Demon Gaze (PS Vita) Review

Title: Demon Gaze
Developer: Kadokawa Games
Publisher: NIS America
Genre: Dungeon crawler, RPG
Platform: PlayStation Vita

So far the 3DS has been getting some really great dungeon crawlers with the Etrian Odyssey games. The Vita on the other hand has been left behind for many genres. This is all changing as of now looking at the next few months. As of this writing, I think given the amount of indie games and JRPGs coming to the Vita is pretty amazing. Shahid Kamal and co. are doing an amazing job with what is considered a failure of a device. Demon Gaze by Kadokawa Games and published by NIS America marks the first really great hardcore 3D dungeon crawler to come to the Vita.

Demon Gaze is a successor to the Japan-only release, Students of the Round. Demon Gaze takes place thousands of years after Students of the Round and you play as Oz who has the ability to seal demons and control them. You get a variety of options to choose your appearance in the game and you start by waking up at the bottom of a dungeon not knowing why you are there. You soon hear the laughter of a child from nearby. You try and escape but you run into a battle scarred woman named Lancelorna. She guides you in the beginning of the game and you learn of your powers. After your first encounter in the beginning of the game you enter the mansion that becomes your main hub. I really like how credits are displayed during gameplay in the initial section as opposed to in an intro video.

Once you’re done watching the brilliant opening video with the amazing vocaloid song by IA, you meet people in the mansion hub. Fran is the innkeeper and you learn more about her as the game progresses. There’s also the mortician Pometh in the basement who revives your dead party members for you. You can adjust the game difficulty here as well although even the easiest mode is pretty hard.  Whenever you come back to the mansion, your characters’ HP and MP are fully restored. You interact with a lot of different people in the mansion and also get access to two stores. The item store is owned by Lezerem who is quite the character and the weapon store is run by Cassel. They both aren’t fond of each other. Navigation in the mansion is in the style of a visual novel. Each character in the mansion has a unique personality and the interactions they have add to the feel of the game. The mansion also has a main hall where you can check for quests that reward you with certain items. The bath lets you change your appearance, voice and name.

The first thing you will notice about Demon Gaze is how bright and colourful the visuals are for the most part. The game looks pretty damn great on the OLED screen of the Vita and character models are really great for your party and the bosses. The enemies are quite uninspiring though. It is surprising how much depth the game has given its mostly 2D nature barring the 3D exploration aspect. The actual dungeons look pretty bad in some cases. Items and monsters scattered across the grid look plain bad. It feels like the art budget got over before the exploration work was completed.

The gameplay mechanics involve you grinding a lot in dungeons to earn enough gold, get equipment and basically taking control of the boss demon. You are a mercenary and use the demon circles in dungeons to spawn demons to get items or control them. You get gems from other battles or from the stores in the mansion. Using a particular armour gem will spawn a demon that drops that item. You also earn gold with each battle and gold isn’t just used to buy new equipment or gems. You also need gold to pay for your rent that increases as you get more party members and further into the game. This adds another element to the gameplay. Once you have control of the circles in a dungeon, you will get access to the boss. The magic circles in dungeons are very important because once you have controlled or summoned a circle, you can use it to save the game. Trust me when I tell you how difficult the game is in the beginning when you have very few party members. Even the initial battle with the Goblin King in a circle during a tutorial segment can get you completely wiped out depending on your luck. You need to grind a lot so you have enough gold to purchase rooms for rent that come with people you can add to your party. If you don’t have enough money to pay rent, you will owe Fran money and wont be able to access the shops.

You take demons with you during exploration and they have characteristics that help you. The first demon you control, Comet lets you find hidden doors in walls. The UI during exploring has your party and their info on the right, the map on the left, a danger indicator on top and the demon gauge on the top left. This demon gauge is very important. It goes down as you use your demons’ skills while a demon is open. Once it reaches ‘0’ your demon will start attacking you as well while it is in rage mode. Attacking the enemies will increase the gauge. The detailed map view also lets you touch a previously visited area to move to automatically. You can even drag a path you want to follow. It is great to see the Vita touchscreen being used for something important here. In some cases, it makes sense to keep doing the same action on some enemies and Demon Gaze allows you spam an action by keeping triangle pressed. While exploring the dungeons, if network features are enabled, you see Gazer Memos that are basically tips left by other players. These range from useful to pointless depending on the memo left. You can also leave tips using chalk.

The music for the majority of the soundtrack has been done by the vocaloid IA and it is really catchy. The music calms you down to some extent because the nature of the gameplay and the game itself gets you really worked up. Demon Gaze has both Japanese and English voice over options and the game is partially voiced. Dual audio is always welcome in a Japanese game because many people prefer to play the games with the original voice overs.

Before concluding this review I should offer a few tips to people contemplating a purchase or people who already own the game. Grind as much as you can and rent more rooms so you get more party members. This will help a lot and not make the game seem as overwhelming as it already is. Make use of the order system to put a class like Paladin in front. The last tip is always make sure you have enough money to pay for rent.

Demon Gaze tries to stay true to its 3D dungeon crawling roots, it adds a bit of panache to make it a bit more accessible to newer entrants into the genre which is a great thing. There are some elements that seem to be too much of a fan service to some but I wasn’t really bothered by them. The visuals are really great barring a few aspects and I love the soundtrack. It is really difficult in the beginning but spending some time with it is well worth it. If you’re a fan of dungeon crawlers in general or have been meaning to get into the genre and own a Vita, Demon Gaze is worth getting.