Dark Deity Reviews

Dark Deity is ranked in the 56th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7 / 10.0
Aug 14, 2022

Dark Deity is a flawed game. Its story left me wanting more, and certain game balancing issues decreased my enjoyment at times. However, despite its faults, Dark Deity scratches an itch with its quality base gameplay and unique features that any SRPG enjoyer would be remiss to overlook. In addition, its quality visual-novel style portraits and pixel art are undoubtedly boons for the title. I rate Dark Deity a 7, with the caveat that for folks who aren’t into or haven’t tried SRPGs to do more research before buying. But, if you find yourself in love with the art style, are intrigued by a preview video, or are itching for a Fire Emblem-like experience outside of Nintendo, it’s absolutely worth a try, and a commendable first offering from Sword & Axe.

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73 / 100
Apr 17, 2022

There’s no mistaking that Dark Deity was heavily inspired by Fire Emblem. But what’s important is that it differentiates itself. And it does, giving it a well-earned place in strategy genre. Filled with wonderful characters with a ton of personality, and an intriguing but linear story with some decent audio, we have a title that will surely quench the thirst of FE fans that need to get back on that strategic grind.

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Apr 11, 2022

"Academy student's budget is limited."

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3 / 5.0
Apr 11, 2022

Any strategy fan looking for a good challenge, interesting gameplay, and fun and customizable cast of characters should find Dark Deity up their alley. Just maybe wait for a patch on the Switch in hopes that the performance issues get addressed.

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Apr 7, 2022

My final thought on Dark Deity is that the game can sometimes feel like a copy and paste of the Fire Emblem series. There is taking inspiration from a video game.

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7 / 10.0
Apr 1, 2022

A modern homage to the tile-based TRPG’s of the late 1990’s, Dark Deity will land solidly as a nostalgia hit with older gamers who grew up playing these games. Unfortunately, two decades of progress in game design have left elements of this format feeling dated and behind the times. With excessive reliance on static tableaus behind endless text dialogue windows, limited visual information during player-controlled battle segments and a lack of any tutorial or introduction to the game’s mechanics, Dark Deity simply doesn’t stack up favorably against other modern offerings.

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7 / 10
Mar 31, 2022

The central loop of battling, chatting and levelling up is as compelling as you could ever want it to be, with an interesting story told well and a meaty 20 hours or so of no-frills tactics. Dark Deity lacks the romance options of Fire Emblem, as well as the first-party flair you expect from a Nintendo title, but the latter is hardly surprising and would be an unreasonable standard to hold almost any indie game to. Dark Deity delivers a convincing and essentially satisfying facsimile of GBA Fire Emblem, but perhaps fails to stand on its own two feet. Then again, we're not sure that was ever really the point.

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Mar 30, 2022

It’s hard to develop your own voice until you understand how other artists find theirs. While I ultimately find Dark Deity to be uninspired and certainly won’t be replaying it every year or so, as I do Fire Emblem, I also hope that this developer produces another tactics JRPG. I would buy that in a heartbeat, because I am quite certain that with a bit more experience as a team of artists, not only will this developer find its own voice, but it will start to build on everything that made those GBA Fire Emblem titles great. That – the promise of some kind of “Fire Emblem Plus” – is some exciting promise indeed.

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79%
Mar 25, 2022

In just barely differentiating itself from titles that inspired it, Dark Deity produces a charming and complex yet flawed SRPG that strategy fans will enjoy.

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3.5 / 5.0
Mar 23, 2022

Dark Deity is a flawed—but enjoyable—take on the classic Fire Emblem formula. I wish some of its elements weren’t so obtuse and vague, but I still found it impossible to put down. There’s room for a sequel, so hopefully, it won’t be too long before we get a chance to revisit Terrazael.

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 23, 2022

Remember when Fire Emblem games focused more on story and combat than on fishing, construction, and class studies? So do the developers of Dark Deity, an SRPG that survives some annoying bugs and UI issues to provide a satisfying, briskly-paced adventure.

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8.5 / 10.0
Mar 20, 2022

Even without introducing major innovations and surprises, Dark Deity manifests itself as an excellent surprise for the first quarter of 2022 on Switch. Its main merit lies, in fact, in its ability to bring depth to both its narrative and its battles. Thus, it is difficult not to head into the lands of Etlan to live an addictive adventure alongside Irving, Maren, Garrick, Alden and company.

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6.5 / 10.0
Mar 20, 2022

I've come across a bug where I couldn't move a unit during a turn multiple times, and loading times between chapters lasted much longer than expected for a game of this scope. Music lacks oomph during battles and the level up sound is more of a whimper than a fanfare. This severe lack of polish does not eclipse the brilliance peaking through but it does dim it.

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6.5 / 10.0
Mar 17, 2022

This is a bit of an unusual tactical RPG that excels in some areas but makes some strange decisions in others...

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6 / 10
Mar 16, 2022

For those hankering to play a Fire Emblem style game, Dark Deity will no doubt scratch your itch. Its tactical gameplay is satisfying and engaging, with a wide array of units at your disposal to lay waste to your enemies. The story and characters are lacking, however, which leads to a lot of the game feeling like a slog to get through. The contestant addition of new characters leads to a “shiny new toy” mentality with other characters being forgotten about and left to waste away in the meaningless bonds

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8.5 / 10.0
Mar 16, 2022

Dark Deity adds enough to the Fire Emblem DNA to stand on its own legs as a classic SRPG, with a low-price tag and hours of quality Dark Deity is a must play for strategy fans and a possible entryway to first timers to the genre.

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DVS Gaming
Top Critic
7.5 / 10.0
Sep 17, 2021

Dark Diety is a good budget Fire Emblem-like game. Though the graphics might not be as good, and the story may not be as well written, the game is still worth playing. It gives the same atmosphere as Fire Emblem and the Langrisser series did and features almost the same gameplay. I do wish there was a bit more to combat options and story detail but for the price, this game gives you so much more than its cost.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
6 / 10
Aug 20, 2021

Dark Deity is rough around the edges, but has a great structure to its core experience. The sprites look pretty good, and the class changes are one of the highlights to the experience. A weird weapon system, random little problems/glitches and stunted character interaction, all detract from what is fairly solid otherwise. This is the type of strategy game that with a few core patches and overhauls could really become something to look out for.

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7 / 10.0
Jul 29, 2021

Dark Deity removed some of the most important parts of what makes these styles of games so loved. While the game itself is fun, and if you’re looking to scratch the itch that Three Houses may not have quite hit, Dark Deity might just do the trick. If you’re looking for that original, hard-to-master-might-need-to-restart-the-game type of difficulty instilled in your mind by the original Fire Emblem games, Dark Deity misses the mark here.

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7.5 / 10.0
Jul 7, 2021

On a whole, Dark Deity does offer up a solid turned based tactical experience with plenty of units types to choose from as you move from one theatre of battle to the next. Adding in elements like character bonds which adds in a depth to the story is nice but at times I do wish there had been a bit more side content and not simply going down the road from one giant battle to the next hoping that you both had enough time to finish it and that the system didn’t crash as there’s no way to save while in the thick of it. This all said, I enjoyed my time with Dark Deity and I do hope to see more from these developers down the line with a sequel or a spiritual successor to this decent homage to Intelligent Systems’ Fire Emblem series.

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