Laplace no Ma

"It's a shame this game never came to America"

I am always intrigued by the Japanese games that didn’t quite make the leap over the Pacific to America. Unfortunately, since I don’t speak Japanese, I am at the mercy of benevolent translators who are willing to work pro bono for the good of society. Tragically, none of them think SimCity Jr. merits their time and effort – but we’re not talking about that today. We’re talking about Demon of LaPlace, which hacker-translator 'Tomato' was nice enough to make available to English-speakers such as myself. Thank you, Tomato!

GAMEPLAY: 7/10

The first thing that attracts you to this game is its plot. In 1924, two boys entered a weird mansion in Newcam, Massachusetts to investigate. Unfortunately, these bright-eyed explorers were savagely murdered. Meanwhile, Fatty “Dumb-as-a-brick-and-twice-as-thick” McFatterson will live on to see another day. Why do we always lose the good ones? Back to the plot; a girl followed them into the house, and now she has gone missing inside the mansion, prompting as a massive investigation of the house. But nothing turned up (bah da dum)! So now, intrepid explorers have all tried their luck at figuring out the mystery of the mansion. None have been successful – in fact, most are killed. So, naturally, you decide to take a stab at it - because, really, with a reputation like that, who wouldn’t?

The plot develops from here, but this is a mystery/horror/thriller game, so I won’t divulge. I will say this, it’s pretty cool. No, scratch that, it’s definitely cool. It evolves from a mystery/missing persons to, well, something more. And what’s best of all, the evolution is an organic one. Nothing ruins a games plot like finding out all-of-a-sudden-straight-outta-left-field that, whoa! You’re best friend is actually the bad guy! Ugh. That’s so lame. Demon doesn’t do that, and we as a society are better for it.

So you develop a character to play as much in the style of Dungeons and Dragons. You pick a name, a class, and you roll for your stats. When you are satisfied. Click OK. FYI, the patch for this game is far from perfect, and menus are totally garbled, like the stat randomizer. There is a wonderful FAQ to which you can refer (and I didn’t write it, so don’t think I’m being arrogant), and I highly recommend you do that to figure out which stat does what.

The classes aren’t terribly original, save one; but then again, they don’t really have to be. There’s the detective, a all-around fighter; the medium, a magic extraordinaire; a dilettante (one who dabbles in many things, without ever truly mastering one), he’s a fighter-mage hybrid (much in the vein of my gas/get-out-and-push hybrid Chevy Impala); the scientist, who has a customizable machine. You find parts for it, and these parts allow for new and cool attacks that do spiritual damage that allows to hurt incorporeal beings like ghosts, spirits, and Lara Flynn Boyle. And then there’s the journalist, who really cannot fight but if you give her a camera and film she can take pictures. These pictures can be sold at the hotel (I don’t know why either) for money. In fact, that’s pretty much the only way to make a buck. Enemies don’t drop dinero. So, if nothing else, take a journalist; you’ll lose a fighter, but you’ll gain income.

You can have a party of four, and there is one person of every class at the bar, so someone’s got to stay behind. This doesn’t allow for much customization of parties. I’m reminded of Final Fantasy one where you can take four people, whomever you want of six classes, so long as there is a fighter, a white mage and a black mage, or you’re screwed. Demon’s party system is in that vein. They might as well just have given you a party to begin with. It’s not like yours will be all that different.

The game takes place in the mansion and the nearby town. In town, all your needs are addressed, and in the mansion, that’s where the fun is. So let’s talk about the mansion, fighting in particular.

Fights are done well enough. The fights themselves are a yawn, but there are a few snazzy twists that add flecks of originality throughout. First off, when a battle begins, you have three options: fight, run, and talk. Yes, talk! If your conversation skills are up to par, the enemy won’t fight you, but give you a clue and leave you on your way. Not terribly helpful clues, but they just might be enough to guide you on your journey. The game also has limit breaks, like FF7, but the bar resets after every battle so you rarely use them.

(the battle menu, like the stats menu, is ridiculously garbled. Consult the FAQ for interpretation.)

