This is one on the Switch Online SNES service that I've had a mind to play for a while but finally got down to actually doing when I was helping a friend with their fundraising Twitch stream last weekend. I had night crew duty, so once the other night crew went to sleep and I didn't have friends to play Kirby with anymore, I cracked open this to play on stream. I ended up beating it juuust as the person hosting the stream woke back up, but then I put a few more hours into it to get the best ending (or at least to try to XP). It's not the hardest SNES game I've played, but it's up there for sure. It took me around 6 or so hours to beat the SNES version of the game on the Switch Online service with limited save state use.

Demon's Crest is the third and final game starring Firebrand, the red demon from Ghosts 'n' Goblins. 1000 years ago, a demon named Phalanx defeated Firebrand and threw him in the underworld's arena, and that's where the game starts. However, at the end of this match, the force of defeating your foe makes a shockwave powerful enough to break a hole in the wall to freedom! After once again dispatching your previously-not-actually-dead dragony enemy, Firebrand sets off to set the underworld free from under the foot of the demon king Phalanx and his foul machinations. Firebrand himself is a silent protagonist, and there ultimately isn't that much story in the game save from talking with the one demon NPC in the city and then with Phalanx himself.

There are several endings to the game, depending on how much of the collecting you've done: If you go to fight Phalanx immediately, if you collect all 6 power crests, and if you collect EVERY item (very much like how Mega Man X hides its super weapon), and Phalanx gets harder for each better ending you want, gaining first an actual dungeon (it's not finished yet if you go too early XD) and a second form, and then a much more powerful third form. Beating the game even nets you a secret password for a new game+ with a new powerful gargoyle form and you can fight a much MUCH MUCH harder true final boss. Phalanx, like the rest of the bosses in the game, is a pretty good fight (though his third form is a bit too tricky to be much fun, I found), but the true final boss (some "out of nowhere" actual strongest demon simply named Dark Demon) is an absolutely awful test of luck and endurance and I didn't have the patience to actually kill him for his ending (I gave it an hour and a half of my life and I won't give it any more XP).

The gameplay itself is a bit different from the other Gargoyle's Quest games, playing a bit more like the weird Metroidy cousin to a Mega Man game than the sort of weird cousin to Zelda 2 the other GQ games play like. There's a Mode 7 map to fly around in, and from there you go to locations (some of which are pretty well hidden, but those are optional) and those locations are your levels. Even the game's one town is actually a level. This is functionally your level select screen, much like a Mega Man game. However, each level has multiple paths leading to different bosses (not to mention oodles of hidden power ups and secrets), so the game's 6 levels feel more like 10-ish. Of those goodies are pieces of vellum you can get spells put onto (which I never actually used since they're not that useful), bottles to put potions into (which can do everything from teleport you out of a level to giving you a full heal), or even give you new modes of fire. Finding all of the variations on Firebrand's normal fire breath actually nets you one of the crests you need for the best ending, although these breaths themselves tend to be either used for progression (breaking breakable blocks) or just slight power upgrades.

Speaking of progression, Firebrand's main mode of travel is jumping, clinging to walls, and then a hover he can do indefinitely until he gets hit. That hover kinda compromises how levels can be designed, and so they tend to be pretty dangerous and narrow so you can't just fly over everything. Additionally, as you find the actual crests (all rewards for beating bosses, Mega Man-style, although not every boss drops a crest, and most actually drop health upgrades, Zelda-style), you also get rewarded with new gargoyle forms! These forms let you charge through barriers, not just hover but fly, and even swim in water. Unfortunately, you can't have the previously mentioned Firebrand breaths at the same time as a crest form, and especially once you get later forms that are literally just super-powered up Firebrand, the extra breath forms kinda become either extremely situational or outright useless (I basically never used them at all). The level design isn't Capcom's best, but it's still really solid and generally fun and fair feeling. Really, Firebrand's kinda slow movement and the general difficulty of the game hurt the flow of the level design more than anything.

Talking about the difficulty, it's kinda a weird one. Because the game has a level select (although more levels are opened up later as you get more gargoyle forms, so you can't go genuinely anywhere at the start), the difficulty at the start is one of those cases where there's an intended path, but you can do it in many potential orders. What order you take will determine what order you fight bosses in, and some like Flier SUCK as far as how maneuverable they are compared to you and just how much health they have. The game has a real "inverse difficulty curve" problem, where it starts out hard and gets easier as you go on, but largely because you're just more survivable, as well as just getting better at the game. The more moderately difficult parts of the game are good fun, but the more punishing stuff (particularly those hardest bosses) feel more clumsily designed than a genuinely fun challenge. Thankfully, the game is pretty ahead of its time in that it doesn't have any life or continue system. It uses passwords to save progress, unfortunately, but you can have as many attempts at a boss as you want because you effectively have infinite lives. It's not an easy game, and it's definitely one of the harder Capcom games I've played, but overall the difficulty is pretty nice once you get past the bumpier beginning parts.

The presentation is pretty nice, and about what you'd expect for a late-life SNES title. The music is pretty darn good. Nothing particularly MP3 player-worthy, but all good tracks that fit their environments well, as you'd expect from Capcom. It's also a very pretty game, making beautiful enemies and landscapes of the demon realm, though the animations are often limited. Later levels can hit a bit of slowdown, but it's nowhere near as bad as I'd heard it was, and overall the game ran really well. Even the slowdown that was there never impacted my ability to play it, which was nice.

