For the most part, entries in the Beat ‘Em Up genre tend to swap the platforming mechanics commonly associated with side-scrollers for depth of field, allowing the player to walk north and south on the screen in addition to the standard east and west.Demon Crush, the inaugural title from developer Reverting Castles, is a bold exception to this trend, combining BMU combat with classic 2D platforming (and an arsenal of sweet ninja moves, as well). The short but sweet demo for the game, entitledKenzo’s Fury, shows off the stylish first level of the upcoming indie game, introducing players to the mechanics and moves while wordlessly depicting the passionate counterattack of playable character Kenzo Yagimoto against a demonic assault on a peaceful Japanese village.
Beauty in Simplicity
There were no words (in any language) spoken or written in the entirety of my time playingDemon Crush, a reflection of the much larger minimalist sentiment that’s spread throughout. It opens on a landscape of a peaceful village (above), which suddenly sees bursts of orange light emanating from the east, illustrating the surprise attack by the rival army. Instructions and tutorials are illustrated on blank scrolls, providing only buttons on a gamepad and three-frame animations to introduce characters to new moves.
Despite the lack of narration or descriptions, the progression of Kenzo’s journey through the city feels tangible, with each panel of background art flowing perfectly from one segment to the next. Even the sprite-work is beautifully simplistic, with 16-bit characters that somehow feel both simple and mature simultaneously, ditching facial features for clean and well-shadowed pixel art. Animations are clean and sleek, exemplified beautifully as our hero perches on a branch outside the city, which bends under the weight of the character as heavy rainfall pelts the forest.
Beat ‘Em Ups, Remixed
Outside of combat, the game looks and feels like one of the many finely-tuned pixel art indie platformers on the market today, such asThe MessengerorKatana ZERO.Once you get into the battles, however, it’s clear that Demon Crush takes heavier inspiration from Beat ‘Em Up classics for its combat system. The three top-most face buttons are bound to the three items that Kenzo wields, a set of tonfas, a staff and a kusari-gama, with directional inputs and the left-shoulder “block” button modifying the attacks and commands of each of the weapons. The kusari-gama acts as the “grapple” function, allowing players to pull enemies near or launch themselves towards them using its long-ranged chain (which doubles as a platforming grappling hook), while the staff provides sweeping crowd-control attacks and the tonfas produce one-on-one jabs and impacts.
The simplicity of the moveset inDemon Crushmakes it much more accessible than most arcade BMU fare, no longer requiring complex strings of multiple direction inputs and button presses to execute throws and juggles. Even then, the Beat ‘Em Up formula of locking in on a single target (or a small number of targets) and combining grabs, throws, attacks and blocks in order to create a string of fluid combat that’s still very much present from the classics.
Waves (and Waves) of Ninjas
One of the coolest mechanics is the addition of allied characters, who appear in the form of villagers assiisting Kenzo in turning the tides against the invading force. Groups of up to five or six allies may appear on the screen at one time, actively fighting against the same enemies that you do with their own weapons and moves. Kenzo (as well asthe invading army) is much stronger than the villagers, and while theycando actual damage to enemies, they perform best when they have Kenzo present to assist them, oftentimes dying quickly to enemies in groups of two or more. The strategic choice of holding back to fight alongside the villagers or flying ahead to take out snipers and rangers from the backlines is a nice addition to the silent storytelling of the game.
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One of the main problems withDemon Crush, however, comes at the cost of these large group battles. Since the game is purely a 2D platformer, shown from an exact 90-degree angle with no depth to walkways, characters easily overlap, becoming hard to follow and keep track of. Six or more characters (enemy and allies) can be stood in the same spot at once, which is made even harder to decipher when the fast and stylized combat gives little time to decode what’s happening on screen (and the large and colorful impact and slashing animations of attacks make it that much harder).
Additionally, the beautiful and vibrant backdrops can become a disadvantage to the player on certain occasions, as certain sprites blend in with similarly-colored backgrounds (although, this could be seen as a clever choice by the designers, simulating the stealth strategies of rival ninjas). Attempts are made to clean up the mess, such as highlighting Kenzo with a white border and arrow when they are in the same space as another sprite, but it still becomes hard to tell who it is that you’re hitting, as well as whether it’s an enemy or yourself at the receiving end of an attack.
Duels to the Death
While the game is still playable and fun with numerous enemies on screen, the most satisfying gameplay is found in the occasional one-on-one combat encounters found throughout the stage. Having one enemy to focus on allows the player to not only see more clearly, but also focus in on what moves they’re actually executing against the enemy. Strategy in approach gains a much more diverse range of choices when facing a single enemy, such as the demo’s showstopping final boss fight. The demon/warlord that you go head-to-head with has the unique ability to block incoming attacks, as well as a string of other huge attacks for the player to avoid.
At times, the battle feels reminiscent of fast-paced sword-batttling games in the vein ofSekiroorGhost of Tsushima, as the player leverages a variety of blocked and unblocked attacks against the boss between quick counter-blocks and evasions against the boss’s own swings. It almost feels like there should be a dashing-dodge move in here to avoid attacks with precise timing, which there sadly is none of as far as I can tell.
Overall, this first hands-on look atDemon Crushis a promising look at a potentially-great homage to old-school ninja platformers and BMUs alike, with just enough challenge and diversity in gameplay to keep players invested and pushing through the beautifully-designed levels. The fullKenzo’s Furydemo has been madeavailable today on Steam, alongside the launch of theKickstarter campaignto help fund console releases and level design. With the assistance of the Kickstarter campaign, the final version ofDemon Crushis set to release on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox and Nintendo Switch sometime in the near future.
Review: The Plucky Squire
Quite the well-written yarn, indeed.
