Demon Gaze: Boss rush, solo style (2)

 

Here's the sequel to my boss rush, fellow gamers! (Spoilers are included, so reader discretion is advised.) That's four new boss fights for the road, fights that were mostly cinches but interesting and entertaining nonetheless. Things are getting a trifle more complex, to my utter delight: it is now mandatory to consider carefully which demons must be taken along in battles, and I found myself using a buff for the first time in my playthrough. Without further ado, enjoy the plats du jour! 

—Venus: Beauty demon Venus is the undisputed queen of status effect spells, as well as an excellent healer with sky-high agility that allows her to escape blows more often than not. She is also the first demon that summons several rows of protective seeds at once, so actually landing a hit on her is a rare and elusive feat. Despite these hindrances, I managed to beat her on my first try, and quite promptly at that. I had determined during my first encounter with her that her physical attacks only slightly dented my HP bar; my strategy was thus to cast Heal Shower 2 at the beginning of the fight to take care of healing matters, and then to open Mars and to use my newly gained Slash 2 skill to dispose of the numerous rows of seeds. However, things didn't go exactly as planned: Venus repeteadly Confused and Poisoned me, preventing me from attacking the seeds—or herself, for that matter. Mars was left shouldering the important task of disposing of the seeds, and although she was doing a great job at it, she was also suffering a lot of damage in the process, and I feared that she would pass out before the end of the fight. That wasn't meant to be, though. What happened instead was that the Demon Gauge fell down to zero, sending Mars into Rage Mode with a refilled HP bar. I feared this would seal the end of the fight if Mars ever hit me, which she obviously did; but to my utter surprise, blows from enraged Mars only ate a fraction of my HP—nothing that the Heal Shower couldn't take care of. Mars then turned her ire towards Venus, who was fortunately left seedless at that very moment, and proceeded to pummel her into oblivion with massive blows that took away up to 3000 HP. Poor Venus didn't stand a chance and passed out before she could even heal or summon a row of seeds. The process took no more than two or three turns, leaving me gaping at the screen in sheer incredulity—like, is it over already? Although I'm not too proud of my minor involvement in this fight—Mars basically did all the job while I was frenetically gobbling Antidotes—at least it was a sleek and smooth affair that hardly made me sweat.

 

 

—Astro: The 'magical maijin' and second male demon of the game is basically the king of all things spells. He also has stellar healing abilities, and just like Venus, he can generate several rows of seeds to protect himself. Worse, these seeds can heal themselves and heal him as well. And yet, Astro was even easier to beat than Venus, despite the fact that I had virtually no abilities at hand to protect myself from his spells. My only option to reduce spell damage was to set Venus as a passive demon, along with Chronos, and hope for the best. Mars was my open demon of choice for this battle, and together we did a great job getting rid of the seeds. Then, as soon as Astro was left seedless, I decided to reproduce the trick that had proved so successful during my fight with Venus, only in a more controlled way. I thus unleashed the Demon Rage skill to send Mars into rage mode, after which she basically pummeled Astro to death in a couple of turns. Neat and easy fight, in which everything went according to plan. Next please!

—Lord Shark: As I foreboded, I had to dispose of the misnamed Lord Shark, who turned out to be a replica on steroids of the Skull Lord in terms of fighting tactics. He churned out a new row of minions nearly every turn, so I decided to focus solely on him while letting my demon foil doing whatever they saw fit. Emboldened by my easy fight with Astro, I decided to experiment a little bit and summoned Venus to fight alongside me; unfortunately, she passed out after a couple of turns, pummeled into oblivion by the many rows of rays. I then summoned Mars, who did a great job at eliminating these pests while I was focusing on Lord Shark. He passed out eventually, leaving us free to dispose of the remaining rows of minions. That was another easy fight, despite the small mishap with Venus, and I didn't even have to use the Demon Rage skill.

