Dark Deity

 Switch
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. COGconnected
    Apr 18, 2022
    73
    There’s no mistaking that Dark Deity was heavily inspired by Fire Emblem. But what’s important is that it differentiates itself. And it does, giving it a well-earned place in strategy genre. Filled with wonderful characters with a ton of personality, and an intriguing but linear story with some decent audio, we have a title that will surely quench the thirst of FE fans that need to get back on that strategic grind.
  2. Nintendo Life
    Mar 31, 2022
    70
    The central loop of battling, chatting and levelling up is as compelling as you could ever want it to be, with an interesting story told well and a meaty 20 hours or so of no-frills tactics. Dark Deity lacks the romance options of Fire Emblem, as well as the first-party flair you expect from a Nintendo title, but the latter is hardly surprising and would be an unreasonable standard to hold almost any indie game to. Dark Deity delivers a convincing and essentially satisfying facsimile of GBA Fire Emblem, but perhaps fails to stand on its own two feet. Then again, we're not sure that was ever really the point.
  3. Hey Poor Player
    Mar 27, 2022
    70
    Dark Deity is a flawed—but enjoyable—take on the classic Fire Emblem formula. I wish some of its elements weren’t so obtuse and vague, but I still found it impossible to put down. There’s room for a sequel, so hopefully, it won’t be too long before we get a chance to revisit Terrazael.
  5. NintendoWorldReport
    Mar 21, 2022
    65
    You can feel the passion in the intricacies of the systems, character art, the gorgeous pixel animations, and the charming flavor text. Unfortunately, you can also feel that Dark Deity feels like a rough draft rather than a finished product. This is most evident in the UI elements and menus that are poorly laid out, confusing to navigate, and frequently unresponsive. For a genre as menu heavy as Strategy RPGs, it is very unfortunate that this could not have been cleaned up before release. But that’s not all. Tutorials are bizarrely small text windows and some text isn’t formatted properly, especially when displaying non-English languages. I’ve come across a bug where I couldn’t move a unit during a turn multiple times, and loading times between chapters lasted much longer than expected for a game of this scope. Music lacks oomph during battles and the level up sound is more of a whimper than a fanfare. This severe lack of polish does not eclipse the brilliance peaking through but it does dim it.
  6. RPGamer
    Apr 11, 2022
    60
    Dark Deity feels like a love letter to Fire Emblem in so many ways, and while it does have elements that make it stand on its own, it’s not fully there yet. That being said, there’s a lot to like in Dark Deity, with an addictive gameplay loop and ensuring tons of possibilities for customization to make its gameplay shine. I was so pleasantly surprised with Dark Deity on numerous occasions and I am eager to see if Sword & Axe LLC can iron out the kinks. Any strategy fan looking for a good challenge, interesting gameplay, and fun and customizable cast of characters should find Dark Deity up their alley. Just maybe wait for a patch on the Switch in hopes that the performance issues get addressed.
  7. Digitally Downloaded
    Mar 30, 2022
    60
    It’s hard to develop your own voice until you understand how other artists find theirs. While I ultimately find Dark Deity to be uninspired and certainly won’t be replaying it every year or so, as I do Fire Emblem, I also hope that this developer produces another tactics JRPG. I would buy that in a heartbeat, because I am quite certain that with a bit more experience as a team of artists, not only will this developer find its own voice, but it will start to build on everything that made those GBA Fire Emblem titles great. That – the promise of some kind of “Fire Emblem Plus” – is some exciting promise indeed.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. liorrubin1388
    Nov 27, 2022
    5
    The price is 25$ on switch eshop.

    The Bad: The game on Deity difficulty (the hardest) is poorly balanced and therefore impossible (I had to    The price is 25$ on switch eshop.

