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Fuse two demons together, and you can make a new demon.
In the beginning, it's rather interesting to see what you can create by joining two different monsters together. Over time, however, the process becomes boring and forced. The fusion system just doesn't inspire the same level of attachment that an experienced-based system, like that in Pokémon, does. The monsters in Pokémon earn experience for every battle and evolve once they achieve a certain level. That gives you incentive to stick with a particular monster throughout the game and to learn its unique strengths and weaknesses. In DemiKids, you hardly spend any time controlling one demon before you've mashed it together with another.
To be fair, you don't have to rush through the game if you don't want to. There are a handful of side quests to complete and a few casinos here and there that allow you to earn cash playing about a dozen different card and puzzle games. Battlenets in each village let you participate in solo battles and tournaments against CPU opponents. The reward for completing a side quest or gaining rank in a tournament is often a rare demon that you can't find in the wild or create at a fusion center. DemiKids also supports the use of the GBA link cable for two-player matches as well as link-exclusive fusions. In a link fusion, player one and player two select one demon to fuse with the other player's demon. The end result is a new demon for both players.
Even though Atlus has localized only four of the dozen or so Megami Tensei games into English, the series has a devoted following here in North America, mainly because of the occult-themed stories and manga-style artwork that accompany each game. While the language in DemiKids has been cleaned up a bit from its Japanese counterpart, the story is still deeply supernatural in nature, and all of the mature events that take place in the Japanese version happen just the same in the English version. Fans of Shin Megami Tensei, and of Japanese comic art in general, will enjoy the demon designs and character artwork shown in the game's battle and cinematic sequences.
The environments look about the same as they do in any other role-playing game.
Beyond the Japanese-tinged overtones, DemiKids is pretty much average compared to other role-playing games with respect to graphics and audio. The overhead graphics consist of tiny characters with large heads walking through areas that don't show much in the way of animation. Once in a while, you'll see flames wavering off a torch or a shimmer reflecting off a pool of water, but that's about it. The environment doesn't have many active features in it, such as moving rivers or drifting clouds--the kinds of things done so beautifully in games like Golden Sun 2 or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past--but that's a complaint that also holds true for many other RPGs on the GBA. As for the audio, it does its job. There are various sound effects for each type of attack, and the music fits right in with what happens onscreen, even if it is somewhat overdramatic.
Overall, DemiKids has its fair share of ups and downs. It's not the best role-playing game available for the system, but it does provide an alternative to the more upbeat Pokémon and Mega Man Battle Network games.
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Where to buy
DemiKids: Dark Version (Game Boy Advance):
$39.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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