 

 

—Luna: The Clock Tower fight with Luna, that is. My first brawl with her in Red City was hardly memorable, since it was over in two turns; however, this second encounter stung a bit harder. My first two tries were massive failures: I went into battle with Chronos and Venus as passive demons and Mars as my open demon, only to get wiped out after a mere couple of turns, pummeled into oblivion by the massive blows of Luna and her seeds. Luna hit like a BEAST, and so did her seeds, while my own attacks dealt little damage, taking no more than 80-100 HP from them. Since newly enrolled Astro can boost spell power, I started fearing that maybe Luna was nearly immune to physical attacks and could only be taken down with spells, which would have put me in a serious bind. But before jumping to conclusions and starting to despair, I made a third attempt at beating her, with Neptune as a passive demon instead of Venus. I cast Heal Shower 2 as soon as the fight started, then Multi-hit on myself and Mars; then, as soon as Luna was seedless, I unleashed the Demon Rage skill once again. This was too much for Luna, who admitted defeat and retreated after two turns—or was it one?—spent enduring Mars' hugely damaging blows. I'm not done with Luna, of course, and I guess I will have to dispose of her for good later. On a more general note, I don't know what to think of that fight. My first two tries and the third one were so drastically different that I have a hard time figuring out if Luna was a tough cookie or not. Could there actually be some kind of perfect strategy for each and every boss fight, a flawless combination of passive and active demons, buffs, gear and attack patterns that would ensure an easy victory? That would explain why some players struggle with some bosses while other players have it easy. I'm even more smitten with Demon Gaze's boss fights now that their deeply strategic quality is slowly revealing itself, and this gives me a lot of confidence for the fights to come.

 

 

My boss rush stops here for now, as I have only two more demons to enroll and a handful of dungeons left to explore. The Dungeon—Venus' hideout, that it—was rather refreshing, while Endless Road was a bit of a hassle due to all the backtracking involved and the fact that some parts of the dungeon had to be accessed through hidden doors located in nondescript areas. I think I will start having Comet with me while exploring dungeons for the first time, because re-examining every wall to find hidden doors is a huge pain in the butt, especially since dungeons keep getting larger. I wish the game would stop being stingy and grant me a fourth Demon slot; I'm at Lv. 51 now, and I feel that I deserve a more substantial reward for my dutiful leveling-up than the regular stats and HP increase. And since I'm mentioning this, I discovered lately that increasing the Vitality stat when gaining a level gives much more HP than increasing any of the other stats. Lovely! The story is taking a more sinister turn, as Lulu implied that something nasty would happen to me after I enroll all the demons and that Fran knew about it. That pint-sized traitor may be lying, but she may be telling the truth. I'm getting wary of Fran—who indeed turned out to be a dragon!—since she steadily refuses to answer my questions regarding Lulu's claims and deviously pretends to be angry at me and sulking to avoid talking to me. Oh, well; I'll find out the truth sooner or later, I guess. And now... On to the next dungeon! Brace yourselves, Uranus and Pluto—and whoever else dare standing in my way! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

17 comments:

Kumiko 20 October 2015 at 19:34

Nice hints here. Funnily enough, now I'm the one who's behind, I'm only just now exploring Astro's dungeon. Too little time to play, most of it has been spent playing Amnesia: Memories and VNs can take a while. All I basically had time for was to level up all of my demons to the level they would have all their skills. Sad to know that even at level 50 they don't give you any more demon slots, I'm one level away from 50 and was excited at the possibility.

The thing about having a perfect setup of demons for each boss seems to be true. I was surprised to see that the normal version of Astro attacks twice in a row. The first time I had prepared for him by having Hermes, Mars and Chronos and while it took a while to kill all his damnn seeds it was no issue at all. I used Hermes to help me kill the seeds since he tended to kill Mars in my previous attempt, so I saved her for when I could actually kill him. Next time I was just exploring the dungeon with Mars, Venus and Comet and he was a pain. I was a lot less accurate with my hits and had to use Comet for help with the seeds. She was good for healing, making up for the loss of Chrono's defence passive, but other than that she was there only to bock his soul gaze. It took SO long I was considering just closing the game and losing all my exploring progress.

So the demon setup does seem vital. This can be good, but it's also unfair since most people will stick with Chronos and Mars for their awesome passive benefits and on the later dungeons also add Comet for exploring. This leaves very little room to play with the demons outside of boss battles. One of the reasons I really like to level them all up after I get them.

