Demons Roots. It is a game that many will scoff at the idea of playing upon learning of either its premise or its engine. Especially when they learn it has tons of porn in it, some of which is... on the extreme side, to put it mildly. However, beneath the surface is a heartfelt, if a bit too tropey at times, story about history revisionism, the oppressed, and the 'us or them' mindset people are so eager to adopt, and at a lightning-fast pacing with constant twists and turns to keep the reader engaged.
Of course, Demons Roots does sacrifice a lot for this pacing. Indeed, while the game does try to evoke the feeling of a grand invasion, the reality is that the game is clearly hamstrung by what is feasible to depict. What should be huge kingdoms are... 6 houses, 10 npcs and a dungeon. The culture of each place is described to you in off-handed sentences. There's no time to develop this or expand the scale; the game's gotta plan, you see, and dammit you are going to go on this ride whether you like it or not. Next plotpoint, next kingdom, go go go, no time.
While this leaves a lot to be desired on the setting of the world itself, the game doesn't skip out on its characters. Many that are feel trope-riddled initially or boring prove themselves to be anything but as the story goes on, with nuances and belief. The war, and the reasonings for the war, while boiling down to the same greater goal, means something different to everyone. It reminds me of a smaller-scoped Wrath of the Righteous in that way.
Unfortunately, the gameplay only ever reaches 'alright'. Decent, and potentially more interesting if Ange didn't shatter the game across her knee by being fundamentally broken, but rarely great. It does the best with what it can by giving characters strongly defined roles and differences, but it is RPG-maker combat through and through.
If I were to labor critiques at the game, I find the dialogue to be a bit unnatural at times, so focused on explaining and expositing the plot and getting to the next plot point that the characters, when in some focal scenes, start feeling like expository devices, or answering machines that are responding to questions the reader might be having. Lots of "Hey, why doesn't X/Y/Z help, or why don't we do A/B/C" "Well, that's because of X/Y/Z reason, because of A/B/C". Much of this is owe'd to the story moving at such breakneck pace that it leaves so many natural holes that the game must constantly seek to answer lest it be buried under a weight of contrivances.
That being said, that's mostly a gripe. A real complaint would mostly be the final act and chapter, the 'epilogue' as it were. The situation behind it makes sense, but it feels like something that needed much more time and development to properly get across. As it is now it feels like a needless appendix to get across a point the game had drifted off of due to focusing on the antagonist. It's thematically fitting, but feels excessively fast and honestly unwarranted. Not to mention a lot of characters just... aren't involved in it, which is unfortunate.
Either way, I enjoyed my 30~ish hours with Demons Roots. I don't know if it's an all-time great for me, but I respect it a lot for what it does, and what it grows into.
Of course, Demons Roots does sacrifice a lot for this pacing. Indeed, while the game does try to evoke the feeling of a grand invasion, the reality is that the game is clearly hamstrung by what is feasible to depict. What should be huge kingdoms are... 6 houses, 10 npcs and a dungeon. The culture of each place is described to you in off-handed sentences. There's no time to develop this or expand the scale; the game's gotta plan, you see, and dammit you are going to go on this ride whether you like it or not. Next plotpoint, next kingdom, go go go, no time.
While this leaves a lot to be desired on the setting of the world itself, the game doesn't skip out on its characters. Many that are feel trope-riddled initially or boring prove themselves to be anything but as the story goes on, with nuances and belief. The war, and the reasonings for the war, while boiling down to the same greater goal, means something different to everyone. It reminds me of a smaller-scoped Wrath of the Righteous in that way.
Unfortunately, the gameplay only ever reaches 'alright'. Decent, and potentially more interesting if Ange didn't shatter the game across her knee by being fundamentally broken, but rarely great. It does the best with what it can by giving characters strongly defined roles and differences, but it is RPG-maker combat through and through.
If I were to labor critiques at the game, I find the dialogue to be a bit unnatural at times, so focused on explaining and expositing the plot and getting to the next plot point that the characters, when in some focal scenes, start feeling like expository devices, or answering machines that are responding to questions the reader might be having. Lots of "Hey, why doesn't X/Y/Z help, or why don't we do A/B/C" "Well, that's because of X/Y/Z reason, because of A/B/C". Much of this is owe'd to the story moving at such breakneck pace that it leaves so many natural holes that the game must constantly seek to answer lest it be buried under a weight of contrivances.
That being said, that's mostly a gripe. A real complaint would mostly be the final act and chapter, the 'epilogue' as it were. The situation behind it makes sense, but it feels like something that needed much more time and development to properly get across. As it is now it feels like a needless appendix to get across a point the game had drifted off of due to focusing on the antagonist. It's thematically fitting, but feels excessively fast and honestly unwarranted. Not to mention a lot of characters just... aren't involved in it, which is unfortunate.
Either way, I enjoyed my 30~ish hours with Demons Roots. I don't know if it's an all-time great for me, but I respect it a lot for what it does, and what it grows into.