Piano Into Our Minds: Deemo Review

Player(s): 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, Android, iOS

We have been lucky enough to have a plethora of fantastic rhythm games releasing on the Nintendo Switch, and Deemo is another to fill our library.

Options are always nice.

When it comes to rhythm games it’s hard to mess it up mechanically. PM Studios has a habit of adopting games that handle well, and for Rayark, the developer, this isn’t their first rodeo. I could waste a lot of time talking about how the game works mechanically, but if you’re familiar with rhythm games you know what to expect. You can use buttons or touch screen, with the number of buttons needed to match on screen inputs (or places in the screen you need to touch) increasing with the difficulty level. I spent most of my time with the buttons, but spent enough time with the touch screen to know it was all very responsive.

The screen is simple, as it should be.

One of the things that is oft overlooked is the aesthetic in rhythm games. Everything is mostly subdued but vibrant, and it’s a good combination that doesn’t get in your face, but rather helps to ease you into the rhythm. It’s a nice change of pace in comparison with rhythm games that focus on increasing the visual noise the more challenging a song gets. This means that Deemo allows you to focus on following rhythm, rather than focusing on seeing what’s on the screen. It’s a nice way to make the game more skill-centric.

Maybe she'll remember?

The story is very basic, a lost girl, amnesia, blah blah blah. There are some pretty scenes that are given along with the narrative, but the narrative is very vague and very uneventful. There are some minor interactions you can gave in the menus, but it’s minimal. I appreciate that they tried to give you some kind of narrative reward as you progressed through the game, but it feels tacked on.

The story is very basic, a lost girl, amnesia, blah blah blah. There are some pretty scenes that are given along with the narrative, but the narrative is very vague and very uneventful. There are some minor interactions you can gave in the menus, but it’s minimal. I appreciate that they tried to give you some kind of narrative reward as you progressed through the gThe thing that matters the most is the music, of course. Deemo focuses on the piano as being the driving force behind everything. All of the music follows the principal of thematically matching the kind of emotions and sounds we expect out of piano, and throws a variety of music at you that follows that theme. This leads to some very clever and creative music that makes Deemo an absolute joy to listen to. All of the music is composed by Taiwanese and Japanese composers, so you’ll definitely feel that influence in the music. There’s plenty of vocal and instrumental tracks, assuring there’s something for everybody. In fact, there’s over 200 songs and three difficulty levels, giving you a ton to play through. me, but it feels tacked on.

Not many places you can interact, but at least you can?

That’s not all though. On top of all this, there are a handful of songs that are designed specifically for the piano Toy-Con. This means you can simulate using a piano, which is a unique experience I wasn’t expecting. It’s unfortunate this isn’t something you can do with all songs, but the fact that this update was added later in order to increase functionality for the game (for free, I might add) is quite nice. Developers are constantly adding Toy-Con support in order to raise the value of those pieces, which is very nice for us. This game was my first experience with added Toy-Con support.

They certainly know how to make nice artwork!

Deemo has been released on iOS, Android and PlayStation Vita, but the Nintendo Switch version is absolutely the definitive version. The benefit of playing on or off your TV is great, and throw in some Toy-Con support along with the entire song selection from before and a handful of new ones, makes the decision a no-brainer. It’s been a running trend for games to release digital first so that players can get their hands on it and then release the physical later when it logistically makes sense. Deemo follows this model. The digital version has been out, but the physical version for those of you who don’t want to waste the minimal space on the Switch memory will be available on January 29. Be sure to check it out, and don’t forget there’s a demo you can try just in case you’re on the fence.

- Teepu

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Gameplay: B+
Graphics: B+
Sound: A
Value: A

OVERALL: B+

Pros:
+ Plethora of music.
+ Visuals are soothing rather than distracting.
+ Toy-Con support.

Cons:
- Feature-wise, it’s a barebones rhythm game.
- Toy-Con support is quite limited.
- Story feels like an afterthought.

Note: This game was provided to us for the purpose of this review.

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