Demon Tides Review in Progress

Demon Tides is the latest platforming adventure from Fabraz, and it’s also the latest addition to Beebz’s story. Previously, her exploits against the Demon King were covered in Demon Turf. Unlike Demon Turf, Fabraz also published Demon Tides themselves, as previously Demon Turf: Queens Edition and Demon Turf: Neon Splash were published by Playtonic Friends in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Now, you might think that you need to have played the previous games in the series to understand, but there’s a solid recap at the beginning so newcomers can enter without any knowledge.

I admit, I was one of the players who came in without any knowledge of the previous titles. Demon Tides is a great entrypoint for new players, as it delves into Beebz’s story, specifically, a tale about receiving a message from her father. Why is this a big deal? Well, Beebz believed that she was an orphan. Hearing that her father is a tyrant known as King Ragnar has thrown her through a loop, and she intends to meet him. Except, he doesn’t want her there, so who sent the letter? Who brought her and her friends to Lokarna? What’s going on?

These are the questions that plague both Beebz and the player. It compelled me.

Now, when I first took on Demon Tides to review, I thought that I’d have managed to play through a good chunk of it by the time of embargo. I can safely say: I have not done that. This is a much bigger game than I thought, so for this review in progress, I figured I would talk about my thoughts on it so far! After all, I don’t want to give it a score without getting the most out of it. So, let’s dive in.

As mentioned, this is a sequel to Demon Turf. I have to admit, I kind of want to play it now that I’ve been playing Demon Tides. At this point, Beebz has defeated the Demon King, becoming the queen of the Demon Realm. Her next journey involves her and her crew: Luci, Midgi and DK, getting caught in a shipwreck. After this, they’re stuck trying to find out how to get to King Ragnar’s castle in the sky — thus, the first level requires you to find your friends in a way to learn about the controls.

Beebz can run and jump, as you would expect, but she can also turn into both a bat and a snake. She can also spin into another form which turns her into a spinning top. These will all be important elements as there are a lot of challenging levels to complete. But of course, you’ll also need to attack your enemies, so, just go nuts. Combat isn’t too complicated from what I’ve noticed — dodge and time your attacks. This won’t be a problem for everyone because there’s a nifty accessibility option that will allow you to basically be invincible. You can still die, especially if you fall in lava or an ominous goo, but you have more of a chance of surviving the various obstacles in your way.

Without this, I’d be dead much more often. After all, I’m one of those who thinks I’m good at platformers… until I’m playing one for review. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of freedom here, as there’s a world map that you can explore at will. On another note on the accessibility, you can also place your checkpoint at different points. Not only that, but there’s an element of collaboration with other players. Let’s say that you’re on a difficult level; you’ll find graffiti tags littered about that have been placed by other players. These will either be something really dumb and goofy, or they’ll suggest you put a checkpoint or warn you of a trap. I’ve added a few myself here and there, and it’s a brilliant way to offer help to different players.

Outside of the levels, the map is separated into three distinct sections, and you need to collect a number of golden gears to progress. For example, to first get into Ragnar’s territory, you’ll need 10. Then you’ll need 20 in total to progress to the next area. These can be obtained either through challenges, completing a stage, or by kicking a Gearserker’s butt. In each of these sections, there will also be three bosses to defeat. So far, at the time of writing this, I’ve only defeated one.

Truthfully, you may think I’ve covered a lot already… but this barely scratches the surface. You can check your progress on the map, where you’ll see how much you’ve done in each region, and how far in the story you’ve progressed. At this point in, I’m only around 20%, despite having a good chunk of hours in. The fact that you can play each level in any order you want is a testament to the level of freedom Demon Tides allows you.

So, how much more will I uncover? Well, tune in to my full review. I’m optimistic that I’ll continue enjoying Demon Tides, but there’s still so much left for me to find. Just know, I’m enjoying it so far and the vast amount of content is impressive.