The angel Lazriel finds herself at the gates of a great and terrible tower in the deepest depths of Hell. It is only by scaling this tower once used to siege the very gates of Heaven itself may she return home, but the journey is fraught with peril, as the tower is home to countless demons awaiting the next War in Heaven. However, demonic whispers and the seducing power of demons tempts her at every turn. Can this beloved angel return to Heaven in one piece or will she return at the pearly gates something beyond a shadow of her former self?
Lazriel: The Demon's Fall is very interesting, especially when it comes to presenting the idea of temptation. You notice almost immediately the disparity in power between your angelic abilities and the grossly powerful demonic abilities you pick up every level. While the former are permanent, the latter are temporary resources you COULD make permanent at the sacrifice of a demonic and angelic card in your deck. Even then, this is presented as being a trade with the devil, as fallen angel cards provide nothing to your scales of judgement. Each card you use adds to the scales of judgement. The more demon flesh you devour, the more demonic cards you use, the heavier the scales tilt toward Lazriel's evil side. The more angelic cards you use, the more the scales tilt toward Lazriel's good side. Needless to say, the game makes it very easy for Lazriel to fall as she desperately fights for survival. Once the scales reach 100%, Lazriel receives a permanent upgrade which is wholly dependent on her alignment at the time. A good-leaning scale provides angelic upgrades while an evil-leaning scale provides demonic upgrades, but these upgrades can affect both demonic and angelic cards and the efficacy of their stats. What I love about this system is that it ties into the corruption of Lazriel and makes her fall solely the player's fault for being bad at the game. The game CAN screw you over by giving you only damage-dealing cards in the early floors without any cards to mitigate damage, and there is no way to reroll card choices as far as I can tell. As far as metaprogression goes, the game allows you to sacrifice souls to a demon named Trucy, who will permanently expand your repertoire of cards you can sacrifice to her in exchange for fallen angel cards, complete with a blood-red line filling out a white-chalked pentagram, as if it wasn't enough to drill into you that you're sacrificing moral purity and the sanctity of your immortal soul by dealing with demons.
The visuals are serviceable. I'm unsure what monster graphics pack the dev is using, but if you've played other doujin games then clashing monster designs and moe anime girls isn't new to you. Though, I do have to say I really like the designs of the levels; they remind me very much of early Disgaea games. Lazriel and Trucy are very cute and I do like how Lazriel's fall from grace is visually apparent the more you keep using demonic cards. You can try all you want to never use demonic cards, but this is a game less about maintaining absolute moral purity as it is balancing your scales enough that you can barter with yourself and let you sneak in a cheeky demonic spear attack at the compromise of TRYING to use only angelic cards until you recoup the addition to Lazriel's demonic scale.
There's music but to be honest I haven't paid too much attention to it, so the most I can say is that it's perfectly serviceable.
Overall, I STRONGLY suggest Lazriel: The Demon's Fall to everyone. It's a bit rough around the edges as far as presentation goes, but what's here is a very underrated gem, especially if you love seeing little angel girls getting corrupted <3
