The Legend of Kage. I never liked the Legend of Kage. Considering my love for old Kung-Fu movies with their aerial hijinks it should have been a shoe in to my tastes. But the novelty of replicating those same antics grew old in less than ten minutes. I could also make the joke that the game only lasts another ten but I digress. Demon Sword looked amazing in the comic book advertisements that I had seen. It looked like the Conan game we were robbed of rather than the NES abortion that I am actively avoiding reviewing. Little did I know it would have more in common with that other Nintendo title I wasn’t fond of. While Demon Sword isn’t bad what we received is a stripped down version of a much better game.
The Dark Fiend has ruled the land for as long as anyone remembers. A lone warrior named Victar possesses the Demon Sword, the only weapon powerful enough to slay the Dark Fiend. However it was broken into 3 pieces long ago. Victar must now reassemble the Demon Sword to rid the land of the demon once and for all.
If you are wondering how the hell I could confuse Demon Sword with Conan blame that same marketing. The buff half naked hero wielding the flaming sword is a far cry from the kimono wearing samurai in the game. I was nine years old, don’t judge me. It is right up there with Ironsword in my opinion. Ignoring the…”creative” marketing Demon Sword is the Legend of Kage with more depth. If Taito hadn’t played cheap and removed half the content I would even recommend it.
As much as I want to avoid the comparison Demon Sword could pass for a sequel to Legend of Kage. Both games play near identically. You have an unlimited supply of weak shuriken and a dagger for melee attacks. This weapon is the Demon Sword in the title and grows exponentially longer as you progress. By the final levels it might even become your main form of attack. Supplementing these are a large number of cool power-ups and spells. Some boost your attack power or throw stars in five directions. Invincibility summons shadow clones for that extra boost. You can also stock up on life power-ups and spells.
Structure is where the two games diverge. While you leap through for long periods of time as in Taito’s arcade classic the levels are incredibly long. I would say they are too long in my opinion. Level design is where Demon Sword falls flat. Rather than medium length carefully designed stages the creators opted to copy and paste. The scenery repeats constantly, making it easy to feel as though you are running in circles. In the vertical stages you can easily get lost. The jumping around is broken up by optional boss battles that award items. But these are so tough and drawn out it isn’t worth it.
Although it is easier than its Japanese cousin Demon Sword is still pretty tough. The early stages are rough as the dagger is near useless and shuriken are weak. You’ll take damage at every turn and spend most of your time avoiding combat. It picks up by the midpoint but is still pretty mean. The boss battles are a particular nightmare. It’s weird too as they don’t particularly seem interested in fighting but can inflict massive damage in a single hit. You’ll need an extreme amount of patience with this one and I can easily see most bailing.
Those of us that have been gaming since the 80s grew accustomed to cut content from Japanese games. But in this particular case it is especially egregious. Half of Demon Sword’s levels were cut from its original Japanese incarnation, Fudou Myououden. Now to be fair as much as I like the game I don’t know if I would have tolerated 13 levels of it. But in addition to missing levels some of the magic spells were also removed. There were some cool ones too such as an invincible dragon spell as well as a massive hurricane. Content is content and Taito cheaped out to squeeze this into a 2mb cartridge.
I can’t harp on it too much as there are also a number of quality of life improvements. For one you actually have a life bar. Yes, the original version of the game had single hit deaths which is mind boggling. Not only do you have a life bar but it increases after every level. Along with the life restoring spheres it makes an already difficult game a lot more manageable. Enemies take a few hits to kill but you can also permanently increase your attack power. It will require some exploration in each level but the option is there. These features almost make up for the cuts. Almost.
In Closing
It’s hard for me to rate this one. At its core it is a decent game. But half of its content is missing. Just when things get going it ends. While I like Demon Sword I can’t in good conscience recommend it over its superior Japanese counterpart.
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