REVIEW

Demon Gaze II Review

by Rob Pritchard, November 11th, 2017

When the original Demon Gaze was released for the PS Vita back in 2013; it was praised for being a quirky dungeon crawling experience. Four years later, a sequel has now arrived for PS Vita, and has also received a high definition release on PlayStation 4. Demon Gaze II follows the template set by its older sibling, and brings forward some new features that push the series in a new direction.

Waking up in a labyrinth with amnesia, a young man discovers that he has the power of capture demonic entities using an ability known as the Demon Gaze. After being recruited by a group of freedom fighters led by two determined sisters, you learn that the city of Asteria is under threat by demons that have erupted from various labyrinths, as well as the evil actions of Magnastar, the city’s leader. The storyline of Demon Gaze II is just as enjoyable as its predecessor, with the sisters Muse and Prim providing strong leadership despite their sibling differences, and the tyrannical Magnastar offering a villain that you cannot wait to remove from power.

When you enter one of the corrupted labyrinths, you navigate each area from a first-person perspective. Your role is to purify the Demon Circles that have been spawned. As you wander through the various mazes, you will need to unlock doors using levers, find secret passages in the walls and dodge the tiles that have traps hidden under their floor. In true RPG fashion, these traps can poison, paralyse or hinder your progress, keeping the player engaged as they travel through the enemy infested dungeons.

In order to purify a circle, you need to provide three Gems that can found by defeating enemies or bought from shops found in safe areas. The Gem system is one of the best features in the game, as it offers a vast variety of customisation. If you want to focus on receiving underwear themed items rather than weapons at the end of an enemy battle, you can do that with one of the Gems on offer. It is possible to mix the Gems in any combination you like, so you can receive healing items, weapons and lingerie from a single battle if Lady Luck is on your side.Like many RPG’s of this type, each character learns new skills at specific levels, and the weapons that you can earn alongside the Gems can be used to give your fighters and demons a boost to their vital statistics.

It is a shame that the weapons do not provide any additional bonuses beyond extra attack and defence points, such as the new abilities that are added to your arsenal in Final Fantasy XV. Outside of the labyrinths, you can choose to visit locations from a drop-down list, and talk to a variety of characters such as Muse and Prim, as well as Libra, one of the demons that you recruit early in the game.

The battle system of Demon Gaze II also takes place from a first-person viewpoint, in a similar manner to games such as Stranger of Sword City and the original Demon Gaze. As well as your standard attack and defend actions, each of your demons can be temporarily upgraded using the Demonize mechanic. As well as a visual transformation into an erotically drawn female monster, this change increases their attack power and decreases their defence stats. The overdrive mechanic is entirely optional, but it definitely improves the flow of battle, and provides a bit of fan service to anyone who admires the style of the artwork.

As well as the Demonizing mechanic, it is possible to go on dates with your recruited demons once you have used them enough times in battle. These social interactions allow you to unlock bonus abilities as level up your relationship and allow you see additional ending movies once the plot has reached its conclusion. In certain sections of your dates, you can also take part in a quick time event where you touch the demon’s Sweet Spots to increase your intimate connection. This kind of mini-game is common in modern JRPG’s, and even with the compulsory cultural censorship, it is as entertaining as it has been in titles such as the Criminal Girls duology.

The additional power of the PlayStation 4 certainly helps Demon Gaze II to be graphically superior to the original game. The 2D visual novel style portraits for the characters and backgrounds, as well as the pseudo-3D graphics inside the labyrinths all look beautifully rendered at any resolution. There is no slowdown when it comes to the frame rate inside and outside of battle, and the loading times never take longer than a few seconds to pass. There is no specific benefit to playing Demon Gaze II on a PS4 Pro, so the experience will be the same no matter which version of the PlayStation 4 hardware you own.

The soundtrack of Demon Gaze II uses a combination of high intensity music during the battle scenes, as well as some slower peaceful tunes during cutscenes. One of the best songs in the game is the final boss theme, which is a stereotypical JRock theme that sets the tone for the last encounter perfectly. Demon Gaze II is one of the few dungeon crawlers in the last few years to include the original Japanese vocal track, as well as a localised English dub track. Both voiceovers are of the high quality that NIS America dubs have provided with their past localisations, with the voice for Libra standing out as a highlight in both languages.

Overall, Demon Gaze II is an enjoyable dungeon crawler that both newcomers and long time fans of the genre will appreciate. While it does have some limitations with its customisation, the options available make every battle feel unique, and the challenge of conquering the labyrinths is definitely an enjoyable one. If you are a fan of first person JRPG’s, then Demon Gaze II is one of the best choices you could make before the arrival of next year’s catalogue.