Demons' Score

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/demons-score/id532473429?mt=8


This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad

$6.99

Category: Games
Released: Sep 19, 2012
Version: 1.0.0
Size: 734 MB
Language: English
Seller: SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd.
© 2012 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
Rated 12+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation) and iPad Wi-Fi + 4G. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

They Say

Get ready for off-the-hook break beat action. Surrender to the rhythm and tap like hell. Brave furious battles that combine stunning graphics and amazing background music!

■ Story
Where are you, Dad?

Salem, Massachusetts
Present day
Serenity is just your average college girl, but when she suddenly loses contact with her father Dr. Aleister, she sets out to find him at the Salem State Hospital & Asylum where he works.

Serenity arrives to finds she barely recognizes the hospital anymore. Stepping warily into the shattered ruins, she meets a talking teddy bear.

Introducing himself as David, the talking teddy bear claims to have once been human, but when Serenity asks him about her father’s whereabouts, countless demons suddenly appear.

Just before her father disappeared, he had sent a mysterious app to her smartphone.

Known as the Demons' Score, the app is a powerful program that enables her to take control of demons that possess her body.

Where has her father gone? How will she ever find him? And what’s up with that talking teddy bear? Serenity’s battle to the tune of Hell’s minions is about to begin.

■ Game Features
• Break beat action in which you battle demons in time to the rhythm.
• Stunning graphics driven by the Unreal Engine.
• Thrilling battle scenes and a story that sucks you in.
• Fierce battles with boss demons, all portrayed using dramatic camerawork.

• Once you complete a stage in Story mode, you can purchase the powers of boss demons that you defeated.
• You can change the demon powers Serenity controls by having different demons possess her.
• Having different demons possess Serenity expands gameplay and battle scenes.
• Serenity's costumes change according to the demon that is possessing her.
• Abilities, voices, and special attacks vary by the possessing demon.
• Satan's (US$9.99) difficulty level soared up!
With severe survival conditions, you can enjoy the game even more stoically.
• Helpful items are also available in case you get stuck.

• Enjoy two game modes: Story Mode and Free Mode.
• Select the difficulty level you want to play. Easy, Normal, and Hard are available, but to enjoy the entire story, you have to... (You'll just have play to find out!)
• Your scores in Free Mode can be sent to the online rankings at the Game Center.
• Saved data can be synced with iCloud.
* Your Soul Eaters (a special item) are not stored on iCloud.
* You must be running iOS 5.0 or later to use iCloud.

Try to completely conquer each stage by gaining the powers of Hell!

I Say
Alot of people are going to either refuse to buy this game because of its iap system or they are going to be misled in to buying it thinking they are paying premium pricing for a premium title only to discover what lies within. What you get for your 6.99usd is the normal and medium difficulties for the game, the outfit your character starts with and the outfit awarded for beating the first boss. Each additional boss rewarded outfit costs an additional 2.99usd (3.99usd for the upper sets) and Hard difficulty will set you back an additional 9.99usd. The game is fully beatable without spending beyond the initial investment but it won't have as much replayability without the additional difficulty setting and there will be a bit of grinding as you won't benefit from the improved stats on the better equipment.

Square Enix seems to be in a state of confusion as to how they want to handle their games iap. We have seen games set at console/handheld quality and pricing. We have then seen games where the initial chapter is free with additional chapters costing iap. And now... this. The fact that the game is enjoyable and fully beatable without the iap purchases being forced down my throat is the only reason its still installed on my ipad... but even those perks won't keep it around for very long because the gamecenter is leaderboards only.

Anyways, lets move beyond the iap blah blah and talk about the game. Square Enix also lately has been trying out variations on control schemes for their games and this title is as different from the rest as it gets. Anyone who has ever played Elite Beat Agents will be somewhat comfortable here. Circles appear at various points on your screen and your action towards them depends on what the circle is up to. Arrows mean tap when it hits optimal point. Swords mean swipe in the direction of the blade. Double circles mean two finger tap and so on. The tutorial is quite decent and is actually shown in the video above. This control scheme lends to a frantic and entertaining gameplay experience though it does bring out one long existing problem with touch games, your hands will spend most of the time covering up the screen so you won't be paying attention to the games graphics at all. Not to worry though, 90% of the combat is the characters mindlessly swishing weapons, shooting guns and taunting eachother.

Completing fights awards you experience, leveling up increases your hit points. You spend real money to buy new outfits as you beat bosses. The outfits boost your exp gain and hit points. Thats the summary of the rpg experience of this game.

Voice acting, its a japanese company translating a japanese game in to english using voice acting that is... heh. Yea. Anyone who's played a japanese port to usa shores knows what I'm talking about. Apparently Japan thinks we talk in deep grunty voices, high pitched excited voices and our females sound like they could cry at any moment, all the time. There is a limited variety to whats said in the game and each suit gives your character the voice of the demon you killed to get it. Most demons are male so you'll have to get used to your female character sounding like a guy most of the time. The selection of things they say is also somewhat limited so pretty soon you'll of heard everything a suit can possible have to say during combat, a hundred times. The exception to this is inbetween combat when the story plot advances and you talk to your companion or you talk to the boss. Regarding music, the song played in the tunnel sequence leading up to a boss is unique to the outfit you are wearing. The music played during the boss fight is unique to the boss and the outfit he rewards upon defeat matches that music.

Visuals. The visuals remind me of infinity blade 1. The enviroments are detailed, not offensive to the eyeballs but the characters looke 'shiney'. I'm a guy here so forgive me for observing that the main characters boobs look like semi melted wax most of the time. There's no physics here so dont expect jiggling, waving hair or tossled outfit trims.

The Story. Your father found a demon song (score), his secretary played it, a portal to hell opened, demons came out, your fathers secretary was turned in to a teddy bear and is your companion throughout the game. The main character enters the facility intent on rescueing her father and thanks to an app on her iphone she can apparently naturally fight, fly and absorb defeated boss demons. Each 'stage' involves a flying tunnel sequence where you shoot a bunch of lesser demons, get kicked back to the start of the tunnel, kick down the doors, have a long conversation with a demon, kill it, have a conversation with the teddy bear, go to the victory screen, have a new expensive outfit flaunted at you, hit next and start the process all over again.

Funny, reading that paragraph makes the game feel miserable. It isn't and I do enjoy the game that my money lets me play. It gets real fast paced later on in the game and over all its very rewarding. Missing moves deducts from your hit points, hitting moves replenishes your hit point bar. The string of moves flows with the music and the plot isnt totally horrible. It looks like the game can be completed without purchases beyond the initial entry fee though the map appears to be skipping certain stages which means those stages are limited to medium and hard difficulty or those stages only popup with certain outfits. Not sure which.

My plans? I'm going to play the game until i either beat it or something else comes up with achievements and i need the space. I won't be buying every outfit that shows up but I will probably buy the very last very best outfit when/if it becomes available.

My suggestion to squarenix? Squeenix, your full price and your pay by chapter models are nice, this pricing model sucks. The most offensive part about this pricing model is that this game in japan costs 14 bucks and has no iap in it. Your on a great roll, finally paying attention to the iOS but a warning, the iOS community will only pay so much attention to you if you keep treating us like wallets waiting to be plucked.

o/