Demoniaca: Everlasting Night [Xbox]
Inspired by the Castlevania series, Demoniaca: Everlasting Night is a 2D side-scrolling platformer, with in-depth action RPG elements. You play as a young woman; torn apart and left for dead after demons killed everyone from her village. With her blood tainted by that of the demons, leading her to gain inhuman powers, she sews herself back together in order to head off and avenge her friends and family.
There are two difficulty modes, Easy or Classic, with easy focusing more on the story, and Classic offering more challenge, but rewarding. With no auto-saving, you’ll have to keep an eye out for the save points that are dotted around the vast Tower of Babel, seeking them out when required.
The controls are unusual, with the four face buttons being assigned to Kick, Heavy Kick, Punch and Heavy Punch, with the triggers being to jump and guard. Accessing your map and inventory is done via the bumper/shoulder buttons, and these are probably the only ones that don’t feel somewhat awkward. With precise timing being needed for platforming, this makes jumping with the triggers feel unbelievably backwards - and takes a great deal of getting used to.
Combat feels very different in Demoniaca: Everlasting Night, with it having more of a fighting-game styled combat system, with combos being learned as you progress, although I did find myself often just button-mashing when facing enemies. Sadly the combat is where a lot of it falls apart, as it just doesn’t feel all that great, and since you’ll get used to which moves are faster and more effective, you’ll just stick to that instead of spending time learning various button combos. You also have a summonable ally in the form of Devilboy, who you can call on to help you, or have a second player join to play as.
Souls are used as currency, to purchase various items and Waypoint Scrolls (which allow fast travel to certain points) from Dispensers, which are basically just vending machines - though plenty of items can be found just whilst exploring, so it’s good to keep an eye out for potential secret areas as well as chests. You can increase stats using experience, and particular items will give various stat boosts too.
Visually very dark and gritty, with bugs crawling around, destructible lanterns lighting up the surroundings and creepy enemies to be found all over, it has a very gothic horror-esque aesthetic. The playable character’s appearance is great, with a cool outfit and well done movement that looks very fluid, and she is introduced through a nicely animated story segment at the start. She has a little static bobble when not moving, and this has some clear jiggle in her boobies - the game is described as ‘seductive’ after all. Characters you meet, whether NPCs or enemies and bosses, are all interestingly designed, with some that have clear inspiration from other games such as DOOM, and others having totally unique and bizarre designs - all of which I really liked. The soundtrack is fitting, with a bunch of dark tunes that perfectly complement the gameplay.
There are plenty of secrets to be found, with many being visible on the mini-map so that you know they’re there, you just need to figure out how to get to them. Others are totally hidden and will require a little bit of investigation (or a lucky pick up of particular equippable items) in order to uncover them.
Priced at £12.49 on the Xbox Store, Demoniaca: Everlasting Night is a decent time for metroidvania fans, although the unusual combat might make it feel a bit less enjoyable. There’s tonnes of stuff to find, plenty of exploration to do, and a bunch of backtracking required to access new areas once you’ve gained items and abilities, giving you hours and hours of content, as long as you can push through the flaws.
In the end, we decided to give Demoniaca: Everlasting Night the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.
Are you interested in Demoniaca? What do you think of it?
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- V x
Thank you to EastAsiaSoft for the Demoniaca: Everlasting Night Xbox review code!
