Demon Gaze Review

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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First off, calm the fuck down you guys. I haven’t had non-phone internet access since Friday, so I only played this shitty fucking game (and wrote this review) because I had nothing better to do. Secondly, this is a terrible game.


//Intro\\

Demon Gaze is a really bad Etrian Odyssey rip-off. And I say this with confidence, having only played 10 minutes of EO1 before dropping it like I drop reviews.

Essentially, you roll through dungeons one square at a time, fighting monsters you can’t see until you come across a boss, and then you go to the next dungeon after killing that boss.

This is your typical dungeon RPG map. Looks fucking sugoi, doesn't it?
This is your typical dungeon RPG map. Looks fucking sugoi, doesn’t it?
And this is your typical battle screen. Yes, there is an enemy here. The game just sucks at UI.
And this is your typical battle screen. Yes, there is an enemy here. The game just sucks at UI.

There is no progression; the enemies only seem to take longer and longer to kill as you’re death marched through the insipid story. And the gameplay won’t save you, because the battles are luck-based boredom fests.

What finally gave me an excuse to drop this game was being told to go to a place called the “clock tower” after beating a boss on, what I presume is, a level of the final dungeon. After checking the dungeon’s map and finding no new places to go, I spent about 30 minutes of aimless wandering around the shitty dungeon, hoping to come across an event, fighting mobs that offered very little EXP gain, yet had the potential to kill me if I so much as glanced away from the screen.

My aimless wandering did not pay off well. And yes, this is the game's attempt at a death screen.
My aimless wandering did not pay off well. And yes, this is the game’s attempt at a death screen.

Faced with the option of walking through the entirety of the dungeon all over again, during which I might actually gain a level for one of my characters (lucky me~), or quitting and saving my body from having to force a shutdown to save itself, I chose the least bad option.

I pray that with this review you’ll make the right choice from the get-go.

 

 

//Art\\

As long as you have real life nerd friends, there’s no reason to play one of Japan’s shitty DnD rip-offs unless there’s a kawaii pay-off.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing in this game.

I want to like this, but with that face, it's really hard to.
I want to like this, but with that face, it’s really hard to.

Some models look -okay-, but the vast majority look like they were scraped from a middle-schooler-who-just-discovered-Inu-yasha’s notebook. (Go ahead and pretend you never tried to draw anime characters; I know your secret.)

Someone was paid to design this beast.
Someone was paid to design this beast. I just wish it was middle school you.

Here are all the art options available for the creatable characters for your party:

I’d list their race and class, since they were obviously designed around those concepts, but I’d just be making a relatively informed guess hypothesizing, since the game doesn’t have the courtesy to say. These are all just aesthetic choices, since you choose race and class later.

Males:

Spoiler:

Demon Gaze Males 01 Demon Gaze Males 02 Demon Gaze Males 03 Demon Gaze Males 04 Demon Gaze Males 05 Demon Gaze Males 06 Demon Gaze Males 07 Demon Gaze Males 08 Demon Gaze Males 09 Demon Gaze Males 10 Demon Gaze Males 11 Demon Gaze Males 12 Demon Gaze Males 13 Demon Gaze Males 14 Demon Gaze Males 15 Demon Gaze Males 16 Demon Gaze Males 17 Demon Gaze Males 18 Demon Gaze Males 19 Demon Gaze Males 20 Demon Gaze Males 21 Demon Gaze Males 22 Demon Gaze Males 23

Females:

Spoiler:

Demon Gaze Females 01 Demon Gaze Females 02 Demon Gaze Females 03 Demon Gaze Females 04 Demon Gaze Females 05 Demon Gaze Females 06 Demon Gaze Females 07 Demon Gaze Females 08 Demon Gaze Females 09 Demon Gaze Females 10 Demon Gaze Females 11 Demon Gaze Females 12 Demon Gaze Females 13 Demon Gaze Females 14 Demon Gaze Females 15 Demon Gaze Females 16 Demon Gaze Females 17 Demon Gaze Females 18 Demon Gaze Females 19 Demon Gaze Females 20 Demon Gaze Females 21 Demon Gaze Females 22 Demon Gaze Females 23 Demon Gaze Females 24 Demon Gaze Females 25 Demon Gaze Females 26 Demon Gaze Females 27

RIP Disgaea. I once liked you.

