Demon Gaze plays like a cross between Entaku no Seito and Stranger of Sword City but with cuter designs and brighter, happier colors. Same classes, same skills, same races with the same advantages and drawbacks. I like it, it feels very warm and familiar somehow. Though it does mean I wasted my time writing an Entaku no Seito walkthrough all those years ago. I should have just referred users to Demon Gaze, it’s almost the same thing.
I think a reader once mentioned that DG is set thousands of years after Students of the Round? Or was it Stranger of Sword City? They all share the same lore of dragons being in charge of keeping the balance of the world etc etc so most likely they’re all set in the same universe. Eh. Whatever. I hate lore. Not hate-hate, I guess. More like I don’t really care as long as it makes sense and doesn’t get in the way of having fun.
Dungeon crawlers don’t need stories so we’ll just skip the story of Demon Gaze. Or maybe not, since there isn’t much: You are the chosen one and you’ve gotta collect all 10 demons to save the world. I’ve beaten 6 right now, just got Game Over’d by the 7th (stupid Venus and her stupid adds) so I’m here to get my thoughts together, take a bit of a break before returning for revenge.
The game has four difficulty settings – Cold, Cool, Warm and Hot. Before tackling Venus’s dungeon I was playing on the default setting of Cool, but I found it too easy so I went up to Warm. Soooo should I lower the difficulty to Cold so I can pass Venus or take my lumps like a seasoned gamer? Decisions, decisions. I think I’ll stick it out for one or two more attempts first. My Gazer/Paladin/Fighter/Wizard/Healer party with an average level of 21 should be good enough. I just have to prevent her from dispelling my buffs and kidnapping my Paladin and we’re golden. If all else fails, there’s always the high-risk Enrage Mars in Turn 1 strategy…
Things I like about Demon Gaze so far
- Bright happy colors.
- I wanted huge dungeons with lots of loot and that’s exactly what I’m getting.
- Very easy to dive into after playing Experience Inc.’s other games.
- Adjustable difficulty means I can’t complain “It’s too easy!”
- It’s interesting what they’re doing with the demons and the skills you get from setting them.
- The dungeons are straightforward so you rarely have to check a FAQ or a map. Rarely, but not never.
- Not too much talking, not too many cutscenes. Huge breath of fresh air after Atelier Meruru.
Petty, petty peeves
- Dungeon crawlers don’t need fanservice. And no game needs this much fanservice.
- Having to select a demon before every battle gets annoying.
- Using items and certain skills is a pain because it gets in the way of mashing X and Auto every turn.
- Rent gimmick is unnecessary and just makes me dislike Fran. Just give me my keys, you money-grubbing slave driver.
- Actually the whole inn gimmick is unnecessary.
- Not enough missions on the Bulletin Board. I like sidequests.
- I’m okay with generics, but I miss actual party members just a little bit.
- Experience Inc. could have done more to distinguish Demon Gaze from the other entries. I would have settled for just new music and sound effects – I’m tired of hearing those harpies squawk.
So far the good parts vastly outweigh the bad, which is why I’ve blazed through Demon Gaze so quickly. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent on it, so I’m gonna hazard a guess: twenty hours. No, thirty. 25 hours of exploration and battle, 5 hours of getting lost and kicking random walls. Very little grinding because of the lower difficulty and aforementioned getting lost. I’m going to guesstimate again and say I’m halfway through, simply because I usually finish these games around level 40-45ish. See you when I’m done.
I’m glad you’re enjoying ‘Demon Gaze’. I’m five demons into the game myself, and also having a reasonably good time. I would agree with most of your observations thus far, except perhaps that while there are certainly not an excessive number of cutscenes, they do tend to drag on a bit at times.
I’ve seen you mention in the past that you’d like to try ‘Dungeon Travelers 2’ if you can find it cheap, but if the level of fan-service in ‘Demon Gaze’ seems excessive to you, then I think DT2 would be way over the line.
I enjoy your blog and always look forward to new entries. Thanks for sharing your gaming with us!
Thank you for reading! 😀
I’ve beaten 7 demons now, plodding steadily towards the 8th.
The scenes do drag on, especially when they try to be “funny” but it’s balanced by long peaceful hours spent exploring so they’re forgiven.
Yeah, Dungeon Travelers 2… that and Toshin Toshi Girls Gift RPG are two games I’ve been curious about for a while, but the screenshots hold me back. Maybe one day I’ll talk myself into it.
Dungeon Travelers 2’s fan service is absolutely over the top, despite it being one of the better drpg made I rarely recommend it to people just because how bad the fan service gets in that game…wish they’d bring Demon Gaze and 2 to Steam like they did with the Operation Abyss Babel games but I guess it’s just not happening. Oh well, at least I’m glad to hear you enjoying it. Did you play replay new edition of Stranger for the new ending too?
Not yet. Not sure I will either, since I already played it twice and have other games on my backlog. Is the new ending worth it?
If I did replay Stranger of Sword City I would do it for the new classes. Would be nice to play with something other than the usual suspects, but not just yet. My dungeon crawler schedule right now is Demon Gaze -> Elminage -> Operation Babel -> Demon Gaze 2.
No idea since I don’t own a Vita myself because I just refuse to pay for the overpriced memory sticks and Sony wouldn’t drop their prices, but from what I heard it’s basically a few extra quests and backtracking through the same dungeons again for more boss fights to get what’s basically a happy ending.
I just recently went through Operation Babel and it’s pretty much the same as Abyss except for the Cross blood (dual class) system and extend accessories that give you a skill or a level of spell of another class. It’s still a comfy game to play since I’ve played so many Experience inc games but it’s probably not as good as Demon Gaze since it’s a remake of an old game just like Operation Abyss.
Hmm, I might give Babel the “It’s enough to play a little” treatment, then.
Vita memory sticks are so expensive they make my eyes water. But the PSTV is an awesome (and affordable) piece of kit, displaying all my games in large and gorgeous color across the screen. They look so nice I completely forget they’re supposed to be handheld games. But the library of VITA exclusives is actually really small, so there’s no need to get one if you have a PC or one of the older Sony systems.
When it comes to the New Tokyo Legacy games, it’s important to remember that they are remakes of Team Muramasa’s indie/doujin game trilogy Generation Xth – which were really just three episodes of one bigger narration. That’s why the two are bascially the same game but offer the first and second half of the storyline.
“Demon Gaze plays like a cross between Entaku no Seito and Stranger of Sword City”: oh, how I love that sentence. It means that I’m gonna love these two games, because I absolutely adored Demon Gaze. Happy dungeon crawling days ahead! ^^
They’re practically the same game with different garnishes on top so I’m sure you’ll like them.