Demon’s Tier+ is out on PS4 courtesy of Cowcat Games and Diabolical Mind with a ton of improvements. Find out more about this fun and challenging roguelike dungeon crawler in our Demon’s Tier+ review!
This is a double review for Demon’s Tier+. Ceidz and ThaRaven403 played the game, and this review presents what they both had to say.
After a brief tutorial scene where you learn some of the basic gameplay mechanics of the game, you end up in the village that serves as your hub, which you’ll return to after a dungeon run, or when you die. From here, you’ll have access to a weapon store where you can purchase better weapons for your characters, and an item shop for some healing potions and most importantly, a magic rope that you can use to leave the dungeon. You’ll also be able to visit the bar, where you can unlock the other characters of your party as playable ones if you pay the price that is.
The other place of interest in the village is the hole you can enter to fight monsters. The deeper you go, the more you’ll move the story forward. When you enter a new level in the dungeon, you are given a mission that you must complete in order to access the next level. Missions will be things like killing all enemies on the floor or making all bomb barrels explode. Considering each level is procedurally generated, you’ll never be able to follow the same path when you start a level. Moreover, you’ll have only five minutes to complete your mission. If it’s not completed by then, the big Reaper appears on the level, filling up almost half of the screen. The Reaper can’t be killed, and it’s coming for you!
When you complete a level, you’ll be able to use all the gold you gathered up to that point to boost some of your character’s stats. The more you level them up, the more expensive it gets. You’ll also collect D-tokens as you play, which can be used in the village’s shops. The only thing is that if you die, you’ll lose all your tokens, but you do have the possibility to get them back if you reach the level you died on and destroy your grave. You’ll have to judge when is a good time to go back to the surface, considering that you’ll have to start over on the first floor when you get back in there.
Being a fan of roguelike games, I was ready to jump in this one. The controls were easy to pick up, especially since attacks are made with the right analog stick, and so I got through a few levels rather easily, until I didn’t pay attention to my health and died. It was frustrating, but satisfying at the same time, so I quickly got back in the dungeon for some more. That “one more level” feeling is perfect there, and it’s always great to reach the end and proceed to another level. And with all the weapons to purchase, characters to unlock, there is a lot of replay value. I also really liked the five minutes limit of the levels, as it put a bit more intensity in making sure you’re not taking your time completing them.
As for the trophies, it’s a rather simple list that is just going to need you to take your time to complete the game if you want that Platinum trophy. Getting through all the bosses to fight and unlock all base playable characters should get you the majority of the trophies, with only a few miscellaneous ones to get after that.
As ThaRaven403 mentioned, each level is procedurally generated, so you can’t memorize a level’s layout, and will need to explore each one in full before going to the next one. Each floor has its own objectives, and some will require wiping out each enemy on the floor or finding a special treasure. Once the objective is completed, you can either move to the next floor directly, or if it wasn’t done before, clean up the remaining monsters to get more gold. Gold is required to level up your character, and the stronger you make it, the higher the cost to upgrade it some more.
That is not all there is to it, because you have a time limit of five minutes to clear each floor. Some will be easy to clear, but at other times, when you’re looking for the last enemy in the room, the timer does feel tight. When the five minutes expire, the big Reaper appears and chases you, which will probably mean your doom if you’re not quickly going towards the room exit. If you think you’re not going to make it, another option would be to use a magical rope and get out of the dungeon back to the surface as quickly as possible. Dying on a floor isn’t the end of it since you can reach the same floor and get back your D-tokens. But if you die in the process a second time, your loot is gone forever.
With the short time limit available to explore each floor, you’re bound to get lost, but there’s an in-game map system that will help you find the right way. At first, each floor map is empty, but you will discover its different areas as you explore each section, adding them to your map. There are often treasures boxes on a floor, and the key is obtained when getting rid of a specific monster. Once the monster has been slain, searching for the treasure box and doing it within the short five-minute limit felt a bit unfair. I would have liked to have the treasures and other points of interest mapped as they’re found on each floor. It also isn’t visible as you walk in a corner, so you also have to press a button to pause the game in order to check it.
As for the presentation, I liked the art style of this game – reminiscent of the 16-bit era -, and definitively thought that the character art in town was interesting. I also liked the different visual options, like antialiasing and a CRT-like effect that gave the game an old-school look and feel.
Final Thoughts
We liked progressing through the roguelike floors of Demon’s Tier+, having a lot of fun as we tried to complete just “one more level,” and it’s a game that is easy to recommend if you’re a fan of the genre. The progression has a risk vs. reward scenario in which you lose a lot if you’re not careful, but progressing is rewarding. Be sure to check out Demon’s Tier+ on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita with this Cross-Buy release!
Price: $9.99 USD
Disclaimer
This Demon’s Tier+ review is based on PlayStation 4 copies provided by Cowcat games.
