Arc System Works is mostly known for its contributions to the fighting game world, with titles like Guilty Gear -Strive-, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and the BlazBlue series. They have, on occasion, been known to step outside of the genre of brawling, and this is their latest experiment: the quirky world of Damon and Baby.
What Is It With Demon Overlords?
Damon and Baby starts in medias res, throwing you in the middle of a story and pulling the classic “Well, that’s me, bet you’re wondering why I’m here” line before it drops a rather bizarre and fun tale on you. Damon is on the verge of becoming Overlord of the Demon World when a dying priest entrusts him with a human baby that needs to make its way home. Due to the pact, neither Damon nor Baby can be separated, and the stakes continually grow beyond Damon’s desire to be the Overlord of the Demon World.
The story is riddled with fourth-wall-breaking writing and jokes. It is carried by a quirky cast of characters, both original and those from other Arc System Works titles. Early on, you encounter both I-No from Guilty Gear and “Lord Bloodedge,” who bears a striking resemblance and namesake to Ragna the Bloodedge from the BlazBlue series. Rather than rely solely on crossover appeal, the game gives Damon his own character. He feels well-written and quite endearing.
The pacing isn’t the greatest. The story ebbs and flows between short, comedic snippets and attempts to raise the stakes hours into the game. Fortunately, the character development helps carry you through the sometimes barren periods. While this ultimately leads to an enjoyable story overall, for Damon and Baby, it’s more about the adventure than the story itself.
A Blind Surprise
I’ll admit that when the game was first announced, it barely registered on my radar. It wasn’t until I learned that there were crossover elements that I started to show an interest. Going into this game completely blind was quite an eye opener; the game is a 3D action adventure title fusing the gameplay styles of titles like Zelda with twin-stick shooter elements and just a smattering of “bullet hell.” Those of you who have seen my past reviews will know this is right in my wheelhouse with that last genre.
The game opens in a tutorial cave that introduces the core mechanics: jumping, baby-tossing teleports, and using the second analogue stick to aim your gun, while throwing in the odd melee attack to bring the pain. Following this introduction, you reach a small village which acts as your quest hub. Then it’s off to the ruins, which is your first semi-open area. This is where the game sheds its initial appearance as an action-based game to reveal its true adventure-focused heart.
The bulk of the gameplay loop has you exploring various areas, such as ruins and mines, and solving basic puzzles. Progression is tied to upgrades like the ability to double jump or to push over giant walls. These not only allow you to move forward, but encourage backtracking to uncover previously teased secrets. It’s the standard for the adventure genre, especially for “Metroidvania” titles, but when it is done right, regardless of originality, it works and helps resonate with the urge to explore.
Meal Condiments
All while exploring the giant areas, fighting foes, and solving fetch quests, you’ll be cooking food at the save locations to help heal and finding valuable items, weapons, and runes that offer stat upgrades. Damon and Baby has the inventory style of a classic survival horror game: minimal space and the need to make the decision as to what you need and what you can leave. You do get to upgrade this later on, but even the crate where you can store items will fill after only a few visits to the Ruins.
There are some minor RPG mechanics offered here; you’ll level up through combat and are offered points to upgrade stats, ranging from health to how much base damage each of your weapons will give out. The levelling system honestly felt really generous, and I felt my progression through it was quite rapid and well-paced with the adventure, even if I had the horrible habit of forgetting to upgrade due to having to find a bed to sleep on in order to use said upgrade points.
Finally, there are quick travel points, which initially you have to unlock by finding a certain character. Once you’ve done this, you can pay $1000 each time you find a new sofa in a save room to turn it into a quick travel point. These sofas also act as a quick heal and a place to change your “ultimate” abilities, with the only drawback being that the enemies in the world respawn.
Show Me Your Moves, Damon
Movement is fluid, and by extension, so is the combat. As previously mentioned, one of your techniques is to throw the baby and teleport to where it lands. This is your main dodge mechanic and happens quickly and smoothly, as any good teleport should do. The weapon archetypes of Handgun, Shotgun, Machine Gun, and Rocket Propelled Grenades (a.k.a. the other kind of RPG) all manage to feel very distinct. Not only do they feature different ammunition, but in other ways; for example, a different Machine Gun can have a completely different bullet spread, opening you up to experimenting with all kinds of different weapons to get your desired combat build.
Enemies have plenty of diversity, from quick popcorn enemies who rely on melee combat, to giant enemies with rather intense and varied bullet patterns. Bosses are often hefty skill checks and have that range from sprawling behemoths to equally as terrifying “human-sized” foes. Arc System Works have done an amazing job in making each enemy easily identifiable and having memorable attack patterns. Yes, they have the knack of overwhelming you with high enemy counts, but you’ll have a good idea of how you’re going to get out of that battle with at least a bit of your health intact.
The issue with the combat is just how long it takes to unlock enough abilities to really shine. You’ll be hours deep into the game and still unlocking ultimate moves and weapons. Because of this, the first few hours feel barren. Also, the fact that you can be like me and not unlock the Fast Travel until much later than you naturally should because you go off the beaten path presents a rather uneven gameplay pace, imitating that of the story, it seems.
Cute But Deadly
Damon and Baby is a colourful beast of a game. It features a vibrant color palette paired with a soft, cartoonesque art style. It’s not quite the exaggerated, super-deformed proportions of the chibi style, but also not quite the usual over-the-top “anime” style that you would come to expect from ArcSys mainstay Daisuke Ishiwatari. It’s beautifully unique, yet has aspects of familiarity for those coming from the wider reaches of the Arc System Works universe.
Performance is buttery smooth and consistent on the Nintendo Switch 2, feeling like it was hitting 60FPS without issue. The game is intended for the original Switch, but it certainly runs well on the newer console. This massively helped with how fluid and fun the exploration and combat were. Again, it kind of creeped up on me just how well this all worked together to create a genuinely fun time, even when I was just backtracking through previous areas to find a missing child that took me an embarrassingly long time to find.
The voice acting is spot on, and the music is naturally fantastic. Anyone with previous knowledge of Arc System Works titles will know they love giving us a good soundtrack. Sadly, this is often drowned out by the unusual volume balance of the sound effects in the game, which are at an almost deafening level. It’s a minor issue, and something I hope will be addressed in the post-game updates.
Verdict
I fell in love almost instantly with Damon and Baby. It was a complete surprise, and I think Arc System Works has hit it out of the park, despite being known more for their fighting game entries. It shows they aren’t a one-trick pony, with ArcSys’s arc as a developer perfectly emulated in Damon and Baby as the game too constantly evolves throughout its somewhat poor pacing, both in the gameplay and the story.
The game is a jack of all trades, and while it doesn’t master any, Damon and Baby makes for a rather entertaining time. It once again shows that developers don’t always need the biggest budgets and all the AAA bells and whistles to create an endearing and fun title.
DAMON AND BABY IS RECOMMENDED
If you would like to see more Adventure games, you may be interested in our review of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
Many thanks go to Arc System Works for a Nintendo Switch review code for this Damon and Baby.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
