Demo Impressions Part 33

Featuring: Fate’s Masquerade, Foodomina, Resident Evil Requiem, Starbright Agency, and Woodo

If any of these still have demos when I post this, they’ll have a (*) as always.

Fate’s Masquerade*

This one turned out to be pretty interesting! I mainly picked it up cause I saw the announcement of the demo being released and downloaded it since I was in the mood to play some demos. This one takes place in a world with a monarchy.

In Fate’s Masquerade you play as a young woman named Seraphine Montclaire (you can change her full name if you want). We actually start in a dream flashback where we learn that Seraphine was actually a part of a noble family until tragedy struck when she was six. Her once happy family died on her sixth birthday and she and her Aunt were the only ones that survived. The only thing Seraphine has left of her past life is her memory of that faithful day, a signet ring her mother gave her with the last words to remember her lineage, and the hope that someday she’ll be able to learn why. Since that day, her Aunt has kept Seraphine safe and loved in a distant village near the border of the empire and encouraged her to keep her studies, be glad for and keep the simple life, and to keep a quiet and modest life (which now that I think about it, probably was to help keep Seraphina hidden in plain sight). As she grew up, Seraphina devoted herself to academic pursuits and was even given the position of being a teacher at the Imperial Academy. Although, her Aunt passed away a year ago so now Seraphine is the only one left from the Montclaire family. It’s even worse considering she was never able to get her Aunt to tell her about their family or what happened all those years ago. And it’s not like she can do any research since it seems the House of Montclaire has been scrubbed from existence.

However, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Last month a position to be the governess for the young Princess Amelia became available and, since her Aunt wasn’t here to dissuade her, she applied and got the position. This means she’s going to have access to the Imperial Library so hopefully there’s some inkling of information there. The day the game starts on is actually Seraphina’s first day on the job. We get to see glimpses of Seraphina working and it does seem like she loves it. You get to meet the main cast and some supporting characters as well. Princess Amelia is so cute, easily lovable, and you can definitely see anyone treating her the way Seraphina does. You just want to protect her. You’ll also meet the two love interests, Lucian who is a huge flirt, but seems to just be playing it up as he’s hiding something deep down and he seems to be intrigued with how Seraphina is the only one not fawning over him. Then there’s Maximilian who is the cold and collected type, but he does have some warmth and it seems that while he does come off as harsh sometimes he does have the best interest for those around him. Like how he challenges Seraphina one day for why she chose a specific lesson for Amelia. There’s also Lady Victoria, who is betrothed to Crown Prince Maximilian. She’s nice and I did like her, but she is clingy and you can tell she’s going to be a problem in Maximilian’s route. I’m glad Victoria at least doesn’t seem to be absolutely terrible just because she’s competition for one of the love interests. You also learn that there’s a war going on and, since Seraphina resided in places that would be most affected, she does have a different perspective on things than the other nobles or soldiers have that are being kept far away from it. However, tragedy strikes towards the end of the Common Route as she almost sees a repeat of what happened to her. Except instead of the royal family and guests being attacked, it’s sweet Princess Amelia.

Fate’s Masquerade’s demo ends once it’s time to pick which route you want to go on. I like it so far. The Common Route events did go by faster than I was expecting, but you did get good first and second impressions on the two love interests and hints on the mysteries that this game is presenting. I certainly can’t wait to learn why Seraphina’s family was wiped out of public knowledge and what happened to Amelia. I’m not sure how I feel about Maximilian already being betrothed, but it helps that it doesn’t seem like he’s interested in Victoria. I also like the writing style and artwork. I swear this is using the same engine as Save the Villainous, but this one does feel like it performs more smoothly. Lastly, this title also has choices that’ll pop up every so often to determine what Seraphina will say or do. Some just determines which order you’ll do it in as you’ll need to select all of them, but some are picking between which ones. Interestingly enough, there are some choices that will skip a scene and it makes sense why, like choosing not to eavesdrop on a conversation. Choices that give you a chance to raise affection also seem to be labeled with an icon that appears on the top right, but it doesn’t seem like you’re told whether the choice did raise affection or not. I’m pretty sure there’s only two in the Common Route, one for each LI, and while one of them is obvious which one does based on dialogue, the other one is not so much. So I hope we get a Love Catch system here where we can get a notification that it was raised (and of course, the option to disable it for those that want to go in blind).