    The Bad: The game on Deity difficulty (the hardest) is poorly balanced and therefore impossible (I had to abandon a 3 weeks save file and start over with normal difficutly since the hardest difficulty blocks you after stage 6 where most enemies have literal 99% evasion). The music is terrible at times. The lack of voice acting is making me unable to connect to the characters which is making me less engaged and not carring as they die. Most abilities are so vague to not understand what they do at all, this game needs extensive tooltips as many tooltips for abilities as possible, preferebly with an actual image / gif explaining what it means "2 tiles away" or what is "magic increases with enemy strength" which is so hard to imagine that one image must be used to solve what the meaning of those abilities. Most abilities have a very outlandish description which you can't tell what the ability does at all. As for the story : The story was "lets go from point A to point B" for the full story.

    The Good: The fact that you don't lose unit, but instead a stat or instead you decided to dedicate time to try and have zero deaths, this is a huge fun and a brilliant system, knowing only one dude or nobody died makes you feel like a god. The leveling system is better and easier to understand compared to fire emblem. The animations of fighting is better than fire emblem. Some maps have portals which are very fun to use but this is only used once which is a shame since it was a huge fun.

    The Potential they didn't see: Stats should not be randomly given since what you fight for is stats (dead unit loses stats) there is no reason to make it random and therefore useless (a dead unit can lose 0 stats in catagory it doesn't use, and a leveling unit can gain zero stats in catagories it needs) I much rather each dead unit loses 1 stats of each catagory across the board and gain a set in stone stats per leveling up, Also create a new item: a dead unit can buy for 1000 cost, a +1 all stats item, making the game much more legit. (can only be used on a unit that died in earlier levels only once per death)

    Overall I think the game was fun, and gave me the fire emblem feelings
    I think its a 5/10 for the fun factor but no real engagement factor. Too much loss potential when your units become useless after 2 deaths and you can never ever use them again or they level up in zero good catagories making your only option replay from level 1 hoping they get better once they hit level 10. Huge problem which is destroying the game.    … Full Review »
  2. ZXSth
    Feb 5, 2023
    5
    An unfortunately disappointing experience. Despite being a big fan of the Fire Emblem series on the Game Boy Advance, I found it an immenseAn unfortunately disappointing experience. Despite being a big fan of the Fire Emblem series on the Game Boy Advance, I found it an immense struggle to feel much engagement while playing Dark Deity.

    There are compelling aspects to this game, and it is certainly not unplayable - however, it does not feel like it can live up to the legacy of the games that inspired it, and therefore lives in their looming shadows. If you have a deep love for the GBA Fire Emblem games, you might something to like here - however, expect to force yourself through a wall of ennui prior to enjoying yourself.    … Full Review »
  3. VajraEnki
    Dec 26, 2022
    10
    Las clases funcionan muy bien, hay 5 grupos de clases iniciales, luego 20 clases intermedias y 20 clases definitivas, pudiendo saltar desdeLas clases funcionan muy bien, hay 5 grupos de clases iniciales, luego 20 clases intermedias y 20 clases definitivas, pudiendo saltar desde cada grupo de intermedias a 4 definitivas. Todos los personajes acaban teniendo builds extremadamente diferenciadas; solo hay que tener cuidado en no hacer una mala combinación, porque una build equilibrada siempre será débil, se tiene jugar con la ultraespecialización en ciertos parámetros y luego llevar al personaje con un duo o equipo donde cada uno cumple su función.

    Que haya 30 personajes me parece algo excesivo, pero se perdona por el hecho de que todos están muy trabajados a nivel de escritura. Que en una obra 25 de 30 personajes rocen el excelente es bastante impresionante.

    Esté con escepticismo, pero es un juegazo. No lo llamaría una obra maestra por ciertos defectos, como un capítulo donde de aniquilan por el hecho de que por algún motivo los enemigos tienen una evasión del 80% y no los tocas. Como RPG táctico tiene algunas debilidades, como la mecánica de substituir el permadeath por una bajada de parámetros permanente en el personaje caído, pero aun así sigue siendo mejor que cualquier Fire Emblem y esto a pesar de haber sido hecho por un equipo muy pequeño financiado por kickstarter.

    Hay empresas con 1000 trabajadores que hacen la mitad en el mismo tiempo y mucho peor. Felicidades a los desarrolladores por el gran esfuerzo.    … Full Review »
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