Review for Demon Gaze II. Game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 29/09/2016 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 14/11/2017
One of the greatest advantages of Demon Gaze II it's his not wasting time in maddening tutorials, explaining everything clearly but with the right gradualness, without stifling or boring even players new to the genre. From the start of the main menu, whether you are playing from Playstation 4 or Playstation Vita it changes little, the initial impact is certainly that of a game with an old school soul, however “refreshed” to be attractive to the widest slice of the public.
First of all, one should be highlighted good pool of selectable difficulties, so that even the less accustomed can be put in the conditions to complete the adventure. Secondly, the aforementioned tutorial sections are not as invasive as you might expect. Demon Gaze II is certainly not a hectic title and to fully enjoy it it is still necessary to attend long conversations between the various supporting actors and to dedicate oneself to farming of levels and equipment, but given the amount of features present, everything is introduced and illustrated with a welcome simplicity.
After selecting the name and appearance of his alter ego, the player is immediately catapulted into a situation of danger, from which he will be able to escape with an exit in style. The narrative of Demon Gaze II presents obvious points of connection with the previous chapter and also the return of some characters, but the events presented are almost completely independent and do not require previous knowledge of the brand.
Demon Gaze II is a JRPG dungeon crawler, in which the protagonist, or Demon Gazer, is accompanied in the exploration by the defeated demons and "converted" to his will during the adventure. The party, consisting of the Gazer and four demons, must face casual and non-random encounters as you progress through dungeons, increasingly filled with traps and secret passages as you advance in history. The maps of the mazes are fairly extensive but not as varied in structure, to the point of being quite monotonous in endgame.
The various characters have at their disposal numerous abilities and techniques, offensive and defensive, whose effectiveness depends on the weaknesses and resistances of the opponents. It goes without saying that in such titles equipment is the key to success and taking the field without a balanced and fully armed team is unlikely to bring happy results. The various pieces that can be equipped can be purchased in the shop or (and this is the only option in the case of the more powerful and advanced ones) "dropped" by the Demons and Star Circle, or specific points of the dungeons within which, by sacrificing special gems, it will be possible to defeat the opponents and take possession of their loot. Obviously the greater the rarity of the sacrificed gem, the greater the danger of the creature, the better the equipment obtained.
The entities that will gradually submit to the Demon Gazer have names inspired by the constellations and their effectiveness in battle depends on numerous factors: in addition to the aforementioned equipment, the demons (almost all with the appearance of procacious young ladies differently dressed) will have statistics and abilities available depending on their form in "human" or "demonized" battle and the level of affinity with the protagonist. Demon Gaze II has in fact inside it too a sprinkling of dating sims, with optional missions and banters that allow you to befriend magical creatures, awakening their dormant powers.
Just like in the case of the protagonist, at each level up the player has full freedom to assign demon skill points to the various statistics available, which in any case will not create big differences except in the higher difficulties and / or in the advanced content, given that the "specific weight" of the equipment will always prevail.
In addition to the techniques and spells obtained through enhancement (this also applies to the main character, whose Trend choice during build will point it towards this or that build type) Demon Gaze II also offers the Demon Cross, a "turbo attack" thanks to which the protagonist and a demon will temporarily merge, leading to devastating attacks. The result of the fusion obviously depends on the selected demon, while its duration and effectiveness is linked to the Star Gauge.
The latter is a fundamental element within the combat strategy: any action performed by demons in demonized form will reduce it, while turns in human form will restore it. Once the Star Gauge is exhausted, the creatures will be forced to take their least terrifying form and it will obviously not be possible to use the skills related to the Demonized Form, let alone the Demon Cross.
The most difficult battles must therefore be planned with a certain foresight, since victory will be unlikely if an enemy whose strength is unknown is charged head on.
With over 15 demons available throughout the adventure, each with their own unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and that dash of fanservice that never hurts, Demon Gaze II has all it takes to win the hearts of fans of the genre. The dubbing is also well done in English, while the musical accompaniment does not shine for the quantity of tracks, but all are catchy and hardly tire, even during the longest game sessions.
In this regard, we cannot fail to mention the sore points of the title: the first is self-evident and concerns the uninspired design and even less varied of the creatures faced; even the animations of their sprites are certainly not the best for a title of these years and remind a bit too much of one puppet animation from After Effect, while it would have been enough to keep the drawings static - as in many other titles along the same lines - to avoid unpleasant effects of stretched bouncing.
Even the endgame component of the title is not very inspired, which added to fights that can easily exceed ten minutes in duration it could make even purists turn up their noses, making it more tiring and repetitive than actually complex to complete. Overall, however, these are challenges that are demanding enough and that will also see the return of creatures already known who got to play the first Demon Gaze.
Demon Gaze II is not a title for everyone: in spite of a well-made OST and a valid combat system, the rest of the game is extremely crude and unoriginal. It is undoubtedly a product suitable for fans of the genre, "hungry" for very old school dungeon crawlers and willing to grind hours and hours in the post credits to complete mazes and optional battles, while curious newbies could give it a chance, provided know what to expect once the software is started.
► Demon Gaze II is a JRPG type game developed by Kadokawa Games and published by NIS America for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 29/09/2016 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 14/11/2017