I thought this was really cool: you have MP, but it’s not “magic points”. Rather, it’s like “mental points”. MP can be used to cast spells, but it also maintains a characters sanity. When MP reaches “0”, the character enters a fight-or-flight berserker mode, in which they can only either attack or run, but they are super-powered thanks to the adrenaline rush. Unfortunately, this condition is considered a ‘fatal’ condition like “0” HP, so it’s probably not the best idea to keep characters like this. To make things even better, your characters have three MP gauges: (current MP)/(current max MP)/(actual max MP). Your heroes aren’t made of stone; they’re in a haunted house, and they get scared. If a piano starts to play itself, or if the enemy ambushes you, the characters will freak out, and their current max MP will drop, making it easier to go into panic mode. I think that’s awesome. Not even ‘Sweet Home’ has that.

EXP points have a weird way of working in this game. You collect ‘em, and when you have enough, you can gain a level (there are only about 10 levels to gain, BTW). But, you can exchange your exp. points like Chuck E. Cheese prize tokens at the spirit dojo to increase battle skills like gun, clue, heal, parley (check the FAQ for explanation, you should know this by now).

The big place that the game loses points is in the exploration of the mansion and whatnot. The makers decided that rather than just have you explore the mansion, they would throw in quests at you and make you do them by offering large chunks of exp. Oh, by the way, enemies give hardly any exp. and what they do give you, you have to share amongst the party. So basically, these quests are forced down your throat because you can’t gain levels without them. That’s not the bad part, but it don’t help. The bad part is, these quests do derail you from the plot of the game. You’re trying to solve the mystery of the mansion, but if you want to get to level 3, suddenly you’re on a scavenger hunt for a little girls lost dolly or whatnot. There are many of these quests, and they are necessary evils, but the rewards can’t be beat.

Furthermore, the levels are huge, and they will require a large amount of backtracking, especially considering the quests. This gets more than tiresome, but it’s not all bad. For one thing, buy a compass and find the map on each floor, and it’ll be that much easier to know where you are going. The big winding floor plan does lend itself well to exploration. Tables, chests, drawers, shelves, they all might contain an important item (like the map of the floor), a trap (like a monster), or nothing at all. It’s kinda like that 70’s game show “Let’s make a deal”, where contestants dress up like fools to win prizes. Good stuff. Anyways, once the initial exploration is done, it’s all just a bunch of back-and-forth after that. Hope you don’t get lost.

My point to all this is, Demon would be a lame game with its ho-hum gameplay and battles, but the plot plus the bells and whistles give it enough flavor to redeem it. I don’t give it an enthusiastic thumbs up, but my thumb is not down.

GRAPHICS: 6/10

Very monochromatic. Every location is either a large room made of wood, a large room made of stone, a large…you get the idea. Your people look like walking dolls the size of Lego people, and most sprites lack detail. But it is not unpleasing to look at. It’s sparse, but what little is there is done well enough. And, as a saving grace, the monsters in battle look good. They took the time and effort on these bad boys. So no, not the best, not by a long shot; but what’s there makes the grade.

SOUND: 8/10

I liked the sound. Except the background music during a fight, the music was great. The game relies more on atmospheric noises than actual music while investigating. And when music should be played, it’s more sinister than intense. I’m still anxious to go into that basement.

CHALLENGE: 7/10

The game isn’t hard. It can be tedious, but not hard. Do the quests, collect the exp. make the effort to gain that one level if you’re close (there are two places you can exploit exp. You know where to look…). The game will never be stacked against you, it just might feel that way.

REPLAYABILITY: 7/10

If you liked the game the first time, I see no reason why you shouldn’t like it a second time. But not a third time, go live your life instead.

OVERALL: 7/10

Demon of LaPlace, like so many games, fails to stand out as something truly unique and remarkable. But let me put it this way: few recording artists compare to Björk or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but that’s not all I listen to; just as few games can compare to Chrono trigger or Earthbound, but that’s not all I play. Demon of LaPlace is fun, with its own bells and whistle to add flavor. What makes it good is not that it does the formula well, but that it has its own personal touches to make it stand on its own. Too few games are as different as Demon of LaPlace. Even if it’s not the best, it’s a definite winner. A welcome addition to the collection of any RPG fan.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/04