Demon Gaze a sideways thumb game. In terms of Experience dungeon crawlers... it's smack dab in the middle for me. It has the things I look for, and some really cool ideas, but ultimately... I'd recommend so many dungeon crawlers over it.
Quick overview, you explore first person mazes, fighting monsters, using a custom built party following a mildly pervy story. It's biggest unique feature is a "Demon" function, where you capture many of the bosses you beat. When carried, each demon give you a passive bonus (Such as avoiding damage floors or higher max HP), active skills (Such as giving regen to the party), and can be summoned to the battlefield for you.
Combine these demons with several unique and interesting classes, a large supply of randomized equipment, and furniture to passively boost stats and you've got a good amount of customization in play style. But the balance is wonky, and most of it seems pretty useless. I find myself using the highest damage weapons, with the same 3 demons, and repeating the same couple skills. It's not feeling like a deep, meaningful experience for me.
This feeling of fake depth carries through 90% of the game. A large side-quest board that you can't actually do because everything requires story progress and can/must only be done at one specific plot point. A weapon upgrading system that has high costs, and is weaker than the RNG drops you get. Bosses that all seem to follow the exact same pattern (Summons "seed" minions and regens HP). Lots of items, even early game, that let you cast spells for free and therefor break the balance or need for attrition.
About the only top tier function that feels valuable is the "Artifact" system, where you can add ALL unique class skills to other characters. For example, the Samurai has a skill that can AOE an entire line of foes with a normal attack. Artifacts let me add that to another hero too! But they seem fairly rare, RNG drops, and limited in number... so I don't feel like I can just play with these systems.
This is not a bad game in any way, but it just doesn't feel very satisfying. Right now, 17 hours in, I feel like I'm in a good, solid final dungeon. If this was it... I'd probably thumbs up. But considering I'm at the midway point of the game... it's seriously going to outstay its welcome.
