Wednesday App Review: Deemo

deemo

I love piano music. I’ve always been something of a sucker for it and took several years of piano lessons when I was much younger. I can only do the absolute basics now though (and let me tell you, I can ROCK “Mary had a Little Lamb” on the piano). Anyway, the music rhythm game Deemo focuses strongly on the piano and has a surprisingly engaging storyline mixed in with some really beautiful songs and a great interface. In short, I simply cannot stop playing it. If you’ve ever played one of the many popular rhythm games out there, then Deemo will be right up your alley as far as gameplay. The app uses the same familiar falling-notes style gameplay where you have to tap the bars when they get to the black line in time with the music. There are chords that require tapping with two fingers simultaneously and a really neat sliding note system that reminds me of sliding my fingers across a piano keyboard.

The difficulty ramp of the game is excellent and the Level 1 songs are really designed for beginners while the level 9 songs are absolutely killer. Each song has three difficulties which changes varying on the song itself and you’ll quickly figure out which levels you’ll need to work towards (I am dismal at anything above about level 7). Surprisingly, Deemo does have a sort of story that goes along with the music. At the start of the game (and at various points throughout) there is a small cut scene of a little girl falling into Deemo’s house. He quickly discovers that the more piano he plays, the taller his little tree grows and so the goal is to grow the tree to 20 meters tall so that the girl can climb back out and go home. The art is very anime (as the developer is located in Japan, I believe) but still very well done. I am generally not a fan of that art style, but the whimsical and even slightly sad notes are engaging and I found myself looking forward to reaching 20 meters to see what happens. As far as music goes, Deemo does a fantastic job of offering several genres for players to play through while still keeping the focus on the piano, for the most part. A lot of the songs have words, but many of them are in Japanese or have a strong Japanese flair to them (which may or may not be your thing). A few of the songs were a little too J-Pop for me but overall the majority of the songs are absolutely fantastic and I really felt like I was playing the piano in some because the rhythm just matches up so well. I’ve never seen a rhythm game quite like it. deemotileWhile Deemo costs $1.99 on both Google Play and iTunes, on Android at least you can download a free version which has several songs to try it out and see if you like it. The free version is pretty limited though and while you have lots of songs, there are wait limits between songs after a certain point. You can unlock the full game, which will give you access to three chapters of music through Deemo and lets you play through the full storyline. As you go along, several songs will unlock but there are also many songs hidden around Deemo’s sanctuary which you can find by exploring and tapping various objects. It took me a while to figure that out, so if you’re missing songs in the second volume, try exploring some and see what you can find. My one complaint with the game is that not only does it cost money, but it also offers in-app purchases. Generally, I prefer one or the other, but both bothers me a little. I have not purchased any add-ons and they are not required to finish the game. The full version includes around 25 songs which have three difficulties each. They are varied enough that I didn’t get bored and found myself going back to the ones I liked and trying to get better scores once I’d played through all of them on various difficulties. As far as add-ons go, there are 14 music packs that you can buy to gain additional songs, but each is about $4 which seems pretty insane to me. Each music pack comes with a whopping five songs, which have three difficulties each (or 25 total songs). I can see how maybe once you’ve completed the game it might be tempting to spend a little money to master additional songs, but I’m not sure I’d want to spend a full $4 on it. To each their own, I suppose. Regardless, don’t let the add-ons or the strong Japanese influence stop you from this game if you are a music lover like I am. The songs in Deemo are wonderful and the gameplay is really fun. The experience is greatly enhanced if you play it with headphones and I strongly recommend that. In fact, I strongly recommend at least trying the free version of this game as it’s a lot of fun.]]>

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1 Comment

  1. Kelsey B on August 5, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    Sounds cool! Although, being a pianist, I still think I’d rather play a real piano. 😛 Thanks for sharing though!