If you’re a fan of dungeon RPGs, you’re probably familiar with Experience Inc. They’ve pretty much cornered the modern 1st person dungeon RPG market with games like Savior of Sapphire Wings (review here) Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi (review here) and the Spirit Hunter franchise along with a host of others. Way back in 2013, Experience released Demon Gaze for the Playstation Vita in cooperation with Kadokawa. While the mainstream didn’t notice it, hardcore dungeon gamers leapt on Demon Gaze as another niche title with more than a few ecchi undertones!
Today, the Vita is a dead system (*sniff*) and publisher Clouded Leopard Entertainment has snapped up the publishing rights to Demon Gaze, updating and rereleasing it on the Nintendo Switch in English as Demon Gaze Extra! Demon Gaze Extra revives the original game with some excellent quality of life upgrades that make a challenging game a bit more approachable! If you aren’t familiar with the original, you’re a Demon Gazer with the ability to capture the souls of demons which can be turned into keys to aid you on your journey. Your goal is to, well, pay your rent and debts and help out the folks in the Inn that you kind of woke up in with no idea who you are. Yeah, amnesia, but hey, it’s fine here.
Demon Gaze Extra isn’t the deepest game in terms of plot. You need to stop a bunch of demons and save the day so the mercenaries can raid the dungeons and everyone can be happy but there’s not a lot else going on here. It’s enough though. Half the fun is exploring and fighting anyway, so you’re not in this one for the plot. If you’re a longtime Experience fan like some of us, you’ll be aware that this is one of the earlier titles and later releases have definitely upped the ante on backstory, dialogue, and storyline. That being said, the plot, while rather remarkably and unexpectedly pervy, is kind of fun as well. There’s just enough going on that you want to find out the truth behind the friendly faces at the Dragon Princess Inn…
But you’re not really here for that. Or for the um, well, scantily clad characters. Or maybe you are. That’s your business. Regardless, let’s talk about the gameplay loop in Demon Gaze Extra. Once you get settled in the inn and get your first companion, it’s time to get down to business. Your job is to go out into the dungeons and slaughter everything that moves until you find the demon that runs each dungeon. Then you slaughter them and use their powers to capture their soul. Return the soul to the inn’s manager and she turns it into a key that you can use to summon that demon on your side, albeit remarkably weaker than it was in combat. Each demon has special abilities that will help you progress in the game, things like being able to flee from combat, finding hidden doors, or even walking on lava and in poison swamps safely.
These dungeons are huge. If you’ve ever played the Wizardry or Etrian Odyssey series you’ll feel right at home though. Massive maps full of hidden surprises and tons of monsters make up every corner of Demon Gaze Extra. On top of exploring the dungeons, the denizens of the inn will recruit you to complete a variety of quests for them, advancing the storyline and netting you money and special items that will help you survive. It’s an elegant gameplay loop that’s pretty fun. It’s also an interminable grind.
While well-designed, Demon Gaze Extra suffers from a bit too much of a difficulty curve. Even on the easiest difficulty, you’re going to spend several hours playing just to level up and get the gold you need to really get the ball rolling. The entirety of the early game is just dipping into dungeons trying to survive, then back out again in a slow buildup of force and money until you can finally start taking out demons. For some players, especially ones unfamiliar with this style of gameplay, it’s more than a bit frustrating, especially when just walking about on normal will have you abruptly dead through the random nature of enemy encounters.
Enemies in Demon Gaze Extra are particularly vicious. Their appearance doesn’t necessarily denote how powerful they are either and they suffer from the “we’ll just make this creature a different color and it’ll be stronger” style of enemy design that’s been endemic to JRPGs since the 1980s. Suddenly a weak little gem with wings kills your entire party! Gack! That’s actually one of the most irritating things about the original Demon Gaze, and thankfully, it’s been addressed here. One of the big changes for Demon Gaze Extra is the ability to try a battle again as many times as you’d like. It’s a big quality of life upgrade, especially for boss fights where a random hit just took you out right before you win. Died? Cool, let’s start from scratch! If they’re outrageously powerful, well, hopefully you saved because you’ll be going back to your last save point, but overall it’s pretty great!
