Nowadays, indie platforming titles have managed to stand alongside the AAA industry. In many ways, these games succeed where those games fall short, and highlight sub-genres that don’t get as much attention in the broader public. One of the biggest examples is the Metroidvania genre, which has evolved from one of the more niche platforming sub-genres into one that creates award-winning giants. 3D platformers are another such example.
Only now are 3D platformers starting to slip back into the mainstream, but for a while, it took indie developers to emphasize the strengths of the genre. Just because these sorts of games are becoming more popular again, though, doesn’t mean that indie 3D platformers no longer exist. The most recent example is Demon Tides, a successor to the uniquely stylized Demon Turf. The new entry promises to feature brand-new mechanics, a new visual style, and a grander world.
These are extremely ambitious goals, ones that could either create an incredible platforming experience or a massive mess. Thankfully, after completing the main story, I can confidently say that Demon Tides is an incredible platformer that balances ideas from other entries in the genre, both obscure and well-known, while creating new ideas with its charming artstyle and delightful story.
A Battle Between Two Rulers
Demon Tides begins with Beebz, the young ruler of the Demon Turf, sailing to a new land called Ragnar’s Rock alongside her friends: Luci, Midgi, and DK. Beebz has embarked on this journey to accept an invitation from a man claiming to be her father, named Ragnar. However, their journey is halted by the destruction of their boat and the realization that Ragnar is a tyrant who has oppressed Ragnar’s Rock.
What starts as a quest for the truth about her family progresses into Beebz resolving to stop Ragnar’s reign of tyranny. As her adventure continues, she will meet new enemies, make new friends, and come face to face with Ragnar himself and understand the true nature of her family lineage. While the story of Demon Tides may seem simple and slightly cliched, it is elevated by an incredible artstyle and charming characters.
While the game’s previous installment, Demon Turf, had a more hand-drawn visual direction, Demon Tides leans more towards 3D models. This may seem like a downgrade from a distance, but in practice, levels of personality are added into the facial expressions and character designs that simply weren’t possible before. Take Beebz herself, for instance. Despite having little to no lines of voiced dialogue, her personality as a caring yet mischievous demon trickster is conveyed through her facial expressions, as well as her speech bubbles.
This applies to every character in the game and the broader world that you explore. The world of Demon Tides looks absolutely gorgeous, and each NPC that exists within this world is realized beautifully. They each convey their stories through their expressions and the visual language of their designs. Ragnar’s Rock manages to look striking despite most of it being in the middle of the wide open sea. There is still a great variety of styles throughout, such as ice areas, tropical sections, and more shadowy, ominous sections.
This unique personality that Demon Tides conveys also applies to the soundtrack. While most platformers opt for a more orchestral or big band-based soundtrack, the game features a score inspired by hip-hop. The composing duo Fat Bard and artist 2Mello contributed to the OST, with the latter having previously worked on songs inspired by the Jet Set Radio franchise.
This leads to a soundtrack unlike any I’ve seen in the genre. Boss fights, for instance, have lyrical inserts that pitch in for the third phase, adding a sense of tension and excitement as you work to get that final hit in on your opponent. In general, the entire game is filled with charm from top to bottom. Whether it’s with the story, the characters, the visuals, or the soundtrack. Yet the narrative in particular still managed to keep me compelled from beginning to end.
There are a few small issues with the overall presentation, though. For one, some of the writing is a bit too focused on using internet slang terms like “pog,” “dub,” and more. While there is a reason in the plot for this choice of language, it’s still something that I fear may be dated in a few years or even months. The more noticeable issue revolves around the graphics.
Demon Tides takes place in a massive world, perfect for exploration. However, as an unfortunate side effect, the render distance can get a bit rough. Sometimes I have sailed right up to an island, and it hasn’t appeared until the last possible second. From afar, these land masses look like amorphous blobs, and it definitely took me out of the experience quite a bit. It didn’t help that certain NPCs would go into a t-pose even if you’re just a few feet away.
That said, these are minor problems in the grand scheme of things. Overall, Demon Tides‘ presentation is great and extremely memorable. It takes inspiration from other entries in the genre and even the broader industry, while creating something fresh and new. This dichotomy also applies to the gameplay, which has both great style and great substance in equal measure.
Expressive Movement With Some Caveats
Usually, when an indie developer makes a platformer, the team takes inspiration from the typical sources. They either build an experience inspired by classic Mario, classic Mega Man, or Banjo-Kazooie. While elements from these games are present in Demon Tides, there are a lot of new ideas on display, as well as ones from sources I never would’ve even considered when thinking of a 3D platformer.
Rather than a bunch of smaller worlds with their own set of collectibles, all of Demon Tides takes place in one giant world: Ragnar’s Rock. It’s divided into three sections, with each section becoming accessible once you collect a certain amount of the game’s main collectibles: golden gears. When it comes to exploring the world, you may expect to use the boat to instantly travel from point A to point B. Instead, Beebz can utilize a transformation into a snake to swim across the sea, almost like Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
The speed at which you can traverse the map makes the act of finding every location in the game a breeze. To avoid making the game too easy, though, Demon Tides has a non-linear approach to progression. In each zone, some bosses work directly for Ragnar. In order to take them down, you’ll need to first disrupt their operation across three locations in each section. However, the game doesn’t clearly communicate where these locations are. Instead, you’ll need to uncover the entire section and all of its secrets to find these areas that allow you to eventually fight these bosses.
