Demon Chaos is set in Feudal Japan (where else?), and stars a young priestess named Yasaka Aoi. In the CG intro sequence, Aoi is trying to defend her temple from a bunch of monsters. It seems all the current wars between people have allowed the power of demons to enter this world, and now everything will be doomed etc. Takeminakata No Mikoto, the god of war, turns up, and gives Aoi the gift of immortality, as well as a summoned battle spirit called 'Inugami'. You control Inugami (always followed by Aoi), in a quest to rid Japan of the demon menace.
The game is what can only be described as a Dynasty Warriors style war game with some Pikmin style action real time strategy elements. The majority of the game is classic Dynasty Warriors 'hack and slash through hundreds of identical enemies' gameplay, but most of the time you'll also have indirect control of a whole army of allied soldiers too. You have to lead them into battle, set up healing points, and set them on certain tasks while you deal with bigger enemies. The army stuff works quite well, and keeps you managing your time rather than playing brainlessly. It's obviously nowhere near as in-depth as the unique action gameplay of Pikmin or a dedicated RTS where such gameplay is the main feature, but as a side feature it fits in well with the main gameplay and theme. Other hack and slash games have had similar elements, but none has done it to this extent.
Plenty of enemies and particles keep the PS2's fill rate busy.
The hack and slash gameplay itself is pretty standard, and anyone who can mash the main attack button and throw in few other buttons every now and then can easily perform 'combos'. However, in short bursts it's one of the most satisfying hack and slash games ever made, primarily because the game just has more enemies at once than any other hack and slash we've played. It has the usual 'rage meter' (here called the 'spirit gauge') where you can unleash a flurry of ultra-powerful attacks upon tapping R1, and when doing this you really see the scale of the game. You can literally kill ten thousand enemies in a single combo, and as you do they all fly up into the air in an impressive display of particle motion. The army element also adds to the fun, as you feel incredibly powerful when a whole army is struggling with a wave of demons, and you can help them by wiping out the entire regiment of monsters with a single stroke. Add to all this the excellent use of controller rumble to feel the impact of thousands of collisions, and the Dynasty Warriors gameplay has never been more satisfying. That said, it's still nothing new, and if you've sick of hack and slash games then this won't change your mind. As is the nature of this type of gameplay, its lack of depth means it gets old rather quickly, so you'll need to be into the story or the tactics elements to want to play it for longer periods of time. It's also quite easy for most of the game, so at least it can be played in a somewhat laid back manner.
Well that's the basics, but what of the structure? Aoi and Inugami's mission is to rid Japan of all monsters, but as you cross the land you'll come across several armies (sometimes headed by actual historical Japanese figures) as often at war with each other as with the demons. You're assigned tasks by Aoi which range from the obvious 'defeat all the demons' and 'defeat head demon' to escort missions and holding off a stream of enemies for a certain time. A map of the whole battlefield is displayed on screen at all times, allowing you to see where you have to go, and where your enemies and allies are. Before each level, you're given a run down of what to expect, mission wise, and you can equip different weapons you find as well as check out the battlefield before you go in.
Attack of the clones.
Upon booting up the game, you're immediately faced with possibly the worst PAL conversion seen on the PS2 since 2001. Not only are there huge, PAL Mega Drive-level borders, but everything in the game has been squashed into the forced letterbox – the squashed Konami logo makes this abundantly clear. Demon Chaos never got a US release, so given it's been translated only for a PAL release, they obviously cut some corners in the PAL conversion. But having nothing to compare it to in speed, you'll soon forget this shortcoming and get into the game. The voice acting has thankfully been been left in Japanese, with English subtitles, but there have been corners cut here too, as there are quite a few spelling and grammatical errors.
In terms of presentation, Demon Chaos is a mixed bag. It's clear from the start that the models, environments and lighting have taken a hit to allow for the huge number of on screen characters. The environments are sparse, simply textured and suffer from some of the worst jaggies we've seen on PS2 in years – if you're looking at the backgrounds, every movement makes the environment a swimmy, shimmering mass of pixels. There are only ever a few enemy and ally models used at any one time, and they're pretty basic in terms of polygons. But all this is forgiven when a huge battle is underway. Literally thousands of enemies are on screen at once, without much in the way of slowdown or framerate drops, and when you launch into them, throwing them all over the place, it can be an impressive site on such an ancient console. You can zoom in and out to see that the game isn't cheating graphically, there really are that many enemies here. So while it's not a particularly attractive game, it's not a technical slouch. The sound design is also good, with music and sound effects mixing in and out very well to match either the quiet before the storm, or the roar of battle.
Overall, Demon Chaos is an interesting mix of hack and slash and action-RTS. It can be technically impressive for the PS2 in some regards, but it's not always a visually stunning game, and the terrible PAL conversion does it no favours. But its cheap price and long quest mean it's definitely worth a look for hack and slash fans, even just for the shallow fun of 10,000 hit combos.
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