The opportunity to write the World of Demons review came as a surprise, as part of a real relaunch of the platform Apple Arcade, which in recent days has seen the release of a large number of new games, some of them made by quite experienced and talented development teams.
Well, when it comes to experience and talent with the action genre there is certainly a name that immediately comes to mind, that of PlatinumGames: the authors of Bayonetta, Vanquish e Never: Automata they've proven everything there is to prove over the years, and it's nice to see them finally try their hand at a mobile game.
Story
La history of World of Demons draws firmly on the legends of Japanese folklore, telling of how the alliance between men and yokai provoked the envy and anger of the Oni, who one day decide to declare war on the two races but are defeated.
Centuries later, the king of demons Shuten doji however he manages to free himself from the stone prison in which he had been locked up and launches a new, terrible offensive, subjecting the Yokai to his will and threatening the existence of human beings. Only a handful of warriors seem able to defeat the armies of the underworld, and it will be the mysterious samurai Onimaru to bring them together.
Gameplay
We can say without fear of denial that the gameplay, and specifically the combat system, absolutely represents the core of the World of Demons experience. What appears in front of our eyes is in fact a pure action, in which the scenarios play a role in style Musou: they are only the background to the duels we have with the corrupt Yokai.
There is, however, more depth in the mechanics of PlatinumGames' mobile game than expected. Although, in fact, the settings are apparently corridors that develop in a linear way, the further you go, the more secrets, particular interactions, hidden enemies and other elements that, in general, reward exploration and backtracking.
Controls
Il combat system of the game at first appears simple and banal, but acquires consistency very quickly. That everything is managed using the touch commands or controller Bluetooth, perfectly supported, the situation changes surprisingly little: both setups are confirmed as excellent, solid, reactive and precise enough to ensure a quality experience.
In addition to the stick to move the character, we have a button dedicated to the basic attack and one to the dodge, with different possible combinations. The other inputs are used to manage the Yokai: every single enemy we defeat in the game can become part of ours nationwide, with two fixed slots (subject to cooldowns) and one variable, in which supernatural minions are stored with their elemental attacks.
Yokai: friends and enemies
Mix all of these maneuvers gives life to exciting combat sequences, in which we can hit the enemy on duty with a series of slashes, throw him in the air by recalling a Yokai that creates a column of water, hit him with the fire of a Yokai-bomb, defend ourselves from the most distant by summoning a Yokai of the wind and so on, while collecting new ones ability around the level.
The variety of creatures we will deal with is excellent and examines the totality of gods monsters of the Japanese legends, presenting each of them with name and illustration in style Ukyo-e the first time we meet them. Obviously there is no shortage of bosses, which are huge and very beautiful to look at, also linked to Japanese folklore and taken from a long list of Yokai that can be consulted from the options.
Characters
As for the protagonists, there are four different ones characters that we can unlock during the campaign and alternate at any time, but choosing only two per mission. Each of them is equipped with a particular type of weapon (sword, spear, hammer, etc.) and has special maneuvers that are obtained as we level up.
Let there be weaponry that Yokai can be upgraded using gold collected during expeditions and other collectibles. This progression in turn allows us to unlock moves and skills that we can use in battle, further enriching the repertoire available to each warrior and increasing the variety of an experience that, as mentioned, lives only on combat.
Technical realization
On the front of the technical realization, World of Demons is certainly exciting because of the clear references to the classic Okami. We have in fact a graphic in cel shading "coarse-grained", as we would call it: a successful mix of low poly, broad brushstrokes and impeccable artistic direction as regards characters and enemies.
The interesting thing is that all of this visual abundance always moves smoothly, at a stable 60 fps, both on iPhone 12 Pro that of iPad Pro, with also the possibility of activating three different quality presets in order to scale the experience according to the terminal in our possession.
- scenery, as already mentioned above, unfortunately they are limited to being the background to the action and it is clear that this peculiar visual style applied to the settings makes it less than one might expect, emphasizing the possible desolation of certain glimpses. Fortunately, here too there is a lot of variety, and the different chapters of the campaign are each characterized by well-defined locations, different from each other.
To accompany the medieval Japanese pictorial style that makes World of Demons so exciting we find "hinted" dialogues in Japanese, subtitled in Spanish like any product available on Apple Arcade, and the music which refer perfectly to the stereotypes of the genre, capable of accompanying the sequences that alternate on the screen in a very effective way.
There are unfortunately also a couple of technical problems which, at the time of writing, have not yet been fixed with an update. First of all, the camera tends to "wobble" in a violent way during the fights, especially the boss fights, which does not create real inconveniences but certainly annoys.
Secondly, one of the playable characters, the monk Dohzen, has the completely broken collisions and is therefore unusable unless the charged shot and the Yokai are used. These are enormities that will certainly be fixed, we take it for granted, but which inevitably affect the evaluation of the game.
Comment
Tested version iPad Digital Delivery App Store Price Free Resources4Gaming.com8.5
Readers (6)7.6
Your voteWorld of Demons is the practical representation of what happens when a development team with controfiocchi (we were about to write more ...) engages with mobile games, easily redefining the way to approach the action genre on smartphones and tablets. There is no doubt that this game represents a sufficient reason to subscribe to Apple Arcade, a real killer application for the subscription service that however we will see in some time also on other platforms: there is a bet. The mix of Okami-style cel-shaded graphics, the feudal setting, the strong references to Japanese folklore and the exciting combat system combine to create a small pearl that would be a shame to get lost.
PRO
- Very solid combat system
- Rich countryside, with many secrets and subquests
- Four playable characters, many different enemies
- Excellent graphic style, a la Okami
- Some pretty serious glitches to fix
- Scenes like in the Musou, simple and desolate
