A new challenge from a famous fighting game company

Arc System Works, famous for the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series, presents a new work in a completely different genre. 'Damon and Baby', produced by the development team led by General Director Daisuke Ishiwatari, will be released on March 26.

This new work is an action-adventure game that adopts a top-down twin-stick shooter mechanism and features a cartoon-like art style and satirical humor. This is a completely different move from its image as a fighting game developer.

The strange companionship of a devil and a baby

The player controls the ambitious demon ‘Damon’. The story begins early in the game when a mortally wounded priest friend leaves his baby with Damon and leaves. Due to supernatural forces, Damon and the baby become inseparable. The setting is to teleport Damon immediately to the baby's side when he moves away from the baby by a certain distance.

Damon had no choice but to postpone his plans as a devil and start raising children. He searches for a way to separate himself from the baby, but discovers that the baby is being targeted by demonic forces led by 'Death'. Damon, a grumpy devil but warm-hearted on the inside, picks up a gun and fights against supernatural enemies.

Fast and intense twin-stick battles

The combat system consists of melee strikes and four types of firearms. Pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and rocket launchers each have various modified versions, with different detailed characteristics such as additional bullets, enemy penetration, and burst fire modes.

There are also various types of enemies. From spirits with swords to flying demons with giant shields, you must change weapons and strategies depending on the situation to survive.

‘Toss the baby’ mechanism

Damon can reverse the curse and throw the baby. This is a method of picking up the baby by teleporting to the location where the baby falls. This ability is used as a key mechanism for moving over distances that cannot be crossed by jumping or avoiding enemy attacks.

Despite its cartoon-like appearance, the level of difficulty is quite high. Regular enemies are powerful, but boss battles are especially tricky. Unique enemies appear, such as a giant katana wolf in a 'Kill Bill' costume and a moth boss shooting a sniper rifle in a large supermarket.

There are also plenty of exploration elements, such as double jumps, wall jumps, and ultimate abilities that destroy specific objects. You can revisit previous areas to discover secrets and power-ups, or collect currency to purchase weapons.

There is bureaucracy in heaven and hell too

The biggest appeal of the game is its comedic sense. In a worldview where demons, angels, and monsters are everyday creatures, dealing with heaven and hell is mostly a bureaucratic hassle. The setting is that the reason Damon loses his abilities at the beginning of the game is because of a mistake in handling paperwork.

'Damon & Baby' will be released on March 26th on the PlayStation platform, and is said to have a play volume of more than 10 hours and a challenging difficulty level.