Developed by Be-Rad Entertainment and Published by Good Shepherd Entertainment, Demon’s Mirror is a Rouglike Card battler mixed with tile matching.
Days upon days of intense gaming led to the very moment when I made up my mind, and sadly, through thick and thin, I cannot recommend it.
On a serious note, despite having had to play about a hundred Roguelikes/lites, I tried to give this one a fair chance. It fared well for the most part, but I cannot in good conscience place it at the top.
Let’s talk about that.
Large Booty of a Demon’s Mirror
Calling the gameplay of Demon’s Mirror simple would be the lie of the century. By glancing at the images on the Steam page, you would think you are stuck inside a casino version of Alice in Wonderland. The number of things from cards, powerups, card points, and enemies, to the tile board, enemy stats and moves…. A lot is going on here and it can get very overwhelming.
I would leave it here and let you go figure this out by yourselves but I claimed this game was average so I am obliged to tell you why.
The game can be split into 3 parts, each playing an important role in how to win and proceed.
1: The map:
You begin each round, with your chosen character, on a tile board that has many options for traversal. You can choose from any 2 or 3 options at a time. These options can range from enemies, difficult enemies, random encounters, giant stone encounters, campfires and stores.
Enemies lead you to a fight,(more on that later). As for random encounters and the giant stone, these both provide power-ups for you or your already-attained cards. Campfires restore 30 health(you have a total of 60) and shops allow you to buy new cards or upgrades with golden coins that you attain from winning fights.
2: The Demon’s Mirror cards
When you enter a fight, you will have to manage two different yet interlinked games. One is a tile board(more on that later) and the other is a classic card game.
Your cards allow you to attack, defend, cast spells(buffs or debuffs) or make changes to the tile boards. You have points that dictate the amount of moves you have and each card tells you how many points it needs to be activated. Above the deck of cards, you have your enemies. You can see what moves your enemies will make in the next turn and must act accordingly.
3: The Tileboard:
The goal of the tile board is to create sets of the same symbol by drawing a line over them. The amount of symbols in the set equals the amount of effect that symbol will have and each set costs two points from the cards section.
Each type of symbol has a different effect. The swords are for attacking, the shield adds defence, the green orb provides upgrades to some cards and the purple orb when collected enough, allows you to use one of 3 (character-specific special moves.
Enemies can use a move that adds a bomb to the tile board. The bomb can be linked to any card and you must destroy it before it explodes and damages you.
There is more there in all three sections of Demon’s Mirror that is worth noticing but I will leave them for the curious at heart. As for now, I want to go over my reasons for being down on Demon’s Mirror.
What I didn’t like
- I don’t like that you cannot stack your unused turns through each round unless you have a special power-up.
- Don’t like that all the special powers have confusing descriptions.
- Don’t like that the special items pop up in the top left, barely visible on screen.
But all these are tiny niggles…
My real issue with this game is that it is really slow to progress. You can spend 5-10 minutes stuck in a round because the enemy used a defence buff.
It could take hours going through stages and it can all be for nothing. Like every other roguelike or roguelites, when you die you must start from the beginning.
Apart from the first few rounds, Demon’s Mirror does not give you any legitimate logical and fun changes to gameplay via upgrades.
While playing the game is fun, after a while you lose motivation to continue. Other roguelikes have a certain type of fun gameplay, it keeps you engaged. Alas, this with this mix-and-match thing going on, it starts to get boring fast.
So ultimately, it’s a fun game but it’s not worth your time as a roguelike.
A mix and match of a game
Demon’s Mirror certainly has its moments of intrigue and challenge, but as time goes on, the game’s repetitive nature and slow progression dampen the excitement.
While it might appeal to those craving complexity and a bit of a mental workout, for most players, the frustration and lack of meaningful upgrades make it hard to recommend.