So yeah, I liked this one and I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen after the Common Route!

Foodomina*

This one was interesting to say the least. I mainly put this on my demos to play list cause of the character designs and I thought the art style was cute. Like Tempura having tempura ponytails? Hilarious. Takoyaki also has low twin takoyaki buns, but tempura ponytails are much more noticeable.

Anyway, Foodomina takes place in a solar system made up of food planets with those living there being living food. And I’m not talking about them literally being the shape of the food or their character designs being a play on the food they are. They are actually humanoid with an element of the food they are implemented within their design. While the galaxy known as Foodomina was peaceful, a threat eventually appeared in the form of an aggressive and hive mind version of Mold. Known as Moldians, they seek to spread their infection across the galaxy. We don’t know much about what happened, but we come in centuries after the Moldians appeared and it seems the Foodians established something called the Space Agency which seems part of their responsibility is dealing with Moldians. We also learn that this story starts on Planet Kambano as we see what happens on the fateful day that Tempora and Takoyaki, visualized as two cute women with their food namesake being part of their hair, are being promoted to the highest rank. The day starts out like any other day as Tempora and Takoyaki are excited for their promotion and the celebration party that’s being put together for them; as well as thinking about their future and subtly telling us about their already established relationship (which honestly I get big dating vibes but they’re not).

However, everything turns upside down as they leave their shared dorm to get to the party early. Right as they step outside, they’re faced with a…Moldian?!? And a Moldian talking about cures??? This is also where the Undertale influences become more than vibes as you’re shown that you can either kill or stun the Moldians you come across. Then when they go to the general room, where the party is supposed to be taking place, to reveal that there’s…no one left. They contact their Leader where they learn that the Foodian scientists were indeed researching mold. It was highly confidential, but they were able to find out that it was possible to cure mold. It’s just that it hasn’t been tested yet and their test subject escaped. Their Leader gives the cure to Tempora and Takoyaki in hopes that the cure doesn’t get in the hands of Moldians (who are now invading Kambano), leave the decision of what to do with the cures to them, and tell them to get out of Kambano quick.

Aside from exploring the environment, there are also random encounters with Moldians. Combat here is pretty easy. It’s turn based combat here and you go first. You can choose violence and attack, use an item, speak to them, or cure. If you’re going down the genocide route you can just attack, but if you want to go down the pacifist route it is slightly more work. You see, you have six different cures which only work on the type of food that they correspond with. However, it’s pretty hard to tell what food a Moldian is based on looks alone (I’m guessing cause the mold affects and dstorts them?). This is where speaking to them (or ACT) comes in as both Tempora and Takoyaki will have three dialogue choices for you to choose (and both of them have different choices so there’s no overlap). If it’s the right dialogue choice, the enemy will reveal what food they are and all you have to do is pick the right cure. So if the enemy was Cheddar, you use the Diary cure. Of course, the Moldian will fight back and if you played Undertale, you’ll know how it’s going to be. The Moldian’s attack will take control of the whole screen, deploy their attack (which either are unique based on the Moldian or are randomly chosen from a pool of them) and you have to avoid their spore themed attacks for a set amount of time. You do get a dash to dodge otherwise undodgeable attacks and defensive bullets.

I really liked Foodomina. I was not expecting to, especially since I was going in mainly because of the art. The story is interesting, I liked the writing, the art style is cute, I love the character design, and the designs for the environments shown in the demo were all great. I do wish items you can pick up had a glimmer to them, but I can’t deny it was a pleasant surprise when I went to inspect the food left at the party and was met with them being consumable items. Foodomina is also obviously inspired by Undertale, which I’m not complaining about. I really did like the writing here, especially the banter and dynamic that Tempora and Takoyaki had, and it does make sense that you’re able to either kill Moldians or cure them. I did also like how you have to figure it out based on your enemy’s dialogue, usually the puns they make in their dialogue or their name, and having to pick between six different cures to throw at them. Admittedly, I went the pacifist route here. Though, I was a bit disappointed that you don’t see the cured versions of the enemies. It’ll be interesting to see what comes from whether you cure Moldians, kill them, or do half and half. Definitely going to keep an eye on Foodomina and most likely pick it up.

