Demoniaca: Everlasting Night Review

Coming from Eastasiasoft is yet another entry into the not noticeably underpopulated Metroidvania genre. This time, we are promised that Demoniaca: Everlasting Night is a “dark, gothic, mature and sexy action RPG inspired by the Castlevania series of games”. With the sights set so high, can the title deliver on these bold words, or is it not fit to polish Simon Belmont’s boots?

In an interesting move, we are dead as the game opens. We are a – I think “nubile” is the best description – young lady, gutted by assailants that are unseen. However, in a lucky/unlucky turn of events (delete as you see appropriate), we are awoken by something down in the darkness. Having stitched ourselves back together (yes, really) and also done a little light tailoring on the outfit we were wearing to turn it from a dress to some kind of leather jumpsuit (again, yes really), we are now set to go and find whoever hurt us and make them pay. Having found ourselves in the depths of the Tower of Babel, our mission is to kick all kinds of ass, escape and find friends, along with taking in some new abilities as we go. 

Presentation wise and Demoniaca is properly lovely to look at, with a pleasing pixelated art style that immediately made me think back to the glory days of these games from the SNES era. Everything has a very nice, hand drawn vibe, and the monsters that we meet are suitably threatening; like the teddy bear looking things that give me the willies! The animation of our character is also top notch, and she is a delight to watch as she whizzes about the place, applying her fist or foot into the baddies at any and every opportunity. Another plus point here is for the music, which is unrelentingly great all the way through, matching the action on the screen perfectly as we explore and get into rucks. All in all, and it’s hard to fault the presentation of Demoniaca: Everlasting Night. 

The twin pillars of any good Metroidvania game though are combat and exploration/traversal. If one of these pillars works, the game is usually okay, yet if they are both present, then it’s generally a very good game. But what happens if both of these metaphorical pillars have cracks right through them? Well, to be brutally honest, then you get Demoniaca: Everlasting Night. Let’s start with combat, shall we?

The reason that combat works well in the Castlevania series of games (the target this title is aiming at, remember) is because you have options. The protagonist in Castlevania has ranged weapons in addition to up close and personal ones; running away is always a valid option. Our heroine in this game has no ranged options at all, and can only kick and punch her enemies. Yes, she can find and learn new techniques to power herself up, but this introduces another issue with the combat system. What the developers have tried to do is fuse a fighting game system into a Metroidvania, and frankly it doesn’t work. The controls are not precise enough to allow you to pull off the moves that you learn with any fluidity, and more often than not you’ll find yourself running into the enemies, rather than hitting them. 

For instance, one of the first techniques you learn requires you to press forward, then forward again, combined with a kick button, but this just ends up with a close encounter with an enemy instead of a devastating attack. Even hitting enemies doesn’t give you any breathing space; if our heroine had a move that could knock enemies back, it would be 100% better, but the enemies just keep shuffling forward through her attacks, you take damage if they touch you, and it usually only ends one way. By contrast, the boss fights, with well defined patterns to learn and exploit, are a lot easier than a basic monster fight while you are exploring. Surely it should be the other way around?

Now, speaking of exploration, we have to talk about this and the traversal mechanic as well. There’s no kind way to say it but the wall jump mechanic in Demoniaca: Everlasting Night is dreadful, and works consistently poorly. I suppose consistency is a result, at least? It doesn’t seem to matter what I do – I either cling on to the wall, then slide down, refusing point blank to jump, or jump off the wall straight into the spikes I am desperately trying to avoid. Actually looking around, finding secret rooms and so on is pretty good fun, and the map of the levels certainly helps, along with the obligatory areas you need to come back to when you are stronger. If only wall jumping wasn’t so vital…

In conclusion and Demoniaca: Everlasting Night comes with a great setup and a lot of ambition, but poor execution. I can see what the developers wanted to do, and somewhere deep down there is a good game struggling to get out, however, it is buried under a heap of poor combat options and sub standard platforming. It looks great and sounds wonderful, but sadly falls at the last hurdle by feeling like a chore to play. 

And I don’t know about you, but I try to play games to relax, not to wind up wanting to throw the controller through the window. 

Demoniaca: Everlasting Night is available from the Xbox Store