Don't just gaze at the demons, STARE at them!

I put in some more time on Demon Gaze, and I should also make some revisions and clarifications.

The first exploration isn't just about Demon Circles; it also teaches you about summoning your demons and the special abilities that demons provide.  Summoning the demon in battle is quite interesting.  First off, demon actions which include summoning, unsummoning and using a demon's special ability don't take up your main character's turn; you that action for free.  Second, the demon will take random actions in battle while summoned, all beneficial, but not necessarily helpful.  For example, my demon liked healing fully healed characters, including herself.  Ugh.  Third, the demons are on a timer and will go out of control if they are out beyond their timer.  This is somewhat reminiscent of the sanity points in SP.  When the demon is out of control, you have to subdue it again, but I'm not sure if killing all of the regular monsters will automatically end the battle or not; I'll have to experiment.  The demon's timer goes down at the end of the turn, meaning if you can kill all the enemies on the turn you bring the demon out, you can avoid having the timer go down.  And, yes, this means that the timer carries over for all fights; it doesn't reset at the beginning of each one.  The demon timer seems to increment by one if you're in a battle and don't immediately summon your demon, so there's a way to get it back.

This wasn't in the explanation the game gave me, but once in battle, my demon summoned herself, attacked for the turn, and then unsummoned herself.  I'm not sure whether this is something that's going to happen frequently or whether the demon can unsummon herself if I've regularly summoned her.

I unlocked a second area, but I continued to explore the first one on my second journey into the ruins.  While a city block may be 20x20, there are multiple blocks in the map of that first area, and the map looks like it has 5x5 blocks.  It also appears that they aren't using every square, so I don't know if there are really 25 blocks to explore.

I did get both of my characters to level 3.  In leveling, you choose a stat to increase and then get HP and MP boosts.

On returning to the inn, my rent was 30 GP.  Given that it was 10 GP before, I'm thinking that the rent is individually calculated for each character and is (5 * level of character 1) + (5 * level of character 2) + etc.  It fits for now.

Since gold is important in this game, I should mention that the gold awards from enemies are pretty small.  Where the real money seems to come from is using the Demon Circles to summon monsters that drop good gear; I used a Bow Crystal and nearly got killed by the Goblin King, but he dropped a blowgun that I equipped to my party and then sold the war sling that it replaced.  There were some items whose description indicated that they were only good for selling at the store, and those net me about 40 gp, which is at least 4 encounters worth of victory money.

I inquired with the manager about renting a new room to get a new party member.  It's 1000 GP.  I'm at 400 or so right now, and I could sell that magic katana for 200, but I'd kind of like to equip it to a new character.  Decisions, decisions.

The name of this game also makes me think of one of my favorite poems "On Looking into the Eyes of a Demon Lover" by Sylvia Plath, so I'll reproduce it below.

Here are two pupils
whose moons of black
transform to cripples
all who look:

each lovely lady
who peers inside
take on the body
of a toad.

Within these mirrors
the world inverts:
the fond admirer’s
burning darts

turn back to injure
the thrusting hand
and inflame to danger
the scarlet wound.

I sought my image
in the scorching glass,
for what fire could damage
a witch’s face?

So I stared in that furnace
where beauties char
but found radiant Venus
reflected there.