If there’s one genre Experience knows, its the first-person, party-based dungeon crawler. It’s been working on them for years. One of its first titles to appear outside is Demon Gaze. Well, now it’s back! Demon Gaze Extra is a remastered and expanded version of the original for the Switch and PS4. The good news is, people who played the take on it that appeared on the Vita worldwide in 2014 will still get experience everything good about it again. The better news is, a number of quality of life adjustments make it even more inviting.
You wake up alone in a dungeon. It’s a serious situation. A demon is loose. You manage to find your way through, only to learn you are a Demon Gazer. You can defeat these demons, lock them away, then use them later to aid your cause. Though said demons can also rampage out of control. Upon your success, you’re given a place at the Dragon Princess Inn. Your new goal is to visit areas around it to fight the demons there. As you do, you’ll add them to your roster, as well as get a chance to create custom party members who will join your cause. While it initially seems like it could be about money and peace, players will eventually learn secrets about their avatar, the demons, the world, and the Dragon Princess Inn residents.
Demon Gaze Extra follows the same sort of formula as Experience’s other first-person, party-based dungeon crawlers. Each of the regions in the world has its own gimmick. This means certain looks and hazards. Dungeons have summoning circles, which you can lure monsters to with certain sorts of gems. Doing so nets you special equipment after the fight, which you can use or sell. You start out with the Demon Gazer avatar, one custom ally of your choosing, and a supportive Demon named Comet. Your party can eventually include five allies, with eight class types and six races available. (Note: The new class is locked to one new race.) When a battle comes up, it is a turn-based affair. You dictate your avatar and party members’ actions. If you summon a demon, they’ll act on their own. Characters can gain new abilities as they level up. Though you can also acquire Artifacts that offer various boons and abilities.
The Demon-element is the unique feature here. Demons appear as bosses in the world. If you defeat them, you get “keys” for them. While at the Dragon Princess Inn, you can equip up to three of them. Just by being around, they can grant access to certain abilities. For example, Comet will help you find secret doors in a dungeon and Kronos’ Ironfoot protects you from floor hazards that might damage the party. Each demon also has certain tendencies in a fight. Hermes’ Wind Act grants you priority over enemies. If you bring someone like Neptune along, Heal Shower could be used as a skill to restore health just because that character is along. When summoned, they can act in certain ways. Comet will heal. Mars is amazing for pure damage when open.
All of that should sound familiar. They’re back from the first game. Though I mean, things will look a bit crisper and clearer than it did on the Vita. That’s the whole “remastered” perk. But there’s new content there too! Which, given the age of the original game, might not immediately jump out at a returning player. Still, there are new events. Which can in turn lead to new story segments and perks if you take the time to find them. For example, Grimodar Castle offers new events that lead to another one of the draws of Demon Gaze Extra—the new Machina job. What’s great is how the balancing is handled. When you do get the Machina class, it is automatically at level 20. This means you can use it without feeling like you need to grind. It isn’t as obvious to use as, say, classes like Fighter, Healer, or Wizard. However, there’s a lot of freedom with what you can do given its reliance on Artifacts and their bonus effects.
As for the other additions, they mainly make it easier to play. Did you die in a battle? You won’t get a game over. Instead you’ll get an option to retry the fight from the beginning. Know you have a lot of grinding ahead of you? Press the X button and fast forward through those fights. (You can also press X to automatically repeat the actions from the previous turn.) You won’t completely 100% map and explore an area the first time you enter it. You’ll have to enter and exit a fit times to get stronger. There is an option to set up an autopilot to quickly follow certain paths. It feels more efficient.
All of which is good because, well, Demon Gaze Extra can get challenging! This is the sort of game where you get out of it what you put into it. There will be some bosses that will very likely frustrate a person. I don’t want to spoil it for folks, but quite a few can be annoying! One boss so fast that if you don’t have a character that can lower its evasion, you aren’t hitting it. There’s another one that will heal and can do things like rearrange the way you set up your party so your squishy mages are in the line of fire, keep you from summoning your demons, and deal major damage. It is a lot. The new features help! But I still needed to grind and I expect I’m not the only one.
If someone is heading into Demon Gaze Extra on the Switch or PS4, I think they know exactly what to expect. These sorts of dungeon crawlers are often designed to test you. It’s going to do that! It will be in an inviting and good way, though. The new additions also both help make it a little friendlier for both new and returning players too. Those unaccustomed to the genre might want to go with something a bit more forgiving. (Perhaps one of the Persona Q entries or maybe even Ray Gigant.) People who know what Experience is known for, however, will be in for fun times.
Demon Gaze Extra is available for the Nintendo Switch and PS4.
