BOOK OF DEMONS GAME RATING TV

Even as the pace of the action heats up, the touch controls do a convincing if imperfect job of recreating that classic Platinum feel. Playing on iPhone with touch controls, everything is activated via a collection of discrete icons on the screen, while movement is handled by swipes on the left side of the screen and camera control on the right. It’s impressive that PlatinumGames have managed to cram so much depth into a deceptively simple control scheme. Oh yeah, and the character designs are wonderfully grotesque. Finding and leveling your favorite yokai makes for an engaging diversion, while an elemental designation for each yokai (and each weapon) lends World of Demons a deeper level of strategy. Some yokai souls can be combined with a yokai minion for a stronger Merge Arts attack – for example, if you have equipped a kappa minion and collect a kappa soul, their powers can be combined for a more powerful attack.

Meanwhile, dispatching regular yokai in combat allows you to collect their “soul”, which can be mixed into your arsenal for a weaker, single-use attack. Each yokai minion can be leveled up by collecting materials littered throughout the stages. Each yokai has its own attack on a cooldown timer – for example, the kappa launches enemies skyward with a blast of water, allowing you to juggle them if you’re quick, while others such as the umbrella-like karakasa have projectile attacks that you can aim manually. Beating certain yokai designated by the story allows you to unlock it as a minion, which you can then assign to one of two slots to take into battle. These creatures are plucked from Japanese folklore, and you can see that the art team have had a lot of fun rendering eccentric critters such as the mischievous kappa water sprite, the long-tongued aka-name (which translates as “scum licker”), and the nure-onna, an oversized serpent with a woman’s face and a broken heart. But what really opens up the combat options is the use of yokai. Meanwhile, once each weapon reaches a high enough level it unlocks an Ultima attack, which allows you to land super-devastating instant combos each time the Ultima gauge is full. In this way, World of Demons rewards players who observe enemy patterns, while leaving button-mashing as a perfectly viable option if that’s your bag. An additional button allows you to dodge or block, depending on the character, and, in similar fashion to Platinum classics like Bayonetta, dodging at just the right moment when an attack is incoming allows you to automatically parry, inflicting a much heavier attack that can stunlock tougher enemies.

As you progress, your collection of combo attacks grows you can also unlock heavy blow attacks, unleashed with a long button press, and these can be mixed into combos. The developers have achieved a surprising amount of variation in what seems like it should be a limited attack scheme.

BOOK OF DEMONS GAME RATING TV

Basic attacks and combos are mapped to a single button on screen or on a controller, depending on whether you choose to play on iOS (which supports both touch and controller input), Apple TV or Mac OS. And while it is fairly easy to pick up and play – and quickly makes you feel like a badass – World of Demons can be punishing on its advanced difficulty. Onimaru and other playable characters deploy an ever-expanding collection of extravagant combos, while your performance in each skirmish is graded on the usual Platinum scale, encouraging you to improve your skills and chase those S-rank scores. In gameplay terms, this is a PlatinumGames experience through and through.

Book of demons game rating