Parents' Guide to Demon Gaze II

While this role-playing game can be entertaining, the repetitive combat and the heavy focus on sexualizing female characters keeps it from becoming great. First, the good news: Demon Gaze II is accessible and attractive, and the turn-based combat is well thought-out. It's fun to choose your party and select various attacks, exchange blows, collect loot, and explore more of the map to face off against other demons. The game is balanced and progresses nicely, so you always feel challenged but not overwhelmed (or, on the flip side, you don't feel the game's difficulty is too easy). You'll get to know the different characters, and even develop relationships with them (some romantic, if desired).

As for its shortcomings, the story is weak and at times difficult to follow (perhaps it's a language barrier thing, even though the game is playable in English or Japanese). While increasingly challenging, the combat does get repetitive over time, which means your interest in getting through to the end might wane over multiple hours. Also, as with many anime games, and at the risk of sounding ethnocentric, there's an issue that arises with the female representation in the game. Whether it's a playable character or a monster, most of the women in this game are dressed very provocatively, with their breasts and buttocks nearly exposed. Plus, some of the dialogue, such as characters frequently commenting on breasts and breast size, amplifies the objectification of these ladies to an uncomfortable level. Overall, this game can be fun -- even without playing the original Demon Gaze -- but its issues make it not quite as good as other RPG dungeon crawlers.