This game… I bought it on a whim ($4 is whim money). I’m so glad I did.
The music is the first thing you’ll notice in the start screen. Upbeat, Japanese elevator music. Unfortunately no elevator music I heard in Japan was this good. This reminds me of the tone of menu music in Katamari Damacy series. I’m head-bobbing along it right now!
Then the art! I’m not even sure why this art isn’t already on my body as a tattoo. The menu is blown-up (actually, probably full size, non-compressed versions) of the characters you encounter in the game. These look like amazing pins I want to wear. Seriously, I’m going to bother the Penny-Arcade people and see if they can appropriate the art for their pinny-arcade stuff. 🙂 Freaking ADORABLE.
Ok, onto gameplay. You are the devil (who looks a bit like a friendly Hitler, IMO. Gotta be the white-dictator vibe going on). He spends his life savings on an apartment complex in the ghetto part of an RPG world. As the devil, you need to attract tenants and charge appropriate rent while increasing the value of the rooms. But you also have to lead your tenants in defending your fortune against roving adventurers, townsfolk, and other annoying humans.
Oh, did I not mention that your tenants are all monsters?
Yeah, they are. And apparently monsters have underlying prejudices against different types. Demi-Humans and Demons don’t like each other, so you need to either stay segregated (my technique) or perhaps the game will allow them to live further apart. I don’t know for sure, I haven’t tried too many combinations. Any ways, there are a few other types that interact poorly with each other, and you need to manage this in order to have the monsters respect you more. (I honestly don’t know what respect does, perhaps something with pay? I like to keep them happy though!). You also need to be aware of the tenants needs. You don’t want to put a high powered A/C unit in a fire-elementals apartment, or they’ll get sick! Again, I’m not positive what getting sick entails. I think they are worse at fighting, may die, and perhaps even get fired from their jobs and no longer be able to pay rent.
The battles between the monsters and the humans play out like this: Humans come to your apartment complex and will fight any monsters in their way (this includes monsters going about their business such as returning from work). They want to steal your hard-earned savings, so they rush to the devil’s apartment at the top. You can knock on your monsters door, and as long as they are at home they’ll come out to fight for you. Some monsters are physical fighters and need to be right next to an enemy. Others just need a line-of-sight to launch spells etc.
Your monsters can die in these battles, so be careful! Click on them to send them running away from the humans, hopefully making it back to their apartment to rest for another battle. The monsters can also incur debt to you (you charge daily rates). If they gain enough debt they’ll run out in the middle of the night! Boo monsters, boo. But, you keep everything in the room if the monster dies or dodges rent. This will make the apartment worth more money, and attract some better monsters.
I think end-game is building X levels on the apartment complex. There is also a quest board that allows you to start human assaults on your complex. These are good to get money to upgrade your apartment. But you need to be wary, if your monsters are defeated all (most? Much?) of your savings will be stolen by the humans!
Over all, I really suggest you go out and buy this game. It was ported from a Japanese Xbox Live Indie game by some dedicated people. This allows you to play in English or in Japanese (text, I haven’t heard any voices). A bonus is that it has Steam playing-cards! I collected them all over the course of a few hours (and a few dollars). Now I have a cool pin-like background for Steam :).