Isleif 21 October 2015 at 09:20

I had myself a glimmer of hope before reaching the Lv.60 mark, but now I'm beyond it and still no fourth slot. I guess there will be none at all. *sigh* Funny that you should mention Amnesia:Memories, because I just bought it on the PSN store on a sale! Nearly 50% off, that was a pretty good deal.

Although Experience Inc. did a pretty good job at dispatching skills between demons and making them all useful in their own right, there's no denying that some end up being more profusely used than others. I myself hardly use Comet and Hermes, and never used Jupiter and Astro. I have no use for Astro since I'm playing solo and not using magic, and although Jupiter's abilities could have come in handy against slippery bosses, they were too minor to justify leveling her up. On the other hand, I've been sticking with Venus during exploration phases ever since I enrolled her, because she makes level-grinding so much more productive! My latest set of choice while roaming is Venus, Hermes and Pluto. The last two grant passive boots that could come in handy; and even if I never use them in boss battles after all, it's refreshing to fight alongside different demons! If I have time, I will even take a stroll with Jupiter and Astro. :)

Kumiko 21 October 2015 at 12:48

I bought Amnesia at that sale too. I'm such a spoiled cheapo thanks to the bi-weekly sales that I don't buy anything if it's not on sale anymore. I'm even regretting buying Demon Gaze last month even though it was cheap, because now it's on sale for 7,50 euros! BTW, Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters in on sale too, but I think you already have a copy of it?

Don't forget to get at least one good ending per character in Amnesia, even if you hate their route. If you can stomach that than you can unlock the interesting route I talked about earlier. Other than that, hope you can enjoy it a little.

Man, you already have Pluto....levelling up all my demons to level 20 before getting the next one really puts me far behind. But I hope all this extra work is worth it for an extra dungeon.

Isleif 21 October 2015 at 14:54

Yes, I do own Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters! I always go for the physical version of a game if there is one available... Although I regret that sometimes. For instance, I bought the limited physical edition of Ar Nosurge Plus lately, and felt a pang of regret when I saw that it was for sale at 20 euros only on the PSN store... But hey, I'll get over it! =D

I'll keep your advice regarding the routes in mind, thanks a lot! I also hope that I will enjoy Amnesia:Memories. This will be my first otome game ever, and if it turns out that I hate the genre, at least my loss will not be too high!

Regarding Demon Gaze, I can feel that the end is drawing near... And I'm already sad at the thought of having to stop playing that amazing game. I don't want it to end!! I hope there will be at least one long, meaty postgame dungeon, and maybe more. I love the game so much that I may even dabble in New Game +, something that I usually never do! =D

Kumiko 21 October 2015 at 16:22 

BTW (sorry for all the comments), I really recommend using a guide to get the Amnesia endings. The game is really strict about the choices for each ending, but there are so many of them it's impossible to keep track of all of them and a lot of them are obtuse. If you're curious, just do it guide-less for each route once to see what you naturally get and then love and abuse the guide.

I also recommend getting at least Bad End 1 for each route besides the good ending, since those bad ends are what tie the different plots together in the true route.

I'm loving Demon Gaze, so on one hand I don't mind that I'm stalling so much with the game. On the other hand, my backlog is huge and it keeps getting bigger with every sale, so I really shouldn't spend so long on only one game. Decisions, decisions.

Isleif 21 October 2015 at 16:47

Oh dear, you're very welcome! Comments are good. I love comments! The more, the better! =D

I heed your advice, and will most certainly follow it at some point. I'm a bit of a specialist when it comes to unearthing the worst possible endings in Visual Novels, and if the best ones are hard to obtain, I will definitely need guidance at some point!