This demo is the beginning of the game (around 30 minutes) of the main story and there is an additional Battle Mode so you can check out how combat it for both regular enemies and bosses.

Resident Evil Requiem*

Out Now

I’m planning on picking up Resident Evil Requiem sometime this year (man, why did this have to come out the year I’m dedicated to sticking to a low buy year), but hey I’m not going to say no to a demo. This demo is about the first 30 minutes of gameplay (I’m assuming there’s cutscenes before the start of the demo or else I would say the first 30 minutes of the game) and I believe is what we saw showcased before release. This means we get to see the first two gameplay sections for both Grace and Leon. We start with Grace who woke up restrained on an operating table upside down with her blood being slowly drawn out of her. Unluckily for whoever did this to her, she woke up, had an idea on how to break free, and said idea was to break the very glass container that was storing her blood. Free, she of course goes to find a way to leave which brings her to the creepy dark parts of the area she’s in, find a book with creepy foreshadowing, and encounter a monster that yeah was so scary. It is definitely understandable why Grace was scared as heck and it’s a wonder she ventured out from the safe well lit room. Especially since she has no way of defending herself so she has to hope she doesn’t make a loud noise or hope the monster doesn’t see her. And then get scared as hell when it decides to drop down from one of its ceiling holes as a little surprise. Once Grace is able to open a gate that was blocking her way, we switch to Leon. Leon, whose section takes place a few minutes earlier, arrives at a place that looks like a mansion after being called there by a Dr. Gideon. However, things quickly go to shit as we hear the alert the nurse did during Grace’s section and he gets swarmed by zombies. Unlike Grace, however, Leon has guns and an axe to defend himself (and make you feel like a badass). His section ends as he comes across Grace, saves her from that monster, gives her his big ass Requiem gun, and has an unfortunate encounter with Dr. Gideon.

I’m not sure why Capcom decided to put out this demo now, rather than before release, but man this definitely did its job. I knew I would love Resident Evil Requiem and that was confirmed with this demo. Not only that, but I really want to buy it now and it was pretty hard to resist that temptation. This demo was so good and if the first 30 minutes of the game is any indication, the full game must be amazing. My only complaint is that I wished I could change camera movement sensitivity and I did wish the third person camera was nudged a little bit as it did feel it was too close to Leon (I had camera perspectives on the default setting btw).

Starbright Agency*

Another demo I picked up just based on screenshot vibes and I ended up loving this one. In this one, we jump into Neo Seattle which not only gives off a futuristic feel to it, but also has some magical girl-esque shenanigans going on. It turns out that in this world, you have a chance of gaining powers through the stars. Every hero has a Star Stone and each one grants the receiver the ability to transform and use their unique power. However, at the same time, unrefined Star Stones that land on Earth can cause animals in its radius to turn into what are known as Zodiaxes. Which are powerful strange creatures with powers of their own, but maintain their basic instincts. Plus, you have to worry about a recipient that’ll turn to villainry. Well, either way, those that are going down the hero path join agencies, which seem to be both to help them out in the field and to help with their public image as the public is all for heroes. Not to mention there are rankings for the heroes too. Which, I think you can guess where this is going. Yep, a lot of heroes (and those that work in their agency) are focused on publicity, their image, and either raising or maintaining their rank. While our lovely protagonist is one of those people, she’s not entirely subscribed to it as she has an inner conflict about doing heroics for the camera or doing what’s right and being like how a hero should be.

