[Nintendo Switch] Grim Guardians: Demon Purge Review

Single-player and co-op Metroidvania Grim Guardians: Demon Purge from Inti Creates is one that you should definitely check out on Nintendo Switch. Find out why in our Grim Guardians: Demon Purge review!

Single-player and co-op Metroidvania Grim Guardians: Demon Purge from Inti Creates is one that you should definitely check out on Nintendo Switch. Sisters Shinobu and Maya Kamizono jump into action after their school is turned into a huge demonic castle. The good news is that the sisters are Demon Hunters, so they’re certainly ready to take on this challenge! Shinobu favors long-range attacks, while Maya is more of a close-range melee brawler. Each sister also has a different set of sub-weapons to use to their advantage – with more becoming available as you defeat the evil bosses on your path – so as long as you pay attention and do things right, you’ll always be ready for whatever the game throws at you.

Your journey begins by way of a cutscene in which you’ll see Kurona walking through the Demon Academy when suddenly a door to a room she’s never seen before opens up. It is there that she finds a huge mirror. Unfortunately, she makes the mistake of touching, which is something you should never do when walking through a place called the Demon Academy! This is what ends up transmuting the school into a demonic castle, which is certainly a very extreme makeover for the location!

You can play this game in one of two difficulty settings: Casual and Veteran. If playing on Casual, you’ll have unlimited lives and won’t receive a knockback effect when taking damage, making for an overall easier time – especially since you won’t have to worry about an enemy knocking you into a pit. As you can probably guess, for Veteran you’ll have limited lives, and your character will be knocked back when taking damage, just like it used to be for 2D action games back in the day. There’s also a Legend difficulty setting you can select once unlocked in case you want to dial things up to 11.

Once you get going, you’ll control your current character with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping with the B button and attacking with the Y button. The sub-weapon is set to the A button. You can switch your sub-weapon with the L and R buttons to swap them for the left or right one as needed. Speaking of which, if playing on your own, you’ll be able to swap between the two characters with the ZL and ZR buttons to swap characters. Since Maya is shorter than Shinobu, she’ll be able to move while crouching, which can be used to enter areas that Shinobu can’t.

If one of your characters falls in battle, there’s still a chance to bring her back with CPR by quickly pressing the X button. Speaking of the X button, it can also be pressed to unleash the pair’s mighty Purge Attack, which will deal considerable damage to enemies or bosses. You can only use this when the Purge Gauge has been filled up. Oh, and you can press in on the right analog stick to use your compass to have it point you in the right direction so that you can find what you need. Who knows, it might lead you to some rare items!

Shinobu will be using her anti-demon submachine gun, which she can shoot while standing still or jumping. You will need to reload it when her ammo is running low. Since reloading will leave her wide open to attacks, you will need to time when you take care of it by pressing down twice on the left analog stick or the D-Pad. Her ammo will also slowly regenerate while she’s swapped out. Maya will use close-range attacks with her magical origami, which you can combo from a sword slash to a spear attack to a trio of magical shurikens. Her attack while jumping will involve an origami axe.

Remember how I mentioned that you could gain new sub-weapons after defeating bosses? Well, you’ll be happy to learn that these sub-weapons are your key to gaining access to new areas that were previously out of reach… which is to be expected of a Metroidvania! The sections you can’t access from the start will be marked with some wide doors of a variety of colors, letting you know what sub-weapon is needed to carry on. This is why you’ll have to backtrack if you want to see everything the game has to offer.

Backtracking in Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is handled a bit differently than in the usual Metroidvania since each of its areas are not easily connected. You will have the option of using a special teleporter that will bring you to the start of any major area that you’ve previously visited and completed so that you can use the new sub-weapons you’ve obtained to destroy the barriers that were previously blocking your path. On that note, be sure to start the next level after a boss before doing any backtracking, or else you’ll have to once again complete the previous level in full to be able to move forward. As a heads-up, you shouldn’t be backtracking at all until you’ve reached the fourth level.

There is also an in-game achievement system for you to work your way through. All 32 achievements are hidden at the start, so you won’t know what you’ll have to do to unlock them. You’ll unlock some of them as you defeat the bosses in Grim Guardian: Demon Purge and complete each chapter. There’s one for reloading 30 times with Shinobu, another one for defeating 250 demons, and one for buying 20 items at the store. Maybe there’s an achievement for rescuing the other students that were caught during the whole fusing of dimensions?

Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is a fun Metroidvania with a heavier dose of the vania, certainly paying homage to games in the Castlevania series such as, say, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. As you take control of demon hunter sisters Shinobu and Maya Kamizono, you’ll take on a quest that will have you battling monsters of all shapes and sizes that are always willing to throw you down one of the many bottomless pits on your path. It features a solid pixel art style that helps everything pop with a retro flair, and the soundtrack is also a highlight. The game also has voice acting for some stuff, and you can select between the original Japanese voices or switch things up with an English set of voices. Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is out tomorrow on Nintendo Switch with a $24.99 asking price.

Disclaimer
This Grim Guardians: Demon Purge review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Inti Creates.