Apertar start nunca foi tão divertido
Capcom’s no stranger to top of the range action platformers and Demon’s Crest is no exception, which makes it all the more unfortunate that it was so overlooked in its day. I think you could release it today almost totally unaltered and it would gel quite well with the tastes of certain modern audiences, albeit probably at a relatively low price. From its good degree of non-linear exploration, gloomy atmosphere and reasonably tough difficulty level it has a lot of hallmarks of recent hits big and small, and yet it still feels like we have a lot to learn from it.
It’s impressive that Demon’s Crest manages to live up to Ghosts ‘n Goblins’ challenge despite how much more versatile its movement is. Explore a bit to find some crests and Firebrand can fly in any direction, cling to or climb up walls, shoulder bash his way through heavy objects, the works. The reason you can’t just dance around everything all willy nilly is because Capcom employed some sensible restraint. Firebrand has to position himself to push away from a wall before you can jump off of it (think Super Metroid), his shoulder bash has a hefty amount of start up before it kicks in and he can only jump so high before flying, a bit like in Kirby & The Forgotten Land. This is all great because, while Firebrand has enough weird and wonderful abilities to give you some semblance of a devilish power fantasy, you still have to be patient when using them. There’ll be plenty of moments where you have to stop and really analyse your surroundings, lest you subject yourself to repeated clumsy deaths and Firebrand’s “AH!” that seems to become more maddening each time.
Dying itself never becomes annoying thanks to the surprisingly generous double whammy of infinite retries and pretty brief levels. Don’t let the levels’ shortness trick you into thinking that Demon’s Crest doesn’t have some bang for your buck, though. Whether to find hidden levels and bosses by clearing obstacles with upgrades you didn’t have before, collect indispensably useful life upgrades or to unlock the true ending & final boss, there’s plenty of reasons to revisit each area. Action platformers had had branching paths and secret alternate levels before this, Rondo of Blood being my favourite example, but they didn’t let you crisscross between them all in whatever order you please on a quest to become the coolest demon on the block. Progression-wise I suppose the closest thing would probably be Mega Man, but even it’s not quite the same.
What would be truly demonic is if I didn’t draw attention to the soundtrack or the art. Cartoony horror tickles my fancy like you wouldn’t believe, and the only other game I can think of that does it so effectively is the also superb MediEvil. As with MediEvil, you’re in for a lot of moody church organs, and to that end, one of the first tracks you hear in Demon’s Crest is a masterclass in tone setting. Melancholic as befits a world where demons rule the roost and humans are all gone, dilapidated buildings littering the backgrounds of the game’s gorgeous sprite work, but there’s hints of vengefulness in there too, maybe even hope. Definitely piles on the atmosphere something fierce.
As excellent as Demon’s Crest is, I did say ‘almost’ unaltered, and there’s at least one niggle that you’re bound to notice – you can only switch between crests through the pause menu. It’s really quick in the grand scheme of things, but still. If it were ever to get the Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection treatment, it’d be great if you could switch crests in real time, probably with the shoulder buttons considering they go unused. There’s also a more minor issue of the fact that one or two crests are a bit redundant, one in particular being a high damage weapon for Firebrand’s base form which you’ll probably only get after already having obtained his ultimate form that does higher damage anyway.
Neither of those are egregious, though, definitely not enough to be offputting. With Capcom throwing so many well handled franchise revivals our way in the past few years, I’d love to see Demon’s Crest join them sometime (I did buy two copies of DMC5 like the good little pay piggy I am, so y’know, throw me a bone, lads). There’s plenty else to love about it that I haven’t covered, but you should really try it and see for yourself. Just make sure to keep exploring if you get the bad ending in the span of, like, an hour.
It’s impressive that Demon’s Crest manages to live up to Ghosts ‘n Goblins’ challenge despite how much more versatile its movement is. Explore a bit to find some crests and Firebrand can fly in any direction, cling to or climb up walls, shoulder bash his way through heavy objects, the works. The reason you can’t just dance around everything all willy nilly is because Capcom employed some sensible restraint. Firebrand has to position himself to push away from a wall before you can jump off of it (think Super Metroid), his shoulder bash has a hefty amount of start up before it kicks in and he can only jump so high before flying, a bit like in Kirby & The Forgotten Land. This is all great because, while Firebrand has enough weird and wonderful abilities to give you some semblance of a devilish power fantasy, you still have to be patient when using them. There’ll be plenty of moments where you have to stop and really analyse your surroundings, lest you subject yourself to repeated clumsy deaths and Firebrand’s “AH!” that seems to become more maddening each time.
Dying itself never becomes annoying thanks to the surprisingly generous double whammy of infinite retries and pretty brief levels. Don’t let the levels’ shortness trick you into thinking that Demon’s Crest doesn’t have some bang for your buck, though. Whether to find hidden levels and bosses by clearing obstacles with upgrades you didn’t have before, collect indispensably useful life upgrades or to unlock the true ending & final boss, there’s plenty of reasons to revisit each area. Action platformers had had branching paths and secret alternate levels before this, Rondo of Blood being my favourite example, but they didn’t let you crisscross between them all in whatever order you please on a quest to become the coolest demon on the block. Progression-wise I suppose the closest thing would probably be Mega Man, but even it’s not quite the same.
What would be truly demonic is if I didn’t draw attention to the soundtrack or the art. Cartoony horror tickles my fancy like you wouldn’t believe, and the only other game I can think of that does it so effectively is the also superb MediEvil. As with MediEvil, you’re in for a lot of moody church organs, and to that end, one of the first tracks you hear in Demon’s Crest is a masterclass in tone setting. Melancholic as befits a world where demons rule the roost and humans are all gone, dilapidated buildings littering the backgrounds of the game’s gorgeous sprite work, but there’s hints of vengefulness in there too, maybe even hope. Definitely piles on the atmosphere something fierce.