I have EXACTLY the same issues as you with the ever-growing enormous backlog... I tried to rush through games at some point, and it didn't work for me. I pressured myself to play faster and thus couldn't enjoy the games to the fullest, because I was always thinking of the next 576 games in lines instead of focusing on the one I was playing... I gave up lately and went back to my old ways, and I enjoy gaming considerably more now! =D And if I need fifteen years to clear my backlog, then be it!^^

Kumiko 21 October 2015 at 20:15

I've played about a hundred VNs at this point and I can count with my hands the number of games I've gotten a good ending on my own. I'm that bad. Although sometimes its my own fault, I can see the bad ending coming, but I disagree with the choice that will save my character so badly that I go down the bad end anyway as a way of rebellion. And now at this point I get some masochist delight out of some bad ends. Oh, and good luck with completing the true route. I almost recommend doing that one guide-less because it's hilarious how many bad ends it has, so it's actually fun to find them.

I know I should just enjoy the game I'm playing now, but I guess I have the poor people mentality that "you bought it, you must use it now", even though it's not like my games will run away. At this rate my backlog will never end, so my brain goes like "you're wasting money, finish everything before you buy anything else". But of course, collecting games just because you want them is a joy in of itself and it's reassuring to know that if anything happens and you suddenly have tons of free time and/or a lack of money, you won't be bored because there's a pile of games waiting. So it all balances out.

I do still feel massive guilt over not completing some games though, even if some are literally torture to beat. I feel like I'm not giving them a chance, even if I've done so over and over.

Isleif 22 October 2015 at 07:54

"But of course, collecting games just because you want them is a joy in of itself and it's reassuring to know that if anything happens and you suddenly have tons of free time and/or a lack of money, you won't be bored because there's a pile of games waiting.": Amen!! I couldn't agree more.

I used to try to rein myself in when it comes to buying games, using the same argument of "finish what you have before buying new stuff", until I realized that purchasing games was actually a joy in itself! I then caved in and started indulging in hunting for games all over the internet, and became a collector for good in the process.

Although my collecting endeavours are mostly powered by my love of gaming and that sheer pleasure of hunting for games, there is also a third, more rational reason at work. I'm pretty sure that sooner or later, the gaming industry will steer in a direction that I don't like, just like it did in the late '90s when all games went brown and polygonal; and when this happens, I will have a huge wealth of games to fall back on while I wait for better gaming days! :)

Kumiko 22 October 2015 at 21:01

Ah, that's true! And we already talked about the possible change we hate, the dreaded open worlds. While I do think the gaming world will never be truly stale now, thanks to all the indies around who love retro, it is still a threat to JRPG lovers. But since there seems to be no PS Vita 2 on sight and Nintendo always lags behind, let us hope we can avoid that fate for one more generation. One of the many reasons I don't even care to get a PS4 right now. Besides, we just got news of two more Vita JRPGs that are being brought over, so my wallet will remain crying for a good long while.

Back to Demon Gaze though, I got lazy and just got Uranus and Pluto in a row without grinding. Other than Pluto hitting me with an instant death attack on my first try, they were both really easy. The game is still very exciting though, so I'm gonna level up my last 3 demons before tackling the end dungeon though. Here's to hoping there's a meaty extra dungeon (most likely the rest of the cave).

Isleif 23 October 2015 at 08:37

Two Vita JRPGs localized? Now that's great news!! Who are the happy winners?

Your patient grinding will pay off a million times when you finally meet Sol, trust me! There is indeed an extra dungeon, which is none other than the unexplored parts of the Black Cage; and I suspect there will be more after that, given that some Treasure Maps mention areas that are still undiscovered... How thrilling!

Kumiko 23 October 2015 at 12:14

The two happy winners are Makai Shin Trillion by IF and Atelier Escha and Logy Plus. Sadly, Youro no Kai Kuni is only being localized for the PS4 but, I've talked on twitter to Koei Tecmo Europe and there's still hope for the Vita version. Apparently their translation team is really busy right now so they can only release the PS4 version, but due to us asking for it on twitter the Vita version might come later. Only time will tell, but they did bring over the Vita version of Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires way later than the PS3/PS4 ones, and they do seem to genuinely care for their Vita fanbase. I will reserve my hopes on it.

Glad to know my grinding will pay off! I hope my later demons are useful in that fight, so far Uranus seems meh to me. Exploring the later parts of the Black Cage will be exciting, I keep wondering who "?????" is.

