Demon’s Tier+

Sometimes, when you play all these AAA games with their realistic landscapes and dynamic lighting, you feel like you want to go back to simpler times, where things were more colorful; where the music used was less orchestral, and more bitty. And no genre seems to showcase this form of artstyle more than roguelike. Roguelikes like Demon’s Tier+ exemplify the genre it comes from. 

 

Demon’s Tier+ is a roguelike RPG developed and published by Cowcat and Diabolical Mind. With Demon Tier+, the devs looked to create a traditional roguelike with multiple characters. 

Long Ago

The story of Demon’s Tier+ starts before the beginning of the game, where a demonic king was sealed away, never to bring demons back to the land of peace again… until 1200 years later, when a large hole appears in a small town. A group of adventurers arrive to discover what’s gone wrong. 

As you start Demon’s Tier+, you, playing as the knight, come across a small patch of demons in the forest. The game controls like your average roguelike, but it does something peculiar. Even when you are the knight, your attacks are projectiles, both aimed and shot with the right stick. You also have a “dodge,” which is more of a deflect, even though what you deflect back doesn’t seem to hurt enemies. There’s more to it than that, but we’ll get back to that later. 

Once you defeat this small group of enemies, Demon’s Tier+ slams the entire guide in your face, telling you everything you need to know right at the beginning. While this approach to information drip is more direct, it just felt like way too much to tell me right as you begin the game, instead of giving it to you gradually as you go through the dungeon on your first try. 

Home Base

When you make it to town, you make your way to the bar, where the other playable characters are waiting. Overall, the writing is good. The characters feel pretty well realized, each with their own traits that remain consistent throughout the story. 

It’s here you learn about how Demon’s Tier+ will play out. The bar is where you’ll be switching characters, but every character besides the knight is either available through payment with in-game currency or locked behind specific requirements. 

Each character has their own set of stats and abilities. For example, as the knight, you start off with more hearts, and you have the ability to temporarily buff your defense. As the mage, you only start with one heart, but your attacks do more damage, and your ability is an Area of Effect attack. 

Start Your Run

Once you exit the bar, you’re directed to the hole, where you’ll start your first run. Every area seems to have a fairly basic structure. You go through each level, then reach the boss where you’ll move on to the next area after beating it. 

Each level has a mission that you must complete before moving on to the next. These missions can range from something as basic as “eliminate all the enemies” to something more bizarre like “blow up all the bombs.” 

Throughout the level will also be chests you can open, some requiring a key that you can only acquire through the death of the level’s hidden enemy. These chests usually hold hearts that fill your health, but sometimes you’ll receive runes that increase specific stats. There are also kidnapped people in cages, but they can only be let out with the use of a silver key. 

 

Once the mission is complete, you’ll be directed to the hatch that brings you to the next level. At the hatch, you’ll be given the option to upgrade your stats with the gold you gathered throughout the level, which can only be gained and used in the dungeon. 

At the end of each area is a boss. The boss designs are pretty good, but they aren’t really that amazing, mechanic wise. I never had too much trouble with a boss. Just keep your distance and you’ll usually be fine. Sometimes they’ll bring out additional enemies to help, but they are easier to kill than their regular counterparts. Once you kill the boss, you’ll be given a deluge of gold and a recipe for a weapon. Then you just move on to the next area.

In Town

Outside of the dungeon, the currency you’ll use in town are called D-tokens. D-tokens can be gained by killing demons in the dungeon. They can be used for buying items at the shop, characters at the bar, or weapons at the blacksmith, the latter of which you bring recipes to in order to unlock more weapons. However, be careful, as dying in the dungeon will make you lose your D-tokens, with only one chance to get them back. 

As you progress to each new area, snippets of the history of the world will be told to you, allowing you to learn more about the world that your characters inhabit. The story seems good enough, especially the reasons as to why the king became the way he did. 

In The End

Besides all that, Demon’s Tier+ is pretty average. It does nothing to bring anything new to the genre, but what it does right, it does right. The music and audio design are nothing to really even talk about, so I won’t. Demon’s Tier+ is a decent grab, especially on Switch where you can just play it wherever, whenever. Not only that, but it also has co-op, so you can enjoy it all with a friend. 

So, although it doesn’t do anything special, I would say Demon’s Tier+ is a good enough game to give it a shot. It’s structurally sound and progressively in-depth. It will probably keep you busy a while, and with the multitude of characters and weapons, you’ll definitely have things to look forward to. 

 

Recommended

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Game reviewed by Freelance7 on the Nintendo Switch. Game provided by COWCAT.