A boy and his father live happily in a cabin in the woods.  But one day a bad guy that looks like a cross between Skeletor and Dr. Doom just busts through their door and kills the dad for no reason.  So now the son takes up a sword to take revenge.  This game is a 2D side scrolling hack and slash where you fight six boss demons in themed areas like Wind, Wood, Ice, Poison, Fire, etc.  It’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

The boy you play as controls pretty well.  Use a button to slash your sword and another to fire magic projectiles.  The projectiles use up a magic meter, so you’ll have to collect drops from defeated enemies to refill it.  You can also jump, climb up walls Mega Man X style, and double jump.  You can collect healing items, too, but you’ll have to manually heal yourself by holding down the triangle button.  Just seems like an unnecessary extra step to me, but oh well.

You can choose from the six stages Mega Man style.  In fact, they even make reference to Mega Man in some of the levels.  Like the Wind level has these face platforms with horns that stick out and enemies come out the sides just like the ones in Air Man’s stage!  But the levels are a bit more sprawling than a Mega Man area.  In some levels you’ll have to collect keys to open a door to move on, and there are multiple branching pathways with hidden items to find and such.  If you lose all your energy you have to start the level over again either at the beginning or a checkpoint.

When you reach the end of the level you’ll fight a boss.  Defeating it will give you a sword and magic attack based on that element.  Supposedly some enemies are weak against certain elements, but I couldn’t tell much of a difference.  My main problem with the game that kept me from staying interested was the level design.  Either it wasn’t very interesting or full of blind jumps, and the levels are too long as well and will take you more than 15 to 30 minutes to beat.

Kid Factor;

Clarity: The Seven Demons of Vanguardia is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.  You hit cartoony enemies with sword and magic attacks, and defeated baddies disappear in a puff of smoke.  When you run out of energy you just lay down.  Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews