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Sure, she looks all important while standing in a completely dark room while a door opens in front of her revealing a blinding light beyond, but really she’s just standing there because she needs to wait for her eyes to adjust.
I’m not entirely sure why I bought Dark Devotion. Perhaps it was the pale yellow glint of the discounted price tag since I caught it on sale. Or the mood, reminiscent of Dark Souls. It could be that I’m a sucker for pixel art. However, in truth I think I bought it because I knew nothing about it. I hadn’t seen it hyped anywhere, nor listed in anyone’s top 10’s. It wasn’t advertised on Youtube or recommended to me by a friend. And at the end of the day, there’s probably a reason for that as it, ended up being exactly what it seemed like–a predictable if somewhat novel 2D version of Dark Souls.
While a lot of games draw inspiration from Dark Souls, Dark Devotion (or DD) is nearly a transparency of it. Aside from the somewhat low production cost, if you had told me that From Software made it, I wouldn’t have thought twice. DD has a hub that populates with characters as you find them, a stamina combat system, simple medieval weapons and armor, and a dark foreboding storyline with a deep phobia of being transparent in any way whatsoever. You progress through a static environment populated with the same punishing enemies. You carve your way a little further into the environments after each death until you find a boss that you can’t manage to kill on the first try. You then throw yourself at the boss several times, slowly building up a reserve of frustration and hate until eventually that turns to relief, joy and a sense of satisfaction that slowly dulls as you trudge on to the next leg of the journey, only to repeat the process.
It’s got a big guy constantly hitting an anvil with a hammer who supplies you with weapons and armor. It’s got a female Solaire who is obsessed with the moon (who does admittedly help you out in a pretty badass boss fight). It’s even got a nearly 1:1 carbon copy of the FRIGGIN’ Abyss Watchers, but luckily you only have to fight one instead of an army.
However, there’s enough in the game that makes it more than just a desperate attempt to ride on the coattails of Dark Souls. DD stands on its own as a somewhat fun 2D stamina-based adventure game. Exploring the dungeon is fun–it’s twisty, windy and there are several paths to get lost down. You can’t backtrack, which means you’ll want to go back through older dungeons and choose new paths to find loot and gear that you missed. The combat is satisfying once you start getting the hang of it, and normal enemies are fun to play against. There is a wide variety of weapons and spells, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. The game mechanics are fairly balanced, with no obvious exploit or broken combo/strategy.
Overall, DD was a pleasant diversion. I probably won’t think much of it in the days to come, but it satisfied the intent that I had purchased it for–to simply play a somewhat challenging 2D game that I knew nothing about and by extension, did not need to invest myself in. For that, I can at least put it in Tier 2 as something I would recommend to someone if they were interested in this style of game.
