everybody. But if Youre like me, who loved old cRPG like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder there is a chance Youll like Demon Gaze which is something like those mentioned above spiced with oriental style visuals. That being said there are some idiotic fan service japanese style half-naked teenage girls. And the game can be frustrating at points, but its portable so You can grind a bit more on toilet/bus/job/school/whatever.
Overall this game was big surprise for me I had tons of fun grinding and the combat/loot system was great. NIS hit the spot.
an impressive rpg, with a good story, and good first person exploration and battle system. you explore dungeons in order to kill demons and get gold to buy things and pay your rent at the inn you're staying at. the boss' in the dungeons are powerful demons that, if you can beat them, will be captured and fight for you. you can create and get rid of party members as you please, and rent out rooms to increase your party size. the combat is also in first person where you can see the character portrait of the member as they do an action. it gets grind heavy at times, but in a surprisingly fun way, although some people may not like that, as well as the frequent random encounters with enemies, along with the overall difficulty, although the difficulty can be changed a bit.
It's a good enough game but when you figure out one effective strategy for battle you don't really need anything else. Stay alive and hope the enemies don't out-regen your strategy or shuffle your party too often and you're golden,
Demon Gaze: A good-looking but bland tasting RPG.
Demon Gaze is a first-person dungeon-crawler JRPG. Aside from having to choose the Gazer class as the party leader, the player is free to pick from a pool of seven classes and five races (who start with different base stats and are locked out of certain equipment) to fill the rest of their party. The crux of the game revolves around defeating and capturing demons (the game’s bosses). Capturing demons will allow the Gazer to equip their key, giving them a suite of bonus skills and the ability to summon the demon in combat (who acts like a sixth, uncontrollable party member).
I enjoy Demon Gaze’s art. There are plenty of bright colors and the character portraits are unique and fun. While there’s little movement during dialog, the character’s expressions are varied so it doesn’t feel like you’re simply talking to cardboard cut-outs. The voice acting is also very enjoyable and adds to the NPC’s personalities.
The game is very, VERY linear. At the beginning of the game, the bulletin board where members of the inn post quests and the like is almost overwhelming. However, after a while you discover that all of those quests you assumed were sidequests are actually part of the main thread. There are only three sidequests in the game: Gather soul skulls for the mortician, Prometh, scrounge for black mushrooms for Pinay, the maid, and buy/find a set of rare clothing for the stylist, Kukure. All three of these sidequests are given fairly early on and you gradually complete them by finding hidden treasure (via treasure maps) within each area. The story itself “meh”. While on par with most JRPGs, nobody will remember its plot after a few weeks.
The game allows an online component called “Gazer Memos” which are signs with short blurbs written by other players. These signs can warn others about upcoming hazards, help navigate a maze or notify them about nearby treasure and how to obtain it. While useful, seeing the memos scattered about an area really ruins the atmosphere. Also, since every treasure has been discovered and noted by fellow gazers, treasure maps become wastes of space in your inventory.
Demon Gaze’s level designs are uninspired. While pretty to look at, there are no interesting or new themes to the levels (there’s a ruin level, a graveyard level, a forest level, ect.). Puzzles and gimmicks within the levels are just as uninspired and many levels have the same gimmick, such as damaging floor tiles, leading to monotony.
Combat occurs on an almost static screen; enemies only flash when attacking or being dealt damage and there is the occasional swipe or flash from an ability or spell. The entire game is in first-person, so you never see your characters react. Also, there is a very limited diversity of monsters in the game, making palette swaps common.
The difficulty is another problem that plagues Demon Gaze. On “cool” (the game’s normal difficulty), all the random encounters are little more than annoyances. Boss fights are either “decimate the party on the first turn” difficult or “could beat blindfolded” easy depending on the party’s level. There’s no sweet spot where you feel triumph over a difficult foe. You either crush the boss or be crushed by the boss.
Demon Gaze is flip-floppy on how much technical information if wants to give its players. For example, you can read up on demons’ abilities that you’ve yet to face or capture, yet it never tells you what exactly your stats do. I can safely assume that strength increases my standard attack’s damage, but what exactly does mysticism do? And why, despite leveling nothing but intelligence on my wizard, do her spells seem to do the same amount of damage as they did 3 levels ago?
Demon Gaze’s biggest fault is its combat: there’s just not a lot of strategy. While there are elements (air, dark, earth, fire, light, and water) and some monsters have weaknesses due to what class of monster they are, the extra damage is rarely noticeable. This is even more frustrating when facing bosses who, despite having titles such as “Fire Dragon Woman” and “Earth Iron Woman”, don’t have an elemental weakness. Status ailments (K.O.’d, poisoned, paralyzed, ect.) don’t last very long on monsters either and their most common medium, as special effects on weapons, is unreliable, meaning these effects aren’t a consistent factor in fights. This means most fights boil down to slugfests. The strategy I used for the vast majority of fights was to use the samurai skill Slash, which attacks an entire line of enemies, and the healer skill Holy Shield, which absorbs a bit of damage done to the party for a turn. There were no moments where I thought “Okay! I need to silence the enemy healer while rushing their archer in the back.” Most of the time, I didn’t even need to make a decision about how to attack, and thankfully, pressing the triangle button will make your party perform all of their actions from the previous turn. So almost every random encounter can be won by holding triangle. Bosses are somewhat exempt from the holding triangle play, but their fights are no more strategic. Boss fights are won simply by cranking up the defenses on your characters while chipping away at their health with your strongest abilities. Again, bosses have no elemental weaknesses and aside from a few who will remove your party’s buffs and/or who will rearrange the formation of your party (moving the members in the back to the front and vice versa), there is not a smidgen of thought involved in these fights.
I picked up Demon Gaze because it seemed similar to the Etrian Odyssey series. I love the gimmicks that each new stratum brought and challenging combat that the E.O. games have brought me. Unfortunately, Demon Gaze, while similar at first glance, doesn’t have much of what made its fellow modern dungeon-crawler great. I took a bite, expecting a taste of the epic fun I hold dear. Instead, what I took a bite of what just a good-looking but bland tasting RPG.
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