This is an exploration/search RPG made by Katatema in RPG Maker XP.
I first played this game back in 2021, got frustrated near the end of the game, and subsequently never finished it. I picked it up again on a whim just a few days ago and found myself spending the entire weekend playing the game. It’s not a long game, but it sure is fun.
The game can be difficult, but I don’t believe it’s unfair, with the amount of recovery items and return points you’re given. You can very easily find yourself running out of resources in some areas if you’re not careful and overextend, but that’s more on the player than the game. Tutorials are minimal, but you’ll quickly get a grasp on what you should be doing as you play. It doesn’t hold your hand and it’s all the better for it.
How’s the battle system? It’s not exactly complex, but you get a lot of freedom in how you customize your characters. I initially made Camil (the protagonist) a high crit attacker, but I found myself focusing on making her a mage later in the game (unfortunately physical attacks do not enjoy the privilege of ignoring defense like magic attacks do in this game). A good chunk of the game too is about setting up the battle too and not just the battle itself–you will die very easily if you decide to run into a horde of enemies unprepared. Which makes doing just that when you’re overleveled very satisfying; you can disintegrate an entire group of those damned scorpions that’ve been giving you trouble in a single hit. Really, it’s a great feeling just hitting Attack and seeing them explode.
I can’t help but compare this game to (what a lot of people call) the ancestor of search RPGs, so how does this compare to Nepheshel? It’s much more difficult to ‘sequence break’ in Demon King Chronicle with the way enemy encounters work in it. You can’t run from encounters either, so there’s really no point in attempting to do so. There’s also much less of a focus on secret passageways in Demon King Chronicle, though there’s plenty of items you can miss if you’re not assiduously checking everything. One thing this game has over Nepheshel is that the grind is infinitely more bearable. You definitely need to grind in Demon King Chronicle for things like the unlockable skills and item shop equipment, but nothing will compare to having to grind for several items that have a 5% drop rate just to have a chance at beating a boss.
>It’s an RPG, right? So how’s the story?
It’s a story about stories. You’re drip fed bits and pieces of the story as you go along, but the game never pushes long cutscenes onto the player. If you’ve played Irisu Syndrome, a game by the same developer, it’s somewhat similar. It’s not hard to piece together the gist of the story and how they all ‘connect’, but a lot of the details are hidden away in the glossary (unfortunately, some parts of the glossary are locked behind character levels so you might have to look up the details if you really want to dive into it). Also, the final boss has probably one of the best story-game integration I’ve seen.
Like I said, it’s really quite fun and I wish more games took inspiration from it and similar games. Instead we have a thousand nostalgia-baiting RPGs that have “just like [dead series]!” slapped onto it and you WILL pay for it on Kickstarter.
Thanks for reading. Now look at my end game stats (39 is Camil, 38 is Randolf):
Things to note while playing
- Everything in the game can be equipped. The items you get from crafting are especially useful. I usually equipped those and also old armor/weapons during my playthrough.
- Enemies do not drop gold. Occasionally you can find gold in chests, though you’ll be making most of your gold from selling enemy drops.
- On that note, the Lucky Rabbit item increases the drop rate of items. You can find the Lucky Rabbit in the Snow Fields. It might be hard to see the rabbit enemy, but the drop rate is 100%.
- You can permanently miss items if you’re not careful! Be sure to check every chest in a dungeon before you leave. Characters also give Glass Fragments if you talk to them in certain areas, and they won’t be there forever.
Useful links
- Demon King Chronicle Let’s Play by Einander. Contains plenty of useful information about equips and item locations.
- archive.org download for Demon King Chronicle. This is one of the only places you can find the game now.
- Original Japanese website for Demon King Chronicle.
- atwiki website for Demon King Chronicle. This game doesn’t have much English documentation, so this is what you get if you need a guide.
