It's so easy to squint and imagine how earlier Platinum would've knocked this out of the park, how it was probably pitched as a full-fat spiritual sequel to Okami, but they didn't, their worst instincts activated and they put annoying gacha grinding and gear leveling and stripped it down until there was nothing left, superb character/enemy design and music wasted on a nothing game, like a case study on how exactly my favorite studio has fell off
Not a terrible game though, there's things to like here despite its best efforts to make you dislike it, you guys would've been all over this if it came out on the Vita, or the Wii, oh wait it did it was called Muramasa: The Demon Blade and it was boring and without actual meaningful level design that time too
The most exciting moment in World of Demons is when you get to fight Ninetails and she has her own boss theme and your heart swells because you are remembering that sick as fuck boss fight in Okami, and then you are brought crashing back down to reality
Thank god I was able to return my Apple TV to Walmart just in the nick of time, playing this before it shut down didn't cost me a cent

At time of writing, World of Demons gets delisted from Apple Arcade tomorrow, January 18th, 2024. In February, it will be taken offline and be lost to time, like so many of today's games. In the case of World of Demons, this is no enormous tragedy, though it certainly is a perplexing end to an odd tale.

This was, quite obviously, meant to be a barebones freemium mobile game wherein the player would repeatedly farm upgrade materials from hyper-linear levels that are really nothing more than three or four battle nodes strung together in a line. You'd think that when the game was redesigned "from the ground up" this stuff would have been taken out, alas, the grind still seems to be here. The most important thing though is whether the grind is enjoyable. As far as these things go, World of Demons is alright. It looks great, runs well, it definitely has better action than Okami, and it at least tries to tuck a few secrets into its corners. I've had a nice time with it. I'm a particularly big fan of the yokai designs on display. It's a shame that the veneer of a fully polished Platinum character action game can't hold up for long. It's only a matter of time before the player figures out how bad the lock-on is, and things start going down from there.

Is World of Demons something that you should frantically scramble to play before it disappears? No, not really. It's kind of neat to look at though, and it does at least mostly FEEL like a Platinum game, even if it also feels like it was made as a training exercise for the junior crew, and even if it feels totally compromised by its very nature.

I expected more from this. I feel very disappointed for expecting more from a Platinum game.

Positives: good enough battle system, interesting progression system, good Japanese style and everything works as it should.

Negatives: repetitive, repetitive, repetitive in every single way. The stages are basically move, small text cutscene, fight with multiple waves, more fights with multiple waves and repeat the same steps again. There is no platforming, no puzzles (except for maybe using your Yokai to get some items) and absolutely no variety with the levels. I’ve done 2 missions and the second one looks like the reverse of mission 1. You get about 10 fights at least with multiple yokai in them and multiple waves. I’d say you’re fighting around 30-50 yokai in each mission and you’re doing nothing else. Not only that, the monsters are health sponges. If the fights were quick, then things would have been different. And lastly, you’re not allowed to save your progress during a mission and continue later. You have to finish a mission which is too long and repetitive. If I could save and progress through the mission in smaller chunks, then I might have been able to slowly get through it and not burn myself out.

There is some serious problem to feel this way with the first mission. There is no creativity or fun at all when you have nothing but endless fights that are being forced on you (you can’t skip any of them). There are better ways to spend your time.

I’d rate this one a bit higher even, as I think it’s a very well executed, distilled but not so compromised version of the bread and butter gameplay you expect from platinum. It’s beautiful, almost exactly the look of Okami, and can sort of function as a spiritual successor depending on how you view it. The music is fantastic.

The Oni and Yokai chosen are excellent choices to include, from the iconic eyeballed umbrella, a drunken master otter, and not one but 2 of the butthole eyeball yokai.

The writing is surprisingly good for this sort of thing, compelling with interesting conversations and characters.

This is where this falls the hardest, though. I also have some complaints with the forced grind due to level gating and some repetitiveness in the gameplay, though largely the flaws here aren’t too bad. However, again it has a compelling story that arrives at a climax, and abruptly ends. It’s so disappointing, especially with no announced plans, no broader conversation out in the ether, no resolution on the way for another chapter or presumably a sequel or second half. Unlike something like fantasian which had its plans pretty well broadcast. A big disappointment and a flaw with Apple Arcade hedging their bets of not adding completed games but rather ones that can be dropped in and iterated on. Or possibly abandoned.

Again, it’s still fun, judging by what I’ve heard it’s much better than platinum’s latest game by miles, and I’ve been stoked throughout till I hit that wall. Hopefully they’re doing something in the bg but I just wish they’d announce their plan