Isleif 23 October 2015 at 15:15

Awesome! I'm so glad the Atelier Games are descending en masse upon portable systems at last. And I had spotted Makai Shin Trillion before and thought it looked promising, so I'm quite happy that we are actually getting it! And it's good to know that there is some hope regarding a Vita release of Yoru no Nai Kuni!

I used Uranus only for a single boss fight, and that was not the one against Sol... But things may unfold in a totally different way for you, all the more so if you level up Uranus and Pluto!

Kumiko 23 October 2015 at 21:38

Since Atelier Sophie will be released on all three Sony platforms at the same time, the only atelier game we have to wait for now is the plus version of Atelier Shallie (despite the situation with Yoru no Nai Kuni, I don't even have any doubts that the Vita version of Sophie will come over). Gust must be working on that version as we speak. I must admit I will miss all the included DLC that comes with the plus versions, but oh well. Oh, and there's also the 3DS version of Rorona, but to be honest I don't care about that game being brought over because I already have 3 versions of Rorona. Enough is enough.

Makai Shin Trillion was released before I bought my Vita, so I didn't know about it until now. It looks very good, and I'm eager for the final fight. Either it will be a very long fight or this game with break the 9999 damage per attack limit, in which case it will be extremely fun to see the damage counters break all sorts of boundaries. I'm enjoying the romance with Fran in Demon Gaze, so I'm also excited for the six ladies we can romance in Trillion.

Speaking of Demon Gaze, Uranus still seems mostly useless. I guess balance isn't such a good thing. Maybe her last skills will be useful if Sol is heavy on the Magic attacks, but otherwise I'm gonna stick with Mars and Chronos for the final battle. It's time for Pluto to shine or else I'll stick with Neptune for her amazing heal shower. At the very least, strategy is fun in this game.

Kumiko 23 October 2015 at 21:45

Oh, and a little bit off topic, but there's gonna be an updated release of Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters in Japan next month, and I'm now wondering if I should the game on sale now. What's been updated is the battle system, which was heavily criticized in reviews.

I'm torn because on one hand the new version might not be localized, I do want to play the game regardless of the criticisms and it might not be on sale for a long while, on the other hand if it is localized later then I will feel robbed and might miss out on a more enjoyable game. I feel lucky I got into the vita so late and avoided having to buy Deception IV, Toukiden and Soul Sacrifice twice, but now I'm also faced with the same dilemma. Damn these re-releases, I wish they were just patches and DLC.

Isleif 24 October 2015 at 12:59

Yeah, these re-releases are so darn annoying. I bought the initial versions of Toukiden and Deception IV upon release and I am stuck with them now, and the only reason why I managed to get the Delta version of Soul Sacrifice is because I delayed its purchase for so long. So waiting may actually pay off! At any rate, there is no way I am buying the first two again, even if it turns out that I adore them. Paying full price for a couple of extra chapters and features is not something I'm ready to do, even as a collector.

Regarding the romance with Fran in Demon Gaze, I was wondering if it was scripted or not... Like, would it happen if you brush her off or rebuff her instead of humouring her in the answering phases? More generally, I was wondering if these dialogues have an influence whatsoever on events, but couldn't find any reliable data regarding that point on the internet... That will remain a mystery, I guess.

Kumiko 24 October 2015 at 14:53

I think it's scripted. I'm saying this because in my answers I rebuffed every other girl (like dodging Pinay, not having an interest in Lulu, etc) and yet she still got mad and said I messed around with other girls after the second Lulu fight. So I'm guessing it's all scripted and the answers are just there to make you feel like the MC is your own character.

Kinda cheap I guess, but I still liked the romance and enjoy having the different dialogue options, so it's okay by me.

Also, I'm gonna wait around a year to see if the new version of Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters is localized. Given the track record with these re-releases, it most likely will. Better safe than sorry, and if not, then it will be on sale next Halloween anyway. I also forgot that Ragnarok Odyssey also got a re-release that was localized as well. Gesh, what a dumb trend. At least let some year pass between the games or update it to another system, like Persona 4 did.

Isleif 24 October 2015 at 17:25

Right, Ragnarok Odyssey! I also got the second version, some kind of special edition if I remember correctly. Gee, I buy so many games that I sometimes have trouble keeping track of them all! =D