As excellent as Demon’s Crest is, I did say ‘almost’ unaltered, and there’s at least one niggle that you’re bound to notice – you can only switch between crests through the pause menu. It’s really quick in the grand scheme of things, but still. If it were ever to get the Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection treatment, it’d be great if you could switch crests in real time, probably with the shoulder buttons considering they go unused. There’s also a more minor issue of the fact that one or two crests are a bit redundant, one in particular being a high damage weapon for Firebrand’s base form which you’ll probably only get after already having obtained his ultimate form that does higher damage anyway.
Neither of those are egregious, though, definitely not enough to be offputting. With Capcom throwing so many well handled franchise revivals our way in the past few years, I’d love to see Demon’s Crest join them sometime (I did buy two copies of DMC5 like the good little pay piggy I am, so y’know, throw me a bone, lads). There’s plenty else to love about it that I haven’t covered, but you should really try it and see for yourself. Just make sure to keep exploring if you get the bad ending in the span of, like, an hour.
cool game. neat art.
you never see any of the bosses twice.
you never see any of the bosses twice.
fun game.
I like how different this game feels from other platformers of the era. It dabbles a bit into the Metroidvania style by requiring you to revisit areas to unlock all the upgrades. Every level has various paths each with their own visual style and bosses. It does a poor job of explaining a lot of this stuff, including the fact that you can beat the game pretty soon after you finish the first level, since the final boss is just kinda right on the world map. I was confused when I beat the game after like, 30 minutes. But all the extra levels and abilities you unlock make the exploration worth it, and the game opens up quite nicely when you have everything under your belt. I will say they kinda botched the platforming by giving you the ability to fly endlessly. Gargoyle's Quest did this a lot better by having you slowly gain better air time, and the moment you actually did gain infinite flight was wonderful. Here, it just exists as a way to disengage from basically every obstacle. But this game is more about the exploration than anything. It's not even all that hard, at least until you get to the ridiculously cheap final boss, which is probably the most egregious difficulty spike I've ever seen. Fuck that thing. Still, great game! 4/6
Honestly I didn't play this much but what I did play was pretty fun. I like it much better than any ghouls and ghost game. Being a bad guy like Firebrand is cool. I need to play this for real soon and give it a better review.
MUITO BOM, tem uma estética muito legal. A mecânica de mudar de forma conforme o poder era demais. Nunca tive a fita desse jogo, só joguei em emulador.
no dude im good
good sprites
Mf`s be named after McDonald`s dipping sauces.
Un juego muy original (y que esta vez a diferencia de Ghost and goblins puedo jugar como un ser humano) y divertido que propone jugar como un enemigo de otra saga. El único problema gordo que le veo, es que varios desafíos se pueden pasar fácilmente con ciertas habilidades y que bueno, el enemigo vuela indefinidamente, y que los enemigos alados tienen patrones muy parecidos. Pero aún así, la propuesta pseudo metroidvania, me pareció bastante amena.
Tried this at a few people's suggestion and yeah, this is quite a gem. This one doesn't seem to be too well known compared to other SNES highlights, which is a shame. It's very hard, but tons of fun, especially as you get more abilities and learn to curb the difficulty a little with them. You'll be able to go back to previous sections and reach areas you couldn't before, all that kinda jazz. It's very satisfying and very well put together, and I would definitely recommend it.
Bonito e com gameplay divertida do jeito que o diabo gosta
God I loved this. It was so cool and well made. Your abilities are fun and interesting and I loved how they worked for traversal and exploration. I'd love to see this come back.
Underrated Game of the SNES era.
It looks a bit shallow on the first view but damn, there is actually a good bunch in this. Most levels have an alternate way with an alternate boss, rewarding you with diverse items that will either boss you a bit or a gem that changes what ype of demon you are which you use depenig on the situation.
100% this game for the first time is hard, there are enough bosses that do not joke around. The levels are mostly also neatly done but there are a few annoying places.
The presentation of how everything looks and to that the Music makes it really an unique game and is also fun to speedrun for fun.
Please give this game a chance somehow. It really deserves it.
It looks a bit shallow on the first view but damn, there is actually a good bunch in this. Most levels have an alternate way with an alternate boss, rewarding you with diverse items that will either boss you a bit or a gem that changes what ype of demon you are which you use depenig on the situation.
100% this game for the first time is hard, there are enough bosses that do not joke around. The levels are mostly also neatly done but there are a few annoying places.
The presentation of how everything looks and to that the Music makes it really an unique game and is also fun to speedrun for fun.
Please give this game a chance somehow. It really deserves it.
I liked the exploration but found the level design to be lackluster.
Demon's Crest is a very unique game for the SNES era. In it, you play as the demon Firebrand, who's on a quest for revenge and ultimate power, which is a stark contrast from what most other games of that era were doing. Also unique is the game's atmosphere, featuring a haunting art style and macabre music.
Gameplay is pretty fun, with the ability to swap between different forms and abilities. However, the game can be extremely frustrating due to its pretty high difficulty so it's a little hard to recommend for those who don't like tough games. Otherwise though, go for it!
Gameplay is pretty fun, with the ability to swap between different forms and abilities. However, the game can be extremely frustrating due to its pretty high difficulty so it's a little hard to recommend for those who don't like tough games. Otherwise though, go for it!
Derrotei o final boss depois de 3 fases e não sei como pegar o resto das coisas, então foda-se.
waaaaay too short but i love everything else, especially the aesthetic and music.
Fazer o final ruim é muito fácil e pode ser desestimulante. O jogo possui um design antigo que tem uma orientação e direcionamento um pouco ruim pros dias de hoje, mas é notável que o design era um dos melhores na época.