Demon Gaze: Boss rush, solo style (3)

Here come the third part of my Boss rush, fellow crawlers! Once again, that's four new bosses for the road—including none other than the final boss of the main game. Yes folks, we're already there! Just like in my former post, there is a modicum of spoilers involved. Without further ado, here are the dishes of the day!

—Uranus: Light demon Uranus boasts excellent defense and stellar healing abilities, along with the ability to generate several rows of protective seeds at once. Regular hits from both Uranus and the seeds can Silence the party, so using buffs and any other spells in that fight is entirely out of the question—at least when playing solo. Winning this fight required four attempts and a fair bit of tinkering on my part. A first attempt with Chronos, Neptune and Mars as my open demon failed as Mars was taken down in a couple of turns. I then decided to exploit Uranus' weakness, namely the fact that just like Astro and Venus, she can only summon a given number of rows of seeds, after which she's left seedless and defenseless. My strategy was thus to cast Heal Shower 2 at the beginning of the fight and team with Chronos to get rid of all the seeds, after which I would open Mars and enrage her to get rid of Uranus quickly and neatly. Things started well, but unfortunately, the Demon Gauge emptied before I could get rid of the seeds, sending Chronos into Rage Mode and obliterating my strategy in the process, since enraged Chronos did not hit hard enough to counteract Uranus' abundant healing. I made a third attempt in which I tried to get rid of the seeds all by myself, and was pummeled to death despite the Heal Shower since every single blow from Uranus and the seeds was aimed at me. My fourth and last attempt reprised the strategy of my second attempt, only with a closer monitoring of the Demon Gauge. I closed Chronos as soon as the gauge reached the 30 mark and finished the seeds myself, then opened Mars and enraged her. Even with enraged Mars by my side, it took a fair amount of turns to get rid of Uranus because of her high defense and regular healing, but we finally managed it. This fight really forced me to devise a tailor-made strategy, and it ended up being all the more satisfying.

—Pluto: Darkness demon Pluto is all about spells, instant deaths and debuffs. She doesn't hit that hard, but she uses the Demon Gaze attack as well as the Demon Vase, which means that Heal Shower is basically useless in that fight. Knowing that, I went at her with Venus and Chronos to reduce spell damage and Mars as my open demon. We proceeded to get rid of the seeds as usual, which was done rather quickly since defense is not Pluto's strongest suit, after which I enraged Mars and we pummeled Pluto into submission in a couple of turns. This actually happened during my second try; on my first attempt, Pluto killed me on the spot by "exploiting my weakness", as the game puts it. Still, this was a rather easy and straightforward fight, preceeded by an incredibly small dungeon. After the enormousness of dungeons such as Grimodar Castle and Endless Road, finding a dungeon as tiny as King's Court was most refreshing and relaxing.

—Ether Mirage: Just like Astarte before her, Ether Mirage has the potential to be incredibly tedious despite not being a main demon. She has no seeds, she doesn't hit hard at all and she cannot use major debuffs, and yet she can be literally impossible to eliminate without the right strategy. The issue at work here is that Ether Mirage has stellar defense and amazing healing abilities and can use Divine Armor to boost her already high defense stats; this can lead to a situation where the damage dealt to her is not high enough to counteract her ridiculously good healing, making her de facto impossible to beat. My strategy to overcome that hurdle involved taking along both Uranus and Mars to boost my hit power as well as Chronos to take care of my defense. I opened Mars and enraged her from the very first turn, and then proceeded to use Concentrate and Jupiter Bane to dish out a maximum amount of damage, all the while using Demon Vases to counteract Ether Mirage's Divine Armour when necessary. This strategy paid off nicely, as I finally got rid of Ether Mirage after a couple of turns of intense fighting. 

—Sol: This is the last fight of the main game, the epic showdown we've been waiting for since first setting foot in the Inn. And it was also by far the cheapest, most infuriating fight of the whole game as far as I my run was concerned. How come, you may ask? Well, unlike the fights that preceded it, this ultimate fight against Sol is all based on strength and luck. Forget about perfect demon settings and fine-tuned strategies: the only thing that matters against Sol is to inflict a maximum amount of damage, preferably in a minimum amount of time. Sol is basically all the demons rolled up together in one nasty package, and instead of summoning seeds, she summons copies of the demons—which means that you can find yourself literally fighting two bosses at once, if not three or four. The game pits you first against Luna as an introductory fight, and getting rid of her is easy enough with enraged Mars and Concentrate; however, things get nastier after that, when the game introduces you to Sol without any complimentary healing or refilling of the Demon Gauge. After twelve failed attempts to beat Sol, I had to admit that I was simply not strong enough to perform the deed. I kept being killed on the spot, knocked out and pummeled to death, or Sol summoned demons faster than Mars and me could eliminate them, or whatever else, but there was always something preventing me from winning. I retreated, grinded for two hours with Mars, Chronos and Venus—who were my demons of choice for that fight, en passant—and came back with a handful of extra levels for both my demon foils and myself and a longer Demon Gauge. The third try of that second assault finally brought me the long-awaited victory against Sol and an immense relief to be done with that fight at long last.

I was none too pleased with that last fight, honestly. On one hand, it makes perfect sense that Sol was stronger and nastier than the rest of the demons, and I admit that I would have been disappointed if she had yielded as fast as, say, Venus or Pluto; on the other hand, making her so massively overpowered, to the point where level-grinding was mandatory to beat her, was a bit of a cheap trick. The importance given to the luck factor in that fight was also quite infuriating. Although luck plays a part in all boss fights in Demon Gaze and can help the player secure a faster victory, the fight against Sol required luck to be won at all, even with the adequate level of strength. It was a meaty and thrilling fight against a formidable opponent all right, but it was also cheap and underhand. Oh, well.

This post marks the end of my boss rush, as well as the end of my run for the time being. I was firmly set on exploring every single post-game dungeon and started roaming the Black Cage as soon as the credits were over, but I stumbled on a massive roadblock that stopped my progression dead as surely as empty batteries. That roadblock is none other than demon Aries, who I cannot beat for the life of me. I tried to do so seven times so far, and she insta-killed me every single time by exploiting my weakness. Every single time. And we're talking about the first encounter with her in a circle, not the real boss fight against her! I guess I could keep trying until I get a stroke of luck, or I could get some better gear and artifacts, or even grind to raise my pitiful Luck stats—and maybe I will indeed do all that after a while; but for the time being, I've stopped playing Demon Gaze. I cleared the main game and thus feel that I have done my gaming duty; and although exploring post-game dungeons is undoubtedly tempting, I have to admit that I lost my drive ever-so-slightly after seeing the credits roll. Oh, well. I still want to explore dungeons though, probably more than ever. Fortunately, Moe Chronicles and Dungeon Travelers 2 are right at hand to satisfy my roaming urges, and one of them will become my next first-person dungeon crawler very soon. I'm not done with Demon Gaze though, at least in writing: I will craft a last post to sum up my feelings about the game, and hopefully more if I pick it up again and make my way through postgame territory. Until then, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!