Verdict: Recommended. It's got some rough aspects to it, and the difficulty problems will definitely turn some people off, but this is a really solid game! The physical cart is hideously expensive, but the Switch Online service is a really great way to experience this game. If you want some Mega Man-ish, Metroidvania-y fun in a SNES-era style, this is a great way to spend a weekend~

I would have given this game 5 stars, except that it’s too short.
I mean it. It’s the third in a series of action RPGs set in the Ghosts n Goblins universe starring Firebrand the Gargoyle (known as Red Arremer in the Ghosts n Goblins games) on a quest to save the Ghoul Realm from humans (I think, I haven’t played all the games, just Demon’s Crest).
In Demon’s Crest he’s saving it from…a demon? M
The problem that Demon’s Creat is good. Very good. It could have been great, had they made it longer. It’s hitting its stride when it suddenly puts you against the boss.
But even so, it’s a satisfying game with some truly great artwork that is suitably dark and ghoulish.
Some fun bosses and a pretty challenging overall experience.
It drops the rpg elements from the prior games, which is a shame (I’ve played roughly ten minutes of the first game on the Gameboy - Gargoyle’s Quest, where you walked around towns and talked to “people”).
So, it’s flawed. Should you put time into it? Hell yes! I think you might be pleasantly surprised by how fun it is. Just be aware of the challenge level. The levels themselves aren’t bad, but I remember some of the bosses just going ham on you.

Demon's Crest suprised me with how good it was and is easily the best of the trilogy. Capcom took the core gameplay of Gargoyle's Quest 1 and 2 and upgraded it to the point where it is essentially Megaman X with a Ghosts N Goblins coat of paint, both in Gameplay and Presentation. The game also has metroidvania elements in the sense where you can replay levels and they all have branching paths leading to different upgrades that you will need to collect to have a chance with the final boss... Or you could just go straight to the final boss from the get go - BOTW style. Demon's Crest is definitely one of the most underrated SNES games as it belongs up there with the likes of Megaman X and Super Metroid, but is barely spoken about. If you like Megaman X and want a spooky theme to it, this is the game you must try.

As it is one of the last games for the SNES, it really gets everything out of the console technically, especially graphically. The sprites look fantastic and the levels are beautifully designed. The game also has no end of atmosphere, especially for an SNES game it was very dark. I really enjoyed the gameplay itself, and Firebrand's different abilities complement each other well. Unfortunately, you have to do a lot of backtracking during the rather short duration of the game to find the various transformations and other items. Unfortunately, there are no clues as to where anything else might be hidden, which quickly leads to frustration. The level of difficulty is also a bit strange. Sometimes I was stuck on bosses for ages, sometimes, especially towards the end, I defeated bosses with 5 attacks, which didn't feel very balanced. The music was great for the most part, but a bit more variety would have helped here too, especially the boss fight theme really got on my nerves. All in all a good game but I would recommend reading a guide to avoid unnecessary backtracking.

It's going to be a little complicated to evaluate Demon's Crest, but I no longer think it's that wonderful thing that a lot of people point out, for me it's like Banjo Kazooie, it's a good game, not wonderful, not even my favorite, but it works, despite having been part of From my childhood, what about Demon's Crest? well, it's a Megaman either, some bosses are cool, others are meh, some are motherfucking difficult and two are disgracefully unfair, the graphics are pretty but not impressive, and the beginning of the stages is very challenging, but as you go you get items to strengthening the game is calm, but strangely it becomes empty, I don't know after the first stages the game becomes emptier than my soul, but hey, that's actually a positive point due to the lore of you being a lonely demon that absolutely NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU and much less you with them, since the game, as beautiful as it is, lacks a bit of charisma in the characters, I think the only one who can be saved is the crazy person who sits in the village who probably treats you with every transformation of yours as if you were someone else and that's kind of cool, it has a cool replay value too, but I don't think it's enough for me to play it over and over again or miss playing it again, I don't know, after playing the 3 games in the Gargoyle's series, I thought the second is more fun than the first which I don't recommend much and even Crest which isn't bad, it's good, but it doesn't make me think it's an incredible game like a lot of people do.

Demon's Crest is a spin-off of the much more popular Ghosts 'n Goblins franchise by Capcom. In it, you play as the dreaded Arremer, Firebrand, who was possibly responsible for the many deaths of Arthur in previous titles. This is an excellent action platformer by Capcom. It has a cool world map that is used as a stage select area, excellent levels with tons of secrets and collectibles, and really awesome bosses. It reminds me a lot of Mega Man X's level design. A super tight experience that I consider a must-play.

Really outstanding but done a disservice by an incredibly short playtime. It's so full of mechanics and unique presentations of time-tested game basics, and the player just isn't given enough time to play around with its toybox.

Aesthetically it's staggering though, presenting incredibly menacing sprite work, a truly charming bestiary, and a gloomy soundtrack. On this alone it's worth checking out, but know that playing through to see multiple endings is the best way to get the content for your time, but will only extend the short experience so much.

Remember when UMvC3 introduced FIrebrand as a playable character and everyone went "WHY TF THEY ADDED THE GHOSTS & GOBLINS GOOMBA INSTEAD OF X????"

Well turns out that Firebrand is the protagonists of some more obscure titles in Capcom's library. I didn't know at the time about that, so I decided to check out one of them out of curiosity. And I wasn't expecting it to be this solid.

Demon crest was a surprise: a title where you play as an actual imp witht ehability to fly, as you explore some hellish levels and grim environments is a metroidvania-like style, with lots of explorations and abilities.
The enemies are terrifying, tbosses are challenging, the levels are tense and the soundtrack fits the mood perfectly.

Overall it is a great time, though I don't deny it has some issues. Primarily I feel that, while Firebrand himself is a cool character with a lot of combat and movement options, it can move a bit too slow, and the often forced backtracking of the different levels can make the experience a bit too annoying sometimes.

Regardless, a neat surprise, for sure one of the biggest surprised in Capcom's catalogue.