RPG Maker Dungeon #12: Demon King Chronicle
Link: https://archive.org/details/demon-king-chronicle
Originally published on January 22, 2024
Demon King Chronicle begins with these words: "please, give this story an ending." Shortly after, a woman going by the name of Camil enters a cave in the wilderness. She is led to an empty room where she is attacked by bugs before she can even save her game. Upon leaving the cave, a single rat outside is powerful enough to nearly kill her after a few rounds of combat. Just two or three rats means certain death. There are no weapons or armor to be found. What's an aspiring hero to do? There's only one choice: to equip "Millet."
Consuming Millet heals Camil by 5 HP. Equipping it, though, raises her max HP by 2. Equipping two or three Millets is just enough to keep her alive during encounters. As Camil continues to explore, she finds other items as well: body parts from enemies, meals cooked via recipes, and even proper equipment. Knowing what combination of items to equip for the correct stat boots and abilities is necessary for survival.
So is knowing how to navigate enemies on the map. Initiate an encounter with one and others can join just before the battle begins. Some enemies will even run towards you once an encounter starts. Taking on too many foes at once is dangerous, but stacking multiple enemy encounters also increases the experience Camil earns. It helps that attacks and skills have "range" that hit enemies standing close to each other. Careful placement in a controlled environment allows for easy EXP harvesting even for weak enemies.
Demon King Chronicle is quite parsimonious when it comes to delivering its story. New characters are introduced without ceremony or explanation. Finding them out and about earns Camil just a line or two of dialogue. The truth lies in storybooks hidden in their bedrooms. Meanwhile, the world itself is littered with fragments of a lost history. These past records seemingly contradict the storybooks--or do they? Uncover a character's full narrative and they throw their book into the river's current.
Despite the intriguing setting, this is a brutal and even spiteful game. Invisible enemies seek out Camil once combat begins. Some have the ability to summon allies without limit. Others are so powerful when you first meet them that they win the fight in just one hit. Dying triggers an instant Game Over screen and sends the player back to whenever they last saved. Any valuable items that might have been dropped by an enemy or found in the wilderness are reset. It's a punishing system designed to waste people's time.
Still, though, Demon King Chronicle is thoughtful in other ways. Camil is limited in her capabilities only by what items she is able to find and equip. Finding powerful items in dungeons patrolled by dangerous enemies lets her outpace the game's power curve. Systemic knowledge can be just as valuable: an item that grants low stats but Poison immunity is a lifesaver in the right circumstance. "Magic beans" gate valuable treasure that reward return players choosing what they need for a given run. When all else fails, hoarding enemy drops and selling them for gold is a valid option.
In their Let's Play of Demon King Chronicle, Einander calls the game "a survival horror game in RPG form." This isn't too much of a stretch considering its dangerous encounters and emphasis on item management. It's also worth noting that the game's developers previously made the puzzle game Irisu Syndrome. That game's spooky meta plot isn't so far removed from where Demon King Chronicle goes in its later chapters.
When placed in its proper historical context, though, it becomes clear that Demon King Chronicle isn't just a survival horror RPG. It's a Nepheshel-like, published 5 years after that game solidified a new genre of exploratory RPG. Despite its experimental design (what if you wanted to avoid monsters? What if finding hidden equipment made you stronger faster than just fighting enemies?) Nepheshel maintained the vestige of a traditional Japanese RPG. Demon King Chronicle by contrast strips everything away. The central town is a cave. Most "equipment" are food or body parts. The story trades in metaphors as often as it does literal events.
Demon King Chronicle was released in 2007, two years before From Software's Demon's Souls brought old-school challenge and opacity back to the mainstream games industry. Its release by PLAYISM in 2013 largely went under the radar. Today it can only be found in English via Archive.org, with the added bonus of a fan patch which fixes bugs introduced via the localization. While I haven't made it to the ending yet, I've heard folks say it's worth the long and arduous trek. Whether you play the game or follow the Let's Play for hints, I think this mysterious game deserves a wider audience outside of Japan. It's the definitive "search action RPG" in English alongside Helen's Mysterious Castle.