Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess: You've Activated My Trap Card! Company: KOEI TECMO America Corp. I promised myself that when I got older, I wouldn’t pull pranks and the like anymore. Unfortunately, I started checking out Deception IV: Nightmare Princess. This little gem from KOEI TECMO lets you relive all those glorious years of pranking people, like when you threw boulders down on people and crushed them, but we try not to talk about that. Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess is an updated version of Deception IV: Blood Ties, and in The Nightmare Princess players will take control of a new character, Valguirie. She is the second daughter of the devil and the sister of Laegrinna, the protagonist from Deception IV: Blood Ties. Players have the opportunity to try both characters in the demo, with Laegrinna being used in a tutorial level for players who may be new to the Deception series. Valguirie’s mode showcases the new Quest Mode for players who are more experienced with the game. If you’re new to the series, I highly recommend trying out Laegrinna’s path first. It gives a quick and easy to follow rundown of how the game works so that new players can hopefully get a solid grasp of what to do. Once you start, you’ll quickly discover that this game isn’t like most RPGs out there. The core gameplay revolves heavily around being strategic and also your own placement. The reason why is the trap system. Normally, you’d send your character along and have them fight monsters and other things, but Laegrinna is too refined to get her hands dirty. There’s also the chance she just can’t fight, but the refined excuse is probably what she’d give. To defeat enemies and clear stages, players must lure their enemy into a trap they have set somewhere on the battlefield and activate it using the (X) button. Traps are divided into three classes and these are the Humiliating, Sadistic and Elaborate classes. Traps range from bear traps to swinging hammers, and getting caught in these will cause a certain amount of damage to your opponent and also you, if you’re not paying attention to your character’s placement. If you get too close to your opponent, they’ll attack you with their weapon, but that’s to be expected. Laegrinna has a health bar and can only take a certain amount of damage, so you should try to clear out the enemy forces before Laegrinna has to take a nap in hell. "Catching someone in traps is easy!" Yeah, I thought so too until the ability to combo traps was introduced. Each trap has some sort of effect on an enemy besides just dealing damage, but keep in mind that the effect may vary from trap to trap. For example, a bear trap will root an enemy in place and a swinging axe or hammer will knock an enemy a certain distance. Using these mechanics, you’re able to cause a chain reaction of traps that can be activated one after another for a devastating amount of damage and no hope for the enemy to live. On Laegrinna’s path, you are able to set three traps from your trap list, which can be viewed by pressing the (Circle) button. You can change the angle of the knock-back of the trap by rotating it with the (Square) button to customize the direction the trap is facing. Some combinations might prove more difficult than others, but hey, it all helps to increase your post-mission score. What’s there to lose? In the demo, players are also given the option to play as the new character, Valguirie. She is the second daughter of the devil and Laegrinna’s sister. Her path is meant for players who are more experienced with Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess and the series itself, but the first mission still provides a mini tutorial to get players up to speed. Valguirie’s path follows a set of missions that players can go through and complete, unlocking other missions as they go along. Each mission has a condition that you must clear in order to pass the mission, otherwise you’ll fail and have to retry. There are also a number of bonus conditions which unlock new traps for you to use if you complete them as well. Extra traps never hurt anyone, except for the people you use them on. Valguirie’s gameplay also differs from Laegrinna’s. While both use the same trap mechanics, the demo gives Valguirie access to two abilities which help her in engagements. The first ability is the kick ability, which is used by pressing the (Triangle) button. As you can guess, the kick ability allows Valguirie to kick an opponent. The kick does no damage, but does knock the enemy back. This allows the player to chain together trap combos starting with the kick, and also continue combos using the kick. The only thing to keep in mind is that the ability has a four second cool down, so you can’t just spam it. The other ability is the dash ability, which is also self-explanatory. Using the (Square) button, players can quickly dash in a direction to avoid enemy attacks and reposition. The dash is on a short cool down, about one second I believe, so feel free to use it as you see fit. From what I played in the demo, Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess will be a great game to pick up to satiate that mischievous side. With all the different trap combinations and different mission paths, the game certainly offers a large amount of content for the players to explore. Start mapping out those blueprints early and maybe you’ll come up with plenty of combinations to try when Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess drops on July 14, 2015. -SS-54, GameVortex Communications AKA Ren Plummer Related Links: Check Out The Official Deception IV Website!