In The Family Slay
0Originally recorded: January 22, 2023
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It's 2023 and that means I've got a whole new slate of livestreams to work my way through. Fortunately, we're starting things off with a relatively short game. A nice, quick and (relatively) easy little one-and-done, which will help to grow my still fledgling playlist of "One Stream Wonders". And by my count, it's my 114th Let's Play overall.
King of Demons (or "Majyuuou", if you want to use its actual title) is an obscure Japan-exclusive game for the Super Famicom that managed to become such a cult classic, it somehow got a reprint in 2018 of all years. Sadly, that's the only other official release it's ever seen. Good thing the folks at Aeon Genesis decided to give it the fan translation treatment, though honestly, since it's an action-platformer, you don't really need to know the story to fully enjoy it. On the other hand, did you know they actually retranslated Rockman 2 into English as well? Either way, it's a nice gesture and provides interesting context for the game itself.
Apparently, a lot of people like comparing this game to the Castlevania series. Personally, I can see several similarities between the two: a horror aesthetic, similar jumps and higher difficulty than average. At the very least, it beats Dracula X overall in the quality department. Still, the focus on projectile attacks along with the presence of charged attacks, double jumps and even a rudimentary dodge roll makes it feel like a completely unique experience.
While I did technically go into this game *mostly* blind -- I just played a little to make sure the patch was applied correctly -- I did have a warning about how to get the game's good ending. Though admittedly, my information was a little too safe for its own good. The gem you obtain by defeating major bosses shifts between colors and if you collect one of each color the first three times it appears, the final one will be black, giving you a special transformation and the good ending. My guide told me I had to collect them in a specific order, but it turns out that any order would do. Honestly, I'm only able to kick myself in hindsight: I never would've known which transformations would've been the best for each stage in advance... and despite playing the game multiple times, KI didn't have any advice to give on that front anyway.
Regardless, I had a blast with this one, regardless of how much I swore. As loathe as I am to admit this, Majyuuou definitely follows the definition of a "hidden gem" to the letter. I hope to see it get even more attention in the future, it deserves the kind of second chance at success that we've seen with other cult classics, like Little Samson or Dragon View.