 

 

//Builds\\

One of the main problems with dungeon RPGs is the notion of “builds” — specific set-ups that are pretty much the only way to progress through the game in a manner more efficient than trying to cut your way through cement with a plastic fork.

And because builds aren’t listed in-game, you’re forced to either come up with the greatest party set-up in the game on your own, or have the internet tell you how to play.

Save me, GameFAQs!
Save me, GameFAQs!

Because of this, the very basis of this game is antithetical to the freedom the genre purports to offer.

Every party MUST have a Healer. Every party MUST have a Wizard. Every party MUST have a Gazer. Every party MUST have a Paladin.

Make sure to put the one point you get on every level-up into Vit for your Paladin or you just wasted a level. So sayeth the Deciders.
Make sure to put the one point you get on every level-up into Vit for your Paladin or you just wasted a level. So sayeth the Deciders.

Oh, but the fifth choice is up to you! Just so long as it’s a Samurai or an Assassin.

There aren’t any re-spec potions, so the only experimentation allowed is to delete your characters and create new ones. And with how long it takes to level up (after 19 hours of playtime, my main character finally reached level 19), you’d be stupid to waste any time on building up a new character if you “chose wrong”.

Though in general, you’d be stupid to waste any amount of time on this game.

 

 

//Spelling & Grammar\\

It’s a NISA game.

Nice localization NISA

So 1/10.

 

 

//Story\\

I found myself dreading the completion of each level, as it meant I would be faced with more story sequences, involving hideous characters whose personalities were dredged from the bucket of bad ideas.

The underboob is nice but the everything else ruins it
The underboob is nice but the everything else ruins it.

The only thing that kept me going was that the concept of spending any more time with the gameplay was an even more frightening thought. And like I said before, I didn’t have any actual internet access this weekend, so my choices were limited.

Not to spoil anything about the plot, but you’re a demon tamer who goes around to dungeons, capturing demons and paying rent to an innlady. But you’re also a demon yourself and you go out of control like 6 hours into the story, killing innlady’s girlfriend. And also innlady is a dragon or whatever.

This girl is a dragon or whatever.
This girl is a dragon or whatever. But perhaps the real monster is Japan.

I don’t much have a problem with generic stories, considering how much stupid fucking anime I watch, but the pacing, presentation, and characters all made me want to punish myself by going to Qdoba for lunch instead of Chipotle.

The flagellants of yore would have shuddered at the masochism in today's society.
The flagellants of yore would have surely shuddered at the masochism in today’s society.

 

Overall score: 2/10.

Save yourself and spend your time on something better. Like fansub reviews.
Save yourself and spend your time on something better. Like reading the fansub reviews I’m totally gonna post after this.

17 thoughts on “Demon Gaze Review”

  1. I can only see that almost everything which DS goes bad-mouthing about is really good. I don’t remember you having tsundere mode though.

    Btw, too bad my party has no healers nor paladins and no one told me how to build char, but I was able to beat this game without difficult. Maybe you need to train harder.

    Reply
    • No healer or paladin? I guess you could manage if you ran the game on cool difficulty and went full DPS with Mars and proper artifact/equipment set-ups. How close am I?

      Reply
      • Yes, for last bosses only. For 10 first demons I ran on the third difficulty (I played jp ver) and did not enhance any equipment.

        Reply
  2. You can always tell it’s going to be a shit game when they spend more time designing the main characters’ bras than the fucking UI.

    Reply
  3. Oh thank god I didn’t buy this game. It looked like shit to me anyway lol. Saving me some money.

    >tfw your video game reviews are more practical than your fansub reviews.

    Reply

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