Speaking of improvements, there are few other nice changes here. The text has been given an upgrade, increasing legibility. There’s also an incredibly useful high speed battle function that allows you to blow through the plethora of enemies populating the dungeons. Simply hit X on the controller twice and everyone attacks with their most recent attack! Don’t get too button-happy though! If you’ve set your characters to use spells, they’ll just repeat your last choices with every high speed selection, draining your MP rapidly! It’s easy to lost track of your hit points if you’re button mashing too, leading to some awkward deaths and pricey resurrections in the Inn’s basement. There’s even a new job category (once you make it far enough to unlock it) and the new auto-navigation on the map is fantastic, just like it was in Savior of Sapphire Wings.
So far, we’ve got a bunch of brutal enemies, some updates and upgrades, and a thin but serviceable plot with lots of scantily clad folks throwing themselves at you and, um, well…sniffing clothing. Even though it doesn’t really fit with the plot, there’s a lot of pervy stuff in Demon Gaze Extra. While questionable, there are plenty of worse titles out there. Either way, this isn’t a game for younger audiences and be aware of who’s watching when you’re playing Demon Gaze Extra. Guys are stripping naked and hanging out with you, girls are begging you to touch them, and the clothing pretty much defies the laws of physics. It’s all what we call ‘fan service’ and not particularly tasteful, but it’s not pure erotica either.
The background mechanics are nothing to scoff at here either. In addition to the main grind, you’ll have to constantly manage your inventory, upgrade equipment to suit the nature of each dungeon, improve items at the Ether Mill, sell your unwanted gear to generate extra coin, and use treasure maps to augment your hoard by ferreting out the hidden treasures of Demon Gaze Extra. There’s a lot going on here and if you’re not paying attention to the little things, it’s hard to progress. Even your characters’ rooms in the inn can be upgraded with furniture additions that give boosts to your stats. Scrounging up artifacts can also significantly augment your abilities, giving you that extra edge to blow through particularly tough enemies and demons.
As for the dungeons themselves, the game has excellent visual design. This isn’t a surprise from Experience, as they tend to put out gorgeous games with excellent background and character design and unique and detailed enemies. In fact, most of the enemies here have absolutely outstanding character models! You might also notice a more than passing similarity to some of the character models from Sapphire Wings. That’s because Demon Gaze takes place in the same universe, though it’s thousands of years later. Regardless, while some of the scenery isn’t quite as impressive as later titles, Demon Gaze Extra still has an outstanding level of finish, an excellent and easy to use UI, and lightning fast load times, making it a joy to play. It should be noted that the default difficulty is remarkably hard and the only way to change difficulty is to go into the basement and talk to the girl that lives there. The game never really hands you the information you need but instead expects you to just figure it out. There’s definitely not a lot of handholding here!
With six major regions and around 35 hours of base gameplay and a heck of a lot more if you’re a completionist, Demon Gaze Extra is well worth your time. The quality-of-life upgrades really make a difference here, and while it’s an older game, it holds up as long as you’re a fan of the genre. There’s challenge for every level of player here and you get out what you put in, even to the point of having a bit more do after you beat the game and come back for seconds. There’s even a fair amount of free DLC available on the Switch eShop, so while you’re paying AAA price for Demon Gaze Extra at $60, it’s a game that you’ll spend a lot of time with. Clouded Leopard has brought us an unexpected surprise with the release of Demon Gaze Extra in English and it would be a shame if you missed out on it! Everyone should spend some time with Experience games and this is a great place to start!
This review is based on a digital copy of Demon Gaze Extra provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was excellent in both. Demon Gaze Extra is also available on the Playstation 4.
