Demon Gaze

Demon Gaze is tough as nails, sometimes dishearteningly so, but its overall charm and excellent sense of polish make it impossible to stay away from for long. A truly excellent example of challenging dungeon crawling.

This is a game made with loving fan service and an eye for details that only genre veterans will really appreciate. For everyone else it's going to be a pretty, but slow-paced and obscure RPG with an odd sense of humour.

A fun, grind-heavy dungeon crawler that shows off some wonderful anime designs. It is an easy pickup for most RPG fans, but especially for those looking for an old-school Wizardry experience.

Demon Gaze will not revolutionize the JRPG genre, but it's a very well crafted game, that delivers tons of fun and high longevity. If you love dungeon crawlers, you should give it a chance.

Demon Gaze proudly treads on proven grounds with a few twists of its own, and fans of the genre will surely enjoy their adventure as the bane of all demons.

Tough, beautiful, and easy to lose yourself in, Demon Gaze is a polished dungeon crawler with tons of challenge and charm.

The biggest hurdle to enjoying the game is simply your tastes for (or tolerance of) copious displays of fanservice. As long as you can handle that then you’re in for a very mechanically sound dungeon crawler with Demon Gaze.

Demon Gaze is what it is and it is fantastic at doing what it does. One for veterans of the genre only though.

Unlike some other "busty" games (Senran Kagura Burst anyone?), Demon Gaze is not just fan service. It is, instead, a solid dungeon crawler; not as good as Etrian Odyssey, but perfect for those who remember Wizardry and want to re-discover an old-school RPG.

Improves the JRPG rigmarole with one or two great ideas. Is a letdown in the writing department. [June 2014, p79]

Another PS Vita exclusive JRPG in the vein of classics such Wizardry or Shin Megami Tensei. Old school fun.

It borrows from classic games of the genre, in such a pure way that what will be nostalgia for some, will be hurdles for others. However, it's aimed at a certain audience that will enjoy every positive and "negative" side of the game.

A good example of "graphics don't make it fun", Demon Gaze is pure, unadulterated Dungeon Crawler in every sense. With a cast of secondary characters that give life to the non-exploration/combat parts with their dialogues and relations, an Inn which becomes our central office with even mortuaries that ask us for skulls, and an enormous customization system that even lets us choose the kind of loot we wanna get, this portable Dungeons tour can become really addictive, especially with a non-original but well-made combat system that makes us some Demonbusters and trainers. Maybe it is not the prettiest out there -watch out with some of its non-safe-for-work art-, nor the most original or memorable, but just give it a chance if you like the genre.

Demon Gaze shouldn’t be as entertaining as it is, but its addicting nature and substantial length make it an ideal RPG for the Vita.

There's a steep learning curve in place after the tutorials. [Issue#148, p.129]

Really, the thrill of the crawl is this game's only reward. For me, that's more than enough as the dungeon crawling play fits the bill exactly as a Vita game. But if you're new to this genre, there are many better places to start.

Demon Gaze is an old school RPG which asks for patience, planning and clever strategy. If you're looking for an hard challenge to play with on your PlayStation Vita this game will grant you what you're asking for. No instant gratifications here.

It's a good addition to the Vita's lineup of Japanese RPGs for a niche and patient audience.

A well-crafted and occasionally imaginative dungeon crawler that is let down only by its questionable presentation and sky high difficulty.

Looking for something new or distinctive in Demon Gaze would be a waste of time. Nonetheless, the latest effort from Kadokawa games is a decent dungeon crawler, featuring many dungeons and many more monsters. This could be the first step of a brand new saga.

If you are a fan of lengthy time spent dungeon crawling and customizing your party, then this will feel right at home, with over 40 hours easily of gameplay to be had. People who aren’t fans of the genre though, won’t find anything new to change their minds.

Demon Gaze is a perfectly serviceable if unexceptional, dungeon crawler.

Demon Gaze is not a game for those looking for fast, easy rewards; you need a great deal of patience to find success, and sometimes it feels like the game's narrative is actively working against your desire to progress to new places. But when you are narrowly clutching victory from the jaws of defeat, laying waste to a challenging foe through party synergy and clever planning, or finding an incredibly rare piece of loot that completely changes how you use a party member, you feel like your efforts have yielded delicious fruit.

While the presentation leaves a lot to be desired, there are plenty of elements that make Demon Gaze a good jumping-off point for the first person dungeon crawler. If you can stand the typically Japanese sexism, you might just enjoy this challenging, if repetitive, adventure.

Those who enjoy older RPGs like the Wizardry and Might and Magic series should enjoy Demon Gaze. Those who are used to getting instant gratification and being able to level up their characters with the snap of the fingers will be disappointed.

As with other NIS America games, I'm certain there's a strategy roadmap to increased success and battle progress, but I've yet to discover it. In its stead lies careful plodding through dungeons in hopes of surviving just one more battle...

An unlikeable, frustrating, and boring JRPG dungeon crawler.

All in all, Demon Gaze is a decent experience. It streamlines Wizardry-likes and provides a much more palatable experience.

Demon Gaze offers a simple yet addicting handheld RPG experience, distracted only by its flirty anime desires. [Issue#250, p.62]

While elements are bland and the story feels heavily padded, to say that Demon Gaze feels half-assed would assume that it's trying to be more than it is, a grindfest that rewards players with 2D titillation and innuendo. It does what it does fairly well, but it's also profoundly average. Nothing is ventured and nothing gained in any part of its design.

Despite its imperfections, an array of handy gameplay mechanics coupled with a colourful cast of characters provides just enough intrigue to justify the thirty-or-so hours that you'll spend level grinding your way through this adventure.

It's all a bit of a give and take, as the developers hide an enslaving, sporadically exciting experience-building regimen, peppered with unusual side quests and comical chats with other inn residents, underneath a painfully stock central storyline.

Pacing issues and juvenile sexuality will turn off many players to an otherwise solid game.

Demon Gaze is an RPG with poor graphics and story. As boring as hard. Only for those who need a game of this genre in their PS Vita.

I'm not sure, however, that some pretty graphics and an okay story are enough to make Demon Gaze worth picking up. I suppose if you're a fan of dungeon crawlers that feel like Doom coupled with slow-moving turn-based action, then there might be something here worth your time, but otherwise? You're probably better off just getting Conception II.

Without a doubt, this first-person dungeon crawler is designed to appeal to a small, dedicated, niche group of Vita owners with a fondness for Japanese anime naughtiness and the patience of a saint. But for the majority, Demon Gaze provides too little reward for far too much hard work.