Demon’s Rise : Nintendo Switch Review

INTRO

I think everyone knows the feeling when you start playing a game, you kill a few hours with it, and then when you not playing it you just want to jump back and continue. You’ve got this feeling that you want to go deeper in the story, or explore the world, know more about the characters, learn every small details and master the game mechanics.

I’m also a huge fan of dungeon crawling, looting, and tactical strategy games.

Before I downloaded Demon’s Rise, I just found out this games is actually a mobile port. I’m usually getting quite annoyed by mobile game ports, as I feel it’s belittling the Switch, and also most of the times they are horrendous.

So my expectations were quite mixed, but I was curious what this game can offer. Let’s dig in, shall we?

STORY

Well, what can I say, there is a paper thin story line, about Dwarves whose kingdom were occupied by various monsters, and your mercenary team has to resolve this problem, and, that’s kinda it. Later on I’ve realised , the story is just there to move you forward but don’t expect any surprises, or great characters, choices or whatsoever, there is none. To be fair playing the game you not really missing it, as the gameplay is like jumping from battle to another.

GAMEPLAY

The game itself is a tactical turn based strategy game. If you ever played any before you know the drill. There is nothing new under the moon, or any groundbreaking new game mechanics.

I believe, the developers had some amazing ideas, and they wanted to create a game but they forget to fill up the gaps between these great ideas.

Lets start with my favorite part : there is a massive character roster containing 30(!) unique characters each with a unique class and skills.

You can find some great designs also some average ones.

You must choose 6 from that roster, or you can go with a few pre-made teams.

After you assembled your team you can choose to do the “story” missions or just grind for loot and XP, to be honest for me both felt the same. Your team is in a room or corridor trying to defeat monsters and demons, if you are successful, you get some much deserved XP and some loot what may or may not suit your team. If not there’s still hope, as you can sell those items and ,better or more suitable gears can be purchased.

Your characters automatically upgrading when they level up, so the only way you can customise them a bit more is the gear system.

In addition you can buy favors by visiting the church, those favors can give you a nice boost for your team, or you can hire extra mercenaries if needed.

Worth to mention if you play in harder difficulty level, over time more foes joining the battle makes your battle more difficult and time consuming.

VISUALS

Again, I know it’s a mobile port, but still I wasn’t really impressed by the graphics, I liked the characters and their design but the environment was so boring, so uninspired that put me off every time. You easily spot the Copy/Paste effect in every map where you battle. It does feel dated, not ridiculously bad just painfully below average.

SOUNDS AND MUSIC

It has some background music, some characters even have some lines as well, but nothing real big, or anything special.

VALUE

The game costs $6.99 or £6.29, for that price you get 50+ hours gameplay as the developer stated. But I would be surprised if anyone would play this game for more than 50 hours. The way I see it, it’s a mobile game, what you can pick up if you are on train, or waiting for a bus, god knows, stuck in a toilet. As you not get bothered with the story or real character engagement, you will not getting attached to any of your characters, you can clear out rooms in 8 to 15 minutes, and then continue whenever you have time.

Therefore I would say, wait for a sale, before you get this game.

CONCLUSION

It’s always hard to review a game, because you know people worked really hard on it. So giving a low score to a product feels bad, but also we all working really hard, for every penny what we earning, and spending it on a below average game just feels frustrating. My gaming time is quite limited ever since I became a father, so choosing a good game is really important to me. As I said in the Intro, I love when a game gets a grip on me and my thoughts around it all days, and I cant wait to jump back and continue my journey, but with Demon’s Rise , I never got that feeling that I should continue playing it. I’m not going to tell you to avoid this game, but think twice before you get it as if you willing to spend a few more quid, you can get a much better experience.

Thank you so much for Silesia Game and Wave Light Games for our review code.

Please visit Nintendo eShop here to purchase this game.