Retro Review: Otogi: Myth Of Demons

<p>Contrary to what most gamers believe&comma; From Software made games before the <em>Souls<&sol;em> series&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t feel bad&colon; I was taken aback by that as well&period; Luckily&comma; I had already purchased this and the sequel before everyone figured out how amazing all of From Software&&num;8217&semi;s games truly are&period; I rarely see this title&comma; or any of From&&num;8217&semi;s previous games on the used game shelves anymore&comma; and if I do&comma; they are pricey&period; <em>Otogi&colon; Myth of Demons<&sol;em> was published by Sega on August 26&comma; 2003 for the original Xbox&period; This title didn&&num;8217&semi;t make as many waves as <em>Demon&&num;8217&semi;s Souls<&sol;em> or<em> Dark Souls<&sol;em>&comma; but I still had a great&comma; albeit difficult&comma; time with it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story is a grim one&comma; as is usual from From&comma; but you can see the roots of where the <em>Souls<&sol;em> stories were founded&period; For thousands of years the Imperial Court ruled the land&comma; but something has broken the seal and their land falls into ruin&period; A perpetual darkness now shrouds the land and&comma; with the Imperial Court in ruins&comma; the city is devoid of all life&period; Raikoh is awoken from his slumber by an unnamed woman&period; She lets him know that it is time for penance to be made seeing as he was part of the &&num;8220&semi;clan that presides over the death of men&period;&&num;8221&semi; Now Raikoh is tasked with ridding the land of demons with his newfound power&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111066" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111066" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111066 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;04153331&sol;Otogi-1-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Otogi&colon; Myth of Demons&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; SEGA&rpar;" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111066" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Otogi&colon; Myth of Demons<&sol;em>&comma; SEGA&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This is one of those older games that adheres to breaks between levels&comma; which messes up the flow for me&period; Once you &&num;8220&semi;purify&&num;8221&semi; a level you are sent to a menu where you can buy new equipment or equip what you have found&period; Most of the time you find new spells or melee weapons to help you defeat the demons&period; The controls are decent &lpar;it takes a while to get used to the Xbox&&num;8217&semi;s huge controller&rpar; but it is the RT Stick that threw me off&period; The options menu couldn&&num;8217&semi;t help me either&comma; so there I was&comma; stuck with an inverted camera which takes several deaths to get used to&period; The rest of the controls I handled pretty well&semi; &&num;8220&semi;A&&num;8221&semi; is jump&comma; double tapping it is double jump&period; &&num;8220&semi;B&&num;8221&semi; is light attack and &&num;8220&semi;Y&&num;8221&semi; is heavy attack &&num;8211&semi; there are no stamina bars here&comma; so I could swing all I wanted&period; &&num;8220&semi;X&&num;8221&semi; is magic&comma; which helps with flying enemies&period; I cannot count the number of times I fell off a cliff because I was fighting an airborne enemy&period; Finally&comma; RT is dash&period; This is what I used to save my skin on multiple occasions&comma; but sometimes I dashed too much for my own good and found myself falling to my death&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game looks great&comma; being over thirteen years old&period; From&&num;8217&semi;s designers haven&&num;8217&semi;t changed a bit&semi; they&&num;8217&semi;ve just gotten more Tim Burton-like&period; This game has a lot of color to it within the world and within the enemies&comma; which is something we won&&num;8217&semi;t see very much of later down the line from this developer&period; The design of the enemies are a sight to behold as well as they&&num;8217&semi;re all ghastly and something I would not want to meet in a dark alley&comma; imbued with magic or not&period; The music sets the tone for the job you have to do&comma; and I swear that From&&num;8217&semi;s female voiceover cast has a lifetime contract&period; I can swear that the lady that speaks to me in <em>Otogi<&sol;em>&comma; speaks to me in the other From games as the FireKeeper or the Doll&period; She really fits well in the games&comma; so From does know what they are doing with their talent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111071" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111071" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111071 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;04154253&sol;Otogi-21-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Otogi&colon; Myth of Demons&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; SEGA&rpar;" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111071" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Otogi&colon; Myth of Demons<&sol;em>&comma; SEGA&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Fans of From Software or challenging hack &&num;8216&semi;n&&num;8217&semi; slash titles need to give<em> Otogi<&sol;em> a real good look&period; This title is a nice look at how From Software has grown as a developer and where all the ideas for the<em> Souls<&sol;em> games were slowly born&period; I had a lot of fun going back in time with this title&semi; it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t as aggravating as other From Software titles and it holds up well today&period; I look forward to my time with the sequel&period; Generally&comma; sequels are better and I hope that holds true&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll be hacking and slashing some more demons soon with my Duke controller&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;