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Demon Cries is based on The Wretched - another very good game - and inspired by the anime Demon Slayers. Specifically the moments where a demon has been exorcised and manages to glimpse all of its old memories of human life.

DC takes the inevitable failure of the The Wretched's framework, and makes it far less desperate, and far more melancholic and dreamlike. The tumbling tower deck will always fall, but as you build to that moment (and also your demon's final moments) you create a story that is equal parts horror as it is tragic. The entire layout and art helps create that soft, dreamlike quality that old, once-forgotten memories have. Uncovering these memories drives the game forward as you draw prompts from a deck of tarot cards.

The prompts themselves can weave a beautiful story of  both violence and sadness. The memories you uncover touch on all different facets of your old life; perhaps a bloody rise to power followed by old childhood memories that draw a single tear.

Despite the darker subject matter, there is a kindness to this game. Not only in the safety section but also in how the game inevitably ends. Once the tower has fallen, depending on the cards you had drawn, you leave something with the exorcist who slew you.

The exorcist recognized the last vestige of humanity within you, which set you on this path of final rediscovery. And as a final kindness, you might give them knowledge, magic, hope. The final *final* prompt deals solely with the exorcist and how they have been changed, and what their fate might hold. I can see how a player would thread together multiple playthroughs using the same exorcist. Watching them change and develop, alongside all the new demons they face. Several of the regular prompts also bring the exorcist into the scene as they become an active player in your own revelations. Which I thought was just very cool.

In the Light of Death the Demon Cries is a really special game. I played a little bit of it before writing this up, and the prompts are incredibly compelling at weaving together a story of reflective tragedy.

An amazing game that focuses on easily one of the best parts of Demon Slayer and makes it even better!


Cannot wait to try it out.

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aaaaaa I can't wait to hear about it! 😭❤️✨

I've just played it and loved how evocative your writing was! I was sold on the game and excited to play it just by reading the first page!

Drawing from past experiences and wondering which ones could breed a *lot* of resentment and turn somebody into a demon if I twisted them just a little also felt cathartic.

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Thank you so much! I'm so glad, that cathartic experience and reflection on difficult emotions (like resentment) is definitely something I was aiming for ❤️❤️❤️

I just cannot get over how astonishingly lovely this game looks.

thank you so much 😭😭😭

I literally killed Affinity Publisher and my RAM with the sheer amount of photo play haha whoops