So in Starbright Agency, you jump into the head of Aurora Black, also known as Wishbright. She caught her Star Stone six years ago, but she does seem to be on the new side in terms of being out in the field doing hero work. Her power seems to be wishes as she quite wishes for a weapon she needs based on the situation and literally catches a falling star that forms into said weapon. Wishbright is also partnered with a pretty new agency known as Starbright Agency who, aside from her, has one other Scout (what heroes are called in this universe) who isn’t quite ready to be out in the field and whose CEO was a Scout herself. Wishbright is very eager to be out doing hero work as she does seem pretty passionate about it and she wished to be ranked as the #1 hero (I wonder if this is what got her the Star Stone?). Though, it doesn’t seem to be going too well. We actually start as Wishbright is on the hunt for a Zodiaxes bounty…which doesn’t go too well. Not only did she get a really foreboding warning from the resident villain Eclipse, but she totally bungled working with her idol to take down the Zodiaxes, overextended herself saving people from a burning building against orders, and overall made a total fool of herself. Though, silver lining, she got to meet her idol, she did prove she can work with other Scouts as the fire rescue was possible with the help of another Scout, she did some really good work even though the credit isn’t going to her, and she ultimately made it to the Top 50 ranked Scouts.

That’s not all, however. While she did make it to the Top 50, Ms. Vorpal (Starbright Agency’s CEO) knows that it’s not going to last. So what’s her plan? Well, using the whole debacle and the reason she’s on the front page and covers of course! She’s going to rebrand Wishbright into having a love interest and have you enter a relationship for business. All Wishbright has to do is maintain the illusion of the relationship and the interest both the public and press will have will surely help her rise up in rank.

I really liked this one so far. I liked all of the characters, I liked the art style, and the world building was interesting. The writing style was also good and the writer(s) did a good job with the action scenes and describing what’s happening. I can just imagine these scenes and how cool they would look. All the LIs had a good first impression as well and I do like how they all have flaws while still keeping their charm. Like, I don’t know who I like more. Lastly, I did really like the conflicts that got introduced. We got some foreboding about Wishbright’s actions being key to Neo Seattle’s future and a look into the problems the whole Scout system has with how focused it is on publicity. It not only ends up hurting civilians in situations where it would be hard for their heroics to be broadcasted, but also other fellow Scouts as its easy to just take all the credit. Wishbright seems to be conflicted over showing off for the camera even if it means needlessly endangering civilians or saving people no matter what. Not to mention that we do see how much time these Scouts waste even in an emergency (*looks at Prince of Petals wasting time with spouting poetry and pouting*).

The only problems I had was that every scene change reset my text speed settings. I did also only notice one mistake in the script towards the end of the last scene. This demo is about an hour and I’m guessing this is going to either be the first chapter of the Common Route or is the Common Route depending on how they want to handle how you’ll get into the LI routes.

Woodo*

I’m so glad Woodo’s demo finally got released. Woodo is a game with a pretty simple premise. Woodo is a series of wooden dioramas that aren’t complete yet. All you have to do is complete them with the wooden pieces you have and just place them where they belong (which is shown by there being an empty outline. With them being 3D as well, you do need to spin it around and zoom in and out and luckily, the pieces that you have spin alongside it. Which definitely helps you figure out where they could be based on the direction they’re facing relative to your camera angle. The pieces range between big and small and being one piece to a combination of pieces depending on what it is. And luckily, if it’s something that has multiples of the same pieces you just need to place one and it’ll fill in all the rest. Definitely helps the game from being too annoying and the game does make sure to have the wooden piece be some distinguishing feature so you won’t be trying to find the specific spot in a sea of similar looking spaces. Once you place it, and make the full wooden figure for ones that are made up of multiple pieces, it will then do its little action and you’ll also be able to interact with it (which can require you to either click on them or just pass your cursor over them). Woodo is also made up of small dioramas and bigger ones (which may also have small dioramas that you’ll zoom into) that are split up into sections.

There is a story to go along with the various dioramas as well. You follow a fox named Foxy as she goes from being a city girl that got all of the electronics she asked for (lucky) and had tons of online friends to the country where there is no wifi signal for her to ground herself in. It’s just her, the wilderness, and the other various animals and countryfolk. Her first day doesn’t go as amazing, with her being chased by geese and all, but we do know she does meet a new friend eventually. The story comes in as pieces as you do the diorama. This demo only goes over the prologue (aka you putting together the chest that opens up the game) and the first two dioramas.

So far, I like it. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I can tell it’s going to be a cute game. I also did like how it split up the bigger dioramas. It helps make it feel bite sized without it being bite sized. And man, the hint system really helps. The only items I had trouble placing were the small ones, like the small bugs. Looking forward to the full release and I hope that the Switch version has touch controls.