Demon Tower: The Old, Decrepit Version

Demon Tower Review

Story

Pros: As one would expect, story isn't exactly the focus of Demon Tower. Having said that, it does provide a few snicker-worthy moments with its cast of very, very...strange...characters. While many of the characters are fairly one-dimensional, they do occasionally provide some interest. For example, one might wonder what is wrong with Princess and what Eon Feather and Never-Age are up to.

Cons: There's no real driving narrative. It is somewhat difficult to fault this - it's about 14 weird people walking up a tower in a game that has no intentions of making an epic, meaningful story. You will likely be paying more attention to Craze's strange, unique sense of humor and the gameplay.

Summary: Do not go in expecting something deep and meaningful, or epic. It is fun for what it is, though.

Score - 5/10 (mediocre)


Gameplay

Pros: This is where Demon Tower really shines and is obviously the game's focus. Unlike many RM* games where you rarely use skills and might labor through battles, you will use them CONSTANTLY and aggressively in this. You can swap in and out any of the 14 characters at any time, and they all provide unique and varied effects. Some are more situational and may be ideal in group encounters or boss fights; some even provide unique uses out of battle.

There is a great deal of strategy in all this, especially since characters in reserve heal HP/SP and revive. Proper battle management will ensure you won't die but will still provide a challenge. It's a great system despite balance problems and inevitably required tweaks. The final boss in the demo is an excellent example and requires you to swap in and out members constantly - it's all very fulfilling and I could see myself playing to the end if it keeps the fun coming.

Cons:

Summary: There are a few complaints I have. More things to do out of battle would spice up the gameplay(you have mentioned you will be doing more things to this effect previously), and while the variety of characters is very nice, I quickly found some just didn't hold up very well. Especially the fighters, though this may be, in no small part, due to the fact I NEVER found an essence for fighters!

Also, I would seriously like a way to detect traps. Give such a skill to a character like Never-Age, or Titania.

Also, my tier list:

Awesome:
Darren (Two words. Warlock Blade. Never mind the fact he has great endurance and very high attack power. Awesome character and he was almost never out of my party. He became a Demonai in the second tier boss fight.)

Good:
Martin IV (This guy doesn't seem so hot at first, but his stat down affliction attacks are very effective and he does very heavy damage. This is despite the fact his regen skills are useless, and his second one is bugged. A party mainstay.)

Titania (Someone said she sucks. They are wrong. Her crit-boosting status effect, even if it can miss, is very powerful and resulted in the screenshot I will post at the end of this review. My one complaint is that her healing skill upgrade actually weakens her - 600 HP heals are nice, but 7SP up from 5 makes it so she can only use it four times at most - I would much prefer improved skill accuracy. I never really found the skills outside of her CRIT/ACC/heal ones useful. A party mainstay.)

Illinois (Your only mass nuker. Lives for standard encounters. Useless in boss fights.)

Apnis (The reasons for this are obvious.)

Kristoph (While not quite as durable as Goldurn, his skills are more useful. Unfortunately he can't produce the obscene damage Darren can, but he is pretty good and is a tank that gets heals and status cures! A party mainstay.)

Goldurn (His skills are pretty awful but his defenses are great. I would take a look at his skill set. It sucks.)

Eon Feather (His skills could scale a bit better but he is still quite useful. He also gets struck less.)

Okay:

Collin (Cute idea, but honestly? I already get enough randomness out of Eon Feather and the numbers he produces don't really surpass any of those I have mentioned above on average.)

Princess (Her fire attack is impressive when you first use it, but when your tanks and Martin IV start producing damage far beyond it, her residency in the party caravan becomes common. Her terrible SP/high skill cost only adds to this problem. Just use Eon Feather.)

Felix (The most useful of the fighters but his numbers are still terrible. I only used him as a last resort.)

Don't Bother:

Never-Age (Conditional skills are a neat idea but...even if she does do them, they aren't incredibly impressive. Just use a tank.)

Ha'naan (Just boost the boss's EXP and swap her out. She just doesn't live long enough.)

Stefan (Funny, but probably the most one-dimensional character in the game. Also, probably the most useless.)

Summary: This is what you'll be playing this game for. The gameplay shines and achieves what it sets out to do - being fun.

Score - 8/10 (great)

Aesthetics - Visual

Pros: Demon Tower is visually serviceable, and that is about it. There are chests, monsters, stairways, NPC characters and notes on the wall scattered throughout small mazes, and nothing distracts you from reaching these. The forest maps are more visually pleasing and prove to be a nice chance of pace from the drab starter maps.

Cons: Mapping whores won't like it because of the simplicity, but I digress. Just don't expect much out of the map design, alright?

Summary: If you love large maps littered with random junk, squirrels, bunnies and birds and with fog overlays and tints and rain/snow effects, you will not like this.

Score - 5/10 (mediocre)

Aesthetics - Audio

Pros: The music was pleasantly chosen and fit the various situations. I liked the changing battle themes in boss battles - a nice touch for sure.

Cons: There's really nothing distinguishable about the soundtrack. It's fun, but not memorable. Sound effects were completely standard and are as appealing as they have always been.

Summary: The music does the job and was well chosen.

Score - 6/10 (fair)


Final Summary

This project is turning out really well. The game successfully held my interest and provided a few good hours of entertainment. Like others said, I would like to see more stuff to do - puzzles, minigames, perhaps crafting with all those old useless essence items? But honestly, you have a good thing going here and I would really like to see it finished.

Final Score - 7/10 (good) Not an average




Bug Report:

* Some skills still give weird gibberish messages when learned.

* Martin IV's second regen skill appears to be busted.

* Why did charge weaken in the tier 2 boss battle?

Screenshots:



^ Some of Darren and Titania's teamwork here. (The highest I have seen was about 1250)



^ My favorite team members.



^ My stats.