Sometimes these locations are very clearly communicated. For example, the leader of the first area, named Jester, has three factories that very clearly belong to him since they bear his name. To disrupt his operations, you just need to hit a few switches at the end of these areas. The leader of the second area, on the other hand, will only let you fight her if you find three switches that are hidden throughout her section of the world. While I liked the idea, I did sometimes find the process of finding them a bit obnoxious.
This also applies to the collectibles, which are often found in particularly obtuse spots. That’s usually par for the course in these sorts of 3D platformers, but in areas that hide in places that are camouflaged by the design of the world. Considering how important the Golden Gears are to progress, it was sometimes frustrating looking around an island to find a treasure chest, and after thirty minutes, finding one, only to realize it’s another piece of a costume. It doesn’t help that the directional arrow the tutorial stated would be able to guide you to the next collectible instead leads you to the easily accessible collections of the game’s main currency.
Still, much like the problems I had with the presentation, this issue is minor in the grand scheme of things. The frustrations with the collectibles and exploration can be easily overlooked if the actual act of platforming is fun, which it is. Demon Tides emphasizes a wide variety of different options for movement beyond the ability to sail across the map. These start with the other transformations you can access.
You can become a bat to do a double jump, or turn into a worm to get a little bit of extra air as you glide from one platform to the next. You can also do a triple jump, wall run, wall jump, and combine transformations to travel farther across distances. Keeping track of all of these abilities is a challenge in and of itself, but usually, you aren’t traditionally given a clear-cut way to solve a platforming puzzle. Instead, you are permitted to utilize your “expressive movement” to get to your destination however you want.
For example, there was a part where I was struggling to wall run due to some difficulties with the controls. Rather than give up, though, I simply jumped in such a way that I could walk atop the wall where I was meant to wall run across. Sometimes the game prompted me to use a bomb to clear a wall, but I instead chose to just jump around it. Finding these creative solutions to traversal felt so satisfying, and made the act of exploration feel fun, despite my aforementioned grievances.
I will say that there were a few moments where the controls didn’t respond in the way I was hoping. Sometimes I ended up wall running in the wrong direction, sometimes the wall jump didn’t really respond, and sometimes the camera zoomed in so close that I couldn’t really see where I was going. For the most part, though, the controls were usually very responsive, with there only being a few cases where I felt like I was unfairly punished for something that wasn’t my fault.
You can offset these few annoying instances by using some of the game’s accessibility options and built-in mechanics. The main example of the latter is the ability to plant your own checkpoint. This is a lifesaver, especially in the late game. Being able to reset to a specific point after falling rather than having to go back to the beginning of the area is great, and made the few sections where you are unable to plant a checkpoint even more tense. You can also toggle an invincibility option if you find yourself struggling, though thankfully, the enemies and boss fights aren’t too difficult to fight, and are instead a fun and thrilling challenge.
When it comes to options, there are also multiple ways to customize your character, which adds to the aforementioned charm. I loved being able to build my own version of Beebz, which made seeing her take on the game’s many bosses even more satisfying. Plus, you can unlock pendants, which add different adjustments to your gameplay style. Some can add more horizontal movement to your transformations, others can give you more health, while some can even add another layer of challenge to your experience, such as one that removes your jump button.
The emphasis on player choice is key to Demon Tides, and is what made the overall experience so enjoyable from top to bottom. While there are some key issues, I still had a great time throughout, and felt deeply proud and satisfied when the credits finally rolled. If you’re a fan of the 3D platformer genre and want something new while you wait for the next entry in your favorite franchise, then this is the experience you have been needing.
A Love Letter to the Past, A Look to the Future
Sometimes, platformers, both indie and AAA, have a bad habit of focusing too much on either the past or the future. While I adore plenty of spiritual successors of the past few years, they sometimes are overshadowed by the games that were inspired by it, to the point where I’d rather play the original game rather than the new one. Consequently, AAA developers sometimes try so hard to do something new that they neglect what makes the original so special in the first place. I am happy to say that Demon Tides doesn’t suffer from this problem.
The game has some issues that most players will experience. The graphics are sometimes lacking because it fails to render NPCs or locations right in front of you. Further, the gameplay often suffers from having collectibles that are extremely frustrating to find, alongside controls that are occasionally unresponsive. Yet, these problems are minuscule when you consider just how good every other part of Demon Tides is.
The art direction is great, with how expressive the characters are, the narrative is deeply charming, alongside a fantastic soundtrack that is unlike anything I’ve heard in the genre. Additionally, the gameplay emphasizes player choice and exploration expertly, and manages to balance mechanics that are completely unique with elements pulled from unexpected sources to great effect. While most games would suffer from over-emphasizing style over substance, Demon Tides instead manages to highlight both really well.
This is a fantastic 3D platformer that I can’t recommend enough, regardless of whether you’re a fan of the genre or not. When the credits rolled, I found myself really wanting to go back and play Demon Turf. Amazingly, Fabraz will also be working on Bubsy 4D. The highest compliment I can give Demon Tides is that, after playing it, I am actually kind of excited for the next entry in the Bubsy franchise.
Disclaimer: Fabraz provided Final Weapon with a PC (Steam) copy of Demon Tides for review purposes.
