Demon Gaze is a Dungeon Crawler for the Vita, developed by Kadokawa Games and localized by NIS America. In it, you play as the nameable protagonist as he utilizes his ability to seal and summon demons.

Strategy is key in this challenging tactical experience.

The Good: At it’s core, Demon Gaze is both a challenging and long experience. While it most definitely isn’t for everyone, those that it appeals to will more than likely be satisfied with their purchase. The gameplay itself is a balance between actual dungeon crawling and spending time at the inn, where you will eat and sleep in addition to paying rent and doing side quests. The combat is difficult, yet frustrating in a good way. The game also offers plenty of customization options, with both the player character and all party members being completely player created.

Creating a Warrior.

The Bad: As I mentioned earlier, the player character is open to customization in the same way his party members are. However, upon creating said player character, you are told that you will be treated as a male regardless of your choice of gender. The inclusion of the default protagonist seen on the box art in certain cutscenes also leads me to believe you should just be limited to playing with said character design automatically to avoid confusion.

Another issue is movement. While navigating the dungeons themselves, you can only move up, down, left, or right in a grid like fashion. This seems quite awkward at first, and a more fluid method of motion would’ve been preferable.

Would if I could.

The Ugly: Demon Gaze is quite the low res game. The combat itself is quite similar to games like  Earthbound in aesthetic terms. The sprites hardly move, and the battles often aren’t anything special as a result.  Some of the core gameplay is also quite complicated, and it could take some players a while before understanding the basics of the game.

These static sprites stay static.

Overall Thoughts: If you can look past it’s graphical and technical limitations, Demon’s Gaze is a challenging yet difficult dungeon crawling title accompanied by a lot of wit and charm, as well as some great artwork. If you’re in to capturing demons and exploring castles, there’s little doubt you’ll be hooked once you really get in to it.